Summary: A flashback shows a meeting between Elliot and Tyrell before 5/9. In the present, Tyrell takes Elliot to the location where he has been working and reveals what the stage 2 plan is: to blow up the E Corp building and destroy all of their paper records. Elliot is not happy about this but Mr. Robot tries to convince him to allow it. Elliot threatens to shut it all down so Tyrell pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot him. Elliot thinks that Tyrell is a part of himself too, but Tyrell shoots Elliot and he collapses. Afterwards, he calls Angela who says she will come over. Dom and Santiago interrogate Darlene but she doesn't give them anything. Dom convinces Santiago to do her strategy. She takes Darlene and shows her that the FBI have figured out literally everybody in the fsociety operation, they are only waiting to find the leader before they bring everyone in. Joanna visits Scott, who is responsible for the phone and gifts. He reveals his grief to her and she goads him by saying his wife and unborn child deserved their deaths. Scott violently beats Joanna. Joanna asks Derek to testify against Scott to suggest that he murdered Sharon to get revenge. Mobley and Trenton have started a new life with new identities, but they are approached by Leon.
The Good: Dom's interrogation of Darlene was great to watch. Darlene is suitably broken up after what happened to Cisco and I was compelled by her flat, lifeless responses to the FBI, refusing to cooperate with them. I was pleased that she was fully aware of the FBI's tricks and used her wit to stay a slight step ahead of them. But it was all just an illusion in the end. Dom knew that they had the advantage, and she used that superbly to deliver a crushing blow to her confidence at the end of the episode. The scene built beautifully with a tremendous shot of Dom taking Darlene through the FBI building, letting us know that what was about to happen was going to be big. And it was. The reveal that the FBI knew everything, and likely had known everything for a long time, was spectacular. It made perfect sense considering how incompetent fsociety had been up to this point, and I appreciate that the show was above dumbing down the FBI to make the plot more plausible. Elliot's story was interesting and exciting. Finally we received some answers on what exactly was going on. Not everything (see: The Unknown), but a lot was revealed, especially about stage 2. This was good stuff as it finally pulled back the curtain on what has been happening, and Elliot's shocked and horrified reaction made a lot of sense. The episode does a terrific job of building up the mystery of Tyrell's presence. Is he dead or is he actually there? This question permeates the entire episode, going through our mind and going through Elliot's mind. There's no clear answer either because you can make a case for either option so there is tension involved in finding out if Tyrell is real or not. The closing moments with Elliot standing up to Tyrell as he holds the gun were tense and exciting, and it culminated in what was initially a pretty shocking moment when Tyrell shoots Elliot. Quickly you realize that Elliot is not going to die, but the moment still has that gripping impact. I was pleased with how this story was handled, and I am glad that the show went with keeping Tyrell alive in the end. He's such a fun character to follow so I'm pleased that I can look forward to seeing more of him next season. I did like Scott and Joanna's scene as its own thing. It was very well acted, and it did make a lot of sense that Scott would go after Joanna in an effort to find some purpose in his home life. His monologue on having gained and lost everything at once was genuinely heartbreaking, which greatly surprised me. "Mr. Robot" hasn't typically afforded much sympathy for the upper class so I was pleased to see this humanizing moment for Scott. I even expected for a second that Joanna might sympathize with him a bit, but of course I was wrong and given a bit of a rude awakening as Joanna says the absolute most vicious thing that someone in her position could have said. It's a fantastic moment and Scott's rampage afterwards is completely understandable. You get the sense that this was her plan all along and that she will make him pay for doing this. The Bad: After an extended 12 episode season that really pushed the boundaries of my patience, I can't believe that we still don't know what happened in the 3 days that Elliot blacked out back in the season 1 finale. I figured that uncovering this time period would be the focus of this second season, and yet here we are at the end of season 2 and we still haven't explored what happened in those 3 days. That would be okay if we had a sufficient amount of plot development in this season, but that did not happen. I can't help but feel