on Blu-ray.
{Spoiler}I bought Season 3 not long after I'd bought Seasons 1 & 2 and started watching the first season. I was intrigued after the first episode and was fairly confident I'd remain interested in the series, so I got the third season on Blu-ray - which was slightly risky (because maybe my interest in the show might've lessened as I continued on with it), but luckily while there were some episodes I wasn't that into, on the whole I remained invested (so it's a good thing I got Season 3 when I did, as I was able to immediately go onto it as soon as I finished Season 2). This first episode of this season kicked off with the addition of Bobby Cannavale (who was made a regular from his very first appearance in this show. I think I last saw him in
Boardwalk Empire) and I didn't even realise it was him to start with. The lighting made him appear quite different, plus he had a mustache, sticky-uppy hair and glasses on. While a part of me was sympathetic towards his character, Irving, being frustrated with the cashier (due to the semantics of redeeming the free milkshake he just qualified for, except it required making another separate trip to the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ restaurant for it to happen), I also felt sorry for
her since she was just doing her job (and would've probably been fired if she'd been caught not obeying the rules) and this creepy guy resorted to thinly-veiled threats. I noticed Bobby Cannavale wasn't the only one made a regular this season. BD Wong, who portrays Whiterose, has also been upped to 'regular' status (considering I was kind of over that character by mid-Season 2, this wasn't exactly something I was happy to see) and apparently Whiterose has a ginormous underwater lair...or something? For a second it almost seemed like tiny people were inside a robot Elliot, since the camera emerged from his eye (which would mean the show's title was to be taken
literally), but thankfully that wasn't actually the case.
We soon learned that Angela had gotten Elliot home after his shooting at the end of last season, Rami Malek's voiceovering seemed less monotonous this season (still not exactly super-enthused with anything it was saying, but at least it wasn't as sleep-inducing) and I enjoyed all his scenes with Angela (especially getting some insight into her character when he said she didn't love the people who loved
her, only the ones who
didn't love her) after they kissed and she told him it was a mistake (which he admitted to us, the audience, 'hurt' quite a bit). The lighting in that scene was really moody, as was the lighting during his scene with Darlene at the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ restaurant (Hot Carla, the resident pyro, setting little red wheelbarrows on fire last season was apparently foreshadowing this restaurant's coming into being, I guess?). Speaking of Darlene, I liked seeing her interacting more with Elliot (though she was obviously paranoid about the Dark Army being out to get her - which wasn't entirely unfounded, since they
were out to get her and thus her panic attack was warranted). What I really appreciated in this scene was Elliot wishing he had a mute button for life that he could use to silence annoying people - I wish for that same thing EVERY DAMN DAY, so I can totally understand wanting such a thing - and then he turned the volume back up once Darlene returned. I also liked Elliot telling one guy, who got carried away and put his hand on Elliot's shoulder, to not touch him and leave him alone - as I could totally relate to that too.
Bobby Cannavale's character seemed to save Elliot and Darlene from the Dark Army whilst Angela was now apparently working for the Dark Army, and not only that, but she was also seemingly fully aware of the Mr. Robot side of Elliot's personality and able to tell when it was him as opposed to Elliot. I liked the moodiness of the scene where she talked with Mr. Robot and was only illuminated by candlelight after the blackout (it also gave Hobo Christian Slater someone else to interact with, since he was playing the scenes with Portia Doubleday rather than Rami Malek). It was interesting seeing these two interact and that she knew enough to tell Elliot apart from Mr. Robot, but it was also kind of sad how Angela was the one person Elliot thought he could trust (poor Darlene!) while at the same time she was going behind his back and conspiring with his ghost dad persona (who said he
didn't trust her). The most intriguing part, however, was Angela talking about Whiterose's plans and how it meant turning everything back including the deaths of her mother and Elliot's father. I'd actually somewhat spoiled myself, having read theories of time travel or alternate dimensions prior to watching this season, so at this point I wasn't sure if Angela had just been mind-controlled by Whiterose and was fully deluded or whether this show was going to jump the shark by introducing sci-fi elements into it. Whether it was one or the other, the scene was still very compelling. There'd been a scene earlier on featuring Elliot monologuing to us, the audience, as he walked down a street and there were also tons of fliers up including characters in the show who had died, which Elliot felt responsible for. Then the power came back on at the end, and I liked the song that played combined with the creepy atmosphere. While I personally found the beginning of the second season to be a bit ho-hum, I quite liked the Season 3 premiere - probably the fact that there was a lot of Elliot/Darlene and Elliot/Angela interaction helped, as those dynamics were what I was interested in seeing more of.
