“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!

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Previously on Mr. Robot….

F Society intercepts an FBI conference call and uncovers that they have been illegally tapping 3 million American’s cellphones without a warrant. Susan Jacobs aka Madame Executioner returns to her home unexpectedly and meets the gang face-to-face. We also learn that Sue was at the trial involving the Washington Township scandal. Darlene has Mobley, Cisco and Trenton dig for anything to blackmail Sue with to keep her quiet. Unfortunately for Sue the dirt wasn’t good enough. Darlene tasers her and watches her drown in her own pool. Soon after we learned she had a heart condition. Cisco and Darlene then cremate Sue to get rid of the evidence. After this incident Mobley is picked up by Dom but is released after being held for over 12 hours. Moments later Darlene discovers Cisco has betrayed her. He is still working with The Dark Army and has been sending them information on her. She then hits him in the head with a bat. The unraveling of information continued in “init_5.fve”.

Last night’s episode (Wednesday, August 31^st) started to slowly unravel the truth. We learn that Elliot was arrested for hacking Hansen’s email and stealing his dog. We also learn that Ray was the warden at the prison and Lone Star is a correctional officer. After we are filled in Elliot is released early from prison after serving an 86 day stint. He quickly drops by to visit his mother who is either in a psych ward or nursing home.

Angela continues to hack E-Corp from the inside. She gets unlocks Joseph Green’s account and gathers information from the Washington Township leak. She takes this evidence and turns it over but quickly realizes the people she gave it to are working for E-Corp. Angela quickly exits and returns home where she is greeted by Dom.

Minister Jung meets up with Price and we learn that Jung is the owner of the Washington Township plant. Price informs Jung that he could not secure a loan to keep the plant and the feds will be taking it over unless he can get the Chinese government to loan them the money, interest free of course. Jung does not take the threat too kindly and reminds Price what happened to the last guy that threatened him.

Speaking of The Dark Army, Elliot and Darlene hack White Rose’s right hand man Xun. Elliot has Cisco set up a meeting with Xun. Unfortunately Elliot is not in the best mind frame. He continues to have out of body experiences and Mr. Robot has to step in when Elliot goes into a thousand yard stare. At the meeting Elliot is able to keep it under control and demands Xun have White Rose tell him what Phase 2 is. Shortly after we learn Phase 2 is Elliot’s plan. How did he forget? Did he actually forget or is it all a part of his plan? What is Phase 2?

Darlene also realizes she left behind the VHS tape with her face on it at Sue’s place. Cisco heads back to grab it but encounters someone. Darlene is then greeted by someone, who clearly isn’t Cisco, at Cisco’s apartment. What trouble have these two gotten themselves into now?

Closing out the episode is Tyrell’s SUV pulling in front of Elliot’s apartment. However, Tyrell is not inside. Joanna is. What’s the deal with these two?

Next Week

We see what’s up with Joanna and Elliot

Dom moves in on someone (Elliot? Cisco?)

Phase 2 begins

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“Handshake” picked up on the much anticipated standoff between Angela and Dom. Angela plays it very cool with Dom but she isn’t buying her bull****. Luckily for Angela it is enough to get Dom off her back for now and complete the hack. However, this doesn’t get Angela off of Darlene’s back.

Speaking of Bull’s… Darlene has F-society make another move on E-Corp. The Bull testes sawed off the Bull statue on Wall Street in previous episodes were dropped through the skylight of the house. Adding more fuel to the fire.

Angela finally puts it all together and reveals that she knows Darlene and Elliot were behind the 5/9 hack. Angela also reveals another side of herself, an unsavory side to say the least. Angela pops into to her dad’s workplace and hopes to persuade him to settle with E-corp and drop the contingency that include individual inspections. We quickly see the mistrust in their relationship, which is just on her father’s part. It turns out Angela was only making a curtesy call as she had already received the 2/3rds vote to drop the lawsuit and take the payout, further damaging, possibly diminishing whatever relationship she has left with her father.

Angela then uses this leverage to get Price to move her to risk management. A huge mistake on her part, as her new manager in risk management puts her in her place after she speaks during a debriefing meeting she is sitting in on. Maybe she shouldn’t have turned down Price for a date.

In this episode Elliot finally learns the truth(?) or at least Mr. Robot’s version about what happened to Tyrell. According to Robot, Elliot killed Tyrell with the gun Darlene hid in the popcorn machine. Mr. Robot takes the blame for shooting Tyrell but Elliot accepts full responsibility.

Things get much more dangerous for Elliot in this episode. After making Ray’s site live again, he opens the site up to the FBI. Come to find out that Ray knew exactly what Elliot was going to do the minute he sat down in front of that computer again. Ray let it happen because of the guilt he had over what was being sold on the site his wife initially set up. The site is then quickly shutdown and that is when the real trouble starts.

Elliot is harassed and beaten by those who had bitcoin money on Ray’s site; they feel he owes them money. He is then cornered and about to be gang-raped when Leon, who’s a f****** ninja, comes to his aid, killing all 5 men by himself. We then learn Leon is a member of The Dark Army and requests that Elliot tells White Rose that he did him good. This is when s*** really starts to get weird.

