![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/9ac4d08fd2187e4954d2cf91713d91fac5-audacity-ep4.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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The Audacity<\/a><\/p>\n The Lamplighters<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 5\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n Duncan\u2019s public humiliation sends him and JoAnne into scramble mode. \u201cThe Lamplighters\u201d is now available on AMC+ ahead of its 9 p.m. ET broadcast next Sunday.<\/p>\n Everyone experiences moments of existential despair, when one bad day or cataclysmic event sends you into a headspace that\u2019s some combination of panic and self-reflection. Yet the world-conquering Silicon Valley freaks who populate The Audacity take it to another level, because they understand themselves to be the most important people on the planet and thus associate their misfortune with the downfall of humanity. This leads them to absurd extremes, like moving to an island compound and avoiding human contact to cure a supposed dopamine addiction or wondering if they should use their limited time on earth to be epic philanthropists or the next Dr. Evil. Honestly, they could use a good therapist to help them find some perspective, but the one they have is barely paying attention when she\u2019s not quietly pumping them for inside information.<\/p>\n Shifting gears confidently into the second half of the season, this week\u2019s episode has a more cohesive feel than the show has been able to manage so far, turning a series of interrelated crises into a Magnolia-esque montage of desperation from most of the major characters. Even poor Xander, Martin\u2019s AI chatbot, has gotten so in his feelings that he\u2019s bruised his head from banging it against a wall (\u201cMy fault, my fault, my fault, my fault\u2026\u201d) and generated a virtual couch for him to hide behind. There\u2019s no clear reason yet why Xander has reverted to sulking and peeing himself, but given that Martin is always working to train him, it stands to reason that he\u2019s picking up on the bad vibes that seem to permeate every space we visit in this hour. People are unhappy on a grand scale.<\/p>\n The trouble starts where it always does, with Duncan tripping over his own fevered idiocy. From the opening scenes of the series, we\u2019ve known that Duncan used a lot of smoke-and-mirrors to inflate the value of Hypergnosis around a deal with Cupertino that never came to fruition, and lately he\u2019s been trying to pin Carl Bardolph down on a $300 million commitment to fluff up his floundering data enterprise. But in a behind-the-scenes move on Anushka\u2019s part to rescue her reputation at Cupertino, she anonymously informed Nena Marx that her company was not buying Hypergnosis and that Duncan had leaked this false deal to the press. He realizes as soon as the story drops that his company and his reputation are in tatters, and he amusingly orders Harper to \u201cturn off the internet,\u201d as if there\u2019s some gigantic plug that can be yanked like the runway lights in Airplane!. But this isn\u2019t the age of dial-up modems and his fate is sealed instantly.<\/p>\n Last week, I complained<\/a> about the wheel-spinning that had started to plague the plotting of The Audacity, but there\u2019s no such issue with this eventful episode, which put Duncan, JoAnne, and several other characters in scramble mode. The timing of Duncan\u2019s public humiliation comes right at the moment when he\u2019s trying to pin Carl and his assistant Stan down on the $300 million investment, which had proven difficult to do, because Carl understandably wanted a look under the hood before he paid the tech equivalent of a pit-stained used car salesman. When the bad news breaks, Carl and Stan\u2019s position improves so much that their money could buy them control of the whole company.<\/p>\n After an extended period where he decamps to Hamish\u2019s internet-free \u201cdumb house\u201d to lose his mind in private, Duncan strikes out via helicopter to visit Gabe (Randall Park), his and Hamish\u2019s former partner at Fahfa, who has a valuable stake in Hypergnosis, too, and might help bail him out. It becomes obvious right away why Duncan hasn\u2019t stayed in touch with Gabe, whose reclusive life on a private island has led to weird obsessions like \u201cdopamine fasting,\u201d armed guards on the compound, and memories of a past enterprise called \u201cGambleSluts.\u201d His mumbling about societal collapse makes him look like a true moonbat until Carl and Stan swoop down on the island and easily snap up his stake in Hypergnosis, continuing their quest to box Duncan out of his own company. Gabe is another bridge Duncan has burned.