I didn’t like the second as much as first...though at least it included an INXS song (yay!) and...emoji heads (yay?). Elliot once again sank into sadness, I missed Angela not being in the episode, Joanna stood by Tyrell (goodness knows
why, since he's not really worth it) on TV and then consequently got shot in the head by her jealous lover (as Roxette's 'Listen to Your Heart' played) who felt he'd been jerked around one too many times by her (I was spoiled for this death, so it wasn't so shocking...just more
disappointing, as I thought Joanna was far more interesting than Tyrell, definitely scarier than him, and it seemed she was being disposed of simply to 'make room for' his return to the show after being absent for the majority of last season), and then we got the gratuitous autopsy scene with her skull cut open and brain exposed (was that
really necessary? It's like the show was reveling in her death and
enjoying it a bit too much), there was a good scene between Elliot and Darlene at the same location where we learned she was his sister back in Season 1 and here they talked about building a snowman they called Kevin McCallister who they named after the character from the
Home Alone movies, she talks about how she's scared of Mr. Robot, Elliot's therapist meets Mr. Robot and he scares her too, the guy who kept going on and on about Elliot stealing his dog brings said dog (Flipper is her name) back to Elliot and says she's sick, probably dying and can shit all over
his place now as he forcibly hands the dog over (causing her to whimper) and Elliot gives her water. How I wished he would punish that a-hole for the way he treated that poor pooch.
Even though I thought the second episode was a step down from the Season 3 premiere, it was still less boring than the third episode which ended up being Tyrell-centric. His stupid Joker wannabe laugh was annoying when Mr. Robot was going to shoot him (in a flashback that showed us what happened after Elliot looked at that gun Darlene had stashed in the popcorn way back at the end of Season 1), but unfortunately the gun jammed and Tyrell used that as an excuse for why he should be spared. Worst of all, Mr. Robot
listened to him (hasn't he heard of 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again'?) and spared his life. Then the rest of the episode was mostly just guest star Wallace Shawn asking Tyrell the same questions over and over (which became very irritating to hear), Tyrell growing a beard and shirtlessly cutting wood. As if he didn't
already greatly annoy me, he also does this thing with his mouth when he's angry that makes him resemble the 'Smilers' from Season 5 of
Doctor Who. Consequently, it's really hard to take him seriously whenever he gets mad and yells a lot/throws things - this is part of the reason I miss Joanna, as she was never so over-the-top. Tyrell seems to lack any subtlety, plus he's so desperate to please Elliot that even if he returned Tyrell's feelings (which I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know about, let alone reciprocate), the obsessiveness Tyrell displays would surely be a major turn-off. He's like crazy stalker levels of obsessed with Elliot. Sadly, there was only
one Darlene scene and
one Angela scene in this episode (about the only interesting thing to come out of this whole episode was Angela informing Tyrell that Elliot could indeed be a different person since Tyrell wasn't in on the whole Elliot/Mr. Robot split persona thing until he heard it from her). What a waste this episode was.
