Mr. Robot Season One: Where Our Minds Are Twisted Upside Outtop. And back again.

[TyrelliotAlderson]

Anyone else see a major plot hole in the fact that the year is 2015 where everyone has cameras and snapchat and everything goes viral and not one person ever recorded Elliott talking to himself or attacking no one (slater)?? This sort of behavior would definitely entice some kid with a camera to catch him during an episode and post it online.

I believe that when Elliot is talking to his personalities he's just thinking it inside his head. I don't think he's actually speaking out loud. Every time he has a conversation with Mr. Robot in public he isn't getting any strange looks. The only time he got weird looks was when he was trying to choke Mr. Robot. That's because he was actually trying to choke himself.

[driedfruit]

I wondered if Darlene is a shared delusion of Angela and Elliot. They were friends as kids, so she might've been an imaginary friend, someone Angela created and Elliot went along with. Did we ever find out how Angela/Elliot met specifically outside of the leukaemia scandal and being from the same town? Maybe they met in children's psychiatric care.

Edited January 5, 2016 by driedfruit

[DrSpaceman73]

I just binge watched all of season one over the weekend. I was not disappointed and really think I have to go back and rewatch.

I did not see the reveal of his sister/dad coming at all.

This really is a whole lot like FightClub. A cyber-Fight Club.

The difference being, and what I like, is they don't go in the direction of everything being great now that they succeeded. I will be curious to see where it goes in season two. One of the interesting things about the show is how it portrays doing the "right " thing does not always lead to the expected happy outcome.

Elliot tries to save his girlfriend by turning in a stupid drug dealer and ends up getting her killed

Elliot in the process of succeeding in his grand scheme ruins a company, and everyone's jobs, and loses all their retirement money likely. He ruined many people's lives in the process of trying to "Save" everyone

Angela gets her wish in "bringing down" so to speak the company over the leukemia allegations, but in the process loses her job and is out of the industry, has no way to make a living except to work for the company she hates. This is very true to life as well. I have heard this about other "whistleblowers". Those cases take years and while they may make a ton in the end over the cases, in the meantime, they have no jobs, or means of income, and in the short term have major financial problems as a result. No one in the industry they work in will hire them

In addition, lack of serious repercussions over the leukemia cases for the company are a nice twist. I recall reading about something similar with the Exxon Valdeze spill as well. By the time the case was finally settled the payments and damages were minuscule when taking into account the changes for inflation over 20 years and how much profit the company had made in the meantime. Again seemed very true to life, the reason why it's hard to truly punish these companies over even major disasters. They just buy time, continue to make a fortune, sick lawyers on it, push down the damages as much as possible.

Even more so than the big revelations about Eliot and his family I just in general liked that the storylines did not take us where I expected. Success/failure is not straightforward. He tries to keep people from dying directly at least by changing his plan but he ignore the fact that his plan will ruin financially many, many people while helping others. It's difficult to be totally altruistic without hurting somebody.

I wondered if Darlene is a shared delusion of Angela and Elliot. They were friends as kids, so she might've been an imaginary friend, someone Angela created and Elliot went along with. Did we ever find out how Angela/Elliot met specifically outside of the leukaemia scandal and being from the same town? Maybe they met in children's psychiatric care.

I thought they were neighbors growing up, but I could be wrong.

And I don't think Darlene is a delusion. I thought in one episode Angela's dad stated he saw Darlene at her/Eliot's old house, then Angela goes over to find her there searching for Eliot, who is with his "dad" at the time, before they find them at the cemetary and Eliot realizes his dad is a delusion. Angela's dad seems to have seen Darlene

[DrSpaceman73]

I also had the same thoughts as everyone else about Elliot/Tyrell being one and the same. Though I am not sure how he would pull that off......working two jobs, having a wife, disappearing at times.

Not sure what to make of the story Joanna tells Tyrell about the baby she had when younger. Seems to be a clue as well.

[driedfruit]

I thought they were neighbors growing up, but I could be wrong.

And I don't think Darlene is a delusion. I thought in one episode Angela's dad stated he saw Darlene at her/Eliot's old house, then Angela goes over to find her there searching for Eliot, who is with his "dad" at the time, before they find them at the cemetary and Eliot realizes his dad is a delusion. Angela's dad seems to have seen Darlene

 

They're from the same town but I don't think they were neighbours. Angela mumbled something about meeting Elliot because of the lawsuit, but didn't give any details.

