Home > Halt and Catch Fire

New Coke

( planes roaring in distance )

Heli-skiing in Bulgaria.

The chalet I stayed at had beds like a Soviet prison.

But the snow-- oh, my God.

- Was your first job in oil? - Hell, no.

My parents ran a carpet store.

Worked there into my 20s.

Oil was just a stain to me.

Well, not to mention that his main ambition was bringing girls there after hours.

Remind me to kill my brother for ever telling you that story.

- ( both laugh ) - What derailed those big plans?

Well, there comes a time when a man's gotta strike out on his own.

- Store burned down. - Okay, that, too.

So, at 26, unskilled,

I set out to eat the world for breakfast.

The only job I could find was managing the sludge from a rubber plant just outside of Cleveland.

My boss had me cut some corners and the river caught fire.

- Cuyahoga River? - 'Course I got fired anyway, even though I just worked for the guy who was working for the guy.

- The point being-- - It's always better to be the guy.

That's my usual joke, sweetheart, but just to show I can surprise you, the point being we all have to take our lumps before we come into our own.

Makes getting there all the more sweet.

So, you're in love with my daughter, huh?

- Dad. - What, you don't want to know the answer?

Okay, he's impossible. Just ignore him.

And she's an apple from the tree.

Okay, I'm gonna go say hello to Graham, spare myself the torture.

Get him to do some work for a change.

He's supposed to be fixing my Jeep.

I love your daughter very much because, among other things, she's skeptical, like you.

Then you won't mind me asking you how you intend to support her.

She won't accept any help from me, at least not while I'm alive.

And the money she makes from writing is gonna be spread pretty thin for two.

Don't worry, I'm considering several options.

- What about oil? - ( chuckles )

Oil's all about digging in the past.

I've never been that interested.

Powering the world isn't interesting enough for you?

With a glut on the horizon, innovation's bound to be slow.

If I were you, I would be looking to diversify.

Into what?

Something forward-looking with the potential to change everything.

For me, that's still tech and will be until proven otherwise.

Here's what I think, Joe.

I think with your checkered work history-- and that's the nice way of putting all the things I've heard-- you don't have a whole lot of options right now, in tech or anywhere else.

With your abysmal references,

I think you'd have a tough time getting a job selling waffle irons.

You'd really want to put yourself through all that?

- Whatever it takes. - I'm just stating cold facts.

You won't easily get a new job.

If I haven't made myself clear, I'm offering you one.

I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not looking for charity.

And I'm not looking to give it.

Today-- today is dream lab day.

I'm gonna really set 'er up, you know.

No more talking, just action.

You know, I may even teach myself C.

Who says I'm only hardware?

Oh, in my spare time, I really want to learn to cook.

Like, you know, really cook, you know, for all for us.

Any special requests tonight, dear wife?

Huh? Duck à l'orange?

Yeah, what?

Did you find the crunchy--

- Hey, you okay? - Yeah.

I mean, sort of.

I went to the bank yesterday to try and increase Mutiny's credit limit.

The guy there just laughed at me.

Well, uh, how much you need?

Ha-ha, you couldn't afford it.

Well, that's what schmancy VCs are for.

Yeah, well, if we can close him.

( groans ) I'm afraid without longer term data

- he'll balk at our projected growth. - Hey, hey, hey.

Look, you always killed your presentations at TI. This is gonna be no different.

You just go in there, you tell a good story with confidence.

- Haley: Daddy! - Oh, you know, you'd think the house was on fire.

Flying in, babe! ( imitates airplane roar )

It has to be re-entrant, recursive.

I mean, you never need to branch except to sequence, select, or iterate.

- I don't-- - I'm trying to help the graphics.

What, even if it makes the network crash?

Do another rev in blocks, and do it by tonight.

- Cameron, it's up. - Yo-Yo: Fine.

What? Why is this sequence not done?

Cameron, we're live.

What?

Stand-alone messaging, no game.

We're calling it Mutiny Community, but we're open to something snappier.

How many hours did this take you?

Not too many.

Donna, we talked about this.

You can try this, but we're falling behind on games.

Wait, wait, shut up, shut up. Look, our first user.

"No game, just chat.

Hi, how are you?"

