S01.E09: eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt

[editorgrrl]

As far as we can tell, anything without Elliot (or his alter ego) in it has been real.

That's assuming Mr. Robot is Elliot's only hallucination. Even so, what has actually happened without either of them? Other than Tyrell killing Sharon Knowles, not much. Terry Colby told Angela about his balls. Gideon & Harry had breakfast.

Edited August 21, 2015 by editorgrrl

[catrice2]

Well, I guess i don't know great TV when I see it. I was excited at first, now I am just tired of the Rachel "Girl on the Train" narration by Elliott..."what did I do?"  

 

"Who am I?" I can't remember, etc.   Tyrell is so not interesting to me. I think the show would be better if his father was real.  Did they say why he was going to the doctor and has he replaced her with someone else? 

[shapeshifter]

Elliot's going to find out that the crazy in his head is a lot more manageable than the crazy who's his new BFF.

Or is Tyrell another alter ego too?

I need a refresher on how Tyrell and Elliot even know each other.

Is it possible Tyrell went to high school with Elliot and Angela and Darlene too? Maybe it was Elliot's baby Joanna gave up for adoption.

I always want to tell women who feel guilty for giving their children up for adoption that I feel guilty for keeping mine. I read aloud to them a lot, but I parented about as well as Elliot takes care of Flipper--whether a real dog or not.

...it's possible, from Elliot's PoV, he's not noticing some (or many) of those reactions, so we're not either.

I like this interpretation of Elliot's interactions with not!deadDad.

I could almost swear that the collection of 3" floppies the real Mr. Robot dad was recycling were the exact colors of the ones I got rid of a few months ago. Heh. Who's hallucinating now?

But shouldn't he have been dealing with old 5¼" floppies in '94?

[Cardie]

Or is Tyrell another alter ego too?

 

Symbolically he is certainly another alter ego but I'm not sure there are enough hours in the day for Elliot to do what he and Mr. Robot have been doing and to hold down Wellick's demanding job and voracious wife. Did Gideon ever meet Tyrell and address him as such, or any other person who also knows Elliot?

[Miles]

I don't think he was tracing, he was packet sniffing. In theory, I guess he could have hacked in and altered the TOR config himself, but if he could get in to do that, I don't know that he would actually need to make himself a node, as he'd already be in.

But what information could he possibly glean by sniffing encrypted data? And then there is the catch 22 you just mentioned.

I think we should just agree that they portrayed this pretty wrong and not worry about how it was specifically wrong. :D

 

Or is Tyrell another alter ego too?

That's not possible. Elliot's boss talked to him and called him by his name. Edited August 21, 2015 by Miles

[yourmomiseasy]

Or is Tyrell another alter ego too?

Is it possible Tyrell went to high school with Elliot and Angela and Darlene too? Maybe it was Elliot's baby Joanna gave up for adoption.

I always want to tell women who feel guilty for giving their children up for adoption that I feel guilty for keeping mine. I read aloud to them a lot, but I parented about as well as Elliot takes care of Flipper--whether a real dog or not.

I like this interpretation of Elliot's interactions with not!deadDad.

I could almost swear that the collection of 3" floppies the real Mr. Robot dad was recycling were the exact colors of the ones I got rid of a few months ago. Heh. Who's hallucinating now?

But shouldn't he have been dealing with old 5¼" floppies in '94?

 

I had a Tandy computer with a 3.5" drive and a 5.25" drive in elementary school.  I don't remember exactly when I got it, but it was in the 80s.  5.25" were still common then, but 3.5" wasn't hard to find -- I think most of my Math Blaster type games were on 3.5".  The 3.5" drives were still kind of expensive back then though.  When I bought my own computer in 94 or 95 it only had 3.5" drives as 5.25" were out of favor.  I was a 16 or 17 year old buying a computer with my own money from my after school job that maybe paid $4/hr, so I wasn't buying the most expensive cutting edge piece of equipment.  My dad bought the Tandy in the 80s, so it might have been extra fancy.

[DEM]

This will be an unpopular opinion, and I will preface this by saying that I actually really like the show, but they are playing fast and loose with the schizophrenia diagnosis practically bordering on multiple personalities (the way it is presented). This is a big WTF for me, when Elliott "talks" to Mr. Robot, and we are now to assume that Mr. Robot is truly a visual hallucination, THEN onlookers should react to this. People move away from someone doing this and they react to it.

