The Mexican restaurant moment felt like the show communicating "yes we know we've been here before time is a circle". Basically acknowledging that we've been through all of these moments before — Gavin offering to acquire Pied Piper, Gavin having a case to sue for IP, Richard buckling down on how His Company isn't…

The whole thing was especially worth it when Gilfoyle starting to laugh in that final moment (at the same pitch he speaks in).

I think it's upsetting for her, sure, but I don't think there's enough in the subtext of their relationship to point to that being the biggest instigating factor. Catherine being the heir of the estate instead of Selina might be, though.

The Senate bus scene was a good breaking moment for her, so I hoped the earlier flashback would show her in this way. But… nah.

That was the only moment of sympathy I had for her all episode. I'm disappointed it didn't encourage her to course correct in any way.

You've described the gradual descent of Selina's relationship with Catherine much better than I could articulate it. Yes. It was always strained and Selina always prioritized her goals over Catherine but she seems to just have bitter disdain for Catherine now.

Well if you think of the surface area of all those mountains it does turn into a lot of landmass.

Was it sentimental?

I really liked the flashback to the Senate bus. You could see Selina breaking in the moment where she turns the blatant infidelity on its head to something that benefited her. It was probably one of the best acting moments for JLD all season, as quiet as it was. This episode but with more flashbacks showing her…

Anyway, frustrating is right. Between Silicon Valley and Veep I was really disappointed that this season ended with The Gang Back Together Feeling Good About Themselves. I've gone from "Aw they're jerks but I'm still rooting for them cos the other people are bigger jerks and my jerks are funny" to actively disliking…

Said payoff was maybe the biggest laugh of the episode for me, though.

And then Montez would still be the serving VP, as elected by the Senate. And we could have a season of tension and shenanigans between Selina and Montez, and the show would be able to explore the Veep role in some way again.

A good joke (which the episodes do have) is not a good plot.

"Man I really can't think of any interesting and challenging story arcs for this character who's been a key player since the beginning and is played by an extremely capable actress."
"…. well, we could knock her up."
"BRILLIANT!"

The preview for next episode shows the phone explosions are continuing post-Hooli-con, so even if they didn't lose all the data this episode, they may by the end of the next one.

I think they'd be straight up arrested if that got out, not just a lawsuit.

I think that dropping shoe is that they put all of Melcher's data across all these devices, and they're all exploding one by one. Eventually there will be no devices and Melcher's data will disappear.

Those earlier season scream sessions were funnier, I think, because they were rarer. You knew shit had hit the fan because she wasn't at that level constantly. Circumstances around her weren't a constant circus of catastrophe then, too.

You likely know a lot more about it — really I was trying to think of a possible plausible reason, but it may have just been incomplete planning on the writers' part.

I don't think the show is a bunch of random one-liners. I think it's a lot more than that and a lot more than what you think it is. The jokes wouldn't be as well crafted as they are without the narrative, the characters, and the themes. They're not independent of each other, and therefore to only comment on 'this joke…