“408 Request Timeout” – Recap and Review

1995:  The Queens Museum

An eight year old Elliot is in the Queens Museum playing hide-and-go-seek with Angela.  As Angela’s counting, Elliot goes into a storage room far away from the public area of the museum.  Initially, it appears that he’s looking for a good hiding spot, but once we see him speaking with Mr. Robot (who’s unseen and unheard), we learn he has another purpose in mind.  He takes something out of his pocket and hides it underneath a furnace.

After hiding the item, Elliot goes back to the Panorama section and he and Angela continue their game.

It’s notable to mention that when Elliot first enters the room, he lays eyes on a giant robot.  He gazes at it for a minute and goes on to hide the object.  Hmmm…

Get Out

In the present day (2015), the realization that Krista just killed Vera is setting in, and she’s freaking out.  Poor Elliot, on the other hand, is pretty much catatonic.  Krista is about to call the police when she hears Vera’s phone ringing.  She looks out the window and sees Young MA and Javi standing outside, trying to contact their boss.

Krista tells Elliot they’re not safe and they have to get out now, but Elliot simply remains seated with a 50 yard stare.  The only thing registering with him right now is that his younger self is across from him, staring back at him…

Outside, Young MA keeps trying Vera, but he’s not picking up.  She really needs to go upstairs to pee.  Javi tells her that they had specific orders to wait, but Young MA says she can’t hold it, plus she wants to know what’s happening in the therapy session.  Javi’s curiosity get the better of him, and they go in the house.  As they’re discussing how Arby’s is a fiscally responsible meal choice (which is incorrect when you really think about it), they find Vera on the floor dead, and thankfully Krista and Elliot have escaped.  Young MA looks for them on the fire escape, but they’re long gone.  She has Javi steal Vera’s wallet and they hurry out of the house.  Wow.  And here I thought they’d be out for blood once they saw their fearless leader was killed.  No honor amongst thieves, huh?

Not too far away, Krista manages to get Elliot in a taxi (I’m glad she thought to retrieve Elliot’s bag, by the way) and has the driver take them to the nearest police station.  Elliot’s still shell shocked.

To make matters worse, an E-Corp Christmas commercial featuring Tyrell is playing in the cab.  Sensing that that’s the last thing Elliot needs to see right now, Krista turns it off.

Holiday Drop In

Over in Teaneck, the DiPierros are enjoying a typical Christmas evening full of music, laughter, games, TV specials and bad ass kids.  However, the Yuletide fun is interrupted when Dark Army forces storm the house and take everyone hostage while “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” plays.  God, I love this show.

By the way, I’m still trippin’ off that kid telling Dom’s mother “You can split my dickhole!”  Oh, somethin’ would’ve gotten split alright.  PSA:  Spank your damn kids.

Destructive Productivity

Janice is holding Dom and Darlene captive and going on about how she recently learned cities were created by lightning, thanks to a bolt hitting limestone and creating cement (she heard this in a podcast, so it must be the gospel).  She ends her history lesson with the line, “Destruction can be so productive!”  Something about that stayed with me.  One of the Dark Army operatives announce that Darlene completely wiped her phone, and he can’t get anything off it.  Umm…didn’t Darlene say that hours ago?  Janice orders Darlene to restore the phone herself, but she tells Janice to eat shit and die.

Dom tries to convince Janice that Darlene doesn’t know anything, but Janice doesn’t believe her, seeing as Dom still pleasures herself to Darlene’s interrogation video.  Oh yeah, this heffa actually mentions that.  Out loud.  In front of Darlene.

Do these fools have cameras in Dom’s apartment or what?  Amused at Dom and Darlene’s reaction, Janice feigns an apology and pulls out of set of knives.  While Janice tries to find the sharpest one, she asks what really happened between the two of them.  Darlene lies and says it was just sex, but again, Janice isn’t buying it.  Darlene lets Janice know that she can play all the games she wants, she’s not giving Elliot up, so whatever she has planned, she might as well do it and get it over with.  Janice responds by plunging the knife in Dom’s chest, and leaving it inside the wound.

As Dom falls to the floor gasping for air, Janice says that’s she 99% positive she punctured a lung.  Now Darlene has a choice:  she can give them Elliot’s location and in turn, they’ll get Dom medical attention she needs, or she can keep quiet and Dom will die.