 

I agree that the question of what Elliot is actually doing (as opposed to what it LOOKS like he's doing) is a bit problematic.  I independently came to the same conclusion that Marcee did: That sometimes Elliot is speaking aloud and sometimes not.  However, while that's a decent gloss, it's also a narrative cheat IMO, and rather a large burden to place on the audience.  Moreover, it diminishes our understanding of Elliot's experience.

 

Several episodes back I remarked that Elliot is somewhat of a psychological Mary Sue.  However, I think Esmail et al. are going primarily for severe dissociative disorder, rather than schizophrenia.

 

I don't expect teevee characters to behave like textbook teaching cases.  However, once one makes mental illness a central aspect of the story and of the main character, one takes on a responsibility.  There should be as much attention paid to the psychological as there is to the computer science. Mr Robot is making me twitch a bit by seeming to conflate dissociation with psychosis (I say 'seeming' because I am honestly not sure of their exact intent).  That's the number one misconception every intro and abnormal psych lecturer tries to pound out of students within the first week.  Those involved with the show talk a lot about the CS technical advice, but the psych advice seems to boil down to "I talked to this one friend of my friend's."

 

I love this show and I find Elliot to be an extremely fascinating character. I applaud all writers who bring psych disorders to the forefront and don't pass them off as "s/he's just misunderstood" and don't try to cure them as if by magic (or a kiss). But. There is room for improvement IMO, both technically and narratively.

[shapeshifter]

I don't expect teevee characters to behave like textbook teaching cases.  However, once one makes mental illness a central aspect of the story and of the main character, one takes on a responsibility.  There should be as much attention paid to the psychological as there is to the computer science. Mr Robot is making me twitch a bit by seeming to conflate dissociation with psychosis (I say 'seeming' because I am honestly not sure of their exact intent).  That's the number one misconception every intro and abnormal psych lecturer tries to pound out of students within the first week.

Could the conflation be deliberate on he part of the writers because they don't want to saddle the main character with a real diagnosis, which they would then have to present accurately? Maybe we aren't supposed to ever know Elliot's exact diagnosis (they haven't named it yet, I don't think). Plus, even in real life, people often have more than one mental disorder at a time.

[riverheightsnancy]

It's tough because I'm usually the biggest nitpicker I know but Ive had to sacrifice a lot of that to just enjoy a fantastic show. Especially being computers are my world. It's not perfect but they've done as good a job as any. You'd think a big name show like csi could've had a good consultant like Mr robot does for that cyber show of there's.

Actually, I really love the show, especially the mystery aspect of it. So, my few comments are pretty light as a complaint. I think that they are doing a good job for the most part, but I can understand the comments on wanting the hacking to be shown correctly. Not knowing anything about hacking myself, I just assume it is correct. I suppose people outside of psychology think the same think as I do about the hacking, but split hairs when it comes to our knowledge areas. Anyone who was in the Wandering Pines thread knows what I am talking about. The complaints here are nothing compared to that thread! haha

[Ottis]

Mr. Robot is starting to feel a little bit like True Detectives Season 2. With this episode I got my first whiff of "I'm tired of trying to figure out what is happening."

 

So what exactly is Joanna's and Tyrell's plan? I missed an episode or two, so maybe it was indicated there. It appears to be something mundane, like they both get rich as he moves up the corporate ladder quickly. If that is it, what will he gain by now destroying EvilCorp and/or society with Elliott? Or has Tyrell just lost his mind? Or perhaps he wants to rescue it at the last minute and be welcomed back as a hero?

 

If he is even real. Why would Elliott take Tyrell to the Secret Funhouse Lair and tell him everything just because Tyrell put on some latex gloves? Elliott looks to outweigh Tyrell? Did Tyrell put on gloves because he used truth serum or some other bloodwork on Elliott?

 

It's hard enough trying to figure out what the plot is without also trying to guess which characters are real, and who they actually are! I love the device but it seems to be in overdrive.

[Ailianna]

For everyone complaining that no one in NYC is noticing a guy talking to no one--let me say, the sidewalks and subways of Manhattan used to be sparsely populated with people talking to someone who wasn't there--and we all knew to avoid the crazy person.  Now they are heavily populated by people talking to someone who isn't there--and you have to look for the Bluetooth to decide if they are crazy or not. Mostly people now just assume the person is on the phone, and ignore them.  That's the *most* realistic depiction I can imagine.  New Yorkers are also pretty good at minding their own business, but really, every other person these days is talking to someone no one else can see.

