The second season of USA's Mr. Robot drew to a close in sensational fashion last night, with part 2 of the season finale - which was originally slated to air last week - cleaning up some of the mess, answering a few questions, and leaving mountains of potential for the third season. It would have absolutely been better for both parts to air on the same night, but after Rami Malek's well-deserved Emmy win earlier in the week, hopefully the ratings tick up slightly.
Just like last week, creator and executive producer Sam Esmail wrote and directed part 2, titled "eps2.9pyth0n?pt2.p7z". Proceedings kicked off in Tyrell Wellick's vehicle, where him and Elliot had a heated discussion that added some confusion into the mix - as if there wasn't enough already.
We're given the impression - and it becomes clearer later on - that despite Elliot not having any real understanding about what the mythical 'Stage 2' is, Tyrell actually doesn't either. Rather, Elliot has been withholding information from Tyrell, but spurred on by his very real love and devotion to Elliot, Tyrell got on with the job anyway, setting up a safe house a stone's throw from a massive E Corp building with frequent trucking traffic. The UPS backups in their safehouse were carefully mentioned, and unsurprisingly, due to the way they were hinted, it was the UPS's inside the adjacent E Corp building which were at the heart of Stage 2.
Help me understand.
Stage 2 - we now know - had the sole purpose of destroying E Corp for good. In the building in question, paper based documents and backups from dozens of storage locations around the USA were being shipped in to be entered into a fresh database after fsociety encrypted their existing database in the 5/9 hack. The building has extensive UPS systems to resist the frequent brownouts as well as for general data and server security, but they were also what Elliot or Mr. Robot planned to hack and cause to explode, permanently erasing a significant portion of paper-based records and hopefully dealing the final blow to the conglomerate.
While that seems remarkably simple - and it is - that doesn't sufficiently explain why Elliot was shot by Tyrell. Tyrell shot Elliot because he attempted to reverse the infiltration into E Corp's systems which was to be used to blow up the UPS's, but from what Sam Esmail says in this interview, Mr. Robot set up the whole thing, and Elliot, being a person with a conscience, doesn't want to cause such harm to innocent people, and wants to finish E Corp off in a kinder way than destroying a building and potentially thousands of lives.
We're supposed to be Gods together and yet you want to destroy our destiny.
The end result is the plan is still on, and Elliot gets another stay in hospital.
All of this took second place behind some fantastic interaction between Darlene and Dom. Rami Malek may have won an Emmy a few days ago, but he and Martin Wallström were handsomely outplayed by Carly Chaikin and Grace Gummer.
With the wellbeing of Darlene and Cisco still up in the air after last week's part 1 finale episode, it was surely inevitable that this would be addressed last night, and it was. Cisco had indeed been killed in the shootout, and Darlene had escaped with no serious injuries, but she was carrying a heavy emotional burden.
Politicians love to teabag the rest of us.
The pair remained in an interrogation room for most of their screen time, and this was perhaps the most beautifully written police interrogation I've seen on television. It definitely had the best directing and cinematography of any interrogation scene I've seen. It's amazing what Esmail is able to produce in such a barren room with just two people in it.
Darlene very much held her own throughout the ordeal, and repeated her request to speak to a lawyer numerous times, but Dom was never rattled. I've seen too many police interrogations depicted in dramas to know the standard format is accuse, deny, present some evidence, deny, present the real evidence, get a confession or other valuable information, or lawyer up. To an extent this happened, but from what I know about law, it's not exactly correct to deny the accused a lawyer, so this could be an error which gets Darlene off the hook next season.
Dom presented the evidence she had collected from Susan Jacobs' house, and the arcade. The evidence from the stolen gun was particularly interesting, but I have to say I have enjoyed the much less regular reliance on firearms in Mr. Robot compared to others.
Believe what you want, but neither you, nor I, are special.
This was an ambitious line from Darlene, but it didn't do her any favours. Nearing the conclusion to her interrogation, Darlene was led to the evidence wall which connected the dots on the whole 5/9 case so far. It made for grim viewing, as she became aware of how much the FBI knew, and how well they had done to get to that position. Esmail was such a tease with his directing here, keeping the camera locked straight at the faces of Dom and Darlene, refusing to show us what they were seeing. It was also fascinating hearing how the FBI held back, effectively refraining from chasing in order to allow Darlene and others a false sense of security. The FBI have been very well written this season - unlike the first season of The Following, for example, where they portrayed as if they were running around like headless chickens, chasing anything that may or may not have moved.
It remains to be seen whether this information finally broke Darlene, but the possibility of her and Dom somehow working together next season is an exciting prospect.
I was surprised to see Joanna get such an extensive outing in this episode. If anything, hers was the most complete and made the most sense of all the storylines to receive attention. She was able to trace the owner of the phone which she had been led to believe was from Tyrell to Scott Knowles. Knowles' wife was killed by Tyrell, and he revealed to Joanna that she was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time of her death. This rocked Knowles considerably, so he couldn't resist playing with Joanna's mind as a way to exact revenge of some sort. That may backfire in the wake of him badly beating and strangling her, however, as she will use that and more to frame him for his wife's murder, and to recover her husband's severance pay.
Mr. Robot's season 1 finale made a name for itself by screening a stunning final one take scene after the credits had ended. The feat was repeated in this finale episode as well, though it wasn't as complex or ambitious as its predecessor's 4 minute 10 second stunner. It came in at around 2 minutes 50 seconds, and featured AWOL fsociety members Trenton and Mobley, who appear to be working at an electronics shop, but were conversing outdoors on their break. The scene's shock moment came when Leon - previously seen in prison with Elliot - asked them for the time.
This ties in beautifully with Whiterose, who wasn't featured in this episode at all, but whose presence could be felt everywhere. Angela saw only a minute or two of screen time, but it made her bizarre meeting with Whiterose last week make sense, as she, along with Leon, now work for her. The Dark Army is also tied in to Whiterose, and Dom isn't aware how close she's come to being embroiled here either. Whiterose also has the CEO of E Corp wrapped around his little finger, and that, surely, makes him the most powerful character in the story, with no perceived weaknesses, despite his love for time.
There's a lot to digest from this finale, and from the season as a whole. Though there's still plenty of confusion, a massive amount we don't know, and so many unanswered questions, I just cannot get annoyed. This series is too good for that, and it's so well controlled and executed that that's pretty much a part of the charm. If anything, this season has proven that the things that are happening do have a greater purpose, and having faith in what's happening does pay off. And isn't it an irony somewhat, that the future of the conglomerate at the center of the series has its entire future on paper, and nowhere else at present. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.
The acting, writing, directing, cinematography, sound design, set design, and overall sublime execution has made this season of Mr. Robot one of the best ever to have aired on television anywhere. While many television series start going a bit wayward or run out of ideas in their third and subsequent seasons, I've got no such fears for Mr. Robot. There's so many avenues to be explored and possibilities to ponder, and I'm already waiting for season 3.
Thanks so much for reading this review, and all the others I've written this season! The comments section is down below for you to share your thoughts and theories. I'd love to hear what you thought of the finale, and the season as a whole.
See you back here in 2017!
