The pieces are falling into place on Mr. Robot. Season 2 started with very disparate story threads as the characters were spread all over. It made an already challenging series even more hard to follow. As Mr. Robot gets about halfway through the season, the stars are beginning to align. It’s not clear if the isolated storytelling of the beginning of the season was necessary but that frustrating part of Mr. Robot is becoming irrelevant.
Following directly on the heels of Darlene and Elliot’s reunion in the last episode, more characters keep coming together. It’s exciting just not for the season but the series. The biggest shocker and most exciting development of the episode though revolves around one of the worst characters. After a series of false starts, Mr. Robot might have finally found a way to make Angela a workable and viable character.
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Nobody Puts Baby(-Faced Angela) in the Corner
Elliot is all-in on the hacking FBI plan and working with Darlene to save their collective asses. Darlene, however, thinks that Elliot is not enough to save them. Darlene breaks into Angela’s apartment and basically blackmails the new Evil Corp employee who is wearing the most powerful looking of jump suits. Darlene tells Angela that because she essentially started the Evil Corp hack of last season she could be in just as much danger as them all. Darlene wants Angela’s help to hack the FBI.
Angela refuses because of obvious law-breaking reasons. Darlene accepts the refusal but leaves a warning. Darlene tells Angela that no one else better know about the CD that Angela put into the computers at Allsafe to start the hack. If someone does know, the FBI might have already found them. Sadly for Angela, someone is on the secret, her douchey ex-boyfriend Ollie.
Angela goes to meet with Ollie. A season of time away hasn’t been kind to Ollie. His hair is longer but that’s about all that is new. He’s still the same loser. In fact, that extra keratin on his scalp might actually be making his brain stupider. Ollie tries to catch Angela confessing to the CD hack on recording but he’s so incompetent that Angela quickly realizes what is going on. The FBI has been talking to Ollie and Angela storms out of their meeting.
Dom Under Fire
Speaking of the FBI, Dom remains hot on fsociety’s trail and she is branching out. Dom (and the rest of her colleagues) go to China to help further investigate the Evil Corp hack. They meet with China’s Minister of Security. The Minister is none other than White Rose, albeit in her male businessman persona. The FBI and Chinese Ministry have a party later and Dom ends up running into White Rose.
This is our longest ever look at White Rose and it is utterly fascinating. It was always kind of a given that White Rose was the super-villain of Mr. Robot. The show left us in the dark as to what her exact motivations are and want she is planning. Finally we get to glimpse behind that curtain, though everything she says is obscured in double speak, sly hints and vague threats.
The basic gist is that White Rose really just likes being in control and playing puppet master. It doesn’t matter what is happening, as long as she is winning. She is overjoyed over the Evil Corp hack but we don’t exactly why and neither does Dom. Dom is definitely freaked out by White Rose though and who wouldn’t be? She is a literal super-villain. A super-villain who comes around to wear fancy dresses and kick ass and she is all out of fancy dresses. In other words, the best type of super-villain ever.
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The final confirmation that White Rose is a up to no good though comes at the episode’s end. The FBI’s trip to China turns out to be a bust. None of the evidence they expected to get will be useful. Normally that would enough. The FBI is fooled and stonewalled but things go a step further. A group of masked men break in and quickly start shooting up the hotel where Dom and her co-workers are staying, killing dozens. Dom is pinned down behind the bar while the assailants fire wildly.
Reunited And It Feels Kind of Awkward
Angela’s encounter with Ollie convinces her to work with Elliot and Darlene. Angela goes to visit Elliot. The scene is not quite as impactful as the Darlene and Elliot’s reunion from the last episode. It is still very good and proves that Angela is much better when she is interacting with Elliot and/or Darlene rather than being on her own. Luckily, it is that exact avenue that Mr. Robot appears to be heading down with Angela.
Angela becomes an unofficial member of fsociety. Not only that but Elliot finally opens to Angela and admits that while they are talking he is seeing his dad over her shoulder the entire time. This is something we have never see Elliot to do with anyone but his therapist (and the audience).
The most important thing though is that Angela reveals that she taking care of Elliot’s dog, Qwerty. (Forget the mystery of Tyrell’s location. All I cared about left over from season 1 was the location of that adorable pooch. I can now rest easy.)
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Firewall
Angela might be getting Elliot and Darlene out of the FBI’s crosshairs, if any of them actually survive the attack in China, but Elliot has other issues. Elliot finally starts doing the hacking work he promised for Ray. If you remember Ray had one rule for Elliot when starting his hacking work.
It was a simple rule, like a fairy tale. A fairy tale with a lot moody voiceover and computers. Like Bluebeard’s wives, Elliot wasn’t supposed to look at Ray’s secret activities. Also like Bluebeard, Ray is super-duper evil and so are his activities. Elliot looks into what kind of site Ray is running and it is severely in the dark web. We are talking child sex trafficking, hardcore drug dealing, highly explosive weapon dealing and all manner of awfulness.
Elliot thinks, or at least hopes, that Ray has no idea what kind of site he is really running. He is wrong. Ray finds out that Elliot knows what he does and shows up his house with thugs in tow. They grab Elliot out of bed and shove him into a dark van. This is not one of Elliot’s delusions either…. probably.
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.
