Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 1

Vantages

In a welcome respite from the creeping funk of the times, LostFoundry Streaming is giving the people what they want. Somebody’s got to. Season 2 of Alphas by the Bay is here and the first episode took us on a trip, man.

Jenya Goes East! for a series of fancy business soirées in tastefully lit hot spots on the eastern seaboard. CEO Jenya Zhao and the Sherwood app are being courted by all the movers and hand shakers that keep the Old Coast in the black. Community Relations lead Mathilde Hummel rides shotgun for support and some home cooking. (More on that later.)

Over an ironic Lobster Nü-berg at the Millennium Tower, Jenya and Mathilde huddle with the Biotech Brahmin who have led their own not-insignificantly fizzy economy over the last decades in Boston. Creating a world where Wellness can be further defined and packaged, they see a natural affinity between Sherwood’s social mission and their own focus on health diagnostics. And they have some Big Boy Financial backing looking to make a match. A powerful bi-coastal marriage that would link tradition and innovation seamlessly, they say.

Jenya explains Sherwood is actually a cooperative affair and it would take more than a cannily crafted PR pitch to appeal to her Merries. The Newton Nabobs counsel her not to miss certain opportunity during these uncertain times. Operations that once looked formidable can perish all too quickly given the general national tenor. She thanks them for their concern and asks them to pass the tartar sauce.  

The Sherwood gals grab their seldom used winter wear from coat check and head off to a dingy house club plastered with flyers of never-known bands for some Glitch Hop and Brown Derbies. A couple of guys pique their interest as they make their way to the dance floor to show off their classic shuffling. The ladies are more interested in cutting shapes with each other but the bros are just happy just be in the game. (The women’s T-steps looked sharp!)

Back in ‘Frisco (yes, I know) the Sherwood office is humming. But it’s an efficient hum. The team has grown considerably and there is now signage and branding covering the walls. The décor is significantly up-leveled but at least there are no framed Vision Statements or Shackleton quotes. CFO Pascal Freemantle runs a morning  check-in with crack developers Duc Parrish and Amrita Vevo on plans for rolling out the app to new markets. While there is little in the way of application hurdles handling user load, they want to proceed cautiously so as not to overwhelm their brittle hardware currently being upgraded.

Pascal makes it clear they want this done right, but it needs to be done on time. There’s a lot riding on a successful push of their pilot program, including some strategic partnerships at the state level. The increased user base will stabilize key relationships which means additional funding for him to work with.

There’s an interesting mix of cities listed on the white board: Madison, Springfield, and Philadelphia are circled, while Minneapolis and Tucson have been crossed out. Amrita assures Pascal that both the hardware and app extensions will be on time. Duc’s face tightens a bit but Pascal doesn’t catch it.

Meanwhile, the Green Ball big board lists all the open cases. Golden Bay Online Academy tops the list while Cabot Barley is all the way at the bottom with no activity for months. Hmm.

Back in the chilly morning air on Mass Ave, Mathilde and Jenya look a little worse for wear from their late night. Mathilde groans at the ticket on the windshield of her rental and wonders what it felt like in yesteryear when you could just crumple it up and throw it in garbage. Now there’s no way to hide. 

“I’m aware that is precisely what Sherwood is meant to prevent. I just wonder how it felt to not be known.”

We all do.

They lurch into traffic, changing lanes a couple of times for the onramp to 93-South. The music stays off and they silently watch the morning commuters grind through the dirty weather. Along their route to Rhode Island, they bat ideas back and forth about life.

Mathilde thinks the app is well architected but what really runs it is the community organizing. Jenya sees the situation completely inverted. For her, decades of community activism have yielded paltry results for the underserved. Her platform is a super-powered weapon to cut through the corrupt forces that limit social progress. While each concede a little ground, there is some mutual eye-rolling that the other doesn’t get it. Looks like we’ve got ourselves a bonafide Hegelian dialectic on our hands, folks! The radio goes on.

A quick stop in Mathilde’s hometown of Woonsocket, RI eases the tension. Mother and Papa Hummel bustle around getting lunch ready and give Mathilde all sorts of things they’ve saved up for her since they’ve last seen her. It’s a cute scene but it’s actually Jenya who enjoys the parental warmth the most.

Meanwhile, Pascal burns the midnight renewable energy at home crunching numbers and kettle chips when partner Kasia Tate returns late from her own high-powered analytics job. They talk about her many moves up the office ladder and she not so subtly grills him on all the extra work he’s putting in on the intra-city rollout. He should want even more of the pie, she opines. When he refuses to engage, Kasia pushes. “Only you put a limit on how high you could climb at Sherwood. I’m sure, she’s not taking less for you.” What there is to be taking at a start-up, I’m not exactly sure but both Pascal and I think better of bringing that up in the wee hours during the work week.

Across town in their cramped apartment, Duc soothes a new bundle of responsibility while wife Nancy showers. One wall of the living room has been painted pale green with a crib in the corner for a nursery feel. Duc refers to it as Papa’s Pop-up. (This show is really pushing it.) 

Crossing over the Benjamin Franklin bridge, the emissaries from Sherwood find themselves surrounded by the historic Georgian and Federal Style buildings in The Birthplace of America. They wind their way to the Drexel campus to meet with several university officials looking to partner with private entrepreneurs along with other area schools Penn and Temple. Their goal is to build an “incubator of excellence” on their campuses with access to endowments and government funding with Sherwood on board as a model course creator. In addition, the school of Public Health and the Department of Criminology want to co-sponsor the Sherwood service roll-out to schools to aid community building, monitoring and response. The proposal has the attention of the Mayor’s Office and the State’s Attorney General. 

