Named after a 1979 Atari video game, “Adventure†â€" the fifth episode in Halt and Catch Fire’s first season â€" brings daddy issues to the forefront of Joe’s world, with a whole ‘lot of bat-swinging to underscore the anger percolating through our suit-clad antihero.
The portable PC build process? Chugging along at Cardiff, but not without the inevitable challenges. Gordon and his team of builders must make their current PC model a whopping 10 pounds lighter in order to meet Joe’s zealous vision. After toying around with TV wrist watches, a lightbulb goes on in Gordon’s head â€" use LCD technology for the PC screen to literally help lighten the load.
SEE ALSO: 'Halt and Catch Fire' Episode 4 Recap: Full Meltdown Status
Luckily for Gordon, he has an in to the LCD tech space â€" his father-in-law, who knows businessmen at Japanese company Kuzoku. Gordon is not fond of Donna’s dad and rarely puts in time with him â€" but with a LCD goal in mind, he plays a round of birthday golf with his father-in-law and manages to land a meeting with two Kuzoku execs. Joe is pleased with Gordon’s initiative, but quickly asserts his business know-how â€" his years of wining and dining executives shine brightly next to Gordon’s inability to even pick a proper restaurant for the meeting.
Meanwhile, Cameron arrives at Cardiff to find a slew of software engineers and a new manager, Steve, with whom she immediately butts heads. Cameron snaps at Joe, stating that she can handle the software programming on her own, and that the army of software engineers is completely unnecessary â€" not to mention that she finds Steve to be completely “inefficient†as a supervisor. Joe tells Cameron to suck it up, and she finds herself befriending a few of the geeky engineers who have fondnesses for yo-yos, cheese whiz and “Adventure.â€
Though life at Cardiff seems to be stabilizing following debacle after debacle in the previous four episodes, Joe’s personal life is beginning to slowly unravel. His father, he learns, is in Dallas on a layover and wants to see him. Joe has his secretary set up lunchtime drinks at Joe Sr.’s hotel, and though Joe drives to the venue, he doesn’t go inside â€" instead, he peers through the hotel windows at his father who waits expectantly for his son with drink in hand.
Later, steak dinner with the pair of Kuzoku execs seems to be going well for Joe and Gordon. Joe makes a hard sell on why the Japanese company should be involved with Cardiff and supply their LCD technology, and the two Japanese men agree to a pact.
Gordon knocks back one too many in Episode 5 of "Halt and Catch Fire."
Gordon, however, once again shows his lack of business-social chops (we’ve already seen him flub it in the pilot episode) and throws back a few too many shots with the Japanese execs following the gentlemen’s agreement at the table. In the bathroom, Gordon drunkenly takes a leak next to one of the Kuzoku execs and trash talks his father-in-law â€" the exec is turned off by Gordon’s words, and by the end of the night the Japanese men have pulled out of the deal with Cardiff, leaving Joe fuming at Gordon.
While Joe berates Gordon outside the steakhouse, Cameron stops by Joe’s apartment to pick up her things â€" only to find Joe Sr. inside, waiting for his son. The two eventually fall into conversation, with Joe Sr. noting that his IBM execs refer to Cameron as a “prodigy†and the modern day Ada Lovelace. Joe Sr. discusses his son: how he bought him the baseball bat that Joe uses in his apartment during bouts of anger, how he taught Joe the proper swing. But he also acknowledges Joe’s penchant for blowing up situations and his conniving nature, and accidentally unearths one fact about Cameron’s life â€" her father died in Vietnam when she was a young girl. After calming down from that relived memory, Cameron eventually calls bullshit on Joe Sr., saying she sees through his attempts to manipulate her into feeding him info on his son.
Cameron confronts Joe's father in Episode 5 of "Halt and Catch Fire."
Realizing that he completely beefed the steak dinner, Gordon arrives at his father-in-law’s house drunk but hoping to apologize and get his help. While Gordon continues to devote himself to Cardiff life, Donna’s relationship with her boss at TI (and former high school peer) Hunt has taken a slightly flirtatious turn â€" their slow burn of a connection lights up something in Donna, and after a phone call with Hunt, she goes to the garage and begins to play the piano. A gifted pianist, Donna loses herself in her head while playing, and Gordon later gets a quick glimpse of her â€" he can tell that something is changing in his wife.
The next day at Cardiff, Joe is in damage control mode. He jets off to the hotel that the Kuzoku execs (and his father) are staying in, and pleads for them to reconsider working with his company. He tells them that his relationship with his father was built on emulation â€" “he taught me everything I know,†Joe tells the two men in an effort to show his respect for patriarchs.
The Kuzoku execs nod in appreciation and are back in business with Cardiff. Joe believes he saved the day (and, unbeknownst to him, narrowly missed a run-in with his father at the hotel) â€" but as it turns out, it was Gordon who salvaged the Kuzoku deal. When Joe strolls into Gordon’s office to demand an apology, Gordon refuses to offer one. He tells Joe that him throwing himself at the feet of his father-in-law while drunk and asking for help actually worked, and that the Kuzoku deal was salvaged before Joe even got to the hotel. Joe was not the hero he thought he was.
Cameron, tired of staff inefficiency, concocts a way to pick the strongest software coders out of the bunch â€" she polls the office to see who has been playing “Adventure,†and who won the game ... by cheating. Cheating in “Adventure,†she says, reveals someone to be a gifted and fast coder. The team is then pared down to the most essential coders, and Steve is given the boot.
At a Cardiff barbecue in the final scene, Joe is still angry from his evidently flaccid exchange with the Japanese execs. But, he’s also reeling after hearing from Cameron that not only was his father in his apartment, but he took the Wall Street Quarterly issue with a profile about Cardiff and Joe. Joe steps up to one barbecue activity that involves smashing a sledge hammer into a sports car and offers the attendant a hundred spot to play for as long as he wants. Joe pulls the hammer back, and begins to destroy the car in a controlled rage, channeling his aggression towards his father, swing by swing by swing.
Joe cuts loose with a sledgehammer in Episode 5 of "Halt and Catch Fire."
Are you hanging in with 'Halt and Catch Fire'? Let us know what you think of the season so far in the comments.
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