USA Network's acclaimed new drama, Mr. Robot, hit the middle point in its first season last night in utterly spectacular fashion.
It was, in my opinion, the series' strongest hour since the pilot. "eps1.4_3xpl0its.wmv" had it all. It was written by David Iserson and directed by Jim McKay.
Following last week's heavy focus on drugs and hallucinations, this week's hour brought things right back to reality, with a smattering of the imaginative to keep things interesting. With Elliot cured from his withdrawal symptoms, he was back on point as Mr. Robot and the team set about infiltrating the impenetrable Steel Mountain.
People always make the best exploits
This quote very nicely sums up the theme for this hour. While Steel Mountain may be impenetrable in theory, the people are always the weakest link, It started with some swift skills from Mr. Robot himself as he used a magnetic card reader to strip the details off an employee ID badge in a bar. The cloned card allowed fsociety to make their way on campus where it was Elliot's turn to shine.
With the assistance of the easily tampered Wikipedia, Elliot was in, and poor William Harper was in well over his head before he even knew it. So often in television in particular, seemingly innocuous people are so quickly and easily disposed of without the slightest hint at a second thought. If you enjoy action-based dramas like me, you've no doubt seen hundreds of bodyguards, shop assistants, police officers and random members of the public simply slaughtered as if they were a fly being squashed by a newspaper.
What the creative team did so superbly well in this hour was put the viewer on Bob Harper's side as Elliot faced him down. Perhaps the master stroke here is that Bill's breach of procedure by offering Elliot an unscheduled tour wasn't censured, and he didn't pay with his life. You couldn't help but feel absolutely terrible for the poor guy and the awful situation he was faced with. There were no guns and there was no violence, but the few words Elliot delivered were absolutely brutal. The actor who played Bill did an outstanding job too.
Even more strangely, and unbeknownst to Bill, what Elliot did was massively different to who he really is. This socially anxious drug addict was aided by a guy in his ear feeding him equally destructive phrases to ruin Bill, and Elliot also had to draw from a painful childhood memory to boost his strength enough to squash Bill so painfully.
After that incident, fsociety's plans were almost foiled when a different supervisor to the one planned showed up when Elliot wanted a tour of the restricted areas of the Steel Mountain. But worst was still to come when Elliot bumped into the seedy Tyrell Wellick, who sat out last week, but was back to the fore last night. Wellick cemented his dodgy status even more firmly as he revealed he had pretty much known what he was up to all along, having already dug up some background information on the guy he offered a job to in the series' second episode. Wellick revealed he knew that it was Elliot who framed Terry Colby but had nothing to prove that allegation with. He also revealed he knew Elliot's father died working for Evil Corp.
Wellick was also involved in a little stint of his own as a storyline that was hinted at a few episodes earlier was picked up once more. Speaking in foreign tongue with his pregnant wife, the pair arranged dinner at the home of Scott and Sharon, where some bizarre conversations about wine and general business took place. When Wellick had a jab at Sharon about her husband she excused herself to the bathroom where Wellick interrupted her in super spooky and weird fashion. The fantastic silence as director McKay flicked through several camera angles taking in the scene felt like an age. Eventually, Sharon decided to open her legs to Wellick, which was his cue to leave.
In other news, fsociety's plan had fallen through before the team even arrived at Steel Mountain. Darlene was unsuccessful and visibly angry at Chinese syndicate Dark Army bailing out on their role in the plan. I can't say this surprised me at all because not even this series would want to put a plan in motion of this scale just five episodes in. Despite this, the Raspberry Pi Elliot planted is in play, and could be deployed at any time. But does Wellick already know it's there?
The news wasn't good for Angela, however. The first scene she was in also featured a devastated and emotional Ollie who was now her ex-boyfriend. With a surprising degree of callousness, she packed her things and left for her father's place. On the desk in her room she found a stack of medical bills totaling many thousands of dollars owed to Evil Corp. For my money, the chances are pretty good that her father has a terminal illness, or an illness that will take his life because he can't pay for treatment. Could this be the trigger Angela needs to send her off on a new tangent?
And finally, the episode opened inside the prison where Fernando Vera was being held on a host of charges including murder. When Elliot tipped the police off anonymously of Vera's crimes, I didn't think we would see him again, but I've already been proven wrong there. Vera continues to have substantial influence, having Elliot's unofficial girlfriend Shayla abducted. The episode drew to a close with Elliot trading words with Vera from a mobile phone. What happens next between the pair will be fascinating to watch unfold.
In all this was an outstanding hour of television yet again, but several components combined to push this episode beyond the previous three in terms of quality. I also want to highlight the brilliant score and soundtrack choices this episode had, and the outstanding acting performances by the main cast that I've come to love each week.
With the halfway point reached and just five episodes left in the season, I'm sure the wild ride will continue. Next week's promo looks truly harrowing as firearms are introduced into the fray for the first time. Check out the promo here. Thanks as always for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the hour in the comments below.