Jenya and Mathilde are in synch and they paint a picture of private enterprise and civic cooperation to tackle neighborhood problems left to molder for too long. When Jenya inquires about funding and logistics, they learn from Chancellor Peabody that the initiative involves key sponsorship from national companies, including organic grocery upstart Nature Stop. It all sounds provisionally okay to the Sherwood team, who has already targeted several east coast cities for expansion. Partnering with a well-established presence in the city will help sort out red tape and provide entrée to further halls of influence.

Just as the academics are about to break for afternoon cocktails, a record scratches in the cozy wood-paneled room. Enter Derek Bonafair, SVP from Nature Stop headquarters who just got in from NYC. He greets everyone with a firm handshake and offers Jenya a friendly wave. “You look great” he mouths at her as the color drains from her face. When introduced by the chancellor, Jenya forces a smile. “We’ve met before.” Seems like they’ve done more than meet.

Additional Reflections:

• Pascal’s got a beard! It’s got good coverage and he’s not taking it up too high on the neckline like most shrinking heads in SF. (Yes, that’s my first critical observation of season 2.)

• Mathilde’s social worker parents were amazing. Now we know where she gets it from!

• And she definitely needs those newspaper clippings and used books. “Faulkner for a buck. Can you believe it?”

• Joe Cicchetti just wanted to name check Woonsocket, right? Ditto on the fried quahogs for lunch.

• We learn Jenya promised her mom she’d take care of her dad and ne’er do well brothers. It’s implied that Mrs. Zhao isn’t with us anymore though no further details are offered. (Even after Mathilde’s prodding.)

• Amrita is going zero-waste. While the mason jars and bamboo travel fork are understandable, the glass straw is indefensible. How about don’t use straws after second grade?

• Pascal and Kasia’s new house in Sea Cliff is ridonk. Somebody’s got some deep pockets.

• Some sharp-eyed viewers caught that actor Tom Davey (Derek Bonafair) is Catnip from The Carnevale Conundrum. I knew his voice  but I couldn’t recognize him without the mask.

• That Glitch Hop in the club was decent, right? Shazam tells me the main track was Unity by The Fat Rat.

Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 2

Growing Pains

This week on As the App Compiles, Cabot’s back from spear fishing in Hawaii looking pink and rested. He’s got some more verve as he brags about the size of the parrotfish he stabbed at the Build Up Youth charity board meeting. After running down the best time to dive on Waioli beach, he subtly presses for contacts to invest in his various endeavors that are “skyrocketing in value.” They look dubious as the market has been extremely bumpy. After some hemming and double-speak, it seems as if Cabot made some bad bets.

At the Data Protects Us conference at Moscone Center, Cabot puts on the full court press to a number of polo shirted attendees. Some he seems to know and others to have just met. His elevator pitch gets smoother as the day goes on. In his most refined version, Sherwood is a perfect investment as it will definitely over-perform in the unsteady economy. If they’re interested, he hints he’ll be able to swing them a good deal. (There are so many lanyards and badges in these scenes!)

In the Sherwood office, Jenya and team discuss the high-level roll-out strategy to new markets. Jenya doesn’t want to move too quickly as there are a number of high-priority fixes needed before pushing things to a broader audience. Scale itself can be a hindrance. Pascal reminds her they need to stay on schedule to drive user adoption numbers for several pending strategic partnerships.

Amrita asks about the Philly trip and Jenya equivocates that they were mostly a well-meaning bunch of academics wanting to find a way to put their theories into practice. She’s not sure how real the opportunity is there. This gets a raised eyebrow from Mathilde that says wtf is this [lady] talking about? Pascal catches it and silently lets her know he’ll look into it. Jenya makes it clear that the stability of the app is paramount. Duc confirms the backlog is properly prioritized and the current sprint dev cycle is even more efficient than anticipated. This gets its own raised eyebrow courtesy of Amrita.

With the office empty that evening, Duc and Amrita bicker about the doneness of certain help features, including a critical fix to Green Ball messaging feature that was supposed to have gone live last month. She’s worried they’ll get in trouble but Duc calmly assures her that the business people understand that “capital A” Agile development requires trade-offs. She doesn’t buy it.

Back at his property outside of the city, Cabot’s house is being remodeled. It looks like there are several different construction projects going on simultaneously. The property is littered with backhoes, pickup trucks and palettes of building materials. Cabot seems at home in the chaos while confirming with workers where his wife wants the cabana. He gives directions to the crew while making a sales call on his headset. When the lead contractor interrupts him to ask about some unpaid supply invoices, Cabot’s sure he already paid them. The contractor’s bookkeeper must have made an error. Hmmm.

Pascal and Jenya have a late-night tête-à-tête in the middle of an empty park a la McNulty and Bunk. He finally gets her to open up about the Drexel initiative. We learn that Derek from Nature Stop is their former friend from grad school. And Jenya’s ex.  She broke his heart when he pushed her to move back east where he’s from and get that picket fence too soon. Jenya wanted to establish her career first and wasn’t up for dipping on the SF Zhao’s.

Pascal wasn’t a big Derek fan then, or now, and lets Jenya know he’ll go along with whatever she wants to do on the Philly experiment. But he does remind her it would be a shame if she lets Derek get in the way. She’s agrees that the opportunity with the universities is too good to pass up.

We get our first scene this season with Carlo Weeks at a meet up in the back room of a dry cleaners in Dogpatch. He’s still fighting the good fight on both fronts as he and a small team of Merries talk about an upcoming protest. An old commercial building is being sold and the landlord is evicting the small grocery, café and hardware store that have served the Fillmore neighborhood for decades. The group’s concerned about staying in synch during the protest. Carlo wants to use walkie-talkies to coordinate, but everyone else wants to stay on Sherwood app to maintain anonymous communication.

The next morning, Cabot is waiting in the conference room with grocery store donuts. Jenya and Pascal run down their expansion plans while Cabot fiddles with his phone and expresses disappointment. “One city isn’t good enough. I’m pushing chain here to get this company to attract some attention.” He wants more features, something that makes the app worth it.

