Intrigue Continues to Mount on ‘Mr. Robot’ (TV Review)

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After an exemplary showing of the initial episodes laying out the Mr. Robot world, this week’s episode was definitely on a lesser level. At least most of it was. With a few key stand out moments, and an increasingly ominous soundtrack, Robot’s consistency does not yet waver.

This week the real hero of the story was not Elliot who was sent to the emergency room. Not the man who had both disdain and a slight interest in his drug dealer, but still listed her as his emergency contact (plot points a little too contrived for even a USA Network show). No, this week the real hero was ladder climber and glorified business class trash, Tyrell Wellick. Wellick opened the episode with a twitchy montage detailing his attempt to rise to the top. With the head honcho out of the way, Wellick has the opportunity to take over as the youngest CTO in Evil Corp’s history. As his angered motivational mirror speech implies, the board needs convincing. By the time he’s done doing push-ups, looking uncomfortably calm (yet increasingly insane) he has nothing left to do but stew in his ambition. Predictably things don’t go his way, leading to a series of events that felt like a defining moment in USA Network programming.

I’ve never seen “implied” sexual situations so graphically displayed on basic cable, and I have to say, it was refreshing. Normally we get some wiggling under the sheets followed by happiness or tears, depending on what the network’s stance on sex is. With Robot, we don’t have to wonder too hard as we’re privy first to Wellick’s attractive male on male make-out scene outside a dance club, followed by a romp session at an Evil Corp secretary’s apartment. Of course, the interest is feigned, and actually a power move. Wellick bugs the trusting man’s phone, then promptly returns home to his attractive (and very pregnant) Swedish wife who puts all 50 Shades literature to shame with a quick command for “the red ones” and later a ball gag. After spending the evening dominating (to climax apparently) an Evil Corp worker, Wellick still engages in S&M play with his wife. That’s CTO material if I’ve ever seen it.

I mentioned last week that I would drop the extreme interest in the Fight Club scenario, and I’ll do my best. But, there’s still too much pointing to Elliot sitting on a delusion that he’s incorporated into everyday life to deal with the truth. Time will reveal all, but if we do go down that route so far Elliot has created an elite hacker community that’s slowly bringing down corporations and credit systems in order to incite chaos before the true task at hand. He’s also thrown himself off the Coney Island pier, yelled at Darlene a lot (hacker girl who likes to break into his apartment), and created “fsociety” as both a bug and a movement. Whew, Elliot’s subconscious has been busy y’all.  It’s important to note that as an audience we’re still missing huge amounts of evidence that supports this idea, however this week we did learn something big that would explain Ellio…er Mr. Robot’s vendetta.

After finding out Elliot’s father had died of cancer when he was a child, it comes out that Evil Corp had a heavy hand in both his and about two dozen other deaths of the same nature. In a twist of story building events, this week we also learn the Angela’s mother died from the same cancer in the same mysterious way.  The big name CTO who fsociety busted earlier is being indicated in the cover up, and it becomes apparent that Elliot is nowhere near dropping the hacker life as he had hoped to be. Earlier in the episode after meeting with Mr. Robot, he figures that he has a chance at normal (Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” even plays off in the background as he drinks Starbucks for good measure.) This leads to asking Shayla to be his girlfriend, dinner at his boss’s house, and even having a non-idealized moment with Angela. He just gets to be. Of course, it’s at the dinner where he finds out about the cancer controversy cover up, and everything falls apart.

We learn that not only is Elliot keen to self-sabotage, but he does so without abandon. He leaves Shayla at his boss’ house and runs into the arms of the awaiting Darlene and co. Mr. Robot’s smug satisfaction, and the other hacker’s willingness to help get him connected back into the system indicate that things are about to go down, and he’s dragging everyone he can into the spiral with him. This show is teaching us to never trust what we initially see, there’s always consequences whether they be enacted early on or later when shit has broken the fan.

In required sub plot, we see Elliot’s boss trusting of then later suspicious of him. Remember, it was Elliot who stopped the initial fsociety hack, though he did ultimately leave it in the system. Boss man had a suspicion that something along those lines occurred, but it wasn’t until Elliot ran out of the dinner party that he really began to suspect him. Elliot’s inability to act “normal” will ultimately lead to his demise. There’s only so many times Angela will be able to excuse his trigger happy impulses as a social anxiety disorder.

Angela too is in the hot seat after her cheating boyfriend is exposed by a virus upload linking his computer to a creepy voyeuristic hacker for hire. After attempting to listen to a CD given to him on the street, Olli unknowingly uploads a world of trouble.  Hacker wants Olli to take the CD and do the same at Allsafe, a move that would again implant a bug into the hardware of a company that’s supposed to be keeping bugs and viruses out of other company’s systems. Irony is fun.

Rather than destroy a company who has been good to him, Olli instead comes clean to Angela. He shows her the files Hacker has sent him which contains both his indiscretions, and things like her bank account information, passwords, family’s bank info, and more. First she tries to break up with him, announcing that they’ll be taking the CD to Allsafe and meeting demands. Then, she recants, crying. If I were her, I would be mad for a little longer than the two minutes it takes Olli to bumble his way through an apology. Both Angela and Olli are weak, both in a character sense and an emotional sense. I could do without their subplot, but then again we need something to look at when Elliot disappears off screen to snort morphine and create masked delusions.

I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Mr. Robot could crash and burn. USA doesn’t exactly have the greatest history when it comes to original programming. However, after seeing what kind of content they’ll allow (i.e. real sex scenes rather than contrived scenarios, and a surprising amount of language) I think it’s safe to assume the network finally has a popular show that a wide audience will actually watch. Network is a fickle mistress, and with streaming services on the rise and cable giants like HBO churning out content like cheap, foreign made goods, there’s always something better or more interesting to watch. Robot is getting closer to being that weekly chart topper.