Compared to last week, episode 9 was a slow burn. A lot was covered and the set up at the end was a major stinger.

We got a quick review of Elliot’s time in prison and how he got released early. Darlene picks him up and off we go (we also find out it’s been 3-4 weeks since the events of the last week).

Darlene is still mad at Cisco for talking to The Dark Army behind her back. He doesn’t know what Stage 2 is and they need to find out what it is. Elliot gets some malware on Cisco’s DA contact’s cellphone so they can eavesdrop on him. Elliot then meets him in person and in a few hours the guy talks to someone else about it (Darlene overhears it). The guy says Stage 2 was Elliot’s plan so why is he asking about it?

This whole episode was a damning one for Elliot. We’ve gone into this season knowing he’s an unreliable narrator but things were revealed to us that will be news to him because he forgot. Just like him forgetting who Mr. Robot original was (and Darlene) he has major black out periods of his memory. He’s having alarming disassociative moments right in front of us. He hears Mr. Robot talking to Cisco and Darlene only to snap back to reality to realize he’s been talking to them. He hallucinates an entire thing while on the subway with Cisco. He sits opposite Mr. Robot and Darlene having a discussion and pops back into his body at the end. When Elliot “checks out” Mr. Robot steps in to keep conversations going to keep others from freaking out. Much like taking over to protect Elliot from physical pain, he’s taking over to keep Elliot out and about and on task. Mr. Robot feels that something isn’t right early on and that’s worrisome. Elliot’s grip on reality is getting much worse.

Whiterose is in a power struggle with Mr. Price. Their deal isn’t going according to plan and Whiterose throws some thinly veiled threats at him (Whiterose literally put the last E Corp CEO into the ground). Price pushes back hard with his own threats and their conversation ends with a pivot in the plan for China to hook up E Corp with bail out money to survive (the Washington Township plant is very important for some reason). Interestingly, it seems like they talked about Angela too…

I think Angela is being mindboggling stupid. She’s so in over her head it’s ridiculous. Getting blocked with getting the risk assessment/lawsuit info on the Washington Township disaster, she busts out the Rubber Ducky that Mosley gave to her a few weeks ago. She sneaks into her boss’s  office, pops the USB drive in and in just a few seconds gets a bunch of passwords. Back at her desk, she looks for her boss’s log-in info and signs in as him. She finds a folder that’s conveniently labeled and copies it. She’s got the info she wanted to go full whistleblower. Problems: Angela is not a hacker and did nothing to cover her tracks. Her digital finger prints are all over the place. It’s all logged that someone logged in as her boss on her terminal and what she took. Her only hope is that no one checks. Then, clearly thinking that being a whistleblower ain’t no thing, she stumbles all over the place when asked where she got the incriminating data. She broke all kinds of laws to get it and didn’t do the legwork to protect herself or actually get the damning evidence out. She hightails it back home where Dom comes by for a visit. Cue another Angela staring into headlights reaction under pressure. She is not cut out for any of this.

So that leaves us with Dom still circling Angela. Angela doubling down on being a dummy. Mosley and Trenton are AWOL. No idea if they are okay (probably not). What the hell did the Chinese do to the femtocell fsociety used to hack the FBI? Darlene forgot a damning VHS tape at the burned fsociety HQ so Cisco runs over to look for it. He finds it and there is something else there waiting for him. Cisco made a really weird face when he saw it and I have no idea what it is. Cut to Elliot walking the streets (going home from Cisco’s I believe) when he sees Tyrell’s SUV parked out front. Joanne rolls down the back window to greet Elliot. THE SUSPENSE! Less than a month to go in season 2!