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
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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