Summary: Mr. Robot puts Elliot in a sitcom-like fantasy in his head to help him process his beating. Elliot wakes up in the hospital and is thrown into a room by Ray. He embraces Mr. Robot and thanks him for his help. Mobley teaches Angela to hack and she has 24 hours to learn because the FBI are leaving the E Corp building in one day. Cisco delivers the femtocell late after a hold up with the Dark Army inspecting it. Angela recognizes him but doesn't do anything. Angela goes to work and after some close calls she sets up the femtocell, but the wifi doesn't work. Angela goes back to her monitor and gets instructions on how to get the wifi back but she is interrupted when Dom arrives to question her. Price learns that the US can no longer borrow money from China after the attack and is unable to contact Whiterose. A flashback shows the time that Elliot's father told him about his condition, and he gives Elliot the opportunity to name his new computer store.
The Good: What an incredible 15 minute opening sequence that was. The whole episode was great, but this sequence stole the show. Following the tense cliffhanger from the last episode, it comes completely out of left field when we are spontaneously thrown into a 90s sitcom fantasy world with Elliot being every bit as confused as we are. It takes a little bit before we realize that this is Elliot's mind dealing with what happened to him and I adore this concept. I can tell that this episode likely influenced a certain episode of "BoJack Horseman", and seeing the original concept in action is a blast. The jokes are surprisingly funny and charming, and I got good laughs out of ALF (a fantastic and unexpected cameo) horrifyingly murdering Gideon and Tyrell crashing into the green screen. The self-awareness and obviously intentional cheesiness made this even funnier. Better than the laughs was the subtle hints about the various aspects of conflict in Elliot's mind. Gideon's laughable death is indicative of how Mr. Robot wants Elliot to accept what happened and move on without carrying that baggage. And as for Elliot's literal baggage, Tyrell, Mr. Robot again tells him to pretend like it's not even there and to move forward. Tyrell might be dead for all we know, but it shouldn't matter to Elliot. And then there is poor Angela who Elliot still wants to save, but Mr. Robot offers the bleak reality that he may have to leave her in E Corp because she has made that choice. The framing of these scenes as "lessons" that Mr. Robot is trying to teach Elliot is really beautiful, and it comes off as touching and honest, proving to us that Mr. Robot does care for Elliot. The pay-off at the end of the episode is extraordinary as Elliot embraces Mr. Robot during this painful and uncertain time, and it feels honest, earned, and emotional. I suspect that this will be a key moment in the story, and the creative way that it was set up only adds to its effectiveness. The rest of Elliot's story offers up some solid moments. Elliot looks half-dead following the beating, and "Mr. Robot" has done a fantastic job of making Craig Robinson feel threatening. It took time to turn Ray into an interesting character but we have finally got there. Ray initially seemed like a genuinely good person, kind, caring, and understanding. But now we get a full look at his terrifying, sadistic side and his speech to Elliot, telling him that he belongs to Ray is tense and intimidating. I'm very excited to see how this storyline is going to be resolved. The flashback at the end of the episode is a curious decision but I think that it works as a book-end scene, another reminder of how deep the bond between Elliot and his father was. "Mr. Robot" has been slow and sometimes tedious in this second season, but the emotional ending to this episode served as a reminder that this show has enormous potential and that the early parts of this season are likely setting up for even better things down the road. Angela's story is excellent and it is refreshing to see her integrated with the main story again. Without the focus being on Angela's internal character arc, the episode overcomes a lot of the problems I've had with her character development. My enjoyment of the story no longer depends on Angela's confused sense of morality, and all I need to know to enjoy her storyline here is that she has a much more aggressive personality compared to the first season. That is enough and it allows me to really enjoy how she handles herself as she executes this intense mission. Angela shines here, starting even before the mission begins when she stares down Cisco and sends him a brutal message without saying anything. I loved that moment, and we got a few more similarly intense scenes. Angela's efforts in the bathroom were suspenseful, and even better was when the FBI guy confronted her afterwards and Angela was forced to find a way out of there. The scene was superb, and Angela playing along to find her way out was excellent. The femtocell sequence was also very suspenseful, and I genuinely thought Angela was done there. But of course, true to real life, something goes wrong and Angela now has to do an extra hack from her own terminal. This final scene was absolutely outstanding. The extreme close-up of Angela's face puts us right in her shoes as she does this hack, and Darlene's quickfire instructions are tough to follow even for us, adding further to the tension. We are never given any shots of the environment around Angela, making us feel the anxiety she feels that somebody may be watching, somebody might see, somebody might hear her talking to Darlene. The anxiety is portrayed with sublime accuracy through stylistic filming choices, and it is an impressive accomplishment. Angela losing her place was totally realistic, and the fear that she felt in that scenario was perfect. The sequence finally ends with Angela inputting the final command, and right when you think she finally succeeded, "Mr. Robot" throws one final twist as Dom shows up right out of nowhere. It's a tremendous moment filled with dread, one that was set up beautifully in an earlier scene (you can see Dom in the background when Angela heads downstairs). I would normally complain about the FBI being so lax with their security, but credit where credit is due, a previous episode established that Dom is one of the only people that actually cares about security and that others don't really pay attention. Excellent foresight by the writers to include that scene to ensure that we can buy into the poor FBI security in this episode. The Bad: Angela's story was too similar to the Steel Mountain mission in "eps1.4_3xpl0its.wmv" for my liking. Sure, this time it was Angela instead of Elliot, and the concept was different, and the scenes were structured differently. But there were so many similarities along the way that it felt like I was watching the same exact thing. I still enjoyed it, but it took away from Angela's scenes when I realized how incredibly similar they were to a previous storyline. The Unknown: Is Mr. Robot killing Tyrell indicative of the fact that Elliot has killed Tyrell? Where has Elliot been taken by Ray and Lone Star? What are they going to do with him? Why did the Dark Army investigate the femtocell? Did they cause this wifi problem? Or is there something else planted in that femtocell that is yet to be revealed? I feel sad for Ahmed, the store owner who has to close down. I thought his scene with Dom was well written and I definitely felt for him. But what was the point of this scene? I wonder what Ahmed's role in the story is, because he has been shown two times now. Surely he will play some sort of role in this story instead of just being a reminder of how difficult the world post-5/9 is. Why is Whiterose ducking Price's calls? What is her goal? What will Price do without China's help? How will Angela deal with Dom? Will she find out what Angela has done? Angela gave Cisco quite the staredown. Will she do something to him later? I can't imagine that their storyline ends with just a glare. Best Moment: If I can get away with it, I'll give it to the entirety of the 15 minute opening sequence. Every second of that was a winner. If not, then I'll have to go with Elliot's emotional embrace of Mr. Robot, a terrific pay-off of six episodes of storytelling. Character of the Episode: Mr. Robot. Conclusion: Finally season 2 has started to progress and it is immediately paying off. Elliot and Mr. Robot's reconciliation provides the emotional edge that the show has desperately needed, while Angela's mission offers up some of that signature high-octane suspense that "Mr. Robot" is becoming known for. And then you add on that magnificent sitcom parody to start the episode, and this is a stand-out episode, quite possibly the best of the show so far. Score: 74
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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