[xaxat]

After Mr. Robot's appearance at Allsafe, I came to the conclusion that all of their interactions are an internal monologue that Elliot also visualizes. Maybe he changes his line of sight in a strange manner, but that's all that an observer would notice. 

 

I think the show was kind of fuzzy on how Elliot executed the coffee shop hack (exit nodes blah blah blah), but the dynamic of that scene worked for me. While the coffee shop owner believed that using Tor guaranteed anonymity, there are ways that his identity and data could be exposed. Malware, poor user configuration and I'm sure a bunch of stuff used by the NSA/FBI/Hacking Team can be used to compromise a relatively unsophisticated user.

 

I really like how the show portrays social engineering as part of the hacking process. Elliot gathering personal information from Krista's boyfriend to make his brute force attack more efficient,  fsociety (cruelly) manipulating the Stone Mountain employees and, perhaps my favorite, a member of the Dark Army gettin' his hustle on trying to sell mixtapes on the corner!  ("Hey man,if you like my tape, give me a shoutout on Twitter.")

[pfk505]

I can't for a second feign a complaint about the way computers and hacking are presented on this show, because it is so much better than practically every other show in existence that whatever mistakes they make, or abilities they exaggerate, can be forgiven by me pretty easily.  The fact that they use actual real programs and terminology, command line interfaces, file names and structures - I can't recall seeing many, if any shows (even those about hackers or computer crime in general) make this kind of effort to appear accurate.  It's one of the things I've really enjoyed about the show to this point.

 

Shout out to the Pentium 90, my first windows-based computer!

[DEM]

Could the conflation be deliberate on he part of the writers because they don't want to saddle the main character with a real diagnosis, which they would then have to present accurately?

 

So, "he's just crazy."  For me that would be several orders of magnitude worse.  No, I don't think that's what they're doing. As I said, I do think they're primarily going for a dissociative disorder.  But they're also being loose and somewhat inconsistent in the presentation of Elliot's experience as a way to hide things from the audience. For me, personally, that diminishes my understanding of Elliot. It also affects my perception of Krista Gordon.

[melbaby]

Well, Elliot did see Pulp Fiction at some point, if not with his dad that day. I loved his quote on the train platform.  From the movie, after Butch comes to Marsellus' rescue as he is being raped:

 

Butch: You okay?

Marsellus: Naw man.  I'm pretty f**kin' far from okay.

 

Also, I don't think I've seen Randy Harrison, the actor that plays Gideon's husband, since Queer as Folk.  Lookin' good.

Edited August 21, 2015 by melbaby

[Cardie]

I'm worried that Gideon's having such a perfect soulmate means doom for one or the other of them.

[xaxat]

I like the parallel construction with Tyrell and Gideon's increasing desperation. Their paths have emphasized how diametrically opposed their characters are with Tyrell being a murderous sociopath and Gideon being an empathetic individual that cares about not just about the fate of his company, but also the people that work for him. Leading to Tyrell's wife telling him that the only thing that matters is advancing his career while Gideon's husband is telling him that the only thing that matters is their relationship.

 

Now we have Elliot apparently ready to work with Tyrell, but will he come to the aid of the person he called "a good man"?

[possibilities]

I think Esmail et al. are going primarily for severe dissociative disorder, rather than schizophrenia

I'm curious about what makes you think this? Elliot doesn't lose time, he does not appear so far to be living more than one timeline or identity or to compartmentalize different elements of his daily life, and he interacts directly with the "others" rather than stepping in and out of their roles.  The multiples I've known have switched between rather than interacting with their "alternates."

[Chicago Redshirt]

So what exactly is Joanna's and Tyrell's plan? I missed an episode or two, so maybe it was indicated there. It appears to be something mundane, like they both get rich as he moves up the corporate ladder quickly. If that is it, what will he gain by now destroying EvilCorp and/or society with Elliott? Or has Tyrell just lost his mind? Or perhaps he wants to rescue it at the last minute and be welcomed back as a hero?

 

If he is even real. Why would Elliott take Tyrell to the Secret Funhouse Lair and tell him everything just because Tyrell put on some latex gloves? Elliott looks to outweigh Tyrell? Did Tyrell put on gloves because he used truth serum or some other bloodwork on Elliott?

 

It's hard enough trying to figure out what the plot is without also trying to guess which characters are real, and who they actually are! I love the device but it seems to be in overdrive.

I assume that Joanna and Tyrell's initial plan was just mundanely moving up the corporate ladder to CTO and perhaps in time to CEO. 

 

Maybe his relationship with Elliott was simply confined to wanting to groom him and bring him over to Evil Corp. Maybe he long suspected Elliott of being up to no good and was wanting to keep him close to catch him in the act and thus get attaboys from Evil Corp.

 

Whatever the case, with Evil Corp firing him and Joanne all but cutting him loose, Tyrell's now switched up the plan. He put enough of the puzzle together to determine that Elliott is a cause of the recent computer issues and fsociety. So he either wants in as revenge for his firing, or perhaps he wants to backstab Elliott at the right point and try to use that to get back in Evil Corp's good graces. 

[DEM]

I'm curious about what makes you think this?

 

To be clear: There are multiple forms of dissociative disorder. Dissociative Identity Disorder is but one specific form.  Elliot sort of displays the gamut, which is why I didn't specify.

 

Elliot absolutely loses time.  He has indicated in voiceover on two occasions (IIRC) that he's confused about where he's been or what he's been doing. "Mr Robot Dad" is an alternate personality; Elliot interacts with people (e.g., Romero, Wellick, and Darlene) as Mr Robot Dad.  I haven't done a careful study of the exact circumstances under which Elliot relies on the Mr Robot Dad identity, but my sense has been that it's when he's under greater stress. His wholesale forgetting of Darlene is dissociative amnesia.  His failure to perceive the rest of his family in that family photo is the result of dissociation. He also has described feelings of derealization ("Is anyone else seeing this? Is this happening? Is this real?").

 

However, yes, it's the way in which Elliot interacts with Mr Robot Dad that makes his dissociation drift into psychosis territory (along with some other details). That is precisely the issue!

Edited August 21, 2015 by DEM

[shapeshifter]

...with Evil Corp firing him and Joanne all but cutting him loose, Tyrell's now switched up the plan. He put enough of the puzzle together to determine that Elliott is a cause of the recent computer issues and fsociety. So he either wants in as revenge for his firing, or perhaps he wants to backstab Elliott at the right point and try to use that to get back in Evil Corp's good graces.

If either of these scenarios are correct, I hope Elliot has figured out Tyrell's endgame and turns the tables on him so Tyrell winds up being prosecuted as the leader of fsociety. I could tolerate a bone being thrown to Tyrell in the form of his wife admiring that he was such a bad ass bad boy--not knowing that Tyrell was played by Elliot.

Or, she could find that out too.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

 

'This Is Happening. Isn't It.' / And other not-quite-burning not-quite-questions about Mr. Robot...some of them FROM Mr. Robot.

[Chicago Redshirt]

That's assuming Mr. Robot is Elliot's only hallucination. Even so, what has actually happened without either of them? Other than Tyrell killing Sharon Knowles, not much. Terry Colby told Angela about his balls. Gideon & Harry had breakfast.

In the series overall? 

 

Angela got cheated on, got hacked, did the bidding of the Dark Army folks and hacked All Safe while implicating Ollie, engineered evidence to put Evil Corp at the center of killing numerous people by deciding to not take safety precautions, hung out with Shayla a little before her death, and started rediscovering a friendship with Darlene. 

 

Gideon is desperately trying to preserve his company.

 

Darlene has gone on her quest to enlist the Dark Army hackers, which appears to have borne some fruit.

 

Tyrell has engaged in his creepy sex-and-violence laden power games to climb the corporate ladder and please his wife, but has failed at both.

[Ronin Jackson]

I wonder if the line "You knew it all along, didn't you?" was added after people theorizing about on the net that Mr. Robot wasn't real. Since it was a voice over it could have been added late in the game. Regardless it was a okay save considering how unsurprising it was. I'd like to think TPTB were aware their twist was obvious and had been done before too many times and we're coyly aware that the audience would figure it out, but much of it was structured as though the reveal was supposed to be surprising.

