S01.E10: 1984

[Tara Ariano]

In the Season 1 finale, Gordon and Joe prepare to ship the Giant, but a suspicious defect calls their partnership into question. Meanwhile, Cameron takes her future into her own hands.

[Armchair Critic]

Gordon looks good without the beard, but if he isn't wearing contacts I am not buying that he can just go without his glasses.

 

WTF Joe?

Edited August 4, 2014 by Armchair Critic

[riverheightsnancy]

And in an instant the Giant became a dinosaur before it actually hits the market. This show continues to surprise me and I really hope it comes back, Because I am dying to see what will happen with Mutiny GRRRL Power and the Coder Monkeys. 

Edited August 4, 2014 by riverheightsnancy

[ketose]

I have to say that I'm not on pins and needles about a renewal of this show. I knew Joe was going to burn down all the Giants in the truck as soon as I found out there was a truck. Better yet, we never find out what the consequence of that was. I guess they had more in the pipeline. It seems Gordon has turned Gekko so he's now out of ideas. Donna has a lot more crazy then she let on in episode 1. Maybe she can steal Cameron's company away next year. Now, if they could just find a way for Joe and Cameron to die, preferably in a way that exonerates Bosworth, they'll have themselves a real Season 2. 

[Shriekingeel]

That's a pretty satisfying series finale in case the lower-than-Rubicon ratings do the show in but I hope it somehow comes back. The grown-up Donna vs. spoiled brat Cameron dynamic will be enough to keep me watching.

[Hanahope]

Did Joe burn all the Giant computers?  So how did the company not just fail?  Was it just his share of the computers?  I'm totally confused.

 

What was the point of the car jacking scene? 

 

So Cameron created MMORPG?

 

For a second I was convinced that Joe was going to find this cabin in the woods (lol) and his mother would open the door.

 

I do think Donna is smart to work for Cameron rather than her husband.  I just don't see Gordon really being able to accept that his wife may be smarter than him, at least in some things.

 

Yeah, not sure I'd be that heartbroken to not see this show renewed.

[Peace 47]

Hey, weeks ago, I said that I wished Donna and Cameron would start their own company and shuffle off the men keeping them down, and they did it! Actually, though, Gordon came off pretty well in this episode, being so supportive of Donna and all. He even made the kids sandwiches when he couldn't be bothered to pass Donna salt in the past. And that "I derve you very gurp" thing was very cute. This might be the first time I actually liked him, rather than merely empathized with his instability.

So it seems like this is the story of four creative geniuses who cannot settle for the ordinary. They will each wither and die if they aren't on the cutting edge of the next big thing. That's cool, but I don't know that burning a truckload of product was a productive release for Joe's ennui. Or that being thrown from a moving car was a necessary catalyst for Donna to identify her ennui (was quitting not enough??).

I also had lots of questions about this episode. Was the reason Donna needed to be fired was because she had a contract (maybe with a noncompete clause) and couldn't just walk? Did people say "killer app" back in 1984? Was Joe trekking off at the end to see his mother? (I think it was previously mentioned that she was dead, but ... yeah).

Edited August 4, 2014 by Peace 47

[annlaw78]

Ugh, that was terribles.  They should have had last ep be the season finale.  Joe's psychotic -- and I had rather liked scheming, manipulative Joe.  Cameron continues to be some sort of manic pixie dream girl who has All The Ideas In The World.  After a brief spate of usefulness, Gordon is back to floundering.  

 

I don't quite get it -- they accomplished what Joe wanted.  If they wanted to do something more innovative with their second version, they were well poised to do so.  Apple didn't start out with its GUI, as I understand it -- it was in a later version.  

 

Did people really call applications "apps" back then?  I'm not a techie, but I first heard that term in reference to iPhones.  

 

 

Was Joe trekking off at the end to see his mother? (I think it was previously mentioned that she was dead, but ... yeah).

I thought that, too, that his mother was the lady living at the observatory, but, frankly, I can't be bothered to care any more about Joe and his Deep, Dark Secret That Leads Him To Destroy Everything, And Not Just Figuratively, But Like Actually Set Fire To The Computer And His Dinner Jacket, In Case The Audience Can't Handle Nuance.  

Edited August 4, 2014 by annlaw78

[ketose]

I forgot about the "killer app" thing. I think the term has been around for a while, but not in 1984. Computers barely had applications as it was.

 

Next season, Cameron should invent Facebook. That would make about as much sense.

[Yolapukka]

Joe burned his dinner jacket because he's done with being an empty suit and wants to be an empty plaid shirt.

