Mr. Robot – eps2.4m4ster-s1ave.aes

                                  By Jessica Wolff

Mr. Robot interrupts your regularly scheduled programming to bring you the show imagined as a retro-style sitcom. A confused Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) sits in the backseat of a car surrounded by his family as they drive down the road. Elliot is confused about what is going on and his mother (Vaishnavi Sharma), father (Mr. Robot, Christian Slater) and sister Darlene (Carly Chaikin) all make jokes at Elliot’s expense, complete with a laugh track to highlight the sitcom atmosphere. A pounding and muffled shout comes from the trunk of the car and Mr. Robot changes the subject to Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) when Elliot asks about it. Elliot insists that he and Angela are just friends, but Mr. Robot insists that they are a will-they-won’t-they romance. Elliot asks about the laugh track and Darlene makes fun of him for hearing voices. On Darlene’s retro Game Boy, Elliot sees footage of himself getting beat up by Ray’s henchman. The show’s intro is reimagined as a sitcom intro to complete the theme of the episode.

The family pulls up to a gas station owned by E Corp and Darlene refuses to give Elliot her Game Boy. Their mother burns Darlene’s arm with her cigarette and knocks her out with a punch. She forces Elliot to get her more cigarettes, but the pounding in the trunk starts again. Elliot opens it to reveal Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom) tied up and gagged, but Mr. Robot shuts the trunk quickly. Once inside the store, Elliot bumps into classic 80’s sitcom character Alf, which earns applause from the studio audience. Angela is working at the store and says that she’s been moving up the ranks at E Corp and that it almost makes up for them killing her mom. Mr. Robot and his wife enter the store with burlap sacks, spray Angela with pepper spray and start robbing the store. Mr. Robot tells Elliot to not worry about Angela because she is a member of E Corp now, but Elliot insists that she’s still his friend. Elliot’s mother stashes her bag with cigarettes and the three of them leave the store.

Back on the road, Darlene wakes up and her mother punches her again repeatedly. The car pulls over and Mr. Robot pulls out a spare tire from under Tyrell. Elliot confronts his father about what is going on. His cursing and grabbing of Mr. Robot earns gasps from the audience and a police car stops, blaring its sirens. A series of retro themed commercials breaks up the action, including a couple for E Corp. As the show returns from break, Gideon Goddard (Michel Gill) steps out of the police car in full police officer gear. Mr. Robot tells Elliot to run for it, but Elliot is in disbelief that Gideon is alive. Alf comes zooming down the road in a convertible and hits Gideon, killing him.

The family starts driving again and Elliot is still shaken by Gideon’s death. Tyrell escapes from the trunk and is knocked out by a mysterious force. Mr. Robot continues to deny Tyrell’s presence and insists that Elliot is seeing things. Then, Mr. Robot asks Elliot to help him carry Tyrell back to the trunk. Elliot complies and realizes while the laugh track is still going that this reality is a lie. Mr. Robot tells him that sometimes lies can be useful and that the truth is painful. Tyrell comments on this and Mr. Robot hits him to shut him up, spraying blood all over his clothes. Through all of this, Elliot believes that Mr. Robot has finally taken over his mind and won the battle. Mr. Robot shows him a hospital and tells him that this reality was to help him cope with the aftermath of the beating he took. Elliot and Mr. Robot hug and Elliot walks into the hospital to take the next step.

Elliot wakes up with a start in this reality and Lone Star (Michael Maize) stands over him. Ray (Craig Robinson) addresses him from the side of the bed, telling him that the only reason that he is still breathing is because of him and that they still have work to do. Meanwhile, Trenton (Sunita Mani) and Darlene watch news coverage of the FBI shooting in China and discuss their plan to hack the FBI. Trenton is skeptical of their ability to pull off the plan, but Darlene is confident in Angela’s abilities. Angela struggles with learning the hacking concepts that Mobley (Azhar Khan) is teaching her, the pressure of having to learn everything in a short period of time making it more difficult. Cisco (Michael Drayer) receives the equipment needed for the hack from the Dark Army. He asks too many questions and is grabbed by two masked men and given a shot through the finger in order to reestablish where his loyalties lie.

In the aftermath of the FBI shooting, Dominique DiPierro (Grace Gummer) resists her supervisor’s request to take some time off. DiPierro insists that the shooting was the Dark Army’s plan to disrupt the investigation of the five/nine hack. Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer) is struggling to save E Corp as the effects of the hack permeate through the American economy. The building is surrounded by hundreds of protesters demanding action. At fsociety headquarters, Angela comes face to face with Cisco who she recognizes as the guy who forced her and Ollie to help with the hack last season.

Darlene walks out of the New York subway disguised with a wig and sunglasses. She makes her way into a hotel, calls for a member of housekeeping and stealthily swipes her key information to use to gain access. Once in the room, she sets up and prepares for the hack. In E Corp’s office, Angela gets a call from Darlene, signaling her to move. She goes to the floor and pulls out her computer in an empty bathroom. fsociety talks her through the process and Angela manages to pull it off, despite a couple of difficulties. As she comes out of the bathroom she is approached by an FBI agent who questions what she is doing on the floor. He hits on her, refusing to take no for an answer. After fsociety is unable to get rid of him, Angela agrees to a date. Darlene gives Angela her next instructions after he leaves. Angela puts the servers in and makes her way of the room. The Wi-Fi goes out and Darlene gives her another task, despite Angela’s objections.

Back at the hospital, Ray’s henchmen unplug and pull Elliot from his bed. Angela walks back to her cubicle and follows Darlene’s instructions to bring the Wi-Fi back up. DiPierro, who wants to talk to her, interrupts her. Elliot is dragged to a dark room and locked inside. Mr. Robot appears to him and Elliot struggles to sit up. They embrace and Elliot thanks him for helping him recover. Elliot flashes back to when he was a kid. His father tells him that he has cancer and assures him that things are going to be all right. Mr. Robot tells him that he will be opening a computer store and asks Elliot to help name it. Upon seeing the place, Elliot comes up with the inspiration for the name.