Halt and Catch Fire S1E8 - "The 214s" Recap

The team is preparing to throw a big party at Comdance to impress investors. But it doesn't take long for Gordon to become enraged when he learns that Joe plans to go without him. Joe tells him that people still remember Gordon's screw-up back in '81 and that he doesn't want the stink of it scaring away buyers.

Donna's boss pays her a late-night visit and it's awkward, to say the least. He apologises for showing up and leaves. When Donna heads back inside, Gordon tells her that he charged a large sum of money to their credit card so he could go to Comdance to make sure Joe doesn't shut him out. She gives him her support and Gordon is thrilled.

John Bosworth, Joe's boss, is visited by an associate, Nathan, who tells him he's willing to reconsider giving him money. John becomes skittish and angrily sends Cameron out when she comes in. Nathan notes that he is jumpy but John leaves for a meeting.

Police then come in raiding Cardiff Electric. Gordon manages to sneak into a room and hide the personal computer they've been developing by taking apart the machine to make it look like mere parts.

Donna learns that her boss has resigned without giving a specific reason nor a clue as to where he'll be headed next.

Joe confronts Cameron about the fact that the police are searching for evidence of hacking. Cameron admits that Bosworth had her hack into some bank accounts to take some money to fund their work, with the plan being to put the money back once they made a profit. Joe tells Gordon what Cameron has done. Gordon is furious at both of them and then tells Cameron about how Joe engineered the crash for publicity. She is furious and tells Joe he hasn't created anything, to which Joe replies by saying that he created both of them. She socks him in the face and storms out.

Donna meets with her mother to talk about her guilt about the encounters with her boss. She later finds Gordon working on the re-assembled Giant. Gordon insists that if it was evidence, the police would have seized it. She is deeply concerned but he tells her that she was right to tell her father to stop giving them money. She is surprised that he knew and he says he was angry for a long time but isn't anymore. Gordon says that he is going to go to Comdance and sell the Giant. She later calls her mother and says she and the girls needs to come stay with her for a while, asking her to pick up the girls so she can talk to Gordon without them there.

Gordon goes and finds Cameron in an arcade. He apologises for his mistreatment of her and asks her to come to Comdance and help him to sell the Giant. He tells her she is half the talent (with him being the other). She agrees to help him and they go to Joe's place. He tells her about his love for Donna and his plans to give her another ring when they get back from Comdance.

Joe returns home after getting some advice from his father to find Gordon and Cameron at his place. Joe says he was wrong and is ready to go back to IBM. Gordon rallies him back into helping. He wants Joe to contribute money but then Joe reveals that they simply bought his act and he doesn't actually have any money. They then convince him to sell his vintage car to afford the trip to Comdance. Gordon returns home to find Donna has her bags packed. Surprisingly, she isn't leaving him, but wants to come with him to Comdance.

Finally, Cameron stops at home to visit her father. He gives her approval and then she's off with the rest of the group to Comdance.

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