( music continues )

Okay, can you please go finish your game code now, like what we actually do at this company?

( door closes )

Oh, God.

I didn't expect a ticker tape, but I could use a chair.

- ( grunts ) - ( music stops )

Oh, God.

Whoo, Jesus.

The first prison riot, I broke both my ankles.

I shattered them. They got me with the water cannon.

They blasted me off a second-story catwalk.

Pow! Right on the concrete.

God dang, are you guys buying any of that?

- ( all laughing ) - Jesus, what's wrong with you?

How you doing, Bosworth? Arki, meet a legend.

( speaks Russian )

- Yeah, sure, sure. - When'd you get out, Boz?

Well, I tunneled out a couple days ago, by God, but, uh, just had to find me a shower.

I'm ready to go. Come on, let's get the party started.

- Where do I sit? - Wait, you're working here now?

- Awesome! - Yes, sir. Just signed on as employee number 17.

Yo-Yo: Did you learn how to type while you were in prison?

( Bosworth laughs ) You son of a bitch.

It's good here? I'll sit there, for God's sake.

( theme music playing )

You have nosebleeds before?

No, not since Garrett Faloona used to punch me on the playground.

You have any other symptoms-- headache, nausea, soreness of the joints, anything?

No, no, not really.

I mean, I, um...

Back when we were chasing deadlines on this computer we were building, mm, I used cocaine for a brief spurt.

Okay. How brief and how much?

Two, three months.

And, I don't know, whenever we needed it.

We were under the gun, so...

Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid that can burn your nasal membranes if you don't die from a heart attack or a stroke first.

N-n-no, I stopped cold three months ago. I'm--

Good. I'd hate to see your daughters grow up fatherless.

That would be sad.

Well... no, I'm not one of those people that gets addicted to stuff easily.

I can promise you that.

( sniffles )

You could've at least told me.

What? We're both sick of playing boss.

I mean, as soon as he gets up to speed, he can take stuff off our plates.

- He ran Cardiff for 22 years. - I know.

Mutiny is not Cardiff. That's the whole point.

- I know. - Cameron, he's an ex-convict, which is not exactly the smartest hire when we're in the market for more funding.

And when we're this strapped for cash, you're gonna waste it on somebody that doesn't know a bitmap from a baud rate?

Don't do this. Don't threaten what we're building here out of guilt or feeling sorry for him.

Donna, he stays.

We talked about being in this together.

We talked about communication being key.

This-- this isn't what we talked about.

"That Was Close; Diversion Eight, Diversion Two, Closet, Close-Up, Close [to the Edit], Closed" playing

♪ Hey... ♪

( grunts )

( music continues )

♪ Hey... ♪

( snorts )

- ( music playing in background ) - Ah.

( both sigh )

What?

I was just thinking about... your father offering me that job.

( laughs ) Yeah.

I mean, I'm still mad at him.

It's the classic Jacob Wheeler ambush.

What if I took it?

Well, why would you? I mean, we joked about that.

You called that place a mausoleum,

"a business literally built on fossils."

I know, but, I don't know-- I've been doing a bunch of reading.

3-D computer modeling is really shaking up the industry, changing where and how to drill.

I could get into that, help take Westgroup into the future.

What about those other jobs?

Didn't pan out.

I know, that's no reason to go work for your father's oil company, but I've kicked the tires on this, Sara, and I'm genuinely interested.

Or maybe you're just tired of waiting.

( scoffs, sighs )

I'm sorry.

Look, I know that this past year being on the sidelines has been really tough for you.

But when you said you were waiting for contact,

I didn't think you meant from my father.

If this is too weird for you, then I can wait around for something else to--

No, no.

I don't want you to be unhappy.

And we'd have to move to Dallas.

Would that make you unhappy?

Joe... if you want the job, this job, take it.

Of course, take it.

"I Am the Fly" playing

♪ Crawling ♪

♪ Over your window, you think I'm confused ♪

♪ I'm waiting for the divergent wasp ♪

♪ To complete my current ruse ♪

♪ But there's an air-pellet hole... ♪

- ( line ringing ) - ♪ I can crawl through to you... ♪

( modem screeching )

- Stop! - "...revenue, our monthly burn rate is actually--"

Watch out! Oh, Donna, I'm sorry.