 

When Joe kept yapping about killer apps and could barely contain himself over his obvious sabotage, I just wanted Gordon to grab a blow gun and shoot him in the ass with a tranquilizer dart. then, when Joe was giving the truck with the orders on it that thousand yard stare, Gordon should have tricked him into getting into the trunk of a car (dude, Cameron's totally hiding in there... just a bit further back ...further..... SLAM!) and left him overnight, hell if he'd put him in the trunk of his own car, Joe could have popped out when the carjackers got to their destination, pulled their arms off and beat them to death them.

Edited August 4, 2014 by yuggapukka

[green]

Dude shaves his beard and becomes the new (old) IBM symbolically.  Also looks silly without his beard.  More like some boring guy who works in a cubicle pushing papers all day.  Oh wait, that is basically what he is doing now.  Just a bigger cubicle.

 

Tall dude ... hope he walks off the cliff.  One of the most boring characters I've seen on TV in a long time.  Sick of his silly angst like he has the only pain felt in all the wide world.  Mommy let me slip on the roof.  Boo hoo.

 

Like that the two women are where it is at.  Now Mutiny is a company I would love to work at.  It might fail in weeks or months but for one golden moment you get treated like a human being and told to go for quality and take pride in what you do.  Ever worker's dream but 99% of us are always chained to the capitalistic template of greed is God overseen by people seeking fulfillment in money and "stuff' instead of passion and ideals and visions.

 

Hope the series is cancelled so it ends with the visionaries getting to live their dream, the whining, no risk guy in an empty boardroom with no idea what to do next and the fake hustler off to get eaten by a bear.  Now that's what I call a happy ending.

Edited August 4, 2014 by green

[thuganomics85]

Yeah, my first thought was that Joe's mother is actually still alive, and that's who he is going to see.  If so, I am so not looking forward to it.  Unless she's either played by Ellen Greene or Swoosie Kurtz, and then I can at least get a Pushing Daises reunion.

 

I am so confused over Joe burning that truck full of the Giants, and the aftermath.  It didn't sound like Gordon and the crew were in any trouble at all, in the boardroom scene.  Did they even know what happened?  It just didn't make sense.  Either way, all that did was make Joe go back to winning the Most Unlikable Character of the Show, in my book.  Just a selfish sociopath, who was all pissy he didn't get his way, and had to take his frustrations out, consequences be dammed.  At least they gave us the scene of Cameron owning him, and getting to watch his face crumble.  Asshole.

 

On one hand, of course, Cameron is not only going to be breaking out on her own, but might be the first person to create a MMORPG.  She really is that damn special.  On the other hand, a Cameron/Donna team?  Now, that, I can be down with.  I can see some crazy stuff coming out of those two characters being together.  For better or worse, this is probably my favorite story, now.

 

So, is John gone for good?  I don't think they even mentioned him.  It will suck if this is the end of the road for him.

 

I'm guessing Gordon and Donna getting carjacked was just a way to show that things weren't going to changed for them.  They got a shiny new car, but it was quickly taken from them.  Whatever.

 

Well, it's been an interesting journey, Halt & Catch Fire.  A lot of ups and downs, here.  If it does get renewed, I'll probably be back, but, damn, those ratings are low.  I think next week, AMC is going to start airing those Breaking Bad reruns, and I wouldn't be surprised if those do better then this did.

[Yolapukka]

 

So Cameron created MMORPG?

 

Cameron is not only going to be breaking out on her own, but might be the first person to create a MMORPG.  She really is that damn special.

 

 

She's late by about ten years; http://www.digibarn.com/collections/games/xerox-maze-war/

[LJonEarth]

I've been in a state of utter confusion since the second or third episode. And it's not a fun, "I can't wait until this all ties together" type of confusion. It's as if completely different people are writing each episode/scene without much reference to what has come before it.

 

Joe's madly in love with Cameron? The progress of this wasn't done well. Joe's a psychopath? Yes. This was set up at the beginning, but then there were some weeks in the middle where they seemed to completely back off of this.

 

Gordon's characterization is just as bad!

 

The only consistent characters have been the women. Unfortunately, that means we get a consistently immature Cameron.

 

I agree. It seems as if there were some missing scenes after the burning of the computers thing.

 

And thank you writers, for the ridiculous "hey, it's January 1984, guys!" exposition.

 

Whatever happens to this show, Lee Pace will be just fine since he's sci-fi/fantasy  movie gold as of late.

