Words can’t describe the magnitude of this episode…but I’ll do my best.

Act I:  Greetings and Salutations

Like always, we pick up where we left off—Elliot’s still in the trunk of the Plymouth on his way to Krista’s house.  After the goons arrive there and drag Elliot out of the car, we see Vera smoking meth (that’s why his damn teeth are so yellow) and getting all emotional now that he and Elliot are face to face.  What cracked me up is the minute he hollers out, “I have so much respect for yo’ ass,” the camera cuts to Elliot gagged and bound in a chair.  LOL!  😂

Vera has his goon, Javi, untie Elliot.  Once he’s freed from his bonds, Mr. Robot appears to discuss an exit strategy.  Elliot’s only interest is finding out if Krista’s okay.  Mr. Robot’s certain that Krista’s dead at this point, but Elliot still needs to be sure.  Until then, he’ll just let Vera do what he does best:  run his mouth.  Vera becomes enraged that Elliot isn’t talking (at least not to him), and demands to know how he is, since it’s been a minute since they last saw each other (which debunks the theory of the third personality speaking with him prior to the kidnapping, my fellow Redditors).  Elliot responds by saying he’s confused:  Why did Vera wait so long to make a move on him?  Vera says he needed to be prepared before he snatched Elliot up, with him being a formidable opponent and everything.

Vera then goes into a spiel about how he returned to the Dominican Republic after Elliot broke him out of prison and made a killin’.  While he’s runnin’ his mouth, we see that Krista’s still alive, tied up and gagged in the study.

We cut back to Vera, who says he was bored after being the king of the DR and saw a shaman for advice.  After the shaman fed Vera a mixture of dried breast milk and blood (🤮) and Vera finished shittin’ and pukin’, pukin’ and shittin’ (🤮), he told Vera to return to New York and reconcile with the man who closed his chosen path.  That man was meant to be Vera’s partner.  That’s when Vera reveals his little master plan:  he’s gonna be the king of New York and Elliot will be by his side when he is.

Yeah…Elliot ain’t impressed.  He simply asks where Krista is.  Vera seems a bit offended and storms off in the kitchen to slice another piece of Krista’s Christmas ham.  When Elliot pushes the question again, Vera points his knife at him (from the kitchen), reminding him that they played this game once.

Elliot tells him that’s precisely why he’s asking.  Vera chuckles and informs Elliot that the knife used to belong to Isaac…and it’s the same one that was used to kill Shayla.  Vera’s goons get a good laugh off that, and Elliot gives them a look.  Y’all might wanna be careful.  This is the new, off the chain Elliot y’all are messin’ with now.

Elliot tells Vera he knows he won’t kill Krista; she’s the only leverage Vera has over him.  Elliot even taunts Vera, saying that with all his “enlightenment,” he’s still the same dumbass he was before he left.  Vera reminds Elliot that despite being a dumbass, he got everything he wanted last time.  Elliot lets Vera know that he didn’t get him.  Umph!

Elliot demands to see Krista, and Vera approaches him, grabs him by the hoodie and brandishes the knife in front him.

After criticizing Elliot for “always worrying about the pussy,” Vera agrees to his request…but afterwards, Vera has to have a special introduction.

Act II:  The Introduction

Vera and his crew walk Elliot in the study where Krista’s being held.  The moment Krista sees him, the first thing she mutters through the gag is, “Elliot!”  Oh…we ain’t scared of Elliot no mo’, Ms. Krista?  Elliot tells Vera to let her go, but Vera reminds him that he didn’t honor his first quid pro quo.  He wants an introduction.  Elliot asks what the hell he’s talking about and Vera tells him he wants to meet Mr. Robot.

Elliot plays coy at first, but Vera reveals that Krista told him everything, so Elliot might as well cut the bullshit.  Then this fool actually asks if they have to say “Mr. Robot” three times in a mirror or play Bob Marley albums and light candles to get him to come out.  Elliot tries to negotiate, saying they’ll talk once Krista’s released.  Instead, Vera holds the knife to Krista’s throat and starts feeling her up.

When Vera implies that he’ll have Javi rape Krista if Elliot doesn’t cooperate, Mr. Robot appears.

Vera’s amused.  It’s like he’s talking to another person!  Mr. Robot says that’s because he is another person and wants to know what Vera wants with him.  Vera asks just one question:  why is he here?  Mr. Robot says that he protects Elliot from buttholes like Vera.  Vera’s not convinced.  That’s just what he does.  He wants to know why Mr. Robot exists.  Mr. Robot never really answers the question and instead wants to know the details of Vera’s scheme, because if his current crew is evidence of his operation, he needs to go back to his shaman and shit some more, because he’s still full of it.

Vera goes into another spiel about how he wants to own New York and everything in it.  He wants everyone from the gutter to the tenement pushin’ his weight.  Cops, hookers, businessmen, everybody.  Like Elliot, Mr. Robot ain’t impressed, and simply answers, “Oh…you wanna get into real estate?”

Mr. Robot proceeds to break down why Vera’s idea is shit.  Instead, he’s willing to offer real money that’ll actually allow Vera to own NYC, but he has to let Krista go first.  Vera asks why he should let Krista go when Elliot admitted earlier that she’s the only card he has to play.  Elliot takes over again and offers to show Vera his plan.

Vera approaches Elliot, telling him he doesn’t need Mr. Robot.  The other guy may bark, but Elliot is the one with the bite, which is why he’s more scared of him than he is of Mr. Robot.  Elliot just holds his gaze.  Gangster.

Act III:  The Exploit

Back in the dining area, Elliot pulls his out his laptop to show Vera and his crew the accounts he accessed from the Deus Group.  He spots the Dark Army operative’s gun in his bag, and while these fools are drooling over the amount of money Elliot’s planning on stealing (which I’m sure is in the damn trillions), Elliot slowly reaches for the piece.

The Three Stooges are so enticed by the money, they don’t even notice him going for the burner.  Elliot grabs the gun and holds it on them.  Vera says Elliot doesn’t have it in him, and Elliot fires on all three of them!  Unfortunately, Javi already emptied the clip.

Damn, Elliot was about to light you fools up.

Vera’s impressed that Elliot had the guts to pull the trigger, but it further proves he still can’t be trusted.  Mr. Robot takes over again and tries to put the blame on himself, but Vera’s not tryin’ to hear that.  He reloads the gun and drags Krista out of the study, threatening to blow her brains out right in front of Elliot.

Elliot tells him that if he kills Krista, he might as well kill him next, because he’s not gonna get a dime.  Vera demands that Elliot tell him why he shouldn’t shoot Krista.  Elliot says she’s a good person that doesn’t deserve to be gunned down, but Vera doesn’t give a damn about that.  He’s killed good people before (Shayla…*sob*).  Elliot breaks down and says that he needs Krista.

Vera gets that damn gleam in his eye…but this time, it’s for a different reason.  He deduces that Krista is Elliot’s shaman, and she’s the key to getting inside Elliot’s head, not Mr. Robot.

Act IV:  The Therapy Session

Vera’s crazy ass brings Elliot and Krista back in the study and forces them to have an impromptu therapy session with him and his crew watching.  Lord, have mercy.  Krista tells Vera that it’s impossible to conduct a therapy session this way.  She and Elliot have to be alone in a controlled environment.  With that, Vera orders Young MA and Javi to leave.  These fools refuse at first, wanting to see what unfolds, but Vera demands it.  The goons begrudgingly leave, with Young MA calling Krista a “nasty cabbage ass that ruined everything.”  WTF?

Vera stays behind, letting Krista know that this is as private as it gets.  Krista tries talk some sense into him, saying she still can’t work with him holding her and Elliot at gunpoint.  Vera gets fed up and fires the gun in the floor.  Elliot tells him to calm down and talks Krista into asking him about his mother, since she just passed away the other day.  They speak on Elliot’s feelings about his mother’s death, and Vera gets irritated again.  He knows all this shit; he wants the real tea.  Grabbing Elliot’s file from a nearby table, he reads an excerpt from Krista’s notes saying that Elliot has a secret and Mr. Robot’s existence is tied to it.  This gets Elliot’s attention.

Mr. Robot appears again, discussing an exit strategy and accusing Krista of selling them out.  In the meantime, Krista is begging Vera not to read her progress notes.  It’s obvious that both of them are hiding something.  Elliot has Vera continue reading the notes, and he reveals that Krista intended on asking further about Elliot’s window incident.  Vera asks what’s so special about that window.

Mr. Robot is practically begging for the subject to be dropped.  Elliot angrily tells him to shut up and demands to know what’s going on, and what it has to do with Mr. Robot.  Krista refuses to speak on it at first, but after Elliot pushes, she concedes, admitting that everything is centered around Elliot’s dad.  As Mr. Robot’s pleas continue to fall on deaf ears, we begin to see him crumble.  Vera is loving that the first facet of his design is coming to fruition.  Yellow ass teeth havin’ bastard.

Krista asks if Elliot remembers what happened that day, and he recalls what Darlene told him:  they heard their father coming into the room, he hid Darlene in the closet, started swinging his bat and smashing everything in sight before breaking the window and leaping out of it on his own.  His father never pushed him out of the window; he jumped.

Krista asks why Elliot can’t remember this incident himself.  Elliot’s not sure.  When Krista inquires if Elliot has lost time and memories like this before, he says it only happens when Mr. Robot takes over.  Krista then asks if it’s possible that Elliot can’t remember because Mr. Robot is blocking the memory.  Stunned, Elliot asks Mr. Robot exactly how long he’s existed.  He doesn’t remember Mr. Robot being around when he was a child.  Mr. Robot says that he’s been around for as long as Elliot needed him to be.  He takes over and begs Krista not to continue, saying Elliot isn’t supposed to know.

Elliot asks what it is he isn’t supposed to know.  Krista questions if Elliot truly believes Mr. Robot is there to protect him.  Elliot answers yes, and Krista queries if it’s possible that Mr. Robot picked up the bat to protect Elliot and if so, why?  Elliot gets irritated and wants to know the point of all this.  Vera gets into all this like he’s watching an episode of The Young and the Restless.  Krista wants to know what Mr. Robot was protecting him from.  Why did Elliot/Mr. Robot have such a strong reaction when his father entered the bedroom?  Elliot, whose resolve is slowly collapsing, can’t remember.

Mr. Robot takes over once more, looking even more crushed, imploring Krista not to bring this to light.  That’s when Vera deduces that the person Elliot was afraid of was his father.

Elliot rebuffs that, saying that his father was his friend—his only friend.  That’s when Mr. Robot stands up and says to Elliot, “I can’t protect you anymore.”  Then he exits to the left!  OMG!!

Elliot appears hurt for a moment, but then asks Krista why he’d be scared of his father.  Krista probes further, inquiring if Elliot can ever recall a time his father hurt him.  Elliot says no at first, still stating that his father was his friend.  However, as Krista continues to describe details from that day, we can see Elliot begin to remember…and he starts breaking down.

Krista finally asks if his father ever asked Elliot to do something he didn’t want to do.  Elliot starts to cry and says yes.

Krista then asks the ultimate question:

“Did your father ever sexually molest you?”

Elliot answers yes.

Elliot completely breaks down, sobbing.  A single tear falls down Krista’s face.  Vera simply watches in silence.  Elliot continues sobbing as the picture fades to black.

Act V:  Conclusion

By this point, Elliot is completely broken.  Krista says she’s sorry this happened to him, but Vera raises his hand, ordering her to be quiet.  It’s his turn to talk.  Vera tells Elliot he knows what he’s feeling and no longer has to be afraid.  When he places his hand on Elliot’s shoulder, the latter recoils, not being able to take anymore.  Elliot leaves the study and Vera quickly follows.

Elliot goes to the window in the dining room, and Vera continues trying to talk to him.  Vera mentions that even though Elliot’s hurting, he can be his true self now, but Elliot says he doesn’t know who his true self is.  Vera tells him to let go of all his anger and sadness and Elliot starts screaming in front of the window, as the storm outside rages on.  I was so scared he was going to jump.

Vera informs Elliot that he doesn’t have to carry this awful burden alone; he can carry it with him and they can help each other.  Elliot (correctly) blames Vera for doing all this to him, and Vera counters, saying he did it for him.  Lies from the tree of lies!  Elliot doesn’t believe him, but Vera swears down he could sense Elliot’s hurt from the moment he met him, and he wanted to bring it to light.  And now that Elliot knows the truth he can use it.

Vera goes on to mention that he too was sexually abused as a child.  That explains a lot.  After all, many abused people become abusers.  Vera says people that survive the trauma they suffered are truly strong, and when they weather the storms they’ve endured, they become the storm.

With tears streaming down his face, Vera says that Elliot’s power is beautiful, and he’s special.  He asks if Elliot believes that, and Elliot admits he doesn’t know.  All he knows is that he doesn’t want to be alone anymore.  Vera says, “You’re not alone…I see you now.”

Just then, Vera’s body jerks and we know he’s been stabbed.  At first it looks like Elliot did it, but when the camera moves backwards, we see that he was stabbed in the back!