At least the fourth episode was better, as it started with Darlene on the train, waking up, noticing her wallet missing, approaching the girl who was clearly guilty of stealing it (naturally, she denies doing so several times), things get weird, Darlene just wants the photo of her and Elliot that was in the wallet, then she says she stole from the thief first and confesses to basically everything including the bit about her murdering a woman last season, which doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do (on the plus side, hopefully her admittance of being a murderer scared the thief straight so she won't steal anymore). I liked the good dramatic scene we got between Elliot and Darlene, where she said how she was afraid of the Mr. Robot side of him (after he'd gotten rough with her previously) and then the two of them walking Flipper the dog together (it was a nice scene, even if it gave a sense of foreboding regarding Darlene's future when they made a 'vengeance pact' - ie. if one of them died, the other would seek bloody vengeance against the one who killed them). Someone else who Mr. Robot got rough with (but this time it was cheer-worthy) was Tyrell (seriously, Mr. Robot getting physical with/telling off Tyrell was one of the few times I've actually
liked him), who's still annoying (and so is his angry mouth), doing his usual yelling/throwing a tantrum schtick (I SO miss Joanna) about their working together being 'his' operation, which Mr. Robot quickly corrected and also reminded him the only reason he was still even
alive was because he allowed him to be by
not pulling the trigger a second time on the gun he aimed at him (regretting that decision now, Mr. Robot?). Tyrell's such a fickle bitch, since one minute he was professing his love to Elliot and the next he was telling Mr. Robot that him and Elliot were donezo/would not be 'gods' together as planned. So much for their 'epic love', Tyrelliot shippers! Also, Tyrell doesn't know about his wife being dead.
Still not fond of Dom, but I didn't mind her as much in her scene with Darlene at the bar. The lighting and the Chvrches song that was playing helped keep me interested, plus the fact that we got to hear Darlene talking more about herself than I think we ever had before. I could totally identify with what she had to say about her social life, etc. Unfortunately, she also wanted to learn more about Dom (which I was less interested in). Angela let her hair down this episode, I noticed. No more tight ponytail - I guess this is to show her turning towards the 'Dark Side' by working with Mr. Robot and Tyrell, calling Price to get Elliot fired and sticking Elliot with a needle to knock him out when he awoke/took over from Mr. Robot and saw the three conspiring together. Earlier she had a scene with Irving (who I can't say I'm that fond of. He seems too desperately 'quirky', like Dom when she was introduced) and having to not only watch/listen to him eating ribs, but also listen to him monologue about them was rather off-putting. Characters who love the sound of their own voice are pretty damn annoying. Also annoying? Whiterose and all the vague talk that seemed to hint at there being time travel involved in the evil scheme that was planned. Lastly, I found the song which played at the end of the episode (with Darlene and the polaroid she was so eager to get back from the thief at the start of the episode) to be super repetitive/annoying as well (which was a shame, since I liked the music playing in the earlier scene with Darlene and Dom).
The fifth episode was one of those 'single take' episodes (which isn't
really a single take, since there are hidden cuts, but it's
presented as a single take).
The Haunting of Hill House did an episode like this, and for me that's still the 'gold standard' of these types of episodes/the one which I compare all others to, but this episode of
Mr. Robot did an admirable job. It certainly wasn't boring. There was a funny part near the beginning with Elliot saying to his annoying co-worker what he thought he was saying to us, the audience, not realising he was talking out loud (which, of course, offended his co-worker) and then he was happy because the guy stopped talking...except that didn't last, and Elliot remarked to us, the audience, how he spoke too soon as the guy continued chatting (clearly unable to stay mad at Elliot for long). Anyway, Elliot figures out he's getting fired (thanks, Angela!) and ducks into a conference room with a meeting going on, acting all nonchalant and like he's supposed to be there, making the guy in charge wait for him to finish doing stuff on his phone, then once the guy's ready to throw him out, Elliot sees dudes outside who're going to escort him from the building, so he kills time until they leave by getting all philosophical and stuff. Once he does eventually admit he's in the wrong place, he leaves and goes downstairs, where there are rioters outside. Darlene shows up and admits to him she's been working with the FBI. He naturally feels betrayed, but then just as he's left reeling from this news, she also tells him she saw Angela talking to Mr. Robot and clearly
knew it was him. So, it's a double dose of betrayal for Elliot (though I still can't hate Darlene).