Edited August 4, 2014 by JinNashville

[henripootel]

Did people say "killer app" back in 1984?

No techie, me, but I'd put Joe's use of the term at least 20 years before I ever heard it, maybe 25.  Don't remember anyone calling programs anything other than 'programs' back then, but again, not my area.  

 

Besides, the buzz back then seemed mostly about hardware, as pretty much everyone ran the same software (save Macs, of course, who had a reduced set of programs that were specifically written to run on Apples).  

 

And why would Joe want to delay production until the next generation of Giants was ready?  Do some quick developing, sure, but then market the Giant 2.0 and charge more money.

[Jamoche]

Did people say "killer app" back in 1984?

No. Apple's developer documentation does talk about "applications", but ask the average person in 1984 and they were still "programs".

 

ETA: Google Ngram backs me up - "killer app" doesn't get started until around 1992.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Jamoche

[hincandenza]

Joe is a monster, and I don't care about whatever is his journey of personal self-discovery entails. Of *course* he must have sabotaged Debbie's Giant, that wasn't ever even in any doubt, right? And ugh, with the pointless arson, especially after that great and flattering speech from Gordon, I mean fuckin' really, dude? Plus, it's only one (smallish) shipment, I'm guessing four of those bigger boxes by eight, each containing (eyeball) maybe 30-40 packaged Giants, so we'll say total of a thousandish PCs up in smoke (literally: those are nearly solid metal and I doubt would easily "catch fire", yet when Joe walked away from the fire the back was all but melted away!). It was likely more of a symbolic shipment anyway, since in practice future PCs will be direct shipped from the final manufacturer to the individual retail stores without ever passing through Cardiff's doors. Also... shouldn't Joe now be on the run from the law? And does Gordon get his 4%? :)

In any case, Cardiff is going to be fine, selling decent PCs at apparently a $400 profit each (did the math on the 100k units/$40M profit numbers), even though the show seems to want us to think it's obsolete or a failure somehow. The Wall Street review at the end mentioned the no-frills quality, which left Gordon sulking and we're meant to see as a disappointment, but in fact they've clearly made a hot commodity for that era: a fast, portable, budget PC. The brainstorming session tried to convet they missed the spark from Joe or Cameron, but the "boring" things they were saying- iterative improvements with each generation- defined the PC era! That's why today we have computers in our pockets or on our laps or in our cars or built into our fridges! There's no reason this fictional device wouldn't be as big a success as any of its time in the real world; Cardiff, in spite of himself, is probably going to be a billionaire in a few years, and even Gordon's 4% stake of just this first round of profits would be $1.6M (not in cash, obviously); the Clark family are going to be millionaires, and set for life.

And it's actually a good thing that the coders left; the economics of keeping a full time software team for a hardware company isn't great, so this further increases the bottom line for Cardiff. They can contract with Mutiny- or whomever- for additional software at less total cost, while Mutiny sells that and similar software to many other companies. Huh... Mutiny Software = MS. What with all the Apple parallels this season...

I like that the Clarks are doing well, and their marriage is great. Gordon finished the season strong, being fully in charge of himself, focused, and a much better husband and father. No mis-steps from him all episode. And I'm glad Donna is trying out the Cameron thing; as a programmer, that seems like the ideal work environment. Especially so, since Cameron is now apparently inventing AOL/Prodigy/et al, so there's your other future billionaire.

One last thought: was the implication when Donna was eating the twist cookies that she was stoned? She found Gordon's (stale?) weed, and the very next scene is her sitting on the couch, eating those cookies with wonder like theyre a gift straight from God. I think later that episode she went looking for the cookies but they were gone, so I guess she's a big pothead now. :)

[DrSpaceman]

Well like the entire season, I thought it was an interesting but an up and down, confusing finale. 

 

I agree I don't understand if there was any consequences of Joe burning the first truck.  I guess they had others and it just delayed the first shipment, but some type of acknowledgement of the scene after the fact would have been nice. 

 

One thing to note is while on the surface they seem closer together, Gordon and Donna are actually further apart than ever.  Joe clearly rubbed off on Gordon.  The expensive car, the cutting the beard, the sense of "what's next" after the computer came out, even the last minute bold decision of his cutting off his beard to make a big splash at the party is all Joe's influence on Gordon.  And now Donna is going the way of Cameron.  Going to work for her and walking away from TI I think is meant symbolically to show they are headed in two different directions. 

