The finale of "Silicon Valley" Season 3 gave fans a surprise twist at the end of the episode. Showrunner Alec Berg has shared that they initially had a different plotline for the HBO show but decided to go with a different one to save the season.
Berg made the revelation during an interview with Variety following the Season 3 finale that aired on Sunday, June 26. In the said episode titled "Uptick," viewers saw Richard Hendricks' (Thomas Middleditch) moral dilemma and the Pied Piper team narrowly escaping a buy-out that could have landed them at the tech company Hooli's evil hands. It was Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller) and Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti (Josh Brener) who eventually saved the day and bought Pied Piper.
In Berg's interview, he recounted how Erlich and Big Head's move to buy Pied Piper was a storyline that they did not envision when they started writing "Silicon Valley" Season 3. The showrunner admitted that he and the HBO show's writing team were initially a bit lost on the series' plot direction. Berg mentioned that the skunkworks project that the Pied Piper team was involved in during the early part of the season was supposed to be a major storyline. However, they encountered some difficulties in writing comedic material for the show that eventually pushed them to consider a different plot.
The skunkworks project was a secret scheme that Richard and his team came up with to continue with the development of Pied Piper's original version. However, the plan backfired when Richard accidentally spilled the documents that contained details of the project in "Silicon Valley" Season 3 episode 3 that aired on May 9.
Berg commented that although they designed the said episode to end with the skunkworks reveal, he admitted that they were taken by surprise at Season 3's story progression. "In all honesty we were sort of surprised," he said, referring to how the initial skunkworks' plot was "binding" the creative team in coming up with storyline ideas for the season. He also shared that once they wrapped up the first arc of "Silicon Valley" Season 3, the plot details for the second arc just fell into place.
Meanwhile, cast member Miller has shared in an interview with USA Today that his character Erlich has been trying to make up for some of the bad things that he has done in the show. He also described Erlich as a passionate person who cares a lot about the company. "He's willing to lose his reputation for Pied Piper ... That's not lost on Richard" he added.
"Silicon Valley" has been renewed for a season 4; however, HBO has yet to announce the series' release date.
To relive some of the season 3 finale moments, watch the trailer for episode 10 below: