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Mr. Robot season_2.0 |OT| We Would Care, Bill - Wednesdays on USA

Ross61

Member
This is a good read, although probably a bit harsher than I would take things.

This statement is pretty lazy and inaccurate. I wasn't making a direct comparison, just stating that the change in approach and its associated failings from season one to season two most reminded me of what Pizzolatto tried to do with True Detective. Esmail clearly had more success in his attempt, but it still fell short of what made season one so great.
This statement is pretty lazy and inaccurate. Since I wasn't replying to you. And there's some stuff that people praise about S1 that I didn't really care for. Inversely, there's stuff people criticize about S2 that I really enjoyed. I don't hold S2 down from the expectations of S1 because it was an imperfect season that many people had jumped off before even ended. I greatly enjoyed this season and think it's top 5 this year.
 

joesmokey

Member
This statement is pretty lazy and inaccurate. Since I wasn't replying to you. And there's some stuff that people praise about S1 that I didn't really care for. Inversely, there's stuff people criticize about S2 that I really enjoyed. I don't hold S2 down from the expectations of S1 because it was an imperfect season that many people had jumped off before even ended. I greatly enjoyed this season and think it's top 5 this year.
Fair enough, apologies for going on the offensive :).
 

Hydrargyrus

Member
So, did they take down the building or what?

And why they want to destroy the building?, for what I've understand, E-Corp seems to be gathering all their info (in paper) in this place, in order to rebuild its data base... so they want to destroy it to fuck them again.
Is this all the Fase 2 (including all the femtocell stuff)?, because seems like a easier plan that the one they achieved during the season 1...

Plus, Tyrell Wellic could have been dead, doen't appear in any episode (and his wife too) and the season could be the same.


The best part of the episode was Leon and is about 1 second.
The redhead FBI agent, Angela, Eliot, Tyrell, Christian Slater, Darlene... tedious AF
 

Zoe

Member
So, did they take down the building or what?

And why they want to destroy the building?, for what I've understand, E-Corp seems to be gathering all their info (in paper) in this place, in order to rebuild its data base... so they want to destroy it to fuck them again.
Is this all the Fase 2 (including all the femtocell stuff)?, because seems like a easier plan that the one they achieved during the season 1...

Not yet.

Price's plan is to restore as much of their financial database as possible. In order to do this, they need to collect all of the documents from facilities across the country. That's taking time--a few more months.

I wouldn't say it's an easier plan than Stage 1 because it relies heavily on outside parties. They needed all of the documents to be gathered by E-Corp or else they would have had to plan attacks on all 17(?) facilities simultaneously. They needed the brownouts to start happening so E-Corp would plan for a large UPS room.

All of the electronic documents are useless because they're encrypted. Once the paper documents are gone, E-Corp is finished.

If Stage 2 happens, E-Corp's only hope is Trenton.
 
Fair enough, apologies for going on the offensive :).
What, that's called going on the offensive? Don't apologize for having a contrary opinion :p

And if he wasn't referring to the poster who directly compared this season as a whole to True Detective S2, I wonder whose assessment he was calling lazy and inaccurate then.

I also wonder if Darlene's going to turn on Eliot. That would be an interesting dynamic, now that she knows he kept her in the dark. She can feel important now.
 
I mean, the shell in the arcade wasn't explained, was it?

Yeah, no one seems to be biting on that one and it's the only thing I am left wondering about after reading the Variety article and this thread.

What the hell happened between the time Elliot and Tyrell were in the arcade and when Elliot woke up in the SUV? Why would there be a bullet there if no one was shot?

The only thing I can think of is misdirection. Maybe Elliot and Tyrell are so engaged in their plan that they will risk the people they care about/their colleagues (Darlene and the rest of f society) just to put the FBI on a false trail.

But that seems like a stretch to me.
 

Zoe

Member
Yeah, no one seems to be biting on that one and it's the only thing I am left wondering about after reading the Variety article and this thread.

What the hell happened between the time Elliot and Tyrell were in the arcade and when Elliot woke up in the SUV? Why would there be a bullet there if no one was shot?