When Duc pops his head in looking for a little snack, Cabot asks if there’s any interesting back log he’s working on. Bored with his answer, Cabot tells them about an exciting open source payment protocol he saw at the conference. Duc says as long as there is an API to connect to, he could adapt the data model without trouble. Cabot loves this and proposes that this is their new vision.

“We need people passing around money on Sherwood. That’s what drives adaptive stickiness. Besides, why shouldn’t people be paid for their efforts? It seems downright unfair to ask them to help for free.”

Duc is dismissed with a scowl from Pascal and a wink from Cabot. Jenya reminds the room that they are a helping app, not a payment app. Besides, the technical hurdles could submarine their expansion timeline, introducing payment would cloud user motivation as to what cases to work on and strike at the heart of the Sherwood endeavor. His vote is irrelevant.

Cabot is livid and predicts Sherwood will fail within six months. Jenya might know platforms but she doesn’t “know how to drive infinite growth”. Her users waste time on investigating the “Good Guys” who have nothing to hide and they don’t understand what really needs fixing in this city.

He threatens to pull already agreed upon funding for the next quarter. Jenya asks him to be patient as they’ve already over-performed in the last two quarters. He informs them he needs a return on his investment - asap.

The episode ends with a growing demonstration on the corner of a busy block. A small protest is moving down the street and inadvertently impedes traffic.  Some cars start honking and yelling escalates. Carlo urges them to let the cars pass.  Various protesters try to move out of the way while another group up ahead blocks further passage. A Tesla gets bumped and the driver starts shouting while someone gets off a corporate bus to scold the protesters on the other street. Tensions are heating up.

Concomitant Confab

• Thank goodness we get to see a little of Nancy Parrish this week. She’s prepping for interviews and is back after baby, ready to kick ass. She and Duc just need to find the right Nanny Fine to look after little Loulou first.

• Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to get much of Nancy on Alphas this season. Actress Akiko Boskello is now a regular on Chrysalis which Variety confirms is shooting now. Guess I’ll need to re-up my LostFoundry subscription.

• Cabot’s rocking suede Pumas and a heinous Novak Djokovic branded Lacoste shirt. Yikes. At least it fit somewhat.

• Pascal says that Derek still carries a torch for Jenya as the one that got away. It sure seems like he viewed Derek as a rival for Jenya’s attention at school. His Tufts dig was cold-blooded.

• New hire Langston claims listening to the Uhh Yeah Dude podcast keeps him right for spitting code. That and his homemade MCT Matcha. (Go ahead and pour mine straight in the toilet.)

• Mathilde is volunteering for the CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program supporting kids in the foster system. That’s certainly noble work!

• So, it seems like the Cabot Green Ball investigation is over? Maybe he was clean? But that sure seems unlikely given what we know.

• Did the demonstration in the final scene clearly pull from Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia or what? Perhaps I’m just seeing what I want to see.

• The song in the credits is Chitu Chitu by Tremolo Audio according to SoundHound. (A hip music message boards assured me this was a side project of Clorofila of Nortec Collective.)

Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 3

The Heart Wants

This week, our Bay Buddies start back at the standoff on the streets of the Fillmore from the previous episode. As protesters block traffic trying to shame a local landlord for pushing out community businesses, a clash with commuters bubbles over. An incensed brolino in a Tesla gets out and pushes one of the female protesters away from his car, knocking her down to the ground. He’s quickly surrounded. Another group of protesters and neighbors try to calm things down but the confrontation only escalates. A scuffle breaks out with punches thrown and a lot of yelling about trying to protect the neighborhood from each other. It’s not clear who is who.

A young man throws a chair at a café window and cracks it as the protest devolves into a series of scrappy wrestling matches. Then the Tesla gets flipped upside down like the Giants just won the World Series. The cops are soon on the scene and the zip ties are out. While trying to play peace keeper, Carlo gets nabbed by the police and arrested among many others. It’s hard to fault their response as no one appeared in the right in midst of the melee.

Mathilde calls Jenya at home with bad news on top of worse news: a beat reporter in the neighborhood put up a story on Hoodline.com about the incident. While the story didn’t point fingers, it did underscore that the protest was organized with the Sherwood app and online chatter has already started. Uh oh. Hot takes incoming!

At an evening strategy session in the Sherwood office, Pascal, Jenya and Mathilde work on crafting the company’s response. Mathilde advocates not budging - no one ever said community organizing was going to be easy.  Jenya clarifies they are not community organizers and warns Mathilde not to push her own agenda. Sherwood is an application that facilitates working on causes that matter and they’ve taken great strides to be impartial.

Mathilde bristles at the scolding and Pascal plays mediator. He points out that they have to thread the needle on their response as they could alienate their tenuous user base if they blame the protesters. Jenya maintains the corporate response must remain above the fray and that she is committed to working personally behind the scenes on damage control. First stop should be with the Policeman’s Benevolent Association, the city food pantry and some at risk outreach groups.

Duc brings them the cherry on top of the turd sundae with news that Carlo was arrested. Now the company can’t claim impartiality as one of their own was caught in the midst of the riot. More details emerge including damage to city and private property. A car was overturned and several neighborhood houses and business vandalized. The story is getting picked up on all the aggregator sites. Sherwood is officially news, no longer tucked away nicely in the glossy pages of Valley Swag or Bay Bytes. Mathilde implores Jenya to double down.

Mathilde: This is the perfect chance to show that we aren’t a faceless tech product used to shift capital. We actually have a mission with real social values.

Jenya: We can’t risk the entire company on an accident we had no part in. We need to be very effing careful.

Mathilde: You’re being handed the opportunity of a lifetime. Lean in.

Jenya: I’m trying to keep all our jobs here. What good can Sherwood do if we get closed down?

