After a shocker opening with Joanna, the big Elliot reveal of the season! Since we have an unreliable narrator you can’t take everything Elliot shows you at face value. This episode was pretty straight forward so I’ll quickly address the others before the main Elliot course.
Angela didn’t get caught by Dom! Despite acting about as shady as a person can, Angela managed to sort of lie around Dom’s questions. Dom leaves her alone and that lets her get the WiFi back up for Darlene to get access. Mission accomplished. Darlene romps around the system to get at the FBI and she wipes out the security footage of Angela in the building. Dom, knowing she’s been had when she finds out, is now going to be doing a full court press on Angela.
Angela is terrible at being sneaky. She works to get a lawsuit that her father is involved in against E Corp to basically settle and uses that win to get into a department she wants to go to. This “lateral” move (as told by Price) seems like a waste of her skills but he gives it to her. On her first day, she wiggles her way into a managers meeting (this is in one of the law divisions, one that is heavily involved in the lawsuits that E Corp are served) and she tips her hand so obviously it makes the whole room stare at her. She’s there to get the inside dirt on E Corp’s lawsuits to expose and she basically comes out and says it in the meeting. Embarrassing and stupid move (a mission that will probably turn into a fsociety hack).
Darlene pulls another fsociety media stunt. At a televised meeting, the part of the bull statue they stole from Wall Street is dropped through the skylight. That got some attention.
After their mission, Angela goes to meet Darlene and she’s put some things together. Darlene is part of fsociety. She brings up their past and remembers that terrible horror movie she and Elliot would always watch (the one we saw at the opening a few episodes ago). That’s where the fsociety mask came from. Darlene looks taken aback by it. Angela has put some things together that she never thought about. I think Darlene is afraid that there is a trail to the genesis of fsociety now, a breadcrumb she has no way to get rid of. How many other people did she and Elliot show that movie to all those years ago? Might be nothing but it’s the little things you don’t consider that can become a problem.
Joanna has some boy toy trouble. He lays it out to her that he wants their relationship to be public, she needs to show up at his birthday party. He gives her the ultimate of show up, or we’re done. She doesn’t and when she drops in on him later, he’s none too pleased. She then hands over the reason she didn’t come: divorce papers. It looks like she’s come to believe that Tyrell is dead.
On to Elliot. In a heart to heart (so to speak) with Mr. Robot, MR tells Elliot he shot Tyrell. At first, Elliot doesn’t believe him (why was he in the trunk of the car in that dreamscape you made?) but comes around to the belief that he was really the one who killed Tyrell. It was his hands that did it even if he doesn’t remember.
Hero Elliot can’t be kept down. Despite all the threats by Ray, Elliot follows his heart and turns him. He gets the site back up but makes it public. The authorities swoop in quickly. Now it gets really wild. Elliot is “safe” from Ray but he’s visited by some seriously intense looking dudes while he’s talking to Leon at the basketball court. Leon sticks by Elliot, the guys take off but then jump him later when he’s alone. Super Leon to the rescue! He shivs like 6 guys, saving Elliots life. From there, a meeting with his shrink, Krista.
Here the lie ends. Elliot isn’t out and about and living with his mother. He’s been in prison for all of this season. The fan theory was right! The strict structure of his life, how everyone comes to see him. The fantasy layers of Elliot’s lies are peeled back one by one as he apologizes to us.
So what is presumed real: Everything dealing with Angela, Dom and Darlene. What’s been going on outside of Elliot is happening. Leon. Fellow inmate, it looks like Whiterose has told him to keep an eye on Elliot. Ray. Most likely a warden or other higher up at the prison. The site was real, he had some guards in for muscle (I’m thinking that basement Elliot was thrown into is actually solitary confinement). Other IT Guy is another inmate (that I think) bailed on the site when he found out what was on it. That forced Ray to find someone new to finish the job. Elliot originally took the gig to get on (probably) the only computer with internet access in the facility.
What’s up in the air: Why Elliot was put in jail for what looks to be 2 months. Krista says he’s getting out soon, so it can’t be for the death of Tyrell. That makes Tyrell’s well-being and whereabouts completely up in the air.
So now it looks like Elliot is getting out and will most likely join his sister. Safe to say Dom and Elliot are going to meet in person and I can’t wait to see what that’s like. He’s reconciled with Mr. Robot now, so he’s in a pretty good headspace as far as Elliot goes. That dreamscape was to show him safety and when Elliot got jumped, Mr. Robot stepped in to take the hits (brilliant idea and perfect editing to show it, my favorite bit of the episode). That means a lot to Elliot. He accepts Mr. Robot as part of himself now. Not a curse or adversary, but a partner.
This should be a major turning point of the season. The multisided die of fsociety, E Corp, the FBI and Whiterose/The Dark Army are rolling in ways that are becoming harder to predict. I don’t know who’s going to get hit first.