Are we closer to finding Tyrell Wellick? Flipper? According to the Previously On, we’re getting SO MUCH BACKSTORY about lingering issues from Mr. Robot season one, yayy!!
We open in the Wellicks’ white white house; it’s like an IKEA showcase in there. Joanna is also in white clothing but I need to take back all I’ve been saying about her looking like Angelina Jolie. I watched Salt (WATCH SALT) on the weekend; they look nothing alike. ANYWAY, she sees two presents on the counter, languidly putting on earrings as Tyrell descends the staircase. Time to go! The way her head snaps around tells me this is NOT a flashback, Tyrell is back! And the car is waiting, so chop chop Joanna.
Oh I’m a stinking liar, this is a flashback, to the White Party where Tyrell and Joanna first met Scott and Sharon Knowles (Michelle Kicks). Joanna mostly stares at her feet until Sharon compliments her on her (brand new) earrings; Tyrell is so sweet, always getting her things.
She’s wearing them now as she picks up her bebeh on the street, smiling at a woman walking by who throws a bucket of red paint (wouldn’t green paint be more apropos?) all over her (but not the baby, yay!) screaming “Capitalist pig!” I’m sure it’s very unsettling and Joanna screams and screams silently while piano music plays but really: she’s a murderous icehole and the baby didn’t get splashed, so I’m all good.
She’s staring at a picture that was wrapped as a present; it’s a sonogram and I don’t quite get that yet…
Elliot’s reintroducing himself to us from the inside of his brain while he’s gasping on the cold concrete of his dungeon. Mr. Robot is keeping him company at least; Elliot wants to know what that sitcom hell was last week? And why was Mr. Robot pretending Tyrell wasn’t in the trunk?
Fine, Mr. Robot has HAD IT, he’ll tell Elliot where Tyrell is. What’s the last thing Elliot remembers? The popcorn (machine in the fsociety arcade where Darlene had just stashed a gun) and just as we’re about to find out something more …we cut to Angela
*inwardly screaming*
Look, I know we need to know where we’re been to figure out what’s REALLY going on, but please Sam Esmail, for the love of all that is holy, MOVE US FORWARD. One baby step! Just one! Then I’ll watch all the history and setup of Mr. Robot that you want, with a smile on my face and everything!!
Oh right, Angela had just been busted by Dom in the midst of completing the FBI hack; Dom introduces herself and wants to know why Angela was on restricted floor 23? Angela recovers quickly; she explains it was to make a date with Agent Thomas of the Complicated relationship and whew, good job Ang! Dom (Grace Gummer has an unusual style; not so much like “acting” per se, but rather reading lines in a flat manner while tilting her head to the side)presses to see if Angela is lying, little questions trying to trip her up, until Angela shuts her down. But it seems Angela’s story has fascinated the Fibbie; she left AllSafe right before the hack and to end up at ECorp (Darlene does damage control in her ear: don’t panic, she has NUFFING) and sure, Angela would love to talk, just not right now. She’s busy.
Dom leaves with a warning / benediction: “whatever this is? It isn’t you”
Angela completes the upload and that’s it, fsociety pwns the FBI.
Elliot’s worried; he asks Mr. Robot if he killed Tyrell? Well, of course he did, Tyrell was crazy (totes devolving) and that was it, Mr. Robot shot him. Just like Mr. Robot has been shooting Elliot. But no, Elliot says HE shot Tyrell and can someone just show me a body or something? And how does Joanna bribing (then killing) the parking attendant fit into all this?
Speaking of Joanna! She’s enjoying some more sadomasochistic non-sex with Derek; but he just wants to take her out and show her off. Why won’t she let him?? Ohhhhh and he gives her an ultimatum; come to his Dirty Thirty tonight as his girlfriend or she’ll have to find someone else to choke and cut her while nekkid.
Dom’s sucking on yet another lolly (she’s totally using coke to stay awake, right?); reviewing CCTV footage of the floor but guess what? NO, GUESS??!! It’s all gone! Dom directs them to sweep the floor and check Angela Moss’s computer; they’ve just been hacked. I hope Darlene and Elliot got what they wanted, party’s over!
She leaves, she’s got a Fourth of July bbq to go find to be miserable at, yaaaay!
Angela’s in a cab, staring at the mountains of garbage left on the street. Businesses are no longer able to afford to pay for waste management and just like that: I feel sorry for the mob. Okay, not really. It’s just exactly what this show is about: revolution and political slogans don’t matter to people wading through literal shite.
