So. Did everyone watch Mr. Robot season one? There’s too much to go over if you haven’t, go binge it and come back. I’ll wait. Doo doooo doo. I’ll give a breakdown as we go along, but a LOT happened, you’re gonna want the full Mr. Robot MindHump Experience. Doooo dooo dooo okay, all ready? Perfect! Rolling S2:E1 after the break!
We have a few burning questions we need answered right away, but none more than: Where Is Tyrell Wellick? Tyrell (Martin Wallstrom) went missing at the end of last season when Elliot (Rami Malek – if you don’t know who he is: GET THEE TO TUMBLR! Seriously, he’s fantastic in this show and makes Sam Esmail’s writing come to life in a way that is rarely seen) went into one of his blackouts. Elliot goes in to blackouts because he has mental health issues which he treats with illegal drugs, one of which got his almost-girlfriend Shayla (Frankie Shaw) kilt.
So. After The Hack, nobody has any debt but nobody has any credit either, so…gold standard everyone? The militiamen were right, woo hoo!
Back on the night of The Hack, Tyrell is making fun of the fsociety mask at the Coney Island fsociety station while Elliot erases the world’s debt. Tyrell takes a call from James, I couldn’t make out much of what that was about, but that was the last person who talked to Tyrell before whatever happened I imagine.
It’s happening
Tyrell sits down to watch the file execute while Elliot wanders away, Tyrell thinks it’s almost as though something has come alive! And Elliot goes for the gun Darlene (Carly Chaikin) hid in the popcorn machine.
We’re back even further in time with Elliot lying on the ground bleeding from the head after his dad Edward, aka Mr. Robot (Christian Slater – everyone loves him in this role but eehhh) pushed him out a second story window, you know, AS GOOD DADS ARE WONT TO DO. Quick break to the hospital while Daddeh apologizes; young Elliot (Aidan Liebman) needs a cast on his broken forearm, but his insanely cold mama wants to know how much this will cost? As though they’re not going to get it, just let wee Elliot’s forearm heal all crooked?
Last season I wondered a lot about how such a cool dad like Edward (or cool-sounding, via Elliot’s conversations with us, his imaginary friends) was married to such a bitch on wheels; I’m starting to think Edward himself was no prize, what with the pushing out the window and the like.
The doctor kicks everyone out to reassure Elliot that he is gonna heal fine, just fine. And just a few questions…hmm. If Elliot sustained a head injury….perhaps that had some effect on his ability to TELL HIS IMAGINARY FRIENDS THE TRUTH, EVER
Elliot’s been staying with his mum again? Whut? PsychoMama. This day (today) started just like every single other day has for the past month, and we get a President Obama speech that tickles me, truly. I hope he recorded that as a fan.
Elliot has a loop each day, starting with going to the diner to meet Leon (Joey Bada$$), who has just discovered Seinfeld. It’s really fcuking with him. 10am Elliot helps out with the dishes and 12 he meets Leon again for lunch. At 2 they watch a basketball game while Hot Carla (Eve Lindley) burns stuff. She’s named Hot not for her looks, but rather her propensity for arson. She’s Elliot’s personal totem.
Elliot doesn’t get sports just yet, but he loves the beauty of the rules. “The invisible code of chaos hiding behind the menacing face of order” MAKES NO SENSE. I guess he means that all the variables make all the rules just an illusion of control? Because on any given Sunday any old thing could happen
He cleans up the house at 4:30 again, and then has dinner with Leon at 6 pm. Why do they eat every meal together? Who is Leon? How did he meet disfcukinguy?
Two times a week he goes to a church group to socialize? I can’t tell exactly, but I’d wager AA or NA, not Weight Watchers.
President Obama has been monologueing in the background about America’s ability to solve problems and I have to say: I’m a little worried about America right now. You may be reading this later, but the summer of 2016 has been one of chaos and unrest in the United States and all over the world. So.much.violence.
Elliot’s mom (Vaishnavi Sharma) doesn’t even have internet and how is that possible? Is she in Newfoundland?
Elliot’s back seeing Dr. Gordon again; making fun of the routines other people have to get through their lives, the sameness, the NCISes, whatever Elliot, speaking of samness, seeing the same psychologist and doing the same speech. I’m surprised he’s seeing her again, and that he would see her. He hacked her (to help her, he likes her and feels protective) and she found out. Her ex-bf (married and stepping oot) Lenny was also going straight for Elliot, so this is an odd situation.
She asks why he went to his mom. I asked that too! Elliot’s mother is the strictest person he knows, though, good for closing that loop and not getting confused with feelings, I guess. Does he feel alone? Well, Darlene comes by (yayyyyyy. I was not a Darlene fan last season. She’s kind of an arsehole) and does he miss anything about his old life? He doesn’t trust himself to go back to his old life, though, but won’t say why until she presses, hard. She only agreed to see him if he was going to be more open, so answer the damn question! And it’s because he doesn’t trust that Edward won’t come out.
Oh hi Elliot, he’s decided to talk to us again, but he’s not telling us what he told Krista, because he doesn’t trust us yet. Oh that’s a bit rich, Elliot, you yourself left out the parts where Carly was your sister and Edward was the ghost of your dad; I should probably mention. I was pretty annoyed at the end of last season when everything was explained thusly: Becuz, Mental Illness… but maybe I need the chill the eff oot. I am down with Manifests (I miss River) and talking to people so we can understand the main character’s back story, but when he lies about things…it starts to feel slightly redundant. I can take drugs all my own if I want to feel all wobbly.