Vera raises up, wheezing and coughing up blood, trying to pull the knife out of his back, and we see Krista behind him, with Vera’s blood splattered on her neck and collarbone.

Not only was Krista the one to take him out, but she used the same knife that killed Shayla (#justiceforShayla).  Vera falls to the floor taking his last breaths, and the Brave Traveler is no more.

After Vera dies, a power outage causes all the lights to go off in Krista’s house section by section, and that’s where our story ends.

Oh my God y’all, this episode was on a whole ‘nother level.  Forgive me in advance, but in the words of Mr. Robot himself, this review portion is gonna have a ton of word salad.

“407 Proxy Authentication Required” was a damn masterpiece.  Just phenomenal.  During the entire therapy session, my heart was about to beat out of my chest, and when Elliot revealed who hurt him, my heart broke along with his.  So far, this is the best episode all season, and definitely one of the best of the show itself, period.  Even though this has been one of the darkest installments in the Mr. Robot series (which is saying a lot), it’s so brilliantly executed that I can’t stop watching it.  Sam Esmail really is a damn genius, and I have to rank him with the likes of Quentin Tarantino at this point.  Oh yeah…and once again, Mr. Robot was the number one trending topic on Twitter the night this episode aired!

The five act structure and two room setting was fantastic.  Some fans compare the set up to a Hitchcock movie, but to me, it was more like a play—an extremely intense play—especially given there were only six actors featured this go’ round.  Some people theorize the five acts symbolize the five stages of grief.  It could also symbolize the five steps of Vera’s plan to break Elliot.  Nonetheless, I loved it.

The cinematography was beautiful, as always.  I noticed that as the subject matter became darker, so did the surroundings.  By the time Elliot learns what his father did to him, he appears to be almost shrouded in darkness.

The acting was so on point.  Everyone played their role to perfection.  All week long I’ve been hearing the same thing:  “Give Rami Malek and Elliot Villar (Vera) all the awards,” “If Rami doesn’t win an Emmy next year, we riot!”  I wholeheartedly agree.  Rami and Elliot both did their thing.  When Elliot (the character) begins to remember what happened to him as a child, we can actually see him replaying the memories.  We can feel his hurt and pain.  When Vera makes his move on Elliot by sharing his own personal pain, he’s so convincingly sincere that a lot of fans fell for his act, even though he outwardly detailed his plan to break Elliot and build him back up in the previous episode.

Speaking of which, there’s some people that are legit pissed at Krista for stabbing Vera to death!  I’ve seen some comments such as, “Now Elliot truly is alone,” and “Elliot had someone until Krista killed him.”  Y’all, Vera meant Elliot no good.  I believe Vera was telling the truth about his own sexual assault against him, but as far as wanting to heal Elliot?  No.  In stabbing Vera, Krista saved Elliot in every way he could’ve been saved.  All Vera wanted to do was use Elliot’s power for his own gain, and poor Elliot would’ve traded one predator for another.  Krista did the right thing.  That being said, I’ll miss that yellow toothed bastard.  Vera was deliciously evil, and hella entertaining.  Like Whiterose, he was a villain that I loved to hated.  He proved himself to be central to the overall Mr. Robot storyline.

There’s also some fans out there that believe the reveal about Elliot’s dad is a cop out Sam introduced at the last minute.  I understand how they feel.  Mr. Alderson being a sexual predator changes the entire narrative.  Elliot took on E-Corp mainly to avenge his father’s death.  Not only that, some of Elliot’s fondest “memories” are of his father, who he believed was his best friend and one of the few people in his life he had a loving relationship with.  Then of course, there’s Mr. Robot, who took on the physical likeness of Elliot’s dad.  However, after I really thought about it and discussed the topic on Reddit, there were little clues here and there that prove Elliot was a victim of sexual assault:

When we’re first introduced to Elliot in the pilot episode, he took down Ron, a coffee shop owner by day and child pornographer by night.

Throughout the series Elliot fought against sexual predators, from Ron, to Ray, the prison warden who was trafficking young girls, to Freddy, the sleazy lawyer who was conducting Skype sex chats with minors.

Elliot being a sexual assault victim explains his dissociative personality disorder (DID) as well as his social anxiety and depression.

This also explains why Elliot completely blocked his father out of his mind.

We see in flashbacks that Elliot’s mother appeared to hate Mr. Alderson, which brought forth the question of why he even stayed with her as long as he had.  Now that we know the truth, it’s safe to assume that Elliot’s mother knew—or at least suspected—the sexual abuse and Mrs. Alderson was merely a beard for Mr. Alderson.

Elliot hates being touched, especially by men.  He even hated Gideon touching him, and he was one of the few men Elliot liked and respected.

The fact that Vera was the sole drug dealer in New York supplying Suboxone made Elliot apathetic when it came to turning him in for his crimes, some of which included murder.  However, after Elliot learned Vera raped Shayla and had every intention of doing it again, he made up his mind and had Vera arrested.

In this very episode, Elliot doesn’t allow Mr. Robot to speak with Vera until the latter starts to touch Krista inappropriately and threatens to have her raped.

There’s also a handful of fans that think Elliot made the entire story up just to placate Vera.  I seriously doubt that.  Elliot’s breakdown from all his traumatic memories coming to light were real.  Let’s not forget as well, when Mr. Robot saw that the truth would be revealed no matter what he said or did, he declared he could no longer protect Elliot and left.  And the look on Mr. Robot’s face…I haven’t seen him look like that since Elliot laughed in his face and left his ass high and dry to go to church group.

The question now is:  will Mr. Robot return?  I admit, I always had a type of love/hate relationship with Mr. Robot, but Elliot may still need him when all is said and done.  Not only that, but Mr. Robot was the only personality that spoke to us this season.  Granted, I always felt that he didn’t provide enough tea, but he provided tea nonetheless, whereas Elliot’s been avoiding us like the plague.  Now that Mr. Robot is taking a hiatus (or is gone for good), will Elliot start speaking to us again, or will we be left in the dark?  Also, if Mr. Robot does come back, will he still take on the appearance of Elliot’s father or will he return in a new form?

The saddest thing about the reveal is that I always loved Mr. Alderson’s character.  Some folks deduced that Mr. Alderson was a sexual predator prior to this episode, but I never bought that.  My mother (who’s a huge Mr. Robot fan) once asked me if Elliot’s real dad acted like Mr. Robot when he was alive, and I answered, “No, he was always the sweetest man!”  I always thought he and Elliot had a beautiful relationship.  The flashbacks of Mr. Alderson with Elliot and Angela always gave me a warm and happy feeling.  When Elliot started having total recall during the therapy session scene, I kept saying to myself, “Please don’t let the Reddit theories be true…please don’t let the Reddit theories be true…”  *Sigh*  Now when I watch those same flashback scenes, they take on a whole new meaning.

This latest installment is just a testament to the brilliance of Mr. Robot.  To think, I literally went from blessin’ Elliot’s ass out for what he did to Olivia to wanting to give him a giant hug and kiss.  What’s even crazier is that it’s still Christmas and Elliot still has to carry out his plan to rob the Deus Group that night, despite being chased by cops through Manhattan, being kidnapped, witnessing a botched suicide attempt, and after learning that his father molested him.  On top all of that, his sister’s also being held hostage by a psychopath.  Worst.  Christmas.  Ever.

I know one thing…at the end of all this, I want Elliot and Darlene to have happiness, dammit.  And I don’t mean “peace after death” happiness, either.

In the next episode, Elliot seems to have a bit of a psychotic break, and Krista has to try to help him through it before Vera’s goons catch up to them.  Young Elliot appears to seemingly take Mr. Robot’s place, and Janice resorts to physical and mental torture to get Darlene to give up Elliot’s location.  Witch.

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “407 Proxy Authentication Required”?  Did the reveal about the real relationship between Elliot and his father seem sincere to you or do you think it was all an act to placate Vera?  Were you shocked that Elliot’s father abused him, or did you always figure that was the case?  Were you upset that Vera met his end?  Did you feel bad for Elliot?  Do you think Mr. Robot will come back?  Did Vera’s tactics and schemes throw a monkey wrench in Elliot’s plan to rob the Deus Group?  Let me know in the comments section! 

*Sigh*  Everyone (especially Elliot) showed their natural ass in this episode.  Let’s do this.

A Psychotic Christmas Story

Vera’s in Krista’s house, telling her a story about “a bully and a little bitch.”  Apparently, back in the day, there was a “little bitch” in Vera’s hood that was terrorized every day by a relentless bully.  One Christmas, “the little bitch” gets an aluminum bat as a gift.  Since baseball is his number one pleasure, the boy goes outside for batting practice.  However, the bully spots the kid and decides to steal the bat from him.  The “little bitch” reaches his breaking point and basically whales on the bully with the bat, even going so far as to knock the kid’s eye out.  Krista listens to this story, bound and gagged in a chair, terrified.

Vera tells her that on that day, “the little bitch” learned we all have a purpose in life.  Today, Krista’s purpose is to be the bat that breaks Elliot.

Tod’s Coffee

Elliot is sitting in Tod’s Coffee (formerly Ron’s Coffee) talking to Darlene on the phone, showing a small bit of fatigue.  Then again, he could just be stressed considering the decision he’s about to make.  More on that later.  Turns out Elliot and Darlene now need Olivia’s boss’s log in credentials to transfer the Dark Army’s funds.  Good Lord!  Just fly to Cypress and stick up the damn bank!  Darlene asks how Elliot can possibly get that access, and he tells her that he’s heading to Olivia’s now…with a plan.

Darlene, who’s still squatting at Angela’s apartment, is packing some clothes away when she uncovers Angela’s ballet shoes.  She stops and pauses.

Elliot tells her that when he said he wished he never let her back into his life, he was being an asshole and he’s sorry.  Don’t give Elliot a pass just yet, y’all.  Darlene doesn’t say anything right away, but continues staring at the shoes before packing them in her bag.  She finally tells Elliot to keep his phone on him so she doesn’t lose him again.  Just when the conversation is wrapping up, who should enter through the door?

IT’S LEON, BITCHES!

Elliot asks if Leon has the item he wanted, and of course, Leon does.  He passes it to Elliot under the table.  Elliot stands to leave, and Leon’s hurt.  He thought they were gonna catch up!  Unfortunately, Elliot has shit to do.  Leon lets Elliot know that he’s freelance now (how in the hell did he manage that?), so if he needs any assistance, just call.  Sure enough, Leon offers his hand to give Elliot a pound (fist bump), and Elliot actually gives him one!  I would say that’s growth, but once again, we ain’t givin’ Elliot a pass just yet.

Elliot gets in line to get coffee—which in itself is a damn red flag—and Mr. Robot appears, telling him that he’s crossing a line.  Elliot lets him know it’s a little late for that, and orders two peppermint mocha lattes.

Unhappy Reunion

Darlene has an unexpected guest, herself.  Just when she’s about to leave Angela’s apartment, she finds herself standing face to face with Dom, who’s pointing a gun in her face.

She asks what Darlene was doing in Pike’s Hollow that morning and where Elliot is.  Darlene ain’t talkin’.  Dom makes a call to Janice, who’s putting the finishing touches on the dog the old lady hired her to stuff in “402 Payment Required.”  Also, I couldn’t help but notice that Janice is listening to a podcast or radio show about a man who speaks to an invisible entity.  Hmm…  Dom lets Janice know that she has Darlene, but not Elliot, and Darlene isn’t trying to spill the tea on his location.  Janice orders Dom to keep Darlene there and await further instructions.

Christmas in a Cup  (WTF, Elliot…)

Elliot shows up at Olivia’s with the peppermint mocha lattes.  Of course, Olivia’s psyched.  The damaged hottie in the hoodie that rocked her world last night came over to give her some Christmas strudel!  *Sigh*  If only.  She takes the coffee and sips it before asking Elliot to come in.  Elliot looks straight at us for the first time this entire season before shutting the door.

Elliot begins by saying what he has to tell Olivia may sound nuts.  She asks what he has to say as she lovingly takes his hand, and Elliot immediately goes into how she works for a criminal enterprise that funds wars and terrorists acts.  Needless to say, Olivia releases Elliot’s hand quick, fast, and in a hurry, especially given the fact that she never told him where she worked.  Elliot admits he hacked her to get access to the bank, and asks her to make a phone call to her boss so he can obtain his credentials.  Olivia’s a bit spooked by all this, and asks Elliot to leave.

Now, here’s where Elliot does something that makes me give him a serious side eye for the first time ever…

Elliot goes to the door, then stops and asks what would happen if Olivia ever tested positive for drugs.  Olivia lets him know she’s been clean for eight years, and Elliot says, “No, you’re not.”

And the camera pans over to the peppermint mocha latte.

That was dirty as all hell, Elliot.

Olivia’s horrified.  She can’t believe Elliot drugged her drink.  Elliot goes from asking Olivia to make the call, to threatening her to do it…or she’ll lose her son.  Seriously, Elliot?  This is what we’re doing?

Ms. Thang Sr. and Jr.