[MiseryIndex]

I more believe Tyrell is using Elliott for something that has can stop or turn in and get his job back than actually wants revenge. But I will be happy If I'm wrong.

[xaxat]

I hadn't thought of that, but it fits in with Colby's speech to Angela about E Corp not holding grudges if you are ruthless and brilliant enough.

[bros402]

This will be an unpopular opinion, and I will preface this by saying that I actually really like the show, but they are playing fast and loose with the schizophrenia diagnosis practically bordering on multiple personalities (the way it is presented). This is a big WTF for me, when Elliott "talks" to Mr. Robot, and we are now to assume that Mr. Robot is truly a visual hallucination, THEN onlookers should react to this. People move away from someone doing this and they react to it. I have been carefully watching scenes in public places and no one reacts. The train platform last night, there were people close enough in the background, that they may notice him and react to him talking to himself. The bar scene was another one. I know that the show didn't want to give it away so early on, soooooo, there you go. In addition, why didn't doctor Dr. Krista have him committed?  He is definitely fits the criteria for a 36-72 hours hold.  

 

Honestly, in NYC, unless you are screaming at your delusions, nobody will give you a second glance - especially since Elliot has his hood up all the time. They'll just assume he's talking on his phone, or if it is quiet mumbling, he could just be mumbling along to music.

 

Maybe Darlene and Angela didn't contact Krista and just wanted to see how he reacted to his meds first, before having him committed? Sure, it's a bad idea, but who knows.

[bros402]

Or is Tyrell another alter ego too?

Is it possible Tyrell went to high school with Elliot and Angela and Darlene too? Maybe it was Elliot's baby Joanna gave up for adoption.

I always want to tell women who feel guilty for giving their children up for adoption that I feel guilty for keeping mine. I read aloud to them a lot, but I parented about as well as Elliot takes care of Flipper--whether a real dog or not.

I like this interpretation of Elliot's interactions with not!deadDad.

I could almost swear that the collection of 3" floppies the real Mr. Robot dad was recycling were the exact colors of the ones I got rid of a few months ago. Heh. Who's hallucinating now?

But shouldn't he have been dealing with old 5¼" floppies in '94?

 

My 386 that I got in the early 90s had a 3.5" drive.

 

According to Wikipedia, 3.5" drives as we know them were introduced in 1986.

[shapeshifter]

My 386 that I got in the early 90s had a 3.5" drive.

According to Wikipedia, 3.5" drives as we know them were introduced in 1986.

My first used IBM circa 1994 didn't have a hard drive. I would put in one 5¼" floppy to boot it, and another to run WordPerfect 4.0 and save files. It may have been 4 years old when I bought it for $100, which I thought was a rip-off, so I gave it away when I was able to upgrade to another used computer with a color monitor running Windows 3.1. The person I gave my first computer to gave me an old dresser she had in storage, which I still have and use.

Anyway, I wasn't questioning that there weren't 3½" floppies in '94. I just thought maybe since it looked like he was trading in used computers that he should've been recycling the bigger floppies, but I imagine it might be difficult for the props guys to get them.

Edited August 22, 2015 by shapeshifter

[scrambled eggs]

Golden Globes I can see for sure...they're very good at recognizing actors from the CW and so on.  Emmys I'm not sure but it would be a crime if he didn't get a nomination.

 

I have trouble following the plot of this show sometimes, and don't even ask me to explain all the hacker stuff, but Rami Malek is astonishing in this role. IIRC, Patrick Adams from Suits got a GG nomination his first year, and Piper Perabo for Covert Affairs, so they do have a history for nominating USA network shows and Rami would definitely be deserving.

[GaT]

Ah Mr Robot, another episode, another WTF?

[Human]

I wonder if the line "You knew it all along, didn't you?" was added after people theorizing about on the net that Mr. Robot wasn't real. Since it was a voice over it could have been added late in the game. Regardless it was a okay save considering how unsurprising it was. I'd like to think TPTB were aware their twist was obvious and had been done before too many times and we're coyly aware that the audience would figure it out, but much of it was structured as though the reveal was supposed to be surprising.

According to an interview with Vulture, Malek said that the voiceovers were spoken into an earpiece while he was filming the relevant scenes.  I suppose their could have been edited after filming, but I doubt there was much more than small simple things edited.  The writers would have to think the audience is really really really stupid to not have caught it.  It was from the very first scene that it was apparent that Mr. Robot wasn't being seen by everyone else.  Plus, Elliot had that whole "fuck society" monologue with his therapist as well as being followed by Tyrell's bodyguards before he supposedly even knew about fsociety.  

