Mr. Robot: What Is Real?

Warning: Spoiler Alert

We begin with a flashback to 1994. Elliot’s Dad is working in a small store front repairing computers and selling hardware. A customer comes in to accuse young Elliot (who is not present) of stealing money from him. The customer is insulting to put it bluntly. When he demands to get his money back, Mr. Robot declines. The customer has some ugly things to say but eventually leaves with nothing. Dad calls young Elliot out from the back. After a quick denial, Elliot produces the missing $20 bill. Instead of punishing him, Dad offers to use the money to take him to see either Time Cop or Stargate in the theater. The bad deed in Dad’s mind was outweighed by bad nature of the customer.

Back in present day, Father and Son attempt to have a conversation about what is happening and what happened 20 years ago. Dad’s concerned. Once Darlene’s name’s brought up Elliot snaps, tossing the table and then his father against the wall. Elliot is irate, but Dad tries to calm him. It doesn’t work. Too much bad has happened in the last 20 years to just brush this off. The truth that Dad is clinging to is that there are people who don’t want him alive, if they even knew he was alive.

Dad: Come on…
Elliot: Where?
Dad: If you want answers, you’ve got to stop asking questions and follow me.

At Angela’s lawyer’s office, there is a bit of commotion. After the news of the confession, the office is a buzz trying to get everything ready for the next step. All is not peachy though, it seems Angela thought she could just leave All Safe and jump right in to help out with the Washington Township case part 2. Her lawyer doesn’t see it that way.

Darlene reaches out to Angela hoping to find Elliot. Angela in her current state of stress is not completely inclined to help. Clearly, there is more familiarity between Angela and Darlene as there is between Elliot and Darlene. Angela knows there is something going on. She knows Elliot has not been honest. She’s also getting the impression that whatever Elliot is hiding, Darlene is in on it.

Father and son reflect on a small piece of nostalgia. Elliot used to play a game with himself when they’d wait for the train to come. He’d calculate which car had the best probability of safety and take that one into the city. Then on the way back, choose the most dangerous. Because he hated going home. Elliot is beginning to remember more and more as time passes.

Mrs. Wellick reflects on the birth of their son by telling Tyrell she had a little girl when she was fifteen, but she gave it up for adoption to a couple. Despite her cold demeanor, this may be that singular moment that haunts her and motivates her. She opens up just enough to Tyrell, just to shut him out again. She tells him that he is no longer the man she wishes to be married to. This comes back around to whatever their agenda is. If he wants to be around, he needs to fix whatever ‘this’ is.

Gideon stops by the computer supply store where Elliot met with White Rose. The store got blown up or burned down. Either way everything is gone or damaged. The more interesting question is why would Gideon go there to pick up drives, when he could have sent anyone?

One of the high-ranking board members of Evil Corp is waiting in Wellick’s office when he walks in. Initially to congratulate Tyrell on his new baby. The conversation take a turn for the worse when this superior of Wellick’s informs him that the police consider him a person of interest in the death of Sharon Knowles. Then the walls come crashing down. Scott Knowles will remain while Tyrell Wellick will not. This incites a loud outburst. Phillip’s (the board member), disappointed by this reaction. Wellick eventually even begs to keep his job, but Phillip just walks out.

Father and son take a walk through their old house, a place of bad memories for Elliot. He stares out of the famous window. Dad tries to convince him they should leave. Elliot then grabs him and almost throws him out of the window. Mr. Robot tries to convey that what happened was a reflection of Elliot’s own guilt. He says that Elliot needs to let go of the guilt. Elliot’s eyes gloss over and admits that he was angry at himself and that he was ready to let go. Then he literally let’s go. Letting his father fall from a second story window.

While Gideon tries to undo Elliot’s reversal of the ‘honey pot’, Angela hears from her father that he saw Darlene recently. Angela finds Darlene in the Alderson’s old house. They escape the eye of the new homeowner, then Darlene admits she should be more transparent with Angela as they are in some manner of speaking, family. That’s when they notice they are walking over broken glass.

Elliot helps his Dad limp across a large cemetery. You can hear Darlene and Angela in the distance. Darlene and Angela somehow provide a threat to whatever this is. Dad tells Elliot that ‘they’ are going to try to separate them again. He needs Elliot to not let that happen. Then he repeats, “I will never leave you alone again”. Mr. Robot sits down on the grass, his back supported by a tombstone. As the girls approach, he quietly says he wants to know. He wants to know about whatever this is. Eventually, he yells it out.

Elliot: I WANNA KNOW!!!
Darlene: Elliot? Who are you talking to?
(Edward Alderson isn’t there)

Elliot is in full breakdown mode. He creates space between himself and the girls. They notice that he’s bleeding. He begins to notice that he’s experiencing what looks like bone or joint pain. The kind of pain associated with a fall. Then Elliot and Inner Elliot start to spin the ‘we’re crazy’ thing again. Inner Elliot suspecting that Elliot knew all along. Then Angela asks who Elliot thought he was talking to.

Inner Elliot: You’re gonna make me say it aren’t you? I am Mr. Robot.

Angela tries to reassure Elliot that he’ll be alright. He doubts her claim. She explains that she’s slightly jealous, even if his Dad wasn’t really there. They share an embrace and Angela is off. On the train, Darlene asks if Elliot remembers any of it. Referencing the beginning of f_society. Elliot plays dumb even though the damaged wheels in his brain are spinning.

Gideon drops in to Wellick’s office presumably to get the honey pot back in place, only to discover that Wellick has been let go. This makes Gideon almost frantic. He asks Wellick’s former assistant if she can get him a meeting with Knowles. Apparently, Gideon was out of the loop on the whole Sharon Knowles news.

Angela returns to her father’s home to find Terry Colby and associates in his dining room. Her father looks up at her and with a disapproving look leaves the room to let them talk. Colby has done some digging after being impressed with their last encounter. Colby has something he thinks Angela might want. A lucrative position in Evil Corp. The very company she is currently suing. Angela is resentful towards this offer, but Colby persists, suggesting that there are no grudges in business.

In Elliot’s apartment, Darlene tries to get him thinking straight while all he can do is question what is real and what is not. Furthermore, operating under the assumption that Mr. Robot never was really there, Darlene confirms that all of this f_society stuff was Elliot’s idea.

At the peak of this quandary between what’s real and what’s not, Elliot’s front door begins to slowly open. Elliot almost jumps out of his skin when he discovers the person at the door is none other than Tyrell Wellick. He very calmly tells Elliot that he knows he’s behind everything. The one constant in a sea of variables. Wellick doesn’t have all the answers but wants Elliot to give them to him. Wellick even walks him through the first person experience of what it’s like to strangle a woman to death.

Then, maybe the second most surprising part of this episode, Elliot takes Wellick to the f_society HQ. Elliot proceeds to tell Wellick as much as he ‘knows’. The details do nothing but increase Wellick’s desire to be involved. Elliot takes all of the credit and blame. Wellick says that now there are two. With no job at Evil Corp, it’s not that crazy to think Wellick would want to help.

Wellick: I have to ask, what were you hoping to accomplish with all of this?
Elliot: I don’t know…I wanted to save the world.