AudienceofOne

That was perfect. Completely, beautifully, transcendentally, powerfully perfect. That's all I got for now.

A long time ago in a universe far far away, I once said that: But of course, a short time ago in a universe not so far away I also said this: And... despite what happened in this episode I'm going with the latter. This season in particular there's been a strong parallel between Whiterose and Elliot who are both geniuses trying to exert control over an uncontrollable universe and in doing so creating their own reality. At one point in season 3 I think I called this the Man vs God duality: one exerts complete control and the other cedes it and just lives. But both Elliot and Whiterose only hurt other people when they live as though it's possible for them to exert that kind of control. So if this whole parallel universe actually turned out to be real then that would suggest we can force the world to be better; we can reshape reality as we wish. There really are no consequences for our actions. And I feel like that's the opposite of what the show's about. So... as I head into the final two I hope that this is not hte direction the show is going. Because at the moment that Elliot told us (and Mr Robot) that he loved us and then declared the world 'interesting' right as it was burning down around them - well let's just say it blew my fucking mind... And then completely unblew it and left me questioning what show I've been watching for the last 5 years.

No, not at all. The money was just redistributed, not created. The same amount is in circulation in the economy. It's a zero sum game, especially since the money would have gone to everyone's ecoin wallets globally. In fact, this was a major economic boost and will improve GDPs in every country where ecoin is available. They have more important things to worry about at the moment. Maybe they'd get to revenge eventually but for now they'd be too consumed with their legal and financial problems. Also, as you say, mercenaries need paying and they don't got no money.

Mr. Robot: not letting their plan for bringing the Big Bad down interfere with correctly gendering her. I loved almost everything about this episode, however far-fetched. Up to and including Price's badass death and Elliot's "if I didn't go through these things I wouldn't be me" revelation from last episode causing him to dismiss Whiterose's "there are no consequences, everything can be wiped clean" offer. Everything felt like a culmination and that's just really good writing.

As much as I was tired of watching yet another episode with people monologuing at other people tied to chairs, I am really loving the way in which this show explores the idea of control and the way in which our desire for control - over ourselves, our lives, our relatives, the world, even time - influences everything we do and want and have. At its core, this show was always about how Elliot's battle for control over himself mirrors battles he has with E-Corp, the Dark Army and Whiterose but also those battles everyone else is waging. Even the taxidermy is integrated as a small-scale desire to control death. So, while the last three episodes haven't been my favourite they're all thematically on point and I'm looking forward to the back half. I'm just going to take a breather I think. It's a lot to process.

It's weird because it's almost like the reveal was far too obvious and cliched for the buildup while simultaneously coming out of nowhere. I mean, it never made sense to me that Elliot would jump out that window so the fact his father was abusive isn't exactly the breathless revelation this episode made it out to be and yet the sexual abuse reveal still feels exploitative somehow in a way I can't really define. Maybe because the whole thing came about as a result of therapy-at-gunpoint, which to my mind is not what therapy is or should be. I've found a lot of this season's staging, direction, sound and light production to be out-of-this-world brilliant and this episode was no exception. The acting is also incredible. It's just the script itself that I thought wasn't quite up to snuff here. The vague suggestion that Vera's little manipulative plan was about to work until he got the knife low-key annoyed me, I guess. I know he'd just been broken down and Mr Robot abandoned him but he's still too smart for fall for Vera's bullshit.

I find it weird the sheer volume of people who worship Elliot. He has this weird effect on people for someone who barely interacts with anybody. Tyrell, Vera, Whiterose. Nobody ever wants to kill him, they all want him to be their own personal saviour. It's not even recruitment, it's like they want his approval. They want to believe God is smiling on whatever bit of whatfuckery they have going on. Which is extremely human (we have God on our side!) but unusual that it's Elliot they universally see this way.

That was the LEAST plausible. If there was a gym that any rando could walk in and out of in the lobby then why didn't they use that to get in the building? They literally had a business in the building with reduced security access but it only suddenly popped up when they needed it. I didn't even notice this episode had no dialogue, it was that well done. It was only when I came on here to make a comment and saw the other comments that I realised. Having said that, while I love a heist episode and thought the sound and direction was completely top notch, I don't think it added to anything, story wise. Unlike last week's this did feel like plot filler. And those religious allusions I said weren't too heavy-handed last week? Yeah, these ones didn't work for me. I found the bus scene with him pushing baby Jesus out of the way a bit much. Although the final line being, "It's time we talk" was great.

Yes to this. I actually loved this episode and felt that metaphorically it was exactly what it seemed to be - all the characters are lost in their own personal woods and need to find their way out. And that way out involves connecting with other people, not isolating themselves in their own personal purgatories. Elliot, Tyrell, Darlene, Dom have all been directed down the wrong path and ended up nowhere. They are neither as anonymous, unimportant or as special as they think they are. And they constantly underestimate the people around them because even after everything they still think they're the smartest, most switched-on people in the room. Esmail loves his religious allegory but I never feel like it gets cliched or preachy or overwhelms anything. And nothing could be more Gethsemane than Tyrell's storyline in this episode. He's always followed Elliot as the Chosen One and yet he's the one who had a crisis in the garden and then sacrificed himself. I also loved how his ?final? words were allusions to Scott, "I'm going out now, I may be some time". PS I never understood how people could think Tyrell and Elliot were the same person, sorry

This, amongst some other things tonight, made me think that Darlene is dead. Except these people are all Elliot and this is more about integration than about a new alter. I thought it was interesting that now he's changing and pulling himself back together, he's started to imbue Mr Robot with the empathetic qualities he was originally known for. Suddenly Mr Robot's the smooth one, the caring brother one, the sane one. And Elliot has his sense of danger, unpredictability and an underlying sense of violence. Which, of course, I guess he always had. I love Whiterose's back story. It's the perfect synthesis of everything he is, was and could be.

