The final regular episode of Mr. Robot's second season screened on USA last night, and it was brilliant. The season's two-part season finale kicks off next week, with part 2 following a week later. Last night's episode, titled "eps2.8h1dden?pr0cess.axx", turned the intrigue level up to the max, leaving plenty of juicy teasers for the finale. Sam Esmail directed this episode which was written by Kor Adana & Randolph Leon.
The hour kicked off inside the office of E Corp CEO Phillip Price, who was engaged in deep discussion with none other than the disgraced former E Corp CTO Terry Colby. Much of the conversation centred around politics, with Price concerned a US ambassador would interfere with plans by China to take control of the Congo, an African country known for its mineral resources and associated with the likes of blood diamonds and other nefarious trades.
You're trading countries like playing cards.
The fascinating thing about this scene, aside from its usual excellent directing and photography, was that it was Colby who seemed the more normal and humane person in the room. He knew better than to question Price too deeply to to make a stand (Price was one of those responsible for Colby's fall from grace) but he did try to appeal to what little good conscience Price had. I wasn't able to discern for sure what Price's interests were in the Congo, or whether it had anything to do with his conversation with Whiterose last week. What is known, is that Price was willing to trust Colby to complete what he'd asked him to do, and that was to keep said ambassador quiet.
Central Africa's a shitshow. After climate change it'll be a bunch of soon to be corpses waging a civil war.
This was one of the series' best and most savage quotes. It sums up so perfectly how massive conglomerates are pillaging other countries whose entire GDP and then some is vastly less than their own. When probed by Colby, Price mentioned his never-ending desire to be the most powerful man in any room he walked into. He believes there's only one or two rooms where that isn't the case (he didn't mention them by name). Price also mentioned that he wanted to leave a legacy like God did. It's ambitious, but in the world of Mr. Robot, that's not entirely impossible, you would think.
After an ear-bashing by what could only be described as horrible heavy metal style music during the title splash screen, the primary storylines garnered some screen time. This all started in Joanna Wellick's large walk-in wardrobe. Joanna was getting dressed to go and meet Elliot - the view of that scene from outside her car closed last week's episode. Last night, we saw the same scene except it was shot from the inside of her car.
Tell me where he is.
Sorry, I don't know.
In a flash they were back at Joanna's place. Elliot, unsurprisingly, knew nothing about her primary concern - Tyrell's whereabouts. She did give him the cellphone which she had received mysteriously a few episodes prior, and which rings occasionally with someone's heavy breathing the only thing being ushered down the line.
This season has featured many interesting tales of various experiences told by a lot of the characters, and this episode featured even more of those. Joanna got in on the act be recounting how her husband would do anything for her. She told of the time she took a liking to a pair of earrings on another woman. Tyrell got into bed with her and came back home with said earrings. Everything we learn about Joanna makes her even more weird and scary, any something that's becoming more clear is that she was very much in control of her marriage to Tyrell, which probably allows her to enjoy other sexual fantasies on the side with more freedom. Her advances towards Elliot before she spoke the words below was equally chilling:
Do you really want to say no to me?
After all of that, Joanna left Elliot the phone she suspected Tyrell was calling her on, with orders to trace its owner. Under the watchful eye of her bodyguard/hitman/driver, Elliot bought a bunch of hardware and peripherals from a store and put together a setup which consisted of a recycled crisps tube as a wifi signal booster. Elliot then proceeded to forge a police document requesting a cellphone be traced, then faxed it to the NYPD followed by a phone call.
In a series such as Mr. Robot which is on the cutting edge technically, it was fantastic to see a much more retro solution being set up and implemented with a much higher degree of realism than I've seen on virtually all television series. It also proved that often simple, old solutions can work just as well and yield the same results to a much more sophisticated approach. Among all this, Mr. Robot went AWOL, and wasn't seen again for the remainder of the episode.
Elliot's final major part in the episode involved Angela, who barely featured at all. Despite the limited screen time, this was a big moment for Angela, who revealed to Elliot that she was going to confess to her involvement with the events of late, and was on her way to see her lawyer. Elliot felt more or less powerless to stop her, and further to that, couldn't give a straight answer when she asked why he started fsociety.
I can't keep pretending like this is gonna go away.
Shortly before Elliot disembarked the subway, the pair shared a loving hug, and a kiss. This took me by surprise, but it was a beautiful moment because you could see they both knew their lives were at a crossroads from that point onwards. Angela can be seen looking at two ominous people moments later.
I thought the storyline Darlene and Cisco had in this episode was really well done. Last week's episode cliffhanger question was answered first up - it was a fsociety associate who was at Darlene's door. It was a badly beaten Benson, the guy seen earlier in the season with Darlene, who she had instructed to lead the DC operation. The pair took him to a hospital where they waited for a prognosis. Unbeknown to them, FBI agent Dominique DiPierro was hot on their trail, having spent time beforehand examining the home of Susan Jacobs. The FBI suspected Jacobs was missing - not dead.
Cutting a long story short, Dom traced Darlene and Cisco to the hospital, and then to a local diner where they were eating. Mere seconds after locating them and calling for backup, Dom, along with Darlene and Cisco presumably, found herself under fire once more, with a rogue shooter disembarked a motorbike, approached the window, and emptied a clip of submachine gun ammunition into the diner. From the stationary camera located across the street in this spectacular long take, it appears as if everyone managed to duck in time, though Darlene looked to have left that part very late. Dom managed to return fire, wounding the gunman in the leg. Realising backup was on the way, his driver on the motorbike decamped, with the gunman quickly being dispatched by arriving law enforcement.
Dom rushed outside, and in the final seconds of the episode, blood (or ketchup) could clearly be seen covering one side of her face.
While the general epilogue ends there, there's one extra weird thing I want to mention, concerning Elliot breaking the fourth wall via narration and asking the audience if they could see anything in his room which could explain why Mr. Robot wasn't present.
Can you help? Can you look? Do you see anything?
I've looked at this scene a few times, but nothing pops so I'll have another look with a fresh set of eyes later on. Either way, I love this series for its moments like this. It's such an awesome way to bring the audience into the story and get them to interact with something which is still, technically, a one way stream. I get the vibe that after malfunctioning a few times last week, Mr. Robot may be gone for the immediate future. Something has switched him off, but what?
In summary this really was the ultimate penultimate episode of Mr. Robot. The vision Sam Esmail and his team have for this storyline is truly incredible. Even with the season 2 finale set to play out over the next fortnight, I still have no idea what's going to happen. There's so many unanswered questions, but amazingly none of them seem overdone or even like they are digging away at me and becoming annoying. I really am just on for the ride at this point, and I'm loving every minute. This episode had some brilliant one-liners too - you've probably noticed I quoted many more times than usual in this review than usual.
Thanks as always for reading. I'm really keen to hear what you think of this episode, and especially what you may have seen in the room Elliot was in. One thing I would say is that it could be something that isn't there that holds the key. I wouldn't put it past this creative team to pull that sort of stunt. Click here to find out all you need to know about next week's episode, and to watch the promo.
