If there is one universal truth about systems and structures by which the world operates is that almost everything of sufficient size claims to represent the people. Whether it’s “We the people ...” this, or “People’s Republic of ...” that, or “National Liberation Front of” whatever, almost every group operates under the pretense of power from the populace to forward the cause of democracy, freedom, liberty or prosperity. And some of the most despotic regimes and worst offenders of human rights on this planet claim to be “fair,” even if it’s a cockamamie idea of fairness based on a predetermined order that requires some people stay in chains for the greater good.
But there are many types of chains in this world, as well as varying definitions of friends and loneliness, especially in a modern world of social media. And in the dynamic between individual and society, the threads which bind and hold can be amorphous. Some of those chains come with smiling faces and the idea of symbolic economic vitality. But those symbols are many times empty in meaning, and might come with interest payments. When I wrote a piece a while back about the public’s fascination with the end of the world, one of the ideas bandied about was a desire to go back to zero. The notion that a fantasy about global destruction grabs people because it offers a world where every individual is “free” from rules and all of their past regrets. But therein lies the rub, since some of the chains in this world are the ones we fasten to ourselves, because of trauma and a past we can’t confront.
Created by Sam Esmail, USA network’s Mr. Robot received much critical acclaim in its first season, given that both its main character and the audience is left unsure as to what the nature of reality actually is. Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek, who just won an Emmy last night for this performance) is a computer programmer who works for the Allsafe cybersecurity firm. But he also engages in vigilante hacking, going after cheating husbands and child pornographers. This ultimately brings him to the attention of a hacker named Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) and a group of hacktivists called fsociety. They’re targeting a huge multinational conglomerate, which also happens to be Allsafe’s biggest client, named E Corp —a.k.a Evil Corp— and want Elliot’s help in order to achieve social equality. E Corp has the too-big-to-fail breadth of an AIG mixed with Google, and the ethics of Enron at the upper echelon. However, where all of this ultimately leads has huge implications for not only the world, but Elliot’s own identity and his distance from society.
As season two has progressed, the world is trying to deal with the aftermath, while Elliot is so far no longer battling corporations but trying to find firm ground inside a troubled mind.
For anyone that hasn’t watched the first season of Mr. Robot, this might be the place where you stop reading, since I’ll have to reveal some major spoilers about the show’s story up to this point and some tidbits about season two.
As season one progressed, most viewers started to catch on that the show has many similar elements to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. But in many ways the audience always kinda knew more about what was going on than even Elliot. That changed this season.
The fall of the world’s credit infrastructure following fsociety’s successful hack of E Corp was not the great revolutionary leveling of society. Instead, the gap between haves and have nots has only widened as the planet was plunged into a global recession. While the elite at E Corp still enjoy their ivory towers and plot to replace the dollar with their own digital currency, the public below suffers as government services have broken down to the point people have to burn their garbage because waste disposal no longer operates. The digital bullet that was aimed at E Corp’s head has missed and had the unintended consequences of striking average people, who are now told they owe mortgage payments for property they already own, since there’s no credit record.
While those sorts of large social and economic issues dance around the screen, Mr. Robot—at its core—is a TV show about loneliness and alienation. It’s about the differences between the world we perceive and the world as it actually exists. And it’s also about the choices we make, and whether they make a difference in the grander scheme or are washed away by the current of history. One of the great truths this series touches on is the idea one can exist in this world while not feeling like they’re part of it or have any control within it.
From Corey Atad at /Film:
Mr. Robot has been a show about loneliness from the beginning. Recall Elliot in the pilot, sitting alone in his apartment, crying by himself in the corner, overcome by a spell of deep depression. In a sense, all the characters are alone in the world. Even when they’ve got each other, their trials are intensely personal. Elliot and Angela both lost parents, but their lives are not the same, nor are their emotional balances. They deal with the world in different ways, with Elliot inventing fantasy characters, setting, and plans to save the world. Angela, on the other hand, has invented a sense of self. This gives her a strong exterior. She’s tough, but not on the inside. This leaves her with her own lonely battles.
A lot of the criticisms of season two have felt the show has been “meandering” and “unfocused,” especially in the lack of Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström) and how the series has handled Elliot. The twist that much of the first half of the season is yet another rejiggering of reality based on Elliot’s perceptions to escape harsh realities was surprising but seemed arguably more arbitrary. And while Elliot asks the audience to please still trust him, the story decision was divisive with many of the show’s fans since it doubled back on itself and the viewer can’t trust anything as being real. But maybe that’s the point. With everything in the show there’s a foreboding sense of paranoia, and a feeling there’s no firm ground to stand on.
