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"Black screen. Green font. The sound of a typing keyboard.\n\"Halt and Catch Fire (HCF): An early computer command that sent the machine into a race condition, forcing all instructions to compete for superiority at once. Control of the computer could not be regained.\u201D\nSEE ALSO: Behind 'Halt and Catch Fire': Compaq's Rise to PC Domination\nMeet AMC\u2019s new Sunday night drama.\nAs a computer command, HCF isn\u2019t executed in the pilot for Halt and Catch Fire, a drama created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers. Rather, the tech-savvy title is indicative of the early \u201880s, when the ultra-competitive PC era began. After IBM released the IBM Personal Computer in 1981, tech savants noticed a flaw in the system that allowed for the computer to be reverse-engineered.\nIn the real world, companies including Columbia Data Products and Compaq introduced their own PC clones during the 1980s.\u00A0In AMC\u2019s fictional landscape, we follow Cardiff Electric as it attempts to enter into the personal computer race.\nFollowing the \u201CHCF\u201D definition, Halt and Catch Fire\u00A0opens with an armadillo lazily crossing the street when it is abruptly struck and killed by a Ferrari. Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) exits his car, inspects the armadillo damage with no emotional reaction, letting us know right off the bat: Joe is ruthless, and those who can\u2019t keep up had better get out of his way.\n(Netflix\u2019s House of Cards\u00A0has a similar series opener, with antihero Frank Underwood mercy-killing a suffering dog in the street. Exec producers Beau Willimon and David Fincher described the scene as a litmus test for the audience, a symbolic reminder that the show will be dark, dark, dark.)\nJoe heads to a college lecture on computer engineering, where he grills students on their capabilities: can they do software design? Hardware software integration? Firmware design? VLSI? A rebellious female student in the back of the room \u2014 Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) \u2014 quickly shows her chops as the most gifted student in the room.\n\nMackenzie Davis in Episode 1 of \"Halt and Catch Fire.\"Joe follows her to a local arcade where he interrogates her on her job plans following graduation, but Cameron doesn\u2019t take Joe seriously. Cameron assumes Joe is just another suit from IBM trying to scout her, and is intrigued when he reveals he doesn\u2019t work for the computer giant. The intrigue leads to an arcade back room hookup session that quickly goes awry when Joe says, \u201CThis doesn\u2019t mean you get the job.\u201D A quick punch to Joe\u2019s stomach and snarky remark and Cameron bails.\nNo matter for Joe, though. We learn his incognito recruitment mission is to find talent that can help reverse-engineer the IBM PC, and Joe has his eyes set on Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), a washed-up but talented engineer. Gordon works at Cardiff Electric, a company focused on system software that even Cardiff\u2019s senior VP of sales John Bosworth (Toby Huss) admits isn\u2019t \u201Csexy,\u201D but is at least making a lot of money. Joe is hired by Cardiff in sales (after going rogue from IBM) with a vision to make the company aggressive in the computer space.\nJoe totes Gordon along to a sales dinner, where he hard-sells a pack of industry honchos, \u201CYou\u2019ve made just enough safe choices to stay alive, but not enough to matter. You can be more.\u201D The sales pitch reads in Gordon\u2019s eyes \u2014 his confidence has been depleted from failed tech ventures, drinking problems and a struggling marriage. His wife, Donna, appears exhausted by his inability to step up as a husband and father to their two daughters. But Joe, it seems, believes in Gordon \u2014 more than Gordon believes in himself.\n\u201CAre you ready to be more?\u201D Joe asks the men at the sales dinner again, before Gordon beefs the pitch\u2019s dramatic moment by noting that Cardiff also offers \u201Cfree install.\u201D Joe lays into Gordon for the rookie screw-up, but then continues his recruitment effort after reading an article Gordon wrote for Byte Magazine \u2014 though Gordon is in a rut, he sees computers not for the boring number-crunching they can do in the present, but for their potential in the future.\nJoe presents Gordon with his plan: reverse-engineer the IBM PC, and force Cardiff Electric to be the company backing the product. Gordon is wary \u2014 the legal ramifications are steep, and Donna is protective of the family\u2019s stability. He turns Joe down.\n\nA scene from Episode 1 of \"Halt and Catch Fire.\"Image:  AMCBut Joe\u2019s words tweak something within Gordon. After some reflection, he invites Joe over to take on the cumbersome task of mapping out the IBM PC\u2019s assembly language code while Donna and the kids are out of town. (Coffee? Consumed. Venture? Successful. Wife? Royally pissed.)\nFollowing Joe and Gordon's garage mission, IBM\u2019s senior veep of North American sales phones Bosworth to let Cardiff know just how rogue Joe is \u2014 Joe completely disappeared from IBM a year ago, and no one has heard from him until Joe called to inform IBM that he has reverse-engineered the company\u2019s PC. IBM threatens legal action, and Cardiff Electric says Joe and Gordon\u2019s copy-cat computer must be legitimized under the Cardiff banner \u2014 Joe has, indeed, forced Cardiff\u2019s hand.\nDonna eases up and begins to support her husband; Cardiff Electric has to hire a third party engineer, and Joe and Gordon serve up Cameron for the job; the legal murkiness mounts as Cameron is silently coached through a recorded interview about her engineering history; and while he is forced to team with Joe, Bosworth promises to dig through Joe\u2019s closet of secrets to find out what he\u2019s been doing while off the radar for a year.\n\nA scene from Episode 1 of AMC's \"Halt and Catch Fire.\"Image:  AMC\u201CKeep your stories straight,\u201D Bosworth says to Joe, Gordon and Cameron right as IBM\u2019s legal team arrives \u2014 an endless procession of attorneys in suits, there to intimidate the Cardiff Electric trio.\n\u201CWhat are you trying to prove?\u201D Gordon asks Joe as the lawyers file in.\nDuring Halt and Catch Fire\u2019s 10-episode first season, we'll find out.\nHave something to add to this story? 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<http://mashable.com/2014/06/01/halt-and-catch-fire-recap-episode-1-season-1/>