Showrunner Joe Cicchetti gives each corner its own air time. Whose side are we meant to be on? The clash between living your truth versus survival is a dilemma that drives nations, corporations and people’s daily lives. Some big questions are getting asked this season and the only thing that’s clear is that Cicchetti is a fan of Bakhtin and the polyphonic novel.

Down at the precinct, Amrita bails out The Count of MonteCarlo who’s had a rough couple of hours. He’s been hit with a disorderly conduct charge that he’ll have the opportunity to plead down. He says he’s lucky they didn’t charge him for resisting arrest as that would be harder to fight.

The two grab sandwiches at Tommy’s Joynt and Amrita gets the scoop on what went wrong. The Sherwood app’s urgent messaging functionality broke and the sub-groups couldn’t stay coordinated. Once the app was non-functional, they didn’t have a back-up plan and couldn’t tell friend from foe. It seems their over-reliance on the technology actually hindered coordination. (This commentary is waayyy too on the nose for me.) Carlo asks Amrita what happened to the fix they were supposed to deploy. She admits they’ve been behind in the last two dev sprints and haven’t caught up. “Duc’s release notes weren’t exactly accurate.”

Back at the office, Cabot shows up frazzled. He’s afraid of a lawsuit and getting on the wrong side of City Hall.  But he’s found a brilliant fix: His friend on the charity board would be willing to buy the company for the user management IP for a million dollars as a personal favor to him. Pascal reminds him that this is far below their current valuation by a factor of 20 and is less than he’s invested to date. Cabot doesn’t care, he needs out to fund his other endeavors. When Pascal questions what other initiatives he’s working on, Cabot mumbles about a number of ‘incubations’ he’s caring for. Mathilde rolls her eyes and Jenya admonishes him:

“We’re not folding because you bet wrong in the commodities markets. You’ve wanted to sell since the first day we started. But we’re stuck with each other. Just stay out of the way and we’ll fix this in reality.”

Cabot doesn’t like her sass and threatens all manner of lawsuits before storming out. 

The next morning, the bad news keeps coming. Jenya and Pascal are summoned to City Hall for an off the record meeting with a few members of the Mayor’s Team. Headed by Special Assistant to the Mayor Edmund Percy, Sherwood is put on notice. The winds have changed in the uncertain economic climate and businesses won’t be exempt from pressure from the Mayor. Sherwood will be made an example of when appropriate. Unless of course…

It seems The City would like to help steer the Sherwood ship and hand pick some new board members. It’s hinted that new private funding will follow. When Pascal alludes that he thought Cabot was their guy, Edmund laughs. “Everyone wants to be a somebody but that’s not how it works. Wanting isn’t enough.” Jenya says she needs time to consider the offer but it’s obvious her mind is made up.

Outside near Civic Center, Pascal lets her know he’d rather fold the company than hand over control to the city government. He makes it clear if this one doesn’t work out, the next one will and “the two of them will figure it out together.” They share a long moment and a longer look in each other’s eyes. Cue interruption phone call from long-term partner Kasia, Pascal’s face reddening with a little guilt. Jenya’s eyes flash and she asks for the phone, which he gives her reluctantly. “Hey Kasia, it’s Jenya. We need to talk.” 

Is Alphas going Moonlighting on us?

Aimless Utterances

• Amrita’s roommate situation is a problem. Five people in that rickety railroad apartment in the Haight is unlivable. That kitchen was a disaster. GTFO should be at the top of her chore list.

• Duc working late in the wee hours at home with La Petite Loulou on his shoulder was adorbs. Any code serfs out there know if that was real ReactNative on screen? That didn’t look like a Sherwood project, did it?

• This week’s homage to Do The Right Thing was as subtle as a Buggin’ Out monologue and I loved it. Boycott Sal’s!

• Jenya stops by to see Grandma Zhao who looks rested and comfy in her new care facility. Grandma thinks Jenya needs to do something with all that hair in her face.

• Beatfind confirmed that was Ronald Jenkees Stay Crunchy in the riot scene.

• The biggest stretch of the entire show is that a start-up is turning down offers of a buyout, right? But I guess it takes a bigger appetite than mine to drive all this delicious disruption and inspired ideation.

• I’ve been noticing a lot of Breton stripes on the Sherwood Gals this season. Did anyone else catch sustainable retailer Amour Vert in the credits? I’m on board with the classic flair.

• I’m enjoying Edmund’s smugness, not to mention his Wilkes Bashford attire. He’s just so connected to everything that matters in The City and he knows it. I wouldn’t mind if he was brought into the Alpha fold somehow.

• Chris Garneau’s Hands on the Radio was quite touching over the credits. Are these hard charging hearts softening?

Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 4

A Stretch

The Corruption Disrupters continue the emotional bloodletting that started last week. Jenya and Pascal grill the development team on the recent bugs that contributed to the violent incident that’s still generating far too many retweets. Jenya runs down the internal Green Ball case file of user complaints and discusses platform alternatives for upcoming cases.

Amrita is apologetic about the screw up, but Duc doesn’t budge. He pushes back blaming leadership pressure to split priorities between security, expansion plans and system bloat. Jenya reminds him that he signed off on the sprint features and confirmed they passed QA. Why didn’t he talk with them ahead of time to mitigate? Pascal pulls Duc aside and reaffirms their trust in him. But he wants Duc to be cautious about always saying yes to new ideas, like the payment feature Cabot tried to push recently. “Don’t over-extend yourself,” he warns. “It’s how things topple.” 

Jenya gets a call from ex-beau Derek Bonafair from Nature Stop. He’s in town for the day speaking at a Fair-Trade conference and would love to take her to a “Michelin meal.” She tries to wriggle out of it, citing all the recent work issues as an excuse. She’ll see if maybe she can make time but it’s unlikely given her current schedule. Her voice stayed measured but she certainly wore down her office carpet with all the pacing.

