Mr. Robot - eps1.9_zer0-daY.avi - Episode 10... The Finale - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 10 - The Finale

Some Reddit threads during the early episodes of Mr. Robot had been speculating that Mr. Robot was just in Elliot's mind, and that the show has a bit of a 'Fight Club' vibe going on. In the early episodes, mainly the first three, the writers of the show were still on the ball, and Mr. Robot only showed up when Elliot did. That fell apart quite quickly later on (as covered in 'Who is Mr. Robot?') and I was not convinced.

The quality of the plot aside, we now know that Mr. Robot is Elliot's imaginary friend and that's that. Or is it? Maybe White Rose is in just in Elliot's mind. We (the viewers) are, so why not any of the other characters? Picking apart the plot won't change whatever random twist the writers choose to introduce in the future. I'll just have to deal with that when it comes, but I know that my secondary school teacher would not have been amused if I handed her an assignment with such glaring inconsistencies. Anyway, moving on!

Micheal - or Lenny - the guy who Krista had been dating, tugs on Krista's heartstrings with some nonsense story about him dying, and tricks her into a meeting him again. He was sore about being hacked by Elliot, but now that his wife has found out about his infidelity anyway (thank you Ashley Madison) and his family has fallen apart, Lenny figures he's got nothing to lose by going after Elliot and taking Krista with him. Talk about a sore loser! Rather than taking a good look in the mirror and sorting his life out, he needs someone to blame.

This whole hacking scenario is very convenient for Lenny, because he can now move the goal post from his lying and cheating ways, to Elliot's illegal activities. Lenny even tries to get Krista to break the professional trust that her clients expect from her. "I'm not the enemy here. He is." Really! What a creep! Thankfully Krista does not sink to Lenny's level, and she walks away.

"Who am I?" That is the question! Who are you, Elliot Alderson? Elliot wakes up in Tyrell's car, in some random car park, and he has now idea where he is, or how he got there. It appears that some days have passed, and he doesn't know about the global economic melt down, or anything else really.

When Elliot gets back to fsociety HQ, he finds that he'd been gone for three days, and that the coordinated hack with The Dark Army had been executed at some point during that time, but he has no recollection.

All debt (and financial data) has been destroyed and everybody's happy! Yay! There's no mention of what happened to people's savings, but hey, it's America and everyone is drowning in debt right? Anyway, credit cards are not working, so people have to spend what they actually have. What?! They want people to live within their means? That's the fsociety dream apparently.

"We are finally awake!" Hmm, yes, but what now? Old habits die hard. People will always want what they cannot afford. The loss of legitimate financial institutions has left a void and something has got to fill it. The revolution will open the way for a new regime. But will it be better? Loan sharks and the mafia will undoubtedly make their move. The Dark Army will swoop in.

https://twitter.com/PreviouslyTV/status/658675883725758464

Elliot is retracing his steps in search of Tyrell. He finds a pair of sunglasses in Tyrell's car and one of the arms is also a USB key. Hello Dr Who sonic sunglasses! Maybe Mr. Robot is Dr Who! The USB contains a video file that shows Elliot falling off the railings at the seaside. Mr. Robot is not there. Elliot wasn't pushed. He jumped.

Angela had asked Colby what the meeting was like, when he and the other Evil Corp executives had discussed the industrial accident that lead to the death of her mother. He just described it like it was any other day. And now we see Angela, in a shop, buying shoes, after James Plouffe (E Corp EVP of Technology) has just committed suicide, right in front of her. Like it was any other day. She has blood on her shoes! When confronted by the shop assistant, she shuts him down like a corporate pro. Well done Angela, you are now one of them.

In each of the previous episodes, no one bats an eyelid when Elliot interacts with Mr. Robot. It's only at the end of the last episode, by the graveside, that Darlene asks Elliot who he's talking too. But now, Elliot is in a coffee shop, supposedly talking to himself, and the other customers are all having a good look. They do a 'now you see him, now you don't' thing when they show Elliot pinning himself up against a wall, when he thinks he's having an altercation with Mr. Robot. It's weird. But Mr. Robot does make a good suggestion: "I recommend you get yourself one of those bluetooth headsets. That way people just think you're the local douche."

fsociety throw an open-house 'End of the World' party at their HQ so they can cover their tracks with loads of random finger prints. Only time will tell if that was a good idea.

In Elliot's final hallucination, he sees his whole family. His mum, his dad, his younger self; but where is Darlene? Why does he only hallucinate about her once in the entire series? And we never actually find out where Elliot's mum is.

In Elliot's final scene, he gets home and watches the news. Knock knock Elliot. Who's there? Maybe Tyrell? Only time will tell.