The only thing I can think of is misdirection. Maybe Elliot and Tyrell are so engaged in their plan that they will risk the people they care about/their colleagues (Darlene and the rest of f society) just to put the FBI on a false trail.

But that seems like a stretch to me.

Mr Robot was willing to let Darlene get killed in the first season.
 

Cth

Member
It's the poem "The Red wheelbarrow" by William Carlis Williams. He didn't make it up.

"The red wheelbarrow" has appeared before, it was on Elliot's journal, iirc.

Yep.

screen-shot-2016-09-21-at-7-35-15-pm.png


Also:
tumblr_od7atvWN9m1tozulso10_r1_1280.jpg


tumblr_od7atvWN9m1tozulso7_1280.jpg


Also, it's the name of the media tie-in book they're putting out:
http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/book
 

T Dollarz

Member
I feel like this show will play so much better as a commercial-less binge on Amazon Prime. Just does not feel like a network show in the slightest.

The one week with the integrated vintage commercial was a cool ass play, tho.
 

vypek

Member
I feel like this show will play so much better as a commercial-less binge on Amazon Prime. Just does not feel like a network show in the slightest.

The one week with the integrated vintage commercial was a cool ass play, tho.

I don't think this season was nearly as bad as everyone else and that might partially be because I was delayed for when I could watch it. I wound up binge-watching episodes 2 through 11 in a single day
 

vypek

Member
If the FBI knows so much why do they seems to be a step or two behind from preventing things from happening.

They know the relevant people who are taking actions but probably don't know enough about their operations to be able to prevent them from happening. Especially since they don't really have a grasp on an all, Dark Army. And for some of the people they probably can't get stuff to stick so they can't just arrest all of the people and let things be.
 

Zoe

Member
If the FBI knows so much why do they seems to be a step or two behind from preventing things from happening.

They're a python. They're sitting back and letting things unfold until the real prey, Tyrell, surfaces. Dom even said some pythons can go without eating for a year...

Or at least that seems to be Dom's strategy. She didn't want Cisco to get outed like that.
 

chefbags

Member
I feel like this show will play so much better as a commercial-less binge on Amazon Prime. Just does not feel like a network show in the slightest.

The one week with the integrated vintage commercial was a cool ass play, tho.

I watch this show later on after its aired on a stream without commercials and id say it's a godsend. To have it continously go to the next scene without a commercial break is really nice and doesn't break the immersion.
 

El Topo

Member
They know the relevant people who are taking actions but probably don't know enough about their operations to be able to prevent them from happening. Especially since they don't really have a grasp on an all, Dark Army. And for some of the people they probably can't get stuff to stick so they can't just arrest all of the people and let things be.

Wouldn't they at least bug/track Elliot or have someone follow him, given that they (claim to) know how deep his involvement is? Also given that they cite the Patriot Act (and the events that happened) you would think they would have less trouble arresting potential terror subjects.
 

h1nch

Member
I feel like this show will play so much better as a commercial-less binge on Amazon Prime. Just does not feel like a network show in the slightest.

Most definitely. As I mentioned earlier, I did not begin to enjoy this season until I decided to pause and then binge watch all the eps over the last few days.

I'm happy for USA that they finally got a show that isn't the TV equivalent of fast food, but this show really ought to be on Netflix/Amazon Prime. It's a far better fit for that format.
 

Zoe

Member
Wouldn't they at least bug/track Elliot or have someone follow him, given that they (claim to) know how deep his involvement is? Also given that they cite the Patriot Act (and the events that happened) you would think they would have less trouble arresting potential terror subjects.

But they don't want to arrest them just yet. That's what Dom's python speech was about.
 

El Topo

Member
But they don't want to arrest them just yet. That's what Dom's python speech was about.

That's fine, but that doesn't mean they can't properly keep track of the people involved. There's no reason why they wouldn't keep an eye on Elliot in particular, given what they know.
 
