Mr. Robot
Season 2 Episode 11 “eps2.9_pyth0n-pt1.p7z”
Directed by Sam Esmail
Written & Directed by Sam Esmail
Created by Sam Esmail
Starring Rami Malek, Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, Christian Slater, Michael Cristofer, Stephanie Corneliussen, Grace Gummer, BD Wong, Joey Bada$$, Sandrine Holt, Azhar Khan, Michael Drayer
USA Network
Air date: Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 10pm

Last week’s episode ended with a bang literally. Darlene (Carly Chaikin) and Cisco (Michael Drayer) took a friend to the hospital and were enjoying a moment of peaceful normalcy together. At the same time Agent Dom DiPierro (Grace Gummer) got a lead that ID’ed Cisco and against her wishes the Feds released his photo to the news media. This made him a target for The Dark Army. As she finds the two sharing a meal a few blocks from the hospital, a Dark Army gunman shows up and opens fire. DiPierro gives chase covered in blood, but whose we don’t know. As for Elliot (Rami Malek), he is facing a grave realization; maybe Mr. Robot was lying to him after all. How else do you explain his disappearance at the same time Joanna Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) shows up talking about her husband? Is Tyrell Wellick alive? Questions need to be answered as we hit the penultimate episode in Mr. Robot‘s second season.

Spoilers below.

“Mind awake, body asleep. Mind awake, body asleep.” As Elliot tries to coax Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) out of his slumber, everything is caving in around him. Angela (Portia Doubleday) is held hostage by silent snatchers, and being transported to an unknown location. Dipierro is being evaluated after the shooting, and is in shock; not from the shooting itself, but from learning that China just bailed out E-Corp to the tune of two trillion dollars interest free, enough to end the financial panic caused by the 5/9 hack. She knows China is involved in what could be both a global economic conspiracy and an act of war, but with the FBI reeling from the scandals exposed by fsociety, they are in no position to act. Add to this that Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer) is now trying to use that loan to force the US government to legalize his new monetary system, the E-coin.

There is a scene where Angela arrives at her destination and she is questioned by a little girl using an 80s computer program that is so surreal and bizarre, that I wondered if I had fallen asleep and was actually dreaming it. Words cannot describe this scene. The longer it goes on, the more awkward it is. I don’t know if it’s brilliant or the show has simply fallen off the deep end. Speaking of falling off the deep end, witness DiPierro returning home from the hospital and having a conversation with her smartphone that is right out of Her.

We find out who is responsible for Angela’s kidnapping, and it leads to another strange back and forth. At this point I am losing track of reality. As Elliot and Mr. Robot decipher a complex algorithm to find out who is trying to contact them/him, I find myself drifting off. Am I becoming Elliot during this episode? Elliot has an encounter in a cab, and at this point I no longer have any semblance of what is real and what isn’t.

Sam Esmail may have overplayed his hand. He’s gone to the well of showing us alternate realities within Elliot’s head so often that I legitimately have no clue what I just watched. I am in no way a drug user, but I feel like I need to warp my sense of reality and re-watch this episode to see if anything made sense. It was a strange way to go as a penultimate episode, that is for sure. I’m sorry if this review came across as bizarre rambling, but in reality, that is what it felt like watching this episode.

Mr. Robot wraps up its second season next Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on USA.

Video

Mr. Robot: on the next episode_2.11

Angela makes an unexpected acquaintance. Elliot does the same. Dom engages in an interesting ama.