To say that this season of ‘Mr. Robot’ had been strange and intense would be an understatement. This season finale was brilliant. The slow reveals and long takes throughout the episode had me on the edge of my seat. Such a layered and twisted ending, without jumping the shark. This is without a doubt one of the best shows on television in years. If you have not completed season one and/or two…be warned, spoilers ahead. Now, Let me break down where the characters are at the end of season two and the fact that they have ended up exactly where they were supposed to.
The end certainly made perfect sense for Joanna. She is the woman who stabbed herself to trigger birth of her child just to distract the FBI. Provoking Knowles to beat her up is exactly the kind of thing she would do. I expect get him arrested for that but of course her plan was much more devious. She provoked Scott Knowles to almost killing her so she had the bruises, cuts, etc. She long conned the bartender guy to fall in love with her. All the while, she could set up Knowles for the murder of his own wife and get Tyrell off what he did. AND the 5/9 hack too. After all he is innocent of that…at least.
I also find it amusing that Angela was the one about to give up and surrender herself to the FBI. In the dark and powerless last season, she is the one who ended up with all the knowledge and control as both Alderson’s have lost even the semblance of it. She is now working with White Rose at the top of Dark Army scheme. Whereas Elliot has been shot trying to stop his own plan and Darlene has been caught by FBI and her boyfriend’s body parts are drying on her clothes.
Angela has spent the season trying to get justice in her mothers’ name. She worked for E Corp and alienated all the people she was doing it for only to realize the system was stronger than her. Then White Rose offered her the whole truth and she becomes fully a part of the plan. Her quest for truth impressed White Rose (just like it impressed us) so instead of killing her she recruits her (Angela got whole 28 minutes of her time, wow.) Angela now knows(?) the whole story behind the plant and the hack. She is free and in control while the Alderson’s are in deep trouble.
This is a big reversal of circumstances, Even if she is on board with Mr. Robot’s destruction of E Corp the big question is why does she follow White Rose? The one ultimately responsible for the plant that killed her mother and sent her, and Elliot, down this path? She is not the one to forgive. Is the ultimate goal really worth it?
We watched Elliot trying to control Mr. Robot the whole season and he failed spectacularly. Sam Esmail has also been teasing us with another personality the whole season so by the time Elliot became convinced Tyrell is just another one of his splits – just a specter of a man he killed – we believed it too. But the end of season one was true. Mr. Robot got Tyrell on board the fsociety train and left him to continue the real work while Darlene was playing decoy pranks. And now Elliot has a hole in his stomach (Does he?) and ‘Phase 2’ is still on. After Steel Mountain, Mr. Robot couldn’t let his conscience try to take over again.
Darlene is another story. This whole season, Darlene’s grip on security and leadership has been slipping. She had gotten more and more in over her head. When she finally realized it and decided to run away with Cisco it was too late. Cisco got shot up and she was apprehended by Dom and the FBI.
The funny thing is, Darlene and Dom really have a lot of in common – like a common enemy for example (I.E. surviving Dark Army shoot outs.) Dom was so close to proving it all. How good she and the FBI were and how close they got to proving everything. However, she still had Tyrell as the mastermind. I could almost see Darlene bursting out laughing at the end. Darlene might’ve lost the feeling she is special and can change the world but she can certainly wreck havoc when given proper initiative and Dark Army. Revenge is a dish best served and we already know Darlene never forgives and how far she can go.
AND…even though the Aldersons are in dire straits they both should survive for now. I’m much more worried about Shama Biswas and Sunil Markesh. We finally find out what happened to Trenton and Mobley and that they have found a way to reverse the hack (probably found the decryption key somehow/someway) only to learn that Dark Army killed assassin, Leon (A.K.A. Joey BadA$$) found them both. And now I’m very afraid they are dead.
In a nutshell…Tyrell is real. It was just Scott messing with Joanna. Yes, the douche ex-boyfriend of Angela knew more than we probably knew, and totally spilled his guts. The FBI really do know what was/is going on. Cisco is very dead and Darlene is not. Dark Army did not kill the Romero at season’s start. Elliott is still nuts in that he doesn’t even understand what IS real and what is not (Do we?). It sets up next season with White Rose and the movement of Angela into a prime role. And I really want to see what is up with Darlene now.
-Dagobot
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