Hi everyone, is it October 7 already and Mr. Robot is back? Okay, I’m a little behind. This working-for-a-living takes up a chunk of time, don’t it? Without further delay, we roll S3:E1 “eps3.0_power-saver-mode.h” after the break.
We open at the Grand Opening of a fast food restaurant and Irving (Bobby Cannavale) would like the free milkshake his tenth visit just earned, please! But that’s for next visit, silly, and how can he already have a full punchcard if this is the grand opening? ANYWAY, he’s not wrong, what constitutes a visit anyway and why can’t he just have his free milkshake? Chocolate, peez! There’s a long lineup behind him as he argues and takes a call mid-complaint “is he dead?” and then he’s gotta go, leaving some words of wisdom behind him.
He walks out of Red Wheelbarrow BBQ!!! Tyrell Wellick said his dad learned English with a phrase that had Red Wheelbarrow innit! And there was that inmate in prison with Elliot who was always lighting fires in a red wagon – Hot Carla? I gotta check.
Irving is on his way to see our Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) who was shot in the belleh by long-lost frenemy Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wahlstrom) for trying to stop his own revolution.
Irving snaps some pics, advises Tyrell against pressing on Elliot’s belleh and a doctor is on the way.
Brownouts roll across the city as engineers wandering around a building wonders if we see reality as it is? I think they’re at a nuclear plant and the leader’s musings about multiple parallel universes existing makes me wonder exactly what kind of a tour they’re on.
OOoooh Whiterose (BD Wong) is out of drag but no less thrilling for me, she’s my favourite character, hands down. He’s flipping through the pictures of Elliot prone and bleeding, his associate takes this time to suggest he lead Stage 2 instead, at least he’s stable.
Whiterose tells the story of Elliot’s beginnings, did his associate know that Elliot’s dad Mr. Robot worked on Stage 2 back in the day? Unknowingly, of course, but doesn’t explain the coincidence, which is surely not a coincidence. He does give his reasoning behind keeping Elliot and Tyrell in charge of Stage 2, however, he needs Elliot’s “unadulterated focused rage.” Plus not to worry, after it’s done, Elliot can “die, just like his father.”
Elliot wakes up talking to us again: what happened, did we see anything? We sure did, but I don’t think you’re gonna believe it! First, your dead dad showed up and conspired with the guy you shot several months ago and then THEY shot YOU and now you’re totally fine and at Angela’s house.
Okay, not fine, Elliot did actually get shot, if you can believe anything that happens on this show (psst: the narrator is a huge liar) but Angela (Portia Doubleday) gives him the 411 before explaining that she can’t call 911 because if she does the Dark Army will kill her. Does Angela have something Elliot can wear? DOES SHE
Elliot is back at the warehouse looking for his manifest, but Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) is nowhere to be found.
A proselytizer with a microphone warns people of the Beast as Elliot heads towards his old apartment. His slumlord is outside, looking exactly like G.R.R. Martin and expansively offering Elliot’s “friend” staying with him a discount rate on his own apartment. Like, three times, we get it, someone is in Elliot’s apartment, duh.
It’s not a “he” as advertised, it’s Elliot’s sister Darlene (Carly Chaikin) and she’s still pretty upset about Cisco being killed by the Dark Army inches away from her. She thinks she’s next but…the Dark Army isn’t known for missing or subtlety when they decided to take someone out. Plus even G.R.R. Martin downstairs knows she’s there.
I would also like to know!
Elliot explains; the fem-to-cell Angela planted in the FBI office wasn’t just to hack the FBI, it actually opened up a backdoor into ECorp’s building that stores all their paper documents and records. Stage 2 is blowing up that building and all those people inside and since Elliot has only been about a bloodless revolution so far, he’s aghast. He needs to get online!
He begs Darlene for help, the internet has been down for ages, can she help him? Not in that shirt
The hoodie is BACK!
They go to a rave filled with people on computers, my bad, this is actually the Hacker Olympics, people exercising their inner anarchy with a dedicated fiber connection.
