A Little Gallagher Goes A Long Way

Wow, did Liam take a turn.

In typical Shameless get in and bail out writing fashion, Liam’s plotline has come to a screeching halt. He suddenly comes to think that MaVar is lame and weird. His mentor is now a loser in his eyes so he doesn’t believe what he says and rejects him. He pulls a money scam at Great Auntie’s wake and when MaVar confronts him, Liam lets him know his world views. “They need the money they gave you.” “So do I.” When MaVar says stealing is wrong, Liam doesn’t care. In the time since they gave the Liam character a speaking part, we saw Liam with Frank a lot and everything Frank told him took root. He’s become a grifter, the worst part of the Gallagher name. MaVar recognizes the evil and gets mad, yelling that the Gallagher’s are awful and can’t be trusted. In a very telling line, Liam says, “There it is. You are from South Side.” MaVar is the nicest person from South Side Liam has ever met, he goes out of his way to help people. That’s foreign to Liam, he doesn’t know why you wouldn’t take advantage of someone given the opportunity. He equates his home with being a shady person. Unfortunately, we’re left with Liam saying he now knows “who I am.”

With Frank’s spawn mucking things up, Frank spends his time with Mikey. Last week I mentioned that you can’t trust any of Frank’s friends and I realize this week that Mikey might be the only friend Frank has ever had. Sure he’s scammed with other people, but no one trusts him and spends any more time with him than they have to. Mikey has really been there for him and Frank has grown to like Mikey a lot. With Mikey sick, Frank wants to cheer his friend up so they go on a scamming adventure, one that starts with them getting a free meal and ends with fun day picking up free swag at a marketing expo. By the end of the day, Mikey realizes he physically can’t keep this up anymore. His kidneys are failing, the port infected; he needs professional (re: human) medical attention. So Mikey tells Frank he’s getting off the ride. He’ll get arrested and go to prison so he can get medical care. “The best healthcare the country provides for us poor people.” Frank is heartbroken as he watches his only friend punch a cop.

Deb needs money so she hits the pavement for a new job while the welder’s union is on strike. She runs into a high school friend (I guess) who has four kids and tells Deb the only way to go is to get child support. Deb tells her she told Derek to take a hike because he wanted partial custody for child support (Deb has pride) and this girl is dumbfounded at the idea and tells her to basically go get paid, stupid. This brings Deb to Derek’s house where his wife answers the door and we find out that Derek is dead, he was killed serving overseas in the military. Deb is shocked and finds out from Carl that widow’s get a life insurance payout in such cases, so that means Deb is looking at a potential fat check in her (really, Frannie’s) name. She makes b-line to the local Army office and gets a series of shocks. First, Derek basically killed himself in a tank. Derek was never written as a smart character but they wrote him off as a blithering idiot (which Deb didn’t seem too surprised at). The worst part for her is that Frannie is not a beneficiary of the life insurance, only Derek’s current wife. Now Debbie has a clear mission: lawyer up and get paid.

Carl is doing pretty well. He spends more time with Anne and is at her house to witness a visit from ICE which he isn’ too keen on. With the heat on her house, he offers for them to crash at his house and the whole freaking family rolls up. The good news is that they clean up the house from the disaster Frank left behind with his house party. While having an impromptu party, Tami and Kelly stop by. It gets super weird for Carl as Kelly walks in as he’s dancing with Anne.

Carl is going to single parent AA meetings and he’s surrounded by more than a few interesting women. He’s the only man in the group and the level of thirst surrounding him is nearly overwhelming. He hits it off with the leader of the group and she’s a really smart woman. She’s got her stuff together and Tami getting out of the hospital will now dictate where that relationship goes. Tami seems very tired and wary but she holds Fred fine…after not recognizing him at first. This is going to be interesting.

V and Mimi are getting along swimmingly and V manages to give her meaningful work advice. Mimi is a pharmaceutical rep and she’s having a hard time making any headway with her black doctors. She’s Asian and cites racial bias as the problem. With V’s advice working so well and with her nursing background, Mimi wants her to take over her African American clients so she can cater to her Asian clients. It’s basically an above the board business deal that Anne, Carl, and Liam are doing. V has the potential to bring in some serious money. What are the odds that V flourishes and Kev becomes jealous of not being the main breadwinner?

Conflict

The event is here! The wait for the Deus Group hack is over!

Any episode with hacking is always fun and this week was no different. Elliot and Darlene camp out across the street from the Deus Group meeting and get ready to steal 100 phone numbers and more money than the GDP of almost every industrial nation on earth combined.

