Mr. Robot: eps2.7_init_5.fve Recap

Synopsis of 2×07: Angela wants more from E Corp than they want to give her. Unsure if the Dark Army is working with or against them, Elliot and Darlene seek answers. And the sh*t generally hits the fan.

As brownouts symbolically interrupt life in the city, we finally learn the details behind Elliot’s arrest. It seems that he wasn’t actually arrested for killing Tyrell, but because the creep-o from early season one reported Elliot for hacking his computer and stealing his dog – nothing to do with murder or the 5/9 hack at all, as Mr. Robot led him to believe. We see Elliot immediately approached in prison by Leon, who tells him to establish a routine, and that they should stick together, so Elliot doesn’t get in trouble.

Elliot narrates as we watch a montage of how everything we’ve seen so far this season was actually happening in prison. How the guard who looked like his mom became her, how everything happening at the park was actually happening in the prison yard. He explains that we didn’t miss anything, and apologizes for lying. He says he only has us to talk to, but we never talk back.

Speaking of Mr. Robot, he and Elliot have a new problem now. Since they’ve been getting along instead of constantly fighting each other, and now that Elliot is out of prison, they can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.

Elliot keeps hearing Mr. Robot talking to Darlene and Cisco while he’s in another room, and when they’re alone, Mr. Robot demands to know what’s going on. Elliot keeps saying that he “doesn’t feel right,” and we actually see them flicker in and out over each other (like the brownouts) while talking to other people.

At least for the moment though, Elliot is glad, because he wants to use Mr. Robot to talk to Whiterose and figure out what the Dark Army’s mysterious “Stage 2” is. They remotely bug the phone of Cisco’s Dark Army contact, and meet him to ask about Stage 2. They know he won’t tell them, but they hope bringing it up will make him talk about it to his buddies when he goes back to them, and they can listen in.

Which is what happens. As it turns out though, they’re baffled at Elliot’s questions, because Stage 2 was apparently his plan all along.  This is definitely news to Darlene, who recovers from her shock long enough to answer a knock at the door. We never see who it is, but it’s clearly multiple people, and Darlene is clearly not happy about it.

We can wager a pretty good guess though, as all of fsociety, and their associates seem to be on the hook. Elliot finds Joanna Wellick waiting for him outside his apartment (although she still thinks he’s Ollie), Cisco finds a mysterious someone hiding out at Susan’s house (probably Mobley), and Angela is approached by Dom.

Dom tells her that things are about to get much, much worse, and she can tell Dom the truth now, or get yanked off the street by some black bag division later. She makes a good point, and even tells Angela that she’s been following her for months, but Angela doesn’t budge.

Dom’s visit was probably prompted by Angela’s field trip to turn over information about Washington Township to the authorities. Using the “rubber duck” flash drive that Mobley gave her, she copies her boss’ hard drive, and steals his login information. Accessing his terminal, she finds the files on the case that she couldn’t get before, and takes them to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The man she talks to promises her anonymity, but when the Deputy Director comes in, she knows a suspicious amount about Angela, and is a little too eager to keep her in the building. Recognizing a red flag when she sees one, Angela takes off, without making any progress, and without the information she came in with. If she doesn’t talk to the FBI, her own company might be after her.

We already know that Mr. Robot has done things that Elliot doesn’t know about. He made plans and deals with Ray, with the Dark Army, and maybe even more, but it might be worse than we know. This week is the first time we’ve seen what it looks like when Mr. Robot takes over, because it’s the first time Elliot has.

He actually watches from afar, trapped while Mr. Robot says and does things, but Elliot still doesn’t remember what those things are when it’s over. Which begs the question: is “Stage 2” really Elliot’s plan, or was it Mr. Robot’s?

And if Stage 1 has already essentially destroyed the American economic system – how much worse is it going to get?