‘Mr. Robot’ Asks More Than it Answers in Season Two Finale (TV REVIEW)

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This year’s season finale of Mr. Robot kept with the Fight Club-esque theme as we finally learned the truth behind Elliot/Mr. Robot’s nefarious plan to bring down the system. In what was all at once a “fuck yeah” and “Jesus that’s disappointing” moment, it all came down to Elliot’s inability to figure out what’s real, and what’s simply a coping mechanism on his part. What does this mean for the series as a whole? Ideally season two of any show will be world/character building, so as we contemplate where we’ll go from here we must take into account the superb horrors served on a golden platter to us while simultaneously pondering solutions to the glaring issues.

So as it turns out, Wellick is indeed alive and well. Turns out Mr. Robot had fucked with Elliot’s subconscious so heartily that he was able to trick him into thinking Wellick was gone. What’s adorable is Elliot’s belief of this “truth” due in part to the vampire bride’s inability to reach her husband. Obviously if she can’t reach him he’s gone, right? For some reason even through everything he’s witnessed and learned so far, Elliot still can’t seem to come to terms with how awful the world is.

After last week’s part one, we’re walked into a warehouse where the Dark Army has been hiding Wellick and their work. With newspapers covering the windows to hide the light from their eyes, and the truth from the world, we learn that they are across the street from the building where Evil Corp is now storing the paper copies of all of their records. Literally all of their records. You would think they would have learned their lesson, but instead they sit there like easy prey. Once all the records are loaded in all it would take is a few bombs to blow the entire thing up, and everyone’s debt and wealth are gone. Sound familiar?

This was absolutely infuriating. Even as Elliot fights to stop Wellick from executing phase two, he’s still unsure of what’s in his head and what’s real. Just as Robot had been shooting him in the head at the beginning of the season, so too does he assume Wellick’s weapon is part of the illusion. Of course he’s wrong, and as the tense scene builds up Robot flickers in and out of reality establishing once again his lack of a corporal form. The Fight Club elements are glaringly obvious and quite honestly distracting from the series as a whole and while it’s understood that this would be the next step for Evil Corp, going analog that is, it’s also too easy.

Unfortunately, it would seem that the majority of our action came in the previous episode, though we do get a tasty little tidbit with Trenton and Mobley in a break from the credits. The two are on the run and working in a grocery store, literally discussing what their next course of action is. “We can fix this,” Mobley assures Trenton as Leon interrupts them asking for the time. We saw Leon murder at least five skin heads for Elliot in prison, so ideally White Rose is looking to recruit the two for phase three rather than murder them in cold blood outside of this Midwestern Fry’s.

Again, while it’s easy to dwell on the coulda, woulda, shoulda, instead we must look to the future of the series and understand what’s been established. On the heels of the Emmy win this year, Rami Maleck’s Elliot is now holding onto his life due to his own fucked up duel persona. Wellick only shot him because he was explicitly told to do so by Robot. Wellick may be a murderer, but he’s also a whining child when it comes to taking responsibility. With Angela now in the fold, he contacts her sobbing and ends his response with “I love him”. Really Wellick? It seems Mr. Robot has been establishing a connection between the two of them that moves past the business end of things and into an idealized friendship.

With the Dark Army now firmly planted in the spotlight we know that our lead characters are safe for now. Darlene still lives in the clutches of Dom and the FBI, though she’s well aware of the consequences were she to flip. She’s never been one to shy away from a difficult situation, but what can we expect from her if she’s left alone for too long? I’ve brought up the question before, but would it be reasonable to expect Darlene to suffer from a similar mental illness as Elliot considering their family history? Or was she spared the imbalance? She’s never shown signs of a dissociative disorder, but perhaps depression or something similar could plague her. Really it will be interesting to see her continued interaction with Dom paired with Elliot’s now fight to find the truth before he accidentally blows the world up.

In season three I imagine we’ll keep the same sort of pacing paired with season one’s secrecy. Here’s hoping Angela’s newfound role as White Rose’s insider will help make her vastly more interesting or at the very least build her up into a villain we can gleefully hate rather than begrudgingly accept as part of the series. With Cisco gone, Darlene is also due for a new lover. Perhaps an FBI agent she can manipulate into the fold? I would accept Dom, though I do enjoy her passive attempts to “help” the group. She would do well in say, True Detective (you’re welcome Pizzolatto), but in this universe she’s bound to fail, and do so hard. Not to say she won’t eventually triumph, but her downfall will be fascinating to watch.

The main takeaway from this season is Elliot’s new grasp on his own reality. Again, the show really began with him coming off of his meds in order to feel. Yes, he was taking morphine to quell Robot, but we now know that the morphine did nothing. In fact, it numbed him to the point where Robot was able to take over without a fight. We (the audience) came to be as a replacement for Robot, the silent bystanders. Without us watching, there is no show; it’s brilliant. Now that Elliot has come close to the truth we can expect his own moral wrestling with choosing the Dark Army or the “right thing” as Dom likes to call it. Will they manage to keep the show at a constant high point? Probably not. But does it matter? If we can take it in as a whole and legitimately look at it with shock and awe, then they’ve done everything right. Here’s to another year of impatiently waiting for a new episode.

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