Oh but the point of all that was to introduce the ECoin, which taxis and cabs and probably other businesses are being told to accept from consumers.
Angela’s meeting Darlene; she’s not mad about Cisco any more, but she’s just now pieced together that the Alderson siblings are fsociety; they used to make her watch that horror movie every Halloween and HOW did she not know that was Elliot and Darlene immediately?? Well she kinda did, but she’s distracted by all the carnage of the city around them and goes on up.
Lone Star’s brought Elliot up from the basement; Ray asks if he’s ready to go to work now? You know who has a lot of ECoins?? RAY! Ray gets mean now; Elliot will do what he needs to, then go back into storage until they make sure all is well and then what? Is he threatening to kill Elliot after? Mr. Robot is lurking while Ray hovers, Elliot is alive as long as he is working.
Mobley, Trenton and Cisco are reading data from the FBI hack with weird expressions, Darlene comes for a lookie: “and this is happening tomorrow?”
Joanna’s at Derek’s apartment, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA he has a Cocktail movie poster on the wall!! Of course this 30-year-old bartender has a Cocktail movie posted tacked to his wall with pushpins, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sorry, sorry, he’s mad because she didn’t come to his party and I’m thinking she’s gonna kill him. They met at an ECorp stock options party and blah blah, the reason she didn’t meet him earlier is that she was having divorce papers drawn up. It’s his birfday present!
Midcity is up and running, Lone Star is ‘CITED! Time to send Elliot back to his hole; I sure hope he was able to signal Darlene whilst on the ‘puter. Elliot suggests a game, for old times sake and Ray agrees. He talks, as Ray does, the website was actually his wife’s idea. She set it up and they decided together to let the market dictate what was on it and not look. And he didn’t look, until Elliot and now he’s shaken to the core. He thinks Elliot is his answer, not the other way around. He should have taken a stand.
Elliot doesn’t say anything, just moves chess pieces and glares at him, bruises on his face from the beating Ray engineered. Ray asks how much time he has? Before they get here? Elliot figures the authorities have them surrounded by now, so Ray sends him away so he doesn’t get scooped too. He knew what Elliot would do when he had access to a computer again and he has accepted his fate. Ah Ray.
Elliot and Mr. Robot are partners now; they’ve made that agreement on their handshake, so Elliot will accept the dark and the light and move forward.
The U.S. House is voting on the ECorp Bailout when the brass balls of the castrated Wall Street bull come crashing through the ceiling. That was the fsociety Bailout plan?
Angela’s visiting her dad; he’s too busy selling EKits (end of the world kits! From ECorp) to return her calls. She tells him she can settle the case; just drop the contingency inspections and they’ll get their money. He doesn’t want to and he can’t believe how much of the ECorp koolaid she’s been drinking. He doesn’t trust them, and he doesn’t trust her. He doesn’t even KNOW her and it seems as though everyone else in the class action suit doesn’t care. “That’s the trick about money; it makes you care more about IT than anything else.” She did make a good point about ECorp maybe not being around long enough to pay later, but they and their EKits seem to be doing pretty well. My heart hurts for Angela every time she tries to convince someone who cares about her that EvilCorp “respects” her. Oh honey
She’s just there as a courtesy; she “clearly doesn’t give a shit about his opinion” and ahhhh Angela. Is this mobility worth it? She doesn’t get any of the money, he does and he’s broke as a joke, she saw the bills last season.
Leon’s asking Elliot about Ray’s business failure; er erp a group of men come into the basketball court all together. They do not look like talkers. They try to intimidate Leon to leave, but he’s good where he is. These are all Ray’s customers, who had Ecoins that they can’t access. Leon and Elliot’s catching bravery does eventually back them down, I don’t really get that. Why mount up and arm a posse then scoot at the first stoneface? These guys are amateurs. GOOD
Leon tells Elliot he’s sitting under the sword of Damocles, cuz, which means that the eye of the world is on him: NO PRESSURE.
I would argue that Phillip Price is in greater peril; he has the most to lose and the smallest intention of letting go, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that out of nowhere, the contingency clause has been dropped by the class action suit. What happened there, Angela? It is what he wanted, though, right? He just didn’t want to ask for it and Angela, I think you will grow out of trying to anticipate the needs of others for head pats. One day.
She wants to know why it was so important? Is there an “evil, secret agenda”? Don’t we all have those, though? She’s ready to share hers; she no longer wants the big office on the high floor and Melissa’s job, but rather a lateral move into Risk Management so she actually CAN make a difference.