 

The only evidence against Darlene being one of Elliot's personalities is Angela's dad mentioning her. But if she's Angela's delusion, then that scene could've been a false one and another case of an unreliable narrator (this time Angela). 

 

The big points for Darlene not being real is how she never shows up in Elliot's family fantasies/memories/etc and how he tends to just forget about her. And while I assumed they had her played by a white actress to stop us from guessing the sister reveal, that could be another point against her since Elliot and his mom obviously aren't. 

Edited January 25, 2016 by driedfruit

[DrSpaceman73]

I hope that Tyrell is not one and the same as Eliot. There is obvioulsy some connection between the two, but I hope it's not a split personality. While I liked the unexpected twist of his sister and his dad, if they carry this theme too far, this shows runs the risk of going the route of Lost where, in my opinion, it started out interested and nuanced and intriguing and then just went way overboard and became crazy with too many different stories, ideas and characters the writers either couldn't keep track of or couldn't keep all straight. It went from sci fi to fantasy to just crazy, in my opinion. I know many people love Lost, I thought it became just crazy over time.

We have seen Darlene with other people alone, Elliot not present, I can't imagine how those scenes make much sense if the is a shared delusion of Elliot and people he knows. Other people who don't know them are having the same delusion?

Elliot and Tyrell being the same person seems just impossible to pull off when he would have to be holding down two jobs, two separate lives and in two companies that work together closely.

Maybe Tyrell is his brother, a relative, a twin. That I could buy and live with. Being the same person, hard for me to not just completely give buy that, too over the top. If the show goes down the route of too much being a delusion or imagined or too blurred between reality/in Eliots head, it could become ridiculous pretty quickly. Like Lost, in my opinion, again knowing many people don't share my opinion on Lost.

Not sure of the significance of Tyrell being Danish. That would seem to be of some significance.

[ilovethe90s]

I live in NYC and walked by Pierre Lotti where the therapist had the dinner dates.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCW6JZXrdm0/?taken-by=nycorgohome

Edited February 29, 2016 by ilovethe90s

[Potanical Pardon]

I think I've figured it out! Everyone is bonkers. Everyone is everyone!

Elliot and Angela aren't the real thems and they're both looney tunes. Darlene is Angela's imaginary friend. Elliot played along with it long time ago and now she's this figment of both their imaginations. Darlene in fsociety is really Angela doing stuff. Her cheaty boyfriend is fake. Their boss at Allsafe is imaginary which also solves Gideon/Tyrell and Gideon/Elliot. Elliot and Mr. Robot are month-old creations. The tombstone name is just imagined. Tyrell is the real identity/look but is not the real person. Fsociety members are all imagined by both of them. Angela's dad isn't real. He like never leaves that house. Real dad probably went into debt paying also for Angela's psych needs. There's also that bit about haven't had seen Darlene in a long time - that she returned to NYC. So imaginary AngelaDad was like "Hey!" as a reference to Angela's subconscious that this identity hadn't been seen in awhile. Gideon scenes - party other employees, his partner - those are Elliot (or whatever original ID is) again. Gideon's like his ideal perfect good guy persona. Gideon's partner may or may not be real. Trenton is one of Angela's about the ultimate American immigrant family underdog. The other two need to be fleshed out more to be sure, but are kindof randoms created out of necessity. But yeah, Gideon being imagined also solves any Tyrell/Elliot discrepancies. For all we know, assistant/secretary isn't even a "the" or an "a". That could be her office. She could be an exec who was really nice about coffee spills and just having Tyrell sit in her chair as she put her own files down on her desk. Her being in the communal space of chaos when Elliot asks where Tyrell is could be her just picking up the phone there and doing something. Or she's totally imagined too. Tyrell's nameplate on the door is like the Edward Allderson tombstone. Tyrell when he fires the dbags seems like he's in some lounge or exec room where he again likes to just sit in the power desk/chair and I could have sworn a different room from how what we think of his office looking.

