Request Timeout

Another episode title that matches well with the events.

The end of the 7th episode threw as all for a loop and much of Request Timeout is Elliot trying to wrap his head around the freshly opened wound of his childhood trauma. He now feels like a victim, guilty that he “let” his father abuse him. With Mr. Robot gone, he feels that much more alone. When he leaves Krista at the police station he asks her what other people do in his situation…he’s completely lost and doesn’t know how to process anything he’s feeling. She tells him they figure out how to continue on.

On his own, Elliot begins to see his younger self, who leads him to the Queens Museum. This is where he and Angela often played as kids and they stop at the panorama exhibit of NYC. Elliot breaks down, apologizing to his younger self for not fighting back. Young Elliot tells Elliot he didn’t bring him here to apologize or feel guilty and leads him to a hiding spot. Elliot digs around and finds his old bedroom door key. Along with creating Mr. Robot to cope with the abuse and shutting off the abuse he went through, Elliot doesn’t remember anything from this time. At first, he’s puzzled at why he would hide the key and realizes he did try to defend himself. By taking his father’s key to his room, it was a plan to keep him out and away from him. Some guilt leaves his conscience and Elliot can now see a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel, going from victim to survivor.

Young Elliot showing up seems like that could be the other personality we’ve been waiting for but looking back, that doesn’t add up. First, why would that personality show up to talk to Vera? Vera is a present-day Elliot problem, so young Elliot has nothing to do with him and would have nothing to say. Plus, going back to episode 2 of this season, we saw a flashback of young Elliot with his mother in a high rise board room. She says he can’t sit in the chair because it’s not his and this strange conversation happens:

“They’re not ready yet. We need to wait…for him.”

Elliot asks, “You mean, Mr. Robot?”

“No.”

“Elliot?”

“No. The other one.”

Clearly we have not met the other main personality yet and judging by that conversation, the Elliot we know might not have been in charge for nearly as long as we’ve thought. The young Elliot in that flashback is referring to an Elliot–not himself (what name does his mother call him, I wonder). It’s unclear if that “Elliot” is the Elliot personality we know. Is it a different one? So are we looking at four personalities that make up the person we’ve been watching? This personality has been around since childhood, the same as Mr. Robot, but Elliot just recalled that Mr. Robot has been around that long. Whoever this personality is, it’s been buried really deep since the beginning (and I have a feeling Whiterose knows this personality).

This mystery personality is tying theories into knots, but I think Young Elliot is just that, the lost childhood in Elliot. In order to protect his mind, Mr. Robot was created. He crafted Elliot’s past and now Elliot doesn’t know who he is at all. The abuse shaped his life entirely without him realizing it and now he doesn’t know what to do. Young Elliot appearing is, I think, the manifestation of his grief. He first comes to grips with the past, acknowledging it happened and going through the steps of grief with himself. This lets Elliot move forward to Mr. Robot.

Elliot stops blocking Mr. Robot as he’s coding for the Deus Group hack at the old AllSafe office. We’re down to an hour before the meeting and Elliot doesn’t know what else do with himself. Even though Elliot is talking to himself, he starts the conversation with a lie, he needs help for getting the hack ready in such a small amount of time. He’s afraid of going through this next mental step. Mr. Robot knows this and says this isn’t the real reason why you let me back in, do you want to talk about it? And they do. Mr. Robot apologizes and they basically make up. Elliot comes to realize that Mr. Robot isn’t a figment of his imagination, he is part of Elliot. He is who he is today because of Mr. Robot. He can’t lock part of himself up and function. He must be whole to continue on.

With the reconstruction of Elliot Alderson going on, Dom and Darlene are in Janice’s clutches. Janice starts turning the screws on them to get Elliot’s location and Darlene holds out as long as she can. Stabbed in the chest, Dom is dieing in front of her but she doesn’t relent until Janice goes after Dom’s family. Janice is not messing around and it turns out Dom has set up a hail mary. When Janice calls her goons at Dom’s mother’s house to start the murder fest, she gets no answer. Deegan “Lucky Irish Bastard” McGuire to the rescue! And who is that? I had the same question and I had to look it up.

In one of the biggest reaches of the show to get out of a pickle, Deegan first showed up in episode 2 of this season. The feds bust this guy (he’s gets criminals out of the country) and Dom is called in to interview him. Then in episode 5, in an email from one of Dom’ co-workers, we find out that Deegan has been released. So that means this guy is out and about for Dom to call on, and it’s this episode that she seemingly calls in a favor.

Janice talks to Deegan on Dom’s cell phone and is told why her people aren’t answering their phone. Deegan and his crew went to Dom’s mom’s house and rescued her family, killing all the Dark Army guys in the process. Apparently Dom did him a solid (getting released in episode 5?) and this makes them even. Using the shock of the situation, Dom yanks the knife out of her chest and pulls off a Jason Bourne level fight, killing Janice and her goons.

This is a paper-thin set up for sure and Dom contacting Deegan (I assume in the time after she knocked out Darlene and before Janice showed up) wasn’t put on camera to crank up the suspense and relief of this scene. So it comes out of nowhere but I’m not too upset because the set up is there (it’s not deus ex machina) and the pay off is awesome. It’s also a plot miracle that Dom made it through this scene with a punctured lung so let’s just keep moving.

And now we are left with Darlene able to get back to Elliot. We are literally looking at the deadline for this make it or break it hack to take down Whiterose. I am more than ready to see this finally happen. I think all the side travels are done (aside from where Tyrell is) and we’ll stick to the main plot points. Elliot needs to be unified with Mr. Robot for this…the big question is when will the mystery personality show up. That’ll be the major wrinkle.