Really liked the final episode (darlene lives yay)

The only thing that I was confused about was that the FBI knew about elliot... Yet they didnt do anything when he was in prison???
Best thing about the finale is that it didnt jump the shark with some time travel bullshit or was part of the Once Upon a Time-verse or whatever dumb theories are floating around. The bad news is that the episode felt boring. No real tension. Compare this to the episode where the E Corp router hack happens.

"WHAT.. IS STAGE 2? What dastardly thing could it be? Oh.. they are just going to get rid of the hard copy backups. ZZZZzzzzZZZ"

Makes sense though.. Although ecorp conveniently putting everything in the same building doesnt
 

El Topo

Member
The only thing that I was confused about was that the FBI knew about elliot... Yet they didnt do anything when he was in prison???

I mean, if you knew there was a guy involved in this enormous hack and probably ongoing terrorist activities, would you put him under surveillance to find the other conspirators and maybe even the Dark Army? Surely not.
 

vypek

Member
Wouldn't they at least bug/track Elliot or have someone follow him, given that they (claim to) know how deep his involvement is? Also given that they cite the Patriot Act (and the events that happened) you would think they would have less trouble arresting potential terror subjects.

Even with them lying in wait I would expect them to keep tabs on people. I guess the idea is that everyone is covering their tracks to a point that their presence is not always 100% known. If they had people on their trail the whole time (in person) at least they would try to shake themselves being followed or start doing something different from what they normally would. They are already using burner equipment, taking multiple transportation methods, holing up in different places that maybe they can't keep perfect track of people.

I think if they were arrested for the Patriot Act then they still need to make the accusations stick. Like they want with 100% certainty and no doubt or any possible excuse that these are the people. Personally, I think the writers are trying to get us to suspend our disbelief cause there is plenty of stuff in the story that is just ridiculous.
 
I mean, if you knew there was a guy involved in this enormous hack and probably ongoing terrorist activities, would you put him under surveillance to find the other conspirators and maybe even the Dark Army? Surely not.
No, it makes a lot more sense for Dom to harass Angela and troll Mobley.
 

ZoddGutts

Member
I don't know, it just felt that this season could've been done in 8 eps, this season was people mostly running in circles. I can see why people got fed up with this season and the ratings tanked hard because of it.
 

Chris R

Member
I'll wait for S3 to air everything and then binge it like I did when they reaired S1 over the Winter break. Much better way to watch this show it seems.
 

FiggyCal

Banned
I'll wait for S3 to air everything and then binge it like I did when they reaired S1 over the Winter break. Much better way to watch this show it seems.

I think more than an hour of this show can be daunting. It's monotonous, the plot lines are tedious and there's tons of ambience. I've fallen asleep through one of the earlier episodes this shits so boring.
 
I liked the finale! All of the answers I wanted were provided (
Tyrell's not dead, phase 2 is destroying the paper records, Darlene's alive and Dom knows everything)
and there were enough lingering questions to bring me back next year but not drive me crazy a la Walking Dead's recent season (
What's gonna happen to Trenton & Mobley? What's Angela's deal? What's in the Washington Township plant?
). I DO think they should've shown both parts of the finale on the same night though. Last week's cliffhanger made me rage.

I have two lingering questions to discuss, though--

1. What's the point of Joanna getting Tyrell off the hook for murder if he's the number one suspect in the 5/9 hack? Is it just so that she can get his severance/insurance payout?

2. What's the "dirty secret" that Tyrell refers to when speaking to Mr. Robot/Elliott in the opening scene? Is it just that he knows Elliott set up the initial hack of Allsafe and thus put everything into motion?
 
I think Tom and Lorenzo are the most incisive, thoughtful television critics out there, and agree wholeheartedly with their assessment (which echoes much of your thoughts as well):


It's the bolded that gets to me. Last season was such a subtle and timely critique on the value humans place on the ephemeral invisibilia of life (data, power, job titles), and this season we get the most hamfisted monologues (like the one in the support group, as well acted as it was) and obtuse, circuitous dialogue since...True Detective S2.