Whiterose aka Ms. Thang Sr. is standing in a room, staring at a whiteboard full of mathematical equations when Ms. Thang Jr. walks in.  She shows Whiterose the pic of Elliot and Darlene in Pike’s Hollow, and tells her it was taken not too far from where the operative’s body was found.  Ms. Thang Jr. believes Elliot’s expiration date has come and gone, but Ms. Thang Sr. rebuffs the idea, saying that if Elliot dies, the shipping hack dies with him.  Instead, they should bring Elliot in and show him what they’re doing.  That way, he knows they’re on the same side.  Hmm…  Is it a time machine or a device that reanimates the dead?

By the way, has anyone noticed that Ms. Thang Sr. and Jr.’s relationship parallels Elliot’s and Mr. Robot’s this season?  Whenever Mr. Robot tries to talk some sense into Elliot, the latter doesn’t listen.  Whenever Ms. Thang Jr. tries to get Whiterose to listen to reason, ol’ girl shuts her assistant down.  SMH.

Mind Blowing Decisions Cause Head on Collisions

Dom’s still holding Darlene hostage when Janice calls back.  Janice tells Dom that she’s gotten word that the higher ups want Elliot, not Darlene.  Dom informs Darlene never gave up Elliot’s location, but they can get it off her cell phone.  Janice is pleased, and instructs Dom to kill Darlene.

Dom’s obviously conflicted and Janice senses this.  She tells Dom that if she’s not 💯, to let her know right now, so she can take the time to kill Dom’s entire family.  Dom promises to get it done.  Janice says she’ll be there at 3:30 sharp to collect the phone and make sure Darlene’s been taken care of.  Once Janice is off the phone, Dom grabs Darlene by the hair and throws her into the bathroom.  She then tosses Darlene in the bathtub like a rag doll and orders her to get on her knees.

Darlene starts crying as Dom draws her gun at her again.  She tells Dom she doesn’t have to do this, and Dom’s aggravating ass blames Darlene again for being forced into serving the Dark Army.  Seriously?  How is Darlene responsible for this?  You should be blaming Santiago and Irving.  They got you into this mess!  Anyway, Darlene begs Dom to let her go, telling her that she and Elliot are going to take the Dark Army down, and Dom’s torture will subsequently end.  Dom smashes the butt of the gun against Darlene’s head and knocks her out.  She starts panicking and sits down to calm herself.

Doggone Your Time, Elliot!

Olivia makes the call to her boss, but he’s not available, so she leaves an urgent message.  After she hangs up the phone, she lets Elliot know that he basically ruined her life.  Elliot tries to assure her that he won’t leave any trace showing that she was involved, but that’s not the point.  He just drugged a recovering drug addict.  Elliot has the gall to tell her that she’ll get through it.

Olivia wisely informs him that just because he can have a slip up and be okay, that’s not the case for her.  Just a taste destroys her.  Elliot should’ve kept in mind that just because he was able to completely kick his morphine addiction in 24-36 hrs. doesn’t mean other people can.

Piggybacking on this subject, one of my favorite TV shows in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s was Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (I liked Sober House, too).  Out of all of VH1’s reality TV shows, I believe this one was the most realistic.  Yeah, I’m sure they had some scripted moments, but I honestly believe they were few and far between.  There were some people on Celebrity Rehab that went to counseling, worked their steps and beat their addiction, going on to live healthy, happy and productive lives.  Then there were the folks whose addictions took over their lives and they couldn’t shake them no matter what they did or how many times they asked Dr. Drew for help…and they eventually succumbed to their drug and/or alcohol dependencies.   Olivia appears to be in that latter category, and just one little sliver of a narcotic will blow her life up.  Way to go, Elliot.

Now, instead of Elliot realizing the damage he’s done right off the bat, he continues to show his entire Egyptian ass (or for the purposes of the show, his Caucasian-Indian ass) and tells Olivia she should’ve thought about the consequences before she allowed herself to be employed by terrorists.  Elliot continues to justify what he’s doing, and that’s when Olivia launches into her now infamous monologue asking how many people Elliot’s hurt to get what he wants.  Elliot doesn’t answer, and Olivia asks if she can be excused to the bathroom.  Before she leaves, she asks if hooking up with her was also part of Elliot’s plan.  He tells her it wasn’t.  Olivia bitterly tells him that was sweet before she leaves.  Um, Elliot…did you forget what Olivia keeps in the doggone bathroom?

Mr. Robot pops up, staring at him with a disapproving look.  You know, it’s a sad ass day when Mr. Robot is disgusted with you.  It’s like getting kicked out of an orgy.  How ratchet do you have to be to let that happen?  Elliot keeps trying to rationalize his actions, but it’s clear he’s just trying to convince himself at this point (yes, I’m aware Elliot and Mr. Robot are the same person.  Y’all know what I mean).  Mr. Robot stays silent with Elliot, but he remarks to us that the dread Elliot’s feeling only happens when people cross a line that never should’ve been crossed.   Maybe the dread’s a good thing, because when you realize you’ve crossed a line, you still have one.

A thud is heard from the bathroom, and everyone’s worst fears are realized.  When Elliot enters, he sees that Olivia slit both her wrists with the razor she keeps in the Oxycontin bottle.  Elliot frantically tries to stop the bleeding as Olivia’s body convulses.  Fix it, Jesus…  😭😭😭

HIPAA Violations

Vera’s still holding Krista hostage at her place, and the good doctor is spillin’ all Elliot’s tea.  After she gives details of Elliot’s various diagnoses and events that may have led to (or worsened) his psychological disorders, Vera ain’t satisfied.  He wants the real tea, but Krista doesn’t know what to tell him.  By the way, Krista mentions Elliot has insomnia, which explains why we hardly see him sleep, and why he continues to have energy after being awake for the last 24 hrs. (although, in real life, he’d be a basket case.  I know this for a fact because I’ve had insomnia).  Vera mentions that he could see that Elliot and Krista had a special relationship, and how ’bout Krista had the audacity to be all like, “He hacked me!  He threatened me and my last boyfriend!  I had to stop seeing him because he scared me so much!”

Like I said, everyone’s showing their natural ass.

Krista, when did Elliot threaten you?  If you’re talking about the time Mr. Robot got in your face and said he was done talking to you, that would go under the category of intimidation, but not a threat.  And hell, you must not have been too scared; you kept treating him!  Yeah, he hacked you.  I’ll give you that much, but after he wrote you a letter asking you to continue your therapy sessions with him, you agreed (see the Red Wheelbarrow journal.  A must read for all Mr. Robot fans)!  And as for your little boyfriend…child, bye.  That fool was married and messin’ around with various women as well as call girls.  Elliot threatened to tell his wife what he was doing if he didn’t leave you alone…and he dropped yo’ ass like a bad habit.  However, Elliot never made good on that threat, and as karma would have it, ol’ boy’s wife found out anyway.  The worst thing Elliot did to that fool was take the dog that he admittedly never wanted and constantly mistreated.  His recent despicable act aside, Elliot isn’t the devil incarnate, and Krista, I’m tired of you acting like he is.

Vera sees through Krista’s bullshit and blows up.  He saw her face in that pic.  She wasn’t afraid of him; she loved him.  Krista tries to psychoanalyze him, telling him that just because he learned how to overcome violence with violence as a child, doesn’t mean it’s going to work with her.  Vera pauses and then asks, “Did you just call me a little bitch?”  He asks Young MA and his other crony if they heard the same thing he did, and they co-sign, of course.  To my fellow black people: stop instigating shit.

Turns out, Vera’s not upset.  As a matter of fact, he applauds Krista for having the guts to call him out.  Before he can get too excited, there’s a knock on the door.  Krista’s boyfriend is there for their date.  Krista freaks out, while Vera gets a gleam in his eye…

Redemption Is Futile

Thankfully, Olivia’s suicide attempt failed.  Elliot was able to stop the bleeding, and he’s wrapping her wrists with bandages.  Poor Olivia’s covered in blood and the bathroom looks like Michael Myers, Jason and Freddy just had a wild ass party.  Elliot apologizes for what he did, but Olivia ain’t here for the foolishness.  Elliot hands Olivia her phone and is about to leave when she asks if the Dark Army was behind the massacre in Colombia that caused her mother’s death.  He confirms they were.

Olivia sees that her boss has tried to call her three times.  She dials the number and tells him that she needs his authorization to transfer funds.  Elliot gets his credentials, and after Olivia hangs up, Elliot promises once again not to leave anything that’ll lead back to her or her boss.  Olivia still ain’t here for the foolishness.  She lets Elliot know that although she works for monsters, he is a monster.  What makes the situation worse is that he doesn’t even know it.  Hurt, Elliot leaves the apartment and Olivia releases a sob from deep in her soul.

The Little Bitch’s Conclusion

Krista’s man is outside her house, annoyed that she wasn’t available when she said she’d be.  Honey, you better be glad no one answered that door.  Somebody must’ve been praying for you.  Vera is amused at his reaction.  After he’s done laughing his ass off at Krista’s boyfriend, he asks again if she called him a little bitch.  Krista’s gagged again, so she can’t answer, but Vera lets her know he wasn’t offended.  After all, the “little bitch” whalin’ on the bully with the bat isn’t the end of the story.

The story actually ends with the “little bitch” visiting the bully in the hospital.  The bully is scared shitless, but the “little bitch” holds the bully’s hand, giving him comfort, and letting him know that he saw him as no one else did.  The kind act gave “the little bitch” control over the bully for life, thus making him a king bitch. This is what Vera wants:  to tear Elliot down and build him back up.  That way, he’ll own him.  But he needs Krista to do that and she has to tell him how.  Otherwise, she and her man are toast.

Vera ungags Krista and she tells him to look for Elliot’s file under the Sept. 2015 tab in her drawer.  Vera asks what’s in that file, and she tells him he’ll find the key to breaking Elliot…Mr. Robot.  Lord…

Time’s Up

It’s 3:25.  Darlene wakes up in the bathtub with a really bad concussion.  Dom is still watching her.  Once Darlene completely comes around, Dom pleads with her to unlock her phone and give her Elliot’s location.  No matter how hard Dom insists, Darlene refuses and asks what Dom would do if it were her family.  Dom tells Darlene what she’s doing now is for her family’s protection.  Darlene confesses that the one night they spent together was the first time in a long time that she felt good.  Dom’s not really trying to hear that, but Darlene lets her know that she’s telling the truth.  Even if Dom has to kill her, she wanted her to know how she really felt.  Am I the only person that’s not so keen on a Dom and Darlene pairing?

Dom helps Darlene out of the tub and brings her in the foyer.  She gives Darlene her gun and demands that she shoot her.  Darlene refuses, but Dom tells her that they’re running out of time and that the Dark Army will be there in the next few minutes.  She’s been wanting to kill herself for the last two months, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so.  Darlene can help end her life of misery and find a chance to escape.  Darlene still refuses and opts that they both make a run for it.  That ain’t gonna work for Dom.  If the Dark Army sees both of them gone, her family will be killed.  Darlene still won’t do it, and Dom resorts to begging.

Sure enough, Janice busts through the door 3:30 on the dot with two other operatives.  She’s not exactly happy at what she’s seeing.  Dom inwardly panics, and Janice—picking up on Dom’s inner turmoil—tells her that she’s not gonna kill her.  She’s way too useful…but she’s going to suffer.  Janice then demands Darlene’s phone.  Darlene still refuses to give the phone up, but Janice sees it in her hand and takes it.  She points a gun at Darlene’s head and tells her she means her no ill will; she just needs Elliot’s location.  No ill will!?  Are you for real??  Darlene informs that she just wiped the data off her phone.  Janice checks it, and it’s clean as fresh bed sheets, baby.  Boss!  All Janice can do is stand there all like, “Oh!”

Special Guest Star:  The Man in the Trunk

Mr. Robot asks Elliot if he wants to talk about what happened, but unless it’s involving the technical aspects of the upcoming robbery, Elliot’s not trying to revisit the ratchet ass stunt he just pulled.  Just then, Krista calls Elliot’s cell, saying that she was kidnapped by Fernando Vera and forced to give him all Elliot’s personal info, and once she did, he let her go.  Elliot asks Krista to meet him at Washington Square and hangs up.  Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles could see this is a set up.

Mr. Robot intelligently reminds Elliot that Vera just doesn’t let people go.  Elliot knows this, but he still hurries back to the subway platform he and Mr. Robot just left to get to Krista.  By this time Mr. Robot muses, “There he goes again playing the hero…I’m not even sure if we can call ourselves that anymore after what we did.”  Mr. Robot continues narrating the very next scene as Elliot walks down the sidewalk, and we can see Young MA standing near a car on the side of the screen…

I would tell you what the next half of what Mr. Robot had to say, but once Elliot passes Young MA, Vera’s other goons snatch Elliot off the sidewalk, and the minute they do, Mr. Robot’s narration abruptly ends, a la Joe Pesci in Casino.

They throw Elliot in the trunk of a Plymouth (a throwback to poor Shayla’s fate), and that’s where our story ends.

