Summary: Colby asks Price what his goals are and he reveals that he wants to be the most powerful man in the world. Joanna meets with Elliot and tasks him with tracing the phone that she was given by (presumably) Tyrell. Elliot gets new hardware and finds an address which he gives to Mr. Sutherland. Elliot is messaged by Angela and he meets with her. Angela tells him she is going to confess about the femtocell and they share a moment together and kiss. Elliot leaves and Angela is confronted by some people. Cisco tells Darlene that he found Vincent who is badly injured and in danger of dying. Darlene contemplates letting him die but Cisco stops her and they take him to a hospital. Cisco is ID'd at Susan's house and Dom tracks him down to the hospital. The FBI put Cisco's face on a BOLO. Dom tracks down Darlene and Cisco to a nearby restaurant and goes inside to talk to them. A Dark Army gunner arrives and shoots down the restaurant before shooting himself.
The Good: I appreciate this episode for rectifying much of what made the previous episode so frustrating. There are still problems (see: The Bad), but I got a lot more value from this episode. Fromt he opening scene, this promised to be a much stronger episode. We open up with a conversation between Colby and Price, and the show uses this scene as a way to tell us more about Price, telling us precisely what his goals, motivation, and character is through a magnificent speech that was thoughtfully shot, starting by making Price look small at the edge of the frame and ending with him dominating the scene. The shot nicely fits what we learn about him: he is driven purely by power. His goal is to be the most powerful man in the world because he wants to always be the one in control no matter what the scenario. He desires this because he is greedy, prideful, and ambitious. I've long awaited a scene in "Mr. Robot" that explicitly tells us things about a character, allowing us to better understand them in the future. We finally got something like that in this opening scene. We also learn more about Joanna as she tells Elliot what she sees in Tyrell. Her story about their first date is horrifying and problematic in a lot of ways, but it impressively humanizes Joanna. We understand now that Joanna is someone who enjoys feeling like she has power. She loves Tyrell not because of who he is but because he is willing to do so much for her, and puts in the effort to make her happy through material goods. He makes her feel like a queen, and that sense of power is a driving force for her. It's curious how desire for power seems to be a driving force for so many characters in this show, and I really like this thematic consistency. Like Price, Joanna was one of those characters who desperately needed more humanizing and we finally got that here. It's a shame that we didn't learn more about her earlier, as some of her earlier scenes in this season may have been more impactful. Joanna's scene with Elliot was good. It was a natural continuation of their interaction back in the season 1 finale, and I appreciate how terrified Elliot is of her, simply because she is so good at reading social cues, unlike Elliot who struggles in just about every social situation. Their conversation sets up an engaging storyline as Elliot tracks down the phone with the implication being that Tyrell is on the other end and he will be found. Though we don't get a good resolution (see: The Bad), it was an engaging storyline with a sense of importance. I adored the long-take in Elliot's apartment where he asked us to see if there was anything in there that Mr. Robot may have wanted to retrieve. The unique way that Elliot talks to us directly is one of the most creative aspects of the show. Cisco snapping at Darlene felt earned and it's good that he prevented her from slipping further into cruelty and pain. Both characters were really good in this episode. Cisco showed that he had a moral side and seemed to genuinely care for Darlene. Darlene continues to develop wonderfully as she comes to reality and accepts that she hasn't been in control of things at all and that she's in over her head. Her monologue to Cisco about her desire to feel "special" felt very real, and it connected nicely to a story from her past that helps us understand Darlene's motivations. She wants people to notice her because she wants to feel important. This was conveyed beautifully, and is yet another case of a character's goals, motives, and personality being given to us forthright. Following these good character moments, we are treated to a terrific final 10 minutes of the episode. The whole sequence is almost unbearably tense and leaves us on edge. There is a promise that something big is about to happen. The show cuts rapidly between Elliot/Angela, Darlene/Cisco, and Dom which builds tension alongside a repeated music score that plays nonstop for all 10 minutes. The drama escalates perfectly. Dom's investigation is gripping, and it takes her closer and closer to Cisco, ratcheting up the suspense as we know that Darlene is with her and if Dom finds them, it's really bad for them both. But with Cisco's face up on the news, the Dark Army also remains a major threat. Meanwhile at the same time, we learn that Angela is ready to give herself up and confess about the femtocell. Elliot talks to her and they share a nice moment as they kiss, which felt like a long time coming. It's good to see their storylines cross over once again, and I'm curious how this interaction will affect the characters in the future. It was a strange choice to integrate these scenes in the tense final 10 minutes, but it creates a unique sense of heart-pounding dread when they kiss. I think that worked very well. The whole sequence builds and builds to that fantastic shoot-out at the end, a dramatic moment that satisfied all of the build-up (see: Best Moment) The Bad: Once again, there are a few frustrating cliffhangers in this episode. "Mr. Robot" is relying too heavily on these little tricks to keep things dramatic and it is frustrating. Mr. Sutherland offers Elliot no answers about the address for the phone, which leaves us wondering what the address is. Angela is confronted by 2 mystery people but again we don't know who. We aren't told who was killed in the shootout at the end of the episode, which feels like a copout. It's consistently frustrating that every episode ends on these needless cliffhangers when giving us straightforward answers would work much better. It would be more dramatically effective if we knew where Mr. Sutherland was going, if we knew who Angela just got confronted by, and if we knew who died or did not die at the end of the episode. These cliffhangers are not needed and take away from the story. As tense and exciting as this was, "Mr. Robot" needs to deliver a lot more in these final episodes of season two to be satisfying. This episode is a step in the right direction, but with the amount of meaningless shocks and confusion that has been thrown out this season, my faith in the show is shaken. This two part finale needs to really deliver and end this season on a high. The Unknown: Who are the people that Price deems are more powerful than him? Is Price giving Congo to China as a gift of sorts to Whiterose? Why is it so important that this happens? How did Vincent get those injuries? What happened to the others that he was supposed to meet with? Did Tyrell call Joanna and Elliot on the phone? Or is it someone else? What is at the address that Elliot tracked down? Who owns this phone? Is Tyrell actually still alive? Why did Mr. Robot vanish when Joanna's phone rang? Is he hiding something? Is there something in Elliot's apartment that Mr. Robot needed? Did Mr. Robot lie about Tyrell being dead? Is Angela going to go through with confessing what she did? We still don't know what the Dark Army-modified femtocell is for. Who were the people that confronted her on the subway? Who died at the shootout? We see that Dom is covered in blood so was it Darlene or Cisco? Or both? I suspect that Cisco died and Darlene did not. How did the Dark Army know where Cisco was to send assassins to kill him? Did they trace his phone somehow? How do they have people available in America to do their bidding? How far does their reach go? Best Moment: The shootout at the end was spectacular. The stylish filmmaking choices of Sam Esmail were on full display here. The final two minutes feature a single static camera shot focusing on the restaurant from across the street. We see Dom enter and start talking with Darlene and Cisco, before suddenly a bike pulls up and in comes a man with a gun. In an extraordinary bit of detail, the crosswalk counts down to zero and right then the shooter unloads on the restaurant, before taking a hit and shooting himself in the head as the cops arrive. It's a brilliant sequence shot in such an audaciously perfect way. Simply brilliant stuff. Character of the Episode: Darlene. Conclusion: A big improvement on the previous episode. While there are still flaws here, the final ten minutes are incredibly tense and this feels like a major episode for the show. Score: 67
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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