Summary: Elliot prepares to meet with Whiterose. He goes back to work but Ollie gives him instructions to go to an appointment, and Elliot understands that this is the Whiterose meeting. He goes to the meet and Whiterose informs him that Gideon is using the CS30 server as a trapped honeypot. She gives Elliot 50 hours to rectify the issue and prepare his new plan. Elliot agrees to take care of the issue, and with Darlene's help, he distracts Allsafe with an fsociety video and hacks Gideon's phone. However, Gideon notices that Elliot was absent and intends to have a big talk with him. Elliot meets with Darlene and is elated by his success. He kisses her, and Darlene, horrified that he has forgotten, reminds Elliot that they are sisters. Elliot mentally breaks down, and upon going home he realizes that Mr. Robot is his father. Mr. Robot arrives and says that they need to talk. Tyrell hides what he's done from his wife and avoids the police at work. The police arrives at his home and Joanna learns what he's done, and she induces labour by breaking her own water to protect Tyrell.
The Good: Before I talk about this episode I'll talk about the ending of the previous one. It turns out I was wrong about Elliot, and he still ignored Gideon's advice and only talked to Krista to help her, not to help himself. This is distressing news because it means that Elliot still isn't facing any of his own problems and continues to run away from grief and embracing his human emotions, just like Tyrell. It's a sad twist on last episode's ending. As for this episode, it's heavily built around tension. The build up to the meeting with Whiterose is very suspenseful as it becomes apparent that Whiterose wants to meet with Elliot himself. I enjoyed Ollie's role in the story, tying up the loose end of Cisco's connection to him, and I like that Elliot was intelligent enough to figure out that Ollie was compromised and was being used to set up the meeting. The meeting itself was tense and exciting, and Whiterose was very interesting. I hope we see more of her because she has potential to be a very fascinating character. Her interactions with Elliot were cleverly written to be tense, funny, and creative. I'm certain that Elliot will be meeting her again. The best thing that the Whiterose meeting did was add a time limit. Elliot's inner monologue worked tremendously here because it highlighted Elliot's anxiety in an interesting way, which ramped up the suspense. The attempt to hack Gideon was excellent, and the plan was good while still having clear flaws which raised the risk of Elliot being caught. Gideon finally confronting and lecturing him was extremely suspenseful and a perfect climax for the main plot of this episode. But the real twist is that the episode kept going from there and it completely upended everything about this first season with a brilliant final five minutes. The Darlene twist caught me entirely off guard, just as it did Elliot. I was about to roll my eyes at how forced this romance felt when the clear tension was building, but I was not expecting the twist that Darlene was Elliot's sister. And yet it made perfect sense. There were little inaccuracies throughout the season that I'm suddenly realizing were intentional instead of moments of slight awkwardness. Plus this perfectly explained the perplexing opening scene where Angela and Darlene confusingly seemed to know each other, a scene that made me question if I had maybe skipped an episode at some point. Looking back, that opening scene is a terrific bit of foreshadowing that sets up this twist. And when I say this changes everything, I mean it changes everything. We cannot take anything we see in this show at face value because Elliot cannot be trusted as a protagonist. Evidently, he's mentally ill and crazy, so we have no idea if what we're seeing is even real or not. The show toyed with this idea early on but ignored it for much of the season, which I was displeased about. But it turns out that much of what we saw throughout the season wasn't an accurate rendition of events at all. This is a massive twist, and it gives much more value to the scenes we are watching when get the added tension of being uncertain about what is reality and what is not. And perhaps more fascinatingly, we can't even be sure that we are just viewers of this show. Perhaps our role is more important than we thought. The ideas that this show is throwing around are so fascinating, and they are explored expertly. Tyrell's murder progresses well and he is suitably unhinged. Even though I do not relate much with Tyrell, he is so enigmatic that I am immediately hooked by his unpredictability when he's on screen. He is entirely unstable throughout the episode as he avoids facing up to his crime. The police arrival at the end was intriguing and I was expecting another tense sequence. Instead, Joanna surprised me by taking Tyrell's side and coming up with a clever way out of the situation by inducing her own labour. That was a gruesome moment, but was very revealing about this character and the pragmatic way that she thinks. The Bad: Nothing outright bad. I suppose I am a little disappointed that the lengthy Ollie storyline with Cisco only served to set up Elliot's meeting with Whiterose, which is a lame pay-off. The Unknown: Who was that man that Darlene slept with? How well does Darlene know Angela? I was confused by their meeting at first, thinking that I had missed or forgotten the scene where they met. But with the ending reveal it makes perfect sense that they know each other. Why is Whiterose working with fsociety? What are her goals? Will she go through with the plan this time? This episode hams up on Elliot's interactions with us, and that interests me. What are we exactly in the context of the show? Is the fact that we are watching the events of Elliot's life going to be a significant aspect of the show and Elliot's mental state? I thought that Elliot talking to us was just a gimmick but the show is promising that it is something more. What is Mr. Robot's dirty secret? How does Tyrell know him? What is their relationship? What is Tyrell's agreement with him? Now the big one. How did Elliot forget about Darlene? Clearly he's known her his whole life, so how does he simply forget? Didn't he meet her for the first time in the first episode? Or perhaps that scene was written differently and I just don't remember. How are Elliot's memories locked away? Who did this? Why? Is Mr. Robot Elliot's father? I thought he died. Is he still alive? Did he fake his own death? Or is he still in Elliot's head? Best Moment: Elliot's complete mental breakdown after the shock reveal by Darlene. The sequence was so effective and horrifying. I could feel Elliot's panic, paranoia, confusion, and fear conveyed perfectly by both the acting and directing. This is one of the most stylish TV shows that I have seen, and it puts that style to good use in this sequence. Character of the Episode: Elliot. Conclusion: This was a huge episode that upended everything, yet looking back, it explains a lot of the oddities that we had seen in this first season. The big ending twist was earned, and it comes at the end of another beautifully tense episode. This is great stuff. Score: 70
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Summary: Flashbacks show when Shayla first met Elliot. Elliot goes back to work and hides from grieving over Shayla. He finishes his therapy, but ends up returning and opens up to Krista about his hacking and even tells her that he hacks her regularly. Angela arranges a meeting with Colby and proposes that he testify for her case against E Corp and in return she will make a testimony that helps him out. Colby agrees to the deal, but when Angela returns to Allsafe she realizes that her testimony would likely kill the company. Mr. Robot works on getting fsociety back together for the rest of his plan. Darlene is able to arrange a meeting with Whiterose, who leads the Dark Army. Tyrell continues to scheme against Scott and Sharon, and after inviting Sharon to the roof in secret, they start making out and Tyrell ultimately ends up strangling her to death.
The Good: Elliot has a good story here as his life transitions following Shayla's death. The opening flashback is quite sad and it emphasizes Shayla' importance to Elliot; they clearly had a connection from the moment they met. Elliot spends the rest of the episode failing to process his grief or even accept it. He's back to work and he refuses to take time off. For times like these, Elliot's inner monologue works really well because it allows us a glimpse into his inner psyche when he has emotionally shut himself off from the world. The "view source" theme in the episode is relevant to Elliot's story, exploring how Elliot has to understand his true self and reveal it to those around him. And by episode's end he finally does that when he opens up to Krista. What he says to her is quite horrifying, but it is honest. It will be interesting to see how Krista responds to him and if she is willing to open up to him too (see: The Unknown). The other storylines in the episode also adhere to the "view source" theme as literally every character has to accept truths about themselves. This works really well because it gives all of these side characters more depth than what they had going into the episode. I've been critical of how this show has handled its side plots because these side characters aren't anywhere near as interesting to follow as Elliot. But after this episode, I am much more invested in the side stories that are happening. Romero and Trenton were flat characters who we knew nothing about, so they were never characters that I wanted to explore. But now I know more about what makes them tick and I can start to sympathize with them. I'm sure that I will grow to care about them soon if this keeps up. We learn that Romero is a smart and gifted guy, but that he is hesitant to support fsociety. But Mr. Robot essentially threatens him into coming back, which could be an important point of conflict for the future. We also get more insight on Trenton and I found it to be really interesting. Her motives for making a revolution are sensible, and I appreciate that she does secretly look down on everyone else for having "lesser" motives. It's a nice human detail that makes her easier to understand and empathize with. Angela gets the most screentime in this episode and her story is pretty strong. It's engaging to watch her negotiate with Colby and we get to see the character's strengths emerge with how she handles herself. She is never afraid of backing down and says and does what she needs to without ever being deceitful or manipulative. It's a good story to follow and Angela's actions make it very easy to root for her. Her deconstruction to Colby of how painful it is to be in the lower class is a great moment that lines up nicely with the themes of the show. Tyrell's story is very interesting. I do not like Tyrell at all, but I find him so fascinating to follow. He is not a character that we are supposed to like. He's a true villain, manipulative, deceitful, egotistical, and an outright sadist. His scenes in this episode were filled with intrigue. Unlike Elliot and Angela who don't back down from the truths about themselves, Tyrell fires his employees out of rage when the subject of their discussion unintentionally forces Tyrell to face the reality of his own patheticness. It's a brilliant scene with rich thematic value. Then of course we get to the episode's huge moment as Tyrell murders Sharon in cold blood. I'm uncertain if this was planned or not (see: The Unknown), but the horror of the moment is conveyed superbly through the directing, and Martin Wallstrom is superb as he breaks down in the aftermath of what he's done. The Bad: Angela's story has some flaws within it. There was a month-long timeskip in this episode, and in all that time Angela was planning her deal with Colby. Did she really never think about the consequences of Allsafe being shut down by her testimony in this time? She shouldn't have needed Gideon to tell her that. I'm not a huge fan of Colby's characterization. I was hoping that he would be a somewhat decent guy outside of business as it would give him some depth and make him feel like a more unique character. Instead he tells Angela to suck his balls and beg to him, and admits to making his fateful decision in 1993 while drunk and not taking things seriously at all. The actor plays the role well and the scene of his reveal is good, but the "smug, creepy asshole in power" character offers very little originality and it doesn't explore any ideas that I haven't already seen from other TV shows. The Unknown: What's wrong with Flipper? What did he eat? What was the point of showing that scene with the vet? Will Angela be able to go through with her testimony? If not, what will be the consequences of her choice? Now that she has a deal with Colby, I imagine that it won't be good for her if she backs out. The meeting with Whiterose has been arranged. Who is Whiterose? Where are they meeting? What will happen at this meeting? Why did Tyrell murder Sharon? Was it just purely out of rage? If it was planned, then why? Will Tyrell really be able to get away with this? How is Krista going to respond to Elliot? Will she condemn his actions or accept them? Likewise, will she attempt to strengthen their relationship by relating to his struggles with loneliness? Best Moment: Elliot's final scene with Krista. His revelation is a big moment that is suitably terrifying, and I'm genuinely excited to see how Krista responds to it. Character of the Episode: Angela. Conclusion: This is a transition episode, but it is packed with a lot of rich character work and plot development. I am finally starting to get invested in every aspect of the show, and though it has taken a while to get there, I am glad that I reached this point before the season reached its big climax. I'm excited to see what's in store for the final three episodes, so this episode certainly did its job as a transition episode. Score: 67 Summary: Elliot meets briefly with Shayla who is held captive and he's put on the phone with Vera who tells him to get him out by the end of the day or Shayla dies. Elliot goes to his house under the supervision of Isaac and begins to work. He hacks into Isaac's phone immediately and enlists Darlene for help in secret, but with no time Darlene isn't successful and she is found and used as a hostage by Isaac. Elliot comes to terms with the likelihood of Shayla dying abut comes up with a final plan. He meets with Vera in jail and reveals that he plans to open all prison cells after accessing the prison's wifi. He threatens Vera, telling him hot to kill him or Shayla or he will leak the gang's operation, having accessed it all by hacking Isaac's phone. The set-up for Elliot's plan works but Isaac takes Elliot away and prepares to kill him. Elliot realizes Isaac wants Vera dead because Vera is going to kill him and talks Isaac out of murdering him. The prison escape happens and Elliot and Isaac wait for Vera. Vera has his henchman kill Isaac and lets Elliot go. He gives Elliot the keys to Isaac's car and Elliot finds Shayla dead in the trunk.