The focus of the episode then shifts from Elliot to Angela, who's following Irving’s instructions as rioters destroy the 'Evil Corp' building, vandalizing and terrorizing (considering when this season of the show was made, it seems it predicted the future. Maybe there really *is* time travel involved in this show?). She manages to get card access to the section of the building where she doesn't belong, but then a security guy who she ends up sharing an elevator with gets suspicious and wants to get her checked out, so then she sics rioters onto him which allows her to slip away to do her thing (I thought it was interesting how the camera work was done in this scene, with us looking down on her and moving between/over walls). Once she's finished, she emerges and a woman’s there, which looks like it might cause problems, but a rioter in a mask also appears, the woman's clearly prepared as she pepper sprays him, but unfortunately for Angela, she ends up getting some in her eyes too (I remembered later that in the 'sitcom' from last season, her character got pepper sprayed by Elliot's mum...so I wonder if this was a reference to that or just a coincidence?), but still remembers to wipe everything down to clean off her fingerprints, she'd already made sure to wear gloves and also wipes the inside of mask that the rioter was wearing (to get the worst of the pepper spray out of it) before putting it on so she can slip by without being attacked by rioters (it's interesting, though, that when she
doesn't have the mask on - clearly, no matter how much cleaning the inside of it she did, it still affected her eyes - she
still seems to not get attacked. At least not
much, anyway. I think there's one instance where she sort of is. Maybe Irving told them to leave a blonde with a tight ponytail alone...but not all of them? Or some just chose to ignore that? Or the fact that she hasn't got her hair in a ponytail in this instance confused them?).
When she's on the phone with Irving, it was slightly amusing seeing her momentary look of panic when he wanted to make sure she'd done everything she was supposed to do, then he wants the name of the woman who saw her with her face uncovered and it sounds like he's going to 'take care' of her in the Mafia sense. At least Angela has enough consideration to check everyone's been evacuated from the building (since it's about to be blown up). She then encounters this hamburger man we've seen on a few occasions, who's always dressed in a hazmat suit, eating a hamburger, and rarely says anything. He gives her something in a bag and then the episode ends with her coming face to face with Elliot who asks her if she has something to tell him. For all the crap Portia Doubleday/Angela gets for 'not showing emotion' or whatever, I thought she DID show emotion (clearly feeling guilty) after she'd done her part (it's just that she tries to conceal it/regain composure, since she's obviously not someone who lets her emotions be seen by others - just like Elliot doesn't). This episode, thanks to the 'single take' style it was done in, managed to remain interesting throughout (even though quite a bit of it involved characters just walking from one location to another). Especially the Angela section, which kept me captivated.
The sixth episode began with a flashback to young Angela (played by the same actress who played the brat dressed like a mini Angela at the end of last season and asked adult Angela a bunch of repetitive/annoying/intrusive questions. Obviously it was intentional to bring her back to play the
actual kid version of Angela in this episode) at a party celebrating her mum's imminent death...or something. Or maybe it was her last birthday she was celebrating? Whatever, the point is...she's not long for this world and young Angela doesn't like the fact that there's a party for it, but Elliot's dad (who's still
alive at this point in time) comes over to chat with her and talks about how in
Back to the Future Marty encouraged his dad to ask out Lorraine to go to the dance and he asks her to promise that if he's not around in the future and Elliot needs a push, she'll do it for him (I guess this is what adult Angela's been trying to do?). Young Angela thinks partying whilst her mum is all ghostly pale doesn't make much sense, but after Mr. Robot gives her a pep talk, she's willing to give her sickly mum a chance (good casting with Angela's mum, as she does resemble Portia Doubleday). There's more vague talk of possible time travel and then we cut back to where last episode left off, with Elliot confronting Angela about what she's been up to behind his back. While he is understandably angry, he's apparently not SO angry as to leave her to the wolves, since he gets her into a room away from the rioters (though if they really wanted to, they could easily just break through the glass to get to the two of them). She’s acting eerily calm about prospect of blowing up the building and there's yet
more vague referencing how everyone will be "fine" including their dead parents (okay, show, if you
actually introduce time travel/alternate realities, that would be a total 'jump the shark' moment. On the other hand, if it's
not that...then that just kind of seems like trolling the audience). She’s also calm on the train when a guy in a mask steals old ladies’ bags and then wants Angela's (that she was handed by hamburger man at the end of last episode), but it's too important to hand over and she won’t give it up (even though the oldies tell her to), and so she just stares the guy down until he runs off. I guess she really thinks that dying means nothing at this point since it'll all supposedly be 'undone' or whatever.