Elliot muting everyone was fun, I want a Mute button in my mind palace!
We have sound again and Elliot approaches a team to offer help and a paradigm shift if he can just get online…two Asian guys watch and talk to each other and I am forced to racially profile them as members of the Dark Army because Darlene runs into a bathroom to hyperventilate when she sees them.
The Dark Army dudes grab Darlene and Elliot, but not before he closes the backdoor. Elliot and Darlene run outside and jump into the cab Irving is driving, which has an NYPD laptop in it so they can call in a “slowdown” of the vehicle pursuing them. Technology is everything on this show. So much of it needs power to run, though, did fsociety think of that? DID THEY?
Who wants BBQ?
The Red Wheelbarrow is a Dark Army front, which makes sense, since Elliot has been working with them forever; wait, why does Darlene fear them if she knows that? She knows that, right? Irving shoos her away so the menz can talk, she shoots him the finger right back but agrees to step aside so he and Elliot can chat. Sometimes I love Darlene. NOT OFTEN.
Elliot tells Irving about the backdoor being shut, did he really want to do that? He did and it’s done and Whiterose won’t be happy, but “she believes a plan lives and dies by it’s creator.” Elliot would like confirmation from Whiterose that it’s all done but all Irving is willing to offer is to put the bullet back in his belleh.
Darlene doesn’t believe this, what about Tyrell? No way it’s over this easily.
Elliot wanders the streets, monologuing to use about this new world he created. He thinks 5/9 “didn’t get rid of the invisible hand, it turned it into a fist that punched us in the dick.”
Elliot thinks he’s to blame.
Back at Angela’s apartment, he asks her to get him a job at EvilCorp, he needs to fix it. He crosses the room and gets close: he wants her to watch him too, to see if he turns into Mr. Robot because she knows him better than anyone.
They kiss and I LOVE IT! But Angela does not, she thinks it’s a mistake. Elliot tells us he knows why, he’s known Angela since she was 8 years old. She doesn’t love the people who love her back, this is her power-safe-mode.
She dangles something weird in front of him: what would he give to have everything go back to how it was? What would he sacrifice for that?
IF THIS IS ALL JUST SOME THERAPY PROJECT OF ELLIOT’S, I SWEAR
She asks Elliot to spend the night so she can feel safe, so he cuddles up next to Qwerty and wakes up as Mr. Robot.
Angela and Mr. Robot stare at each other just long enough for us to wonder if she will wake Elliot’s consciousness up and then the moment is passed as she’ll get dressed so they can go.
Mr. Robot wants to get Stage 2 rolling again, let’s go get Darlene! But she’s on the outside now, since she helped Elliot close that backdoor. Mr. Robot wants to know how Angela knows she’s dealing with him and not Elliot; it’s because Mr. Robot never looks away. Angela has what looks like a needle set aside in case Elliot shows up at the wrong moment.
REALLY?
They’re off to see Irving who is confused as to why Elliot looked at him as though he’d never seen him before. He thinks there is something rotten in Denmark, but Angela pushes back: he brought her in to manage Elliot, let her work.
What?
They pop round the warehouse where Tyrell is super duper sorry he shot you in the gut Elliot/Mr. Robot. No problemo, now let’s go blow up a bunch of colluding bystanders!
Mr. Robot gets the tunnels open again, then Angela and Mr. Robot are on the train back to her place, he wants to know why she’s helping? She refuses to talk to him the same way she does Elliot; he wants to know how she can lie right to Elliot’s face?
Mr. Robot does not trust Angela. She explains: since EvilCorp killed her mom, she’s wanted nothing other than justice for her death, meeting Whiterose opened her eyes. She saw a way to undo all of EvilCorp’s damage and a new world will be born. We’re oot
So, hella gloomy, Mr. Robot, but that’s not unexpected. The addition of Bobby Cannavale is an interesting choice; is he to replace our strange Agent Dom DiPerro? Time shall tell and so will I, until next time, y’all!
