'Silicon Valley' Season 6: Jared’s ‘chipping away’ at Holden in Season 5 backfires after the latter tells him he’s been replaced
In episode 4 of ‘Silicon Valley’ Season 6, we witnessed something strange. Ethan (George Basil), Richard Hendricks' (Thomas Middleditch) former manager in Hooli was now his employee and it was annoying. Ethan did everything to make Richard’s life hell to the point when the usually non-violent and always nervous Richard punched him in the forehead.
But when Richard tried to apologize to Ethan, it was the latter who apologized in return. A person as obnoxious as Ethan was not likely to realize he was wrong on his own. And soon after the encounter, we saw Holden (Aaron Sanders) ask Ethan if there was going to be any more problems from his end.
A visibly scared Ethan said no and quietly left. Jared Dunn (Zach Woods) noticed Holden giving a menacing stare. Before Jared could say anything, however, Gwart (Nandini Bapat) sent him an email saying she had found employment elsewhere and she was terminating Jared’s employment with immediate effect.
Even as Jared wondered aloud if he could return back to PiedPiper, Holden, with a cold stare, told him he had been replaced. Holden, as we know, was not always like this. He was the innocent, perpetually-nervous and quiet assistant of Richard. But it must be remembered, it was Jared who changed or “reprogrammed” Holden.
We saw in episode 8 of season 5 how Holden went from being shy to Leonardo DiCaprio-from-‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ kind of apoplectically enthusiastic. Jared even bragged to Dinesh Chugtai (Kumail Nanjiani), “I just chipped away everything that wasn’t Richard’s assistant and this is what’s left.”
Later in that episode, as Holden was shouting and jumping on top of desks, Bertram Gilfoyle remarked, "Jared finally broke him." Clearly, Jared did break him and clearly, there was a lot more left in there Jared did not notice.
Jared’s reprogramming of Holden was widely considered a bad move by fans of the show. Reddit user My_Useless_Opinion theorized on the show’s subreddit last year about Jared’s motives behind this: “He's overprotective of Richard I guess and also jealous of Holden's position of Richard's assistant. Holden basically took his role since now Jared is Pied Piper's COO.”
Jared has always been overprotective of Richard, up until they had a falling out over Gwart. Perhaps, Holden too is of the same make. That would certainly explain why he would threaten Ethan into apologizing.
And now without his inhibitions and fears, Holden who now takes care of Richard sees Jared as a thorn. He sees Jared as Richard’s enemy. Essentially, Jared created a monster he did not understand. And despite how one usually feels about Jared -- pity and sympathy -- this instance feels called for.
It will be interesting to see how Holden might actually get in the way of Jared rejoining PiedPiper. Because if he does, Jared will have no one to blame but himself.
New episodes of ‘Silicon Valley’ premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO.