 

Joe is just an ass, probably Bipolar with a borderline personality disorder as well based on his actions.  I commented before on how this is the biggest problem with the show.  I think they tried to create another in the line of characters with mixed good/bad qualities that make them complex for this how, like Dexter, Tony Soprano, Walter White, etc, and just failed in the characterization of Joe because he came across too unlikeable and unstable. 

 

Agree with hearing "killer app" was out of date, before its time.  They would have been talking about creating great software for the machine, not a killer app.  And really whether or not they are doing it for the current machine or the next generation of the machine, shouldn't Joe and others at the company be thinking about these things anyway?  Thats another big problem with the writing and how they are handling this roll out of the laptop.  They are in an industry where they should KNOW that last year is old news, its all about the future and you always have to be thinking of the future.  Joe SORT OF knows this, but goes about it in the wrong way.  He laments the fact all this stuff and new software is not on this machine, but a good company and boss would not be thinking this but instead would be giving out speech the day the computer comes out, or heck even before, about how this is a good start but there are areas for improvement in the future and they have to start now in order to get out the next generation as soon as possible.  Instead he burns a truck and goes off on some vision quest for his mommy. 

 

 Like that the two women are where it is at.  Now Mutiny is a company I would love to work at.  It might fail in weeks or months but for one golden moment you get treated like a human being and told to go for quality and take pride in what you do.  Ever worker's dream but 99% of us are always chained to the capitalistic template of greed is God overseen by people seeking fulfillment in money and "stuff' instead of passion and ideals and visions.

 

 

 

She does have a great idea for the company, but the "I am not your boss, there is no hierarchy/structure" thing just is not going to work.  We saw this on the show Silicon Valley, a similar but different show set in present day, and much better done, on HBO earlier in the summer.  With no flow of who does what and noone tracking it, no flowchart of it all, especially in a programming/software company like this one, it just can't work. Someone has to be keeping tabs on people to be sure they aren't just playing game all day, which seems to be what the coders do much of the time.  The kumbaya, hand holding, we're all equals idea is going to crash pretty quickly, espeically when the company actually makes some money, if it does, and they have to decide who gets what and have no legal structure in place to determine that split.  Someone has to determine salaries, evaluate what others are worth, track job performance, etc.  My guess is that will be Donna, because she is smart and is the only one with that background or experience.  She will come in and basically be more like a CEO.  And she would probably be good at it too.

 

Anyway I think this show is best compared to Silicon Valley for many reasons and of the two, Silicon Valley is far superior.  HACF is more drama than comedy, so SV has a bit of an advantage there, but even so, the drama, pacing and writing for SV I think was better than HACF. 

Edited August 4, 2014 by DrSpaceman

[DrSpaceman]

One last thought: was the implication when Donna was eating the twist cookies that she was stoned? She found Gordon's (stale?) weed, and the very next scene is her sitting on the couch, eating those cookies with wonder like theyre a gift straight from God. I think later that episode she went looking for the cookies but they were gone, so I guess she's a big pothead now. :)

 

 

 

I don't think it means she is a pothead, but yes, she smoked the evil weed.  I think it was more of an indication of her boredom being at home and needing a bigger project to chase.  I think its a common and typical reaction many of us have had or would have.  We think "Great!!  I have no job!!  I can get a lot done, all the things i ever dreamed of doing!", then after a week, all those things are done, you are bored and think "What now?".  The marijuana was a minor attempt to inject something into her life and relieve her boredom.  I don't think she is a pothead or that she'll keep doing it. 

[annlaw78]

The lack of response by the Cardiff remnants re: Joe's burning up the first shipment made me wonder if maybe the "first shipment" was just a prop for the party (rented truck, empty cardboard boxes).  Why on earth would any insured, bonded courier service give its customer the keys to its delivery van?  Why would it allow a fully loaded van to sit overnight in an unsecured parking lot?  That simply beggars belief.  

 

But, I think we're to assume Joe did burn up the first shipment as part of his hissy fit, which is despicable.  If an artist isn't happy with his work, fine, destroy it.  But the Giant was the result of a lot of people's hard work and toil -- not just Joe's -- and a lot of livelihoods are riding on its success.  

[Primetimer]

Roger asks if there's a cool show somewhere in there, worth tying up your phone line and exhausting old computer puns for a second season.

Read the story

[dubbel zout]

I don't quite get it -- they accomplished what Joe wanted.

 

Not really. Joe always wanted to create what came next, ignoring the fact that you eventually have to put out a product. He seems completely unwilling to accept the production process.

 

Joe continues to be a gigantic asshole. I thought he was going to find his mother at the observatory, too. Heh. I so don't care what happens to him.