Meanwhile, Elliot’s trying to stop the explosion and fighting himself/Mr. Robot (who keeps short-circuiting/giving us fuzzy TV vision) in the process, since Mr. Robot
doesn't want him to stop the explosion. Then came a rather unexpected (and morbidly amusing) scene with Elliot resorting to throwing himself into walls, knocking himself in the head - which weirded out one passerby (reminded me of the scene from the movie
Liar Liar where Jim Carrey's character kicks his own arse). Kudos to Rami Malek for really selling it, as it could've just looked ridiculous, but instead you laugh one second and then feel sorry for him the next as he's wrestling with himself both mentally and physically. He even types out messages to Mr. Robot on a computer, then eventually manages to convince him to help get them into the room he couldn’t get into by himself and Mr. Robot does whatever thing that’ll vent the fire (I think that's what he was doing?). Apart from the scene involving Elliot throwing himself into walls, there were two funny lines in the episode - one was him wondering why they always cut these things so goddamn close (when he was trying to prevent the explosion) and the other was Darlene commenting that she could see Angela's 'big-ass eye' through the peephole in the door when she knocked on it to confront her about the fact that she was fully prepared to blow up the building. She also calls Angela out on using Elliot's issues/sickness against him (ie. the fact that he's not always himself and Angela's fully aware of that/uses it to her advantage). They then both look at their phones and then the screen short-circuits again and I was wondering WTF
that was about. At the end of the episode, Elliot sees on a TV outside that he may have saved the *one* 'Evil Corp' building...but 71 of their other buildings went kablooey instead (whoops). Boring bits in the episode included Price and Whiterose in a restaurant (I tuned out during all their scenes) and Dom (who's not very good at her job) finally finding Tyrell (who showed just how much of a wimp he actually is, despite acting 'tough' all the time, when he thought Irving was going to off him. I imagine Angela just shaking her head at this and saying, "I stared down a gun barrel and didn't flinch while you're acting like a little bitch.") as he ran out, yelling and warning everyone about the explosion (which he was partially responsible for) and then got arrested. I'm disappointed that Angela had a part to play in all the deaths, though she'd obviously been brainwashed by Whiterose. It was an unfair thing to do to her character, as she was presented as so intelligent in the first season and this has done permanent damage to her character. I *do* feel sorry for her, despite her part in it all.
After a good first half of the season (especially the the last couple of episodes), this one felt pretty disappointing to me. I didn’t care about
Seinfeld guy prattling on about
Frasier being 'crap' and
Knight Rider being 'Oscar-worthy' (as well as it’s theme song, which then predictably played at the start of the episode). It felt like the show's creator using this series to voice his own personal opinions on different TV shows and I just found it annoying (especially since I didn't agree). I also didn’t care about Price cussing out Whiterose in the purple/pink restaurant they both apparently like to frequent. They bore me just as much as
Seinfeld guy does. Tyrell finally found out his wife was dead...and I just don't care about anything involving him since his wife was the only thing related to him that interested me. Darlene’s fellow hackers got set up as the masters of fsociety and being behind the 71 building explosions, then were framed/made to look like they offed themselves as Dom watched guys find them - big surprise, I didn't care. The only thing I
did care about in this episode was Darlene finding Angela looking pretty out of it and clearly in denial about what she was a part of, as she stared at the TV where the building explosions were being shown and kept rewinding the footage so a collapsing building would go back to being 'fine' - which is what she kept maintaining everyone/everything would be. I found this to be a pretty boring episode.