He doesn’t know what to say to that; it baffles him that she would squander her earned capital that way. And hey, it’s his birthday too! His secret birthday, he doesn’t share the actual date with anyone else, so er, happy birthday! He asks her to celebrate with him, tonight and does he mean bouncing? It doesn’t matter, because Angela’s isn’t coming anyway. Maybe next year.
Elliot’s fully back in his loop now, at bible study and apologizing for his (awesome) Imaginary Friend rant from last year. She hugs him, but he doesn’t do TOUCHING, Bible Lady! Er-ooh, she thinks he’s been talking to God while he’s yakking in his melon, that’s either to us or Mr. Robot, so…close!
He’s blown away that she’s noticed him talking to Jesus in his head, but er-ohh, again. That’s us or Mr. Robot, soooo. He stares at the crucifix on the wall, asking for help, but Mr. Robot is the one listening.
Wait: in this scenario is Mr. Robot Jeebus?
Mr. Robot asks when Elliot first started listening to him? When he sent Elliot a note and then Elliot followed him on the subway and then Elliot used him to hack EvilCorp. There was no force, implied or otherwise, Elliot made all the decisions and Mr. Robot led. People WANT to follow Elliot, he is a leader. That’s what he will need to do to finish this revolution that everyone followed him into. And do something about the garbage, please! I know, I’m so provincial.
Angela’s being shown around the Risk Management floor by Jeremy Bobb from The Knick and Billions, wooo hooo! Atta boy Hutchy /Hermy! She’ll be on the internal investigation team, looking at ways to limit damage re: the current crisis. They’ll be working on the Flint Water Contamination Case; is she there to just get access to the servers? She wants to sit on the daily briefings, which really isn’t at her level, but he bends the rules for her, sure.
There are still protestors outside ECorp.
Elliot’s figured out that his whole loop regimen was just to get him back to himself and he burns his notebook in Hot Carla’s wagon before setting out to be jumped by the angry ex-vendors from earlier.
The main white racist dude thinks he’s sussed Elliot’s problem, he has a surfeit of courage. Makes him do stupidly brave stuff, like piss off morons like these and then walk the streets alone. He’s gonna fix that problem though, punching him three times (which Mr. Robot takes, thank you!) and then they turn him around, they’re gonna fix that courage problem and I AM NOT WATCHING
And then I don’t have to because Leon comes up and kills everyone. Thank you so much, Leon. I still need a moment, hold on.
THIS is exactly why people rape; it’s not cuz people wear the wrong clothes or get drunk without protection: it’s to take their power, their confidence and I HATE IT WHEN IT’S USED AS A PLOT DEVICE. But I do get that now I got to shout about that when maybe there wouldn’t have been a chance before. I DON’T CARE, DON’T DO THAT.
Leon tells Elliot; he’s going to get a letter on Tuesday, do what it says. Then he stabs the would-be-rapist right up his nekkid ass and JESUS. Who IS Leon?? Ahhhh, he tells Elliot that when he sees Whiterose, to say he did him good. Then he pulls his knife out. JESUS. He’ll be rooting for Elliot, always.
See? People follow Elliot.
The risk management meeting is missing Susan Jacobs (erumisbjb?) and lunch; Angela offers to put together a summary of milestone cases to see how everything was handled in the past. You know, like in Washington Township, she just needs access to the cases. Too transparent too fast, Angela! If you seem too eager, you won’t get in! Everybody makes faces and Hutchy /Hermy calls the meeting. I TOLD YOU to pace yourself! They know who she is. Just then, the lunch and Susan arrive; enjoy the shrimp cocktail.
Elliot is in to see Dr. Krista, she’s impressed with his progress in integrating with Mr. Robot. She’s still not exactly sure about our Elliot though; who does he think he is right now? Um. What?
Elliot hasn’t been staying with his mother, he knows that, right? Um. WHUT???
He’s been doing this loop regimen with Leon in jail. He needed this to get better and he SWEARS this will be the last time he doesn’t tell us everything and HOW DID EVERYTHING HAPPEN WITH RAY THEN??? He’d like us to be able to trust each other again, shake on it?
We’re oot and I need to punch a wall for a bit; how can everything have happened with Elliot in jail? And WHY is he in jail? If he’s only in jail to get better, how exactly will he get out? WHY THROW IN THE FICTIONAL RAPE ATTEMPT THEN???? I need a week or so to ponder how this all fits together (and get the image of a double bladed knife being yanked out of someone’s anal cavity out of my melon), see you next time, Script Kiddies. Deuces.
**pics borrowed from Tumblr, thanks!!
