For the uninitiated

USA’s Mr. Robot follows Elliot, a young programmer who was working as a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot has been coming to grips with his mental conditions, in fact they make a sort of psychological symbiosis for him; mean while the hacktivist/anarchist group ‘fsociety’ must cope with the fallout of the5/9 attack on the mega-giant Evil Corp.

Now that your feet are wet

Flash back to Halloween 2014. Darlene opens Pandora’s box and unleashes Mr. Robot from Elliot’s mind; the plot to digitally cripple E(vil) Corp is hatched!

Season 2 picks up one month after 5/9 was executed: the US economy is in shambles, but President Obama assures America that fsociety will see justice and the US will recover and our collective resolve will heal us, yada-yada. Part of the devastation has wrought a cottage industry of garbage incinerator operations.

Elliot is in a sort of analog seclusion: he’s abstaining from any computer/network usage. In fact the closest to “digital” he gets is the loop that is his new daily routine; he has convinced himself having a such a simplified routine will extinguish Mr. Robot’s voice, but it isn’t so easy.

Angela proves to be quite the PR bad-ass, and despite her contempt for her employer, finds some happiness at E Corp gaining the admiration of CEO Phillip Price. Darlene reaches out to Angela for help to plant a small device, known as a femtocell, that can tap into any FBI phone or networked device, and, despite Elliot’s disapproval, they take a shot at their plan. It wasn’t without its hair-pulling tension, but they, “owned the FBI” to quote Darlene.

Darlene, Mobley, and Trenton assume control over Susan Jacobs’, the junior counsel and “Madame executioner” for E Corp, smart home for their new base of operations. Fsociety grunts take Wall Street by its hollow brass-balls, about as literally as metaphorically. Darlene and Mobley drop a nasty bug into the banking system of E Corp and demand $5.9 million USD as a ransom. In compliance with a mysterious voice on a burner phone E Corp CTO Scott Knowles is ordered to incinerate the $5.9 million in cash – whoa!

The FBI has called in Agent Dom(inique) DiPierro to head the 5/9 task force. Her user-friendly methods of interviewing witnesses get the FBI even closer to fsociety… like tracking down the group’s base of operations. //yikes

The FBI head to China to investigate 5/9, and man what a shit-show!! The Dark Army, the Chinese equivalent to fsociety, starts covering the tracks from 5/9 including an assault on Dom and some of her colleagues. Not only does she narrowly escape assassination herself, but these soldiers had no intention of being apprehended.

One of Elliot’s new acquaintances, Ray – who seems very eager to befriend Elliot, suggests Elliot take his demons on in an ultimate chess match. Except after three stalemates (kind of impossible) Elliot realizes the battle for his own sanity will require more than a chess match. Ray, as it turns out, needs some IT help of his own; but when Elliot sees the true nature of Ray’s IT needs Mr. Robot has an original way to demonstrate his own usefulness, “Sometimes lies can be useful; sometimes they can protect you.” And Alf makes a guest appearance. //trippy

In the process of helping Ray get his site up and running Elliot makes a move to blatantly hack into the FBI as a whistle-blowing tactic; Elliot and Mr. Robot reach a sort of symbiotic peace, which within the accord there’s a flashback to where Mr. Robot comes from. Elliot still wants to know more about Tyrell’s status, but Mr. Robot is still not ready to lay those cards on the table. To spare himself from getting thrown into a sort of dungeon, Elliot challenges Ray to one last chess match. Ray is no fool and knows Elliot set a trap.

Once Ray is out of the picture Elliot’s social circle evolves further; half of them want to kill him and half want to put him on a pedestal. Elliot also makes peace with his addiction group. He’s got more allies than he expected, including distant associates of the dark army, which leads to Elliot getting a promising letter: his analog life has reached its end. A giant awakening strikes the audience that the seclusion has been part of a fantasy he constructed for himself.

Upon airing the decline of the US to authorize the bailout for E Corp some thugs within fsociety pull of their latest hijinx in the US Capitol Building

We get another flashback to the very meeting the brought Mobley and Trenton into fsociety wherein Mobley can’t help but shove his foot down his throat through his exchanges with Trenton. Happy Independence Day 2015: fsociety leaks a juicy classified conference-call between the FBI and a handful of cooperating agencies. “Operation Berenstain,” the worst PR hang-up in the FBI’s history, has Dom trying her best to spin the case in the FBI’s favor; Angela defends her career choices; Darlene makes it known that her circle of trust is shrinking.

Susan Jacobs makes an unexpected return to home, “Lucy! You got some ‘splainin to do, baby!” In an effort to defend herself Darlene stuns Susan with a taser, but with Susan’s heart condition it proves fatal. Darlene smiles to herself at the turn of circumstances. Crematorium, anyone?

Angela decides there’s only one way to derive any degree of moral fulfillment from Evil Corp is by requesting a lateral advancement to Risk Management from Price himself; to make matters more interesting she over-steps her perceived boundaries on day one. Most of her family and friends are somewhat resentful of the success she’s finding in the company that was responsible for her mother’s and Elliot’s father’s deaths. Even when she’s confronted by friends of family she defends her career and maintains a steeled resolve. You’ve got to respect a woman like that, agree with her or not.

Dom pulls out all the stops to crack the 5/9 attack including bringing in both Mobley for questioning. Operation Berenstain even gets a lovely sound-bite from Snowden for his famous quote, “Saying you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is like saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.” Dom appeals to Angela to open up about her involvement in 5/9, “Sooner or later someone will connect the dots.”

Since the US won’t bail out E Corp Price turns to China for a 0% interest loan. The economic quagmire is causing brown-outs throughout the country. Then Price brings the loan back to the US government as a means to use the loan against the Chinese by using his Ecoin.

Angela is ready to call it quits on her end; she lets Elliot know she’s going to confess. Angela is confronted by some new friends – of a questionable disposition, and makes acquaintances with Whiterose.

Dom and the FBI track down Darlene’s apartment while she and Cisco are at the hospital; Cisco’s cover is blown thanks to his security badge. The Dark Army is taking no chances, Cisco gets executed while Darlene narrowly escapes thanks to Dom’s quick thinking. Dom gets a better idea of the gravity of circumstances, and offers Darlene all the ways out she can think of, but Darlene seems to be holding to her 5th amendment rights. When Dom shows her some of the FBI’s research Darlene’s resolve seems to pale a bit.

By the end of the season Elliot has basically lost it: when he can no longer tell the difference between Tyrell Wylleck’s legitimacy vs. Mr. Robot he questions Tyrell’s resolve.

The Verdict

I’ve seen my share of Hollywood’s attempts at taking on hacker-culture, and, having a bit of programming background, I find most attempts come up disappointingly short (ie: Hackers). Mr. Robot does such a powerful job of hitting the proverbial nail on the head where hacker ethos is concerned; it’s refreshing and provocatively entertaining.

About here I would include some sort of harsh critique about the science, in some way or another being off, but, again, Mr. Robot still delivers! The tools and tech used in the show are all actual tech we use ourselves: Firefox and Tor browsers, desktops that look like their “Dell” or “HP” etc logos were replaced by E Corp’s logo. The command-line scripts are consistent with what’s used in our world, the social engineering of hacking, it’s there! This mad scientist approves!!

A show this intense appeals to both nerd and non-nerd cultures alike: season 3 is going to be bomb!!