 

Going to work for her and walking away from TI I think is meant symbolically to show they are headed in two different directions.

 

Maybe, but it also might mean that Donna is finally following her dream instead of burying it to support Gordon's. Gordon seemed to genuinely want Donna to work someplace she'd be happy. He can't have it both ways by wanting her to choose where she wants to work but not choose Cameron.

 

I think some of Gordon's letdown after the Giant launched was normal. He'd put in such a huge amount of time and energy. The stakes for him were enormous.

 

ETA: Joe went to an observatory, not a conservatory.

Edited August 4, 2014 by dubbel zout

[annlaw78]

 

Not really. Joe always wanted to create what came next, ignoring the fact that you eventually have to put out a product. He seems completely unwilling to accept the production process.

I thought Joe said something in one of the earlier eps acknowledging they just need to get a toehold in the market, and go from there.  But maybe that was someone else.  He does seem to swing wildly from pragmatic, business-oriented guy to idealistic visionary.  He's at his best, I think, when he's being Business Guy, not when he's trying to be messianic, because, as the other characters are constantly reminding him (even, a bit unrealistically, his subordinates), HE CREATES NOTHING, HE HAS NO TECH KNOWLEDGE.   He's essentially just an ad man floundering for a product he can write copy for, sort of like in that old Doris Day-Rock Hudson movie, the name of which escapes me, in which they are competing to the best ad campaign for a fake product, without even knowing what the product is -- just the name. 

[Brooke0707]

Can all of these characters, with the exception of Donna, just die?  I'm done with this show.  This episode sucked.

 

First, give me a break with the Apple shit.  How convenient that we see an ad for Apple in the middle of the show.  Blech.  I feel like I'm watching an Ode to Apple.

 

Second, Joe, Gordon, and Cameron are horrible. How wonderful that Cameron just happens to have all the important ideas that viewers will recognize.  Is there anything that she didn't create?  And her "love story" with Joe?  Dreadful.

 

Third, so predictable that Joe lit the shipment on fire.  I called it right away.  Yawn.  I don't give a crap about his pain.  I was laughing when he was crying on Cameron's doorstep.

 

Joe, Gordon, and Cameron are just too unlikable for me to continue watching next season (if there even is one).  When I want them to all fail horribly, that is a sign that something just isn't right with the show (for me).

 

The show is just soooooooooooooooo clearly written with the benefit of hindsight and from the 21st century perspective that it is severely lacking IMO.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Brooke0707

[annlaw78]

 

Joe, Gordon, and Cameron are just too unlikable for me to continue watching next season (if there even is one).  When I want them to all fail horribly, that is a sign that something just isn't right with the show (for me).

I had thought last ep was the season finale, and I thought it ended on a great note, making me interested for a second season.  What a waste of that potential this ep was! 

 

Joe didn't set out to make an Apple or even a Symphonic (whatever that was) -- he set out to beat IBM at its own game, by making essentially the same product, but cheaper and faster.  Then he started drinking the Cameron Kool-Aid of trying to make the OS cutesy and special, rather than sticking to the original goal.  That our visionary, business-samurai main character couldn't recognize the mission-creep as detrimental to the project -- and eventually lost sight of the project -- does not make him more interesting or compelling.  It just makes him schizophrenic. 

[Aprilshowers]

Was I the only one who thought Joe was becoming a beekeeper at the end scene?  The background and suit looked like it for a moment. Probably would make as much sense. This episode really was all over the place and not half as enjoyable as the last two. 

 

I knew Joe was sabotaging that truck when Gordon was doing his speech, just wondered how he was going to do it. Gasoline how original...

Gordon's out of ideas now, not a good sign

Donna sure let out her inner cray cray in this one.

Cameron didn't annoy as much and she sure gave Joe his walking papers.

 

I'm torn about seeing season 2.  I won't be broken up if we don't but part of me wants to see where it would be going and what would happen to all those crazy kids.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Aprilshowers

[qtpye]

Do you guys think Joe's mother is going to push him off the roof of the Fiske Observatory when she finds out how annoying he has become?  I guess at least they can look at the stars...

 

The interaction between Donna and Cameron would keep on board for another season.

[Jamoche]

 If an artist isn't happy with his work, fine, destroy it.  But the Giant was the result of a lot of people's hard work and toil -- not just Joe's -- and a lot of livelihoods are riding on its success.  