 

The show doesn't baby the audience with the hacking stuff.  It would be weird if they ever thought they'd baby us with Tyler Durden. 

[AngelKitty]

I do love this show even though sometimes I have no idea what they are talking about with the computers and the hacking. I'm old and still have a flip phone I refuse to get a smart phone and become a "phone zombie". My phone is in my pocketbook and I might answer it if it rings but if you don't leave a voice mail I'm not calling you back.

 

I still have my old Tandy in the garage.  It actually said right in the instructions "The computer will not explode if you push the wrong button." This statement relieved me greatly.

 

As for Elliot's mental problem, I know he has something and don't mind if it's just a TV mental disorder.

[Eldon]

I think tyrell is the twin brother of eliot

[rozen]

I can totally see Evil Corp digging up as much info on Angela as possible to snow her in court, then deciding the best way to control her is to just put her on a leash (salary). It's peanuts to them to get her to shut up, and it tarnishes the moral respectability of the case.

 

That kind of Stage 9 Douche comes charging into a business to cuss them out, accuse their child of stealing, and insult the hell out of the owner? I bet that guy wasn't even sure where he lost his money, just figured Mr Robot was a wuss and that he could bully free cash out of him with minimal evidence. It was obvious their dad was a hallucination the minute Elliott pulled up the old pictures of him and his dad. No one remains that well preserved over the years.

 

So, Angela was feeling insecure because she was used to playing faux-sister, only for Darlene to swoop in with real sister privilege and immediately hide all these secrets from her. I guess it makes sense, as she has no siblings herself. She wouldn't last more than a month at Evil Corp. She'd be better off contacting Ollie and asking to join the Dark Army. If she even breathes in Evil Corp's direction they are going to make her sign 1e9 non-disclosure/non-compete forms and then she'll really be finished in tech. 

 

The guy who plays Colby should be the devil in another show, he is pure sleaze/evil incarnate. He intimidates me way more with a smile than Wellick and his rubber gloves. I half expect Brave Traveler is going to pop back up just to kill him just for coming too close to his hate-squeeze.

 

Why did Joana even risk her child by inducing labor if she was going to divorce him? I guess now that he's joined up with Elliott, he could hack the police station and have all the forensics results say it was the CTO who killed his wife. Except then he'd have to kill the entire forensics team. I don't know how exactly he's supposed to "fix" this problem.

Edited August 23, 2015 by rozen

[cmfran]

After this last episode, I'm not sure if I'll continue after this season is over. From the beginning, I had the sense that the creators were lifting a lot of thematic elements from Fight Club, but now it's getting a bit ridiculous. I like a lot about the show, but when I heard "Where Is My Mind" at the end of the last ep, I was annoyed. Homage is one thing, but this feels like theft. 

[Human]

Fight Club has inspired dozens of books, shows and films and most of them haven't tried to hide that.  I think it would have been a slap in the face if the show tried to pretend that they were doing something completely new and unique.  Playing a song associated with Fight Club is a pretty good homage, a way celebrating the inspiration and to acknowledge that they intended this.  

 

Just speaking for myself, but when I saw the first scene I did have concerns that they would ignore their inspiration so them embracing it when they do the 'reveal' (not sure if it's much of a reveal when we all knew) was great.  

[shoetingstar]

Oh, I'm so "brilliant." I heard the cover of "Where is My Mind" (gorgeous, by the way) and thought--"HEY! I KNOW that song!" Uh, yeah, from Fight Club, dope!

 

Funny, now that we know the truth, I'm sad. No more guessing, no more theories. I hope something huge happens next week. I'm looking forward to next season now.

At what point did this song play? I went back to the cemetery and train scene and did not hear it. I just binge-watched this show over the weekend and I thought it only had 9 episodes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out there is a 10th. Hopefully I'll be able to watch it live.

 

I'm still digging Elliott's voiceovers. I loved it when he was all "YOU KNEW, didn't you?" "You're Going to Make me Say it, aren't?" when he was freaking out And he looked quickly at the camera - aka at the audience/the person he created. I'm not sure if that was scripted, or Rami Malek's decision, or just a camera angle trick, but I found it very effective. Also, that moment when he asks the girls "What is he talking about?" is heartbreaking, because it was clear he knew the answer but just hoped, against hoped he was wrong.

