Halt and Catch Fire S2E1 - "SETI" Recap

Fast-forward two years from season one and we find our team of tech-geeks busy at work. Cameron and Donna opened up an online-gaming company called Mutiny which is showing signs of predicting the need for chat rooms, IMs, social networks. Gordon has successfully orchestrated the sale of his company and Joe is living a happy life of domestic bliss with his girfriend and former college sweetheart, Sara. They're shown to be enjoying some quality time together with some other friends/couples around a campfire sharing a few beers. Sara shares the story of how they met and it's honestly a bit disarming to see Joe so settled. He talks about getting out of the computer industry because he was unhappy with himself and needed a bit of self-maintenance. He helped a company grow and be sold and now with his large share of the profits he plans to move from Texas to the Silicon Valley to start his own company... though it doesn't look as if Sara's quite as keen on moving.

When Cameron and Donna's power goes out at their house, Cameron begins to plug some of their equipment into the outlets next door. Donna warns her they need to stop breaking those laws but Cameron is confident that they can handle the fines and she'll get more equipment to handle things. Later Donna and Cameron get into an argument because Donna feels she has to pick up the slack to make sure things get taken care of but she doesn't want to be the resident-mother; she took this job because she wanted to do what she loves.

Gordon is shown to have developed a bit of an affinity for cocaine. But he's got a big day ahead, as he's got a large check to collect. While waiting in the lobby, Joe shows up and Gordon seems perturbed that Joe would show up to get his share of the pie. There's no love lost between these two though they do get to talking. Joe notes that perhaps it was a mistake selling the company so soon since the company is apparently worth a lot more. They both admit there are plenty of mistakes they've made. Gordon gets to go in first to pick up his check, roughly 850K. Then it's Joe's turn. Nathan berates him for all his wrong-doings and rips up Joe's check, including setting the first shipment of computers on fire and getting John Bosworth sent to prison. Nathan welcomes Joe to sue him but Joe surprisingly leaves without kicking off on a temper-tantrum.

Cameron and Donna buy some stolen computers since they need the parts and equipment. They hold their own to ensure they're not scammed when it comes to price but after they've made the sale, and the man has driven off, they find that they're counterfeit and unless they can code in Chinese, they're out of luck. Since Donna's away making this bad buy, Gordon's left to look after the kids. It's then that Gordon starts to get a nosebleed, clearly a repercussion of his coke habit.

Cameron and Donna are out for some beers and Donna pushes Cameron to be the boss of Mutiny. This is the point where most companies go under because they're plateauing. They need new users, new subscriptions, they haven't put a new game out in 6 months, and buying stolen XTs isn't going to cut it anymore. Cameron isn't interested in being in charge because she just wants to work instead of doing project managing. Donna points out how people are spending time talking to each other instead of just when they're playing. Donna wants to develop some work with this idea so they agree to split the managerial responsibility. When the man who made the bad-sale walks into the bar, they head over to demand their money back but he pushes Cameron against the wall and tells her to walk away. She and Donna walk out only for Cameron to reveal that she swiped the man's keys. They go to presumably mess his car up but then they find that he has two new XTs in the truck, still in the boxes. They then go to steal the computers and drive away into the night just as the man comes running out.

Joe returns home without having fought for his fair share of the Cardiff sale so he returns home and admits to Sara that he didn't get the money and was shut out instead. He's moved by how much Sara believes in him and proposes to her. She is skeptical but he then gets down on one knee and she says yes. Later, Joe is shown to be doing online gaming against Cameron. Then Cameron drives up to the penitentiary to pick up John Bosworth, who had taken the rap for our programming team's cyber-crimes in season one.

Halt and Catch Fire airs on Sundays on AMC at 10PM.