White Rose makes a second appearance at the very end of this episode and has a meeting with Philip Prince of Evil Corp. Prince says he knows who's responsible for the hack, which implies that he knows about Elliot. But does he know about the part played by The Dark Army? White Rose likens Prince's inaction thus far to emperor Nero watching his city burn. Who are the real winners and losers? I'm hoping we'll find out in the next series.

Who Is Mr. Robot? IT Nut Blog Takes a Look - Spoiler Alert!

Who is Mr. Robot?

Ok. So... In episode 8, we find out that the man who we've been referring to as 'Mr. Robot' (because he wears a jacket with a Mr. Robot badge) is Elliot's dad... And in episode 9, we discover that he's is a figment of Elliot's imagination... Right... This is becoming all kinds of weird.

There are still lots of loose ends to deal with, like why did Elliot not recognise his dad in the first place? He talks about his father all the time, and shares those memories with us. Also, why does Elliot not remember that he has a sister? Why is she in none of Elliot's memories?

These revelations are highly confusing, and annoying, so I had a quick flick through the previous episodes, to see if I missed any tell-tale signs.

It seems that Mr. Robot has been cleverly and subtly integrated into the story line. Whenever Mr. Robot talks to anyone, he is always right next to or in the immediate vicinity of Elliot. So it looks like Mr. Robot is having the conversation, but it could just as easily be Elliot who is having the conversation. That's fair enough. There are some major exceptions, however, that I have found so far.

In episode one, Elliot sees Mr. Robot begging outside a restaurant. The people he's begging from look directly at Mr. Robot and they use body language / make hand gestures to dismiss him. That's a bit confusing.

After Elliot's first visit to the fsociety headquarters, also in episode one, he did an online search for Mr. Robot. NOTHING came up in his search. That's really odd, because if Mr. Robot had been the name of the computer repair shop where Elliot's dad worked, SOMETHING would have come up SOMEWHERE online.

When Darlene turned up at Elliot's apartment in episode 2, it makes sense that she made herself so at home, because she is his sister. Why does Elliot not remember his connection with her? If we go back to the hallucination sequence of episode 4, there is a girl on a scooter, and we are now to believe that she was the young Darlene. It's not too far fetched.

In response to Elliot walking away from fsociety, Mr. Robot throws Elliot off some railings, but it is plausible that Elliot could have jumped of his own free will.

In episode 5, after the successful penetration of Steel Mountain, Darlene wants to go ahead with the plan regardless of the fact that they no longer have the support of the Dark Army. Elliot is standing a behind Darlene, a few feet away, and Mr. Robot, who is to her right, leaps over to physically restrain her, and they have an exchange of words. Darlene then turns around to directly address Elliot and ask for his instruction. Mr Robot then picks up some equipment and smashes it on the floor before walking in the opposite direction to Elliot, and continues a two-way dialogue with Darlene. Surely there cannot be any doubt at this point that Mr. Robot is a separate entity and visible to the other hackers, because they are all looking at him.

In episode 7, Darlene meets with Mr. Robot in a bar - just the two of them. They have a dialogue. This definitely makes no sense. Mr. Robot also has a one-to-one meeting with Romero, one of the other hackers. Am I missing something?

The last confusing scene is in episode 8, when Mr. Robot gets into a car with Tyrell and they have a two-way dialogue...? Somebody please explain!

I'm still not overly convinced that Elliot is the man behind the mask. Elliot makes this discovery in episode 9. He has been living a double life that he seems to know nothing about. The whole Jekyll and Hyde thing is all good and well, but I didn't have that "Ah hah!" or "Yes, of course!" moment when the revelation is made. It doesn't sit well with the plot, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Just one more episode to go!

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt - Episode 9 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 9

That last episode ended a bit weird... Mr. Robot is Elliot's dad... Moving on!

Episode 9 begins! How did they get all those antique computers and pristine bits of hardware for the shop! It's like a museum piece. Amazing! So, this episode starts with a flashback to Elliot's youth, and his father's computer shop, which is called 'Mr. Robot'. Get it? Ok. It's all very lovely. Blah blah blah whatever.

It gives us an insight into Elliot's criminal past. He stole $20 from one of the shop's customers, and his dad covered up for him. "Even though what you did was wrong, you're still a good kid. And that guy was a prick. Sometimes that matters more." Right...

Mr. Robot mentions to Elliot that he met with Tyrell last night. We don't really know what they talked about at this point.

Elliot is understandably disconcerted that neither his father nor his sister thought to reveal their identities earlier on. He thinks he's going crazy, and we see the first bit of passion from Elliot since the beginning of the series. Btw, has there been any mention of where Elliot's mother is?