This episode was named “406 Unacceptable,” and oh my Lord…that’s a brilliant description of the shit that went down this week.  Unac-damn-ceptable.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a great episode—not as fantastic as the previous installment, though—but it was also very hard to watch, namely Elliot’s scene.  That’s the cool thing about Mr. Robot, though.  This show can make you laugh, cry, think, sit on the edge of your seat, or all four in one.  Let’s start with Vera and Krista.  I understand that Krista was held hostage and had her life and her man’s life threatened, but I was still irked that she gave up Elliot’s personal health information (PHI) so damn quickly.  I mean, she broke down his entire medical history. Jeez.  Y’all already know how I felt about her tearing him down.  “He threatened me!  I was scared of him!”  Yeah, okay.

Elliot’s soooo frightening, but yet he’s the one capin’ for you to make sure Vera doesn’t finish your rump off!  On top of that, he had to have known what he was walking into when he got your phone call.  There’s no way he didn’t know that was a trap.

As for Vera, I can’t wait to see what he has in store for Elliot.  I know I’m in the minority on this, but I’m lovin’ Vera’s return.  I don’t see him as a wasted character this season.  It’s more and more clear that he’s a definite monkey wrench in Elliot’s plan, just like I thought he’d be.  Now that Vera’s kidnapped him and Janice has Darlene, how can they possibly infiltrate the Deus Group meeting on Christmas night?

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Vera’s teeth are the same color as his fleece jacket and hair?

The man’s teeth are so yellow, if he goes outside and smiles, the cars start slowin’ down.  Don’t do meth, kids.

By the way, I noticed a lot of people were irked that Vera was constantly using the N-word.  I have to be honest…a lot of Latino people in New York—be they Dominican, Puerto Rican, or even Mexican—use that term.  Fat Joe and Tekashi69 say it all the time.  I don’t necessarily agree with it myself, but it is a prevalent part of the slang up there.  Y’all must not have heard Vera saying it back in season one.  He even called Elliot a n***a.  Rewatch episode two.

On a quick note, it was cool seeing Leon again.  I love that guy; he’s so cute!  I even love his new nickname for Elliot, “Elli.”  It’s sweet.  My only gripe is that we didn’t get to see enough of him, and how in the hell did he manage to break away from the Dark Army?  I really don’t see them allowing their people to retire alive (shoot, let Dom announce that she’s taking an early retirement.  I’m sure she’ll have a different end result).  Also, I’m dying to see a Leon vs. Vera showdown.  Man, that would make my year.

Now onto Dom and Darlene.  Dom irks the hell out of me blaming Darlene for being recruited in the Dark Army.  Child, please.  Allow me to break this down for you, Dom:  Darlene slept with you to gain access to Sentinel to undo the 5/9 hack.  That’s where her guilt ends.  Santiago kidnapped Darlene and you walked in on it, forcing his hand into kidnapping you, too.  Santiago drove y’all out there to the Dark Army barn.  Santiago had every intention of killing Darlene and turning you over to the dark side.  He called Irving to take care of everything, who in turn chopped Santiago into little pieces and forced you to take the recently deceased director’s former position in the Dark Army, or else they’d kill your entire family.  Once again, you need to blame Santiago and Irving, not Darlene.

Darlene continues to prove why she’s a boss bitch.  Unlike Krista, Darlene wasn’t trying to give her big brother up, no matter what the Dark Army pulled.  And that phone wipe?  Genius!  When did she have the chance to do that?  Between being slammed on bathroom doors, thrown in tubs and having guns pointed at her face, I don’t see where she had the time.  If anyone knows when Darlene actually wiped her phone, please let me know in the comments section.

Speaking of Darlene, a lot folks have been asking why Darlene didn’t just shoot Janice and the Dark Army operatives when she had the chance, considering she had Dom’s gun at the time.   There’s two good reasons why she didn’t do that:  1) Janice and her team were already armed, so even if she shot one, she would’ve been gunned down by the other two, 2) Darlene’s not a stone cold killer—yeah, she has a body under her belt, but it’s still not 💯 if she meant to kill Susan Jacobs or not, and 3) She has a bad concussion thanks to Dom pistol whippin’ her (which also irked me).  It’s a wonder she could see straight after that getting that head wound.

Last, but not least, Elliot.  Oh, Elliot…

I was so hurt that Elliot betrayed Olivia.  I’ve noticed that whenever Elliot does something completely out of pocket this season, people tend to blame the third personality, but I don’t agree with that.  This ain’t the third mystery guest; this is the new Elliot.  Angry, desperate and just off the damn chain!

I’ve also noticed that some people are saying that there’s a possibility that Elliot didn’t really drug Olivia and he was just bluffing, at least they’re hoping that’s the case.  As much as I want this to be true, the big glaring sign that proves Elliot actually committed the dubious act is his meeting with Leon.  Remember, Elliot called Leon to meet him at the coffee house with a package, and Leon slid said package to Elliot under the table.  When Elliot slipped it into his pocket, it was small enough to fit in his hand.  The package was the oxy pills.  I’ve said it once, and I’m gonna say it again…

I WANT MY SWEET ELLIOT BACK, DAMMIT!!!   😡😡

Elliot, I’m about to do something with you I never thought I’d have to:  I’m gonna go in on you.

Boy, you trippin’ this season!  I CANNOT believe you went ahead with that damn blackmail scheme!  I liked Olivia.  She’s a cute girl that was nice, y’all had similar life experiences, and she was really into you!  She saw you for you.  Since Angela’s no longer an option, Olivia would’ve been a great person to share your life with…and you fucked it up!

I get that you’re running out of time.  I get that you only have a few days before the Dark Army kills you and your sister.  I get you want to take down Whiterose before she commits any more atrocious acts.  But drugging a recovering drug addict and blackmailing her?  Come on, Elliot!  It’s one thing to own sleazy pedophiles and criminals with no conscious, but you drugged and blackmailed a single mom that’s doing all she can to take care of her child and make ends meet.  Maybe if you had taken the time to explain to her what was happening instead of blurting out, “HeyOliviathere’sasecretorganizationouttherethatrulestheworldandI’mtryingtotakethemdownandIneedyourhelpbythewayIdruggedyourcoffee,” maybe she would’ve helped you out.

Darlene was right about you.  Whenever someone gets a step forward with you, somehow they end up four doggone leaps behind!  You were being nasty to your sister, but later, you softened your demeanor and opened up to Olivia.  But then you turned right around and you were nasty to Tyrell, but then you realized you were being a dick and softened your demeanor again.  You and Darlene shared a special moment and you apologized for the nonsense you told her, but then you turned around and pulled this reprehensible stunt.  SMDH.

Elliot, you do realize that you’re stooping to Whiterose’s level?  Hurting innocent people to get what you want?  That’s Whiterose through and through.  Don’t be the hero so long that you start to become the villain.    Don’t become the crap you’re trying to take down.

A lot of folks are writing you off as always being an asshole, but I don’t think that’s the case.  You committed an act that was diabolical, but I know the real you is still there under all this “by any means necessary” mentality you’ve adopted.  The mere difference between you and Whiterose is the fact that when she kills someone for whatever reason/type of gain, she acts like it ain’t no thing and goes on about her day.  With you on the other hand, when Olivia tried to kill herself, you rushed to save her.  You tried to apologize, although that shit was too little too late.  After the suicide attempt, you didn’t continue pressing her to call her boss.  When she called you a monster, you were hurt.  When Krista called for help, you went right to her, even though it was clearly a set up.  The sweet and vulnerable side of you is still there.  We just need him to come out.

Elliot, I love you and I always will.  I know you’re better than this.  Olivia was innocent and she genuinely cared for you, but you royally screwed her.  She was your chance out of loneliness.  I don’t know if Olivia will ever forgive this transgression—you refueled her addiction and put her son in more jeopardy than you know—but either way, I’m gonna need you to do better and be better.

That’s all.

In the next ep, Vera and Elliot finally meet face to face…and it’s commercial free!

By the way y’all, there’s a new book that your kids will love this Christmas season:

Sold on any street corner as well as the Dominican restaurant where they sell dope stuffed chickens.  Talk to your local hustle man.

Big shot out to Trexitisover9000 for the hilarious pic!

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “406 Unacceptable?”  Was it hard to watch?  Do you agree with what Elliot did to Olivia, or did you think the ends justified the means?  Will Dom and Darlene survive?  Do you see and/or want a Domlene paring in the future?  Did y’all miss Leon?  Do you believe he slipped Elliot those pills or something else?  Do you really think Elliot drugged Olivia, or was he bluffing?  Do you think there may be hope for Elliot and Olivia (I doubt it)?  Does Vera need Colgate?  Let me know in the comments section!

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!

Okay…that happened.  Let’s do this.

Usually with my Mr. Robot recaps/reviews, I write them in chronological order, but since this particular episode didn’t have too much going in terms of plot (which isn’t a bad thing in this case), I’m going to separate it by the characters’ events.  Enjoy!

Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland

The episode picks up where we left off last week.  Tyrell is shooting his mouth off about taking down Whiterose, and Elliot has to shut him up.  Meanwhile, just as we all suspected, a Dark Army operative is sitting in a van outside, listening to it all.  After a brief moment of silence, we hear Elliot offer Tyrell a drink of water and then check some stuff on his computer.  As Elliot continues to diagnose what’s going on with his PC, interference starts to come through on the microphone.  The static gets worse and worse until full on feedback starts flooding the operative’s headphones.  He opens the doors to the van to fix the antenna when Tyrell appears and clocks ol’ boy in the head with a hammer!

Elliot meets Tyrell downstairs seconds later (Elliot’s reaction to seeing that giant gash in the operative’s head was priceless, by the way), and the latter orders the former to check the logs and wipe everything if the recording wasn’t sent back to the Dark Army.  Finally, Tyrell’s common sense comes back!  Elliot asks what to do about the operative, and Tyrell declares him dead…without bothering to check a pulse.  And we’re back to being sloppy again!

The fellas take the van and drive off into a secluded area somewhere upstate.  It turns out the logs weren’t sent, so their only concern is the body.  They stop at a little convenience store where Tyrell fills up a gas can and has Elliot buy a lighter.

When they try to pay for the lighter and a stick of beef jerky, the cashier tells them the internet is down, so E-Coin can’t be used (and apparently the beef jerky and lighter came to a little over $19!  I hope that included the damn gas!  Looks like the economy ain’t boomin’ that much!).  The gentlemen soon learn that since they’re in the boonies, there’s no cell reception, either.

The cashier keeps asking Tyrell where she knows him from, but he plays coy and acts like he just has one of those faces.  The cashier doesn’t drop the subject, so Tyrell lies and says he was on Big Brother before he and Elliot go back out to the van.  There’s only one issue…the van is gone!

Apparently the Dark Army operative was alive, and now that he’s driven off, he’s free to send the conversation log to Whiterose and they’re all as good as dead.  Elliot and Tyrell (and Mr. Robot) go back in the store and ask the ditzy cashier if they can use her phone, but the phone was connected to the internet modem.  No internet, no phone.  Elliot asks the cashier how to get to the next town, as it actually has cell reception (now, whether or not it’s the right cell tower is a whole ‘nother issue!  Prime example, my uncle lives in a rural area that only has a Verizon cell tower, so if you have a phone with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint, you’re SOL).

She mentions the quickest way to get to Pike’s Hollow is via a shortcut, but when Elliot asks her where the shortcut is, she pauses and just hollers out, “GOT IT!  TYRELL WELLICK!?  THAT’S WHERE I KNOW YOU!  But I didn’t know you were on Big Brother!”  😂😂

Tyrell still tries to convince the woman that he’s not him, but she won’t let up.  Even when Elliot tries to bring her back on track by asking where the shortcut is again, she continues to pester Tyrell about his identity.  By this point, she’s managed to even work Mr. Robot’s nerves and he cusses her clean out, demanding to give them the directions to the shortcut.  The cashier finally relents and tells them, berating Elliot for his lack of manners.  That doggone Mr. Robot always gets Elliot in trouble, but I seriously doubt he gave a damn in this case.

The men begin their journey in the woods, but the cashier’s directions must’ve been bullshit, because they end up lost as hell.  To be honest, it’s very reminiscent of the Kathy Bates “squirrel lady” scene from Rat Race (if y’all haven’t seen that film, please watch it.  It’s hilarious!).  During the walk, Tyrell sings Swedish Christmas songs and touches on deep subjects such as up and leaving his old life behind and being a failure because he always cares about what other people think, whereas Elliot prides himself on being an outsider.

Elliot lets it be known that Tyrell is getting on his last nerve, and he blames him for being lost in the damn woods in the first place, considering Tyrell was the one that declared the Dark Army operative dead.  All the while, some strange noise is heard in the background.  Tyrell freaks out whenever he hears it, believing it’s a omen.  Elliot just writes it off as an animal.

They eventually hear a car moving down the road and assume that they’re finally getting close to the next town.  The fellas run to the street and chase after the car, just to see the gas station they initially stopped at across the way.  These jokers walked in a complete circle!  BWAHAHAHAHA!!