The Good: This was good stuff. It was essential that Vera was a legitimate threat throughout this episode for there to be tension and it was managed perfectly. We learn that he is still in prison, but that his gang is fully operational and highly capable. The opening scene with Elliot and Shayla talking is superb. It's clear that something is wrong through some great acting, and then we get the big reveal as Shayla is once again abducted in broad daylight, with everyone in the restaurant pretending to be oblivious - obviously they have learned to turn a blind eye to the gang's dealings out of fear, which is a masterful way to establish a threat without any exposition or needless dialogue. Vera himself is really entertaining as a villain. I like the connection he has developed with Elliot. Vera is obviously not intelligent, but he excels in street-smarts after running a gang for so long. That makes him both a loose cannon, and incredibly dangerous, but it also makes his strange fascination with Elliot more plausible. Vera seems to be fascinated by Elliot more than he is frightened or interested in revenge. It feels like he is taking revenge simply because that's the way the world works, but deep down he respects Elliot's intelligence and his guts. It's an interesting dynamic, especially with how one-sided it is. Elliot couldn't care less for Vera, but Vera can't help but admire Elliot's drive. We spend a lot of time with Elliot in this episode and his experience feels highly personal. There is loads of suspense as Elliot works to find a way out of this scenario he's got himself trapped into. This leads to some great tension-based drama, but also a lovely moment of introspection as Elliot talks with "Mr. Robot" (see: The Unknown) about the situation with Shayla, and he comes to terms with the fact that he might not be able to save her, and that she was dead the moment that she did business with Vera. And unfortunately that is true, because looking back, there is no outcome no matter what Elliot does where Shayla comes out alive. It's a depressing reality that Elliot desperately tries to avoid, but he ends up facing it at the episode's end in an outstanding scene (see: Best Moment). The plot itself is pretty good. There are some small quibbles in the writing (see: The Bad), but overall this plot is suspenseful, effective and well-written. Darlene's involvement further increased the stakes, and I appreciate that Isaac was smart enough to understand that Elliot was working with her. I also liked the twist with Isaac where it's revealed that he has to kill Vera in order to survive. On the surface it sounds like a meaningless surprise, but when you consider that the entire operation was organized by Isaac, it is sensible that Isaac will be blamed, and a loose cannon like Vera absolutely would kill Isaac. So it is sensible for Isaac to desperately look for a way out where he lives, but he ultimately dies anyways. I liked the developments in Tyrell's story. That Tyrell's power move in the previous episode failed was a big surprise to me. This is the kind of storyline that would always work in TV shows, but impressively "Mr. Robot" shows off a bit of extra realism by having Tyrell fail as Sharon shares everything he did with Scott. Tyrell's intentions and weaknesses are immediately found out and exposed as Scott utterly demolishes him in the power game. It's a surprise twist that I really enjoy. I find it difficult to relate to characters when they are unrealistically intelligent, and seeing Tyrell's move in the last episode get thrown back in his face is superb writing. It leads into a lovely bit of film-making as Tyrell rages uncontrollably in the background while his wife calmly snacks in the foreground. The Bad: I have some reservations about this episode. I question the need to have a gang-related storyline in this show. For a show about hackers and psychological drama, do we really need a drug dealer subplot? It feels like a plot too many, especially considering that Angela and Tyrell have had their own stories going on in the background. Vera is a cool character, but I never expected him to be more than a flashy side character. Yet now he has killed Shayla, so he has to be a major player now or else this episode will feel inconsequential. I just question the need to include this storyline, not every show after "Breaking Bad", "The Wire", and "The Sopranos" needs to have gangs included in some way. Shayla's death fell a bit flat because I never cared about her as a character. The death was telegraphed early on in this episode so I had a feeling it was coming. And while it was tragic when we learned her fate, I felt bad for Elliot instead of feeling bad for her. That tells me that Shayla was poorly realized as a character and never emerged past being a plot device for Elliot's character development. I wish that the show had found a way to connect us more with Shayla so that her death could have more meaning. There is some suspension of disbelief that has to be done in this episode. A lot of the hacking feats feel a bit far-fetched. Darlene's USB scam is so risky because there is a very low chance that the guard who picks up the USB will be dumb enough to fall for the trap. Any sane person would ignore the obvious bait. Thank god that it did not work. Even worse is the prison security. Elliot being able to open all prison cells without ringing all alarms is a step too far in my opinion. Furthermore, the prisoners' escape is far too easy. Surely the guards roaming the building would be able to stop, or at least try to stop, the hoard of prisoners escaping through the courtyard. Jailbreaks are not this easy. The Unknown: How did Vera learn about Elliot's hacking ability? Was that just speculation or did somebody tell him? Why did Vera leave Elliot alive? Does he intend on using his talents later? When will we see him again? I'm certain that he's not gone for good. What is Tyrell's plan to handle Scott? It seems like he does not intend on completely pulling back. Is Tyrell married to his wife because of her intelligence? She comes off as more patient and intelligent than he is. I wonder if they are pragmatic enough to marry due to a mutual desire for power rather than any form of love. Mr. Robot's random appearance in this episode suggests further evidence that he is in Elliot's head. But we have seen him interact with others, so I wonder if only some of his scenes are in Elliot's head. Something very strange is going on with him and I'm not sure what. Why did Angela visit Colby? What is she planning to do with him? How does this connect to her attempted lawsuit on E Corp? Best Moment: In the final minutes of the episode, Vera gives Elliot the keys to the car he has been in this entire time, telling him that Shayla has been "with him the entire time". Elliot opens the trunk, and for a long time the camera doesn't pan to what he sees. We are just fixated on Elliot's reaction, which Rami Malek conveys superbly. We suspect that we know what he found in the trunk, and the slow escalation of Elliot's reaction followed by the horrifying concluding shot of Shayla's dead body is a perfect explosion of emotion to conclude the episode. This show's biggest strength remains its directing. The decisions made when shooting these scenes make the show so much better. With just a shot of Shayla's body, this scene wouldn't be anything special, but by fixing us on Elliot's reaction for such a long time, the scene goes from being just good to being terrific. Character of the Episode: Vera. Conclusion: This was another brutally tense episode, this time with a painful and emotional ending. The overall experience of this episode is excellent, and it more than delivers. I did have some reservations and concerns about this episode, but regardless, I still think that this is great television. Score: 69 Summary: Ross has been nominated for a research grant but it is being given out by Charlie's ex-boyfriend Benjamin. Chandler gets a commercial but has to find a way to decline letting Joey audition for it. Phoebe offers to give Monica one of her paintings and Monica obviously hates it.
The Good: Joey provides the episode's only laughs. The Ichiban commercial and Joey constantly getting distracted on the way to work is funny. Unfortunately that is it for The Good. The Bad: All three stories are terrible. To start, we have yet another awful Phoebe/Monica story where they are both awful to each other and completely unrealistic. Monica is such a terrible friend who lies as a natural instinct every time. Instead of telling Phoebe she doesn't want her "creation", she hides it and tries to manipulate it away. Even worse is Rachel who plays along with this, leading up to a stupid final joke as Monica and Rachel physically battle over Gladys. Phoebe is shockingly stupid. It is unbelievable that she wouldn't realize that Monica and Rachel hate her paintings, especially given her prior history. Speaking of prior history, why on Earth would Phoebe ever think that super picky, clean-freak Monica would ever want Gladys? It's as if these people hardly know each other. Add on a stupid joke of Joey being scared of ghosts and we have an awful storyline. Then we get to Ross. Poor Ross, who was once a great, relatable character is now such an unbelievable joke that is abused by the writers at every chance. David Schwimmer is the only reason that Ross still (kind of) works as a character. Here he hits a new low as his girlfriend openly goes to be with her ex right in front of him in what has to be the stupidest, most tone-deaf scene I have ever seen. Nobody in real life would ever be this shockingly awful! Charlie is terrible to Ross by abandoning him like this, and accepting Benjamin while right in front of him. It's a stupid storyline that is obviously only done to free Ross up to hook up with Rachel before the show's end. What a surprise. After all that drama last season with the Joey/Rachel/Ross/Charlie story, the pairings are broken up in a mere six episodes. Then add on Benjamin who is a terrible character who has no ethical credibility and is completely unprofessional and unsubtle at every turn. So much for being a Nobel Prize winner, this guy is a total goof. Lastly, there's Chandler's story and Chandler is a complete asshole here. Not only does he lie, but he infeasibly sticks to the lie and has the gall to be angry when found out. It's so stupid, and I can't fathom why Chandler doesn't simply watch the video, or at least tell Joey the truth! Every character is so bad in this episode. Best Moment: The Ichiban commercial. Character of the Episode: Joey. Conclusion: This is the worst episode of the whole show so far, and that includes the clip shows. At least the clip shows didn't infuriate me every 5 seconds. This episode was unfunny, nonsensical, written badly, completely impossible to relate to, and it frustrated me to no end. I hardly even care for these characters that I once cared for so dearly. They are mere shadows of their former selves. "Friends" has hit a new low with this abomination. Score: 26 Summary: Fsociety reaches Steel Mountain and Elliot is sent in. He gets access to a tour by using a fake identity verified on wikipedia. Elliot emotionally attacks the tour guide Bill to get into contact with a supervisor to be let into the restricted second level. However, the plan fails when a different supervisor arrives - the other's wife had a baby. Mobley manages to draw the new supervisor away with a text and Elliott tries to get tot he stairs to level two. However, he is found by Tyrell who takes him out to lunch on the second level. Elliot is unnerved by Tyrell but sneaks into the bathroom and installs the raspberry pi. Tyrell tells him that he knows he framed Colby and then leaves. Fsociety return to the amusement park where they learn that the Dark Army in China backed out. Darlene wants to go through with the plan anyways, but Mr. Robot and Elliot stop her. Elliot goes back home and discovers that Vera has abducted Shayla. Tyrell goes to dinner with Scott and enchants his wife. Angela breaks up with Ollie and moves in with her father.