Mr. Robot takes Elliot on a trip down memory lane, and they end up at his childhood home in New Jersey. They recreate the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, but a window is smashed and it's not very romantic. In the mean time, Angela and Darlene are frantically rushing around in search of Elliot because he has gone AWOL. They finally catch up with him and things descend further into confusion!

"Elliot. Who are you talking too?" That question is about 9 episodes too late! And no, we didn't know all along. It wasn't obvious at all! Elliot's dad is dead. He was dead all along. He didn't come back as a zombie or a ghost or anything like that. He was a hallucination.

Yes Elliot, we're going to make you say it. "I am Mr. Robot."

This is not a particularly rewarding revelation. What do you think?

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.7_wh1ter0se.mv4 - Episode 8 - IT Nut Blog Review - Spoiler Alert!

Mr. Robot - Episode 8

Darlene does ballet...? With Angela??? And they're bonding over their mutual friend, Elliot... This is so random! Since when did Angela and Darlene know each other? The implication is that they are childhood friends. Strange.

Note: This whole episode seems to pose more questions than it actually answers.

The meeting with White Rose (the Dark Army's mythical leader) is set up! Elliot is about to meet his unlikely ally, thanks to Darlene's persistence. The suspense is palpable!

In other news, Tyrell waltzes into work as though nothing has happened. He hasn't told his wife what he did either. It's unclear what Tyrell's goals are, beyond becoming CTO, but he seems to be losing his self-control at an alarming rate!

Gideon Goddard of Allsafe has turned the infected server from the first fsociety hack into a 'honeypot' in response to the attacks, and in order to trick the hackers. His suspicions are becoming firmly focussed on Elliot.

Elliot meets White Rose - who is wearing a pearly king jacket - and White Rose tells Elliot about the honeypot. White Rose has allotted exactly 3 minutes for the meeting. Elliot wastes the first 2 minutes going over old ground, and then when it finally gets interesting, the time runs out. We don't learn why the Dark Army are helping fsociety, but they do agree to help.

Finding out why the Dark Army are helping fsociety is a vital detail to the overall plot. The Dark Army appear to have a sophisticated network, influence and money. fsociety have none of the above. They are operating from the fringes, which is not to say that fsociety can't achieve big things, but they are vulnerable. What is in it for the Dark Army? I suspect that they have bigger fish to fry, and that fsociety is just a tiny part of a big plan for the Dark Army.

Random: Tyrell has a one-to-one meeting with Mr. Robot...? Since when did they know each other? Who is Mr. Robot working for? What is going on?

The climate control hack on Steel Mountain is going to plan. The data will be destroyed soon!

This is when things start to get weird. Elliot gets all hot and heavy with Darlene, and she flips out! She asks Elliot if he's forgotten who she is. Darlene is his sister!!!??? That does not make any sense! How did he forget who she is? Apparently he's not been taking his anti-psychotic medicine, which has affected his memory and his grasp on reality.

For everyone that Elliot hacks, he downloads their data onto a CD, puts it in a folder under a dresser where he keeps all the CD's, and deletes the data from his hard drive. When Elliot gets home after the shock revelation of Darlene's identity, he finds that he also did a CD for his own data. He searches it to find some evidence of his sister, and finds loads of pictures of Mr. Robot! Relaxed, family album pictures. Some of those pictures are of the two of them together, when Elliot was a child... Mr. Robot is Elliot's father! Why doesn't he remember his father either? He reminisces about his father all the time. It's all very odd. And his father is supposed to be dead.

This new twist does not sit well with the plot, and I'm starting to get the same vibes from this series that I got from 'Lost' and 'Prison Break'. They kept drawing things out at the expense of good writing and great storylines. Hopefully I am wrong.

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.6.v1ew_s0urce.flv - Episode 7 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 7

It starts with a flashback... And then we fast-forward a month from where the last episode ended.

Angela makes progress with her case against Evil Corp, but not without compromising her values, and thus begins the slippery slope.

Darlene's attempts to get the Dark Army back on board finally pay off, but she loses Cisco as an ally.

Tyrell loses the plot and fires his advisors for no apparent reason, just because he can. He's obviously still sulking from being outsmarted by Knowles, the new CTO of Evil Corp.

Evil Corp host a party to formally announce the promotion of Knowles to CTO. Tyrell and his interesting wife, Joanna, are in attendance and they are scheming as usual. Joanna gives Tyrell the nod, and he makes another move on Sharon Knowles, the wife of Scott. Just when we thought that things couldn't get any more grubby, they do. Tyrell is losing control and he lashes out, with disastrous consequences.

