Dang, this was a fun episode! Let’s talk about it (no pun intended)!
Silence is Golden
Like last week, we pick up right where we left off. Elliot grabs Tyrell’s cell phone (which had a pic of Joanna and the baby on the lock screen…aww…), the Dark Army operative’s gun, pours gasoline over everything, lights the lighter and throws it in the van, setting it ablaze. Light ’em up, burn ’em up, flame on! Elliot and Mr. Robot watch as the van gets cooked ’til tender. And that my friends, is the only appearance Mr. Robot makes in this entire episode. I guess runnin’ around with Elliot non-stop for the last day and some change wore him out. Mr. Alderson, however, has stamina in spades, as we’ll soon learn.
Darlene is driving around the area, still looking for Elliot. The cell reception there seems to be working somewhat now, because she’s able to pick up his location again. However, the phone pings the country store he went to hours ago. Darlene doesn’t see him there, of course, but she notices smoke nearby and decides to check it out. Sure enough, when she gets to the source, she sees the Dark Army van, still aflame.
Darlene stares at the carnage for a minute, before Elliot knocks on the passenger door. She lets him in and pulls off. Elliot is about to tell her something, and she says, “It’s cool, dude. We don’t have to talk.”
And they don’t talk. Not for the next 49 min. Neither does anyone else.
Back at Elliot’s apartment, he’s printing a fake Virtual Realty ID card for Darlene, using her hacker handle, Dolores Haze. He notices the blood on his hands and goes over to the kitchen to wash it off. He breaks down, and eventually crouches in the corner, trying his best to hold back his tears. A lot of folks think that he was crying because of what happened to Tyrell, but I personally think it was a combination of things: Tyrell, Angela, his mother’s death, the fact that he and Darlene aren’t really on the best of terms right now, the realization that time is running out for him and Darlene, etc.
Darlene emerges from the bathroom and Elliot quickly straightens up and finishes washing his hands, not wanting her to see him upset. The ID card finishes printing, and Elliot sits down to conduct his research on Virtual Realty.
What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas?
Dom is packing store bought Christmas cookies to take to her mother’s house when she gets a text from Janice. She tells Janice she can’t talk (LOL), but ol’ girl lets Dom know that one of the Dark Army vans was found in Pike’s Hollow burnt to a crisp with a body inside. Dom has to get out there and use her FBI credentials to ID the body and gain intel…now. Fuck your plans, Dom.
Somewhere on the rich folks’ side of town, Price is dining alone at a restaurant on Christmas morning when he gets a text from Elliot telling them that Tyrell won’t be at the Deus Group meeting. Price is visibly annoyed, but his annoyance turns to sadness when he sees a happy family sitting nearby, enjoying each other. You can see that he’s mourning the loss of his daughter and the family that he could have had with the woman he loved. A waiter slams the check on Price’s table, and when he opens the booklet, he sees the receipt instructs him to go to the E-Corp building and tip the trombone player outside $20.00. $20.00!? When I was in New York, the street performers were lucky to get a buck from me!
Elliot and Darlene: The Dynamic Duo!
The plan commences at 11:00 AM sharp. Darlene shows up at Virtual Realty, wearing a black wig and a frumpy outfit. Elliot stays in the car, putting his gloves on and getting ready for action. The security guards are chillin’, watching Die Hard. When Darlene enters the building, she scans her ID badge, but it doesn’t work. She continues trying, but she still can’t gain access past the lobby. This is all well and fine, however. It’s all part of the plan.
Elliot gets out of the car and walks over to the building, stopping to briefly smoke a cigarette. Darlene gives the security guard a warm smile and lets him know that her ID badge isn’t working (of course, you can’t hear any of this, but you can put two and two together). She knocks her bag over and the guard helps her pick it up. That’s Elliot’s cue.
He sprints through the lobby with all the grace and silence of a cheetah and runs down the hall to the door of the control room. He uses a decryption key to override the lock and once Elliot’s in, he hacks the building database and adds Darlene’s credentials in the computer.
While all this is happening, the security guard is looking for Darlene’s name in the employee directory. As he searches, Darlene wipes off the screen of her phone and places the device down on the front desk. Elliot uploads the info in the nick of time, because the security guard finds Dolores Haze listed as an associate. He opens the gate for her, and Darlene walks away slowly…very slowly. A second later, the security guard whistles at her. She turns and sees him holding her phone with his thumb resting on the front screen. Got ’em!
Darlene gingerly takes the phone from him (gripping it on the sides) and walks out of the lobby at a normal pace. In the control room, Elliot uploads a firmware update for the the surveillance cameras that knocks them out for 40 minutes. That gives him and Darlene and little over half an hour to do their thing.