The Good: The heist is a lot of fun to watch, and it is tense because it is uncertain if fsociety will succeed or not. I enjoyed the execution of the plan, and fittingly there were some unforeseen problems throughout the episode. I liked the Sam Sepiol plan, and while the wikipedia page certainly isn't airtight, it's easy to believe that the tour guide would be fooled after a quick google (people trust anything they find online), especially with Elliot saying over and over to "look me up". Following this, the plan is a blast to watch as Elliot is forced to tear down poor Bill (see: Best Moment), and then face a major problem when things fall apart as Wendy doesn't show up and they have to take care of Trudy instead. The tension is raised immediately, and the show comes up with an organic solution, though it isn't entirely satisfying (see: The Bad). What makes it easier to suspend our disbelief is how good Elliot is in these scenes. He is wonderfully awkward, and Rami Malek does a terrific job of raising the stakes and the suspense. But then the episode hits a whole new level of tension and unpredictability with Tyrell's arrival. By reconnecting with Tyrell, "Mr. Robot" played its wild card and went in a totally different direction from what I was expecting. Before now, fsociety had been exposing weaknesses of characters we had never met before, but now Elliot had to do that same thing with a key antagonist that we are familiar with. It was a fascinating dynamic, and seeing Elliot attempt to squirm away fearfully was superb. The bathroom scene is excellent. There is a lot of tension as Elliot tries to install the raspberry pi, and things ratchet up when once again, Tyrell comes into the room and grills Elliot, revealing that he knows that Colby was framed. It's a fascinating sequence that reveals a lot to us about Tyrell, and he proves that to systematically analyze the weaknesses of other people, you have to disregard your own humanity. This is a bleak message for Elliot who was doing the same thing minutes earlier with Bill. Hopefully Elliot won't lose his human side as Tyrell seems to have. Elsewhere we get to see more of Tyrell's personal life and his apparent lack of humanity. When having dinner with Scott and Sharon, he isn't there to have a good time. He's probing for weaknesses and is not afraid to show his hand a little bit to Scott. This leads to a terrific scene as Joanna distracts Scott, allowing for Tyrell to establish dominance over Sharon, after identifying a potential weakness in her. The moment in the bathroom is terrific and intense as Tyrell seems to have infiltrated Sharon's defenses. He's bold and certainly reckless, but the plan looks to have worked. I'm intrigued to see more. This is a decent start for a story that has been shot and written in a very engaging way. Now we need to see the story expanded upon in an interesting and creative way. The end of the episode saw some big changes. The reveal that the Steel Mountain mission would be a failure because of the Dark Army backing out was a real surprise that lead into some genuine tension at the episode's end. Darlene's fight with Mr. Robot is intense, and Darlene herself is given a really good moment as she is forced to accept her failure and that she's let everyone else down. I still don't particularly like Darlene, but this is improvement. We get a big cliffhanger at the very end as Vera has returned to the story and abducted Shayla. Exactly how he has done so is unclear, but this was a very surprising turn for a character who I did not expect to have such a key role in the story. I won't complain about it, as the actor playing Vera was terrific in his scenes a few episodes ago. It was nice to see him exhibit some intelligence and immediately understand that Elliot got him sent away. I'm intrigued by this storyline. Angela's story gets decent progression. I'm happy to see her break up with Ollie officially, which is what the show seemed to be building up to. Having her break up with him while also endangering his career is a very logical explanation for her actions in the previous episode and answers some of the logistical concerns I had raised. I enjoyed meeting her dad. He seems like a very sweet man. The Bad: This biggest problem with Tyrell's appearance in Steel Mountain is that we already pulled back the curtain on his personal life a few episodes ago which ends up deflating the tension of why he's there and if he is after Elliot. We learned two episodes ago that Tyrell's primary goals are involving Scott so he definitely is not only at Steel Mountain for Elliot. This does hurt the drama of their ensuing scenes because had Tyrell still been shrouded in mystery, the suspense in these scenes could have been on a whole other level. Darlene continues to bother me. It is shocking to me that she is still trusted as part of this careful hacking team when she is so careless and frustrating. I was flabbergasted when she openly talked about the attack on Steel Mountain in a silent library, which is quite condemning. Shayla is still quite flat as a character. Frankie Shaw gives a good performance and I buy into her getting involved with Elliot, but they seem to be much closer than they should be based off of what we have seen. I also feel that Shayla hasn't quite grown into her own as a character just yet. Now she's been abducted, and while I'm interested, I'm not worried for her life the way that I would be if I cared about the character. There are some things about the heist plot that don't entirely work. Like with the last episode, I'll say it again: shouldn't a high security place like Steel Mountain have everything under watch with cameras? It's hard to believe that Elliot would ever be able to pick locks without being seen on camera. Furthermore, the supervisor should have quickly been able to realize she was scammed (1 phone call to her husband solves that) and been immediately suspicious of Elliot. The lack of continuity from there is disappointing. The Unknown: What did Tyrell sign off on with those guards? Was it just for his helicopter? What will Tyrell do with his newfound knowledge of Elliot? Is he suspicious of Elliot's presence at Steel Mountain? What is Tyrell's plan for Scott and his wife? Will he try to depose him somehow? Will the installed raspberry pi come into play in a future episode? Who is Whiterose? Why did the Dark Amy back out? What are their goals? How did Fernando manage to get out of imprisonment? Did he escape or was he somehow exonerated? What does he plan on doing with Shayla? What was so significant about the paperwork that Angela found in her dad's place? How will this affect the story? It seems that her dad is in debt, but who is this debt to? Evil Corp? Best Moment: Elliot destroying Bill was a fantastic and depressing scene. We know that Elliot does not want to lose his humanity by viewing Bill as simply an obstacle instead of as a human being. Which is why it's so brutally sad that he ultimately does this, drawing from his past experiences with his mother to tear down the insecurities of this sweet, lonely tour guide. The scene is powerful, and at times darkly funny, and it's easily the worst thing that Elliot has done so far. To make things even more uncomfortable, we see that Elliot is content with what he did later in the episode, further realizing the horror of this scene. Character of the Episode: I'll give it to Tyrell this time. He was imposing the entire episode. Conclusion: A much stronger effort from "Mr. Robot". The show is still developing, but a high degree of tension, some intense emotional scenes, fascinating dialogue exchanges between Elliot and Tyrell, and a surprise cliffhanger resulted in the best episode since the pilot. Score: 68 Summary: Elliot makes a plan to use the climate control system within Steel Mountain to destroy all of the data. However, the data is going to be spread out across multiple facilities within 3 days, so the group leaves immediately. However, Elliot faces withdrawal symptoms and the group is halted to take care of him while he has visions. Darlene and Trenton go to meet with Darlene's hacker contact. After searching the whole night, they finally meet Cisco, who is the same hacker threatening Angela and Ollie. Angela looks for freedom in her life and does drugs with Shayla. Following this, she immediately acts and uploads the virus onto Allsafe's network.
The Good: I enjoy detail-oriented heist storylines so I am excited to see where this Steel Mountain story goes. The planning scenes early in the episode were well done, and I am excited to see this plan put into action. But of course the plan gets derailed by Elliot's withdrawal. This story is built up nicely as we open with a close-up on Elliot's final line, and the turning point in the episode comes when he finally takes it, leading to withdrawal symptoms when he leaves with fsociety. The rest of the episode took an interesting turn as we get a terrific drug trip sequence as Elliot contends with withdrawal. This sequence is directed beautifully and is wonderfully mysterious. I was at the edge of my seat trying to figure out these mysteries and understand what exactly is going on in Elliot's head (see: The Unknown). The rest of the episode has a bit of a drug theme going on as well. Angela also ends up doing drugs with Shayla which was a surprising development for her. We get to understand Angela's deep-rooted fears and her desire to break free from them. Ultimately her experience with Shayla leads to her doubling down on infecting the Allsafe servers without even asking Ollie about it. She's done with worrying, and is acting purely in her own self-interest. Finally some of these disparate storylines started to combine as we learn that the hacker who is blackmailing Ollie is actually Cisco, Darlene's ex-boyfriend. While this doesn't have any impact on the story yet, it is good to see the story threads starting to connect. The Bad: The two side stories did very little for me. The writing is okay but the big problem is that I am not emotionally invested in these characters and their stories yet. The only character I am invested in right now is Elliot, so every story in this show should be connected to him somehow. But they aren't. Angela and Ollie have their own thing going on, and with Angela going off on her own, her weaknesses as an individual character reared their head. I don't understand much about her, and she doesn't have enough of interest going on to make me care about her story. Her kiss with Shayla also reeks of fanservice. Similarly, I find Darlene to be really annoying, and her scenes with Trenton did nothing for me. Again, I do not care about these characters at all. Their story seemingly has plot relevance, but it's hard to invest in it since we know that the plot has been stalled to accommodate Elliot's withdrawal. Which brings me to my next point. This episode feels like it is 50% stalling. The first part of the episode gets the Steel Mountain plot underway and builds excitement to see it. But then the second half of the episode sees no plot progression at all. Elliot's visions are interesting, but the plot stopped entirely to accommodate them, and the pacing of the show suffers. Furthermore, Darlene and Trenton's story is substantially less interesting and tense because we know that there is no time crunch, and it doesn't really matter if they succeed because none of the others have even made it to Steel Mountain. The scene of Angela installing the infected code did not work for me. I am confused as to why she did it in secret the way that she did. Did she really have to go to Allsafe before it opened to install it in secret? This is a security building, surely they have cameras and security protocols in place that would quickly reveal what she has done. Installing it during work hours would have been far less suspicious. Hell, Ollie almost did it himself in the previous episode! So Angela's covert trip to Allsafe felt entirely unnecessary and either makes her look stupid, or makes the company look incompetent. Furthermore, why did Angela show up at a time when someone else was about to enter the company? Surely she could have come a little earlier to decrease the risk of getting caught. The logistics here were very poorly thought out. Elliot's voice-over is not working for me anymore. It attempts to connect the themes of the episode to computer terms, but rather than make me view the episode in a different way, it feels forced, unsubtle, and cheesy. The daemon theme was ofttimes confusing, and it did not add to my experience of the episode. I'm concerned that hacking will be used as a plot device now. We saw some of the fsociety members steal a car by hacking it. There was no attention to detail or exploring the preparation that needed to be put into place to steal this car. We are just expected to go along with it because they are hackers so that means they can do anything. That's very poor storytelling, we need to understand how this stuff works and the effort required to make it work, or else the show will be increasingly susceptible to using hacking as an unsatisfying plot convenience to solve problems. The Unknown: Will Elliot's plan work? Will they be able to execute it before the backups are created? What will be the consequences of Angela uploading the CD? Did she do it on Ollie's computer? Will they be punished for it? Will Darlene get involved in Cisco's blackmail attempt of Angela? How will these stories connect? What the hell was Elliot's drug trip? What was the symbolism of the key supposed to mean? What does it open? What is Elliot's monster? Why is he afraid of it? What does it mean? Is his identity not what he thinks it is? What happened to the house in his flashback? Why is it missing? Is this meant to symbolize that a part of his own memory has been removed? How did this happen? Who did this? Is it post-traumatic amnesia? Who was the little girl? Why was Qwerty talking? What was the significance of Elliot proposing to Angela and her telling him not to go through with it? Does this suggest that Elliot wants to pursue Angela but is afraid of doing so? What other purpose is there to this sequence? It should be noted that Mr. Robot didn't have any significant interactions with anyone throughout the episode outside of during Elliot's dream sequence. Does he really exist? The show is being delightfully ambiguous when dealing with this question. Best Moment: Elliot's trippy sequence was really well executed. The directing was exceptional and there was a sense of wild fantasy, mystery, and unease the entire time. There's plenty to analyze and speculate on, and I am a sucker for such interesting out-of-body experiences like these. I'm sure once we get to the end of the show we will be able to look back and see some amazing foreshadowing and set-up in this sequence. Character of the Episode: Elliot. None of the other characters have stood out enough yet. Conclusion: The first weak episode of the show. The side characters still haven't made a mark on me, and the storytelling in this episode was slow-paced and uninteresting. The visual presentation of the show remains excellent, but now the story is starting to lag behind. Score: 55 Summary: Elliot wakes up in a hospital with Shayla and Krista. He agrees to stop doing morphine, but it's a lie. Elliot goes home with Shayla and finds Darlene, who he tells to get out. Elliot goes in to work and closes himself off. He encounters Mr. Robot who reveals that fsociety won't do anything without him involved. Pleased, Elliot decides to engage in the social world> he agrees to a dinner party with Gideon and connects with Shayla, asking her out. Elliot enjoys himself at the party but sees on the news that Colby was responsible for a leak that caused the leukemia that resulted in his father's death. Elliot leaves and ultimately ends up back at the closed down amusement park. Meanwhile, Ollie is being blackmailed by the hacker and is threatened to upload the virus onto Allsafe's servers. Ollie eventually talks to Angela about the situation. Angela is furious, but upon realizing that her dad's account information has been compromised, encourages Ollie to comply with the hacker. Tyrell prepares to make a play for the CTO position, but someone else fills it. Tyrell goes out and sleeps with Anwar, though he has seemingly used him to get access to his phone. He returns home where he indulges in his wife's physical demands.