Oooh, I just remembered what this reminds me of: The Fountainhead, the 1949 Gary Cooper adaptation of the Ayn Rand novel about how utterly horrible it is when the teeming masses don't understand your Grand Vision and the only solution is to blow up the building you designed because it wasn't identical to your perfect vision. What I said when I sporked it applies here: "An art/engineering hybrid that requires the buy-in of large numbers of other people and their money? You want to be the misunderstood artist, pick something that can be 100% your effort."

[DrSpaceman]

I agree the last episode, not this one, would have worked better as the season ending

 

Also was obvious Joe was going to destroy those computers well before it happened. 

[Misanthrope]

"I should start by saying that I had seen every episode of Low Winter Sun"

You poor, poor, bastard.

[Yolapukka]

 

You want to be the misunderstood artist, pick something that can be 100% your effort."

 

 

I guess it's Joe that's going to make the mashed potato sculptures and run around in the wild looking for lights in the sky. Maybe he'll eventually find Burning Man.

[annlaw78]

 

Maybe he'll eventually find Burning Man.

No, don't you know that it's Cameron who comes up with the idea for Burning Man? 

[Yolapukka]

 

No, don't you know that it's Cameron who comes up with the idea for Burning Man?

 

When has Cameron ever come up with the idea for anything that wasn't already in existence or already on the way in some form? I really can't think of one thing. Her "revoloutionary" OS system was borrowed from Yo-yo's personalized version of Collossal Cave Adventure, nearly sank the project and had to be scrapped. It's not like she doesn't have ideas that anticipate what can happen next but none of it involves looking far into the future or radically shortening the journey to get there. The closest she came to that was writing a faster BIOS for the Giant.

Edited August 4, 2014 by yuggapukka

[riverheightsnancy]

Even though, I 100% agree that Joe is a sociopath, without his innate ability to see talent, Gordon and Cameron would never have been brought together to create this computer, which undoubtedly changed their lives (for the better). This project exposed Cameron (and her talents) to other people who vocally validated her worth and skills (IBM, the Xerox guy) and ditto for Gordon, who was dying in a self-imposed depression of self-hatred for failing at creating something he really valued. Donna also has benefited and will now realize her own potential. I think that Joe's REAL talent is recognizing that gift in others. One thing he doesn't have, but really wants. He is a dreamer with no dreams, so he must usurp them from others. It reminds me of the comment that Megan's mother said about her in Mad Men, "She has artistic temperament without the talent" (or something like that). It reminds me of Joe. He desperately wants to create something big and awesome, but has no talent for doing so. 

[annlaw78]

 

When has Cameron ever come up with the idea for anything that wasn't already in existence or already on the way in some form? I really can't think of one thing. Her "revoloutionary" OS system was borrowed from Yo-yo's personalized version of Collossal Cave Adventure, nearly sank the project and had to be scrapped. It's not like she doesn't have ideas that anticipate what can happen next but none of it involves looking far into the future or radically shortening the journey to get there, aside from writing a faster BIOS for the Giant.

I agree, but the show has gone over the top, I think, in trying to convince us Cameron is some super-star pioneering visionary in all-things computer-related.  She's been plucked by Joe from community-college-and-arcade-loitering obscurity and since then has single-handedly bested IBM's BIOS, come up with SIRI, and now appears to be poised to bring the internet and online connectivity and gaming to the masses by crossing over from being software genius to designing modems and phone lines.  Or something.  Geez, show.  I'd still be impressed if she just cracked the IBM BIOS on her own -- I don't need her to work out cold fusion, too. 

[Yolapukka]

 

He desperately wants to create something big and awesome, but has no talent for doing so.

 

Or refuses to accept that his talents have made something happen if he's not the most important factor or the centre of attention. He needs to go to clown school and start entertaining at children's parties, that might give him the satisfaction he craves, especially if he breaks new ground in making balloon animals. Who'd want him near their kids though?

[dubbel zout]

Or refuses to accept that his talents have made something happen if he's not the most important factor or the centre of attention.

 

So much this. Joe is so emotionally immature. Nothing he does is worth doing unless the spotlight is always on him and he's involved in every single aspect, even if he hasn't the faintest idea what half the aspects are. One of my favorite lines from last night was Donna telling Gordon to use a printer drive paper as blackmail proof for the embezzling, as Joe would never know the difference.

 

I think Cameron's progress would have been more believable if they'd made a stronger point of it being connected to people believing in her. Of course, her behavior could have been toned down as the series went on; it didn't help that she acted like a spoiled brat 85 percent of the time.