The trio decide to just walk down the road, but they’re getting nowhere fast.  Tyrell starts freaking out again, saying that even if they make it to town, it’ll be crawling with Dark Army, seeing as the operative probably sent the log to Whiterose by now.  Tyrell stops, asking Elliot if he ever cared about him.  Elliot tries to dance around the question but Tyrell won’t let him.  Elliot, who’s fed up at this point, answers no and Tyrell gives up.  Poor Tyrell.  I’m sure this isn’t how he envisioned his and Elliot’s first date.

Elliot tries to get Tyrell to push on, but to no avail.  They hear the noise again, and Tyrell remarks that they’re just walking towards their doom.  Elliot can’t take anymore and Mr. Robot takes over to try to give Tyrell a pep talk.  Not workin’.  Elliot blows up, telling Tyrell he’s about to leave his ass right there in the woods.

They start having a screaming match (that sounds a lot like a lover’s quarrel, to be honest) and Elliot hollers, “STAY HERE! DIE!  I DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU!  I’M DONE!!”  He even put his finger in Tyrell’s face for emphasis!  Damn, Elliot!  Tell us how you really feel!

Elliot walks off, while Tyrell screams at Elliot that all roads lead to the same useless destination.  Mr. Robot opts to stay with Tyrell.  How he manages this is beyond me, because Elliot is DFR…down the fuckin’ road.

However, Elliot realizes he’s wrong as two left shoes and doesn’t walk too far away.  He comes back and admits to Tyrell that he doesn’t like being an outsider; he’s just good at hiding how much it bothers him.  Tyrell asks why Elliot didn’t just keep walking, and Elliot tells him that it’s wrong to leave him alone…plus Tyrell is the only person that really likes him.  Elliot must’ve forgotten about Leon, Lloyd and Olivia.  Speaking of Olivia, Elliot sure does have a lot of energy for someone that’s been up all night with no sleep and is post-coital on top of everything else!

During this moment of confession, Elliot also owns up to the fact that he also believes they’re dead men walking.  Tyrell asks why Elliot even wants to continue if it just means death, and Elliot says he needs to get to Pike’s Hollow and warn Darlene.  After all, he got her into this mess, and he’s been so horrible to her lately.  The least he can do is call her and tell her to get away.  That’s all Tyrell needs to hear to keep moving.

The trio keep walking and come across a dead deer in the road.  When they look further ahead, they notice the Dark Army van, wrecked and sitting in the bushes.

I’m assuming the operative—who may still be dazed from that concussion—hit the deer (or he may have attempted to avoid the deer, but failed) and ran off the side of the road.  The three of them slowly approach the van, with Elliot and Mr. Robot on one side, and Tyrell on the other.

When Elliot creeps over to the passenger side window, the operative starts opening fire on both sides.  Elliot ducks just in time (by the way, I loved how Mr. Robot pulled Elliot away like a protective dad), and the operative uses his last bullet to blow his own brains out.

Elliot’s okay, but when he and Mr. Robot check on Tyrell, they see he’s been hit.  Elliot tries to call 911, but there’s still no reception.  Tyrell tells Elliot he can’t go to a hospital.  If he does, the Dark Army will find him, and if they find him, they’ll find Elliot.

Tyrell has Elliot promise he’ll take Whiterose down before he leaves.  Elliot calls after him, saying that he can’t let him die.  Tyrell tells Elliot that he’s just going to go for a walk, and continues staggering down the street.  It almost seems as if he fades into the background.

Must’ve Been Ol’ Santa Claus

While Elliot and Tyrell are upstate reenacting a scene from Goodfellas (or should I say The Sopranos?), Darlene is still in NYC, pissed at her big brother, understandably.  Not only is she still upset at Elliot’s behavior towards her earlier that day, but she thinks he just flat out forgot to meet her back at Allsafe as they planned.  Not only that, it turns out Olivia’s access to the Dark Army bank accounts is no good.  Darlene can’t transfer money with Olivia’s credentials.  In order to do so, they’ll have to physically break into their servers at a data security firm called Virtual Realty.  Darlene leaves a brutal voicemail message on Elliot’s phone, cussin’ him out and telling him that she hates him, and that she wishes he were dead.  However, we all know that’s just a bunch of bull and Darlene’s just letting off steam, and she re-records the message.

When Darlene goes over to Elliot’s apartment to check on him, she sees the busted door and the “They’re listening” note, sitting beside a device we can only assume was used to scramble the Dark Army operative’s signal.  Darlene becomes rightfully concerned and sees Elliot’s cell phone pinging somewhere in the boondocks.

Darlene tries to boost a car, but a drunk Santa Claus catches her and chases her down.  She manages to talk the guy out of calling the cops, and in turn, he asks her if she’s seen his keys so he can get home.  Of course, Darlene hasn’t seen the keys, so he asks if she can start his car.  Darlene tells Drunk Santa—who we soon learn is named Tobias—he can’t drive home, and he should take a cab.  Tobias says he lives upstate, and cabs don’t travel that far.  Ding, ding, ding!  Darlene makes a deal with him:  she’ll drive Tobias home if he allows her to take the car later to “run an errand.”  Tobias takes the deal.

During the ride, Darlene loses Elliot’s signal, which makes her even more worried.  She’s also alarmed by her current company.  As she and Tobias make small talk on the way to his house, he touches on several topics:  he works as a Santa at a children’s cancer ward, he identifies with a man named Jimmy that may be suicidal, his wife was involved in an accident, and he carries a bottle of Percocet along with a bottle of liquor, saying “sometimes the pain is too much.”  Yeah.  Very disconcerting.

When she finally reaches Tobias’s house (which looks like Santa and his elves puked all over it), she sees that his car is actually there.  He remembers that he didn’t drive to the hospital, his friend drove!  Darlene asks whose car she just stole, and he’s all like, “I don’t know.” BWAHAHAHAHA!!

Darlene tells Tobias good-bye, and he remarks that good-byes are short and final.  That’s all the confirmation she needs, and Darlene jumps out of the car, telling Tobias that she doesn’t want him to hurt himself.  Tobias asks whatever gave her that idea, and she mentions that he kept talking about his suicidal friend Jimmy.  Tobias clarifies that he was referring to James Stewart’s role in It’s a Wonderful Life.  So what about the bottle of Percocet with the bottle of liquor?  Turns out it’s for Tobias’s wife.  He reminds Darlene that he told her his wife was in an accident.  Darlene says that can’t be it; his wife is dead.  Tobias has to correct Darlene on this point, too.  His wife didn’t die in an accident.  She just hurt her back trying to put the Santa Claus figurine on their roof.

It turns out Tobias is fine.  Darlene is the one that needs help and someone to talk to.  After Tobias tells her that she needs to confide in someone she breaks down and tells him that she’s lost everyone in her life:  her boyfriend, her best friend and both her parents.  The only person she has left is Elliot, and even though her brother treats her like crap, she’s extremely worried about him.  She doesn’t even understand why she’s so worried, considering that he told her he didn’t want to be bothered with her, so why should she be bothered?  Tobias takes all that in and goes in his house, leaving her alone.

A few minutes later, he comes back out and tells her that even though she’s worried about her brother, she needs to worry about herself.  Darlene says she’s trying.  Tobias tells Darlene he hopes Elliot’s okay, wishes her a Merry Christmas and goes back in the house—to his alive, and for the most part, well wife—while Darlene leaves to find Elliot.

Darlene still can’t locate Elliot’s signal, as he’s still in the area that has no cell reception.  After driving a little ways on the country road, she pulls over and has a mini panic attack.  However, some time passes and Darlene calms down again.  We can only assume she keeps searching for Elliot…

The Nightmare Before Christmas

So Dom’s home alone on Christmas Eve (no pun intended), double clicking her mouse to Darlene’s interrogation video.  Just nasty.  I understand everyone does it, I just don’t have to see you doing it.  Here’s what perplexes me…you hate Darlene so much, but you’re pleasuring yourself to her video?  Riiiight.  Looks like Elliot’s not the only member of the Alderson clan that can bring it in the bedroom.  The video leaves Dom unfulfilled, so she decides to join the IRC sex chat.  By the way, has anyone else ever noticed that when Dom digs in her cooch, she starts touching stuff right afterwards and never washes her hands?  Gross!  Once again, I get everyone does it, but just wash your dang gum hands afterwards…or fall asleep and don’t touch anything.  Just sayin’!

Anyway, Dom reaches out to her personal favorite chat fuck buddy, happyhardonhenry806.  Not too long after they start sex chatting, Dom dozes off.  She wakes up and apologizes for not responding, and happyhardonhenry suggests they meet up and do the do in real life.

Dom declines, admitting that she’s into girls.  That’s another thing that confuses me.  Why does Dom try to get her jollies chatting online about how much she wants thick dick when she’s clearly not into dicks period??  Sometimes I don’t get Dom.

Back on subject, happyhardonhenry has a confession of his own to make…he’s not a dude.  She’s a girl.  Dom’s like, “Come again?” (no pun intended) and happyhardonhenry says she likes to basically catfish folks.

Dom is intrigued, and lets happyhardonhenry, or whatever her name is, know that she’s DTF.  happyhardonhenry asks for the address.  Hmm…

Some time later, the mystery date is at Dom’s place, and it’s a bit on the awkward side.  However, after sharing a Tecate and having some brief small talk about Dom’s apartment, they start kissing and doing some heavy petting.

Dom breaks away from her guest and excuses herself to the bathroom.  When she walks in there, she sees it’s been decorated with rose petals and candles.  Dom looks around, confused.  Just then, her date walks in…wearing a Dark Army mask.  The mystery woman then pushes Dom in the bathtub and proceeds to drown her!!

As Dom struggles, the woman tells her to stop fighting and give up control.  She needs to realize that she’ll never be free.  Just when it seems like Dom has drowned to death, her eyes open.

The scene cuts to Dom opening her eyes again, this time, in bed.  She’s still in bed, with her laptop lying on her stomach.  The real happyhardonhenry806 (who I’m assuming is really a man) logged off IRC 4 hours ago.  She checks her phone and sees that her mother called three times and left several text messages.  Dom then goes to the bathroom to rinse her face.  She looks over at the tub, which is empty, and back at her reflection in the mirror.

The Colorful Conclusion

Tyrell is still walking in the woods, alone.  The screeching noise continues.  We see something emitting a purple light nearby.  The noise is heard again, closer this time.  It appears the noise is coming from whatever is radiating the purple glow.  Tyrell staggers over to the source of the light, and when he gets to it, he seems to have a look of astonishment on his face.  The sound is heard again, and the screen fades to white.

The end?

Uh, yeah…this episode was weird.  Weirder than usual.  It was right up there with the “eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave.aes” episode; you know, the one where Elliot wakes up in a TGIF (or in this case, a TGIW) sitcom.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing.  Hell, the sitcom episode is one of my favorites in the series.  Although I can’t say the same about “404 Not Found,” I will say that I got a lot of enjoyment from this installment (and it’s the first one from this season that didn’t make me lose sleep, although I woke up with a million questions).

A lot of people wrote this episode off as being filler for the final season, and I have to agree with them.  This chapter of the series has the fellas lost in the woods, Darlene driving home a drunk Santa Claus, and Dom having a bad dream.  However, it’s not filler in the true sense of the word, and my calling it such isn’t a criticism.  “404 Not Found” isn’t just some trash ass episode added in just so Sam and Co. could present a 13 episode arc to the network as promised.  The ep had meaning and importance to the overall story.  It’s filler simply for the mere fact that it slowed the action way down and still takes place on the most stressful Christmas Eve ever.  It makes sense when you think about it. Keep in mind that the entire season is supposed to span the course of eight days.  The previous seasons took place over a number of months.  Shoot, the entire series takes place in 2015!  So yeah, there’ll probably be a few more episodes that stretch the story out just to chronicle one day.  It’s not the first time Mr. Robot has done this.  In season two, episodes 9-12 told a narrative that took place in a day and a half.

If you delve a little deeper into the plot (or lack thereof), you’ll see that although the intensity has eased a bit, the stakes are still super high for our heroes.  If Elliot, Tyrell and Mr. Robot don’t do something about the Dark Army operative, they’re all dead.  Darlene has to find Elliot, but she has no idea where he is or how to find him, and despite that he’s treated her horribly, he’s all she has left.  Poor Dom can’t even escape the Dark Army in her fantasies.  They’ve taken control of every aspect of her life.  Will she relinquish control as the mystery woman advised?

Also, the nightmare is an interesting throwback to the dream that Dom told Angela about in season two.  If you don’t remember, before Dom was forced to flip to the Dark Army, she mentioned to Angela that she had a dream about a beautiful woman, and all of a sudden, someone was drowning her.  However, when she gave up control, she survived.  Dom may have to take her own advice.