The Good: Elliot had a very interesting story in this episode. Rather than furthering his involvement in fsociety, this episode explored what Elliot's life would look like if he hadn't given in to his instinct of hiding his true self and had engaged in the outside world. And this episode paints a picture of that world being magnificent. The show immediately becomes more colourful, Elliot looks and sounds happier as he socializing (while still maintaining his signature awkwardness), and he manages a truly special connection with Shayla upon realizing that they are both closed off people looking for a safe place to open up. Their connection is very sweet, and when they kiss, the moment felt earned and realistic. It was sensible for Shayla to accept Elliot's proposal. But of course, Elliot's world ultimately crumbled down with the reveal that Evil Corp is directly responsible for the death of his father. With his traumatic past coming back to bite him, Elliot returns to fsociety and seemingly gives up on his dreams for a happy existence. There is a real air of tragedy when he returns to fsociety, and the episode did a good job of making us feel sorrowful when Elliot decides that this peaceful life is not the right one for him. There doesn't seem to be any outside reason preventing Elliot from living this life - he's just in his own way. I can only hope that he at least tries to maintain his connection with Shayla. The episodic theme of bugs has a nice pay-off as Elliot realizes that he already revealed his bug to Mr. Robot (his history with his father), and it is exploited to bring Elliot back into the fold at fsociety. Some other characters get good focus in this episode. Angela and Ollie's story progresses significantly and the inevitable uncovering of Ollie's infidelity happened. But instead of it leading to a simple break-up, we got a surprising twist as Angela chooses to stay with him after an emotionally intense sequence (see: Best Moment). I'm not entirely invested in this hacker subplot yet, but it is developing Angela and Ollie really nicely. Tyrell got a central story as well in this episode. He's given some interesting depth here and we learn that he is a highly ambitious person. The opening scenes of Tyrell practicing his speech and slapping himself whenever he said something bad did stick with me. I felt his frustration when he didn't even get an opportunity to make a play for the job, and I was suitably horrified when he paid a homeless man to get beaten up as an outlet for his anger. I was also intrigued by his relationship with his wife (see: The Unknown), and his strange mission to have sex with Anwar in order to get access to his phone. Tyrell is still rough around the edges but he has the making of a fascinating gray character. The Bad: This episode is notably messier than the first two. This is because the focus is no longer only on Elliot and we now get to see multiple other perspectives. It's good that we get to understand the side characters better, but since I'm not invested in them yet, it is not the most compelling television at the moment. The consequence of focusing so heavily and personally on Elliot early on is that it feels jarring when the scope of the show expands to encompass other characters. One major casualty of the expanded scope is the inner narration from Elliot. With other characters also getting focus, Elliot's monologues feel more out of place and less personal than in the first episode. They have changed from being unrevealed thoughts of a introvert to preachy narration that examines an episode's themes in a not-so-subtle way. I was unsatisfied with the bug theme of this episode. Nothing about this episode would have suggested this theme outside of Elliot's narration. This makes the inclusion of this theme feel forced and unearned instead of natural. Furthermore, Elliot's narration is put over seemingly random scenes (sometimes over another character's scenes!) which removes the sense that this narration is an exploration of Elliot's mind. It has already gone from fascinating stylistic choice to plot convenience in just three episodes. I hope that the show can rectify this issue. Again, fsociety look like total incompetents. Darlene publicly visits Elliot, is seen by Shayla, and openly mentions fsociety. What the hell? I thought their whole deal was that they only interacted at the amusement park to lessen the risk of getting caught. Yet here is Darlene becoming a known quantity, essentially dooming both herself and Elliot if one of them get caught. This does not line up with the highly intelligent hacker group that we were initially introduced to. It bothers me that Ollie is still using the same exact computer that got hacked even while being blackmailed. Surely he should have invested in a new PC by now? If I had a compromised device, my first instinct would be to start using a new one. The Unknown: Is Mr. Robot a figment of Elliot's imagination, at least to some degree? His appearances in this episode have him be abrasive and loud, yet nobody around him ever responds to him or acknowledges his existence. This suggests to me that he doesn't even exist in his scenes and that he's just a part of Elliot's imagination. But the evidence is not concrete, so it's still something that I can only guess at. This is certainly intentional, and I'm curious to see what else will be done with the idea of Elliot imagining conversations with people. What is Tyrell's relationship with his wife? Does she know the things that he does? Why did Tyrell sleep with Anwar? What did he need access to his phone for? What is his goal? What are Angela and Ollie going to do about this hacker? Will they let Allsafe get infected? Why did Mr. Robot feel the need to expose Elliot's weakness like this? Why did he push Elliot off the pier and never contact him for a while after that? What was the point of doing that? Best Moment: Angela still deciding to stay with Ollie in spite of what he's done to help deal with a bigger problem. I found this scene to be tragically accurate to real life with how Angela is unable to go through with breaking up with him during a difficult time when she needs someone in her life to be there for her. Angela's portrayal as "too good for this world" is curious to me, and I can't help but wonder if that statement from Ollie played a part in her push to infect Allsafe. Character of the Episode: Elliot. Conclusion: This was a more unfocused episode than the first two as the show seeks to flesh out its side characters and multiple storylines. It accomplishes what it sets out to do, but the episode itself isn't as well put together as the first two, and there are some holes here that detracted from the experience. Score: 60 Summary: Elliott is offered a position at Evil Corp by Tyrell who reveals his intent to leave Allsafe. Elliott declines the position. After, Elliott hacks into Tyrell's account, but perturbed by how easy it was, he stops and destroys his computer in case he was allowed in. Elliott returns to work where he learns that fsociety has gone public. Later, he is met by Darlene who takes him back to the amusement park. Mr. Robot tells Elliott that their next move is to blow up a gas pipeline to destroy essential Evil Corp data. Uncomfortable with killing people, Elliott refuses and walks away, but realizes that he can't turn them in without being culpable. He goes to get more morphine from Shayla and finds that she has been raped by her supplier, Fernando. Elliott agonizes but ultimately chooses to turn in Fernando, knowing that it will cut off his own supply. He talks with Krista, who connects Elliott's current inner conflict with that of his father who refused to do anything after getting cancer. Ultimately, Elliott returns to Mr. Robot who lets him rejoin fsociety after Elliott tells him about his father's death.
