Everyone ’s favorite mentally unhinged , hoodie - wearing drudge , Elliot Alderson ( Rami Malek ) and his associates , both real and imaginary , return tonight for season three of Mr. Robot . It ’s been over a year since the show ’s complex season two wrapped up , so a look back ( and in front ) seems very necessary .
gratefully , we ’ve done that study for you .
The story so far
Mr. Robot ’s first seasonhad two focal point . First , the events leading up to the devastating plug of transnational empire E Corp ( a.k.a . Evil Corp ) , launched by ragtag revolutionaries fsociety with aid from the China - establish Dark Army . secondly , and more importantly , the gradual Apocalypse of how frail Elliot ’s mind and hold of realism really was . Bigger subplots followed Elliot ’s longtime friend , Angela ( Portia Doubleday ) and her disillusionment with her own sprightliness and life history , and the destructive ambitions of Evil Corp executive Tyrell Wellick ( Martin Wallström ) . The season finish on a cliffhanger , with Wellick missing in the wake of the hack , and Elliot — an unreliable narrator , still coming to clutches with the fact that his perpetual companion Mr. Robot ( Christian Slater ) was a ) his dead sire and b ) fanciful — ineffectual to come back his purpose in any of it . Most desperately : who was pounding at his apartment doorway , and what was the meaning of the shocking post - cite coming together between time - obsessed Dark Army leader Whiterose ( B.D. Wong ) and Evil Corp CEP Phillip Price ( Michael Cristofer ) ?
Those questions and many more were explore in time of year two , which ran two episode longer than time of year one and was more expansive in its scope , not to mention way more violent . It was set in the consequence of the infamous Five / Nine jade , an case that destabilize not just Evil Corp ’s finances , but the human beings economy . alternatively of the characters ’ actions sham just themselves and the people in their quick lives , they had global repercussions , and we saw this played out over frequent cutaway to telly newscasts reporting on the latest hack - related crisis .
Instead of feeling triumphant , the various member of fsociety lived in reverence of being captured , either by the FBI or the increasingly hostile Dark Army . We aim seven episodes deep before a very ward Elliot let in to the viewer — who he still spoke to right away , via inner monologues , but was reluctant to hope again after the consequence of last season — that he was n’t really living a “ utterly constructed loop ” at his mother ’s house . Instead , he was serving an 18 - calendar month prison sentence for steal a dog from his therapist ’s sleazy young man , a laughably minor crime compared to the machine politician , but the one that vex him busted . ( That knocking on the door at the end of season one ? It was the cops , there to arrest him . )
On the inside , Elliot had one friend , Seinfeld top-notch fan Leon ( Joey Bada$$ ) , by and by break to be a soldier for Whiterose . He also had a major opposition in Ray ( Craig Robinson ) , the prison ’s crooked warden , who exploited Elliot ’s computer skills to facilitate run his sketchy dark web marketplace . Ray ’s subplot be mostly to draw out the Mr. Robot side of Elliot ’s personality , and his alter self appeared more and more frequently to shield Elliot from various horrors . This fluid POV result in one of the weirdest Mr. Robot episodes yet , in which Elliot — beaten to a pulp by Ray ’s toughie — in short believe he was ground in a nightmarishly surreal nineties sitcom , unadulterated with laugh caterpillar tread and ALF cameo .
Essentially , though , Mr. Robot ’s focal points remained the same in season two : the hack and its ever - complicated wake ( including the stormy alliance between the Whiterose , whose public identity is a high - rank Taiwanese government official named Minister Zheng , and Evil Corp ’s Price ) , and Elliot ’s tenuous grasp of realness . The latter is further complicated by the fact that he now knows he ’s not all there , and that he ’s battle for control of his own thinker most of the time .
The main characters
We ’ve already discussed hoodie - clad Elliot Alderson and Mr. Robot , Elliot ’s more surefooted , more pitiless other personality . Nobody can see Mr. Robot except Elliot . In time of year two , Elliot finally sympathise that Mr. Robot ( who looks incisively like his beat Fatherhood , and makes Elliot do thing he ca n’t remember ) does not exist outside his mind . The only other soul who can see him is the show ’s third main character , the viewer . You are so important to Elliot that when he momentarily allows himself to dream of a well-chosen future tense , in which everyone he ’s ever known and like gathers together in celebration , there ’s an empty seat at the table wait just for you . Hello , protagonist .
Also in play : Elliot ’s sister , Darlene ( Carly Chaikin ) , left running fsociety in her sidekick ’s absence . Her veneration to the cause never flitter , but her emotions often got the better of her , and her leaders skills were sometimes less than inspiring . Angela got an ice - queen makeover after she ascended to a swish occupation at Evil Corp , but her brittle yuppie facade and weird ego - affirmation regime soon begin to snap . We got confirmation as the season went on that Price and Whiterose entice her into the fold for villainous reasons take to do with her past times . And speak of Price and Whiterose , we spent a bunch more prison term with both in season two , but they ’re both still incredibly puzzling . The biggest question that remained unanswered throughout the season : what ’s the reason behind Whiterose ’s keen interest in Evil Corp ’s still - toxic Washington Township flora — the very adroitness that caused the genus Cancer that killed Angela ’s mother and Elliot and Darlene ’s begetter ?
