'Mr. Robot' just pulled together its meandering season in a big way. Finally.
Mr. Robot's sophomore season hasn't always been straight-forward. Or exciting, for that matter. Other than its strong premiere, Sam Esmail's techno-thriller has otherwise taken its characters on a myriad of meandering storylines, chock full of suffocating exposition that, at times, has been hard, and uninteresting, to follow.
It may have finally pulled all its wandering pieces together, though. Mr. Robot's sixth episode of Season 2, which aired Wednesday night, brought back the familiar feel of thrill to its slowly unraveling mystery. Plot lines came together. Characters returned to their likable forms (i.e. Angela stopped acting like a robot). And the group of keyboard-mashing hackers ... hacked again.
It may not all have made sense at first. The first 15 minutes of Wednesday night's episode may just be Mr. Robot's strangest, which is saying a lot, considering the infamously dubious detox episode in Season 1. It opens with a dream sequence of the entire Alderson family riding down a highway in the back of a candy-painted convertible in the theme of an '80s-style sitcom.
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Elliot tries to figure out what's happening as he continuously catches glimpses of a painful reality. If you don't remember, the past episode ends as Ray (Craig Robinson) and his goons lay the hurt on Elliot after he uncovers that Ray is the "Dread Pirate Roberts" behind a Silk Road-type marketplace on the dark web.
The dream is surreal to say the least. It features Gideon as a traffic cop (who is later killed by furry alien and '80s TV star Alf), Tyrell as a unfortunate prisoner trapped in the Alderson's trunk and an obnoxious laugh track that undercuts every dramatic moment.
In an effort to cut through its absurdity, Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) tries to disarm a hostile Elliot with vague lines like, "too much truth, too much honesty, that'll kill ya." And, "Everything you see is here to help you." It's a scene that's almost too farfetched for a show that traffics in absurd. That is, until you realize what's actually happening.
When it finally shifts to reality, we see the extent of Ray's beating. Elliot is wheezing on a hospital bed, battered beyond belief. He has no memory of the fight. And it's later revealed that it's all thanks to his alter ego/father, Mr. Robot, who jumped in to take the brunt of the punches and kicks to spare his son. It culminates in one of the most moving scenes of the series, in which a broken Elliot peels himself off the floor and hoists himself atop of his father, muttering "thank you" through tears.
Meanwhile, hacker collective fsociety is back at it, this time trying to break their way into FBI computers. They've recruited E Corp PR rookie sensation Angela, whose turn toward a robotic, self-serving personality has been a pretty big drag on Season 2. Darlene, Mobley and company try their best to teach her the hacking gusto needed so that she can get inside the FBI network, a convenient task for her since the bureau has supplanted itself inside E Corp HQ.
It's an artful act, really. Because as Mobley frustratingly tries to teach code to Angela, who otherwise is a noob with 1s and 0s, it deftly shows just how complicated these hacks are, one thing Mr. Robot has failed to do until now. It's one thing for a character like Elliot to tell others that breaking into a federal database is impossible, it's another to break down just how intricate it is, to someone who may not even know the difference between iOS or Android.
Complexity aside, Angela executes the attack on the FBI, in a thrilling, heist-like sequence that's basically one long tracking shot reminiscent of the cunning cinematography of Mr. Robot's first season. She almost gets away with it too, right up until she runs into agent Dipierro (Grace Gummer). Just exactly what happens after that is never shown.
In all, the mystery and thrill makes for a captivating episode that fans had long been waiting for. Though, there are definitely still problems to be addressed. In fact, resolving the conflict between the main antagonist (Mr. Robot) and protagonist (Elliot) may leave Esmail with little narrative runway left for the remainder of the season. Not to mention we still have no idea what the big arc at play is here. And there are still many wandering storylines wading out in the distance that need to be tied into Elliot's.
But, after Wednesday's episode, those questions seem like they might be answered sooner rather than later.