One thing I really liked about this episode is that it was really funny.  The cashier at the gas station and Tobias the drunk Santa Claus kept me crackin’ up.  I especially LOL’ed when Tyrell, Elliot and Mr. Robot thought they were getting closer to the next town and ended up walking in a damn circle!  😂😂😂

To quote Darlene, Elliot’s really going the distance with the silent treatment.  I didn’t mention Mr. Robot’s narration this time, because although it was poignant, it was brief.  Once again, Mr. Robot doesn’t spill enough tea!  Not only that, but after Elliot’s night with Olivia, he’s still acting brand new!  He shocked me going off on Tyrell how he did.  I thought for sure he’d be back to his old self by now, but it looks like that may not happen until the end of the season.  I get why Elliot’s become so hardened, but I want my sweet Elliot back; the one that talks to us and isn’t so driven by a certain goal he can’t even think about anything or anyone else.  At least we saw some semblance of the old Elliot towards the end of the episode.

As for Tyrell, my reaction to his shooting surprised me.  Before the season started, I went on Reddit and made a list of characters that I wanted to live, die, and who could meet either fate.  Tyrell was in the “die” category, because although I liked him, he was too damn crazy.  When he left to meet his fate, I felt really bad.  Then, when he saw the purple lights, I was hoping it was the cops coming to save him.  But it wasn’t.  I can’t say I’m sure Tyrell is dead.  He saw a purple light, heard some weird noises, and the screen faded to white.  You best believe the wild theories are bouncing around social media.  Some folks believe he did die, others think he saw a computer screen, there’s people that swear down he came across Whiterose’s machine, and then there’s some fans that believe he was abducted by aliens.  Child, I don’t have the slightest idea what happened to Tyrell, and I’m not gonna pretend I know.  All I know for sure is that he’s gone.

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.  It wasn’t my favorite this season (those accolades go to “402 Payment Required” and “403 Forbidden“), but I liked it.  I can’t wait until the next one.  It’s a “very special episode” (I won’t spoil the reason it’s so special) that showcases Darlene and Elliot breaking into Virtual Realty to get full access to the Dark Army’s accounts.  I’m lovin’ this season so far (except for Angela getting killed)!

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “404 Not Found”?  Was it a filler episode in every sense of the word, or did it have significance for the overall season?  Are you upset that Tyrell seemingly met his demise?  Do you think Tyrell is really dead?  What did you think about Tobias?  Did you also mistakenly believe he was suicidal?  Is Darlene right to continue to be worried about Elliot after the way he’s treated her?  Do you like the change in Elliot’s character arc?  Do think Dom should allow the Dark Army to take control of her life, or should she fight back?  Did any part of this episode make you laugh?  Let me know in the comments section!

Alright y’all, it’s time for another (late as hell) Mr. Robot recap and review!  Let’s do this thing!

My Love Wears Forbidden Colours

In 1982 (during the best decade ever!), Whiterose—who’s known full time as Director Zhi Zhang at this point—and her translator are closing a major deal between China and IBM.  The folks at IBM believe they’re entering a lucrative enterprise, when really and truly, Whiterose has every intention of stealing their intellectual property, and even says so!  Of course, the fools at IBM don’t catch this because they don’t speak Mandarin.  Learn another language, y’all.

It turns out that Whiterose’s translator is also her lover, who hopes the deal allows her to become an ambassador to the US.  That way, they can be together without facing persecution.  After the IBM deal is done, Whiterose and her man hang out in their hotel suite watching Culture Club’s “(Time) Clock of the Heart” video (that’s my favorite Culture Club/Boy George song, by the way!) and Whiterose has a bit of an epiphany.

Whiterose’s lover, who believes in extreme punctuality, lets it be known that they’re scheduled to have drinks with the IBM businessmen in 15 minutes.  Whiterose declines and has her man go ahead in her place.  A few hours later, Whiterose’s lover comes back looking rode hard and put away wet, and when he enters the suite, we are all treated to the first glimpse of the real Whiterose.

Take a lesson, y’all.  This is a bad bitch.

Whiterose is fierce as all hell with her curly wig and badass dress (that used to belong to her mama!).  Her man is shocked, but he doesn’t ridicule her or judge her.  As a matter of fact, he tells her she’s beautiful.  He kisses her, and the camera zooms in on his watch…the same digital watch Whiterose dons now.

Some time later, Whiterose’s man is getting married…to a woman.  Whiterose goes with the flow, and even delivers white roses to him to lighten the mood (white roses symbolize death) but her man is miserable.  At the reception hall, Whiterose tries to assure him that this “marriage” won’t change anything.  The lover asks if Whiterose will still be ambassador to the US, and she honestly answers that she won’t.  Things went so well with the IBM deal, the government appointed her as the Minister of State Security, a much more lucrative and powerful position.  She couldn’t turn it down.

Whiterose’s man is even more heartbroken.  She assures him to be patient, but he tells her that when folks ask you to be patient, they’re actually asking for your surrender.  The gentleman then takes a nearby knife from a platter and slices his own throat with it.  Whiterose screams for help, but it’s no use.  The camera pans around and we see that her man bled all over the white rose bouquet.

Time Won’t Give Me Time

In the present day (2015, to be exact), Whiterose has her assistant, Wang Shu (aka Ms. Thang Jr.) get her mother’s dress ready.  She wants to wear it when her project is shipped to the Congo.  Ms. Thang Jr. reminds Whiterose that she shouldn’t be poppin’ champagne just yet.  Elliot is still out there plotting against them.  The whole situation with Eddie Lomax committing suicide and Phillip Price’s sudden resignation request aren’t coincidences.  Whiterose suggests to deny Price’s request and to keep looking into Elliot via round-the-clock surveillance.  Ms. Thang Jr. tries offer comforting words, saying that they’ll figure everything out, it’ll just take patience.  Whiterose remembers what her late lover said about being patient, and abruptly changes her mind.  Give Price what he wants, but move the date up.  Ms. Thang Jr. is totally against this, saying that Whiterose’s rash moves will put them in jeopardy.  Whiterose is fresh out of patience, and she states that disrupting the timeline is the perfect way to force Elliot and Price into a mistake.  I have to agree.  Now, instead of Elliot having eight days to come up with a plan, he has less than 24 hrs.

Ms. Thang Jr. reminds Whiterose that once Price resigns, there’ll be no CEO at E-Corp.  Whiterose has the perfect idea…make Tyrell the CEO.  He’ll accept it.  You damn skippy he will!

Unexpected (and Unwelcome) Surprises

Mr. Robot is narrating…again.  Elliot, when are you gonna talk to us?  Anyway, Mr. Robot is nervous and on the lookout for Vera’s crazy ass, as he should be.  Elliot, on the other hand, is basically like this:

As he and his alter ego (the one we know of) walk down the street, they bump into Krista, and she ain’t too happy to see him.  As a matter of fact, she mutters, “Oh, shit,” the minute she realizes who it is.

Elliot tries to say hi and that he’s taking her advice about Mr. Robot, but Krista ain’t got time.  To summarize, she lets it be known she wants nothing to do with him, and she feels unsafe around him.  Krista even goes so far as to threaten legal action if he doesn’t leave her alone.  Really, Krista?  Elliot, clearly hurt, says he just wanted to thank her for helping him.  He pulls his hoodie back over his head and leaves.  Poor Elliot.  Little do either of them know that DJ, Vera’s right hand, is watching this entire exchange…

Elliot ain’t the one you got to worry about, boo!

Sibling Rivalry

Back at Allsafe, Darlene is telling Elliot about Olivia Cortez, Susan Jacobs’s US contact with Cypress National Bank.  Apparently, Olivia is the only account manager Susan dealt with, so they’re going to have to hack her to get access to the Dark Army’s accounts.  Elliot’s already hacked into her computer remotely, but he’s not finding anything useful…at least not regarding the Dark Army.  He does however, learn that Olivia has a date later that night and is involved in a custody battle.  Darlene tells him most bank employees have a laptop specifically for the job that has to be hacked in person, which is why he’s not seeing anything related to Whiterose’s money.

Elliot uses Olivia’s schedule to his advantage and decides to break in her house to get access to her work laptop while she’s out.  Darlene’s not down with that idea.  The plan was that she would hack the bank computer and Elliot was supposed to deal with the SS7 license (whatever the hell that is).  Elliot says that was before they found out that they have put hands on the computer to hack it.  It’s too risky for Darlene to go now.  Darlene, being her usual hardheaded self disagrees, and Elliot asks Mr. Robot to step in and talk some sense into her.  Darlene still doesn’t listen, so Elliot takes back over and the “protective big brother bit” Darlene was criticizing him for a second ago is gone.

Elliot grabs her arm, hurting her.  Darlene asks if it’s really him, and he lets her know that it is.  No Mr. Robot.  No mystery third guest.  This is Elliot being rough and hurtful.  Darlene is disgusted, especially after she figured they were in a better place since cremating their mother the night before.  She asks if things will always be this way with him, and Elliot tells her things’ll never change.  Before he leaves, he drives an even deeper nail in her heart by telling her that he wishes he never opened the door for her when she came by last Halloween.  Really, Elliot?  Darlene tears up as he leaves.

Olivia

As Elliot breaks into Olivia’s apartment, Mr. Robot tells us that there’s no word for someone that’s lost everyone:  his parents, friends, and his girlfriend.  Some folks would call him a survivor, but others would say he’s a ticking time bomb.  We all can see that Elliot’s in the latter category.  Elliot eventually locates the work laptop, while Mr. Robot searches her personal computer for any possible clues (it still cracks me up how Elliot and Mr. Robot “split up” and do different things when they’re together).  It’s soon revealed that in order to get into Olivia’s work computer, Elliot needs her security fob. Mr. Robot recommends other alternatives to get Olivia to log into her computer, but Elliot’s not trying to take a chance of her getting suspicious.  He knows there’s only one way to get his hands on the fob…crash her date.

On a side note, I used to have one of those security fobs for my job.  We had to keep it on us at all times, preferably on our key chains (Mr. Robot suggested maybe Olivia got sloppy and left it at home, but I know for a fact that’s a no-no).  It’s also true about the security code changing every 60 seconds.  As a matter of fact, if you haven’t logged onto your computer after 45 seconds pass, you might as well wait for the next code to come up, because the current one will be considered useless.

Back on subject, Elliot and Mr. Robot go to the bar where Olivia is waiting to meet Evan, her date.  It appears she’s been stood up, and she’s about to leave.  Mr. Robot advises to regroup and try something else, but Elliot has some dirt on Olivia.  Earlier, he peeped a bottle of Oxycontin in Olivia’s bathroom.  Elliot also learned that as a part of her custody agreement, Olivia has to stay clean, or she’ll lose her son.  He can use that information as leverage to get the fob.  Really, Elliot?  It turns out I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like Elliot showing this ruthless side.  Mr. Robot blasts this idea and instead suggests they just have small talk with Olivia and snatch the fob.  Elliot ain’t goin’ for it.

He approaches Olivia, but as we all know, Elliot’s not always the most assertive guy, so he stumbles a bit before he’s about to lay out his blackmail scheme.  Before he can do so, Mr. Robot takes over, charmingly introduces himself (as Elliot) and offers to buy her a drink.  Elliot protests, but now it’s Mr. Robot’s turn to ignore him.  Olivia agrees, and Mr. Robot lets Elliot take over again.  Just like that, this encounter has turned into an actual date.  Hmmm…

The (Wannabe) King of New York

We’ve returned to the same restaurant Elliot and Shayla had their last conversation before she was snatched up by Vera’s men and eventually murdered.  We soon get confirmation on something all of us already figured:  it’s really a front for Vera’s drug operation.  This crazy fool is in the back stuffin’ dope in chickens and using kids as delivery boys.  DJ shows up, and Vera asks if he has any good intel on Elliot.  DJ can’t get a read off Elliot, considering that he always seems to run solo (I’m surprised he missed Darlene).  Vera starts going off on how he returned to be king of New York and how he needs a good architect to do that.  DJ offers to hold Elliot hostage and make him cooperate, but Vera says he wants Elliot as a partner, not a prisoner.  I still say this:

Vera presses DJ for info, but all he knows is that Elliot got into it with some chick on the street earlier that day.  He shows Vera a pic, and he sees Krista yelling at a distraught Elliot.  Vera tries to get more info about Krista’s attitude towards Elliot, but DJ fails to provide details.

Vera shows the pic to one of his pediatric drug mules and the kid remarks that Elliot looks sad, like how he does when his mother is mean to him.  Without even blinking, Vera takes his gun and shoots DJ in the gut.  As DJ’s bleeding out on the floor, Vera studies the picture and decides that Krista is the perfect target.  Then he proceeds to finish DJ off by shooting him in the head.  Really, Vera?

By the way, the scariest part of this scene isn’t Vera killing someone at random.  Anyone that’s a fan of the show is used to that.  The scariest part is that the kid that witnessed all this—who was sitting next to Vera when he fired the gun—didn’t flinch.  Eerie.

Match.com

Olivia and Elliot are still in the bar, having drinks.  Elliot hasn’t been able to swipe Olivia’s security fob yet, so they’ve been talking.  As it turns out, they both have a lot in common.  Olivia’s mother died, and she doesn’t get along with her dad that well.  Elliot admits (awkwardly) that he was addicted to morphine, but he’s clean now…except for the heroin he did two days ago that he really didn’t want.  It’s especially hilarious when Olivia asks if someone held Elliot down to do it, and he was just like, “Yeah.”  That’s fine, though.  She seems to be really into to him, and vice versa.  Elliot even manages to smile while he’s talking to her.  Yes, he smiled!  Just then Evan shows up.