Moving Forward

Krista and Elliot arrive at the police station, but Elliot’s not trying to go inside.  Krista attempts to convince him, and Elliot finally responds to her, saying he can’t do it.  Not only is Elliot traumatized, but he’s actually wanted by the cops, so walking in there isn’t his best bet.  Elliot asks what people like himself do when they learn they’ve been assaulted.  Krista tells him he has to keep going, and Elliot begins to do what most victims do:  blame himself.  Krista reminds him that he was a child and had no control over what was happening.

Elliot wishes he could forget everything again, but Krista tells him he never really forgot.  The trauma was always there.  It was the itch in the back of his mind; the one he couldn’t scratch (I liked that she used that line—it was a call back to Elliot using it in the first and second season).  Elliot remarks on how his father made him feel special, and Krista lets him know that he is special (you doggone right, Krista!).  She offers to have him call her the next day.  At first Elliot refuses, saying that she doesn’t have to take care of him anymore, but Krista insists.  She wants to continue talking with him.  He shouldn’t go through his hurt and pain alone.

Elliot says he knows and reaches out to hug Krista.  *Sob*

Krista tells Elliot to take care of himself and goes inside the precinct.  Elliot sees his younger self down the street, heading to the subway platform.  Elliot meets him down there and asks where they’re going.  Young Elliot doesn’t answer.

Sociopathy

By this time, Dom’s wheezing and losing a great deal of blood.  Darlene criticizes Janice for not helping Dom, but Janice claims she wants nothing more than to do let Dom live.  Dom is loyal, honest and loves her family, which makes her easy to control.  She has “pluck.”  Who the hell speaks like that?

Dom manages to tell Darlene not to give Elliot up, and ol’ girl mentions again that she sensed a connection between the two of them.  Janice asks if Darlene ever met Dom’s mother.  When Darlene answers no, Janice starts talking about how much she liked Mrs. DiPierro and was flattered that she wanted to hook her up with Dom.  She admired the fact that Mrs. DiPierro was willing to ignore Janice’s red flags just to make her daughter happy.  Darlene asks if the “red flag” was Janice’s insanity, and Janice lets it be known that her parents had her tested when she mentioned she wanted to be a taxidermist.  All the tests were inconclusive and proved she was normal.  WTF?

I’m thinking she found a way to cheat those shits.

Janice sees that Dom drowning in her own blood isn’t making Darlene budge, so she decides to try something else.  She announces that she’s gonna call her men in Teaneck and order them to kill Dom’s mother.  Dom begs Janice not to make the call and Darlene’s resolve is breaking before our eyes.  Before she can dial the number, Darlene stops her and tells them she’ll restore the phone and give them Elliot’s location.

“Now look who has pluck,” Janice says.  WHAT THE HELL IS PLUCK!?

The Queens Museum:  2015

Young Elliot brings Adult Elliot to the Queens Museum.  Again, Elliot asks his younger self why he brought him here.  Young Elliot doesn’t say anything.  Doggone, Young Elliot is quieter than grown Elliot!  Elliot tells his younger self that he’s sorry he let his father hurt him.  He’s sorry he didn’t fight back and ran away to the Queens Museum whenever he was upset.  Before we know it, he’s screaming his apologies.  Young Elliot simply says that’s not why he brought him there.

Elliot follows Young Elliot to the storage room.  The large robot that once overlooked the room is now disassembled.

Young Elliot leads his adult self over to the furnace and has him reach inside the crack in the wall underneath it.  Elliot feels around and finds what he hid all those years ago:  a Beavis and Butthead pouch with a key inside.  It was the key to his bedroom.  He hid it in the museum so the monster couldn’t get him.  That’s how Elliot fought back.

Once again, this was another call back to season one.  When Elliot had his fever dream while going through his morphine withdrawal, Mr. Robot gave him the same key, instructing him to “find [his] monster and turn the key.”  The key appears multiple times in the dream.  I knew it had a type of significance, but at the time, I always figured the meaning was something symbolic within the dream itself.  Turns out the key had a deeper connotation than I thought.

The Wild Card

The cops are at Krista’s place, investigating the crime scene and taking care of Vera’s corpse.  There’s a Dark Army operative across the street, informing Janice that Elliot’s phone was found at the location, but he wasn’t there.  There was a dead body at the location, but it wasn’t identified as Elliot.  When Janice hangs up, she’s none too happy and gives Darlene the bad news.  Darlene doesn’t know what to say.  If they only found the phone, it means something happened to Elliot or he purposely left his phone because he didn’t want her to know where he is.  Dom even confirms that Darlene’s telling the truth.

