‘Mr. Robot’ Impressions: Episode 1.1

When last we left off on Mr. Robot, “protagonist” of sorts Elliot Aldersion was in complete disbelief. After setting into motion the events that would frame an innocent person for a far-reaching hacking scandal, he’s dragged by men in black to a new location — and a familiar face from the corporation he hacked, Evil Corp, was staring him in the face.

The previous episode left it open; was he brought in by Mr. Robot’s equivalent of the Illuminati? As the first few moments of the second episode — or 1.1 — reveal to the viewer, that’s not quite the case. In fact, Elliot is given a job offer. With Evil Corp. Thanks to Elliot’s actions, this shady character had been promoted to interim CTO, and it was to become official. He made it clear he has big plans.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a catch to the job offer. Evil Corp is restructuring its security protocols, and that means dumping Elliot’s current employer, Allsafe. This would put him out of the job, his friend Angela out of a job, and all of his co-workers. Ultimately, Elliot says he prefers it “where he is.”

He’s clearly shaken by these events.

Upon turning to his regular work job, he’s brought in by his boss, Gideon, and told that he would be getting a bump in his salary thanks to his supposed help in solving Evil Corp’s security problems. Elliot is quick to decline, but Gideon won’t budge, and then he drops a word that must have mad Elliot’s heart skip a beat: “fsociety.”

Immediately upon hearing it, he asked what was said for clarification, oblivious to the fact that fsociety had released a public video threatening data dumps unless their leader — or the patsy, in this case — is freed, and the people of the world freed themselves. From their debts.

This is, the masked character says, non-negotiable.

“Play it again,” Elliot says after watching the entire video.

When he returns to his apartment, he sees his drug dealer, Shayla, standing right outside along with Shayla’s “supplier,” who is eventually introduced as Vera. Not shying away from controversial topics, Mr. Robot deals with drug abuse even further as Elliot asks to be given more morphine, this time without his withdrawal meds.

The lengths that the writers go to, down to detailing substance abuse for certain characters and the personality flaws of both Elliot and other fsociety members, is something that brings a lot of depth to the show. There’s loads of attention to detail throughout the series, from the depictions of Linux, Linux commands — everything seems to be given a once-over and then a twice-over.

After a brief protest from Shayla, she gives in and, almost immediately, Elliot snorts two lines of morphine — more than usual for a character so set in his routine. He later visits Shayla at her apartment, where we get a more intimate look at this Vera character. When Elliot realizes his dealer is nowhere to be seen, he becomes concerned, knocking on her bathroom door before confronting Vera.

Aloof and nonchalant in a clearly arrogant way, he assures him that she is fine. Rather than taking him at his word, Elliot presses further before eventually being convinced, somewhat forcibly, to sit down and wait for her to get out. Vera, as it turns out, is the supplier — one of the only, apparently — of the withdrawal meds Elliot uses to keep, as he sees it, from becoming a junkie.

After a brief exchange, it becomes clear that Elliot is in no way intimidated by Vera. Seemingly in response, he takes the meds with him, attempts to claim Shayla as his territory, and walks out. After lockpicking her bathroom door, he eventually manages to wake her up, and she’s not aware of how she fell asleep or why she was in her tub.

Hints dropped during the conversation suggest to Elliot that she was raped, completely unaware of it. She does at one point ask him to promise not to do anything, but that promise isn’t one that he will be keeping for very long. After extensive digging into Vera and his “gang,” he begins to identify terminology they use openly on Twitter.

After seeing one particular tweet about someone being raped, the game is on. Elliot is going to destroy Vera. And, sure enough, he did; after anonymously reporting incriminating evidence to the authorities, it isn’t long that Elliot discovers that Vera — and his gang — were busted by the police. Clearly, Elliot doesn’t subscribe to “snitches get stitches” code.

Earlier in the episode, Elliot makes a brief stop by fsociety headquarters and has a conversation with Mr. Robot. Elliot is eager to continue the plan, but he isn’t aware of what that plan might entail — such as the blowing up of a gas pipeline in order to take out Evil Corp data centers, potentially killing innocent people, something Mr. Robot doesn’t seem very concerned about.

It’s at this point that Elliot realizes he may be in way over his head. He returns to his therapist, but this time he’s more open. Everything seems to be going wrong for him — and just when he’s about to fully open up, he snaps at his therapist, and that’s the last we see of the two for the rest of the episode.

Later in the episode, Mr. Robot invites Elliot to a pier, where he’s sitting on the fence with his legs dangling off the side. He invites Elliot to do the same, and the two engage in what seems more a game than a conversation. Mr. Robot asks Elliot how his father died, to which he rightfully responded that he’d likely already looked it up anyway, but Elliot is willing to humor him.

He tells a few details about his father’s passing, save for one thing: He told his mother that his dad had cancer, which he was strictly forbidden to do. He tried to comfort him, hug him, but in response? His father pushed him out of a window, breaking his arm.

Mr. Robot then asks a strange question, “Do you think you deserved to be pushed?”

Barely before Elliot can finish saying “No,” he’s pushed off the side of the pier.

“You made a pact,” Mr. Robot said before leaving. Roll credits.

This episode had a remarkably different tone from the first, likely due to filming dates, but the writers did keep most things consistent. If there’s one thing for sure, it’s that we’re in for quite a ride in this thrilling first season of Mr. Robot.

Interested in seeing what’s next? Check out the promo for episode — er, 1.3.

[Image credit: Mr. Robot]