eXit

This is a mind-boggler of an episode.

At the start, we revisit Elliot and Darlene’s goodbye in the motel parking lot. A little more was added to this scene from last week, the most important being Elliot holding on to his sister a little longer and thanking her for not giving up on him for all these years.

Walking away, Mr. Robot confronts him over Elliot’s plan to go to the Washington Township nuclear power plant to disable Whiterose’s machine for good. Mr. Robot is not a fan of this endless pursuit as it wasn’t part of the deal they had. Break up the Deus Group and redistribute the money to the world…that’s it, mission complete. Elliot is obsessed with Whiterose, convinced that with the data Price gave him, he still has work to do. With all of Mr. Robot’s protesting, Elliot charges forward alone and malware in his pocket.

Elliot arrives at the power plant on the tail end of some kind of upheaval. Three SUVs come flying down the road, the gate is left open, and there is no one in the guard booth. Elliot needs physical access to one of the terminals inside to plant his malware, so this works in his favor. He walks in and installs his software in just a few seconds, only to be surprised by some Dark Army footsoldiers and The Engineer In A Clean Suit Who Is Always Eating. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this guy but that’s the first signal that Whiterose is nearby.

And so we got the long-awaited confrontation between Elliot and Whiterose. In the bowels of the plant in a room the mimics the place where Whiterose brainwashed Angela long ago, Whiterose lays it out. She wants to erase all the pain that people go through. In a scheme that sounds a lot like Rapture without the guest appearance by Jesus and the hand of God to rescue those who are “worthy,” Whiterose sees herself as God. She’s wanted to move the machine to the Congo (the experiments were too limited in this location) but Elliot has ruined that so she’s going to flip the switch and let Elliot figure it out. She departs in a fittingly dramatic fashion for someone so full of themselves.

Since the machine was on before Elliot got there, his malware doesn’t do anything and the plant starts to meltdown. Elliot takes on the challenge that Whiterose leaves him, doing what he can to stop the meltdown. While he seemingly answers Whiterose’s riddle correctly, it doesn’t work–or it was never going to work–and white and red flash take u somewhere else.

Inside Elliot’s mind? Another dimension? Limbo, heaven, hell, purgatory? All could be valid answers to this place where Elliot is…happy. Confused but happy. He’s CEO of Allsafe, he’s going to marry Angela in a day and his happy father is still alive and running his Mr. Robot repair shop. In this place, Elliot is also an only child and Tyrell is the CEO of F Corp, a client that Elliot is trying to land a huge cyber security contract with. The episode ends with another twist of the mind: this new Elliot returning to his nice apartment to reveal the Elliot we know, sitting at the computer in the crummy apartment we’ve seen him in so many times before.

BD Wong crushes it this episode with one hell of a scene with Rami Malik. A clash of wits and life experiences, Whiterose is at the end of her rope just as Elliot has found his and is holding on tighter than ever before. Whiterose says that she and he are the same, driven by anger and hate. In many regards, she is right. But in a beautiful speech about the power of love and other people, Elliot rejects Whiterose’s philosophy (with gusto!) and stands up for the good in the world.

In the ‘other dimension’ as I’ll call it for now, Elliot has another interesting discussion with Tyrell. This Tyrell has clearly lead a different one than the one we know. He’s quite successful, he looks genuinely happier, but he still carries around a sadness. Much like Elliot and Whiterose, Tyrell and Elliot are similar spirits. They’re both in the same cycle of work, life, and responsibility. “I just wanna know you are on my side.” To which Elliot replies, “Always.” Another person who needs to be meaningfully supported, looking for someone they can actually trust.

The only conclusion I can come up with for the end is that this new version of Elliot is his fourth personality. This one has never met the Elliot we know, which is why they are both surprised upon seeing each other. But how did they meet, did the power plant meltdown or…? This Elliot is very spacey and unsure as if he knows this isn’t ‘right.’ There are chunks of the dimension we know that bleed into this one. And what was the deal with the broken glass that Elliot found in Angela’s apartment? Her parents were supposed to be there, but they’re gone. What’s the significance of that?

The last two episodes are airing next week so the answers to this and more aren’t far off.