- Guys. - I was aiming for that mongrel. Ah!

- Guys, just take it outside. - Cube not okay. Where is it?

- ( murmuring ) - Donna, it's your husband.

Hi, Gordon.

- You hear that? - ( modem screeching )

- Guess what I'm doing. - Um, using a modem?

Aha, but how?

Could it be that I got a second phone line so that we could go online and talk at the same time?

Yeah, that's-- that's probably it.

- How'd your VC meeting go? - Uh, it's in an hour, which is--

- look, Gordon, I've gotta go. - Yeah, well, you wanna run your pitch by me?

Or maybe I could, uh, you know, help out and--

Really, I'm sorry. I love you, darling.

I'll see you at home, okay?

- Oh... - ( dial tone humming )

( keyboard clacking )

( game beeping, pinging )

- ( game explosion ) - Oh. ( laughs )

All right.

You wanna play, little man, huh?

( beeping, pinging )

What? No!

There's no way you shot first.

I shot 100 milliseconds after the game started.

- Stan on phone: Hello? - Stan, it's Gordo.

What are you doing right now?

( phone ringing )

( elevator dings )

Oh, good, I'm not late.

Yo-Yo tripped over a surge protector, sent three XTs flying.

Luckily, a stack of pizza boxes broke their fall.

Saved by squalor.

- What? - You changed into that?

- Yeah, I-- - Was I supposed to dress like that?

Well, was I supposed to dress down?

Oh, God, maybe you're right. Maybe they want young and rebellious.

Yeah, or maybe they don't invest a million bucks in you if you've got holes in your jeans.

Damn it, I could've--

Excuse me, Miss Howe, Miss Clark?

Mr. Bondham will see you now.

Okay, so you have put up chess, checkers, backgammon,

"Tank Battle," and "Parallax."

And ignoring the first three because who cares about those?

That's two games in 15 months.

Not exactly in a hurry, are we?

Well, "Parallax" actually has 21 chapters, each one with a totally different world.

- So it's not-- - Yeah, my nephew got hooked on it.

- That's why I took this meeting. - Cool.

But then he got bored around chapter, uh, 13

- when the giant ice squids... - Crabs.

...ate the Eskimo palace or whatever.

He said it's fun to play with other people, but the game itself-- you know, pfft.

It's nowhere near as good as what Atari's been popping out.

I think if your nephew understood coding a little better,

- he'd think "Parallax" was pretty cool. - Ahem.

Um, look, cartridge games may look better for a while, but online gaming is the future.

Only if there's a profitable way to sustain it.

That's exactly right. And that's why we're here.

Our network is overloaded, limiting our ability to sign up new subscribers.

How do you even know they're out there?

Only 10% of Americans have computers.

Only 15% of them have modems.

Not to mention the fact that you're only on Commodores.

I mean, how do you really know that there are enough users out there to make us all a killing?

We just do. I mean, in-store inquiries, word of mouth.

There's a whole world of data.

Oh, yeah, with proof like that, how can I argue with you?

Look, Mr. Bondham, if we had the capital to buy 10 11/750s--

- 35 grand a pop, used. - 32-- 32, plus additional funding to cover operations through the end of the fiscal year, then I think--

What about kids?

- Hmm? - Excuse me?

Do you have or want kids?

- No. - I have two.

What does that have to do with it?

Well, when I invest in a company,

I don't just bet on an idea, I bet on the people.

Success is no Sunday drive.

It's not another to-do tacked to the fridge.

If you two, as you claim, are really gonna run this business,

I need to know that you're fully committed, long-term.

Even over, you know, biological imperatives.

Sorry, are you gonna give us the money or not?

( sighs )

( elevator dings )

Joe MacMillan?

Yeah, uh, hello.

Hey, Eugene Bowdich. Welcome to Data Entry.

I'll show you to your desk.

I was on 23 for orientation and HR told me to come down to B2 and I think there's been a mistake.

Oh, no mistake. You're on my clipboard.

Now, Westgroup Energy, if you're not aware, is really a parent corporation to nine wholly owned subsidiaries, and we do DE for all of them.

Color-coded baskets, redundantly labeled, correspond to different inputs.