 

I'm so happy Elliott, Tyrell are interacting again. Although, this is a tricky one for Elliott. Who wants a confessed killer around their sister and friends? I noticed he said it was only him. So what will he do when people start showing up for FSociety duty?

Edited August 24, 2015 by shoetingstar

[bros402]

At what point did this song play? I went back to the cemetery and train scene and did not hear it. I just binge-watched this show over the weekend and I thought it only had 9 episodes. I was pleasantly surprised to find out there is a 10th. Hopefully I'll be able to watch it live.

 

I'm still digging Elliott's voiceovers. I loved it when he was all "YOU KNEW, didn't you?" "You're Going to Make me Say it, aren't?" when he was freaking out And he looked quickly at the camera - aka at the audience/the person he created. I'm not sure if that was scripted, or Rami Malek's decision, or just a camera angle trick, but I found it very effective. Also, that moment when he asks the girls "What is he talking about?" is heartbreaking, because it was clear he knew the answer but just hoped, against hoped he was wrong.

 

I'm so happy Elliott, Tyrell are interacting again. Although, this is a tricky one for Elliott. Who wants a confessed killer around their sister and friends? I noticed he said it was only him. So what will he do when people start showing up for FSociety duty?

 

It was the piano piece at the end

[Human]

Yup, last scenes with Elliot and Tyrell.  I couldn't find a clip of it, but here's what the piano piece sounded like.

 

[shoetingstar]

It was the piano piece at the end

 

 

Yup, last scenes with Elliot and Tyrell.  I couldn't find a clip of it, but here's what the piano piece sounded like.

 

 

Thank you so much bros402 and Human!!!

[lidarose9]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I have been sorely disappointed in the show. Terrific acting, yes, and really great directing. I love the look and feel of the show. But the writing to me just falls flat. Unless there is something really cool about to be unveiled about Tyrell, his storyline seems to have nothing to do with Elliot's. Why do we have to wait til the entire first season is over (nearly) before that become evident? The whole subplot about the drug dealers and Shayla's death seems to have been tacked on for no good reason. Angela's boyfriend, ditto. Krista? Who cares? Unless there is some over-arching plot hinge revealed this week, it seems to me that most of these storylines are only thinly connected, and that is just not good. 

 

I object to writers who make up varieties of mental illness to serve their stories. Elliot has a combination of disorders and diseases that may (or may not) include whatever symptom serves today's plot twist. I am tired of shows with imaginary characters that exist only in the protagonist's head. It's cheap and lazy and cliche. So far Elliot's hallucinations of Mr. Robot remind me more of "A Beautiful Mind" than of "Fight Club" but at this point I have lost faith that there will be any kind of semi-plausible explanation for any of it. We get mind-numbing hacking jargon waved in our faces and that's supposed to make us forget it makes no sense. Erasing the debt records of one giant corporation will change the world, I guess. Whatev. 

 

I keep watching because Rami Malek is spellbinding. 

[cmfran]

Fight Club has inspired dozens of books, shows and films and most of them haven't tried to hide that.  I think it would have been a slap in the face if the show tried to pretend that they were doing something completely new and unique.  Playing a song associated with Fight Club is a pretty good homage, a way celebrating the inspiration and to acknowledge that they intended this.  

 

Just speaking for myself, but when I saw the first scene I did have concerns that they would ignore their inspiration so them embracing it when they do the 'reveal' (not sure if it's much of a reveal when we all knew) was great.  

 

My main problem with the show is that almost everything seems lifted from something else. Aside from the Fight Club "inspiration," Tyrell feels like the tech version of Patrick Bateman. Even the musical score, while well done, seems like it's compiled of outtakes from Trent Reznor's film work. I really want to like it, but it all feels like something I've seen before. Yes, I realize that almost nothing is truly original, but I feel like this show has crossed the line.

[Netfoot]

I am tired of shows with imaginary characters that exist only in the protagonist's head. 