Elliot comes clean with Krista and confesses that he hacked her. That he hacks everyone. What is the purpose of this confession? Why now? Why at all? Will there be repercussions?

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.5_br4ve-traveler.asf - Episode 6 - IT Nut Blog Review - Contains Spoilers

Mr. Robot - Episode 6

This episode looks quite normal to start with. Elliot and his dealer / girlfriend, Shayla, are having dinner in a dingy diner, with their characteristically one-dimensional facial expressions.

I haven't really mentioned Shayla much because her part is more like ambient noise than central to the plot. Shayla's supplier, a pleasant chap by the name of Fernando Vera, was sent to prison, thanks to an anonymous tip. Vera has now discovered that the tip came from Elliot. He's understandably annoyed, so he uses Shayla to get to Elliot. Vera figured that if Elliot could put him in prison, Elliot could also get him out. Vera arranges for Shayla to be kidnapped in order to get Elliot's attention and cooperation.

This is another interlude that feels a bit like the hallucination sequence in episode 4. It takes up a lot of time and it's not immediately obvious what value it adds to the main plot. Anyway, long story short, Elliot succeeds at breaking Vera out. Sadly, Shayla is collateral damage.

In the previous episode, Tyrell goes all creepy in his pursuit of his CTO ambitions. The CTO position was given to someone else, Scott Knowles, and Tyrell pays him a visit. What looks like a civilised dinner at the guy's home turns into Tyrell's biggest mistake. In this episode it becomes clear that by looking for the flaws in his opponent, Tyrell exposes his own biggest flaw. Arrogance. Knowles has Tyrell's card marked. That CTO position is even further from Tyrell's grasp than ever.

Angela is up to her own games also. She has resurrected the case against Evil Corp, relating to the death of her mother and Elliot's dad. What will happen next?

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.43xpl0its.wmv - Episode 5 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 5

The best episode so far, by far! Warning! Contains Spoilers!

Elliot has gone through his Morphine withdrawal at record-breaking speed, and now he's in the mountain! Steel Mountain - the fortress that houses the servers used by Allsafe.

Evil Corp have decided to do physical backups of all of their data, and they are moving it from Steel Mountain. Probably due to the security breaches, but possibly because it was always part of the plan that Tyrell revealed to Elliot, to bring everything in house and cut Allsafe out of the loop.

The downloading and movement of the E Corp data gives fsociety a limited window of opportunity to act.

Whilst Elliot is inside Steel Mountain, he bumps into his old friend, Mr Tyrell Wellick! What is he doing there? They weren't expecting to see each other, but it works to Elliot's advantage. He needs to get access to the 2nd floor, which requires special security clearance - and Tyrell has that clearance. Bingo!

Tyrell, drops the bombshell that he knows about Elliot framing Colby - the previous CTO of Evil Corp. There's no trail leading to Elliot, so he's safe for now, and Tyrell doesn't want anything. He just wanted to know what Elliot's weakness is, and now he believes he has it. Revenge. Revenge for his father's death, for which Elliot holds Evil Corp responsible. What Tyrell will do with that knowledge is unclear at this point.

Anyway, the raspberry pi has been put in place and the plan is in motion, or so they think! Darlene had enlisted the help of the 'Dark Army' (a Chinese hacker group) to bring down Evil Corp, but it looks like the Dark Army had plans of their own.

Now that we know about Cisco (the rapper / hacker), we know that he was working for the Dark Army. They are the ones who blackmailed Ollie, and Angela took the bait. Presumably, the Dark Army got what they needed when Angela put that CD into a computer at work, and now they have gone silent. fsociety has had its legs cut off.

The more we learn, the more doubt that is cast on the true identity of the fsociety behind the mask. Tyrell Wellick had a lot to gain from Colby being out of the picture. Wellick has his eye on the CTO position, and he is relentless proactive in his pursuit of power. The Dark Army also has its own agenda, which is still shrouded in mystery. Maybe they are working for the highest bidder, whoever that may be. And Mr. Robot. We still know nothing about what drives him. What's his story? Is he really driven by idealistic motives, or is he a hacker-for-hire?

The plot thickens!

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4 - Episode 4 - IT Nut Blog Review - Contains Spoilers!

Mr. Robot - Episode 4

It's all kicking off! I can't really review this episode without containing spoilers, so look away now if you haven't already seen it!

