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?

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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.

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