Another season two enigma was Evil Corp ’s Tyrell Wellick — virtually MIA until the penultimate episode . Elliot was fairly certain he killed him at the arcade after the hack , but he could n’t quite remember and Mr. Robot would n’t narrate him the accuracy . Mostly , Tyrell ’s bearing was felt via his wife Joanna , who ( in time of year two ’s most tedious subplot ) contract up with a bartender even as she kind of take for out hope that Tyrell would return .
time of year two ’s most large new fibre was Dominique “ Dom ” DiPierro ( Grace Gummer ) , the introverted , joint - roll , Alexa - blowing up , whip - smart FBI agent impute to the Five / Nine hack . She ’s survived two Dark Army shootouts ( so far ) , does n’t take shit from her superiors , and frequently has a all-day sucker jammed in her mouth , Kojak - style . She has no life beyond the bureau , a fact that ’s either expire to help her solve this case or make her chase it forever .
We obviously do n’t recognise too much about time of year three yet , but the magnanimous new roll addition looks to be Irving ( Bobby Cannavale ) , a used - car salesman who is seemingly also working for Whiterose . Released yesterday , the first few minutes of the season three openerare very hard on Irving , who demonstrates his exacting personality both while ordering fast food for thought ( at the Red Wheelbarrow , natch ) and while arrest by the scene of a gruesome shooting . ( More on that below . ) ground on that first literal glimpse , Irving kind of evokes Mike Ehrmantraut , the enforcer on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad — but knowing Mr. Robot , he ’ll certainly have his own distinctive elan .
Where everything stands
When last we ascertain them :
Elliot was bleed from a gunfire combat injury in the stomach , allot by Tyrell when he tried to intervene with “ stagecoach 2 , ” essentially a scheme to destruct all of Evil Corp ’s paper records . Turns out Tyrell and Mr. Robot ( working independently of Elliot ) set up the plot of ground with the Dark Army without including the rest of fsociety . In the possibility here and now of time of year three , which nibble up directly after the season two stopping point , we see Irving check on Tyrell and Elliot and summoning a doctor to assess the situation . ( presumptively , there ’ll be no dream - land ALF coming into court this clip around , but you never know . )
Angela , having just formed an bond of sorts with Whiterose , was en road to Tyrell and Mr. Robot ’s confidential lair , knowing that she postulate to be the first face Elliot saw when he wake up up . Tyrell and Angela both agree that they know Elliot . Make of that what you will .
talk of Whiterose , she agreed ( as Minister Zheng ) to lend billions to Price to help bail out Evil Corp when the US authorities refused to help him out . ( Just to elucidate , this is Mr. Robot ’s other character reference with two identities : Whiterose is a glamourous transgender woman ; Minister Zheng is a man . ) In return , he fit not to shut out down that damn Washington Township plant life Whiterose is obsessed with .
Darlene was in FBI detention , still splattered in her young man ’s blood after he was take out by the Dark Army , and in staring shock at how much Dom really knew about about fsociety and the hack . ( Her exact words were “ You ’ve baffle ta be fucking kid me . ” )
Boring Joanna Wellick had convinced her boring young man to try and border Scott Knowles , Tyrell ’s former Evil Corp job rival , for the slaying of Scott ’s married woman , Sharon . Of of course , everyone ( include Scott and Joanna ) know that Tyrell did it .
Having fled New York out of fear for their lives , fsociety hackers Mobley ( Azhar Khan ) and Trenton ( Sunita Mani ) have settled uneasily in Arizona , working at an electronics entrepot . But as they ’re nervously discussing whether or not it would be potential to reverse the Five / Nine hack , they ’re approached by a stranger in the parking lot : Elliot ’s prison buddy , Leon .
Why you should watch
It may have fall behind a bit of its novelty after the first time of year ’s Fight Club - style reveal that Mr. Robot was Elliot ’s imaginary friend , and time of year twomay not have ended in a way that pleased everyone , but Mr. Robot is still one of the smartest show on television . In addition to its gripping , twisting , layers - of - mystery plot , it depicts a approximate - future Earth that ’s both sustained by and corrupted by technology — and manages to make you like a lot about a guy wire whose animation is dangerously confusing on even his best days . The performance are outstanding — Malek and Slater have been suitably present , but the whole mold kills it ; the interplay between Wong and Cristofer is always invincible — and the show is gorgeously filmed . Also , there ’s no show on TV right now that uses music more creatively . It ’ll be hard to top the money - burn scene set to Phil Collins ’ “ Take Me Home ” ( or the snatcher van that tootle “ The Ballad of Davy Crockett ” from its stereophony ) , but season three will for certain comprise some sonic gemstone among its many surprises .
Mr. Robot return tonight on USA .
Mr. RobotTelevision
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