Joanna and Evil Corp CEO are the only for-sure real main people. Scott, the cops, Krista, Ollie are real too...or maybe he's fake. Angela as Darlene did use his handle to contact Dark Army peeps. Okay, I'm convinced he's imagined too, since Elliot uses that name with Joanna out of desperation. Ollie is probably Angela's imagined idealized version of Elliot, while cheaty boyfriend is her imagined pathetic version of Elliot.

I'm totally joking about all of this. Whatever. Everything's not real, everyone's not real! 

I'm guessing the Danish/Swedish knowledge has to do with younger Elliot learning how to hack and a lot of resources and code were in Danish. Plus we saw he started out doing web design/dev, so he'd have to have used other countries' lax government oversight servers and have to communicate frequently enough to pick up the language.

Edited May 31, 2016 by Potanical Pardon

[Willowy]

Was going to start my rewatch of this last night but got sidetracked by Wentworth (again). I need to get busy, time's running out. Can't wait for the new season!

[hnygrl]

I just discovered this show during the marathon this past weekend. Holy cow what a show. I can't believe I haven't seen this sooner!

I already need a rewatch where I concentrate on the show's many facets. Wow but I do love a smart show...

[Avaleigh]

On 5/31/2016 at 0:47 AM, Potanical Pardon said:

I think I've figured it out! Everyone is bonkers. Everyone is everyone!

Elliot and Angela aren't the real thems and they're both looney tunes. Darlene is Angela's imaginary friend. Elliot played along with it long time ago and now she's this figment of both their imaginations. Darlene in fsociety is really Angela doing stuff. Her cheaty boyfriend is fake. Their boss at Allsafe is imaginary which also solves Gideon/Tyrell and Gideon/Elliot. Elliot and Mr. Robot are month-old creations. The tombstone name is just imagined. Tyrell is the real identity/look but is not the real person. Fsociety members are all imagined by both of them. Angela's dad isn't real. He like never leaves that house. Real dad probably went into debt paying also for Angela's psych needs. There's also that bit about haven't had seen Darlene in a long time - that she returned to NYC. So imaginary AngelaDad was like "Hey!" as a reference to Angela's subconscious that this identity hadn't been seen in awhile. Gideon scenes - party other employees, his partner - those are Elliot (or whatever original ID is) again. Gideon's like his ideal perfect good guy persona. Gideon's partner may or may not be real. Trenton is one of Angela's about the ultimate American immigrant family underdog. The other two need to be fleshed out more to be sure, but are kindof randoms created out of necessity. But yeah, Gideon being imagined also solves any Tyrell/Elliot discrepancies. For all we know, assistant/secretary isn't even a "the" or an "a". That could be her office. She could be an exec who was really nice about coffee spills and just having Tyrell sit in her chair as she put her own files down on her desk. Her being in the communal space of chaos when Elliot asks where Tyrell is could be her just picking up the phone there and doing something. Or she's totally imagined too. Tyrell's nameplate on the door is like the Edward Allderson tombstone. Tyrell when he fires the dbags seems like he's in some lounge or exec room where he again likes to just sit in the power desk/chair and I could have sworn a different room from how what we think of his office looking.

Joanna and Evil Corp CEO are the only for-sure real main people. Scott, the cops, Krista, Ollie are real too...or maybe he's fake. Angela as Darlene did use his handle to contact Dark Army peeps. Okay, I'm convinced he's imagined too, since Elliot uses that name with Joanna out of desperation. Ollie is probably Angela's imagined idealized version of Elliot, while cheaty boyfriend is her imagined pathetic version of Elliot.

I'm totally joking about all of this. Whatever. Everything's not real, everyone's not real! 

I'm guessing the Danish/Swedish knowledge has to do with younger Elliot learning how to hack and a lot of resources and code were in Danish. Plus we saw he started out doing web design/dev, so he'd have to have used other countries' lax government oversight servers and have to communicate frequently enough to pick up the language.

I honestly think that you were on to something now that I've seen the season premiere. I was initially going to spoiler tag my speculation but have decided to just start a speculation thread.

I think that Gideon is real but I agree with you about Angela's father possibly not being alive.

[Logarth]

Rule One in story telling... If there is an imaginary character involved, they can NEVER interact with any other character other than the one that imagined them... This show broke that rule and thus the premise can NEVER be bought... Good bye idiots... This show is doomed to die...