It's just such a massive fall from grace that the only thing that emerged unscathed this season was the cinematography, but if I just wanted to ogle pretty things, I'd watch a nature documentary.

And be more entertained.

I love this season because it went forward from that critique, which to me was a well worn one. It went on to critique the so called revolutionaries. The burn it all down types, asking what then? What do you do now? Who takes the power when there's a vaccum?

Mr Robot's answer was... The powerful, still. The revolutionaries, F Society, only knew how to burn stuff, beyond that they were lost. And picked off one by one. Elliot and those outside of F Society worked with one of those powers (Dark Army) to take out another (E Corp), doing what they only know what to do, burn stuff, but on a leash.

I loved that. It was a season long crackdown on those anarchistic tendancies hacker culture loves to glorify.
 
That would've been a fantastic penultimate episode. As a finale? Hmm.
I probably would've been fine with it if the Angela stuff from last week's ep hadn't happened. That raised far too many questions that needed to be answered this week, and made the new questions (wtf happened with Elliot?) kinda frustrating.

I still think this season has been great overall, though. Directing and acting wise, it has to be one of the best shows on tv right now.

Season 3 has to explain shit, and quick, or a lot of people will probably end up dropping the show.

I love this season because it went forward from that critique, which to me was a well worn one. It went on to critique the so called revolutionaries. The burn it all down types, asking what then? What do you do now? Who takes the power when there's a vaccum?

Mr Robot's answer was... The powerful, still. The revolutionaries, F Society, only knew how to burn stuff, beyond that they were lost. And picked off one by one. Elliot and those outside of F Society worked with one of those powers (Dark Army) to take out another (E Corp), doing what they only know what to do, burn stuff, but on a leash.

I loved that. It was a season long crackdown on those anarchistic tendancies hacker culture loves to glorify.

I was so relieved once I realized they were going down that route. I really thought they'd glorify the result of the anarchy from the first season, and thank fuck they didn't.
Elliot's attitude towards the world is one that has some truth to it, but it's coming from a severely mentally ill person. You're not meant to watch that shit and think "YES, he's totally right!". The quote posted on the previous page about that is totally missing the point imo.
 
I think more than an hour of this show can be daunting.
I binged all of Season 1 in a week and couldn't stop watching. If anything, with a show this dense - having a week of separation between episodes is the daunting task. So many details lost in that week gone by. I can't wait to binge this season again without interruption.

True Detective S2 comparisons? Ridiculous. I can't even fathom coming away with that feeling after this season. But then I'm one of the people that liked this season more than the first so...


That would've been a fantastic penultimate episode. As a finale? Hmm.
I probably would've been fine with it if the Angela stuff from last week's ep hadn't happened. That raised far too many questions that needed to be answered this week, and made the new questions (wtf happened with Elliot?) kinda frustrating.

I still think this season has been great overall, though. Directing and acting wise, it has to be one of the best shows on tv right now.

Season 3 has to explain shit, and quick, or a lot of people will probably end up dropping the show.
Did we not get those answers in this episode? Removing the Angela scenes from last week creates MORE questions. Not less.

I think people want to make certain elements in this show more obscure than what they actually are or are inferred to be. Angela and what went on in these two episodes seems pretty damned straight forward.

1. White Rose wants to understand why Angela continues to dig into issues that are technically of no concern to her, look to be affecting her plans and why she continues to come up on the Dark Army's radar.
2. White Rose wants to test her to see if she can be turned into an asset for the overall plan via the questioning by the little girl.
3. White Rose reveals the plan to Angela. Maybe not the whole A to Z scenario, but enough about Phase 2 and removing the physical financial records.
4. This persuades Angela to ally herself with the Dark Army and help them accomplish their goals along with Elliot. Hence why she tells the lawyer to back off of any investigation into ECorp.
5. Angela's immediate role is to function as a contact for Tyrell if the worst comes to pass and the gun needs to be used on Elliot.