The Good: This episode is all about choices. I mentioned in the first episode that I was impressed with how this show deals with Elliott's inner conflict, presenting him with key decisions and exploring his character through the choices he makes. This episode doubles down on this idea and the whole episode is centralized on Elliott's choices and what these choices mean to him. The first minutes of the episode give Elliott a major choice as Tyrell presents him with the option of joining Evil Corp. Of course Elliott declines, opting to instead focus on his newfound dream of bringing down the corporation while also being unwilling to abandon Angela and Gideon to the dissolution of their company. But this opening sequence ends up being a very small-scale choice compared to what comes later. When presented with the decision to stay with fsociety as they do terrible things, Elliott walks away and ends up muddled when his current decision is traced back to his own past with his father, who similarly did not act at a time when he should have. This inner turmoil is explored in a fascinating way throughout the episode, culminating in a superb final scene between Elliott and Mr. Robot where Elliott is forced to contend with his own contempt for his father in a really unique way (see: Best Moment). I enjoyed this storyline a lot, and I thought that Elliott's inner conflict was explored in a meaningful way that resonates with you when you watch the episode. The show's style, pacing, and ability to connect you with Elliott compliment this story really nicely. The story with Fernando was also pretty well done. I appreciate the attempts made to expand on Fernando's character. He is a thug, but he's given a thorough monologue to expand more on who he is, and why he behaves the way he does. Rather than being just some two-dimensional villain, Fernando's role is expanded on a little bit to make him feel more real. It works pretty well, and by making Fernando feel human, it creates more stakes when Elliott views him as a threat to Shayla and ultimately decides to turn him in. This was a good conflict to watch, as it was not only suspenseful, but it also developed Elliott's relationship with Shayla, his morality, and it expanded on the episode's theme of choice. I enjoyed the time spent on this brief storyline. There were lots of little things that I enjoyed. The sequence where Elliott hacked into Tyrell's account was done really well. It was interesting to learn more about Tyrell at first, but then the editing and directing kicked it up a notch to really make us feel Elliott's fear when he realizes that Tyrell may have let him into his account. The realization is scary and intense, and the montage of Elliott destroying everything is masterfully done. I also really appreciate that this show portrays junkies realistically. Whether he believes it or not, Elliott is a junkie, and I like that even though Elliott has his own set rules, the need for more morphine allows him to give up said rules on a whim. Another little detail I appreciated is the presence of Flipper. Obviously Elliott can't just have a dog without needing to worry about taking care of it, so it's nice to see Elliott struggle with Flipper and try to find a solution to take care of him. Finally, I have really enjoyed how much this show makes us question reality. By constantly reminding us on Elliott's schizophrenia through the presence of suited men chasing him, we are being trained to question what we see in this show. It adds a whole new level of tension to the show when we constantly wondering if a scene is real or if it's just in Elliott's head. This is an interesting dynamic. The Bad: It is obvious from the moment that Elliott walks away that he is going to return to fsociety eventually, and this raises some problems. For one, there is less suspense throughout the episode because we know that his return is a given to push the plot forwards. But it also actually makes fsociety look incompetent. It's obvious to us that Elliott will return because this is a TV show, but the characters involved in fsociety should not be as certain. In fact, there's a good chance that Elliott will attempt to turn them in. Frustratingly, fsociety do not seem to have put any plan in place to respond to this. They seemingly just let Elliott go, which is alarming because they have already entrusted him with significant information on their plans despite him not being a trusted member yet. It's hard to buy into the credibility of this highly intelligent secret organization when they are sloppily taking risks like this. The Unknown: How does Tyrell feel about Elliott declining his offer? He seemed visibly upset, but was he upset to the point of taking action against him? Did Tyrell actually expect Elliott to hack his account? Why did he expect this? Why did he let Elliott in? Is Gideon also suspicious of Elliott now? It is certainly strange that Elliott would not have known what was on the disc he gave over, and it is realistic of Gideon to question this. Who is Darlene? How did she know where Elliott lived? Is she also schizophrenic? How did she have the same exact visions as Elliott? Or was that just a coincidence where Darlene suddenly jumped into the train? What is Elliott's idea to attack Steel Mountain? How will he do so without hurting anyone? What is Elliott's relationship with Shayla? In the first episode he seemed to not care much for her, but he is much more involved here. Why? Who is the man who sold the "album" to Ollie? He has now hacked Angela's webcam. What is his goal? What is he after? Who is he exactly? Best Moment: Elliott returns to see Mr. Robot, having decided to join them with a modified plan. But Mr. Robot isn't quite so quick to forgive. He demands that Elliott tell him about his father's death in order for them to move forwards. Elliott does so, and in a fascinating monologue we get to learn a ton about Elliott. He was once really close with his father, but when he contracts leukemia, Elliott is ordered to keep it secret. Naturally, Elliott does not because he wants something to be done so his father can live. And Elliott's father pushes him out a window and never speaks to him again for the rest of his life. It's a brutally tragic story that helps us understand Elliott's difficult social development and his inability to open himself up to the world. But Mr. Robot reads into it in a completely different way that surprised me thoroughly. Rather than empathize with Elliott, Mr. Robot brings up that he betrayed his father's trust and that on some level, his father was just in what he did. Mr. Robot then pushes Elliott off of the pier in a fascinating little moment. It seems that Mr. Robot took this trip into Elliott's past as an opportunity to teach him about loyalty and commitment, which is a direction I did not expect and I was fascinated by. I'm excited to learn more about both of these characters, and their scenes together have been gripping so far. Character of the Episode: Elliott. Conclusion: A good episode of story development as "Mr. Robot" continues to win me over. Score: 66 Summary: Elliott is an introverted hacker and he skips his friend Angela's party to turn in a child pornography supplier, Ron. Elliott works at Allsafe as a cybersecurity engineer but during his therapy sessions it is revealed that he is disillusioned with society, specifically E Corp (dubbed Evil Corp by him), the main company that Allsafe protects. Elliott spends his time doing morphine and ends up having sex with his drug dealer. He also spends time hacking accounts and follows his psychiatrist Krista's current boyfriend who he doesn't trust. He's suddenly called in to work at 3AM to resolve an intense DDoS attack which he barely manages, but finds that some of the code left by the hackers was addressed to him. The next day, Elliott is picked up to join a secret hacker group called fsociety, who give him the data to frame one of the higher-up of Evil Corp, Terry Colby, for the hack. Elliott is skeptical, but when Colby mistreats Angela, he goes through with it, and Tyrell, another man at Evil Corp, takes notice. Elliott discovers that Krista's boyfriend is no good and gets him to break up with Krista. A few weeks later, Colby is arrested and Elliott is happy but he is suddenly picked up and taken to meet Tyrell.
The Good: This episode did a superb job introducing us to Elliott and we learn everything about him through a deeply personalized experience. Having narration is a cliche, but this show does really well to immediately establish that this narration is a stylistic choice unique to this show, one of the things that makes it stand out. We quickly learn that Elliott is mentally unstable, and with him being so introverted, it becomes a necessity to have this narration or we would always be disconnected with Elliott's thoughts and emotions. Rather than having this narration be a plot convenience, it's a compelling method of exploring this character, which is what is done for the rest of the episode. Through Elliott's inner monologue and Rami Malek's wonderful performance, we learn more and more about him as the episode goes on. We can't condone everything that he does, yet he is human enough that we still connect with him in spite of all of the creepy, morally questionable actions he takes throughout this first episode. I really appreciate the way that this character is presented. The show understands that we need to like Elliott, and so our first scene with him shows his more noble side as he is responsible for the arrest of a man deeply involved in child pornography, something that everyone can condemn. With this, we are already sympathizing with Elliott whether we like it or not, and the so the episode has free reign to take more risks with the character, showing us his flaws. I loved the accurate portrayal of the mind of an introvert, highlighting the awkwardness of social situations while making it clear that while Elliott is a highly intelligent man, he is woefully behind everyone around him in terms of social cues and gestures, being unable to present himself properly in social settings. This is very accurate to how I've experienced introverts (like myself) interacting in unfamiliar situations, and I appreciate the attention to detail. Furthermore, I found the editing of the show to be terrific, portraying Elliott's internal thoughts, lies, and paranoia in a way that really grabbed me and made me feel it alongside him. This episode was wildly successful at being the highly personalized experience that it wanted to be. I am immediately interested in the concept of hacking being central to this story. I am not particularly experienced with this stuff so I likely won't be able to critique it as well as other aspects of the show, but I'm excited to see how "Mr. Robot" is able to communicate this complex world to its audience. So far, it has done a very good job. The big DDoS sequence in the middle of the episode was executed very well, utilizing metaphors and problem-solving to neatly communicate these advanced concepts to the audience in layman's terms without it feeling forced. Additionally, I find hacking on a smaller scale to be a very interesting way to explore Elliott. We see him go through the process of hacking Michael's information in this episode, and I appreciate how detail-oriented this was. Elliott didn't just magically get access to his information - he had to earn it every step of the way, and it was really gripping to watch (with the exception of one moment, see: The Bad). This show does a nice job of presenting Elliott with dilemmas and exploring why he makes the choices that he does. We have several terrific moments throughout this episode that center around Elliott making a key choice. Does he delete the code he found after the DDoS? Does he follow the mysterious homeless man who has been following him? Does he go through with fsociety's plan and frame Colby? Does he turn them in? We get to see Elliott grapple with these questions, leading up to him making satisfying choices that feel both earned and in-line with what we have learned about the character so far. These moments are great, feeling so human, and so nail-bitingly intense. The episode had me at the edge of my seat several times. I liked a lot of smaller things here, which is a sign that this show will be right up my alley. I appreciated that Elliott sleeping with Shayla came back to bite him when Angela found her sprawled on his bed. There's nothing I like more than seeing a character's actions have consequences. I had a few laughs at Elliott's awkward behaviour and one-word replies in awkward situations (Gideon tells him he's gay and Elliot's response? "Thanks."). The presentation of this episode was really impressive. This was not done on a massive budget like so many TV shows in modern times. Instead, it used the best of its limited budget to create a stylistic atmosphere that suggested mastery of the art of film. Great shows like "Breaking Bad" even took several seasons to fully find their stylistic flair, but "Mr. Robot" has it figured out in just one episode. The cold colour scheme, creative editing, and fantastic score all add to the experience of this episode. The Bad: While I praised the writing of this show a lot, there was one small oversight that I was disappointed by. We saw Elliott discover that Michael's name was likely an alias, yet we never got to see how he managed to find Michael's real identity. It's a real shame because every other step of this process was so thoroughly explored, and I would have loved to see how Elliott executed this final step. Unfortunately, it was glossed over. One small concern I have is that we don't get many scenes in this hour+ experience that emotionally connect us with the characters. The plot and story is interesting and engaging, but not quite emotionally impactful. It's a minor quibble though, and I'm sure that if the story continues to be this compelling, the emotional investment will come. The Unknown: Who are all of these men that Elliott is seeing from his schizophrenia? How does this tie into his past? What's the story of his father and mother? Evidently, he has some trauma there. Who is Tyrell? Why did he talk with Elliott immediately? What does he know about Elliott's role in bringing down Colby? What will he do about it? Who is Mr. Robot? Why did he recruit Elliott? Who are the members of fsociety? What is their goal? What is the project they work on? Where did they go after Elliott gave the forged data of Colby's IP address? What are Elliott's feelings for Angela? The show has suggested that he loves her, but I wonder if that is really the case. Elliott is such a blank slate at times that it is hard to get a read on who he is and what his desires are. Best Moment: Elliott's brief inner breakdown after his meeting with Mr. Robot. It was compelling and fascinating to see him contend with the reality of his situation, wondering if his experiences were all delusions or if they were actually genuine. Character of the Episode: Elliott. Conclusion: I really enjoyed this. A highly personalized pilot episode with tons of style, uniqueness, creativity, and unpredictability. What else can you ask for from a first episode? I'm really excited to watch this show as it promises to be unlike anything else I've ever seen. I'm all in after just this episode, so it is clear to me that this pilot episode has done its job. Score: 74 Summary: Amy returns and Rachel offers to help her out but pays the price when Amy gets Emma's ear pierced. Mike tries to propose to Phoebe, but Phoebe continually trashes his attempted style of proposal unintentionally. Monica and Chandler get Joey to write a letter of recommendation for the adoption process.
