Halt and Catch Fire S1E2 - "FUD" Recap

Joe, Gordon, and Cameron are being questioned by men in suits regarding their attempts to make a copy of IBM PCs. Joe is able to give off a list of reasons of how they won't be using any copyrighted material and utilise a legal loophole. The interviewer is an old acquaintance of his and is more interested in where Joe recently disappeared to, after causing $2 million of damage to the company's servers when e left the firm. He even offers Joe his old job back but Joe refuses. His colleague threatens to out his secrets but Joe stays the course and the men in suits leave with their tails between their legs.

Joe tells Gordon and Cameron that his plan is to build a machine that's twice as fast and half the price of the competitor's. This sets off an argument as Gordon points out that when products get better, they don't also get cheaper. Joe explains that a computer that's faster than IBM's will allow people to accomplish more and if it's cheaper, more people will have access to it. Cameron laughs off his passion and Joe seems slighted by this. But he's not down for long as he delivers a rousing speech to the company about having fun, making a lot of money, and "making a ding in the universe."

Gordon heads home and patches things up with his wife, saying that things are good now with his job and that he even has an office with a window. It even puts a spark back in their relationship. Cameron is working on a programming dilemma and Joe comes in to try to help her since she's stuck. She takes that as an opportunity to try to perform fellatio to clear her mind but he turns her down. They later get into an argument since Joe wants her to red IBM codes for a reference but she doesn't want to break the law in that way. Cameron is later shown to be shoplifting from a store and when she's apprehended, the men actually present her with an offer.

Joe and Gordon get into an argument over Cameron's apparently stealing the book of the IBM codes. They then find some "brilliant" coding shortcuts she has written out on the walls. Later, when she arrives back at the company, she gets into an argument with Joe and Gordon. She insists that she didn't give up the IBM codes and tells them that she did get a job offer for triple the salary. Joe and Gordon end up in a scuffle and Joe's shirt is torn open to reveal a scarred torso. He spins a story about being a kid who cared about Sputnik, not baseball. On the night of the greatest game ever played, his classmates chased him off a roof. He talks about how the three of them are unreasonable people and that progress depends on their changing the world to fit them and not the other way around. It seems to settle things down in the trio but later, we see Cameron point out to Joe the inaccuracies in his story, and yet again, we're left wondering who Joe is and what his motivations are.

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