Sure, Jon Snow came back with a vengeance last night on Game of Thrones. But the real fun of HBO’s Sunday night line-up was on Silicon Valley. In an effort to save Pied Piper from becoming a server stack box, the squad cooked up a Meinertzhagen haversack ruse so they can secretly build out their compression algorithm platform. When Richard trips and their plan falls into the hands of CEO Action Jack Barker as Rick Ross’s “You Know I Got It” (Reprise) plays in the background, it feels like a spectacular defeat for the Pied Piper crew.
But is it?
According to a popular fan theory about last night’s show, the Skunk Works plan falling into the hands of Jack Barker is all part of the Meinertzhagen haversack ruse. Here’s how former BroBible blogger Andy Moore described it in an e-mail to me this morning:
Pretty sure you’re a Silicon Valley guy… at the risk of coming across as a complete nerd, I have a theory about last night’s ep. I think Richard’s trip was intentional. The real-life Haversack ruse was all about planting fake plans in the enemy’s hands – i.e. dropping the fake business plans in the sales team’s hands.
Also, no way Richard says “private information!” after falling.
Redditors are rabidly gravitating to this theory on the Silicon Valley show sub. MattPrike’s theory actually ties the Skunk Works ruse to how the guys join up with EndFrame to make the platform:
This is actually what the Haversack Ruse entails.
The original haversack contained documents outlining an attack plan on Germany-controlled Gaza by the British, but with a diversion attack on nearby Beersheba. In fact, the British were more interested in controlling Beersheba as a tactical position for a later attack on Gaza. When German General von Kressenstein (Barker) saw the plan, he ordered reinforcement of Gaza at the expense of Beersheba. British took Beersheba easily, allowing them to eventually secure Gaza.
My guess is that file folder that spilled everywhere is the haversack, not “acting like nothing’s changed”
Haversack Ruse source: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a279574.pdf (Page 11 of the PDF, Page 5 of the publication)
EDIT: Going off what someone else’s suggestion, if this follows the Haversack Ruse exactly, it needs to be a double bluff. That means letting Barker/von Kressenstein know of their actual main objective (the platform/Gaza). However, they need to do something before that in order to achieve their true goal. In this case, controlling Beersheba could be equivalent to joining EndFrame, potentially making it easier to develop the platform.
Other fans of the show on Reddit have noted that Richard is wearing knee pads in the scene, which means one of two things: (1. the costume department on the show did a terrible job or (2. Richard was so prepared to fall that he wore knee pads to the office like a complete nerd. Just look how obvious they are:
I’d bet Jared’s shot of Pappy Van Winkle on this theory being legit.
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