Showing posts with label Steel Mountain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steel Mountain. Show all posts

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

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.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

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.

Friday, 30 October 2015

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!