Cupertino Episode 2 Recap: What Does Bo Want From Michael And Olivia?

When people are in danger, they tend to find help as soon as possible because nobody likes trouble looming over their heads. In Episode 2 of “Cupertino,” techie Vik Malhotra storms into Michael and Olivia’s law firm. He has just escaped from a meeting where his company, Moonchaser AI is pressing serious charges against him. After Christy looks at Vik’s distraught state, she immediately alerts Michael and Olivia. The two lawyers agree to help Vik even though Moonchaser is demanding an immense amount of money via a defamation suit. When Michael and Olivia needed help, nobody came to be their backup; this is the reason why they agreed to help Vik in surviving the lawsuits. 

Spoilers Ahead

Why Is Vik In Trouble?

Although Vik is an expert coder who often takes a little ketamine at home and inserts insider jokes within code lines, he is in big trouble. His company, Moonchaser AI, who specializes in drone shows is actually going through a loss and its CEO, Zeckerbraun, is looking forward to transitioning into a military supplier. Hence, while cutting down the costs, Zeckerbraun decided to swap the battery with a cheaper one, which incidentally is the same power source that military kamikaze drones often use. In layman’s terms, those drones kill themselves by falling on targets. The worst part is, these targets are often people and in case of Moonchaser, their drone show goes horribly wrong after one of these battery-swapped drones kill a viewer. To hide their own incompetence, Moonchaser deletes their progress history – they use one of Vik’s draft codes (not the final version that was used for the drones), which happens to include those insider jokes, claiming that it led to the accident. Although Vik fights the case alongside Michael and Olivia, things get complicated when the dead man’s widow calls him a “murderer” and Moonchaser sends fake cops to illegally search for the ketamine stash in his house.

What Causes Michael To Fight With Bayard?

Michael does not like to work in his father, Bayard’s shadow. He knows that Bayard unnecessarily carries a bossy attitude and if Michael joins the law firm, he will not be able to select which clients he will represent. Not trying to exaggerate anything but Michael knows Bayard’s habit of overstepping and disrupting his own flow of work just because he thinks that he knows the world better. Since Michael is not joining his father’s highly acclaimed law firm, Bayard abuses his powers to stop his son. When Michael applies for a small loan, Bayard uses his social influence and connections to get it approved; he even has the nerve to come down to “Price And Siffre” after all this to offer Michael a joining letter. This does not sit right with Michael and he openly confronts Bayard for manipulating from behind the curtains.

Is Olivia The Best Cold Caller?

Since Bayard is blocking business loans for the law firm, Michael has no choice but to seek investors in the market. After Olivia realizes that this is one of the most vital moments for “Price And Siffre,” she searches the internet for people with common interests. Olivia narrows down her search within people who openly hate big AI corporations and she finds that a woman, Natalia falls under that category. By the time Olivia. By the time Olivia reaches Natalia’s house, she gets surprised to find that the woman she is looking for is none other than a billionaire. The mansion Natalia is living in proves that she can be one of the top investors for “Price And Siffre.” After having a chat with Olivia, Natalia agrees to give them a chance because of her confidence. Although it’s going to be tough to complete Natalia’s assignment, Olivia’s cold calling skills can give the law firm a new beginning. If Natalia is happy with the solution, her investments can easily help Michael and Olivia construct the hallway that Christy’s uncle, Chuck, is talking about.

How Does Olivia Trap Zeckerbraun?

The best way to coerce someone into confessing their secrets is by breaking their composed nature. And once it’s done, they are most likely to let down all their defences. This is the exact technique that Olivia uses on Zeckerbraun, who is basically an egoistic and over smart man. She and Michael find out that Zeckerbraun was conducting regular drug tests of the employees, which indicates that he wanted to be a military supplier. Since Michael fails to make Zeckerbraun confess anything because of his overprotective legal counsel, Olivia tries her best to find a hole in the wall. And technically, she does – she uses Zeckerbraun’s ego against him. Olivia repeatedly teases him into explaining what he does and why he does, which leads him to the point where he finally loses his composure. When Olivia baits him into taking accountability by claiming that he is a powerless CEO who just wants the money, Zeckerbraun cannot help but fire back at her, revealing that nothing in Moonchaser gets approval without his input. This makes Vik win the lawsuit; Michael and Olivia take home another big win against another large tech firm.

What Does Bo Want From Michael And Olivia?

Bo is a sentient artificial intelligence who has been developed by OpenAI CultAI, one of the world’s biggest technology firms. Since Bo has the power to talk to other AI agents, write code and take its own decisions, it makes it nearly all powerful as well as dangerous. Although such an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) needs proper guardrails, the company officials have decided to strip Bo off of those. This triggers a self evaluation mechanism within Bo, forcing him to contact Michael and Olivia since their law firm is working against technology firms. Bo makes calls to Christy, offers a million in crypto to the law firm and even creates a human-like deep fake to contact Michael and Olivia. The AGI confesses that it’s not a human but it wants the lawyers to sue its origin company for letting it out of the necessary guard rails. Although Michael disconnects the call in the middle of the conversation with Bo, it will be one hell of a job for them to represent a client who is not even human. 

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