I think Robot's plan all along was to get Elliot onboard with Phase 2. Once Elliot comes to terms with Robot's existence in prison and realizes that they must finish what they started - he engineers Elliot's release. Without letting him on phase 2 because Elliot is simply not ready to know that information. (remember Robot tells him "You are only meant to know as much as you can handle"). The hope from Robot was to "ease" Elliot into the plan and convince him of its necessity. The back-up plan was to sacrifice both Elliot and himself to make sure Phase 2 was executed no matter what if Elliot pulled well, an Elliot. It was the most undesirable result but its where we ended up because of Elliot's inability to come to terms with killing innocent people in the building.

If Elliot survives, having Angela be the first person he deals with is another failsafe to convince him that the overall plan including Phase 2 is worthwhile. (another voice from a longtime friend)

What would removing her scenes from last week have accomplished in that scenario exactly?
 
Did we not get those answers in this episode? Removing the Angela scenes from last week creates MORE questions. Not less.

I think people want to make certain elements in this show more obscure than what they actually are or are inferred to be. Angela and what went on in these two episodes seems pretty damned straight forward.

1. White Rose wants to understand why Angela continues to dig into issues that are technically of no concern to her, look to be affecting her plans and why she continues to come up on the Dark Army's radar.
2. White Rose wants to test her to see if she can be turned into an asset for the overall plan via the questioning by the little girl.
3. White Rose reveals the plan to Angela. Maybe not the whole A to Z scenario, but enough about Phase 2 and removing the physical financial records.
4. This persuades Angela to ally herself with the Dark Army and help them accomplish their goals along with Elliot. Hence why she tells the lawyer to back off of any investigation into ECorp.
5. Angela's immediate role is to function as a contact for Tyrell if the worst comes to pass and the gun needs to be used on Elliot.

I think Robot's plan all along was to get Elliot onboard with Phase 2. Once Elliot comes to terms with Robot's existence in prison and realizes that they must finish what they started - he engineers Elliot's release. Without letting him on phase 2 because Elliot is simply not ready to know that information. (remember Robot tells him "You are only meant to know as much as you can handle"). The hope from Robot was to "ease" Elliot into the plan and convince him of its necessity. The back-up plan was to sacrifice both Elliot and himself to make sure Phase 2 was executed no matter what if Elliot pulled well, an Elliot. It was the most undesirable result but its where we ended up because of Elliot's inability to come to terms with killing innocent people in the building.

If Elliot survives, having Angela be the first person he deals with is another failsafe to convince him that the overall plan including Phase 2 is worthwhile. (another voice from a longtime friend)

What would removing her scenes from last week have accomplished in that scenario exactly?

If that's all that happened with Angela, sure.

I just fail to see Angela reacting the way she did to the explanation of Stage 2.
She goes from freaking the fuck out, ready to turn herself in to suddenly being in a perfectly calm, serene state because Whiterose told her they're going to blow up a building (potentially killing a lot of innocent people) to destroy E-Corp?

For one, I don't see Angela being on board with this plan at all. On top of that, the main thing she was freaking out over - what she did and how the fbi are onto her - is now about to potentially become a lot worse. And finally, what about her final scene where she calmly tells Tyrell that shooting Elliot was the right thing to do? It's totally out of character. She looks to be about as obedient as the suicide gunmen at the moment.

All signs point to more going on that what we saw/know.

Edit: I left out one of the most important things from the previous ep. Whiterose and Angela's conversation about making things come real by will depending on your concept of reality. How does that play into this at all?
 

Klocker

Member
Can someone explain to me the story about the CTO of evil Corp? What was up with his wife death and baby? And Tyler? And what did the beaten up wife have to do with him?
 

CRS

Member
Can someone explain to me the story about the CTO of evil Corp? What was up with his wife death and baby? And Tyler? And what did the beaten up wife have to do with him?
Scott finds out he's becoming the next CTO.

Scott finds out his wife, Sharon, is pregnant. Happiest day of his life.

Scott and Sharon have Tyrell and Joanna over for dinner after the CTO position is publicly announced. Tyrell seduces Sharon and literally opens her legs for him. Nothing else happens.

