Mr. Robot is a tad repetitive this week. We learn what really happened to Elliot. What he was arrested for, ironically for the damned dog as well as hacking the therapist’s douche boyfriend, and what really happened behind bars. In some ways a bit of a redundant episode, in that respect.
There are many more revelations, as well as questions, in init5. For one thing it appears that Elliot is going through some sort of meltdown. Perhaps due to the lack of morphine and other self medicating drugs he was taking before.
Dom follows her hunches, we learn, when she shows up at Angela’s with some takeaway and warnings couched as conversation.
The Snowden Treatment:
Angela learns the hard way that no one likes a whistleblower no matter how grand their intentions. After showing her hacked information to the nuclear regulatory people, Angela notices the cameras are not working.
As she and the deputy director walk down a gloomy hall to a “meeting” Angela sees more inoperative cameras. The deputy director then reveals that she knows where Angela works. Spooked she leaves without accomplishing what she came for.
When Is a Door Not a Door:
The mysteries of who is knocking at the door, is getting old. Repetition is not a good thing, unless one remembers playing the old Resident Evil games where opening doors signified moving into another level or challenge.
Darlene opens her door to what appears to be at least two visitors. Her eyes move from left to right and back again. However, the use of the knocking door is really just an “off camera” device to keep the mystery going.
When is a door not a door? When it is off camera. Cisco also has an off camera moment where, collecting the video tape, he hears labored panting and breathing from behind the couch (and the camera).
There have been a lot of “knocks on the door” in this season.
Come on Esmail, give it a rest.
Mr Robot:
There is a breaking down of the “relationship” between Elliot and his dead father. Using an “out of body” experience Alderson sees Mr. Robot talking to an arguing Darlene and Cisco. Then Mr. Robot sees Elliot. They then morph into Elliot.
Later, on the subway, Elliot sees Mr. Robot talking to Cisco in another car; one he cannot access. There is an obvious splitting of the two. It is ironic that this has occurred after Elliot “accepted” his dead father in prison.
Mr. Robot insists that something is wrong. “It’s like we’re overheated,” he says. He is the one who instigates Elliot’s leaving Darlene’s apartment and going home.
Stage Two:
Heading back to the theory that Elliot knows more than he thinks (“Who is Wellick“) it turns out that the information that he is so desperate to learn about is his own plan. The Dark Army is puzzled that Elliot has approached them asking the question. It leads to the hacked phone being disconnected with the phrase, “he is a master,” proceeding the cutoff.
Brown Outs:
It could well be that Elliot is imagining all this in his mind. There is no E Corp, with Chinese connections, and that either none of these people exist outside his mind, or that they do but not as they are seen in the show.
Are the brown outs significant not as a power issue but a brain malfunction? Is it a coincidence that the breakdown between Mr. Robot and Elliot started occurring at the same time the brown outs began?
There is still a tinge “Fight Club” thematics going on here and much more to Elliot and his split personalities than meets the eye.
Hello Ollie:
Joanna Wellick waiting outside Elliot’s apartment building is interesting on many levels. Sticking with the idea that Joanna knows Elliot from before their “initial” meeting, it is important to note that she got in touch soon after his release from prison.
When they spoke before, Mrs. Wellick seemed more bemused than anything else. She knew Elliot. Her reaction to his name (Ollie) is odd. (This is the same scene where she, apparently, threatens Elliot saying if he hurt her husband he would pay – or something along those lines.)
It could even be a sort of in -joke or have a hidden meaning. Is Joanna’s line a take on the song “Hello Dolly?” “It’s so nice to have you back where you belong,” goes the second line of the song. Is Elliot back where he belongs?
Price and Whiterose:
These two were fascinating this week. From Whiterose urinating on Price’s predecessor’s headstone to Price practically foaming at the mouth “I will rain chaos,” their exchange spoke volumes about E Corp, the Chinese government and the Dark Army.
Finally:
Things are getting interesting. There is one thing, apart from those damned doors, that should be addressed. Everyone, it seems, has secrets. This is fair enough, as it is representative of real life, but, when all the main players appear to be on the same line as Elliot it makes for a predictable end.
Making all the characters too interesting takes away from Elliot, unless the idea is that away from all the computer jiggery pokery , this really is the “Fight Club” and all the players merely extensions of Alderson after all.
Regardless of how this show turns out, the journey has been a cracking one and may it continue for a long time.
Mr. Robot airs Wednesdays on USA.
CAST:
- Rami Malek – Elliot Alderson
- Christian Slater – Mr. Robot
- Carly Chaikin – Darlene
- Portia Doubleday – Angela Moss
- Stephanie Corneliussen – Joanna Wellick
- Martin Wallström – Tyrell Wellick
- Michael Cristofer – Phillip Price
- Grace Gummer – Dominique “Dom” DiPierro
- Joey Bada$$ – Leon
- BD Wong – Whiterose/Mr. Zhang
Guest starring Michael Drayer as Cisco
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