Summary
At the Jewish fraternity’s Caribbean Night party, Eduardo discusses why Asian women are attracted to Jewish men. Mark arrives, and Eduardo says he got “punched” by the Phoenix Club. Mark appears jealous, but congratulates Eduardo. Mark takes Eduardo outside and shares the idea of a website that “takes the entire social experience of college and puts it online.” Mark says, “It’s like a final club but we’re the president.”
The scene cuts to another boardroom in the future: Eduardo is wearing a suit, explaining before lawyers how he and Mark discussed the idea for the website. Eduardo says Mark made him Chief Financial Officer and that he needed start up money; they would split the company 70/30.
In the other boardroom in the future with the Winklevoss twins, Eduardo testifies that Facebook didn’t have much to do with the Winklevoss twins’ dating site. The statement enrages one of the twins. A lawyer reads emails from November and December 2003 detailing Mark’s communications with the Winklevoss twins.
There is a scene of Eduardo receiving a letter from the Phoenix Club. He goes to tell Mark. The emails with the Winklevoss twins detail how Mark stalled doing work on the Harvard Connection while he was busy coding to create The Facebook. In the boardroom, Mark gets angry when Divya implies that Mark studied their code to create his website. Divya says, “You stole our whole goddamn idea.”
In February 2004, a friend of Mark’s asks if he knows if a particular woman is single. Mark gets an idea and runs to his dorm to add Relationship Status to The Facebook. Mark tells Eduardo he wants to launch the website and asks for the mailing list of the Phoenix Club.
The scene cuts to Divya at a singing event with his girlfriend, who has just received The Facebook link from seven different people. Divya sees the website and slams the laptop shut before running from the room. He finds the Winklevoss twins practicing rowing at an indoor facility. He tells them Mark stole their idea for the website and that it has been live for thirty-six hours.
The Winklevoss twins and Divya discuss the 42-day head start Mark got. One of the twins speaks to his father’s lawyer on the phone while the other reads an article about the website in the Harvard Crimson paper. Divya insists they sue Mark, but one of the twins pushes back, saying they are “Harvard gentlemen,” and they don’t go planting stories in the paper and suing people.
In the future boardroom, a lawyer asks Mark if he knew the Winklevoss twins came from money, saying that it seems suspicious that he wouldn’t ask them for the $1,000 in startup capital. Mark says he wanted the money from Eduardo because they were best friends. The lawyer says his best friend is suing him for $600 million.
Eduardo and Mark sit in the audience of a lecture delivered by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. A woman named Christy Ling recognizes Mark and asks Eduardo about him. She tells Eduardo: “Facebook me when you get home and maybe we can all go for a drink later.” Outside the lecture hall, Eduardo shares the encounter. Three men spot Mark and congratulate him on The Facebook.
At their dorm, Eduardo says it’s time to monetize their website now that they have 4,000 members. Mark rejects the idea of selling advertising. Eduardo sees a cease-and-desist letter from the Winklevoss twins and asks why Mark didn’t show him the letter. Eduardo is alarmed by the threat of legal action. Mark insists he didn’t use any of their code. He says, “They came to me with an idea; I had a better one.” Eduardo sighs and asks if there is anything Mark needs to tell him. Mark says no.
Analysis
The themes of social acceptance and power arise again as Mark seeks out Eduardo at a fraternity party. Eduardo shares what should be good news—that he has been selected to try out for membership in a final club—but his face drops as he informs Mark, who cannot hide his jealousy over having been passed up. To soften the blow to his friend’s ego, Eduardo acts as though they only selected him because they needed a more diverse mix of members. Even though it is clear Eduardo is only saying it to protect Mark’s feelings, Mark ends up agreeing, sowing doubt in Eduardo’s mind.
Seeking investment money, Mark pitches the idea for The Facebook to Eduardo. The idea he outlines is not a dating website, but its unique selling feature is that it is exclusive to Harvard students, just as The Harvard Connection is. However, Mark does not tell Eduardo about the Winklevoss twins’ website that he has been hired to build, acting as if he developed the idea for The Facebook out of thin air. Building further on the themes of social acceptance and power, Mark says that the website will be like a final club they are in charge of—a line that reveals how his desire for social status is his initial motivation for creating the website.
The theme of betrayal enters the story again with a cut to the depositions. In one, Eduardo is suing Mark for a yet-to-be-disclosed reason and acting as a witness in the Winklevoss twins’ lawsuit against Mark. Perhaps because he is protective of the company he co-founded and of his old friend, Eduardo testifies that the Winklevoss twins’ idea had little to do with Facebook’s inception. At the same time, he is clearly upset with Mark for whatever betrayal led to his lawsuit.
Back in 2004, Mark continues to build The Facebook while neglecting to speak with Divya and the Winklevoss twins about their complaints against him. In contrast to Mark’s duplicitous way of conducting himself, the Winklevoss twins hold off from suing him because they wish to sort out the issue in a dignified way befitting “Harvard gentlemen.” But because Mark has always felt alienated by people of their class, he proceeds with the company’s development, completely unrepentant.
With the growing popularity of The Facebook comes new and unanticipated interest from women. At a lecture delivered by Bill Gates, Eduardo and Mark meet Christy and another young woman who recognize Mark as the inventor of The Facebook. Eduardo cannot believe their luck. However, his bubble is soon burst when he discovers a cease-and-desist letter the Winklevoss twins sent Mark. Eduardo gives Mark an opportunity to come clean about stealing their idea, but Mark insists that there’s nothing he needs to tell Eduardo about their company. Arrogant as ever, Mark doesn’t acknowledge that their idea was an influence; he simply says his idea was “better.”