There’s more bad news on a video call with Chancellor Peabody from Drexel. The incubation initiative has had to rescind their partnership offer to Sherwood as flagship course creator. Tales of the Fillmore Fracas have made it to the right coast and the optics aren’t great.  They’ve come to the conclusion that they simply can’t take the risk given the current political climate in their own city. When Jenya asks about other academic departments, the Public Health Department Chair says his colleagues would still be interested in piloting the program but there’s no funding at the moment. Their initiative is financially tied to the larger entrepreneurial program, unfortunately.

Carlo and Amrita, who has apparently been drafted into the Count’s do-gooding, scout the downtown site for a protest planned later in the month.  They discuss the big box retailer accused of illegally denying access to health coverage for shift workers and he jots down coordinates and searches around the premises for easy egress. He’s got to prevent the issues from last time. Amrita is fired up to be out of the office and seems like she can’t wait to get in on the action. I think she’s looking for a little something more than a smooth protest.

It’s worth noting Alpha’s seems to be caught in a bit of a bind with what sort of action they can put on screen. While protesting may be a tool the Sherwood Merries would use, it’s certainly not the only one, since we’ve been led to believe that most of the users are working for <justice> behind the scenes. Dramatizing document research, legal filings and general advocacy through the byzantine system is challenging, which may be why it is rarely shown. (Maybe a spin-off film for an Erin Brockovich-type case would work? Think big Joe C!)

Then it’s off for a transfer-of-power lunch at a private club room at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel with its near panoramic view of the city from Nob Hill. (You can find the landmark in a number of films including The Maltese Falcon and I Remember Mama.) After making his way through the impressive marble lobby, Cabot meets Jenya and Pascal upstairs in one of the private rooms. Pascal lets him know that he’s friends with someone in the Greenwich Club and called in a favor. Cabot doesn’t like all the pretension. He prefers a no-frills steakhouse himself and thinks all the secret clubs detract from “efficient innovation” in the city.

They are soon joined by Kasia who radiates professional calm and confidence. As Pascal struggles to find an opener, Kasia puts her hand on his elbow letting him know she’ll take it from here. She thanks Cabot for all his hard work in setting up Sherwood and informs him that he’s being bought out. He smirks and lets them know that he’s not signing whatever sub-optimal deal they cooked up. Kasia presents him with a folder and explains he will be fully compensated for his investment to date, as well as a fair bit of extra for all the hard work of getting the company off the ground. Cabot looks relieved at the numbers but still wants to negotiate. It’s a good opening bid he says, but he’s got other offers.

Kasia reminds him that Jenya and Pascal would have to sign-off on any deals and this is the only one they are considering. When Cabot mentions his deep friendship with some legal heavy hitters at his charity board, Kasia remarks: “Oh you mean Clark and Russell? They’ve worked for my father for years. We’re all going to our place up in Healdsburg next week.” She shares how her entire family is in the legal profession, including her dear Uncle Dennis, a notorious bloodhound on the California Franchise Tax Board. He’s had a thirty-year competition with his best friend in the IRS to see who can bring in the bigger scofflaw.

Cabot reconsiders his options and is all smiles as he announces the deal as a win-win. “It’s a great investment for you. I’m jealous, you’ll get to do the fun stuff. But now I’ll have time to focus on my newest projects.”

He doesn’t stay for the champagne and hugs all around. So now Kasia is on board. In fact, she is the board. Need a refill, Pascal?

Back at the Sherwood office, Duc is slogging through some log files and troubleshooting his latest code. He’s on the phone with Nancy talking about looking for a house as the real estate market is dropping (barely). Now might be a good time to buy she thinks.

Carlo and Amrita are back at their desks cranking with the rest of the team. They bicker with newcomers Langston and Brady about classic NES games Bionic Commando versus Master Blaster they’ve been obsessively playing on an emulator. (In my day we relied on coaxial cables and we liked it, dammit.)

Derek Bonafair interrupts the fun looking for Jenya. They had tentative plans, he explains and Amrita promises to pass on the message. He bumps into Cabot (literally) on his way out. Cabot forgot his phone charger it seems. He checks in on what the team is working on and looks at some log files with Duc. He says nothing about his departure from company.

Later that evening, the newly minted Sherwood Triumvirate continues their celebration at the upscale Mourad restaurant. Over lamb tartare, couscous and short ribs, they share their wooly vision for the future of the company. They are still on the clock to come up with a new strategic partnership deal to continue expansion but at least they don’t have an agent of chaos on the board any more. Kasia grins an inscrutable grin.

Enter Derek, who’s tracked Jenya down somehow and shakes hands with everyone before sitting down. He remembers “Cal” of course and remarks on how they are all old friends. He’s leaving in the morning but will be back next month. Maybe for a while. After some chit chat, Kasia delicately reminds Pascal she’s got an early start tomorrow. The two head home a little tipsy, leaving Jenya and Derek alone. He makes a big show of turning his phone off. “No distractions. I came to see you, Jenya Zhao. And to listen.” Decent line, ‘Rek.

Contributory Colloquy

• Jenya moving the pieces around like Kasparov gets Cabot out of her way while keeping Pascal’s just-under-the-surface emotions in check. But while it was all smiles tonight, who knows what happens when you click Kasia.exe

• Kasia’s shoe game is off the charts in this episode. Her violet D’Orsay stilettos let Cabot and crew know she wasn’t playing around. Even Jenya’s eyes popped.

• There is no way Cabot is gone for good. Even with the specter of a potential audit, he wouldn’t bounce that easily, would he?

• Duc’s “Protect the Shield” defense against any critique is why corporate IT departments are generally despised. He better not treat Nancy like that!

• Alpha newbies Langston and Brady don’t have much to do this season but I dig their friendly shit-talking. I’m on board with Brady’s idea to change the NBA three point shot to be worth 2.5 points. “It’s totally overvalued now and has destroyed the league. It’s a bug to be fixed.”