As I said after last week's episode, I don't believe for a second that time travel is real or possible. However, if you told me that Whiterose was a narcissistic megalomaniac who believed that he was inventing time travel I'd 100% believe that. In many ways, as a show, Mr Robot is about control: the ways we desire it and the ways in which we respond when we realise we don't have it. Every season has been about someone who wants control inventing a world where they believe they have it and then finding themselves wrong bout that. Elliot's alters are the ultimate signifier of that - the illusion of control. It's entirely possible this is the moment that a person who believes they can control the world - and do - realises that time itself is out of their control. I would be very happy if we find out that Whiterose's "time machine" is a White Elephant. She's been conned.

This show is relentless. I'm glad I chose to wait till the season was almost over so I could watch an episode a day for the next week and then finish with the finale almost when it airs. I personally loved this episode, although I'm still not clear what Whiterose actually wants (I'm assuming time travel is not real). Well, you know, time travel is not real. It's against the law of physics. But the real reason I don't want it be real in this show is because a human desire to turn back time is... human... but we can't actually do it. It's one of the points of the show - that we're ultimately responsible for the consequences of our actions (even the unintended ones). Throwing time travel in sends the message that there are no true consequences for what we do, which I thought was against the show's themes.

So apparently I wrote this in May and all I can say is that I was right and should have listened to me. If you listed the things people liked about Arrow then - apart from Oliver Queen being a toasted marshmallow of hard outer shell and sweet gooey centre - this season has literally none of them. Not a single thing.

Also this whole Crisis thing is just so absurdly comic book and Arrow is the one vehicle that was trying for more verisimilitude in its portrayal of superheroes. That ending scene in particular, "I AM NOW THE HARBINGER, LOOK AT MY SILLY OUTFIT, THE CRISIS HAS BEGUN". I know it jettisoned all of this years ago but I think this ending is bringing everything home. I should probably move this to the All Seasons Thread now. I seriously rolled my eyes at that. They literally stabbed him in the back repeatedly only a little while ago. And then they demanded he apologise to them.

I was trying to work out why I reacted negatively to this episode and to this series. And it suddenly hit me (and it's related to the conversation we had last week about the bottle episode). This whole season is basically about Oliver saying goodbye and this episode was essentially a nostalgia tour (again) so all the scenes should have resonated. Stephen Amell is knocking it out of the park and even Katherine MacNamara's hack attempts at acting didn't ruin her moments. But I suddenly realised what it is that has annoyed me about this show for a while now - the whole vehicle (and the character of Arrow) is being sacrificed on the altar of the larger franchise. None of what's happening is about Arrow, the show, the character, the story. Everything is about the spinoffs and the franchise shows generally. The more I think about it, the more I agree that the one character in this franchise who shouldn't be saying goodbye while he prepares to die "for the greater good" is Oliver Queen. It's completely against what the show was about and the narrative progression. And so I mostly just got impatient throughout this episode and have now worked out why. Having said all that, William is like the best bits of Oliver and Felicity all rolled up into one delightful little package. And if he was going to be in one of the spinoffs I may even be convinced to watch a few episodes.

Dang and here I kind of enjoyed this episode. I wasn't bored because I found Stephen Amell and Paul Blackthorne put in such amazing performances that I guess I was distracted by them. But when you put it that way you're right - this season's final lesson negates all the other lessons learned on this show about Oliver's stoic, loner nihilism. Now I kind of hate this episode. Damn I thought me making this comparison on the previous episode thread was original. Laurel is so this show's Regina.

Laurel is Arrow's Regina. Force fed to us with a large helping of Insta!Redemption in all the plotlines another character should be in instead. Honestly, "Laurel's changed" is so much like Regina's "happy ending" that I'm about to rewatch this season as a drinking game. Me too and Amell brings so much to the part too. His performance this season is amazing.

Episodes this good make me glad I decided to stick around.

Starting to suspect this whole season is going to be a fan service Magical Mystery Tour. Not that I'm complaining too much, I love Thea. But it feels like fan service, quite a lot.

She's just a really bad actor. Not even mediocre - actually bad. Alternatively William is my new favourite everything.

I think I said if I watched this season you should mock me out of the threads. So, you could do that I guess. Also, Laurel for Felicity isn't a good swap. Also, Amell is a very underrated actor, that is all.

I was about to join everybody in hate watching the last season but after this comment I might wait.

I really disagree. The brutal unexpected death of a loved one is the classic beginning of the hero's arc and the standard start to the hero's journey. This is just the showrunners living the cliche.

They had that conversation well before that. And the words 'Farouk' never once came out of their mouth as a factor. It's as though the reality of Farouk's possession of David and his subsequent carnage has been removed from their reality in some way. Maybe it's just bad writing or maybe it was something they were going to touch on if the show continued. For whatever reason, I found this to be the single most frustrating thing about this season - especially since this ending proved that everything would have been fine if they hadn't turned on David in the first place but had instead helped him. Also - what was with future Syd? Where did that reality come from and what was her agenda?

A lot of mental illness is similar to an autoimmune disease and requires a confluence of genetics and environment to trigger. So even if David has the potential to be mentally ill, Farouk's presence was almost certainly the environmental factor that sent him over the edge. Without that, and with some stability at home, David is far less likely to develop the illness.