Summary
In the dorm-room scene in 2004, Mark informs Eduardo that, with the company’s expansion, he has hired interns and set up a place for them to live in Palo Alto. Eduardo is upset to learn he already decided to spend the summer in California, and the friends argue about Sean Parker’s involvement in the company. Eduardo believes Sean is a liability because of his past issues with the law.
Mark tries out coding interns by orchestrating a competition in which the candidates have to code while simultaneously drinking shots of liquor. The group of young people sit on their laptops while a crowd cheers them on. Eduardo gives Mark confirmation that he has put $18,000 in an account for Mark’s use to get him through the summer.
The scene cuts to Mark and the Facebook interns working and hanging out in a house in Palo Alto. They have a zip line set up over the pool. It breaks the chimney, attracting the attention of the people across the street, who happen to be a woman named Sharon and Sean Parker. Sean and Mark are surprised to see each other, but Sean is pleased Mark moved to California. Sean and Sharon come into the house. Sean asks where Eduardo is. Mark says he got an internship in New York.
Mark and Sean are at a club having drinks with a Victoria’s Secret model Sean is dating. Sean says he started Napster because he wanted to impress a girl who was dating the high school football captain. He says Napster didn’t fail, because it changed the music industry forever. He says there’s a billion-dollar company in here, and that Eduardo shouldn’t be in New York kissing the asses of ad executives. Mark asks if he ever thinks about the girl from high school anymore. Sean says no, seemingly surprised by the question. Mark invites Eduardo to live with him at the house if he doesn’t have a place to stay, knowing Sean has been staying at Sharon’s.
The scene cuts to a rowing race between Harvard and Hollandia. The Winklevoss twins lose the match. At the reception afterward, they are angry. A British gentleman comes over and says his daughter watched the race live via something called Facebook. The Winklevoss twins and Divya realize she is a Cambridge student, not an American. They go to another room. One of the twins suggests suing Mark in federal court. The other twin relents and says, “Screw it, let’s gut him.”
The scene cuts to Sean living in Mark’s Palo Alto house. Eduardo arrives at the door and says Mark was supposed to pick him up from the airport. Two young women are getting drunk and high on the couch while the interns code. Eduardo asks Sean how old they are. Sean says it’s not polite to ask. Eduardo gets upset when he learns Sean has set up an angel investor meeting with Peter Thiel. Eduardo says he’s the business end of the company and Sean is living at the house rent-free.
Mark and Eduardo go to a private room. Eduardo says he left the internship on day one, which Mark had forgotten. Mark defends Sean’s involvement and insists Eduardo has to move out to Palo Alto or he’ll get left behind. The scene cuts to Eduardo freezing the bank account he set up. Meanwhile, Sean and Mark meet with Thiel, who says he’s going to give them a $500,000 investment. They ask who Eduardo Saverin is.
The scene cuts to Eduardo waking up to someone opening the door to his apartment. Christy walks in and asks when he got back and why he hasn’t responded to her thirty-six texts. Eduardo says it was a long flight, and he was going to let her know. She asks why his Facebook status says single. He claims he doesn’t know how to change it, and she accuses him of lying. He gives her a silk scarf as a gift just as Mark calls. Mark angrily asks why Eduardo froze the business account. Eduardo says he needed to get Mark’s attention. Mark says the company’s reputation will be irreversibly destroyed if the servers ever go down. He says the whole point is that the users are connected always, and that if one goes, the dominoes will fall.
In the background of the shot, Christy sets fire to the scarf and drops it in a wastebasket she tips over on Eduardo’s mattress. Eduardo panics and throws the phone down to put out the fire with an extinguisher. Eduardo apologizes to Mark and Mark says Peter Thiel made an angel investment of half a million dollars. Eduardo and Mark are both pleased. Mark says he needs Eduardo to come to San Francisco right away to sign documents. He says, “I need my CFO.” Christy overhears and asks if he’s going back to California already. Eduardo says he is, and that he is also breaking up with her.
Analysis
Fincher builds on the themes of aspiration and betrayal with Mark’s unilateral decision to relocate Facebook to Palo Alto in the summer of 2004—just as Sean suggested he should. Eduardo is upset to learn he is making decisions without his input, and fears Sean being involved in the company. But despite his misgivings, Eduardo invests another $18,000 into Facebook so Mark can live for the summer and continue developing the website.
In an instance of situational irony, Sean happens to be staying with a woman who lives across the street from Mark’s rental house in Palo Alto. Sean continues to impress Mark with his ability to attract beautiful women and his tendency to spend money as if it is no object—an ironic habit since he seems to have no fixed address. Sean insinuates himself into Facebook, against Eduardo’s wishes, by disparaging Eduardo and inflating Mark’s ego. As a result, Mark invites Sean to live with him, and soon Sean is appointed president of the company.
Eduardo learns of Mark’s betrayal of his wishes when he arrives at the Facebook house to find Sean living there and partying with women who are most likely underage. Mark shows little remorse for bringing Sean onboard, focusing only on how Sean has secured them a meeting with Peter Thiel, the billionaire cofounder of PayPal. Eduardo sees this as another betrayal since he has been on the other side of the country trying to attract advertisers to the website. Mark also shows his lack of interest in Eduardo’s life by revealing that he forgot Eduardo quit his internship on day one.
In retaliation to Mark, whom he believes has gotten drunk with power, Eduardo freezes Facebook’s bank account to send Mark the message that Eduardo still has power over the company. The power play succeeds in getting Mark’s attention, but Mark’s anger is blunted by the good news that Thiel is going to give them an investment of $500,000. In an instance of situational irony, Mark turns the phone call from a rebuke to a celebration, telling Eduardo that he needs his CFO with him in California.
Just as delighted and shocked by the good news as Mark is, Eduardo shifts from resenting Mark to trusting his friend again. He decides to return to California again to be a part of Facebook. He has no idea that his trust in Mark is misplaced. For now, the audience—and Eduardo—still don’t know what Mark will do to betray him, but the friendship-ending conflict is looming.
