I wasn’t able to recap the previous Mr. Robot episode and it’s a shame as it was one of the best episodes of the season. It was great if for no other reason than it allowed Mr. Robot to deliver a horrifying story about a “happy” child abduction by Darlene. Unfortunately, that perfectly weird Darlene moment might be the character’s last big one.
Darlene was right there at the window during the episode cliffhanger when the Dark Army opened fire on the restaurant (presumably) killing Cisco. It would be a terrible mistake to kill Darlene but Mr. Robot has been killing people off with abandon in season 2. There is nothing to say that the better Alderson sibling is unkillable. In typical Mr. Robot fashion, the show takes its damn sweet time answering the question of Darlene’s survival. Which means that is left completely open-ended until the season finale.
Angela Under Lock, Key and Psychological Torture
Darlene isn’t the only lady in trouble. It turns out that Angela being confronted by the faceless couple at the end of last episode was not a fake-out. These mysterious strangers take Angela and throw her in the back of an armored van. Angela tries to get some answers but they ignore her and turn the Davy Crockett theme song to drown out Angela’s frantic questioning. (Brace yourself because that is about the most normal thing that will happen to Angela in the entire episode.)
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The captors transport Angela to an upper middle class home that turns to be more a prison. Angela is taken to darkened room that has no windows, a fish tank which is draining water and a MAC computer that appears to be from the 80’s or the 90’s. A young girl who looks like a mini-Angela walks in and begins to ask Angela personal questions. The girl asks Angela if she has ever cried during sex or if she has ever thought about murdering her father or if she is a giraffe or a seagull. (OK … so maybe they aren’t all personal but they are super weird.)
It turns out that this is all a test. A very freaky, messed up test. The test is designed by the Dark Army or more accurately White Rose. White Rose is Angela’s next visitor in her upper middle class cell. White Rose tells Angela that she needs to stop everything. Angela needs to stop looking into the cause of death of her mother and Elliot’s father. She needs to stop trying to bring down Evil Corp.
White Rose implies that all of this, including the deaths of the family members, is a part of a plan. Not in the grand religious sense either. It’s more like White Rose is controlling everyone and everything in the world. If their parents didn’t die, Elliot and Angela would be completely different people. Their parents’ deaths were a necessary sacrifice. In essence, Angela and Elliot are just pawns in the war (or game) between White Rose and Price. If Angela wants to live, she needs to stop sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. Angela, scared for her life and hoping to never again be questioned about her sex life from a precocious child, agrees to White Rose’s demands.
Government Bail Outs Ruin Everything
We may not find out anything about Darlene’s survival, but the one confirmed survivor of the restaurant attack, Dom, does show up. Dom may be alive but her life still sucks and there is no silver lining to the Dark Army attack. Though the attack proves to Dom (and her boss) that something more is going on with the Evil Corp hack and that the Chinese government is involved, her hands are tied. The US Government has signed a new deal with China. The government is getting 3 trillion dollars from the Chinese to bail out Evil Corp. Without any solid proof, Dom can’t actively pursue the case, she has to be much more careful from now on.
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Price, meanwhile, is taking that bail-out money and using it create his own currency. Since bitcoin has been on the rise since the Evil Corp attack, Price wants to take charge and create Evil Corp’s own electronic currency E-coin. This will effectively make Price the most powerful (and richest) man in the world and it bails the US Government out of their extreme debt. Whether this is a part of the plan and his rocky partnership with White Rose or a completely new invention of Price remains to be seen. I’m banking on the latter.
Elliot Finds Answers in Dreamland … Maybe?
So to recap a recap, in the season finale, Mr. Robot needs to answer the following questions: What is going on with Price and White Rose? Can Dom do anything to bring anyone to justice? Are Mobley and Trenton still alive or relevant? Were they ever relevant? Is Darlene still alive? And most importantly, what is Mr. Robot’s plan called Stage Two? On that last front, we may be getting answers, not immediately, but very soon.
Elliot induces lucid dreaming so he can see what Mr. Robot is up to when Elliot is “asleep.” Elliot stalks his alter-ego until he finds himself on a street with a lone cab. Elliot get inside the cab and a very alive Tyrell is waiting for him. Like everyone watching, Elliot wants to know if this is real or an illusion and starts screaming at the cab driver to tell him if he sees Tyrell. You’d think the cab driver would be used to having crazies in his cab living in the city but apparently this is a step too far. Elliot and Tyrell, whether a figment of Elliot’s imagination or not, are dumped out on the street.
Tyrell is very paranoid, which could fit him being a construct of Elliot’s mind or a real person, and he doesn’t want to be seen out of the street. He tells Elliot that is time to go and that Stage Two is almost ready. Everything they have planned is coming to fruition. The only problem is that Elliot has no idea what Tyrell is talking about or what he is planning.
Mr. Robot airs Wednesdays at 10pm on USA.
(Image courtesy of USA)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Derek is a Philadelphia based writer and unabashed TV and comic book junkie. The time he doesn’t spend over analyzing all things nerdy he is working on his resume to be the liaison to the Justice League.