• Great contrast between the dueling fancy-pants Derek and Pascal. ‘Rek is all dark solids and establishment tailoring while ‘Cal favors dreamy colors and Italian cut blazers.  More fashion dialectic!

• Midomi correctly ID’d Françoise Hardy’s Je veux qu'il revienne playing in the restaurant scene. Some of the Yé-Yé stuff is really swinging if you’re in the mood for it.

Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 5

Shuffle the Deck

AbtB gives us a break from the glacial plotting and fast forwards about a month. Mathilde and Carlo bump into each other at the courthouse with very different tasks on their to do list. She’s meeting a new foster child that she’s advocating for and is a bit overwhelmed. It’s her first-time being appointed to a case after months of training but she’s ready to work within the system to be a stable support for the child during the process. Carlo sheepishly admits he’s there just to plead no contest to his disorderly conduct charge. He’s grateful that nothing will go on his permanent record, provided he keeps his nose clean during his required community service.

At the Sherwood office, Amrita struggles with the latest test build that’s crashing on all handsets. The QA team is frustrated while the developers try to redeploy the codebase. There’s a lot of “it worked on my machine” and “did you get latest” finger pointing while some well-deserved epithets get thrown around. She looks for guidance from Duc, who doesn’t have time for her. He’s on hold with their hosting provider and having his own issues with the scheduled hardware upgrade that’s needed for expansion. The Duc looks exhausted and isn’t getting the help he needs.

Out of the workaday fray, Dashing Derek is back in town. He and Jenya stroll along the sunny Embarcadero talking about the good old days and where they’ve all ended up. Grad school seems so long ago even though it’s less than a decade. (J’adore the quaint nostalgia of the young.) She doesn’t even remember the person she was then, but Derek says she hasn’t changed a bit. She’s got the same determination, same drive and same… he trails off blushing and she can’t suppress a flattered grin. This dude’s game is decent. Stay strong, Jenya! Concentrate on that vegan ice cream! 

Frustrated with another morning lost, Amrita bites the bullet and comes clean to Pascal on the delays.  She lets him know they are no closer on a build candidate and are way behind in this sprint cycle. She doesn’t understand why Duc hasn’t completed the framework update he promised to get done weeks ago. Pascal wonders if it’s the pressures of new fatherhood getting to him. After some hemming and hawing, Amrita finally admits that she thinks Duc is moonlighting for other clients and hasn’t been focusing on Sherwood. She offers to talk to Jenya about it but Pascal lets her know Jenya is off today since a friend is in town. He can’t hide his displeasure.

That evening at the War Memorial Opera House, Jenya and Derek take in the SF Ballet from the gilded boxes, heavy with gold carpet and carved upholstered chairs.  They’re dressed in all black except for his pocket square and her Pucci print shoes. She tries to concentrate on the performance but Derek’s more interested in catching up with her. He’s wondering how her grandma’s doing (he misses her poached fish) and wants to know about Sherwood funding rounds. Jenya shushes him to enjoy the show and he settles back into his seat. Things are getting pretty cozy.

During intermission, they sip something bubbly in the chandeliered lobby and share a gourmet cookie. They bump into to some well-coiffed people Derek knows but there’s no need for introductions. Edmund, Special Assistant to the Mayor, is here with his wife and in-laws “supporting the arts” but he’s not a fan of the avant-garde program. He prefers the classic story ballets like Don Quixote and Coppélia.

Edmund’s disappointed that the changes to the Sherwood board didn’t include consultation with the Mayor’s office. They could have helped establish the company’s roots in the city. Derek counters that having Kasia Tate on the board is a brilliant move and boon to City Hall. She is, lest he forget, a member of an established San Francisco family and will steady the helm. Jenya reminds them all that she is in fact the CEO and sets the mission for Sherwood. And that while they are currently based in San Francisco, the company is banking on rapid national expansion. And who knows what changes that may bring. Some chimes ring out and signal it’s time for the next act.  This conversation is soooo not over.

The next morning in the office, Pascal noses around for details on Jenya’s “big date”. It wasn’t a date she scolds, but admits it was nice to reconnect. She’s feeling better about everything overall and councils him that it’s best not ruminate. Always move forward, she advises. When he asks her what’s forward for her, she dodges his question and says she’ll do whatever is needed for Sherwood to flourish. “We’ve got to be nimble, right?”

Kasia shows up for her first official board meeting, turning some heads as she strolls through the office. A development pod wonders in breathless tones what she’s here for? while someone lets them know that she is Pascal’s partner. Amrita stops by to tell them that she, in fact, is the new chief investor in Sherwood. Carlo is stunned, he hadn’t heard about Cabot’s buyout as he’d missed a few days dealing with his extracurriculars. Neither had most of the office. Is anything going to change? Are they being sold? Will they be closed? (Note to managers: Having this many unanswered questions on the floor doesn’t optimize productivity.)

The triumvirate is hot and heavy into Q4 road-mapping when a red-faced Duc interrupts, eyes on the carpet. He needs to talk to Jenya asap. When Pascal asks if it can wait, Duc can’t suppress his nerves any longer. He’s quitting Sherwood, effective immediately. While Jenya tries to calm him down and asks what’s bothering him, Kasia speaks up. If Duc’s heart isn’t in Sherwood, then he should move on. She only wants people that are committed to the team. “There’s no need to be sentimental.”  Well, then. Jenya rushes after him but Duc sprints out of the office. “Are you nuts?” Pascal asks. “He’s our lead framework expert.” Kasia coolly retorts that is her problem to handle. “If our CEO is as great as you are always telling me she is, I’m sure she’ll figure it out. She is perfect, right?” Oof.