For Angela (Portia Doubleday), she’s toyed with the idea of being a whistleblower, been kidnapped, and now threatened in a surreal manner by Whiterose (B.D. Wong), who suggests to her the “truth” about reality is almost as pliable as Elliot’s fantasies. And Dom (Grace Gummer) is someone who’s basically figured out the entire mess, but is in a situation where her superiors at the FBI don’t take it seriously and/or everyone is impotent to do anything about it.
From Melissa Leon at The Daily Beast:
This season’s episode “m4ster-s1ave” featured an amazing 20 minute-long break from reality that turned the show into a dark, Full House-esque sitcom. And there’s a moment where Mr. Robot tells Elliot he’s constructed this false reality to make him feel safer, that “it’ll feel good if you let it.” How did the idea for that sequence come about?
Sam Esmail: Yeah, this is again that other layer I was talking about when it came to the prison fantasy that Elliot created for himself. It plays on the idea that we create illusions and lies that we tell ourselves to cope with certain traumas or tragedies in our lives. For Elliot, his happy place that he ended up reverting to was that perfect family in a sitcom that he watched as a kid that I obviously relate to and a lot of the other writers in the room related to when we were having this discussion. And it’s an incredibly false reality, to the point where there’s a laugh track and there’s happy music when the problem gets solved at the end of the day. There’s a comfort there in the lie. And once again, thinking about it in terms of layers, we just thought it would be a very creative, entertaining way of showing how Elliot coped with the beating. We could have shown Elliot go through the beating. But we just thought, again, that this added another dimension to how Elliot would cope with that.
As season two comes to an end there are many outstanding questions: Is there really a second wave to Elliot’s plan, and what is it? Where has Tyrell been, and what does he ultimately want? Will Dom ever get Alexa to reveal the mysteries of the universe to her?
Moreover, will any of the characters be able to find a place with true meaning?
From Alex McCown-Levy at the A.V. Club:
Much like the confusing whirlwind of events surrounding Angela Moss, the show is lurching out of the accepted reality that has anchored it to a universe recognizably our own. It’s threatening to blow open the gates of logic and rationality, and introduce a mysterious sci-fi conceit that would place it firmly in an otherworldly domain … This season has toyed with religion, and messianism, and a world beyond our own. Whether it was Elliot’s savage (and ultimately unsustainable) attack on faith during his Bible study group, or the constant allusions to saviors, prophets, and gods, the series has been driving toward something like this, in ways both subtle and not. And now, that destination is here, as Whiterose offers the promise of a better world, one in which you can make things happen simply by believing they would. And it might not be bound by considerations of time or space—if there’s anything Whiterose values, it’s time. Imagine the possibility of finally having a little more of it.
In this way, Elliot and Angela were once more the two mirror images of Mr. Robot, people out of their element and unwilling to play along. Angela continually rejects the process she’s been forced into, demanding to leave, to stop the questions, even to refuse Whiterose’s offer of explanation and just go home. Similarly, Elliot gets Tyrell and himself kicked out of a cab because he doesn’t want to accept the reality of the situation. But it’s looking ever more likely that, much like Angela, Tyrell has returned to show Elliot how that can be achieved—how he may not have to accept reality as it is.
- The show’s direction: Sam Esmail directed all 12 season-two episodes. In interviews, Esmail has said the decision was based on getting a “very singular and very distinct” visual style for the series over the entire season, which was hard to explain to guest directors.
- The power of love: Many of the music choices in the latest episode were from the Back to the Future soundtrack. "Night Train" (Angela trying to get her abductors to talk to her), the theme to Davy Crockett (the van pulls up to the house), and Marvin Berry & The Starlighters' cover of "Earth Angel" (Tyrell tells Elliot that Stage 2 is ready to go) are all featured in the 1985 classic.
- Land Of Ecodelia: Part of surreal-ness in Angela’s storyline involves fielding questions through a game called Land of Ecodelia. The term “ecodelia” seems to imply a symbiotic relationship between the universe and nature, and the term comes up in a lot of guides—of various scientific and non-scientific worth—advising the use of psychotropic drugs to expand boundaries of consciousness.