The process of digitizing the company's records was begun in 1974, though clearly since then we've made great strides.

Does Jacob know this is what I'm working on?

You mean Jacob Wheeler?

Uh, never mind.

All right, any questions?

So, it's-- it's just-- it's, uh... d-done by hand?

Oh, no, we use optical character recognition, which-- which we correct by hand.

For particularly naughty images, you might even get to use the Big Kahuna over there.

But you'll have to ask me first, okay?

Okay?

- Okay. - All right.

Please clock out at the end of your shift, and we labor to keep the bathrooms tidy.

I trust you'll comply.

( door opens )

( game laser zapping )

Die, die, die, you disgusting pig dog!

Eat it! Eat it!

Jeez, Gordon, you're gonna break the keyboard.

- ( game explosion ) - You see? Right there.

You should be dead, not me.

It's like the timing's off or something.

Here, come on, let's go again.

There's more in the drawer.

No, thanks.

I'm surprised you're still--

I mean, I thought it was just a goof when we were finishing the Giant Pro.

It was, Stan, jeez.

Look, I found some left over.

What am I supposed to do, throw it away?

You know? Come on, let's just play.

Okay, wait-- hey, this time, okay, on three, fire your tank.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Damn it! What is going on here?

I mean, we-- something's going-- we both saw that I fired first.

I mean, there's gotta be some sort of glitch or something in the--

Why don't we take a break? Maybe grab a beer?

No, I gotta call Donna and tell her about this.

I mean, this is one of their flagship games.

- ( modem screeching ) - Oh, heh.

Duh, we're using both lines.

( blows raspberry )

Uh, well, I guess I'll just go over there.

- You okay to drive? - Yeah, of course I'm okay to drive.

Oh, shit! Stan, will you help me out?

Will you go pick up the girls from school?

- What? No. - What do you mean no?

I mean, I haven't seen 'em in, like, two years.

( sighs ) Well, here, look.

You can figure it out.

Here, and feel free to buy 'em some snacks or something.

- ( sighs ) - ( door opens, closes )

( muffled music playing )

( music continues )

( laughing )

He touched the soap. He touched the soap.

Very clever, ladies. Very clever.

( laughing continues )

Man, that was awesome. Did you see the look on his face?

- Man: Yeah, perfect. - Man #2: Priceless.

That's a fire hazard.

- Hey, where's Donna? - Whoa, look who's here.

Shouldn't you be in Tahiti or something with all the money you just made?

Look, there's a major problem with "Tank Battle." The game's not fair.

Dude, we've got bigger headaches right now.

And it's a good thing Cameron isn't here.

Oh, yeah, lucky me.

Listen, there's times when I fire at my opponent and the game doesn't read it and I get killed.

Oh, wow, well, couldn't it be that you're just shooting second?

No, Stan and I fired at the same time over and over and even when I cheated, the results were random.

Hey. ( knocks )

Your system's reading inputs from multiple modems, right?

- Duh. - So in a given game cycle, the token checks them one at a time to see who fired their tank.

- We know this, man. - Okay?

And if you're saying whoever's fire command happens to be next in line when the token sweeps it is awarded the kill, then you're right.

Congratulations. But every user shares that hazard equally.

But it doesn't reflect who shot first. I mean, it's random.

What's the point of playing a game if the outcome is random?

Look, it doesn't matter, okay?

I got a fix for ya. ( clicks tongue )

Aren't you just the hardware guy?

Well, I'm also degree- in-computer-science- from-Berkeley guy, where Donna went, with honors and top grades that'd make your penis shrivel, so maybe if you shut up for a second, you could learn something.

You time-stamp the input from each individual modem and at the end of each complete token pass.

You put them in the correct time sequence before you execute them.

- That way, whoever shot first... - ( phone ringing )

( pops lips ) ...wins.

- That's solid. - That is not dumb.

We should, uh-- we should do that.

Um, g-guys, find Donna.

Someone tried to kidnap her kids.

Damn it, Stan.

Give me the phone.

It's, uh, Gordon Clark here.

Yeah, I see.

Actually, that was a friend of mine that I asked to--

yeah, we're supposed to call first.

Well, I'm-- I'm sorry for the trouble, Principal Hawkins.

Oh, no, no, no. I'll be right there.