Elliot goes back to fsociety, and the other fsociety hackers finally get voices and start becoming characters in their own right. Before Elliot can help them, however, they need to help him get off the drugs. There's some sort of hallucination / dream sequence that takes up what feels like most of the episode, which is probably my least favourite part of the series so far. I almost switched off at that point, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

That apparently random rapper / hacker (who gave the CD to Ollie in episode 2) makes a reappearance. His name is Cisco and his part to play in the grand scheme becomes a bit clearer.

Angela takes the CD and Ollie's worker ID badge and frames Ollie, but the consequences of her actions remain to be seen.

Keep an eye out for episode 5!

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps.1.2_d3bug.mkv - Episode 3 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 3

In this episode, they are developing the character of Mr. Wellick - one of the Evil Corp executives. He's a bit of an enigma, but in a slightly annoying, rather than mysterious way. He seems to have lots of pent up frustrations that he takes out on himself and homeless people; and there's some ambiguity about his sexual persuasion. Too many layers that are, again, not convincingly introduced, but they do give the storyline some scope.

Elliot is out of hospital now. He rejects another request from Mr. Robot to give him access to Allsafe, and now he's hoping to lead a 'normal' life. Again, not particularly convincing, because it implies that he's just been playing a part so far as opposed to having any deeply held beliefs. I mean, he gets a caramel latte from Starbucks, which is surely the epitome of everything that he despises about capitalism. And instagram... Really?

Elliot's childhood friend, Angela, is also his colleague at Allsafe. She got him the job there. In the last episode, Angela's boyfriend, Ollie - who is also their colleague - stupidly accepts a CD from some random rapper guy in the street and puts it in his laptop! He works in a cyber security firm for goodness sake! And he commits the cardinal sin of unprotected techs! His computer is hacked, they get a good look at everything and they blackmail him.

It's not clear who 'they' are at this point, but they want Ollie to put the CD into a computer at Allsafe so they can hack the system. Surely any cyber security firm worth its salt would have either removed and or disabled any usb ports and CD drives in any of the computers that have access to the servers. Allsafe and E Corp are under attack from all directions it seems.

Darlene is an interesting character. She's one of the hackers from fsociety, and she's probably the most convincing character in the show so far. The other hackers are mostly like shadows in the background, so there's lots of room for them to develop and thicken the plot.

Towards the end of this episode, Elliot is at another crossroad when a story appears in the news which relates to E Corp's role in Elliot's father's death. What will Elliot do now?

Tweet

Mr. Robot - eps1.1_one-and-zer0es.mpeg - Episode 2 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 2

The last episode ended with a cliff hanger. Who are those men in the room? This is where the second episode picks up. Elliot is about to be offered a job that doesn't officially exist. The so-called 'top 1% of the top 1%' want him to join them. They represent everything that he despises, but he waivers, and for a moment, we are uncertain about the choice he will make.

When Elliot gets home, he takes a larger dose of morphine than usual, and again, we experience uncertainty about the future of this young man and the role he will play. That drug-taking aspect of his character is probably the least convincing part of the plot.

If you have seen the TV series 'Dexter', Dexter's dual personality is much more prominent and defined. He has rules that he does not waiver from. He is convincingly in control of his own choices. Elliot, however, seems to be somewhat wishy-washy in that respect. What are his absolute values that he will not waiver from? Or are the writers trying to make him more human and relatable? If that's the case, he is a character that marches the fringes of his dual existence.

Elliot, in typical American style, is seeing a psychiatrist. He seems to genuinely care about her, so he takes a protective interest in her private life. Elliot hacks everyone he meets, and he knows all of their secrets.

I can't help thinking that Elliot is a watered-down version of Lisbeth Salander from 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. The movies don't really do justice to her technical abilities, but if you read the books, she is awesome! They both have similar back stories of woe, but Lisbeth is a true loner, maverick and tough cookie! Anyway, it's neither here nor there. This Mr. Robot series is pretty good so far.

In the last episode, Elliot was instrumental in framing one of the chief execs of the company. He is led by Mr. Robot to believe that he is doing the right thing. In this episode, however, Elliot realises that he was maybe too hasty in trusting Mr. Robot. Elliot bought the rhetoric that Mr. Robot was selling, because it was what Elliot wanted to hear.

Something that puzzled Elliot about the initial hack of the system in episode one was that the hacker group, 'fsociety', were nowhere to be found - not mentioned at all - in the online forums. He possibly took that to mean that fsociety had noble intentions. It just seems that they were biding their time. In this episode they come out, all guns blazing, with a video that outlines their demands. Elliot may soon have blood on his hands.

Elliot is at a cross-roads. What will he do? What can he do? Mr. Robot isn't about to let him go that easily. Elliot joined the group 'fsociety' - albeit hastily - and he will face the consequences if he tries to leave.

Stay tuned!

Tweet