Jenya chases Duc down outside on the street and they have it out. After talking in circles and offers of more money, he comes clean. He’s got a new project that he’s really passionate about and he’s made a personal promise to deliver it on an accelerated timeline. He can’t work on both products and he’s got to choose. He’s sorry. So, it looks like The Duc is on to his next serial start-up where he’s promised 10% of the company this time. I hope he actually sees some of that coin, for Nancy and baby Loulou’s sake.

Back upstairs, Jenya breaks the news to Amrita. Always cool in a crisis, she promotes her to lead on the spot with a good pay hike. Amrita is pumped for the chance, even if it comes on the back of some unpleasant news. Jenya helps defrag the dev team assignments and then fills the troops in on the latest goings on. She projects calm and lets everyone know she’ll be picking up some of the coding slack as workload gets rebalanced.

That night, Jenya gets a chance to breathe over take-out dinner at her grandma-free pad with Derek. She apologizes for the mess in her (spotless) apartment but didn’t get a chance to straighten up after the day she’s had. He uncorks the wine and offers a shoulder massage, college sophomore style. And it freaking works. Who’s writing this crap? (Sorry Joe C. I’m getting protective.) Jenya doesn’t want to talk shop and could do with “a little distraction.” Of course, Derek’s got a friend with a great little place in Sausalito they can go to for the weekend. Oysters, the beach, and bad art walk are all included. She smiles relieved.

But first, he needs to ask her an important question. And as Jenya Zhao reposes tipsily on the couch in shorts and a t-shirt, Derek-the-Closer leans in… and offers to acquire Sherwood as part of the Nature Stop family. He’s looking to bring bleeding edge products to their in-house innovations lab, connecting local business owners with concerned consumers. He’s spent months strategizing and politicking at work and finagled 10 million dollars for the purchase. 

Jenya is stunned. Then she gives him an earful. She sees no affinity between the two companies and the bid is several times below their current valuation, let alone projections. Derek is hurt. He thought it would be the perfect way to be close to her again. This time he wouldn’t try to make her give up her career. Didn’t she tell him how the Philadelphia deal vaporized? If she sells now, she’ll make a nice nest egg and she can still run the operation within the Nature Stop family.

And just like that, Derek finds himself outside trying to get a Lyft home. 

Jenya tries to phone-a-CFO but Pascal declines the call. Well, to be more exact, Kasia clicks the red button as Pascal does dips on some workout contraption in the living room. 

Chance Exegeticals

• Though I’m rooting for Jenya the Jenius™ and the rest of the Sherwood gang, it’s nice to see a fair depiction of the fracturing and petty back biting that plagues offices and disrupts best laid plans.

• Pascal has got to turn off the I Dream of Jenya marathon he’s got playing in his head. His partner is on the board of his company and she’s no slouch.

• Dream Lover by Faye Wong serenades Jenya and Derek while they play vintage carnival games in Musée Mécanique

• In a fun session that spills a fair amount of tea, Jenya tells Mathilde and Amrita that she’ll always have a fondness for Derek because of the way he helped her brothers get out of some stupid teen trouble “back in the day.”

• Overnight guest Sasha was not feeling Amrita’s roommates’ shenanigans. How are you going to enjoy some quality together time when a Just Dance 2020 Switch battle is kicking off in the other room and the Mad Dog 20/20 is flowing?

• A deep dive on the ballet insider message boards pulls up the piece they watched is Infra by Wayne McGregor. The pas de deux was hauntingly lovely. (Hey, I told you I was on the boards!)

• The streaming gods heard my appeal for more Edmund Percy! He’s sure the Warriors will be even better now that they are in The City.

• Far from detracting from the story, I’ve been enjoying the Ozu troupe feel that the actors from LostFoundry lend by appearing on each other’s shows. Baldwin Pieck’s Edmund is so similar to his character from Day of Drizzle that it creates some interesting intertextual nuance amongst the different properties.

• Musixmatch identified the closing song as One Way Ticket by Masaaki Hirao.

• But I couldn’t rely on that technology to come up with the tidbit that it’s from the film One-Way Ticket for Love directed by Masahiro Shinoda. (I had to rely on completely different technology for that.)

Alphas by the Bay: Season 2 Episode 6

Counter-Measures

Calumny, betrayal, and rugs of all sorts getting pulled out from under in the season 2 finale! This episode finally delivered a crie du coeur for the digitally fractured age.

Carlo and his band of Merries lead their big protest at the Swift, Inc corporate building South of Market Street. The retail giant has been accused of scapegoating assistant store managers for improperly opening rewards program credit cards without customer consent (while exonerating the suits that pushed the quotas and knew about the violations.) A large assembly of workers and other protestors have assembled with the requisite bull horns and walkie-talkies. The protest remains largely contained and downright civil.

That is, until a counter-protest emerges. Several private buses drop off large groups of people toting signs with “Save our Jobs”, “Protect our Neighborhood” and “Back to Business” slogans. Amrita, with walkie-talkie and official armband, leads a small subgroup with firm instructions on where to go and what to look out for. As the sub-groups shift, the counter-protesters use a mobile app to get coordinates and block them off at every exit. Carlo tries to lead his crew down an alley mid-block but there is a counter group marching toward them and he retreats. Eventually, the original protest group is encircled completely.

As the two factions shout at each other, a counter-protester slips into the legitimate protest unnoticed. He pulls out a fire extinguisher and starts spraying down security guards in front of the Swift, Inc building. He then charges his own group and starts spraying. Another man from the counter protest throws firecrackers and chaos erupts as the crowd descend into a brawl. The security guards out front take cover inside and lock the huge glass doors.

Amrita gets caught in the fray and is roughed up. The man who threw the firecrackers pulls a balaclava over his face and starts spray painting “Swift Justice” on the side of the historic building, posing as one of Carlo’s crew. Carlo tries to get him stop but realizes that they’ve been infiltrated. He starts sprinting away from the scene and is able to push through the crowd. Tossing off his mask and over-shirt, Carlo ducks into a large group of sightseeing students for cover a few blocks away.