Pizza deliveries for a week if not a single word.

A month, plus soda.

I can take heat from my wife, I'd just prefer not to.

- Two months. - Look, one month, okay?

Deal, you little rats.

I mean, they don't want what's next or vision, they want an Adam's apple.

Well, at least what we wore didn't matter.

Hey.

There's been some prankin' going on, sure.

- Cameron? - What?

You should see this.

Lev: We might be in trouble.

( conversation continues indistinctly )

( door closes )

They had a power fraz about an hour ago, fried a connector or some such.

You might want to go take a look at that.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Yeah.

It's exactly like our "Parallax," except with better graphics.

I can see that. Where did you get this?

A friend of a friend copied it from his friend, free.

Some asshole ripped off "Parallax" and is just giving it away.

- He hacked into our network? - I don't-- look, here.

Who did this? Do we know?

Some dude. No one knows him, but supposedly he signed it in the comments to his final subroutine.

( laughs ) Tom Rendon.

Okay, check the list. See if he's a subscriber.

Rendon, T. Holy shit.

2123 Clarendon Street. He's even still logging on.

Hey! Hey, Tom Rendon?

- Who are you? - Hey, we're the people whose game you stole.

- Oh, Mutiny. - Uh-huh.

Very cool. I was kind of hoping it would find its way to you guys. What'd you think?

- Mr. Rendon-- - Tom.

Mr. Rendon, we appreciate your business for the last 10 months, but you can't just copy our game and expect to get away with it.

Well, I didn't just copy "Parallax,"

I made it a whole lot better, and if I wanted to get away with it,

I might've, you know, not s-- not signed it.

My point is you have to stop or we'll be forced to take legal action.

Oh, okay. All right.

Well, I run IT at Chatham & Watkins downtown, so I can help you find a good lawyer.

Oh, you think this is a joke?

What, you think a couple of girls won't sue your ass into the ground?

No.

You won't sue me because then you're gonna make me mad and then I'm not gonna tell you how to make your game better.

- You guys wanna come in? We could have a couple beers. - Okay.

- I can lay everything out for you. - Listen, you might think you made the game better, but we do games online.

Yes, six colors, that fluid scan, it might work on a Commodore,

- but if you want to do it across phone-- - I get it! I get it.

I get it. You don't want to use spaghetti code, you want to make more with less.

That's the real art of it.

Have you ever tried page flipping, dithering?

- No, I'm new to coding. - Combined with anti-aliasing?

Don't do it all on C. You'll also cut back on memory.

( sighs )

Beer offer still stands if you want that tutorial.

Okay, look, just don't do it again, okay?

Or we're gonna have a serious problem.

Yes, ma'ams. Mea culpa.

I hereby cancel my subscription.

Mm, I don't even want this anymore.

Dudes, mother lode.

It's to Cameron from Boz.

Bet it's the last one he sent from jail.

- What are you gonna do with it? - What do you think?

Boz went out for smokes.

Wait, won't that ruin it?

I can fix it.

Did it to my sisters for 13 years.

( speaks Russian )

Come on.

Yo-Yo: Nice.

( imitating Bosworth's voice ) "Dear Cameron..."

- ( all laugh ) - "...I'll keep this short

'cause I know or hope I'll see you soon.

More of the same with Johnson.

I won't burden you again with that whole mess.

I'm just trying to put it behind me."

Oh! Cue appropriate butt sex joke.

( all laugh )

"I think about my wife, Cameron.

Ex-wife, I mean. And I think about my sons, if they'll know me when I get out and, God, if they'll want to.

That's what hurts the most.

That's the real knife to my heart."

- Hey, uh, maybe we should stop. - Why? It's too good.

Yeah, man, let's just forget it.

- ( scoffs ) - Bosworth: Go on.

Finish it.

Go on.

( normal voice ) "Was what I did worth it?

Honestly, I think so.

Am I good in the eyes of God?

Maybe this is terrible, but I don't really care.

It's me inside that matters, not Him, push come to shove.

Sorry to lay all this on you, but you're all I got to talk to, the light in this dark hole.

Boz."

What the hell are you doing?

We were just goofing off.

Get out of here. Go home.

This is where I live.

Then go someplace I can't see you for a long time, okay?

( door opens, closes )

You know, we really work well together.

Maybe we should start another project.

Maybe I could even fund it.

At least till it gets off the ground.

- You'd do that? - Yeah, why not?

Man, that'd be sweet.

But I'm headed up to good old NorCal.

But-- California?

Do you have a job lined up?

Nope, just rolling the dice.

Booked my ticket the day I got my pink slip at Cardiff.

Mm.

A lot of big dogs out there, Stanny.

You know, eat or be eaten.

Yeah, well, good, 'cause I'm hungry.

- Ruff, ruff, you other mutts. - ( chuckles )

Ah, you don't need a partner, Gordo.

I'm sure whatever you dream up will be incredible.

L-let's play another round.

I'm sure they've got it recoded by now.

All right, on three. No cheating this time.

All right, line 'em up. Ready?

Both: One, two, three.

Why the lag?

That's weird.

Low user volume, each on a dedicated line?

I mean, the delay should be imperceptible.

Nothing near this bad.

I wouldn't pay for this crap.

The idiots must've messed it up.

Now the game sucks even more.

Amit and Wonderboy: One, two, three.

I don't understand. The new time-stamp code should only take an extra 100 milliseconds, tops.

How many users we got online?

- 132. - Uh, yeah, check again, dumbass.

- I'm showing 80 live modems. - Lev: Wait a second, hold it.

There's code in here that we didn't write.

What? What's going on?

Someone hacked into "Tank Battle."

They added bytes that let multiple users play on a single phone line.

( laughs ) This is awesome.

Like a kid when he buys a movie ticket and then passes it back to his friends.

How many hacks are there like this?

Here's one that's allowing 12 users on a single line.

12-- wait, what? How did this happen?

Do you guys have back doors in your code?

- Yeah, we always use some-- - Did you tell anyone about them?

No, no, of course not.

Okay, look, look, just-- we'll delete the bytes.

No free rides. And then we'll talk about security.

Wait, wait, hold on.

If the hacks are from a user, I think I can trace them.

( knock on door )

How'd you do it?

- What? - No, just tell me, okay?

You stole money out of my pocket by getting 12 modems to share a single phone line.

You owe me how you did it.

I built a PBX in software, my own private branch exchange.

And 12 is nothing.

I'm working on three times that.

If Mutiny could do that, it would make our overhead per user that many times smaller.

You do that in your head?

You want to know what I think?

If it doesn't take too long

'cause I really don't want to burn my chicken.

You're good at this. I mean, you could be hacking into anyone.

But are you?

CompuServe? GEnie? I don't think so.

I mean, I think you're only cloning our games and hacking our network.

So either you spend all your time hating us or you really love what we do.

- Who says it takes that much time? - I do.

I checked our top-10 users last month based on hours spent online.

You were number four.

I could set up a software PBX for you.

Hell, I could set up 50.

( laughs ) Are you asking for a job?

No, no. I like my job.

I do. It pays well, the hours are good.

I work on games in my spare time.

Okay, just because you ripped off "Parallax" does not make you a game designer.

There's still the actual concept, the original invention.

You know, not just sprinkling fairy dust on what somebody else has created.

Since I don't want the job, can I not have the lecture as well?

Okay? Give me a call if you want that PBX.

Okay.

I talked to three different lawyers today.

They said the worst thing we could do is go confront Rendon ourselves, so I hope you didn't do anything stupid.

He's hacking us to get our attention.

And I think he's the real deal.

( groans ) I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we should hire him.

He's interested. He gave me his resume, but I wanted to talk to you first, so...

You already hired him, didn't you?

Great. I spent the entire afternoon planning our legal strategy.

What an efficient use of resources.

( sighs )

What did you offer him?

$25,000.

Make it 20. He'll take it.

I called the law office where he works.

Once I told them what he was up to, they threw him under the bus.

His last two performance reviews have been awful.

They were gonna fire him anyway and he knows it.

And if you want to pay him more, you can give him my salary.

Because if you keep making unilateral decisions like this,

I will not be sticking around, okay?

Yeah, okay.

And thank you.

( phone rings )

- Hello? - Hey, how was your day?

( laughs ) Oh, no, no, no. You first.

How was your day at the office, honey?

