Mr. Robot Season 3 Episode 9: eps3.8

If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.

Synopsis: Elliot trolls a former ally; Mr. Robot leaves cryptic text; Tyrell gets new commands. (IMDB)

Writer: Kyle Bradstreet

Director: Sam Esmail

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 45min

In the penultimate episode to a very strong third season, Mr. Robot shows us not only the inception of the 5/9 attacks through various flashbacks throughout the episode involving Elliot, Price and The Dark Army, but also the beginnings of Stage 3, a new plan devised by Elliot to dismantle E Corps. This episode jumps back and forth in time very fluidly to the point where you begin to question when each scene is taking place in the overall story and not so much why or how. It’s a small but clever way to keep the viewer engaged and guessing and is a wonderful storytelling tool for a show that isn’t always what it seems to be.

Mr. Robot, feeling used by The Dark Army and realizing that his master revolution wasn’t completely his doing but more of the Captains of industry allowing it to be so, revealed this harsh truth to Wellick as he slowly begins to realize that his loyalty and sacrifice to The Dark Army was not enough for them in terms of payment for his freedom. In short, he will never be free and for now, he is still just another pawn in a much larger game.

Enter Stage 3.

Elliot devises a plan that’s goal is to bring down The Dark Army by attacking its heart, WhiteRose, through the exposure of her involvement with the 5/9 attacks and the explosions of the 71 E Corps buildings. As a cover, he brings this plan to The Dark Army as a way of finishing what they originally set out do with completely dismantling E Corps. Their new target: E Coin, which is quickly becoming a worldwide used form of currency and is the only thing keeping E Corps afloat financially. This would cripple them beyond repair thus making them obsolete.

On the other side of the story, Darlene, who is aware of Elliot’s true intentions with Stage 3, attempts to seduce Agent DiPerio and clone her FBI badge giving her access to Sentinel, the FBI security database that has the encryption keys needed in order to restore all of E Corps files thus undoing everything that had been done over the past two seasons. She is caught and forced to tell of her plan alerting The Dark Army’s informant within the FBI who quickly runs the information up the chain.

WhiteRose has placed much faith in Elliot and his ability to accomplish these attacks, however, she has anticipated some sort of retaliation from him as a result of the damage done. It isn’t until her right-hand man informs her of the coincidence of Elliot’s Stage 3 proposal and Darlene’s incarceration that he thinks is an attempt at coming after The Dark Army directly setting in motion a series of events that will have Elliot follow in the footsteps of his father in both life and death after working with The Dark Army.

This episode did an excellent job of setting up several future narratives; Stage 3, Elliot’s revenge, The Dark Army’s assassination attempt on Elliot and more. As next week brings us to the end of this season, it is safe to say that this has been one of, if not, the strongest seasons by Mr. Robot and despite it resolving a major storyline with Stage 2 and certain loose ends being tied off it has still managed to create plausible plot threads that will continue Elliot & Co. story in a very real way. There has been such significant growth by all of the major characters this season that I am excited to see how the finale will handle the directions they moving towards. The lines in the sand are slowly becoming drawn by Elliot and Darlene against The Dark Army and will be intriguing moving forward how many they can recruit to aid in their cause.

Side Observations:

Angela has a “Hang in There” cat poster in her apartment that made me laugh out loud during the episode. Well played, Esmail.
Was it just me or was there a mini-Alexa commercial done by Agent DiPerio during the episode? And then during the next commercial break, they showed a similar girl asking Alexa about her 5/9 update. Is this a real thing? If so, kinda creepy but I’m intrigued.
WhiteRose’s house musician – There’s RICH and then there’s I have so much money I hired someone to come to my house and play wine glasses while I’m planning the destruction of world currency RICH.

Score: 7/10