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, JoAnne\u2019s sudden housing crisis has led her to consider a humiliatingly rustic A-frame home listed at $2.5 million, shown to her by a former college friend who gave up therapy for real estate. The two still get along famously, though, and there\u2019s a lovely \u201ctouch grass\u201d moment when they smoke weed in the house\u2019s small, unkempt backyard and consider the paths each of them chose to take. JoAnne\u2019s friend is happy not to listen to \u201ctech bros whine about their third homes,\u201d and she\u2019s convincing enough to prompt JoAnne to drive Gary and Orson out to the country, where they can build a new life together. To her surprise, Gary loves the idea of getting away from their terrible clients and neighbors, but Orson, who\u2019s lately taken a sharp-right turn to the manosphere, is having none of it. He lets his mom know he\u2019s aware she\u2019s done something illegal and now he\u2019s blackmailing right along with Duncan. She\u2019ll have to remain tied to the tracks of Palo Alto.<\/p>\n Storytelling hasn\u2019t been a great strong suit for The Audacity all season. Duncan and JoAnne\u2019s misfortunes dovetail neatly into a scene where they\u2019re finally seeing eye to eye. Though Hypergnosis boasts an all-seeing algorithm, Carl doesn\u2019t know that the true source of Duncan\u2019s insight on Smote isn\u2019t coming from inside Hypergnosis but through JoAnne\u2019s session with a Smote board member. JoAnne isn\u2019t happy to see Duncan when he essentially breaks into her office, but he gets her to lower her new handgun long enough to see a $1.2 million payout that she\u2019s entitled to claim at a time when she\u2019s in dire financial straits. Her reaction leads him to get down on his knees and make a proposal: \u201cI should have never blackmailed you. It should have always been a bribe. Will you be my bribe?\u201d<\/p>\n The dramatic new alliances in the cast don\u2019t end there, however. Over at Hypergnosis, Carl has taken an interest in Anushka, whose fake-sounding position as an \u201cethicist\u201d at Cupertino has been souring of late. Given what we\u2019ve glimpsed in the past from Carl\u2019s anguished sessions with JoAnne, he\u2019s been a burnt-out billionaire whose great innovation was to monetize spam. Now that he\u2019s back in the game, Carl waxes philosophical about the Valley\u2019s super-elite and how their wealth gets utilized. To his mind, they all face the same question: \u201cDo we want humanitarian legacy or do we want planetary reach? Do we want to save the world or control it?\u201d He seems to feel a partnership with Anushka might appeal to his better angels. But in the world of The Audacity, angels are in short supply.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0\u201cWhy does your desk have a patina of crumbs and disrespect?\u201d It\u2019s funny that Duncan is so concerned with appearances when welcoming Carl Bardolph, whose beard looks like it might hold as many crumbs as his poor employee\u2019s workspace.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Founder fantasies, via Carl: \u201cI could be on board a giga yacht right now sipping a 300-year-old cognac with an android Beverly D\u2019Angelo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0Lili may not have her husband\u2019s CEO status, but she\u2019s knocked off her perch atop the private school board for a neighborhood post, accusing a mega-donor of being a narcissist who burned down her house. Duncan seems to sense her emotional vulnerability in the episode\u2019s final scene, but rather than a cuddle, he gets asked for a divorce instead.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0JoAnne\u2019s realtor is stunned that she\u2019s living with their former teacher and feels comfortable enough with JoAnne to ask a pertinent question: \u201cWhat\u2019s Professor Felder\u2019s dick like?\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0In the past, a mom might catch her teenage son masturbating, but JoAnne has discovered the modern horror of catching her son watching manosphere videos aimed at incel losers. Orson never seemed fascist-curious enough to consider jaw exercises to \u201copen up the sutures of your skull,\u201d but he\u2019s awfully lonely these days.<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0JoAnne looking out at a lovely spot in the country: \u201cI always wanted to watch the sun rise over fields of wildflowers. I just always thought it would be from the veranda of our architecturally significant second home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022\u00a0When you\u2019re as rich as Gabe, you not only have time to obsess over dopamine addiction, but you can also work on \u201cperineum sunning\u201d to increase testosterone production and root chakra optimization. The wellness sector truly is a menace<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n
\n Photo: Ed Araquel\/AMC\n <\/p>\n