He thinks we have trust to rebuild with him and wegro, pleez. Edward is taunting him from his bed while Elliot works on his journal. This revolution needs a leader! This control Elliot has? *pulls out a gun* “it’s an illusion.” Sigh. So Elliot’s ID is threatening to murder the rational bits again, if anyone’s having trouble following. Edward pushed him off a pier the first season, so… progress?
Elliot doesn’t want to play silly buggers, though; he’s not playing at all until Edward tells him what he really wants to know: Where Is Tyrell Wellick? But Edward can’t tell him that yet, so he shoots him in the head instead. I bet Tumblr LOVED that visual.
Elliot journals about it; he’s proud of himself for staying calm “this time.” Since there’s blood on the paper, did Elliot shoot himself the same way he threw himself off the pier and choked himself in the restaurant?
A masked Darlene and pals are creeping through the streets; they start doing some radical surgery on the brass statue of a bull.
Sandrine Holt (Susan Jacobs) runs through the street while we get more news about the financial sector meltdown, dang it, MyFitness(Pal) has stopped mid-run, that’s like a WASTED run, yo! I hate that. She’s very technologically advanced, though, fancy alarm, giant integrated remote, teeny tiny lap pool. She’s a rich techie, and a rich techie under attack, I would guess, since nothing is working properly.
A show called “Let’s be Frank” keeps turning itself on, a monologue about the Five/Nine attack. Host Frank Cody (Erik Jensen) is holding forth about something, but I can’t tell what because the music keeps turning on and the alarm is going off and it’s all cacophony.
She’s talking to someone; turn off WHAT?? It’s all part of the Smart House Package! Whoever is on the line advises her to get out; she’s off to her place in Greenwich. Approximately 30 seconds after she leaves, Darlene and a one-legged man enter and all is calm.
Gideon (Michel Gil – the doomed president from House of Cards season 2!) has come by to see Elliot; he’s such a sweetheart. And no more the owner of anything, AllSafe no longer exists. He’s also under attack because the Fibbies think Gideon was involved with The Hack. They’re even hacking into his email.
Edward is blah blah blahing away in the background; did he frame Gideon or was it Elliot? He can’t remember and now Elliot is bleeding from his head wound again. Which means Elliot is slowly descending into madness (still, apparently there are lots and LOTS and lots of steps).
Gideon asks for help, when Elliot declines, Gid “does what all small animals do when they’re scared: pretend they’re bigger and scarier.” Which in this case means threatening to go to the FBI with the details of Elliot’s last day, I mean, Elliot gave Gideon the hard drives to bring to White Rose. Edward points out that maybe he knows too much?
Edward ponders in the background, if he sliced open Gideon’s throat right now; would it be him or Elliot who did it. This is me in the background making a jerking off motion, in case anyone was wondering where I stood on the question. Edward pretend slits Gideon’s throat and I can already see season two is going to be FUN. Or whatever the opposite of fun is.
Elliot spaces out and bails, and poor Gideon just looks so sad and small and as though he was holding his breath.
Elliot ties a headband around his bleedy temple wound and gets back to his regimen, he needs it now more than ever. What he needs is to help out Gid! He’s one of the very few good guys on this show!!
The regimen is to get rid of Edward, though, remember, and now we’ve got him everywhere, like in the diner, fluffing Elliot’s paranoia. Edward is angry now, but Elliot’s very close to hurting his feewings, and Elliot will not like Edward with hurt feewings.
Darlene’s having a meltdown in her fancy new Smart House; drugs? Lack of reason to get out of bed? Ahh, the bull they performed surgery on was anatomically correct, so everyone’s taking selfies with bullballs. Victory, fsociety! People will always reduce the important to the mundane. It’s what we doooooo
She crushes the phone of the yahoo licking the brass bullballs; we are in a war and we are LOSING, people! Susan wasn’t just targeted because of her sweet pad; she’s chief Counsel for ECorp, nicknamed Madame Executioner due to her expertise with having lawsuits with deaths dismissed. Darlene says they have been on their knees for too long with guns to their heads, they need to STAND UP!
Now I don’t like Darlene whatsoever, but I’d say fsociety has a leader, Elliot! And she’s deploying troops and laying out battle plans like a general. Mobley (Azhar Khan) isn’t impressed by her speechifying, it’s very George W. Bush. She’s working on giving something to the troops, though; she needs to throw the people who supported them a bone. It feels as though The Man is still winning. “Don’t be half-in, like the others” she pout/warns him. He’s one of the originals.
We see a woman arguing with the bank teller at the Bank of ECorp; she can’t prove she paid her mortgage or her bills and ECorp doesn’t have a system for dealing with it. Darlene’s root kit goes into effect just then; it’s a countdown clock to a ransom demand for 5.9 million big ones.
Susan Jacobs finally makes it in to work; she’s late due to the Greenwich commute but she’s done her homework on the way. She thinks they should pay the ransom; they’re looking at 5 banking days down otherwise. Brainstorming with her is Chief Technology Officer Scott Knowles (Brian Stokes Mitchell), who took the job so coveted by Tyrell Wellick and his wife, which lead to Tyrell strangling Scott’s wife, which led to Tyrell’s wife using a cornichon fork on her amniotic sac and if you followed all that: bravo, reader. It got really, really messy at the end of last season. In charge is Biggest Cheese Philip Price (Michael Cristopher) who is looking for clarity: what do these terrorists mean by asking for a Chief Officer to deliver the ransom to Battery Park? Woot, Scott will do it! As head IT guy, he kinda should, right? I agree with that call. And we’re oot.
We’re setting the table on Mr. Robot season two, new players are being introduced and old ones being brought forward into the light (who else thought Elliot’s PsychoMama was dead?); what will happen this go ‘round, after The Hack? Let’s find out next time! Peace, Script Kiddies.