 

It can certainly be taken too far.  If it turns out that Elliot has been in a coma all season, and that the entire show has taken place in his head...   am I supposed to be impressed?  Not that I expect that will hap-pen, but with so many saying that Elliot is an unreliable observer, it leads you to question the reality of almost every scene!  Did Shayla really exist? Is Tyrell actually a nurse wearing gloves?  Is Angela Elliot's ex-wife?  Come on, show!  Some of it must be real, and the more the better.  Nobody likes it when God takes over the entire machine!

 

Note on the IT side of things:  I'm impressed with the lengths they've gone to, to present an accurate picture.   I never expected them to be 100% realistic because hacking (like IT work generally) can be mind-numbingly tedious grunt-work.  Not good television.  But at least they didn't hack into Steel Mountain (?) by typing HACK SYSTEM at a C:\> prompt, like I've seen before!

[shapeshifter]

Is the title of the episode supposed to refer to mirror servers? If so, I missed the application of it in the episode.

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I have been sorely disappointed in the show. Terrific acting, yes, and really great directing. I love the look and feel of the show. But the writing to me just falls flat. Unless there is something really cool about to be unveiled about Tyrell, his storyline seems to have nothing to do with Elliot's. Why do we have to wait til the entire first season is over (nearly) before that become evident? The whole subplot about the drug dealers and Shayla's death seems to have been tacked on for no good reason. Angela's boyfriend, ditto. Krista? Who cares? Unless there is some over-arching plot hinge revealed this week, it seems to me that most of these storylines are only thinly connected, and that is just not good. 

I agree with everything in this paragraph except I was only "sorely disappointed" with the first few episodes after the great pilot. I've long since lowered my expectations. The recently completed second season of True Detective made me feel the same. We can't blame it on a writers strike. I don't know what's going on.

[lidarose9]

I agree with everything in this paragraph except I was only "sorely disappointed" with the first few episodes after the great pilot. I've long since lowered my expectations. The recently completed second season of True Detective made me feel the same. We can't blame it on a writers strike. I don't know what's going on.

 

ITA on TD2. On the other hand, check out "Humans". It restores my faith -- good writing does exist!

[bros402]

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I have been sorely disappointed in the show. Terrific acting, yes, and really great directing. I love the look and feel of the show. But the writing to me just falls flat. Unless there is something really cool about to be unveiled about Tyrell, his storyline seems to have nothing to do with Elliot's. Why do we have to wait til the entire first season is over (nearly) before that become evident? The whole subplot about the drug dealers and Shayla's death seems to have been tacked on for no good reason. Angela's boyfriend, ditto. Krista? Who cares? Unless there is some over-arching plot hinge revealed this week, it seems to me that most of these storylines are only thinly connected, and that is just not good. 

 

I object to writers who make up varieties of mental illness to serve their stories. Elliot has a combination of disorders and diseases that may (or may not) include whatever symptom serves today's plot twist.

 

He's stayed pretty consistent with what possible disorders he might have - just seems like he has a couple of comorbidities.

[SonofaBiscuit]

Hmm, I'm not sure about this show.  I felt like it started going off the rails with the Shayla/drug dealer stuff.  Was that even real?  Who knows.  I would have preferred if Mr. Robot was really Elliott's not-dead father because now I basically have to question everything I see, wondering if it's real or not.  I guess that's the point, but it's an exhausting way to watch a show.  Probably an unpopular opinion, I know.  I enjoy most of the characters, and parts of the story are interesting (I find the hacking stuff really engaging), but I don't want to spend every minute wondering if what I'm watching is real, or if it's a hallucination, or if there's going to be some big shocking reveal right around the corner.  Hmm...conflicted.

[Cardie]

At this point I think all the characters are real except for dad-as-Mr.-Robot. The core DNA of the show is that Elliot is mentally ill and his perceptions of reality are skewed and selective. But it's less that we are being given false information, except again about Mr. Robot, than that we are not getting all the information. For instance, once we learned that Darlene was his sister, every action of hers had to be re-considered in that light but we didn't see her doing things she didn't actually do.

 

I don't mind unreliable narrators if the text plays fair. My biggest problem so far is that Tyrell does not seem to be coming to us via Elliot for the most part and he's very difficult to believe as a real person rather than a demented cartoon. Perhaps he's unreliably narrating to us as well, but silently.

[editorgrrl]

Is the title of the episode supposed to refer to mirror servers? If so, I missed the application of it in the episode.

I thought it was a reference to the scene near the end of last episode, where Elliot looked in the mirror and saw several other characters.