The Good: There were some good lines throughout the episode; I counted five moments that made me chuckle. Much of that is to do with the spirited performances. Mike and Phoebe's story is fine, and the concept of Phoebe continually messing up Mike's proposal is creative. The Bad: But a 28 minute episode that only makes me laugh 5 times is a total failure, and such has been the case for most "Friends" episodes these last two seasons. Amy's return is terrible. She was passable in season 9, but she is impossibly irritating and unfunny here. Somehow the character is even more brash and unsubtle than her last appearance, and that removes every bit of the limited comedy she had in her first appearance. The marriage plot is undeniably stupid and damages Amy's credibility as a character; Rachel was nowhere near this bad. Joey looks like a complete fool in his story. I maintain that Joey is at his funniest when he is narrow-minded and misses the big picture. He is not funny when he behaves like a child and becomes unfeasibly stupid. This episode writes Joey very poorly as he inexplicably decides to write this letter (completely out of character), submits it without even showing it to Chandler and Monica (makes everyone look stupid for not taking this important letter seriously), and then apparently does such a bad job that he is mistaken for a child (Joey is not this incapable). It is not funny. Phoebe's story is once again hurt by Mike being completely uninteresting. This has to be one of the flattest proposals in a sitcom I have ever seen. Best Moment: Joey screaming "I'm curvy and I like it!" Evidently Amy has crossed the line by trying to separate Joey from his food. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This was an overly long episode with poor writing and flat humour with very few jokes actually landing. So much for the last three episodes being decent, we're back to the doldrums of season 9 with this pathetic effort. Score: 37 Summary: Ross and Rachel throw a party for Emma's first birthday. Monica and Chandler want to go to Vermont but stay behind for the party. Joey forgets to get a gift for Emma.
The Good: As with most episodes where the friends are all together, this is a lot of fun! I enjoyed seeing the characters bounce off of each other and there are a lot of fun little moments here like Chandler's constant sass about wanting to leave, Joey's beautiful performance completely overshadowing Phoebe, and the Gellers making a quick appearance to earn some welcome laughs. Ross' time capsule video is another good source of laughs. The Bad: This episode isn't all that funny. The interactions are very hit or miss throughout the episode, and there aren't any jokes that get more than a small chuckle out of me. Plus, there is a clear deficit of original and creative ideas in this episode. It's fine, but very by-the-numbers for a sitcom. The cake is a funny idea, but it is ridiculous to think that Rachel would leave the bakery in New Jersey without verifying that the cake was good. Best Moment: Ross asking Joey to say something to 18 year old Emma and he immediately goes to say something dirty. Character of the Episode: Joey. Conclusion: This is good fun, but it never manages to make any memorable or creative laughs. At least this season hasn't been as dire as season 9 (so far). Score: 61 Summary: Ross goes to get a spray tan but it goes horribly wrong. Joey and Rachel try to hook up but find that they are unable to have sex with each other. Monica and Phoebe are stuck reconnecting with an old friend they despise.
The Good: The character interactions saved this. There are lots of funny lines throughout the episode, especially from Ross and Chandler who are at the top of their game as characters. It feels like the writers are more motivated to come up with better comedy scenarios to make season 10 a good final season. Ross' story is a blast and filled with laughs. It's a simple concept but it is executed brilliantly with lots of great jokes along the way such as "Mississipilessly", Ross ending up spraying himself on the front more and more, and the great ending joke as Chandler snaps a picture. The other two stories start off promising. The cold open with Joey and Chandler is quite funny with the awkward tension arising between them. Monica and Phoebe's story has a promising set-up as they try to avoid an old irritating friend, and the mockery of Amanda's antics are amusing. I really appreciate the detail of Rachel being reminded of her embarrassing first kiss with Ross. This show is typically quite poor with continuity in these later seasons so it is surprising to see a minor detail from season 3 pop up like this. The Bad: Joey and Rachel's entire story does not work. Their scenario is totally implausible (who has ever heard of a couple failing to have sex like this?), making it impossible for anyone to relate with and understand the characters. This story reeks of the writers scrambling to come up with a way to end this relationship before it even starts without creating any drama. There's no way that this would happen in real life without drama, so the writers have sacrificed realism to tell this stupid story. I suspect that they simply need Rachel to be single so she can finally get back together with Ross, and I'm not pleased with how the writers have accomplished this. Monica and Phoebe's story started so well but fell into mediocrity rapidly. Amanda is awful. Absolutely terrible. Nothing about her is funny and she is irritating to no end. And to make matters worse, she is used to catalyze yet another episode of Monica and Phoebe being terrible friends. Phoebe looks awful for trying to cut her out, and Moncia looks worse for letting the past motivate her to go as far as to declare that they need to cut off Phoebe. Chandler looks horrible for accepting it so submissively. Again I have to ask, how are these people friends? Best Moment: Ross' trips to the tanning salon are all hilarious, but the best moment within them all has to be his interaction with the initial tanning man. He asks "what [tan level] are you", only to met with a superbly delviered "Puerto Rican". Great moment that really made me laugh. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This is another mixed episode. Season 10 has been much more successive at making me laugh (which goes a long way), but the writing problems still persist. I did enjoy and laugh at this episode more than the previous one, so it gets a pretty good score. Score: 65 Summary: Ross tries to tell Joey and Rachel that he is fine with them when he is clearly not. Monica and Chandler meet with Phoebe's friends who have advice on adoption. Phoebe helps Frank Jr. take care of his triplets.
The Good: Ross absolutely overreacts in this episode, but luckily it is funny a lot of his time. It certainly goes far into the ridiculous (see: The Bad), but luckily for the show, it made me laugh. Ross' exaggerated reactions were fantastically realized by David Schwimmer who managed to get a lot of humour out of his antics. Be it Ross using an absurdly squeaky voice when exclaiming he is fine, or excitedly shouting about his "fajitas!", the episode manages to be really funny in this storyline. Thankfully, the end of the episode dials things back and we end with a surprisingly meaningful scene between Joey and Ross as we examine Ross' complicated emotional reaction to their relationship. It's a good scene. Phoebe gets a pretty good if unspectacular story here, and it's good to see Frank Jr. return. Chandler starting fires everywhere he goes is an amusing subplot in the episode. The Bad: There is absolutely no subtlety in Ross' actions in this episode and many times his behaviour falls into absurdity. Ross acts like an unbelievable idiot in most of his scenes, and the drunk acting was far from convincing, even if it was funny at times. Furthermore, Joey and Rachel have a quiet episode because the extent of their contributions come from reacting to Ross who is so inconsistent in his comedy. At times, it is genius, but at other times it is so poorly written and so lacking in subtlety that it becomes painful to watch. Chandler and Monica's plot is pure filler and while Chandler is funny, the story never resonates with me. Phoebe's story is good, but raises one big question that hurts its credibility: why hasn't Phoebe been helping Frank Jr. for the last four years? Best Moment: Ross' initial claims of being fine followed by inviting Joey and Rachel over. This was the funniest because it came before the episode fell into total absurdity. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This is a tricky one. On one hand, I really did laugh in this episode, but the writing is so blatantly bad at significant points in the episode. This definitely isn't as dire as recent episodes, but I can't exactly call it good either. Score: 59 Summary: The friends listen in as Joey hooks up with Rachel and Ross hooks up with Charlie. Ross and Joey decide that they need to tell the other about getting with Charlie and Rachel respectively. Phoebe helps Mike break up with his girlfriend. Monica gets a new hairstyle and Chandler hates it.
The Good: There are some funny lines here. I enjoyed Ross saying so many nice things to Joey to the point that Joey is unable to tell Ross that he is with Rachel now. Ross gets an excellent line as he tells Rachel "I've been having dirty dreams about this" when Rachel thinks that Joey has told him. The friends listening through the thin walls is a fun idea with the odd good moment. The Bad: So much of this did not work. The idea that Joey and Ross had to tell the other before doing anything with Rachel;/Charlie is a bit ridiculous and doesn't line up with how people behave in real life. Surely they would go ahead and worry about talking things through later. The scene of Rachel and Joey kissing Ross due to guilt is laughably absurd. I laughed at the thin walls, but it is disgusting that the friends are listening in lustfully when they know that Ross, Joey, and Rachel are likely about to have sex. Reality was sold out for cheap jokes in these scenes. Phoebe and Mike's story is nothing special at all. Again, Mike is boring, and my opinion of Phoebe has dropped spectacularly in the last 5 seasons. Monica's hair is still inexplicably used for jokes. It wasn't funny in the season 9 finale and the story continues in this episode for some reason, and somehow manages to get even dumber. Monica's love for her ridiculous hair is practically unfathomable. Best Moment: I'll go with Ross going along with saying "thank you" to the hotel, a funny moment that's very consistent with the character. Character of the Episode: Rachel. Conclusion: So much of this did not work. The odd joke is funny but there is so much awkwardness and weak comedy across several poorly written and uninteresting storylines. This episode probably isn't inherently as bad as I am scoring it, but season 9 has eviscerated my attachment and investment to these characters and their stories, and so I am inclined to score lower. A poor start to the season. Score: 42 Summary: Joey realizes that Rachel is into him and struggles with wanting to be with her. Ross and Charlie continue to spend time together and hook up. Monica challenges Mike to playing table tennis.
The Good: The relationship twist went exactly as expected. There are the odd funny lines throughout as the plot heads to its predictable conclusion. Ross and Charlie are fun together, and it's nice to see the show highlight the positive attributes of Ross that allowed him to be so likeable in the early seasons. Joey and Rachel do a decent job and I bought into them getting together. The table tennis story doesn't have much substance but it provides most of the laughs. It's nice to see Mike finally have some personality as he unleashes his competitive side. The Bad: The biggest issue with this is how predictable it is. We knew exactly what was going to happen, and there were no surprises. This removes any sense of drama or investment, which is a major issue because this story is not well written and not funny. It feels very flat as a result. I wasn't happy with Joey's excuse about not wanting to make Ross feel weird, it felt like a forced excuse to keep stalling. Phoebe moved on far too quickly from David which completely removes any sense of reality from the Mike vs David story, further disconnecting me from Phoebe as a character. The gay professor side character was a step too far and lacked the subtlety needed to be funny. Best Moment: Rachel opening the door that Joey was leaning on and he falls into the room. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: Much like part 1, this was flat and predictable television that was merely serviceable as a season finale. I'm honestly surprised that this season finale wasn't a complete mess because that's what this entire season has been. I can count the episodes I've enjoyed on a single hand, and when there are 24 episodes in the season, that's a massive problem. There were so many terrible episodes this season and my opinion on the show fell drastically as I continued on through the season. I don't have the same love for these characters as I did before, and I have little faith in this show following what has to be one of the worst seasons of comedy I have seen from a good TV show. Thankfully, season 10 will be the final season and I hope that "Friends" can end on a high. But my optimism has taken a serious hit after this season, and I suspect that the final season will be a flat, dire end to one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. Score: 54 Summary: David plans to propose to Phoebe in Barbados after getting advice from Chandler. Monica learns that Phoebe might say yes even though she still loves Mike. Chandler accidentally deletes Ross's speech, so Charlie has to help him rewrite it.
