Summary: Elliot prepares to cover up what he has done. Mr. Robot appears and discourages Elliot who won't listen. Elliot is busted by police officer Dom and runs away to the subway where he goes to Coney Island where he's going to marry Angela. However, she is not there. Mr. Robot tries to explain to Elliot that this is not a parallel universe, rather a prison where Elliot keeps the "real Elliot" imprisoned so he can keep control. The Elliot we have been following is another personality called "The Mastermind". Elliot runs after Angela, who suddenly appears, and after a dream-like sequence, he finds himself in a room with Krista. Krista explains all of Elliot's personalities to him and tells him that it's time to let go and allow the real Elliot to take back control. Elliot refuses and wakes up in the hospital with Darlene and gradually accepts that he's just a personality. Darlene always knew but finally had a chance to be close with Elliot so she didn't bring it up. In the end, Elliot relinquishes control and the real Elliot wakes up to Darlene.
The Good: This was a highly effective finale. In this final episode, Sam Esmail revealed his final hand and finally divulged one final enormous twist which had very clearly been planned out since the start of the show. Even if you did predict the twist, it's still effective, emotional, and completely changes our perspective of the entire show. I am of course talking about the reveal of "The Mastermind", telling us that the character we had been following all along was never the real Elliot, but another personality who had been put in control for the past while to create a better world for the real Elliot. To avoid things getting too complicated, I will dub "The Mastermind" simply as "Elliot" and the other Elliot as "the real Elliot". This twist is really impressive. I did not see it coming, and having watched some earlier scenes of the show, it makes perfect sense and aligns with what we have seen in the show. A few notes I can specifically bring up is the importance this put on Elliot's morphine addiction, which is what caused him to forget that he is not the real Elliot, and it also explains why he forgot so many things, including Darlene. Furthermore, this also explains why Angela was always inexplicably distant from Elliot and why it was always so hard for me to understand how they were such close friends for so long. In the end, Angela was interacting with somebody who was completely different from the Elliot that she knew for the entire duration of the show. I really love what this twist does to the show on rewatch. It's going to be a completely different experience to rewatch this show with all of the new knowledge we have about Elliot and who he actually is. Overall, I think that this twist works so well because it has layers to it, it makes sense, it changes how we can view the show, and perhaps most importantly, it has an emotional impact within this episode. The emotional aspect of this twist fits in so well with the themes of the show. One of those central themes is what it means to be in control. I haven't discussed it as much as I should have since I never realized how central this idea was to the story of the show. But "Mr. Robot" has always been about the illusion of control and what it means to have agency over your life. It makes perfect sense that this final episode hinges on who is in control in the head of Elliot Alderson. The Elliot that is in control was a fake all along, and the emotion of this episode comes from Elliot having to accept that he is a fake and needs to relinquish his own control to let the real Elliot, the one who belongs in this body, return to his own life. I became invested in this plight, and there were a lot of powerful scenes that explored this idea. Elliot's scene with "Krista" is very effective at giving up all of the necessary exposition, and Elliot's difficulty in accepting these harsh truths was wonderfully acted and so human. But after waking up to Darlene, Elliot feels immense guilt now that he is living a life that he knows he doesn't belong in. After a heartfelt and beautiful scene with Darlene, he finally lets go, and I found myself with a sad smile as the real Elliot was finally allowed back into the world and Elliot took his place in the real Elliot's mind alongside all of his other personalities. That scene with Darlene was wonderfully effective. The bond she has with Elliot is the best character relationship in the series. We've always known that Elliot and Darlene weren't particularly close before fsociety, so there is some beautiful honesty in Darlene being unable to tell Elliot about the nature of his existence because she simply wanted the chance to repair her relationship with her brother, and she was able to do that easier with Elliot compared to the real Elliot who she ran away from before. But of course knowing somebody who is only a part of Elliot isn't enough for Darlene, and part of her did crave to have her real brother back. It's such a sad scenario, which gives the episode's conclusion a heartwarming sense of happiness as Darlene is finally able to reunite with her brother - her real brother. I did like the twist that this parallel universe ended up being a fake world that Elliot created in his head. It had its flaws (see: The Bad), but it was a subversion that nicely set up the much bigger twist by explaining where the real Elliot had been all along (living in this loop over and over again). It was great to see "Mr. Robot" include some final filmmaking delights in this episode, especially with that trippy sequence where Elliot is running around Coney Island as reality seemingly collapses all around him. Mr. Robot's face is everywhere, Krista appears, we hear Angela say that iconic "you're not Elliot, you're The Mastermind" line, and even Tyrell shows up to shoot Elliot. This sequence was a lot of fun to watch, and did a magnificent job of confusing reality for us. The Bad: Parts of this episode felt a bit cheap. For example, we were misled into believing that this world was a parallel universe only for it to have been a delusion inside of Elliot's head the whole time. The reveal made sense and it was an effective twist, but it does feel cheap considering that we spent 3 episodes inside of this world only to be told that it was fake all along. Especially considering that this is the final storyline of the series, it doesn't feel right that we spend so much of it in a separate world inside Elliot's head. Furthermore, the idea that this world exists is too strong of a metaphor for me to accept. The mind is such an abstract concept, and I've usually appreciated how this show attempts to create some literal meaning out of such an abstract concept, but this was a step so far. To have such a realistic and well-developed world in Elliot's head where he sends his real consciousness away was a step too far for me to easily accept without question. I was also disappointed that we never got answers to what Whiterose showed Angela. "eXit" teased heavily that we would understand the nature of Whiterose's machine and how she manipulated Angela so heavily. But we never got those answers, and I'm left frustrated as to why the show would tease something that it had no intention of answering. I'm fine with the idea of leaving these things unanswered, but don't tease answers if they are not coming! It's the same mistake that "Lost" made when marketing the final season. The Unknown: Not too many questions of substance. I think that this finale resolved everything nicely. However, I do have a lot of questions to pay attention to for when I inevitaly revisit this show. When did The Mastermind first emerge? How much did this affect the people in his life? When did Darlene realize that Elliot was not who she remembered? How did The Mastermind forget that he was not the real Elliot? Did Mr. Robot always treat Elliot differently, knowing that he was not the real Elliot? So was there really nothing to Whiterose's machine? What exactly did she show Angela? I suppose we will never know. Best Moment: Elliot speaking with Darlene and coming to peace with the fact that he needs to relinquish control. I've said time and time again that their bond is the heart of the show and that remained true here. Character of the Episode: Elliot/The Mastermind. Conclusion: This was a beautiful, powerful series finale. It had some flaws for sure, but overall this was an excellent way to conclude the series, providing a thematic and resonant conclusion. Score: 75
1 Comment
Joe Y
7/16/2022 04:19:33 pm
This is a very strong finale. Very "Lost" finale-esque, actually. It's interesting that one episode is controversial while the other is almost universally praised. The final twist is surprising, emotionally resonant, and fits with the personal story the show set out to tell all along.
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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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