a little bit robbed that more answers did not accompany Tyrell's return. Joanna and Scott's scene was really good but I have to question its importance. We spent a lot of time with Joanna this season but she was so disconnected with everything else happening with the story. I figured that she would be connected with Tyrell's disappearance, but it turns out that she apparently wasn't. I really like Joanna as a character and what she brings to the table, but she felt kind of pointless this season. This felt a little flat as a finale because not a whole lot of substance happened. Joanna was a tertiary part of this season's story, yet she received a ton of screentime in this episode. And key players like Price and Whiterose were entirely absent, while Angela, one of the main characters, hardly appeared at all. This wasn't the climax that this season needed to justify such a slow season filled with teasing. Instead it looks like the pay-off is going to be saved for next season. I wouldn't be surprised if the show lost a lot of fans between seasons because of this choice. The Unknown: What was Tyrell's father like? Why does Tyrell want so desperately to not be like him? Will Tyrell follow through with the plan for stage 2? What will result from the destruction of the E Corp building? Why did he call Angela after shooting Elliot? Was that planned? How are they going to save him? I'm sure he won't die. How is Angela aware of the plan? Did Whiterose tell her about it? Why is she playing such a key role? Tyrell says that he hasn't been living in this building the entire time. Where has he been staying then? What else has he been up to? Who has been hiding him? We also still don't know what exactly happened during the three days. What other details are there to uncover? What happened after Elliot grabbed the gun to shoot Tyrell? A bullet was fired, so how is Tyrell still alive? He doesn't seem to acknowledge that Elliot made an attempt on his life. Tyrell does exist right? The gunshot seemed to confirm that, but you never know with this show. I thought they had confirmed his death many episodes ago, but clearly not. Is Derek going to testify against Scott? Did Joanna plan for this to happen? Was she goading him into attacking her to make this seem legitimate? What does Joanna have to gain by ruining Scott's reputation? Is she hoping to open up the position of CTO for Tyrell again? So if Scott was sending all the gifts, does this mean that Joanna is unaware of what's been going on with Tyrell? That doesn't really make sense with how much she has known in previous episodes. It doesn't explain the deal with Kareem either. How much does she know about Tyrell? What role does she play in all of this? Did Mobley and Trenton escape on their own to forge a new life? So it wasn't the Dark Army that got to them? What did Trenton uncover about undoing the hack? Will they act on this? Why has Leon tracked them down? If the FBI know everything, does this mean that they have someone following Elliot? Could they have tracked him to the building that he is in with Tyrell? I really hope so, any other outcome will make them look sloppy. Best Moment: Dom revealing the FBI's intelligence to Darlene. Character of the Episode: Dom. Conclusion: This ended up being a mixed bag of a season finale. The scenes individually were well done and there was good storytelling here, but this failed to be the massive pay-off that we needed to justify the tedious slog that this season was. As you can expect, my opinion on season 2 is not great. The earlier episodes were slow paced but they had a solid story of Elliot learning to accept Mr. Robot, and I was patient enough to wait for the bigger pay-offs later. But those pay-offs never came, and looking back on season 2, it was quite a waste of time. So many of the storylines were dragged out, unnecessary, and needlessly confusing. I wish that we had been given a more straightforward narrative to latch onto as it would have been easier to tell a compelling story in that scenario. But "Mr. Robot" didn't do that, and as the season escalated, the story fell into nonsensical shenanigans, pointless plot twists, soap opera cliffhangers, and frustrating teases. This show is damn lucky that the production value is top-quality, because if it wasn't then this show would likely be borderline unwatchable this season. The good production, good performances, and creativity is what is saving this show right now, because otherwise season 2 was a typical sophomore slump. There is still potential here; I did really enjoy season 1. "Mr. Robot" just needs to remember what season 1's strengths were, and it needs to learn from season 2's mistakes. Score: 59
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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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