The Good: The switch to Ross/Charlie and Joey/Rachel relationships is very telegraphed but it is built up in a sensible way with some good lines and ideas. Chandler is funny as he goes around ruining everything he involves himself with. David's as charming and funny as ever and he carries the Phoebe story on his back. I wish that he could have been the one to stay with her because he is so much more fun to watch. The Bad: The proposal storyline is incredibly dumb and unrealistic. David deciding to propose to Phoebe is such a dumb idea, and even worse is Chandler thinking that he gave decent advice. He should know full well that it's a terrible idea! I was more frustrated than amused by Chandler and Monica meddling so much in Phoebe's life, and I was very confused that Phoebe took no issue with this. Mike arriving in Barbados doesn't feel earned, and I'm incredibly disappointed that the writers have decided to set up Phoebe with bland, boring Mike instead of the charismatic and endearing David. Monica's hair being so messy is one of those unrealistic and stupid late season "Friends" jokes that never makes me laugh. While the relationship switch is being set up well, it's hard for me to care much about it with how much the reputation of "Friends" has tanked over this last season. I don't have much faith that this story will be funny or written well. Best Moment: David's commentary while Phoebe talks with Mike is really funny, culminating in the perfect moment when Phoebe says no to Mike's proposal and David chimes in with "um, haha". Character of the Episode: David. He deserved better. Conclusion: This was a fine part 1 of the season finale carried by David's performance. Unfortunately my investment in these characters and the show as a whole has fallen drastically over the course of this season. Even though this episode doesn't do a whole lot wrong compared to other episodes, I still found watching it to be a mediocre experience. Score: 55 Summary: Boba Fett sets up in the ruins of the Sanctuary to fight off the Pyke Syndicate. Cad Bane comes to negotiate and Boba refuses. Bane reveals to Boba that the Pykes killed the village of Tusken Raiders and that he killed Cobb. Bane leaves and the Pykes launch a surprise attack and take out the Gamorreans, many of the mods are pinned down, and Krrsantan is overwhelmed. Fennec helps the mods and goes to the bosses meeting in Mos Eisley. Boba and Mando fight back and with reinforcements from Freetown, they are successful. However, the Pykes bring out Scorpenek Droids which overwhelm Boba's group. Boba is only able to fight them off by getting his rancor, and he defeats them. Peli arrives with Grogu after he was dropped off at her place. Mando protects Grogu while fighting. Bane arrives and separates Boba from the rancor. They fight and Boba wins and kills Bane. Mando is beaten by the rancor but Grogu puts it to sleep. Fennec murders the head of the Pyke Syndicate and the mayor. Boba wins over the people of Mos Espa, and Mando sets out with Grogu.
The Good: This was decent entertainment when you look at the episode as a whole. It's a climactic action sequence with lots of high points, impressive visuals, and decent, if unspectacular, directing. If you watch this just from a surface-level perspective, I'm sure that you will have fun here. Looking deeper at this episode, there were small parts that I enjoyed. The new gigantic Scorpenek droids were a cool new addition to the universe, and they function as a direct upgrade to droidekas. It was engaging to see how Boba's group would manage to defeat them. The twist that the Pyke Syndicate murdered the Tuskens made sense, and Boba got a nice moment of inner conflict when Bane revealed this to him. It was a brief scene, but it's nice to see Boba tested with a major decision, something that we haven't seen much of in this show. Grogu's return was welcome, and his reunion with Mando was a fittingly sweet moment. It makes me wish that we were watching "The Mandalorian" this season instead. The Bad: But as I had feared, I cared about almost nothing in this season finale. The story, the characters, the plot, none of it resonated with me at all. Because of that, even though what I watched was entertaining, it never sucked me in or got me to invest in the events that were happening. Excellent TV makes me forget about reality while I'm watching, making it seem like there is nothing more important than the story that I am witnessing. During this episode, I was frequently checking my watch to see when it would eventually end, which is telling of how little I was invested by what was on screen. There were many reasons that combined together to make me not care at all, and I'll jump into them now. The plot was simplistic, uninspired, and filled with illogical decisions and developments that further alienated me. There was nothing about the story being told that I can't get from any other mediocre TV show. The set-up for the climactic battle was terrible. It's baffling to me how Boba simply stationed a handful of people around with no plan or strategy at all. He had a significant disadvantage, and nobody even recommended a strategy? There was no way that any of the fighters he had stationed would win any fight without a plan. The show tries to pass off the stationing of everyone as strategic planning, but that is not the case because none of these locations mattered, and everyone ended up fighting at the same place anyways. If the locations don't matter in the show, why should I care where everyone is stationed? The battle planning is so plainly half-assed and that immediately tells me that I should not try to care about the logistics of this fight that's about to happen, because even the writers didn't care. Furthermore, it's blatantly obvious that Boba's lack of a plan is setting up for a surprise ambush from the Pyke Syndicate. That takes away all tension. The one thing that did surprise me, and not in a good way, was the arrival of the Freetown people. Nothing made sense about this development. For one, how on Earth did these people manage to become competent fighters off-screen? They managed to shoot with accuracy against trained fighters, which made absolutely no sense. Seemingly they chose to fight to avenge their dead marshal. But apparently we discover that he somehow survived anyways! So then I have to ask, if Cobb is alive, why are they fighting? Shouldn't they be prioritizing their own survival? Furthermore, Cobb surviving forces me to heavily question the competence of Cad Bane, which I should never have to do. I thought in the last episode that he intentionally shot Cobb in the shoulder and murdered his deputy to send a message. Leaving Cobb alive was smart because it meant that Freetown would have a leader who would be smart enough to not fight back, and there wouldn't be as much concern of the townsfolk rebelling. But we find out that Bane thought that he had killed Cobb. This is so stupid for a number of reasons. For one, with Cobb dead there is nobody to lead Freetown and prevent them from coming in as reinforcements in spite of Bane's demands. And furthermore, Bane looks like an incompetent moron because Cobb somehow survived! And not only that, his injuries were minor enough that he lasted long enough to get to Boba's bacta tank. That's absurd, and it's completely out of character for Bane to be conveniently incompetent. This is one of the very best bounty hunters ever. If he shoots to kill, he is not going to shoot once in the shoulder without any follow-up shots. Sticking to the topic of Cad Bane, his death was massively underwhelming. For those who have watched "The Clone Wars", you know how important of a character Bane is. To have him murdered so anticlimactically by Boba is a completely unsatisfying conclusion to his story, and a spit in the face to the character. Plus, if you haven't seen "The Clone Wars", then you are given no reason to care about Bane as a character at all! He's no different to any other boring "Star Wars" villain in this show, and that is poor writing. Bane is not written as a fleshed-out character here, and his presence only has impact if you have watched a separate show that I'm sure a good amount of people have not watched. A TV show should not demand you to watch something else to fully understand the story it is telling. That's very lazy and uninspired writing. Let's get back to the big action sequence of the episode. I thought it was fine. The action was okay, but it never hooked me. It had a big budget and was directed adequately, but it just felt hollow. Too many TV shows nowadays have these huge budgets, but they never amount to much; good production is only a positive if the story being told is effective. If the story is not effective, all that you're left with is a pretty-looking pile of dung. It may look pretty, but it's still not any good. Anyways, the action scenes hit a real low point with the arrival of the rancor. I had forgotten about the rancor since it was introduced and it surprised me when it returned. But that's actually a bad thing. Why? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about Boba riding a rancor because that idea never got properly developed. Instead of making this a genuinely impactful story beat, the writers ignored this storyline so that they can have a surprise reveal and an "oh hey" moment for the audience that is completely lacking in substance. Surprise doesn't make for good television, emotional investment does. A surprise without emotion means nothing at all. Furthermore, it is laughable that Boba falls off the rancor so easily after Bane shoots some fire. There was just a massive action sequence with the rancor jumping everywhere, and yet a little bit of fire is what makes Boba fall off? Come on. Then the rancor apparently goes berserk, because of course it does. I thought Boba had to train it to allow him to ride it, but apparently the rancor is still untrained, and Boba was able to ride it anyways for no reason other than the writers wanting him to. This blatant disregard for telling a consistent story is a theme within this episode and is one of the many reasons it fails to deliver. I was again unhappy with Grogu and Mando stealing so much of the limelight from Boba. This is not their show. They should have had cameo appearances and nothing more. Yet, Mando and Grogu fighting the rancor ends up being the big climax of the episode, prioritized over Boba's fight with Bane. Seriously? This show does not have its priorities set straight. What's worse is that the final scene of the show isn't even with Boba. it's with Mando and Grogu. So much for "The Book of Boba Fett", the writers make it clear that Boba never mattered and that Mando and Grogu were the important ones all along. What a slap to the face after I slogged through 7 episodes of boring Tatooine politics with no depth, frustrating writing, and poor characterization. Turns out it was all for nothing and it never mattered anyways. The resolution to Boba's story is one of the most unsatisfying conclusions I have ever seen in television. After the battle is over, the townsfolk suddenly love Boba. To that I ask one very simple question. WHY? All Boba did was fight, and then he brought in a rancor that went berserk through the city. He never protected innocents or showed any regard for the lives of the people who live in the city. Furthermore, he was trained by the Tusken Raiders, who the city people do not like. So what has Boba done to earn their trust? Nothing! This scene is so unsatisfying because it is totally unearned, yet the writers seem to be dumb enough to believe that Boba has done enough to win over everyone. Boba learned nothing about ruling, he learned nothing about his people, and he learned nothing about managing the criminal underworld. This is the entire premise of the show, and he learned nothing. All he did was recruit a bunch of half-assed, terrible side characters who added nothing to the show, and then killed some people. That is not character development, that's just a generic, uninspired story. I hate how this show examined Boba's leadership. He almost never made a decision himself. Any time there is an even slightly interesting decision to make, Boba doesn't even make it himself. Someone else suggests something and Boba just does that. There is absolutely no exploration of Boba's inner conflict or principles. This is as bare-bones as it gets. Lots of little things bothered me too. There is a 4th wall breaking joke where Peli makes fun of Grogu's name and says she won't call him that because it sounds gross, which is what the fanbase said about Grogu's name. This would be a fine tongue-in-cheek joke ordinarily, but it is terrible in this show. In a story that has no thought put into it with zero stakes and zero emotion, the writers instead prioritized making fun of the fans with this one joke. That is really disgusting, and it's a perfect showcase of how the people making these "Star Wars" shows do not have their priorities in the right place at all. Another thing that bothered me was Bane getting impaled and there being not a single drop of blood. Not only is that completely unrealistic and immersion-breaking, but I can't fathom why this is the case. The original "Star Wars" trilogy had blood, and there is literally blood on Fennec's dagger when she murders the leader of the Pyke Syndicate! So why on Earth was there no blood in this one scene? Decisions like these are just inexplicable. Lastly, I was really annoyed that Boba's revenge story was reignited by Bane only to have zero pay-off. Boba never so much as brings up the Tusken village after that scene, and he murders Bane without ever intending to go after the Pykes for what they had done. What a colossal failure of a revenge plot. The Unknown: Not many interesting questions to ask. What's next for Mando and Grogu? How about for Boba? Is the Pyke Syndicate defeated for good? Is Cad Bane actually dead? Best Moment: Mando reuniting with Grogu. The moment wasn't perfect, and honestly felt out of place, but it was the only time during this entire episode where I actually felt something. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was every bit as flat, emotionless, and underwhelming of a finale as I was expecting. The length of this review is telling of how little I enjoyed out of this. It's fun on the surface if you turn your brain off, but use even a little bit of your brain and develop even the slightest of expectations, and you see the boring mess that this episode was. I am disappointed that this show didn't manage to be a fun "Star Wars" experience. I don't think that anyone expected much from this series, and I didn't either. All I wanted was a simple, fun story with an adequate narrative about Boba Fett, but even that was asking too much. All we got was a lifeless story with no substance that only existed to be a bridge between seasons 2 and 3 of "The Mandalorian". When the best parts of the show had nothing to do with the central character or central story, that's when you know that there is a major problem. I hope that we stop getting useless side character-centric TV shows like this because there is no innovation or passion in these projects at all. "Star Wars" is not a particularly high quality franchise, but it should be far better than this tripe. Score: 39 Summary: Luke is training Grogu and slowly reawakening his memories. Mando comes to visit but meets only Ahsoka who cautions him from seeing Grogu and impeding his progress. Mando leaves his gift with Ahsoka and leaves. Luke offers Grogu a choice to take Mando's gift and leave or take Luke's gift, Yoda's lightsaber, and stay. Mando returns to Tatooine and learns that Boba needs manpower. He goes to meet with Cobb and tries to convince him to fight for Boba. Cobb agrees to think on it and prepares to hold a meeting. However, Cad Bane suddenly appears and threatens Cobb to stay neutral. Cobb refuses and Bane kills his deputy and possibly him as well.