Now, considering what the operative just said along with Darlene’s information, common sense should’ve allowed Janice to put two and two together and realize that something occurred that caused Elliot to leave his phone at Krista’s.  However, it’s becoming more and more clear that Janice ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed (no pun intended).  Either due to her stupidity or her sheer love of being an agent of chaos and causing destruction, she decides to call the guys in Teaneck again to call Darlene’s “bluff.”  Lord…

Darlene pleads with her, telling her that she gave them Elliot’s location like they asked.  Janice corrects her.  She gave them Elliot’s phone, not his actual whereabouts (like Darlene really had control over that.  SMDH).  Dom begs Janice not to hurt her family, but Janice is insistent.  However, when she calls no one picks up.  She hangs up and dials again.  Still nothing.  We then see a flash of one of the Teaneck division operatives’ phones covered in blood.

Dom’s panic subsides a bit and she asks Janice if the operative didn’t answer.  Intrigued, Janice inquires why Dom would even think to ask, and Dom tells her to look in her pocket for her phone.  There’s a man that was supposed to call her earlier that day.  Janice retrieves Dom’s phone and sees 14 calls from “Lucky Irish Bastard.”  Try to guess who that is!

Janice dials the number and lo and behold, it’s the Irish sex trafficker guy!  He tells “Dom” he has her family safe and sound.

Janice demands to know who she’s talking to.  He tells her he’s Deegan.  Who the hell is she?  When she gives her name, he basically says, “Ah!  The Dark Army lass!  Tell Dom we’re square!  Sorry about your boys.  I had to give them a holy show.  There weren’t no other way.”  Janice asks what boys he’s talking about and asks him to speak English.  Damn, are you that dumb?  Deegan clarifies that he killed the operatives.  Duh!  Then he ends the call with, “Ta-ta for now, ya flange!”  The folks from the UK and Ireland on the Mr. Robot subreddit got a real kick out of that one (“flange” is slang for va-jay-jay).

While Janice’s dumbass is trying to piece together what’s going on, Dom is eyeing the operative that’s standing in front of her.  Once Janice is off the phone, Dom snatches the knife out of her chest—the one thing that’s probably keeping her alive—and slices the operative’s Achilles tendon.

Once the operative’s down, in a swift motion, Dom takes the dude’s gun, shoots the operative near the kitchen, kills Janice, then points the gun behind her back and shoots the last operative!  Badass!

Darlene grabs the knife and cuts her and Dom’s restraints loose.  Dom calls for assistance, and Darlene offers to stay with her to make sure she’s okay.

Dom tells her if she really wants to help, she’ll find Elliot and take the Dark Army down.  With that, Darlene begrudgingly leaves the apartment and Dom to her fate.

Family Reunion

Elliot is at Allsafe, trying to key commands in the computer, but he can barely concentrate.  Mr. Robot appears, still looking defeated, wringing his hat in his hands.  “Hey, kiddo,” he says softly.  No bravado.  So unlike him.

Elliot pauses at the sound of Mr. Robot’s voice, then manages to pull himself together just enough to tell Mr. Robot (without turning to face him) he’ll be ready for the Deus Group meeting (which is in one hour!).  Mr. Robot knows that’s not why Elliot let him back in.  He goes on to say that he was created to protect Elliot, since his father failed at that task.  Despite what he thinks, Elliot was strong enough to fight against his father as a child.  However, Mr. Robot figured that if he buried Elliot’s memories of his abuse, and only kept the happy recollections of his father, he’d never experience the hurt.  However, leaving Elliot in darkness hurt him even more, and Mr. Robot apologizes for failing him.

Mr. Robot tells Elliot to just remember he’s not his father, and Elliot says he knows.  That’s why he created him.  Mr. Robot is the father he needed, not the one he had.  Mr. Robot wishes he could go back in time and change everything, and Elliot turns to him and says, “Then I wouldn’t be me…and I wouldn’t have you.”  *Sob*

That’s right, Elliot!  We love you just the way you are!

Elliot takes Mr. Robot’s hand and begins to cry, saying he doesn’t know if he’s able to go on with the hack.  Elliot’s cries become sobs and Mr. Robot comforts him, ending our story.

“408 Request Timeout” didn’t disappoint.  It wasn’t as good as “407 Proxy Authentication Required,” but c’mon.  Those are some REALLY big shoes to fill.  Let me just say though, that this season is getting better and better as time goes on, and I can’t wait to see where it ends.  Of course, I’m going to be sad when the end arrives, because after the finale, Mr. Robot will be no more.  I love this doggone show, and I’m so glad I started watching it two years ago.  It’s been a joy, and this final season is no exception.  If the actors/writers/cinematographers don’t get any recognition for their work on these current episodes, I’m gonna whup somebody’s behind.

