Summary: Darlene returns to her apartment and Dom informs her that Elliot is there. Darlene covers her tracks as a precaution rather than informing on him and Elliot believes it. Elliot gets close with her again and Darlene convinces him to work against stage 2. They make a deal that Darlene will follow him to Tyrell when he becomes Mr. Robot. Later that night, Mr. Robot meets with Angela and Darlene sees. They leave in a taxi and Darlene can't follow. They meet with Tyrell and they all realize that Elliot has been causing shipping delays and other problems. Tyrell is furious but Angela tries to calm him down. Mr. Robot glitches back to Elliot so Angela sedates him and moves him to her house. Angela calls Price to get Elliot fired from E Corp. Tyrell speaks with Irving about Elliot and their setback, and Irving tells him the deadline can't be moved and that Tyrell has to find a way. Irving eventually convinces Tyrell to keep working and take control himself. Darlene meets with Dom and tells her she has a plan, but has to proceed without a wire. The FBI bust the man who made the fsociety video, but they get nothing from him.
The Good: Darlene's guilt is a primary focus of this episode and it explored in a brilliant way. From the opening scene, the episode makes it clear that we are getting a personal look into Darlene's head. She comes off as almost tragic in her opening scene as she allows the pickpocket to steal from her because she feels such guilt for all that she has taken away from the middle and lower class people as a result of 5/9. The only thing that she believes is worth saving is a polaroid, the significance of which we don't find out until later. The rest of the episode plays up this idea of guilt with some lovely touches. Elliot lets her into Shayla's apartment, reminding us that both of them have a shared connection of losing a loved one too soon. It's clear that Darlene is thinking of Cisco here because of a subtle scene where we see her searching up Budapest trips, which is what Cisco wanted. Then, towards the end of the episode we finally pay off of the polaroid. It's not a picture of Cisco or anything like that, but it is a picture of her family, highlighting what Darlene values the most: her relationship with Elliot. This makes it even more heartbreaking when we learn about the extent of Darlene's situation in that final scene with Dom. She is desperate for some sort of ordinary social interaction without any guilt, but Dom can't even offer her that as even when they do talk Darlene is reminded of Cisco's death. With everything being so full of despair, Darlene opens up to Dom about everything and we realize the extent of her problems. If she doesn't help the FBI, she is going to jail and losing out on her whole life. But if she does help them, she's going to lose the one thing that's keeping her tethered, the one thing that she values most: her family. It's a truly awful situation to be put in, and it's no wonder that Darlene spends the episode so depressed when you consider the no-win scenario she is currently in. I can't imagine any way out for her right now where she gets a happy ending, and that is devastating. What makes it hurt all the more is that Darlene's scenes with Elliot are a great reflection of their relationship. All of their scenes share a warm sibling bond that is mostly unspoken but you can very much feel it when they are together. That little bit of care and love they have for each other is noticeable, no matter the situation. Even at the start of the episode when they are arguing, the main conflict is not about what happened and why. It's about their bond, about Elliot feeling betrayed that his own sister hacked him, and about Darlene being concerned about him cutting her out. Once they start opening up to each other afterwards, it feels like they genuinely want to help each other and be good familial support. It's very sweet and the emotion is there throughout the episode. Darlene feels genuine when she tries to get Elliot to turn against Tyrell and co. And that's because she is. She could easily turn Elliot in with everyone else, but she clearly wishes for him to join her so that the FBI would likely be lenient with him, like they have been with her. Meanwhile Elliot's anger against Darlene entirely dissipated when he is faced with the horrifying reveal that he hurt her when he was Mr. Robot, and his regret is immediately evident and it leads to the episode's best scene (see: Best Moment). The plot-oriented scenes with the other characters are good too. It's great to see how Tyrell's mental state has changed further following the reveal that Elliot has multiple personalities. His newfound faith was shaken and it results in more angry temper tantrums from one of the show's most unhinged characters. And once again, it's up to Irving to handle him and he gives him the brutal bit of reassurance that he will see his wife after his work in complete, knowing full well that it's a lie. This brings up some interesting questions (see: The Unknown), while simultaneously reminding us how remorseless and cruel Irving can be. Angela has a strong episode. It's honestly frightening how she changes from cold-hearted business to being sweet and friendly when Elliot began to emerge in place of Mr. Robot. She's become a cold operator under Whiterose's service and I am saddened to see her like this. She has also gotten better at hiding her emotions, like when she discovered that Elliot was up to something in E Corp, which by the way was a hilarious moment as Elliot cooked up an awful lie. The Bad: Elliot saying that he wanted to follow through with stage 2 deep down does make sense, but it feels like it came out of nowhere and is unsatisfying. If he wanted it to be followed through, then why would he work so hard on delaying shipments and everything? This seems like a hamfisted explanation to address the big plot hole of why Elliot wouldn't just go to the FBI with an anonymous tip to stop the plan, which seems like an easy solution. I feel like the show could have come up with a much more realistic and effective reason for Elliot to not do this but rearranging aspects of the story, like perhaps establishing that ratting to the FBI would almost certainly result in Elliot's death or something along those lines. The Unknown: Who is the guy on the inside that the Dark Army is going to use? What did Whiterose show Irving and Angela? We have seen how it changed Angela, but how did it effect Irving? Irving is a very strange character, and I wonder what his actual story is. Who is the man that the FBI busted for the fsociety video? He seemingly wanted to be busted, proven by him grabbing the mask and by how easy it was for the FBI to track him. Why did he want to be busted? What is he doing? Who is he working for? Is he Dark Army? He seemed to have a slight reaction when Dom mentioned Whiterose. Is Irving actually arranging an emergency evacuation of the building? I don't buy it. We saw him coldly lie to Tyrell about going to Ukraine with his family, so I suspect he was lying with Angela too. This also brings up the question of what the Dark Army will do with them once the work is done. Will all of Elliot, Tyrell, and Angela be killed after the plan is executed? Is Price aware the Angela is compromised and that Elliot is involved with her operation? Whiterose revealed to Price that he got through to Angela, so it's entirely possible that Price has figured that Angela is no longer his agent. Does this mean that Price will not fire Elliot? How much will Elliot remember when he wakes up? Will he realize that Angela has betrayed him? Will he even remember at all or think it was all a dream? Best Moment: Elliot saying "whatever he does, it's not me" to Darlene was really sad. This episode gorgeously examined this relationship and how much Elliot and Darlene mean to each other. Elliot's apology to her and his wistful acceptance that he may not be able to control her had power to it. But perhaps even more effective was Darlene's simple "I know". Even though we know Darlene is working against him and that Mr. Robot did manhandle her two episodes ago, Darlene absolving him felt like it came out of a place of true familial love. These two have a wonderful sibling relationship. Character of the Episode: Darlene. This was her episode. Conclusion: This was mostly simple set-up, but elevated by the emphasis on Darlene's internal struggle. Another good episode as the plot continues to heat up. Score: 66
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|