In the elevator, Darlene takes the tempered glass off her phone and places it in a case. She has the elevator go down to the basement to meet Elliot, and then they both go to Kraftwerks, a 3D printing office in the building. Side note, I wonder if Sam Esmail is a big fan of the group Kraftwerk. He used their song “The Hall of Mirrors” in the second season (love that track!), and now he’s using the name of their band in the show. Just an observation.
When the Aldersons get to the printing office, Darlene puts some super glue and hot water in a case, along with the tempered glass containing the thumbprint, a la Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop 2 (which was the best film in the trilogy, IMHO).
Once the fumes from the super glue stick on the fingerprint, Darlene scans it, and Elliot uses the image to print a 3D version of it!
Scavenger Hunt
Price arrives at the E-Corp building and wistfully looks up at the E logo. The trombone player sitting nearby starts playing his sad tune of woe. Price walks over and hands him the 20 bucks (doggone). The trombone player turns his hat upside down for Price to place the money inside, and it turns out there’s a ticket sitting inside. When Price takes the ticket, he sees it’s for a dry cleaning company. Another dag gum breadcrumb to follow. Sheesh.
Pike’s Hollow PD
Dom is in Pike’s Hollow, where the Dark Army operative has finished roasting on an open fire. The coroner handles the body while Dom leaves the crime scene and heads off to the police station. On the way there, she’s stopped by a red light. No one else is coming so she runs the light, and sure enough, the camera takes her picture. By the way, it irks me to my soul when a traffic light is red, but there’s no other cars driving on the opposite side. But the doggone light stays red because…reasons. Also, I can’t believe this little po-dunk town has cameras on their traffic lights. Not that I want it to get any, but the little town I live in doesn’t even have those, and we have a whole Wal-Mart here. A Walgreens and a Lowe’s, too!
Anyway, the camera gives Dom an idea. Maybe the people that burned the van made the same mistake at the intersection she did…
Later, Dom’s at the police station, sitting at an officer’s desk. She gets up for a few moments and disappears in the back. Once Dom’s out of sight, a female cop in the office hears her phone going off. She looks around for the phone, but she can’t find it. The ringtone seems to be sounding off from the back. Sure enough, the cop finds her phone inside a pastry box. She didn’t think to question why the hell it was in there…or who put it in there? As she retrieves her phone and goes back to her desk, Dom leaves, and we see that she placed a device on the officer’s computer.
Dom goes out to her car and activates the device to spy on the cop’s desktop. Darlene must’ve taught Dom some hacking skills during their torrid night together. Dom texts Janice and lets her know she hacked the local PD’s network and to look out for any red light camera reports. After speaking with Janice, she looks over at the cookies she was supposed to give to her family and starts to cry. Dom soon gets another text—this one is from the FBI, letting her know that the Irish sex trafficker guy has been released. Hmm…
Stalkin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Krista, who’s planning a hot Yuletide date with her new man, is shopping for groceries. While she’s looking around, Young MA—yeah, that Young MA—bumps into her. Krista sees this as nothing and keeps shopping. However, when she goes to pay for her items, Young MA is outside the store, watching her…
I have to say, that has to be the UGLIEST nativity scene I’ve ever seen in my life! And this is supposed to be a so-called high end store! Who the hell okayed that monstrosity!?
Wonder Siblings Powers Activate! Form of…Hackers!
Back at Virtual Realty, a badge is needed to gain entry to the server room on the 9th floor, so Elliot picks the firefighters’ lock to override the scan. Once he and Darlene get to the 9th floor, Elliot breaks into the IT room to print a badge to allow Darlene access into the actual servers.
Darlene uses some putty to make an impression of the 3D thumbprint they printed, and once they press it on the scanner for the server room, they’re in! The security guard tries to override the firmware upgrade to see what’s going on with the surveillance cameras, but to no avail. He seems to let the issue go, and and he walks his rounds. While on the elevator, he sees the firefighters’ panel is open. Realizing that the firefighters’ lock is the only way to enter the 9th floor without a badge, the guard decides to investigate.
Once he’s up there, he uses an app on his phone to see if anyone may have legally gone in the server room. The app shows that he just went inside. The guard sends a text to his co-worker downstairs stating that someone went into the server room using his credentials, and to call the cops. Oooohh…
In the meantime, Darlene locates a computer in the server room and gets to work. However, time is running out. Elliot looks at the timer on his cell phone and sees that they’re down to about 56 seconds. He shows Darlene the elapsed time, but the poor child can only move so fast.
To make matters worse, the security guard has now entered the server room, looking to see who’s in there. Thankfully, he can’t see or hear Elliot and Darlene…yet. Elliot spots a sticker on the pipes overhead, showing that the lights are powered digitally. Elliot gets to work and hacks into the system, just as time runs out and the cameras come back on…
The lights go out mere seconds after the surveillance cameras come back online. Darlene is still working, adding the credentials in the servers. The security guards doesn’t give up his search. He continues to walk around the server room with a flashlight, looking for the intruders. When he finally comes to the row we all hoped he wouldn’t walk down, Elliot and Darlene are gone! Whew!