Let’s talk about my girl Dom.  She shined in her scene.  So badass.  I always liked Dom (although she could work a bit a nerve at times), but she gained a whole new respect in my eyes after taking out those Dark Army fools.  The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not she’ll survive, and I honestly believe she will.  She’s a federal agent that’s wounded in a nice part of town.  The EMT’s will be there within minutes!  Also, at this point, it looks like Dom and Darlene are going to be endgame for sure (I’m sure the Domlene crew is rejoicing.  Why the Angelliot fans got screwed is beyond me; I don’t care what Portia Doubleday and Sam Esmail say).  I’m still not 100% psyched about a budding relationship between the two of them, but if this is the only way Darlene and Dom can get a W by the end of the show, so be it.  Y’all go ahead and get married, raise a family and make Elliot an uncle.  At least you’ll be alive.

Speaking of mortality, I’m so glad that doggone Janice is dead!  I couldn’t stand her!  I will say though, that speaks volumes for Ashlie Atkinson, the actress that played the character.  She can really bring a hateful villain to life.  Have y’all seen her in BlacKKKlansman?  She had to be one of the most, evil, conniving and annoying heffas to ever grace the big screen.  This lady definitely has a future ahead of her.

I’m really happy that Krista and Elliot repaired their relationship.  She totally redeemed herself after treating him like crap on Christmas Eve.  I’m sorry y’all, I hated the way she spoke to him on “403 Forbidden.”  I get the reasoning behind it, but it irked the hell out of me nonetheless.  However, I’m glad she was patient enough with him to help him get away from Young MA and Javi, and I’m glad she opened the door to provide him further treatment, which he’ll no doubt need…assuming he survives this (Elliot living through all this is my biggest hope for the show).  In all honesty, after being held hostage in her own home, assaulted, forced to reveal a patient’s health history and killing her assailant in self-defense, Krista is going to need therapy as well.  Some folks believe this episode was Krista’s last appearance in the Mr. Robot series, but I wouldn’t mind seeing one last shot of her towards the end of the show either helping Elliot or seeking help for herself.

Last, but certainly not least, my poor sweet Elliot. “408 Timeout Request” was more than an appropriate title for this episode, because Elliot definitely checked out, which was to be expected.  I knew it would take some time for him to move past the truth about his father being unearthed, and I’m glad this episode displayed Elliot still trying to cope with his emotions.  It wouldn’t make sense for Elliot to bounce back mere minutes after learning his father sexually assaulted him.  “Yeah, I unblocked traumatic childhood memories of the man I always thought of as a hero, but let’s do the damn thing with this hack!”  Nope.  Doesn’t work.

However, even though I’m glad the episode realistically portrayed the aftermath of Elliot’s revelation, it still makes me sad to see him so broken.  Even poor Mr. Robot is demoralized.  Seeing him approach Elliot without his usual confidence and swagger was heartbreaking.  It was especially disheartening to see Elliot break down crying with Mr. Robot consoling him.  Poor Elliot.

So far this Christmas, Elliot’s been hit by a car, chased through New York, ruined a potential love interest’s life and as a result, witnessed a botched suicide; he’s been kidnapped, relived a soul numbing childhood trauma, saw a man murdered (albeit self-defense) and is having visions of his younger self…and the day’s not even over yet.  On top of everything else, he still has to take down a global organization of evil, and he’s no where near mentally ready.  My Christmas in 2015 was no where near this stressful.

In the next episode, it looks like Mr. Robot has to take over for Elliot in order to initiate the hack, but of course, something’s going to go wrong.  Whiterose calls Elliot and says she has something to tell him…regarding Angela.

ANGELA!?

Folks are already theorizing that Angela may still be alive, or cloned, or Whiterose went back in time to bring her back.  As much I would would love for any of those to be true, I just don’t see it.

I mean, it would be cool if Angela returned…

Really cool.

Maybe us Angelliot fans will get some sense of satisfaction…

Maybe we’ll stop feeling like we were cheated out of seeing Angela and Elliot finally get together…

Stop giving me false hope, Sam!

I SAID STOP!

#Angelliot

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “408 Timeout Required?”  Does it sadden you to see Elliot still broken up, or are you ready for him to snap out of it?  Was the scene where Dom took out the Dark Army badass?  Will you miss Janice, or are you glad she’s out of the picture?  Do you want Dom and Darlene to be together?  What did you think about Elliot seeing his younger self.  What are your thoughts on Krista and Elliot’s relationship?  Also, would you like to see Angela return?  Let me know in the comments section!