The eighth episode began with Elliot as a kid and his still alive dad at the movies. Apparently Elliot's still holding a grudge against his dad for pushing him out of that window, he still has his arm in a sling and not even being encouraged by his father to mix M&M's in with the popcorn can manage to cheer the kid up. His dad's coughing a lot, he asks how long Elliot's going to stay mad at him and whether he can ever forgive him, which Elliot answers in the negative, then his dad collapses and...Elliot just strips him of his jacket and walks off to go watch the movie by himself. I wondered how none of the adults surrounding him didn't bother to stop this kid literally stealing the clothing off the back of this clearly sick man in need of medical attention and walking away. It's like he had the ability to turn invisible. I mean, for all they knew he could've done something to his dad to make him collapse...and yet they just let him walk off. Useless moviegoers! At least the show did something interesting with the title card by having it appear as part of the movie young Elliot was watching. We then cut to adult Elliot talking about 'deletion', Darlene comes over and Elliot's feeling guilty about the 71 buildings he wasn't able to save from blowing up. Darlene tells him that Angela's spiraling and he needs to talk to her, but considering the part she played in the building explosions, he's all 'eff her'. She points out that Angela was there for him when he needed her, she then says he’s freaking her out/scaring her, they sit and talk and it was a good scene between them. I wished we could've had more brotherly/sisterly scenes like this. Elliot later goes to visit the houses of the two hackers who got blamed for blowing up the 71 buildings. The bro of the guy hacker thinks he was a terrorist and doesn’t care, while the parents of the girl hacker are moving, Elliot says their daughter was a good person and their remaining kid is hovering at the front door, eavesdropping. Before that, Elliot had bought a shit-ton of morphine tablets from a creepy dude with eyeshadow/lipstick who got him to undress (to check for a wire, I guess).
Elliot goes to sit on the beach alone to take his morphine tablets and presumably off himself...but before he can, he's rudely interrupted by the eavesdropping kid brother of the girl hacker who has followed him. Elliot tells him to beat it and the kid claims he doesn’t know how to walk down the street/take a train or bus/how to get home (talk about useless). At this point he's already annoying me greatly and I wonder how he even made it to the beach since there's supposedly a curfew now and soldiers or whatever doing the rounds. He then makes himself
more annoying by asking incessant questions and not leaving Elliot alone (I wouldn't have blamed Elliot for just downing a bunch of pills right there on the spot to get some peace and quiet). They go to the brat's house, he claims his parents are away and he can't get into the house, though I immediately knew he was lying, just like I knew the mini Angela from last season was lying when she claimed she'd be beaten if Angela didn't answer her questions - the lesson to be learned here is that you can
never trust kids. They say/do whatever they have to to get what they want, and in this case it's annoying Elliot until he takes him to go see a movie. As if this turd wasn't annoying enough, we then have to hear more of what I presume is the show creator's opinions on movies (I was already sick of hearing that in the previous episode). Here he's speaking through Elliot and saying how
The Martian starring Matt Damon 'looks like shit' and instead Elliot insists they see
Back to the Future Part II instead (firstly, I hate it when characters in shows become more just a mouthpiece for the show writer/s and it's just them attempting to tell the audience what they think is 'right'/'good' and what's 'wrong'/'bad'. It's no longer the
character talking at that point. Secondly...
The Martian is actually AWESOME and BttF Pt II is the weakest of the trilogy, so I don't get this obsession Elliot/the show creator has with that movie whilst making out that
The Martian is crap. I did appreciate Elliot's dig at Rotten Tomatoes, though. I'll never understand why anyone bases whether they see a movie or not on some website's opinions). There are lots of moviegoers dressed up as BttF characters and as much as I already hate the kid at this point, it's weird that Elliot thinks he'll have any hope of understanding the second film in the trilogy if he's never seen the first/any of them before. Naturally, the little snot complains the whole time, he whinges that Elliot's mixing M&M's with popcorn trick will ruin it, but after trying it, he admits it's not bad, once they go in to watch the movie, a guy who looks very much like Christopher Lloyd as Future Doc is sitting next to Elliot, and the ungrateful bastard who begged/blackmailed/tricked Elliot to take him to the movies gets up and leaves. Honestly, if I were Elliot, I would've just said "good riddance" and sat back to watch the movie in peace.