Good, we're computerizing records, getting everything archived.

And?

And, well, sometimes

I get to use the microfiche machine.

Not to be sneezed at.

You, uh, need approval.

All right, this is my fault.

Oh, come on. Of course it isn't.

Yeah, he's punishing you for Peter.

What do you mean?

Peter-- he hooked my father, got him deep on a few deals.

One in Zurich and this other thing.

But nothing ever materialized. The deals weren't real.

All told, my father lost a few million.

And this all happened right before we got divorced.

My father let his guard down because of me,

and Peter never paid him back a penny.

How come you never told me that?

Because I--

I hate myself for it, you know?

I-- I didn't want you to see me as a victim or an idiot.

But, you know, I'm gonna-- I'm calling my father right now.

He has no right to do this to you.

No, Sara, wait.

I've been stewing about this all day.

I thought there had to be some reason.

Well, now it's clear-- your dad is testing me.

He wants to take my measure.

And after what you just told me, if you were my daughter,

I would do the same thing.

Yeah, but it's stupid. It's a waste.

You know, I'm not gonna let you just--

I won't, don't worry.

I'm a big boy. I'm learning a lot.

So we can just let this breathe a sec.

Yeah?

Okay.

Uh, one more thing.

With what I'm getting paid, a two-bedroom in North Park's not gonna happen.

( laughs )

I don't care. I mean... we could pitch a tent.

I'll see you at home.

I love you.

Yeah, me, too.

Gordon: Should I call 'em?

I'm really excited for you guys to taste this.

( chuckles )

I saw the takeout containers in the trash, Gordon.

- Just testing. - ( Donna laughs )

You like Sal's cacciatore, right?

Hey, at least your obsession with "Tank Battle" paid off.

My coder monkeys said you came by, that your time-stamp fix was genius.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I took a little break from work, so...

Oh, sure, you did, sexy beard.

Our log says you were online for nine hours.

Hmm, well, I must've left it on.

Anyways, the way those nitwits coded it made the problem even worse.

Did they show you the delay?

Yeah, but that was because of Tom, this user who hacked our system who Cameron wound up hiring after he ripped off "Parallax."

Sure, makes sense.

Good to know she's still insane.

Well, apparently, he had this breakthrough.

It's a software PBX that allows up to 50 users to play on a single phone line.

- That would be huge. - Yeah.

I'm tempted to go back to that VC jerk and see if it'll change his mind, but I can't bring myself.

How many potential users are out there for Mutiny?

Now you sound like him. Gordon, there's no way to know.

But isn't that critical? I mean, it'll affect your valuation for the next round of financing.

Yeah, but there's no crystal ball.

Yeah, no, but, Donna, maybe there is.

Look, you need a map of the existing network.

Mutiny only sees a subset at any given time, but what if-- what if anyone who could log on, legitimately or not, did it at the same time?

How many people would that be?

- Gordon! - Look, I gotta get started on this.

- Eat without me! - ( sighs )

You know, you can work here, but you cannot live here.

( laughing )

Yeah.

Your letters meant a lot to me.

The last one you sent, you signed it Catherine.

Cameron was my dad's name.

I started using it after he died.

And I used to write letters to him in Vietnam, so I must've written that by mistake.

Listen, Boz... you can't just keep stuffing envelopes around here.

I mean, our books are a mess.

Accounts retrievable, that whole thing--

Oh, come on, you know it's "receivable."

No, no, I don't know that.

Look, I suck at this.

We need you to take a look at it, work some CEO magic.

Plus we need help raising money.

I mean, we'll get you an office, we'll get you your own corner--

Catherine.

I just need some time to work some stuff out.

Get my head straight.

- Boz. - Oh, come on, as smart as you are,

I think I know myself a little bit better than you do.

My God, it's beautiful, you lettin' me work here.

But I--

I'm just ready for it, not yet.

How long do you need?

Honestly, I don't know.

( elevator dings )

Mr. Wheeler, this just came for you.

Was there a note?

Yes, sir. It was stuck inside.

- Read it, Caroline, will you? - Of course.

It just says, "Thank you for the opportunity."

It's not signed. I think it's a waffle iron.

I know who it's from.

( keyboard clacking )

( music playing )