First, Darlene and Mr. Robot have a rough start as she quickly notices that Elliot isn’t talking to her and he won’t tell her why Elliot is taking a “rest.” He wants to leave it up to Elliot to tell her about what happened with Vera. Darlene keeps her own secret as well, for some reason not saying a word about Dom and the Dark Army experience that ended like, a half-hour ago. Darlene hides her own trauma well.

Price makes a surprise visit and hands them data about Whiterose’s Congo plan. He wants to cover every angle to make sure Whiterose is destroyed. He brings up Angela, much to Darlene’s confusion and Elliot tells her about Price being Angela’s father.

So the hack starts and the Alderson’s have to navigate a lot of sudden hurdles to complete the hack. Darlene runs to the new secret location of the meeting and brilliantly publishes a new fsociety video doxxing the Deus Group members to flush them out of the meeting so they can hack their phones.

Price keeps Whiterose busy and he proves that a man with nothing to lose is the most dangerous kind. It’s not a good idea to tell a guy you need information from that no matter what, you are going to kill him. Whiterose knows Elliot is up to something but doesn’t know what and as each stage of the hack comes out, she becomes more bewildered. At the start of this, her right hand woman walks out in disgust, unable to talk sense into her boss’s Elliot obsession for the final time. As Whiterose loses control, she gets desperate.

In a brazen attempt to manipulate Elliot, Whiterose claims that Angela is still alive and if they join forces, she’ll reunite them. Price even believes him at first utterance of this nonsense. This is a two-folded ploy. One, classic Whiterose manipulation. She did convince Angela to work for her, promising to bring things back the way they used to be (bring back her mother). Whiterose will say anything to get what she wants. The other side is that Whiterose believes she’s telling the truth. I’m convinced that the Congo project is some kind of time travel scheme. Whiterose is obsessed with the past and for her, the event that’s killing her is her lover’s suicide 30 years ago.

Elliot sees through the lie quickly. At first, he wants to believe. Then he considers the source. The person who not only killed Angela but the one who first twisted her mind into a person he didn’t recognize. She hurt Angela for her own gain long before ordering her death. It all comes together for Price and Elliot: Justice for Angela. Whiterose has gotten her way for so long she knows no boundaries. Elliot and Darlene are the final lines of resistance.

With the 1% essentially wiped out, Price gloats, happy he could finally hurt Whiterose. She snaps and shoots him in public.

With three episodes left, it’s a big mystery as to what’s next. The main goal has been accomplished. Whiterose is trapped, the final scene is the feds raiding her mansion while she puts on makeup. What happens to her? Suicide? Darlene has put the entire Deus Group on blast so Whiterose doesn’t have any friends or favors to call in. Her network is destroyed. Anything that isn’t a liquid asset is presumably gone, I don’t think she could afford a lawyer at this point.

Elliot and Darlene certainly have a lot to talk about. What are they going to do with Dom? Tyrell was talked about but no one knows if he’s alive. Elliot’s mystery personality was talked about at the start so we’re guaranteed to see that (and we better. Good luck on making this satisfying after all of this build-up). I overlooked a major clue on this front. Last post I mentioned the scene with Young Elliot and his mother in the skyrise meeting room from Episode 2. That isn’t reality, it’s Elliot’s mind. it’s some kind of meeting place for his personalities. Through the window, you can see the Freedom Tower and that wasn’t built when Elliot was that young. In this episode, Mr. Robot meets mom and Young Elliot there. So his mother is one of his personalities, one of the parts that make Elliot. She is an awful entity–his anger. Young Elliot is his stolen youth–his innocence and Mr. Robot is his ideal father–the figure made to hide the sexual abuse. The other personalities know about the fourth, the mother says in this episode that he hasn’t been awake in a long time. Mr. Robot corrects her, saying he woke up to talk to Vera and Darlene. None of the personalities knew about that, so this personality can move entirely undetected. So what part of Elliot does this personality represent, why was it created, and what will he look like? Mr. Robot thinks Darlene could be key to get him to come out.

Which America?

How dumb is Debbie? This entire episode is a mudslide for her. She thinks she got away with Mikey blackmailing her. Giving the family ATM cards and giving up control of the house was never going to be enough. All of Frank’s friends are dirtbags so why she thought she could trust Mikey is her biggest mistake. By making bank accounts for everyone, it gave The Man financial access to most of the family. Frank owes the entire planet money, Lip student loans, and Carl I think owes money for boot camp. So the 100 bucks on the cards get taken immediately and the IRS is on to Lip so they garnish his paycheck by 50% as well. Mikey sees that as Debbie screwing with Frank again, so he takes Frank to her secret stash. She should have moved it to another spot in the facility just to protect herself.