Disappointingly, Elliot seems to be a glutton for punishment and actually
goes looking for the turd, he eventually finds him at a mosque and the little shit not only had the nerve to say he wants to be left alone (oh, the irony), but then he royally pisses me off by yelling at Elliot (who has every right to yell back), saying he wishes he were
dead (what an a-hole!) - to which Elliot, sadly, replies that he wishes that too about himself (no, Elliot, don't wish for
yourself to die...wish for the little shit to!). I mean...just how ungrateful/rude/obnoxious is this prepubescent puke to say such a thing to someone who's only tried to help out his worthless arse? Unfortunately, they then chat and I get bored (since, really, Elliot should've just left him there). Anyway, they eventually return to the little punk's house, he proves my suspicions about him were correct and reveals to Elliot how easily he was duped, since he lets himself into the house, Elliot breaks down at the door, then the MOST ANNOYING KID EVER returns and gives him Dom’s fave thing to suck on (as if
that makes up for the day of torture he's put Elliot through). Elliot then returns to the bro of the dead hacker guy and blackmails him into having a proper funeral for his bro, there's an Elliot voiceover about getting back deleted things, he retrieves Flipper the dog from the neighbour he left him with towards the start of the episode (when he was preparing to off himself) and finally brings himself to go talk to Angela. The scene with the two of them was extremely well done, I thought, as there's moody lighting and the contrast between Elliot in black with a red background and Angela in white with a black background was visually striking. They talk about when they were kids and making wishes, how they closed their eyes harder in the hope they came true, but the fact that they
didn't wasn't really the point, as the wishing was the 'best part' - and
this was the best part of the episode (along with the Elliot/Darlene scene towards the beginning). Everything in between was pretty blah thanks to the little shit making every scene with him unbearable. The episode ends with Elliot receiving an email from the hacker girl that she sent out before her death which is meant to help him undo the hack they did at the end of Season 1 and sent everything into chaos.
In the ninth episode, we're treated to the sight of Angela as a hobo (so Hobo Christian Slater isn't the only one anymore), since she has gone full-blown crazypants now, has gross dirty dishes all around her place and looks to be one step away from storing her urine in jars. This contrasts with a flashback to her first working at the company she used to work at, where the old guy who was a dick to her in the very first episode of the show proves he was
always a dick to her since upon meeting her he automatically dismisses her/thinks of her as just someone to fetch him coffee (though Price seems to take notice). She’s talking crazy to Elliot now, as well as to his fish, is all paranoid and it's sad to see what she's been reduced to. Tyrell's still a little bitch and he clearly plans to off Mr. Robot/Elliot (judging from his signature blue gloves, which he reserves for when he wants to murder people), but Mr. Robot tells him off. After chatting up Darlene at a bar, Dom brings her home only because Darlene said she wasn’t into girls (though she clarifies that she said she wasn't a lesbian and
not that she wasn't into girls), cue sexytimes, then when Dom's seemingly still asleep, Darlene attempts to break into her safe, but gets caught in the act by Dom and then explains that she wants to undo the fsociety hack which she was a part of. Elliot kept mentioning a 'phase three', but there isn’t one. Instead he’s going after Whiterose who is currently listening to a glass player (providing extra creepy music in the background) whilst conspiring with a flunky/lover. While this wasn't that great an episode, at least it didn't feature any annoying little shits (which was a plus).
In the tenth episode/Season 3 final, that annoying partner of Dom's (who was so obviously the 'leak' in the FBI all this time) is fully losing it, he takes Darlene and punches Dom's lights out (I should feel bad for her, and he annoys me especially...but, eh, I just can't seem to care), then the two women are headed for an untimely demise as he brings them to Irving in a barn (
Seinfeld guy's also there). I forget how Elliot winds up there as well, but he does, and if I hadn't known that Dom would live, I would've thought this may've been her death scene, as she's led out of the barn and Irving brandishes an axe. However, since I knew that she
lived, it quickly became apparent this was going to be the death scene for the FBI leak, and sure enough, he gets axed to death. Considering how gratuitous poor Joanna's autopsy was, I'm surprised they actually showed restraint with the axing and focused on Dom's reaction to it rather than the impact on the guy's body as Irving went to town on him. Bobby Cannavale seems to revel in going OTT, and he certainly did so here. It's a bit cartoonish, but whatever. At least FBI leak is well and truly
dead now. I also would've worried that Darlene was going to be a goner if I hadn't been spoiled for her survival too. Still, the scene where it looks like
Seinfeld guy is going to be ordered to shoot her at the behest of Whiterose's flunky/lover was filled with tension. Both Carly Chaikin and Rami Malek did good solid work in this scene, totally selling it and making it seem like this may have been their final scene together.