Night of the celebration for Scott, Tyrell and Sharon go up to the roof for sex. Tyrell loses it and strangles her to death.

Police find the body, Tyrell becomes the lead suspect. Tyrell gets fired from E-Corp.

Joanna has their child.

5/9 happens, Tyrell disappears.

Joanna is running out of funds. Needs money so she goes to Scott to get Tyrell's severance package from E-Corp. Scott tells her to basically fuck off.

Joanna starts receiving strange gifts. Gifts that that would most likely be from Tyrell, giving her hope. One of those gifts is a cell phone.

Joanna approaches Elliot thinking he's behind Tyrell's disappearance. He doesn't know, but helps her trace the phone calls from the phone.

It's from Scott's home. Scott was behind the gifts. Joanna finds out that Sharon was pregnant and insults them to provoke Scott to attack her. She uses the attack to convince her boyfriend to lie to the cops about the night Sharon died. She now has everything to get Scott fired, out of the picture, and finally get the severance package.
 
In regards to the True Detective S2 talk, this season was better than even season 1 of True Detective.
People hold that season in such high regard, and I too really liked it to begin with, but holy shit does it fall the fuck off the deep end by the end. First 4 or 5 episodes are incredible tv, though.
 
Can someone explain to me the story about the CTO of evil Corp? What was up with his wife death and baby? And Tyler? And what did the beaten up wife have to do with him?
Scott Knowles was given the CTO job over Tyrell. Tyrell was plotting against him and planned to sleep with his wife. Joanna (Tyrell's wife) was pushing for him to do this to push Scott's focus away from the CTO job and allow Tyrell to get the job instead. Unfortunately, that backfired and Scott got the job.

The problem is, Scott's wife actually moved forward with sleeping with Tyrell. In the process, he ended up strangling her to death on the roof of the Ecorp building during Scott's party celebrating his promotion. Scott suspected Tyrell of the murder. Well, he all but knew that he did it.:)

Throughout this season, Joanna has been receiving phone calls and gifts. The calls were from someone who never spoke but simply breathed into the phone. Joanna thought/hoped that it was Tyrell who disappeared after the 5/9 hack.

3 episodes ago, Joanna got Elliot to track down the number from where the calls were coming from. He gave that location to Joanna's henchman. The location was Scott Knowles home as we come to find out in the finale.

When Joanna goes to confront him, we find out that his wife was pregnant when Tyrell killed her. He was awarded the CTO job but lost everything else in the process. Knowing that Tyrell was gone, he used the phone calls and gifts as a way to give her "hope" that Tyrell was still out there so that he could eventually use it to crush her spirit if he turned up dead. It was a revenge ploy to get back at her for what Tyrell did to his wife (above already refusing her Tyrell's severance package money earlier in the season).

The final scene with her new boyfriend is Joanna manipulating him to tell the police that it was Scott who looked suspicious for killing his own wife, etc. To get back at him for the beating.
 
If that's all that happened with Angela, sure.

I just fail to see Angela reacting the way she did to the explanation of Stage 2.
She goes from freaking the fuck out, ready to turn herself in to suddenly being in a perfectly calm, serene state because Whiterose told her they're going to blow up a building (potentially killing a lot of innocent people) to destroy E-Corp?

For one, I don't see Angela being on board with this plan at all. On top of that, the main thing she was freaking out over - what she did and how the fbi are onto her - is now about to potentially become a lot worse. And finally, what about her final scene where she calmly tells Tyrell that shooting Elliot was the right thing to do? It's totally out of character. She looks to be about as obedient as the suicide gunmen at the moment.

All signs point to more going on that what we saw/know.

Edit: I left out one of the most important things from the previous ep. Whiterose and Angela's conversation about making things come real by will depending on your concept of reality. How does that play into this at all?
Who's to say that's all she was told, though? The only questions we don't have answered is how much of the plan she was let in on. I'm perfectly ok with the show holding back on that until they're ready to reveal more. I doubt the plot ends with Phase 2. Nor is it the end goal. There's the whole Angela/Washington Township situation that hasn't been entirely resolved either.
 
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