The leader of the “church group” Elliot attends believes Elliot is talking to Jesus when in reality he is speaking to Mr. Robot. Although you could say Mr. Robot is Elliot’s God. Elliot turns to him for help and listens to what he has to say, especially when it comes to finishing what he started. Mr. Robot and Elliot now fully trust one another and help one another. Now that Elliot trusts him, he slowly begins to trust us, as an audience, again and drops the veil.

Elliot has been in prison this whole time! That’s right, it’s all been an encrypted mirage. Turns out there were clues to this in every episode of the season so far. We saw a lot of imagery of bars, confinement in a lot of shots, and lots of vertical lines. The fact that he is in jail means he hacked the FBI from prison, he hacked Ray’s site from prison and his “church group” is actually a prison group. Elliot has a routine because he is in jail. Ray is actually a person who works at the jail. Still can’t figure out whether or not his dog was real though.

Sidebar — the parallel shots of the prison and the places that represent freedom for Elliot (his mom’s house, NYC) are amazing in this episode; so artfully done. This is also why all the titles of every episode this season are encrypted. Although now that we have had a big reveal in the middle of the season, does this mean there is an even bigger reveal coming? Or do we just coast on the aftermath of this one?

The real question we want to know is why is Elliot in prison? Clearly it isn’t anything too serious or hacking related (he wouldn’t have been allowed access to a computer otherwise) as he is being released but we all still want to know why.

Next week:

The FBI moves in on Darlene, Mobley and Trenton

P.S. Looks like we will get to go on more adventures with Elliot and crew. Mr. Robot has been renewed for season 3!

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*IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE TURN BACK NOW. MAJOR SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!*

Episode 3 started to unravel how F-Society came to be. We learned that F-Society = Fun Society Amusement LLC, the name of the cursed arcade the crew works out from. We have yet to learn the story behind the missing “u” and “n”. In an attempt to keep Mr. Robot at bay, Elliot overdoses on adderall and takes us all on a big happy trip, until it all comes crashing down. We then are shown pixelated versions of Elliot and those who surround him, talking in reverse and codes popping up on the screen. Kernel Panic. We experience an internal error from which he cannot recover. Lucky for Elliot, Mr. Robot steps in and makes him regurgitate the pills, to which he picks up and swallows once more.  Elliot then goes into a rampage when coming down off his high. The rampage is deeply rooted in our reality; it is relevant to the upcoming presidential election and everything else going on in the world. We also learn that Ray is much more like Elliot than we previously thought. He also speaks to dead relatives, in this case his deceased wife, and is heavily involved in the online world. He is also in need of a hacker, which is why he is so vested in Elliot.

Episode 4 dove deeper into the group’s history and what lies in their future. Romero aka Leslie is dead. He took a bullet to the temple. Who killed him? Was it The Dark Army, who is cahoots with E-Corp, or was it Elliot, who still can’t account for the night of hack or the days after? After visiting the crime scene and taking advantage of Rome’s elderly mother, Dominique is slowly beginning to put together the puzzle. She has found F-Society’s former headquarters through FBI documents Rome printed; his mother used them to start packing up her belongings.

After a short time in the present, the episode jumps back in time and we see how Elliot became Mr. Robot. Elliot devises his plan with his sister Darlene one Halloween night. This is also how the monopoly mask came into play; Darlene was the one to bring it over.

Angela embarks on an internal battle of her own in this episode. After a meeting with her boss she is told to turn in two E-Corp employees for their white collar crimes, including the Washington Township Scandal. She hands the evidence over to Trenton, whom she was previously working with on the Township Scandal and learns that she is the missing link in Township contractual agreement. She discovers that her boss wants her to remove the inspection portion of the clause signed by E-Corp due to the scandal in Washington. Angela then begins making demands in order to comply. This does not go over well with her boss, Phillip Price, who basically tells her she is not that important. Shortly after this encounter we learn that Price is working with The Dark Army. What exactly they are doing together hasn’t been made clear, yet. Although we do know it has something to do with Darlene.

Darlene struggles to keep it together in this episode. Paranoia has taken hold of her and for good reason. After she hooks up with her ex, who has an inside contact with The Dark Army, she discovers that she and all the other members of F-Society are now under FBI surveillance.

We then get a dream sequence courtesy of Elliot. In this sequence he imagines life without E-Corp and being surrounded by people he cares about. Everyone is happy. Everyone is a safe. A real utopia. Shortly after Elliot comes to, he finally confronts Mr. Robot and engages in a game of chess to try and defeat him. Stalemate after stalemate, he eventually discovers that he cannot defeat Mr. Robot. They must learn to coexist. Elliot then agrees to help Ray and gets back into hacking and coding.

Darlene then lets her brother know that they are under FBI surveillance and that Rome is dead and in turn Elliot takes matters into his own hands. He decides to hack the FBI!

Next week: We will see Elliot hack the FBI and the consequences that brings not only to himself but to those around him.

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