It becomes more apparent that Olivia’s into Elliot, because she acts like she doesn’t even know who Evan is.  She tries to ditch Evan officially by hinting that she and Elliot are about to leave together, but Elliot doesn’t catch the clue.  Olivia says goodbye to Elliot and leaves, taking the fob with her.  Elliot runs after her and kisses her in the street.

Then the unexpected happens…

ELLIOT GETS SOME!!    😮😮😮

Sometime later, Elliot’s still at Olivia’s place, getting dressed.  By the way, Elliot’s sex game must be off the charts; he managed to put both Shayla and Olivia to sleep when he hooked up with them.  He put it on Shayla so good, she forgot what day it was when she woke up!  Anyway, Elliot finally gets his hands on the security fob and sneaks in the bathroom to text the code to Darlene.

Right after he sends the code, Price sends Elliot a text, letting him know that the Deus Group meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.  Dun-dun-dunnnnnn!  Olivia knocks on the door, startling him.  Elliot knocks over a small crate with some items on it, one of which was the bottle of Oxycontin.  Olivia tells him that bottle isn’t what he thinks it is.  She admits that after her mother was murdered, she became an addict to numb the pain, which harmed her relationship with her father.  She then opened the bottle to show Elliot what was really inside of it…a razor blade.  Olivia goes on to say that she uses it as a reminder that if she goes back to using, she may as well kill herself.  Elliot opens up and tells her about his own desire to commit suicide a few months ago and how Trenton’s little bro saved him (I wonder if Elliot ever kept his promise and took him to go see The Martian).  Elliot tells Olivia that she can’t scare him, and after she lets him know there’s plenty more crazy where that came from, she snuggles up with him.  Awww…

Elliot leaves and while he and Mr. Robot are waiting for the subway, the latter remarks on how Olivia overrode Elliot’s access to his heart, and now he’s learned that letting people in doesn’t have to hurt.

Tyrelliot In Full Effect!

After leaving the subway, Elliot notices a white van following him.  He can’t go back to Allsafe and meet up with Darlene, so he decides to walk home and act like everything is everything.  The only problem with that is, when he gets home, he sees that some fool pried the door open.  Mr. Robot wants to run, but Elliot knows that’s fruitless, considering the bad guys are outside, too.  Elliot pushes the door open, and who does he see?

It’s Tyrell, muthafuckers!

The second Tyrell sees Elliot, he’s all like, “HEY, ELLIOT!  THEY MADE ME CEO!  WE CAN TAKE DOWN WHITEROSE JUST LIKE WE PLANNED!”  *Sigh*

Elliot tries his best to shut Tyrell’s crazy ass up, but this fool…keeps…talking.  Finally, Elliot literally has to spell it out for him by writing on a sheet of paper:

Sure enough, the white van is parked outside of Elliot’s apartment building doing just that.  And that’s where our story ends.

I really enjoyed this episode.  As a matter of fact, the more I watched it, the more I liked it.  I noticed that it’s been getting some mixed reviews, due to some folks believing this latest installment was pure filler.  Yeah, the episode was a bit slower than the previous two, but it was still very entertaining.  One of the things I loved about “403 Forbidden” is Whiterose’s backstory.  It gave us a bit of insight on what made her into the person she is today.  Don’t get me wrong, she was always a bit ratchet (after all, her ultimate goal was to steal IBM’s intellectual property), but her early shady behavior didn’t include mass genocide.  Losing the man she loved pushed her over the edge, I think.  Despite all the evil Whiterose has committed throughout the series, you can’t help but feel sympathy for her when her lover takes his own life.

Speaking of which, suicide was a pretty big theme of this week’s episode.  So much so, the network decided to provide the number for a suicide hotline for those in need of counseling.  Trust me, there’s so many people that need help with this issue.  I’m glad they did that.

I’m a bit perturbed with Krista.  Yeah, I get why she’s wary of Elliot, but damn.  She acted like he was stalking her, when all the poor man was doing was walking down the street minding his business.  Then, that whole, “I don’t feel safe around you” bit.  Girl, bye.  You ought to know that Elliot wouldn’t hurt you physically.  That’s okay, though.  She’s about to be in the presence of real evil, and she’ll wish her biggest threat was bumping into Elliot on the sidewalk.

Speaking of which, that damn Vera is still a hot mess, but I didn’t expect anything less.  This fool really thinks that Krista is Elliot’s heart.  Wrong.  I mean, Elliot cares about Krista, but ol’ boy missed out on his grand opportunity when he first came waltzing into town.  It’s a good thing Darlene didn’t mention to him who she was.

Plus, coming back to the same city and operating in the same quarters really isn’t the smartest move when you’re a wanted man that broke out of prison.  Then again, this is the same dude that went along with the idea of posting all his nefarious shit on social media.  SMDH.  By the way, there’s some people that don’t believe Vera’s return adds any value to the show, but it does.  Now Elliot has the Dark Army and Vera gunning for him.  I’m assuming Elliot’s not too worried about Vera at the moment because the Whiterose threat is a lot more dangerous, but Vera’s interference will soon become a serious issue.  Not only that, it’s gonna cut into the time Elliot needs to take down Whiterose, which’ll give us even more white knuckle situations.  On a side note, I’m still freaked out about that kid.  That’s another Vera in the making.

On to Tyrell…  Tyrell, yo’ ass is too smart to be sloppy like that.  First of all, learn to hush when people tell you to shut up.  Second of all, why the hell did you bust in Elliot’s apartment like that?  What, you couldn’t just pick the lock?

Elliot still isn’t talking to us.  I really hope that changes soon.  I miss him.  Mr. Robot doesn’t spill half as much tea.  The 180º shift in Elliot and Mr. Robot’s characters continues to be interesting.  Elliot’s off the chain right now, and Mr. Robot always has to be the one to talk him off the ledge.  Not only that, Mr. Robot is always the one that has to be the supportive big brother to Darlene, while Elliot is being more rough and dismissive of her.  I honestly think that Elliot was still upset over the whole Krista encounter and between that and Darlene being hardheaded about staying put when he asked her to, he decided to use her as a punching bag.  Not cool.  Speaking of not cool, I can’t believe Elliot actually considered blackmailing a single mom!  I get a sleazy pedophile, but a single mom doing all she can to take care of her son?  That’s cold-hearted, boo.  Ironically enough, if Elliot had gone along with his initial blackmail scheme, it would’ve thwarted his plans, seeing as Olivia no longer had prescription narcotics in her possession.  Mr. Robot’s interjection saved the plan, and it allowed Elliot’s newfound hard demeanor to soften, thankfully.

Now onto Ms. Olivia.  I like her, just like I liked Shayla.  She and Elliot make a cute couple and their love scene together was super hot.  I have to be honest though, I hate that we were cheated out of a potential love scene with Elliot and Angela.  I really wanted those two to get together ever since the first episode.  However, I do like Olivia, and I’m glad Elliot found someone he could bond with, that was able to break through this tough exterior that he’s developed.  Also another cool thing about Olivia is that in real life, she’s Andy Garcia’s daughter!  I love him!

There’s some theories going around that Olivia’s not really here for Elliot; she’s another physical honeypot trying to trap him.  After all, the white van started following him after he left her place.  In the description for “403 Forbidden,” it mentions that “Elliot gets owned by his own hack.”  Plus, if you listen to the lyrics of “Flesh Without Blood” (the song that plays while Elliot and Olivia are getting their freak on; I’ve fallen in love with that song since I heard it), you realize it’s actually a breakup song.  As they say, Sam Esmail very seldomly incorporates things into the show on accident.  Then there’s the fact that 1) Elliot doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to romantic relationships; 2) poor Elliot stays losing and 3) this is Mr. Robot.  If Elliot can wake up in a damn ’90s sitcom, it’s not too far fetched for Olivia to be a card carrying member of the Dark Army.  Despite all those points, I have to disagree with his theory (for now).  It seems like Olivia has genuine feelings for Elliot, and she’s just a single mother who has no idea about the evil SOB’s she’s working for.  “Elliot [getting] owned by his own hack” could just mean that in opening up to Olivia to socially engineer her, she ended up gaining access to his heart.

However…now that we’ve been introduced to Olivia, we now know that things will eventually sour between her and Elliot.  This past episode confirmed that she’s the mystery woman berating Elliot in her apartment in the teaser trailer.  It’s clear that he’s sitting in her apartment as she gives him the business.  If you don’t remember that scene, here’s the video (courtesy of USA Networks/Universal):

I’m assuming that Elliot either told her about his involvement in the 5/9 hack, he admitted he slept with her mainly to gain access to her security fob, the Dark Army found out about Olivia being with Elliot and now she has a target on her back (or worse yet, her and her son), or all of the above.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

Next week, Tyrell, Elliot and Mr. Robot wander around the woods and Darlene gives Santa Claus a ride.  God, I love this crazy ass show.

—Written by Nadiya

So what did y’all think about “403 Forbidden”?  Did you sympathize—or at least empathize—with Whiterose?  Did you agree with how Krista treated Elliot, or do you think she was too harsh with him?  Did you agree with how Elliot treated Darlene, or is he lashing out at the one person that loves him?  What do you think about Elliot and Olivia?  Do you like them as a couple?  Do you think she really likes him or is she working for the Dark Army as an operative?  Do you miss Angela and wish she and Elliot could’ve had a chance?  Do you think Vera and Tyrell are damn fools?  Let me know in the comments section! 

What’s poppin’, y’all?  Let’s just jump right into this bad boy, because this latest episode of Mr. Robot had a lot to doggone unload.

Deus Ex Machina (Literally)

The show opens up with Price giving some very insightful exposition regarding Whiterose.  After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the USSR in the late ’80’s, Whiterose (disguised as Minister Zhang) decides to take advantage and begin an investment group called Deus, which consolidates foreign powers and uses global events (and by events, I mean mostly catastrophes) for profit.  Whiterose was able to get numerous world leaders behind her investment group, and eventually started the first Gulf War, aka Operation Desert Storm.  You read that correctly.

Turns out causing Operation Desert Storm was lucrative for Whiterose and her friends, as it gained them money in oil and influence within the military.  Then, Whiterose has a sensational idea:  instead of using industrial spies to gain information, she’d rather have electronic access to any and every person living to obtain whatever data she needs.  That’s right…Whiterose invented the internet.  THE WHOLE.  DAMN.  INTERNET.

Apparently, America was supposed to be the test case for the World Wide Web, and we flocked to that thang like flies to poo.  I can’t front; I still remember the first time I surfed the web.  I was 17, and my high school finally gained internet access, just in time for my senior year.  The second I went on a couple of websites (including IMDB.com) and saw how much information was right there at my fingertips, I was hooked.

Back to the subject at hand, with the rise of the net came the rise of E-Corp, which was actually a front for the Deus Group.  With every endeavor E-Corp had—be it E Coin, their health insurance, real estate or banks—the Deus Group became even more powerful, as they now had further influence over the public.   The members of the Deus Group learned soon enough that Whiterose wasn’t their partner, she was their boss, and the purpose of even starting the group was to fund whatever her project is in the Congo.  Yeah, they all talked their shit about it when it was underneath the power plant in Washington Township, but now that’s it’s going abroad, it’s becoming clear that Whiterose has something big planned and whatever it is, it’s no laughing matter.

An Unlikely Ally (TBD)

After Price’s rousing monologue, we see him speaking with Elliot and Mr. Robot back at Allsafe, with the Deus Group added to Elliot’s Dark Army board.  Price reveals that he was tasked to eliminate anyone that ever appeared at “John Garcin’s” apartment and to report the incident.  Elliot asks why Price saved him, but he never answers.  Price simply tells Elliot his bank heist won’t work, considering Whiterose designed the Deus Group to be impenetrable.  Mr. Robot takes over and suggests that Price act as a mole and provide his bank contact’s information.  Price informs that the bank contact is Susan Jacobs.  I admit; I laughed out loud at that.   Susan Jacobs is a dead end (pun intended).

Elliot asks for Susan’s info, and of course, Price tells him that she’s been missing for months.  That’s an understatement.  That chick is a pile of ashes at some animal shelter!  Anyway, Price tells Elliot that he can’t help him, but Elliot reminds him that Whiterose killed his daughter.  Damn.  He knew about Price and Angela.   Price reiterates that Elliot’s bank heist won’t work, and Elliot suggests to him to have all the Deus members meet up in the next eight days.  Price believes it’s impossible to have them all together in such a short amount of time, but Mr. Robot mentions that because of Price’s loyalty, initiating the meet won’t be too far fetched.  Elliot tells Price he may as well be dead if he sits around and does nothing.  Price says he became a dead man walking when he got involved with Whiterose…just like Elliot is.  Ouch.

Price leaves, and Darlene—who’s been blowing up Elliot’s phone for the past few minutes—calls again.  When Elliot answers, Darlene tells him that their mother died.

Ciao.