The Good: This was an episode with some huge story progression, not for the plot of the show, but rather for the plot of the "Star Wars" franchise overall. We got to see Luke training Grogu, Mando's continued conflict about leaving Grogu, Ahsoka's return, the introduction of Cad Bane, and some set up for the battle between Boba and the Pyke Syndicate. There was a lot to digest here, but not too much. The episode was paced nicely and was consistently entertaining. True to the form of "Star Wars", there are lots of callbacks and references to the past, and they are mostly handled well. Luke's training of Grogu references his own training with Yoda a lot. While on the surface this is just some fanservice, it is a nice exploration of Luke's uncertainty when teaching because all he knows is what Yoda did when he taught him many years ago. So it makes sense that he simply tries to paraphrase what Yoda has already told him. The training itself is great to watch and it's nice to see Grogu progress slowly in his training. He's been presented with an interesting choice at the end of the episode, and I'm invested in seeing what Grogu chooses. The other character cameos are well done. It's good to see Cobb again, and his wild west influence gives the episode a more interesting style to play with. The return of Cad Bane is very well executed, and it was great to hear the same voice actor reprise his role. Bane is every bit as intimidating as he needs to be, and his showdown with Cobb carried a lot of suspense. Ahsoka's return was unexpected, but it made sense that Luke would foresee Mando returning and give R2 instructions to take him to Ahsoka instead. Once again Mando was the star of the show here, and he had a very strong episode. Mando is a constant reminder of Boba's failings as a main character (see: The Bad) because of how effective he has been in the last two episodes. Compared to Boba, Mando has so much more presence, charisma, and interesting character moments which make him much easier to connect to and appreciate. It also helps that his visual appearance is much more interesting than Boba's. I've enjoyed following Mando and I think he was given some good storylines. His big decision to leave the gift with Ahsoka and not see Grogu was heartwrenching and Mando's internal conflict was obvious to see. It's very impressive how Mando's obvious tension was communicated through subtle body movements and silences, overcoming the limitation of not being able to see his face. The Bad: So much for this being "The Book of Boba Fett". Boba and his story has been completely sidelined and ignored in these last two episodes which emphasizes how irrelevant and uninteresting his story is. Spending so much time with Mando has only made me fully realize how unsatisfying Boba has been as a main character. In the early episodes I tried to take a positive approach by giving the show some slack; I presumed that Boba would be developed more in the later episodes. But now that these last two episodes have been spent with Mando, I've realized that the Boba Fett from episodes 1-4 is all we're going to get. And he is so unbelievably boring and underwhelming. Despite not having a helmet, Boba is much less charismatic, entertaining and interesting to watch. His failure as a main character emphasizes the fact that making a TV show centered around him was an awful idea, and it's another reason why the people behind the scenes should be focusing on telling their own stories instead of catering to what people want. People wanted a Boba Fett show, and it failed spectacularly. Instead of just trying to give fans what they want, "Star Wars" should be trying to create compelling stories - by doing that, you will be giving the fans what they want anyways! As much as I have enjoyed the time with Mando, it feels extremely out of place. This should have been in season 3 of "The Mandalorian", but instead Mando's story has been inserted in the middle of someone else's story. Sure, Mando has improved this show by making it more interesting, but giving us a different story does not make the original story (Boba Fett's) any better. In fact, I'm left questioning why we have spent so much time with Mando when we could have been exploring Boba's story deeper and maybe finding something worthwhile there. Furthermore, the next episode is the season finale which means that we have to return to Boba and resolve the Pyke Syndicate story. And instead of setting up that storyline, this episode instead has us excitedly awaiting Grogu's decision in the next episode. As a set-up episode for the finale, this has completely failed because it has focused on the wrong storylines. I am certain that I am not going to care one bit about the Pyke Syndicate story in the next episode because it is clear that the show itself doesn't even care about it. While the last two episodes have been fun, they entirely failed to service the show as a whole. Lastly, I'm disappointed that "The Book of Boba Fett" is now mandatory viewing for anyone trying to follow Mando's story. Anybody watching past season 2 of "The Mandalorian" now has to trudge through multiple episodes of "Boba Fett" to get the rest of Mando's story, which to be honest, is just a waste of time. And I hate it when TV shows waste my time. I remain concerned with the direction that "Star Wars" is heading. With the appearances of Mando, Ahsoka, Luke, and Cad Bane in a Boba Fett TV show, it's becoming clear to me that "Star Wars" is trying to tell a single story across multiple TV shows. A connected universe like this sounds cool, but the big downside is that the pacing of the storytelling will slow down massively and these shows will now be forced to incorporate other characters not connected to the main storyline. This will be really problematic because it will degrade the quality of the stories being told, and for what? The only reason I can see for doing this is fanservice, which should absolutely never be a primary motivator in storytelling. But fanservice seems to be all that "Star Wars" is about now. "The Mandalorian" season 2 and now "The Book of Boba Fett" have their biggest moments based around callbacks to the past instead of forging any new ground for the future. It's really flat, uninspired, and it does not capture the imagination at all because I have already seen much of what the show is showing me. I've seen Cad Bane a lot, I've seen Yoda train Luke, and I've already enjoyed characters like Mando and Cobb. While it's fun to see them again, it is not necessary and it doesn't get me excited and invested in the way that seeing something new does. I want "Star Wars" to innovate again, but with the amount of praise that the franchise gets for these extremely safe, fanservice-heavy episodes, I suspect that this may just be a pipe dream. As for specific things about the episode itself, I have a couple gripes. Some lines felt clunky and lacking in subtlety, and that has been a problem for "Star Wars" since its inception. These clunky lines did break my immersion throughout the episode. I found it laughable that Mando went to Cobb's town to get muscle. Recalling season 2 of "The Mandalorian", it is blatantly obvious that nobody here would be fine in battle! Fighting a monster is completely different from fighting a war, and it's strange that neither Mando nor Cobb pointed this out at all. In reality, there is no way that these untrained soldiers would ever fight or ever be considered a threat. I find it hilariously unbelievable that the Pykes felt so threatened by this puny town with just a single capable fighter that they sent Cad Bane to threaten them. This is a clear-cut case where the story that the writers wanted to tell did not make any realistic sense, yet they told it anyways. The Unknown: How did Grogu escape the temple? His flashback was cut off right when he was about to be attacked. This has been teased for a while so I'm wondering what mystery is being hidden from us. Will Grogu choose to stay with Luke? I suspect he will. What will be the significance of this choice? Is Cobb dead? I presume since he was only shot once in the shoulder that he will survive. How will he react to Bane? Will he fight with Boba or remain neutral? Best Moment: Mando opting not to see Grogu was emotional and engaging. Quality stuff. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This episode did a lot for forging the future of "Star Wars", but I can't help but note how little this does for "The Book of Boba Fett". Add on some concerns with the direction "Star Wars" is heading, and this fun, enjoyable episode goes down a few pegs. Still, it's a good episode, the one I've enjoyed the most all season, as for once it feels like there is something worthwhile to talk about. Score: 61 Summary: Chandler invites Zack to his house and he grills him along with Monica to see if he would be a good sperm donor. Rachel still can't bring herself to like Charlie. Phoebe contemplates going to a party where Mike is going to be. Ross does an interview to get a big speaking position, but his interviewer falls asleep.
The Good: Ross' situation is mildly funny and David Schwimmer does his best to get whatever laughs he can. David's return is a good twist at the end of the episode, and his antics are as funny as ever. I hope that he does end up with Phoebe because he is a far better character than Mike. The Bad: But this was another bad episode. Joey continues on from the previous episode and is unfeasibly stupid. Rachel's jealousy isn't funny to watch and it feels like the show is treading on familiar ground. I wasn't pleased with Charlie mistaking Rachel for Phoebe and not putting together what is really going on. She has to be unfeasibly stupid to not catch on to Rachel's obvious, poorly disguised jealousy. Leave it to "Friends" to ruin the most promising guest star the show has had in a long while. Lastly we get to Chandler and Monica's story which is just awful. Watching Chandler and Monica awkwardly ask these probing questions is more painful than funny and it feels completely unrealistic. Furthermore, it's impossible to buy into Chandler being so into the idea of using Zack specifically as a sperm donor. Why did he suddenly think that Zack was a perfect candidate? This entire storyline was a mess, one of the worst of the season. Best Moment: Chandler's dumb jokes to the doctor were pretty funny. I especially liked the line "talk about an inhospitable environment" when the doctor didn't laugh at anything he said. Character of the Episode: Chandler. Conclusion: This was another poor effort with bad storytelling, and an overall lack of memorable comedy. This was not a good episode to hype up the two-part season finale. Score: 36 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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