Have you ever cried during sex?
There’s a moment in this week’s Mr. Robot episode (eps2.9_pyth0n-pt1.p7z) where Elliot wonders where is Mr. Robot going. You can’t help but have the same question. Last week, I said the show was getting good to the point that there’s no throwaway episodes. Then this week happen and now I’m not so sure. Please tell me we have a plan. You got one episode left. Don’t fuck it up.
Elliot has managed to induce himself into a lucid dream. I think. As he himself casually tells us later, what he’s seeing is not reliable. What he appears to see is Mr. Robot finding some old BBQ takeout menu with a bunch of numbers and letters in it and decide it’s a code. Then as he decodes and Elliot decodes it as well, we start hearing Mr. Robot’s inner monologue as well. Elliot has become the observer and can see what Mr. Robot does when he’s in control. It all ends up with a phone number and indications to board a taxi cab at a particular corner. He’s off with Elliot in tow.
Agent DiPierro has had a rough day. Dom is at the hospital, being examined and debriefed. She wants neither of these two things. She talks to her FBI counterpart, Agent Santiago who strongly advises her to stop trying to rock the boat. Basically, China just bailed out E Corp out of the hole to the tune of two trillion. Nobody wants to look into the Dark Army, for fear of jeopardizing international relations. Dom is really being told to stop investigating. She’s has been the only one close to breaking this case open. Yet she realizes, she’s alone in this. Dom ends up going home and having a surreal conversation with Alexa, her Siri-like AI.
Meanwhile, Angela is brought to an urban neighbourhood and into a room straight out of the 80’s. A table in front of an aquarium hosts a commodore 64 with a floppy drive and a book of the novel Lolita. I honestly thought Angela had walked into a Stranger Things set. However, this scene quickly goes Twin Peaks as a small blonde girl who seems like a mini-me clone of Angela, walks in and operates the commodore to start up a game called Land of Ecodelia. This apparently involves asking Angela a questionnaire that sounded like Blade Runner’s Replicant test. It’s almost a test to see if Angela is dreaming or not. Then Whiterose walks in and asks her to drop her investigation and her idea of revenge and believe. Who’s on the acid trip here, Angela or the Dark Army? This scene takes way too long, but when Angela’s surreal meeting with Whiterose ends, she finally arrives at the lawyer if only to let her know to forget everything. Never mind the black SUV waiting for Angela outside.
As for Elliot, he arrives at the taxi cab without an idea of what to do, until he remembers – he’s really supposed to be Mr. Robot. But he’s still lost so once he gets into the cab, he’s unable to tell the driver where to go. And then, Tyrell Wellick gets into the cab and requests, “Chambers and Church”. But, is it really Tyrell Wellick? Unable to believe it, Elliot demands the annoyed driver to tell him if he sees anybody in the cab with him. Has Elliot picked up a new personality or an old one? Dumped in the middle of the street, Elliot tries to get some straight answers from Tyrell, but all he learns is that stage 2 is ready. And that he’s going to be proud of it. And as “Earth Angel” plays in the background, Tyrell recites the last lines of Casablanca: “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Highs/Lows/MindAwakeBodyAsleep:
- Let’s see what I left out. Joanna Wellick telling Suderland that somehow the location of the phone that has been calling is “the greatest gift he’s given us”, referring to Tyrell Wellick.
- Also Phillip Price, talking to a government official after the bailout and telling him he wants to make E-coin the currency of the future.
- The take out menu is for the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ. Elliot’s notebook has “Red Wheelbarrow” written on the cover. Make of that what you will.
- I’m a bit stumped really. Did we just see Angela kidnapped just so we can create this David Lynch scene with the computer and the Angela mini-me? If I wanted to look for an excuse for that scene it would be that the Dark Army amped the weirdness just so that Angela can never report the incident. However, the easiest other excuse is that Angela was dreaming since she fell asleep in the van. Still, why play up this scene unless this was a self-indulgent exercise of directing. And if we have time for those that means we’re just stalling.
- Was that really Tyrell Wellick? I’m not even sure I was looking at the same actor to be honest. And if he’s supposed to be Tyrell, how much of that was real and how much was in Elliot’s head? Has the show jumped the shark on Matrix/Inception dream scenes?
- Is Angela working for Whiterose and the Dark Army now? Let’s face it, it might be her only chance to live.
- The FBI is compromised. Can it really be all up to Dom now? Is Agent DiPierro really capable to bring the Dark Army to justice for their killings? I’m including the fish in the empty aquarium, real or not.
- One episode left. No chance that it will tie it all up. Will it be good enough to make us watch the third season? Can we please at least resolve some of the second second season before we do that? We can only hope.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 