Mr. Robot - eXit - Review: "A Bit Disappointing At Times"

With last week's episode of Mr. Robot culminating in the redistribution of the Deus Group's wealth thanks to Darlene, it was up to Elliot in last night's hour to do his part and take down Whiterose. But this mission was never going to be straightforward, with a fascinating showdown between her an Elliot taking place. "eXit" was written and directed by showrunner Sam Esmail.

The opening few minutes of this episode were fantastic and ominous at the same time. We heard the law enforcement agents make entry into Whiterose's residence as the credits rolled last week, but in this episode we saw the devastating aftermath of that. Littering the room were the bodies of a sizable number of officers, and as Whiterose left the scene, she remarked to a gravely wounded officer that Zhang was dead, before he was finished off,

You were looking for Minster Zhang. He isn't here. He's dead. There is only Whiterose.

We then joined Elliot outside the motel where he said his goodbyes to his sister last week. While that episode followed Darlene and Dom's journey from that point, this one followed Elliot. He made his way to the Washington Township power plant, and essentially fell into a honeypot. He believed he successfully deployed his hack into the power plant's infrastructure, which would have destroyed the project, but the Dark Army and Whiterose disagreed. They had obviously taken over the power plant not long before Elliot's arrival, leaving another trail of bodies in their wake.

Then came the showdown between Whiterose and Elliot, which was one of the more highly anticipated moments of the season. I don't think anyone could have predicted how this scene played out. It was a masterful piece of long term management by Sam Esmail. Essentially it boiled down to two differing ideologies, in a similar fashion to what we saw between Dom and Darlene last week, only this time things were stepped up a level. Or, at least, that may have been the intention.



Whiterose insisted that society was the problem, and that she loved people, and by redefining what a society was through her project she could give everyone a better and more livable society.

Hatred has been your anthem, not mine.

Conversely, Elliot believed the opposite was true to an extent. It was the people that loved him that made the world worth saving, and this was important foreshadowing for what would come later on.

What came next was, I think, a big flex on Whiterose's behalf, because when Elliot didn't believe she had activated her machine, which began overloading the power plant, she shot herself in the head. This brought about perhaps the most puzzling piece of the episode, which saw Elliot play a game of eXit on an old Apple II computer in an attempt to break his way out of the locked room where he and Whiterose talked. While Whiterose was likely quite happy killing herself as the plant destroyed itself in the knowledge she existed in the alternate world her project created, Elliot didn't knowingly have the same luxury. The 5/9 numbers were referenced frequently, which was intriguing. 0509 was the code needed to exit the room, but instead of leaving, Elliot decided he wanted to try to save the world one more time by preventing the power plant from melting down. He found the disk for eXit in a book Whiterose had placed in the room - along with some other personal effects of Elliot's such as the Apple II. He played the game, but it wasn't enough, and the last we see of him and Mr. Robot in this period of time is them apparently burning up as the fire consumes them.

So that felt rather hurried and abrupt, but there was still more than a third of the episode left on the clock, and it was so beautiful to watch. Essentially it was an alternate world. Elliot and Angela were an item, and were due to be married the following day. Elliot was the CEO of Allsafe, and successfully pitched his company's services to F Corp, which was led by none other than Tyrell Wellick. Edward Alderson's computer business was going well, and to top it off it appeared Elliot and both his parents were on good terms.



Something isn't quite right about this new world, however. There were flickers of E Corp throughout, a 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit, prompting Angela to Skype Elliot, Zhang was alive and well, and who can forget the bombshell in the hour's dying seconds. New world Elliot arrived back at his apartment to find none other than old world Elliot sitting at his desk. I have no idea what to say about that other than that it leaves a massive door open for the two part series finale to walk through and explain everything.

Who are you?

In my mind this episode wasn't as good as those we've seen in the past few weeks. I'd even go so far as to say it was a bit disappointing at times". Though the Whiterose/Elliot showdown was meant to be on a whole new level, and potentially the showdown of the season, that wasn't the case, and I thought Darlene and Dom's interactions were superior all round. While the alternate world left a lot of big questions, it was fantastic seeing Angela, Tyrell, and even Ollie back in the fray. It was a nice way to connect this final season back to the first season, along with seeing Elliot and Mr. Robot in a different light.



That being said, while this episode wasn't as good as the majority this season, it doesn't dampen my excitement for the two part season finale next week. Whatever happens, I'm sure it will be a genuinely fantastic early Christmas present, and this one-of-a-kind series will end things on a high with some juicy answers to all my questions.

Thanks as always for reading! Be sure to leave your thoughts and theories in the comments below, and I'll see you right back here for the final time next week.