Edited August 4, 2014 by dubbel zout

[annlaw78]

 

Or refuses to accept that his talents have made something happen if he's not the most important factor or the centre of attention. He needs to go to clown school and start entertaining at children's parties, that might give him the satisfaction he craves, especially if he breaks new ground in making balloon animals. Who'd want him near their kids though?

Ha!  But you're so right, and I don't really get the insecurity: most CEOs of major corporations aren't, to borrow the parlance of this show, "close to the metal," and a lot bounce around from one industry to a completely different industry, because the talents and skills that make a great executive are much different than those that make a great software designer or electrical engineer (as has been demonstrated by Gordon's repeated muck-ups in sales pitches and developing vender relations).  Joe is a talented guy in some areas; why he wants to be a computer genius, too, without putting in any of the education or effort, is rather silly.  And, frankly, he's on the money side of things. 

 

For those of us who became interested in seeing if the Cardiff team could pull it off, to find out the Giant was just some sort of Macguffin or catharsis for Joe's mommy and daddy issues -- that is really underwhelming. 

[magdalene]

If the show had ended with last week's episode I would have been more in need of a second season. Now I am okay if this is it. I am also back to really disliking Joe. He must think he is such a special snow flake when in reality he is more like a strange weed that is hard to get rid of.

 

I can't help comparing this  show to the reaction I had to BREAKING BAD when it began - it was low rated then and probably in danger of cancellation but I needed those characters to come back for more. I feel no such need for any of the characters in HALT.

[Nmissi]

Did anyone else get a suicidal vibe off Joe at the end? Because I thought he was headed to the observatory to jump off of it.

[dubbel zout]

I feel no such need for any of the characters in HALT.

 

Things wrapped up pretty well. I'm glad there wasn't a cliffhanger, though I suppose one could think Joe's story was open-ended. But I liked him the least, so I don't care what happens.

[dargosmydaddy]

I came into this for Lee Pace, and I loved the pilot, and then I hated almost everything after that, especially Joe. I don't think that was LP's fault, I think Joe is just a poorly conceived and written character. The finale was just so weird in all of its pointless violence. I could live with the Donna and Cameron show next year, with occasional appearances by Gordon, but since I don't think that's happening, I'm hoping for cancellation so LP can go get a part on Hannibal and everyone else can similarly find shows more worthy of their considerable talents.

[queenanne]

I think this is the inexperience of the showrunner shining through, because all these ideas by themselves are resonant and imagination-firing.  They’re just set up weirdly and wrong, dropping red herrings/subtle “Gotchas!” that the audience either can’t get past or can’t remember.  They shine their lantern on things that aren’t important and bury their lede when it counts, thinking it’s “understated”.  We had so many false starts on “who Joe was”, that people were still speculating whether or not the roof/mother story was a lie, when clearly this was designed as an “Ah-ha!” moment to someone.  Joe is mentally disturbed like his mother and longs to “be a creative” even more than “he wants to create”, and thinks he has discovered his mother (or maybe his Donna, even) in Cameron.  This is great stuff.  But it’s great when you discover it, it’s not great when you need it stitched together and someone to go back and tell you what plot happened among the nonsense and dross.  I liked Joe better as a sociopath or at least as a mystery, but trying to keep him a mystery I think is what sank them, by the sixth fakeout iteration of his backstory I was rolling my eyes, OMG, I don't caaaaaaare anymore, can we find out what the Giant is going to be or do?  A waste, really.

[dubbel zout]

I don't know why Joe couldn't just have been motivated to beat his father because of IBM. But no, everyone has to have some sort of tragic secret in their past. Ugh.

[paramitch]

Annlaw78: I had thought last ep was the season finale, and I thought it ended on a great note, making me interested for a second season.  What a waste of that potential this ep was!

 

I felt the same way. Despite my irritation with the writing and characterization (especially of Joe) over the season, I found myself caring increasingly about the characters, to the extent that I was totally and joyfully on board in Episode 8, when I was unexpectedly moved by the characters' actions and generosity (especially Bosworth's grand sacrifice and the revelation of just how close he and Cam had become). Then last week I was still interested in where it could all go.

 

Then this week, at minute 47 (I'm pretty sure that's when Joe burns the truck), I was literally throwing things at the television. (Well, okay. One cracker.) At that point I was watching, flabbergasted, thinking, "Wow, they may actually piss all over every good thing these characters have managed to achieve."

