‘Mr. Robot’ Season 2 Finale: Recap *SPOILERS AHEAD*

“You only see what’s in front of you, not what’s above you.” The season finale of Mr. Robot was utter chaos, but the good kind. A slow start but once that freight train took off there was no stopping the crazy. At every commercial break I found myself asking what the f*** just happened? The show has its way of answering a few questions and throwing ten thousand new ones at us. However, we did finally learn the truth about Tyrell and stage 2.

Tyrell is really alive and well. He is not a figment of Elliot’s imagination. Sadly Elliot had to learn that the hard way.

Elliot discovered that Tyrell, Mr. Robot and The Dark Army are all in cahoots. He also learned that Stage 2 is a malware program and a very dangerous one. Tyrell shows Elliot a blueprint for a building and a disassembled firmware for an uninterrupted power supply. Come to find out that blueprint is for the E-Corp building where they are stashing all the paper records in order to rebuild their business. It just so happens that building is directly across the street from Tyrell’s safe house. Tyrell begins to execute the malware which is designed to override the safety limits of the UPS recharge battery, release hydrogen and use the brown outs to create a transformer spark causing an explosion that will level the building. HOLY S***!!!!!

Elliot immediately wants to shut down the malware and erase the backdoor to the program but is warned by Mr. Robot and Tyrell to step away from the computer. Mr. Robot pleads with Elliot to stop what he is doing as Tyrell grabs a gun and points it at Elliot. Thinking Mr. Robot is playing a trick on him, Elliot challenges Tyrell believing he is only an illusion. Unfortunately for Elliot, Tyrell calls his bluff and shoots him in the gut. Robot then flickers and glitches away, for now. Guess that is what happens when Elliot wanders outside his realm.

Luckily Elliot is not dead. He may be in a coma though. Tyrell immediately calls Angela after he shoots Elliot. Yes I said ANGELA. He tells her that he loves Elliot and she reassures him that he did what had to be done. She then heads to their location as she wants to be the first person he see when he wakes up. What the hell is going on? How long has Angela been involved? To what extent is she involved in this? How much does she know? What happened between Elliot and Tyrell during those 3 days?

The freight train just keeps on trucking down the tracks, full speed ahead. Surprise! Darlene is alive but Cisco is dead and no sooner does Dom snag Darlene and bring her in for questioning. Can’t the woman grieve?!

Apparently not. Especially if you are an enemy of the state. After many attempts to invoke the Fifth Amendment, Darlene is shut down and the evidence against her and F-Society is unloaded. Dom shows her a casing she found at the former F-Society headquarters. A casing from the gun she stole from Xander, her former lover. Darlene shrugs it off but Dom isn’t finished with her yet. She takes Darlene to a back room and throws down the hammer showing Darlene exactly what the FBI knows. And boy do they know a lot.

Darlene is bewildered and responds with an ever so appropriate “you’ve got to be f****** kidding me.” We then see the board and Elliot and Tyrell are at the center of it. No Whiterose or The Dark Army though. The question remains, was Darlene shocked by the FBI’s knowledge or the fact that Tyrell is involved? She wouldn’t have had any idea about his involvement as Elliot couldn’t even remember whether he was alive or dead. Dom then proceeds to tell Darlene that they only had one shot at the middle man; they had to lie in wait like a python. Which middle man is she talking about? Elliot or Tyrell? Who do they think the ring leader is and how are they going to get them?

Mobley and Trenton were also on the board. After the credits play Sam Esmail treats us to an additional scene. One where Mobley and Trenton are alive out West. Trenton divulges to Mobley that she has found something that can undue everything they have done. Unfortunately she most likely won’t get the chance as the two are greeted by Leon moments later. The Dark Army has sent him to do their bidding. Their time seems to be coming to an end. The Dark Army is always one step ahead of everyone, including Elliot and the FBI so it’s easy to see that they figured out what Trenton knows. Hence, Leon is there to tie up loose ends. May their death be swift and painless.

One of the less exciting twists of the night was the fact that Scott Knowles was the one sending gifts and calling Joanna. It wasn’t Tyrell at all. The last gift Joanna received from Scott was his deceased wife Sharon’s sonogram. Just when you thought Joanna was starting to feel bad for Scott she goes right back into her degrading and wicked ways. Saying she was glad Sharon was dead and that his fetus didn’t have to grow up with such a p**** of a father. Scott then proceeded to beat her to a pulp, which she kind of deserved. At least he was nice enough to call 911 after he realized what he had done.

This must have enraged Joanna even more. As she then goes on to devise a plan to have Scott framed for the murder of his wife. She uses her boyfriend Derek, who was working that night at the party where Sharon was murdered, as a pawn in her game of revenge. She wants to punish him and after a little pushing and prodding Derek is willing to tell police a new story about that night.

The finale closes out with a complete blackout and the crashing of cars. Did Tyrell initiate Stage 2? We’ll have to wait until next season to find out. However we do have some clues as to what’s to come.

Season 3 will be about “Disintegration” as Elliot and Mr. Robot split further apart against the nation’s recession. Will there also be a literal disintegration of the E-Corp building?

According to Deadline.com, Season 3 will involve a lot of 2016’s political events i.e. Donald Trump gaining the Republican nomination, terrorist attacks, etc.

“The sentiment and the outrage and the support of Donald Trump; the groundswell by which he rose to become the Republican nominee, that sort of atmosphere is going to be used in the Mr. Robot universe and amplified by this great economic collapse which is happening like a slow car accident. What you’re seeing is the events that stoked those (Trump-like) sentiments,” says Esmail who is heading back to the writers room soon and will continue to direct all of season 3’s episodes, just like he did in season 2. There will be a lot of overlap,” Esmail says about melding current events into Mr. Robot season 3, “the increased terrorism and domestic violence that has gone on, a lot of that will play into the Mr. Robot universe.”

There is definitely a lot to look forward to in Season 3 of Mr. Robot. I for one cannot wait!