Luckily,
Seinfeld guy ends up shooting the other bad guys (except for Whiterose's flunky/lover, who shoots himself after talking to Whiterose over the phone. I'm not sure what was going on there...I think their plan was foiled or something? Anyway, clearly flunky/lover had no more reason to live). While I was grateful that Darlene survived (it's not like I was ever even slightly worried for Elliot, because as 'ballsy' as this show may be at times, not even
it would off its main character when there was another season to go), I've grown tired of the
Seinfeld guy (who's name is apparently Leon) and his whole character who's able to be summed up with simply the word 'badass'. He can take out multiple guys with guns, not one of them manages to shoot him before he finishes them all off? There's no real 'complexity' to his character that I can see other than he kills people and feels a bit bad about some of them. Of course,
he's not the one to off any of the other characters we were supposed to care about (like the guy and girl hackers who got blamed for the 71 building explosions - they got offed by someone else), so it means the audience won't hate Leon (how convenient), which they would've if
he'd been the one to off them. I know others love his character, but I just see him as far too comic book-y in that all he does is act 'cool' and kill people (when he's not monologuing about TV shows - yet another character who I feel merely exists for the show creator to voice his own personal opinions about TV shows through).
So, after Elliot, Darlene and Dom are saved, Dom decides to shit all over Darlene, blaming her for
everything even though Dom's responsible for her own actions and slowness when it came to figuring things out. Take some damn responsibility, Dom! Ugh, as if I didn't dislike her enough
already, she goes and does this to make me hate her even more. Why, oh why couldn't
she have been axed to death too? Anyway, clearly she's a hypocrite, because after all the crap she accused Darlene of, she herself is going to be doing Irving's bidding now after he threatened her family (so get off your high horse, Dom! You have no moral high ground here). Meanwhile, poor Angela is sitting somewhere alone until Price shows up and chats with her, which leads her to the devastating revelation that everything she did was for nothing and all those people who died in the 71 buildings that exploded aren't coming back to life - nor are her mother or Elliot's father, which is why she did all this to start with. I can't help but feel sorry for her, since she was manipulated by Whiterose (though it feels like kind of a cheat that we never actually got to *see* what managed to convince her so thoroughly that bringing people back from the dead was possible for really reals). As if this isn't enough to deal with, Price then dumps another important piece of information on her in the most Darth Vaderiest way possible - he's her father. She's clearly struggling to process all this, but his only words of comfort are basically 'deal with it'. Wow, he's got real Father of the Year potential!
On the train, Darlene and Elliot chat and she asks him why he mentioned the Kevin McCallister snowman they built together that one time and how random it was, he says it’s the day their dad pushed him out the window, but she says that's not what happened and he in fact
jumped out the window (after swinging a baseball bat and smashing stuff when his dad turned up). So, now we know Elliot wasn't pushed...but as we get one answer, it's replaced with another question in the form of
why he jumped and remembered it as him being pushed by his dad? Anyway, he and Mr. Robot come to some sort of 'understanding' and there are shots here that mirror their exchange at the end of the show's first episode at the train station. The episode ends with Elliot pushing the button to undo the fsociety hack...but as is always the way with season finals in this show, it ain't over until we get a post-credits scene and in this instance it's Darlene walking down the street...with a street walker (which seems obvious) and then that intolerable a-hole who likes to monologue philosophical BS (and who was responsible for killing Shayla in Season 1) turns up and is
already annoying the crap out of me with his fur coat he's wearing. Ugh! WHY did his character have to be brought back? Where's Irving and his axe when we need it? Poor Darlene just can't catch a break!
I think this season started better than last season, I liked having more scenes with Elliot/Darlene and enjoyed what ones we got of him with Angela too. I also thought it was interesting seeing his struggle with the Mr. Robot side of himself and that they eventually managed to 'work it out' more or less. However, there were still a few episodes I wasn't too fussed on this season and more than a few annoying characters, plus I'm
still pissed that they unceremoniously offed Joanna whilst keeping Tyrell's petulant self around...but at least this season ended on a stronger note than last season's final two episodes. Now I only have Season 4/the final season left to watch and I'm not quite ready for it to be over yet (of course, I've already spoiled myself for some things that are going to happen - I couldn't help it). While I'm not always sure what's going on, and sometimes I'm bored/annoyed, the majority of the time this show manages to keep me intrigued.