We see the dynamic duo darting out of the server room and Elliot zip ties the door shut so the security guard can’t get out. They’re about to take the elevator, but they see that the other security guard is coming up. They hurry away and take the stairs, resulting in a camera shot that I’m certain will become iconic (property of USA Networks/NBCUniversal):
They make it to the lobby, but the cops just pulled up, and they see the security guards are heading back down on the elevator! Elliot and Darlene run back into the stairwell and hide. However, while Elliot looks out of the little window on the door to see what’s happening, the security guard spots him!
The security guard tries his best to open the stairwell door to get to Elliot, but Elliot’s strooooong. He manages to hold the door closed, ensuing a struggle.
He looks over at Darlene, who’s inwardly panicking, and knows what he has to do. He throws his backpack off, knocks the security guard down with the door, and sprints out of the building. Go, Elliot, go!
Skinny Superman (In a Black Hoodie)
Elliot starts running and the cops follow, which results in a foot chase through most of Manhattan.
GO, GO, ELLIOT!!! 🏃🏾
The cops chase him through Central Park, and it’s especially funny when Elliot makes his way across the ice skating rink. He goes down a hill and tumbles a bit, hurting his leg, but still manages to evade the cops and get on a bus.
Darlene, on the other hand, is still in the building. She runs upstairs and hides in an empty office, not sure how she’s going to escape. She spots some water bottles and a sweatsuit laying around and remembers there’s a gym downstairs…
We see her back in the lobby some time later, sans wig, now holding the bottled water and wearing the sweatsuit. She pretends to exit the gym and slowly walks out the door, managing to avoid the cops and the guards. Boss. When Darlene gets to the car, she tracks Elliot’s signal again. He’s somewhere on the Upper West Side.
Elliot’s still on the bus, and breathes a sigh of relief when he sees that he’s lost the cops chasing him on foot. Oh, but he’s not out of the woods yet (once again, no pun intended)! A police car pulls up and tries to cut the bus off! Elliot jumps out and takes off running again. Unfortunately, during the chase, Elliot gets hit by an SUV.
Y’all know it takes more than a sports utility vehicle to keep our Elliot down (literally)! He wakes up and hobbles away, clearly injured this time. He comes to a nearby bridge, and looks over the side. When he looks to his left and right side, he sees the cops coming after him. Elliot braces himself, climbs on the railing of the bridge AND JUMPS!
Y’all know it’ll take more than a neck breaking fall to keep our Elliot down (literally)! He takes some hard tumbles down the cliff below (turns out it wasn’t a straight drop) and rolls over to the sidewalk, where Darlene is waiting for him. Elliot hobbles to the car and they pull off.
Elliot struggles to catch his breath as Darlene drives. In a sweet moment, Elliot reaches out and places his hand on top of hers, just as he did when they were children (Darlene mentioned this before on “402 Payment Required”). No words are spoken between them, but Elliot keeps holding her hand. Awww…
All I Want For Christmas Is My Life Back
Price is back at his house, with the suit he retrieved from the dry cleaners. The invitation to the Deus Group meeting is tucked in the lapel, instructing Price to be at The Brentano at 9:00 PM. Price texts Elliot and lets him know that Tyrell or no Tyrell, the meeting is happening.
At Mrs. DiPierro’s house, everyone’s enjoying their Christmas, except poor Dom. While she’s walking the family dog, she notices the Dark Army vans parked around the neighborhood. Dom takes note of the license plates of each van and where they’re located, and jots the info down on a notebook when she gets back to the house. Bump relinquishing control.
After making her notes, she sees a news story about Elliot in Central Park channeling his inner Usain Bolt. Then her phone vibrates. It’s Janice, again. Someone should dedicate this classic track to her. This time, she wants Dom to drop everything to find “a couple of troublemakers.” She sends Dom a pic of the folks she’s talking about, and it’s Elliot and Darlene. Turns out Darlene ran the red light and the camera caught her. Dammit.
The Gift That Ain’t Givin’
Krista happily walks home from the grocery store with all the goodies she needs for her hot date. When she gets to the door, she has an uneasy feeling and looks across the street. There’s Young MA, staring at her. Young MA proceeds to cross the street, and Krista nervously drops her keys and her groceries. *Sigh*
Young MA helps her pick up the Ben and Jerry’s that rolled onto the sidewalk. Krista takes it from her, and when she turns around, she’s face to face with none other than crazy ass Vera.
“It’s time we talked,” he says.
Now it’s okay to be scared, Krista.