 

While they didn't go QUITE that far -- I was intrigued at Cameron's new company and loved Donna joining up -- I thought this was terrible. I didn't buy Cameron's final speech to Joe (not after what we've seen over the season) and it felt misplaced, as if it had been written for her to deliver earlier and had then been dropped into place here. It would have been one thing if Joe had actually betrayed Cameron, but he didn't, and I thought the show did a pretty good job of showing us both why he had to act and why he was actually torn up about it on Cam's behalf.

 

And the lack of a realistic real-world response was crying out here -- why weren't Joe (or especially Gordon) exploring the restoration of the OS for their next phase? I was also annoyed at the stupidity of the programmers in the scene when they were pitching their ideas to Joe. It would have been kind of cool to see at least a few decent ideas there.

 

I also was really hoping, after Cameron's big rather childish "Communist" manifesto to her employees, that Donna would actually quietly step in or show just how misplaced Cam's approach will be. People will actually need some structure to move forward and accomplish the work.

 

Even though, I 100% agree that Joe is a sociopath, without his innate ability to see talent, Gordon and Cameron would never have been brought together to create this computer, which undoubtedly changed their lives (for the better). This project exposed Cameron (and her talents) to other people who vocally validated her worth and skills (IBM, the Xerox guy) and ditto for Gordon, who was dying in a self-imposed depression of self-hatred for failing at creating something he really valued. Donna also has benefited and will now realize her own potential. I think that Joe's REAL talent is recognizing that gift in others. One thing he doesn't have, but really wants. He is a dreamer with no dreams, so he must usurp them from others. It reminds me of the comment that Megan's mother said about her in Mad Men, "She has artistic temperament without the talent" (or something like that). It reminds me of Joe. He desperately wants to create something big and awesome, but has no talent for doing so. 

 

I think this is beautifully said, and it is why I was interested in Joe as a character despite his real silliness and constant drama (yes, when he lit the truck on fire, I laughed out loud. Because, of course he did). I felt like the entire season, one of the strongest threads was Joe discovering his power as a person who assembled the right people for the right jobs in order to fulfill a dream.

 

So the dissolution of all of that in this episode made me really sad. Bosworth risked everything for this (and I missed him in this episode, and want to say how amazing I thought Toby Huss was in the show), and I thought the empty/downer moment for Gordon was silly (he'll think of something to do next or someone else will -- or what about that OS?). And Joe wandering off into the desert to, I guess, find his mother, just felt beyond bizarre to me. Although we did see signs that Joe had evolved into a reasonable emotional human being in the end -- he was honest with Cam about his feelings for her, and fairly kind and courteous to the old man at the service station in the desert.

Edited August 5, 2014 by paramitch

[ketose]

Joe is such a narcissist that he needs to be loved by literally everyone. Had they shown the Giant at COMDEX with Camer-Windows, Joe might have stuck around a few weeks longer. Then there would be some review calling the interface clunky and the writer would figure out that "How are you, Joe" added $300 to the cost of the Giant. Joe would blow up at Cameron and set his Porche on fire or something. Then Gordon would invent the Little Giant that was cheaper, faster and just ran DOS.

 

Instead of being an IBM guy, Joe really is like a low-rent Steve Jobs. Joe wasn't gong to be happy after he discovered the Mac. It had all the bells and whistles that a salesman would love. Macs had a lot of innovative features, but they lagged behind in "killer apps." Macs were always more of a sales job and Joe would have been happier selling that than another IBM clone.

 

I think next season Cameron should invent some strong-ass biker meth and Joe could sell it.

[Dowel Jones]

Wouldn't Gordon sport a big white chin where his face hadn't tanned, or did he get soem makeup tips from Donna?  I swear, if he had put on some sunglasses I would have mistaken him for Agent Smith from The Matrix.

I was holding my breath at the end, right up to the reveal, that Joe wouldn't be driving that red Porsche.  I can accept a lot of nastiness, but that would have been too far.  Unless, of course, Joe had somehow found out that Gordon had him beat up. 

[green]

Do you guys think Joe's mother is going to push him off the roof of the Fiske Observatory when she finds out how annoying he has become?  I guess at least they can look at the stars...

 

 

Joe's mother is dead.  That is why he had the hissy fit with his father.  He only learned of her real death after he believed in her false death or whatever it was for years.

[GaT]

The season is done & so am I. This episode didn't even make sense, never mind adequately finish up the season. I don't know if there will be a season 2, but if there is, I won't be watching.

[ketose]

I think the best part of the season recap was referring to Hunt as "Holt" because who really cares who these people are?

Edited August 5, 2014 by ketose