But there is nowhere to run for everyone else as a fleet of police cars and uniformed riot cops descend on the protest.

In the Sherwood office, Jenya, Pascal and Kasia discuss Derek’s offer from a couple weeks back. They all agree the purchase price was too low and wonder why Nature Stop would even make an offer. Kasia thinks it’s likely for personal reasons but Jenya explains that Nature Stop is expanding aggressively, buying up a number of small regional chains in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. Pascal confirms they are VC backed and wonders if there is some core tech on the platform that they would want. Perhaps the cost of acquisition would be cheaper than developing in-house.

Kasia wants Jenya to keep Derek on the line just to have the option of going back for a more robust offer. Pascal agrees it’s the smart strategy but Jenya’s not convinced.

Soon the office is abuzz with the local news of the downtown riot. Three people are in critical condition at St. Francis Hospital with more injured and dozens arrested. They look immediately for Carlo, who is not to be found. Uh oh.

Mathilde grabs Jenya and fills her in. Carlo texted that he escaped but Amrita is among those injured. She’s okay, just a few scrapes and bruises but she was not arrested. Jenya’s relieved on both counts.

That evening, Pascal pushes Jenya to accelerate expansion in order for them to weather the brewing storm without key safety features complete. Jenya doesn’t think that’s prudent. They can control the app experience all they want but the Sherwood Merries are in the field taking bigger risks than ever before.

As they bicker, Derek Bonafair calls Jenya to apologize. His offer was out of line and he rescinds it “out of respect for her.” He doesn’t want to mix business with friendship and hopes to see her before another ten years goes by. “Very strange timing” comments Pascal.

The next day, the office is uneasy after all the recent events. Mathilde has her hands full in meetings with the Policeman’s Benevolent Association and Food Pantry steering committee. They are both rethinking their partnerships. She does her best to put out these fires while hurrying to court to support young Randy at his foster care hearing. It’s a rough morning for everyone.

Jenya and Pascal debrief with their vigilante development team and lay down the law. Carlo and Amrita need to choose between being on the front lines fighting for <justice> and being the brains behind the software that powers it. Jenya tells them their extracurricular work is endangering both missions. The more negative press Sherwood receives, the closer it is to folding and everything will be flushed away.

Carlo says he’ll consider her words and then recaps what went down at the riot. There were counter-protestors brought in on private buses that all used an app to communicate their logistics. He saw some of the messaging, mapping and notifications as they came through. Everything was professionally coordinated and he details the activities of the two main saboteurs. Pascal wagers it was corporately funded. (I couldn’t help myself. It’s been two seasons people!)

But they don’t get to chew on this for too long before they learn that Nature Stop has acquired this very app, named Civilian P.I. The webcast and press release tout the rapid development cycle that led to this inspired connection between businesses and people that care. And yes, you guessed it: The founder of Civilian P.I. is Cabot Barely! He poses with Nature Stop’s SVP of Strategic Initiatives, Derek Bonafair, in a series of staged “casual” photos announcing the purchase.

A quick download of Civilian P.I. confirms their worst fears. It’s a rough port of the Sherwood app with the payment feature Cabot and Duc discussed adding. The Sherwooders lose their minds and hurl invectives about the skullduggery. Oh, how could ya do them so dirty, Duc?!

Pascal and Kasia want to sue immediately but Jenya has other ideas. She wants to meet Cabot face to face before deciding on a course of action. At Café de la Press, Cabot’s quick to play the wise older brother while touting his “vision” and the amazing deal he got from Nature Stop. They need help creating a positive business climate for their acquisitions and expanding customer base. What better way than to incentivize citizens to help? It’s another “win-win for the double bottom line.”

When Jenya presses for details on the deal, he can’t help himself. He sold Civilian P.I. for $750k and “a ton” of Nature Stop RSU’s (restricted stock units). He’s moving to Minneapolis for six months to kick off the project in their Innovations Lab. When she asks why he sold for so little, he lets her know he thinks he has the inside track to become the Nature Stop CEO. “They’re buying me for my expertise,” he preens. Jenya congratulates him.

She calls Pascal on her way out and lets him know she is accelerating Sherwood’s roll-out plan.

“Let’s remember we didn’t start Sherwood to sell the IP. We are a tool to challenge the greed that’s eating this country from within. Civilian P.I. is their new weapon. We have no choice but to give them everything we’ve got.”

Sherwood will launch in three new markets by the end of the month: Philadelphia, Rochester, and Minneapolis. Definitely Minneapolis. Jenya and the Merries are bringing the fight to the heartland. 

Adventitious Commentary

• Amrita didn’t understand the counter-protesters’ incoherent stance. The signage for “Jobs over Greed” and “I’m My Own Boss” contradicted other slogans like “Let Business Choose” and “The Good of the Many>The Needs of a Few”.

• Carlo’s analysis of the Citizen P.I. name was clever. Big businesses were notorious for using private investigators to fight labor and trade unions last century. The ability to disavow their violent activities should they meet with any trouble is a standard tactic. The original ‘rogue element’ defense.

• While the timeline on deployment of a new app seems rushed (even if it did steal some code from Sherwood) a re-watch of the season clearly shows Duc working on another project from the get-go. I’ll allow it (barely) just cuz it’s “Premium Programming”.

• HooSingz kept crashing on install so I had to scour every dingy vinyl shop in town to identify Steve Reich’s Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards.

• I like Jenya’s now hardened realpolitik outlook. Gone is her vague dreaminess about innovation as panacea for the ills of the world. There are firm battle lines drawn and she’s choosing a side. Jiayou, Jenya!

• The use of Brass Against’s version of RATM’s Wake Up was an inspired song choice for the credits. Sophia Urista goes hard on the track. I’m sure Troop JZ will go just as hard to Take the Power Back next season.