The end.
Y’all…this episode was so doggone good!! Hands down, “405 Method Not Allowed” is now my favorite episode of the season. Everything was on point: the acting, the music, the cinematography, the plot, everything. And the fact that there was only two doggone lines of dialog spoken? Brilliant. It’s official: Sam Esmail is a genius.
The folks that dogged out “404 Not Found” last week and started writing the entire fourth season off put away all reservations after watching this episode. As of now, it holds a 9.8 rating on IMDB.com. Mr. Robot was the even the number one trending topic on Twitter after the show aired!
This episode deserves every accolade; it was great. It reminded me a lot of “eps3.4_runtime-error.r00,” which you all may know as the episode shot with one long tracking shot. Both installments had nail biting tension and an artistic technique utilized to convey the story (that a lot of people didn’t notice right away thanks to the brilliant performances and intriguing plot). “eps3.4_runtime-error.r00” still reigns supreme between the two (along with the conclusion, “eps3.5_kill-process.inc”), but “405…” runs a very close second.
Let’s talk about the acting for a minute. Everybody did the damn thing, and I mean everybody. You could look into the actors’ eyes during their respective scenes and see what they were thinking and/or planning. Darlene’s panic. Price’s remorse. Dom’s hopelessness. The security guard’s suspicion. Elliot being overwhelmed and later determined.
The camera work was nothing to gloss over, either. Man, that stairwell shot was ingenuity at its finest! I also loved all the Die Hard allusions that were incorporated into the film. First, with “Ode to Joy” playing in the first part of the episode (I know what you’re thinking, “‘Ode to Joy’ was around centuries before Die Hard was released!” True, but it was also featured a great deal in the film, and when most folks hear that song, they think of that movie), then with the fellas actually watching Die Hard in the lobby. This time though, the good guys are the ones pulling the heist in the building.
I’m glad Elliot and Darlene were able to patch up their relationship…at least at the moment. Elliot made up for the way he treated his sister throughout the episode, showing that he meant what he said to Tyrell. The way he led her away from the elevator when he noticed the security guards were coming up, how he ran to place all the cops’ attention on him, allowing her to escape; and don’t get me started on the hand holding scene. Loved it all.
Unfortunately, the target on Elliot and Darlene’s back will be even bigger at this point. With the break in, the photo from the intersection, the deep fried Dark Army operative, Elliot’s hot one night stand with the Dark Army’s account manager and Price’s impromptu Deus Group meeting, there’ll be no doubt in Whiterose’s or Ms. Thang Jr.’s mind that Elliot is plotting against them.
Speaking of which, in the last 24 hrs., Elliot’s broken into someone’s apartment, had drinks at a club, had sex, walked through the woods, disposed of a body, prepped for a break in, pulled off the break in, ran through the majority of Manhattan, has had zero hours of sleep, AND IS STILL GOING.
Just give me a third of that energy. I could make miracles happen.
On to Dom…you’re too damn smart for your own good. Doggone your time for hacking that computer and getting Darlene and Elliot in even deeper trouble. Despite all that, I do hope that Dom finds a way to be free of the Dark Army. Maybe relinquishing control will keep her alive, but she’ll always be restrained and never have peace of mind. I mean hell, the poor woman couldn’t even enjoy Christmas with her family thanks to Janice’s messy ass blowin’ up her phone every five seconds (kind of like in this old school PSA!). I see the Irish sex trafficker guy is going to be more important to the story than we initially thought. I’m very interested to see how he plays a role in the narrative. Will he help Dom gain her freedom? As for Mr. Phillip Price, I can’t wait to see what happens during his Deus Group meeting. I have a sinking feeling this isn’t going to end well for him…
I’m still a bit irked at Krista for the way she treated Elliot in the “403 Forbidden” episode, but I don’t want anything bad to happen to her. With Vera however, her chances of survival are slim to none, I hate to say. Can Elliot save her? Will she blame Elliot for all of this happening? We’ll just have to wait and see!
Next ep, Vera and Young MA hold Krista hostage in her own house, Elliot asks Olivia for a favor, Whiterose demands that Elliot be brought to her, and Dom and Darlene are reunited…and it don’t feel so good. Can’t wait!
By the way, next week’s episode comes on USA at 8:00 PM instead of 10:00! I hope they don’t cut the cuss words!
—Written by Nadiya
So what did y’all think about “405 Method Not Allowed?” Was it better than the previous episode? Did you notice there was no dialog? Did you enjoy the Die Hard references? What do you think about Elliot being a slender Superman? Did you get the feels from Elliot taking Darlene’s hand? Are you scared for Krista? Do you think that Dom will escape the Dark Army? What do you think will happen at the Deus Group meeting? Let me know in the comments section!
Insights from a Southern Girl 