At Mrs. Alderson’s nursing home, Elliot and Darlene meet with a staff worker who won’t shut up about what a great person their mother was and how blessed they must’ve been to have her.  Darlene and Elliot ain’t here for the foolishness.  They know how the real deal, and simply ask the lady what they’re supposed to do with her stuff.  After she leaves–silently judging them, I might add—Elliot quickly gets to work, packing everything up to go to charity, while Darlene’s chillin’.  She admits that she’s relieved their mother is gone.  Elliot, on the other hand, has other stuff on his mind.  Darlene asks him if they’re still cool after she wigged out on him about Angela the day before, and Elliot says they are as he continues packing everything up, never even breaking stride.  When he starts to unload the drawers, he notices his old walkman.  He opens it and finds a tape inside, but once Darlene spots him with the tape player, he quickly closes it and puts it in a box.  Darlene decides to keep it, saying that “cassettes are full on back.”  Since when?  When Darlene finally decides to help Elliot out, she notices a receipt for a safe deposit box with the Bank of E.  Hmmm…

Where in the World Is Agent Santiago?

Dom finally takes her interview concerning Santiago, and as it turns out, it’s part of an investigation about his disappearance.  As Agent Horton interviews her, she’s clearly ill at ease, and he asks if she’s okay.  Dom admits that Santiago was a double agent.  OH SHIT!!

Agent Horton asks Dom who Santiago was working for, and she takes a deep breath and reveals the name:  The Trujillo drug cartel.  Got scared there for a minute!

La Mort Heureuse

After the interview, we see Janice’s creepy ass at her taxidermy business when she gets a call.  It’s Dom, letting her know that she did the interview and everything was all good.  Janice wants Dom to define “good.”  Dom tells her that Agent Horton bought her story.    Janice goes on to ask if everything’s on the up and up with Dom’s colleagues.  Dom says again that she’s sure Agent Horton believed her story.  Janice jots down Agent Horton’s name and asks her to define “sure.”  You gettin’ on my nerves, ho.

Dom says she’s 99.9% sure Agent Horton believed what she told him.  Janice seems to accept that and she goes on to give Dom a bit of a pep talk about how beginnings are hard, but everything’ll be alright as long as she keeps a level head, or some bullshit.  She goes on to tell Dom that everyone’s glad she’s back at work, and if she needs anything, to let them know.  Dom hangs up the phone, clearly not being able to take anymore horseshit.  Janice has a customer who entered the shop while she was talking to Dom, and when she goes up front to help her, the lady says she wants her dog to be with her forever, and proceeds to slam the dog’s dead (and deboned) body on the counter.  Gross.

By the way, I couldn’t help but notice that Dom has a promotion (come to think of it, they may have briefly mentioned this in the last episode).  Now she’s the Assistant Special Agent in Charge.  Just like Tyrell, she probably got a job she always wanted…but she can’t even enjoy it.  SMH.

Final Arrangements

At the funeral home, Mr. Robot can see that Elliot’s not really dealing with his mother’s death, but instead is racking his brain trying to figure out how to track down Susan Jacobs.  Mr. Robot tells Elliot that he’s become an expert at observing him and he needs to take a second and try to cope with his mother being gone, instead of holding his feelings in.  Elliot lets Mr. Robot know that the only thing he’s holding in is the fact that he needs to take down Whiterose, or else they all die, Darlene included.  Elliot walks off and asks if Mr. Robot’s expert observation noticed that.  Something about that was kind of sexy.  Mr. Robot acknowledges that could’ve gone better before muttering to us, “Fuck you.”  Fuck you too, Mr. Robot!  Bastard.

Meanwhile, Darlene’s trying to decide what funeral arrangements her mother would’ve wanted and has to deal with more silent judgement, this time from the director.  Elliot walks in and indifferently asks for cremation, a cardboard coffin and the cheapest urn they have.  Boss.

Sometime later, Elliot and Darlene are waiting for the subway, Elliot’s still trying to get more information on Susan Jacobs via his cell phone, whereas Darlene’s wondering aloud why their mother had a safe deposit box.  Money?  A deed to a house?  Adoption papers?  Elliot ain’t got time and keeps doing what he’s doing.  Darlene finally gets tired of him ignoring her and snatches his phone.  She thought they were cool, and Elliot tells her that they are.  Darlene wants him to prove it by coming with her to the bank.  Elliot doesn’t want to, but Darlene tells him that she needs him right now.   This convinces Elliot, although he still thinks it’s a waste of time.  A snowman sitting nearby give his condolences.  A kiss and hug to anyone who can tell me what that’s in reference to.  🙂

Keep it 💯

Dom is interrogating an Irish human trafficker and appears to be back in her element again, when she receives a text from Janice that reads, “Sorry about your co-worker.”  As if on cue, an agent bursts through the door and calls Dom out of the room due to an urgent issue.   The agent shows her a news report about a man that jumped to his death a few hours earlier.  Dom asks what that has to do with her, and the agent informs it was Agent Horton that supposedly committed suicide.  He goes on to ask Dom if she noticed anything off with Agent Horton when they had their interview earlier that day.  After all, she was one of the last people to talk to him before he “took his own life.”  Just then, Dom gets another text from Janice that reads:

Wow.

Bank of E:  We Don’t Give a Damn ‘Bout Our Customers!

Darlene and Elliot are at the bank waiting to see what the big secret was in their mother’s safe deposit box.  Unfortunately for everyone, the box is gone; it has been for two years now.  The banker tells them that Mrs. Alderson stopped paying her bill, and after a 120 day grace period and zero contact from her, the organization threw all her stuff away, per Bank of E policy.  SMDH.  Darlene promptly cusses the man out and Elliot tries to get her to come back with him to the funeral parlor so they can collect their mother’s ashes.

Darlene’s clearly distraught and Elliot tries to tell her that the safe deposit box isn’t that big of a deal.  Darlene admits that it has nothing to do with the safe deposit box and everything to do with Elliot just not giving a shit.  Elliot says after years of enduring their mother’s abuse, of course he doesn’t give a damn, but Darlene’s not talking about their mom…she’s talking about Angela.  Darlene accepts that Angela’s gone, and wishes she could just brush off her death like Elliot did.  Elliot admits that he hasn’t gotten over Angela; not even close.  He takes out his walkman and hands it to her, and tells her to open it up.  There’s a tape inside labeled, “Happy Mother’s Day.”  It turns out it was a tape Elliot, Darlene and Angela made for Mrs. Moss, not Mrs. Alderson.  Darlene has no idea how their mother got it or why she kept it.  Elliot assumes she was lonely and wished her kids would’ve made her a Mother’s Day tape.  Uh…maybe if you treated them better they would have?  Just a thought.

Darlene plays the tape and asks Elliot to listen to it with her, but he can’t bring himself to do it.  However, once Darlene puts the headphones on her head and starts crying, Elliot cuddles up next to her and listens in.  Awww…

Price’s Gift to Whiterose

Price goes to visit Whiterose—disguised as Zhang—and lets her know that he’s resigning as the CEO of E-Corp by the end of the year.  Not only that, but he’s leaving the Deus Group, too.  Whiterose tells him he can’t leave now; her project hasn’t shipped to the Congo yet.  Price doesn’t care.  Whiterose mentions that in order for Price to resign, all the Deus Group members have to meet in person.  Price suggests they have a meeting on New Year’s. Whiterose ain’t happy at all, and screams at Price that the game isn’t played that way.  Price tells her that if she thinks this is all a game, she should be ecstatic.  She won.  With that, Price leaves and Whiterose is so pissed off, she sends her gorgeous Christmas tree crashing to the floor.

fsociety Reunited

Back at the funeral home, Elliot gets a call from Price, notifying that he made his move.  Elliot thanks him, but Price tells him he didn’t do it for him.  Bitch, Elliot didn’t want you to do it for him!  Anyway, Darlene shows up with their mother’s urn in tow and asks who Elliot was talking to, but he lies and says it wasn’t anybody.   Darlene sees through this and reveals that she saw him looking up info on Susan Jacobs on his phone.  Elliot asks why she cares so much, and since Darlene is in a chapel, she pretty much confesses to killing her.  Elliot immediately blasphemes, but then realizes he’s in the house of the Lord and takes pause.

On a side note, I’m still not sure if Darlene accidentally killed Susan Jacobs or if it was intentional.  On one hand, she seemed shocked when she saw Susan’s lifeless body fall into her pool after shocking her with that stun gun, and she swore up and down she didn’t know the woman had a pacemaker.  However, I don’t know how Darlene didn’t notice she had a heart condition, considering all the e-mails about pacemakers and heart health she came across when she hacked Susan’s e-mail.  Darlene had to have seen at least one of them.  Mobley did.  Not only that, but Darlene stunned the woman directly in the heart.  Most folks tend to go towards the lower torso.  I can’t even say I’m 99.9% sure of what really happened.  Too soon?  😂😂

Anyway, Darlene asks Elliot if they’re still cool, even though she committed murder.  Elliot assures her they are, considering that Susan Jacobs wasn’t exactly a moral compass, and he asks Darlene for everything she has on Susan.  Darlene wants to know why he needs that information, and Elliot lets it be known that he’s going after Whiterose.  Darlene wants in.  Elliot refuses, but Darlene truthfully tells him that every successful big time hack he did was with fsociety, and now, they’re all they have.  Deep down, Elliot knows she’s right and reluctantly lets her join the team, although he wouldn’t have had any say in the matter anyway.  Darlene mentions that she figured Elliot was up to something, but she wasn’t sure what it was.  She assumed it had something to do with Vera.

Elliot is confused.  Vera?  What about Vera?  Darlene tells him that she thought his plan involved trying to get revenge against Vera.  After all, he showed up at Elliot’s place a few months back, and when Darlene tried to tell him about it, he brushed it off.  We get a glimpse of Mr. Robot sitting nearby, looking a bit confused himself.  When Darlene leaves, Elliot’s furious.  He goes off on Mr. Robot, accusing him of being untrustworthy yet again.  Mr. Robot swears down Darlene didn’t tell him about Vera.  Elliot knows good and well Darlene didn’t say anything to him.  Mr. Robot promises he didn’t know anything about Vera coming back.  Now, we all know that Mr. Robot lies like a damn rug, but this time, he appears to be telling the truth.  Elliot asks the question we’ve all been asking…if Darlene didn’t tell him, and she didn’t tell Mr. Robot, who did she talk to?

Meanwhile, Inside the Wonderful World of Elliot’s Head…

Little Elliot is in a boardroom, turning in a chair—the same boardroom Tyrell invited grown Elliot to (for real) in the pilot episode.  There’s four chairs at the table where little Elliot is seated.

Elliot’s mom walks in and tells him that’s not his seat and he needs to move.  Little Elliot asks why and his mother answers that they have to wait until “they’re” ready.  When Little Elliot asks who they’re waiting for, his mother responds, “Him.”  Little Elliot wonders if it’s Mr. Robot.  His mother tells him it isn’t.  Little Elliot guesses it’s grown Elliot, then.  Wrong again.  Then who?  She says, “The other one.”

The other one!?

THE OTHER ONE!?

THE OTHER ONE!?  THERE’S ANOTHER PERSONALITY!?!?

And that’s the end of the show (that’s enough!  Damn!).

As usual, this episode was great, and it mooked up my mind.  No lie, I lost serious sleep over the ending.  However, after racking my brain over it for the next day or so, I think I may have an idea as to who the third personality is.  I’ll save that for a separate post; I really have to break down how and why I came up with the person I came up with.

I’ll say this much, I really miss Elliot talking to us.  Mr. Robot doesn’t talk nearly enough for my taste, although I laughed out loud at his “Fuck you” line (I wasn’t really mad 😀).  I loved the scene where Elliot and Darlene cuddled up together at the bank, and I’m so glad the dynamic duo is back together again!  Let’s just hope they both live through this.  On this show, you never know.  On a side note, whenever Elliot gave Mr. Robot the business this episode, it was hot!  Don’t judge me; I love that little guy.  He and Bruno Mars are my favorite little men.

I feel really bad for Dom, and that doggone Janice irks my nerve.  At least Leon and Irving were likable!  I really hope Dom can find a way to get out from under the Dark Army’s thumb, with Elliot and Darlene’s help, of course.  Next week, Elliot and Darlene start putting their plan in motion and Vera finally makes an appearance, whining about how he wants Elliot to be his partner.

So far, I’m enjoying the season, and I know the best (and craziest) is yet to come!  Once again, I just hope Elliot and Darlene live to tell the tale.  It’s bad enough they killed Angela…  😭😭😭

—Written by Nadiya

So what did you think about “402 Payment Required”?  Are you glad Elliot and Darlene teamed up again?  Do you think Elliot dealt with his mother’s death or just pushed it all in like Mr. Robot said?  Also, do you think Elliot and Darlene were cold about their mother dying, or were their attitudes justified?  Did you want to see what was in Mrs. Alderson’s safe deposit box?  Why do you think Price is helping Elliot?  Is it revenge for what Whiterose did to Angela?  Who do you think the third personality is?  Are you excited to see Vera come back?  Let me know in the comments section!