Frank is impressed at her con and takes some stuff just to make up for the $100 and “interest.” Of course, they go back and take everything. They fence the stuff for pennies on the dollar and now Deb is on the hunt for Frank.

Deb also gets involved with a welders union. Once she sees all the benefits her peers in other cities get (child care!) she’s all about it. She gets her entire crew to sign up and the very next day, the union is on strike. Deb is financially screwed. This could last for months and she now has no income and her scam being robbed by Frank is going to take all of the money Fiona gave her.

For Carl, the ATM hit isn’t too bad. His hustle at the shrimp joint with Anne is starting to take off so he’s going to have cash. He’s also getting to know Anne and with his girlfriend out of town to her next stage of military service (and his disdain for that world) we’re looking at Carl getting into some relationship drama.

Speaking of relationship drama, Ian and Mickey. They’re stuck in limbo. Annoyed at being together all the time in prison gives way to uncertainty when Ian gets a notification he’s got a parole hearing soon. It’s possible that his sentence will get shut years short and Mickey’s certainly won’t. They’re a monogamous couple in jail but they’ve never talked about the future. Something all the other guys tell him they should have done a while ago. Does Mickey want Ian to wait for him to get out? Will Mickey wait? Or is the relationship over? Mickey wants Ian to stay in prison with him and Ian comes up with a plan to shank someone to spike the parole hearing. Mickey, knowing Ian has a life and opportunities on the outside, manages to stop him. Good for Mickey.

While I was hoping Liam would come up with a neat idea to talk to his black relatives down the street, he ends up just walking in. So we cut out some potential drama and comedy to get to the point. He meets MaVar, the grand-nephew of Great Aunt Addie, one of the living links to Liam’s existence. The Gallagher’s are person non grata in that house for a laundry list of shenanigans but MaVar recognizes Liam’s struggles and he becomes Liam’s mentor.

Meeting MaVar leads to bringing him around The Alibi and V goes to a baseball game with the two. Kevin feels threatened by MaVar’s physical prowess and goes on a mission to find V a new–female–friend. He ropes a few women to show up to the bar via Tinder and actually manages to find someone cool: Mimi.

That leaves us with Lip. He’s out and about by himself and with Tami on the mend, he’s able to visit her with baby Fred. Something’s wrong with Tami though. She’s still got a long way to go in the healing process but clearing a mental issue has developed. Based on how she reacts to seeing and eventually holding Fred, I think she has postpartum depression. When Tami does get out of the hospital, it’s likely that he’ll still be a single parent.

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.

Sleep Well My Prince for Tomorrow You Shall Be King

We check in with Ian in prison and things are a little rough with Mickey. They’re together so much that they aren’t driving each other crazy along with everyone near them who can hear their nonstop arguments. The start of this storyline is all laughs, the mayonnaise in particular, and it makes me wonder if we’ll get anything more out of these two in jail together. Ian and Mickey are fan favorites so it’ll be interesting to see where this goes. The audience has expectations.

Tami is recovering from surgery so that leaves Lip alone to take care of baby Freddy (“It’s the first name that came to me. I hope Tami likes it”). And when he turns to everyone for help, he gets a polite smile and a “welcome to parenthood” line of encouragement. Another funny line is from Liam who asks him why he’s so stressed out about Freddy since he has so much experience with raising kids. “I guess I wasn’t so worried if any of you died.”

Liam continues to struggle with his lack of identity. Since he’s the only dark-skinned person in the family, he feels like an other. His siblings say his skin color isn’t important, he’s a Gallagher, and he rightfully says I’m only seen as a Gallagher in this house, anywhere else I’m black and treated differently. He wants to get a DNA test to find out his ancestry and at the end of the episode, he asks Frank about the family history, how could he be born black and no one else? Frank says that one of Monica’s grandfathers had a mistress. “And she was black?” “She is black.” “What?” “She lives down the street.” They go to the house and when a man sees Frank, they are scared away with a gun. Liam has found his roots, he just needs to figure out how to get close to them.

Mikey is none too pleased with the fact that Deb is calling the shots in Frank’s home and works to shift the power levels. He follows her to her secret stash and extorts her to give up control. She gets the boys ATM cards, effectively giving them a $100 a week allowance (she’s not about to let what money they have disappear in 2 weeks) and tells Frank he can “take over” if she wants. Expect the house to turn into a toilet by the end of the weekend and Deb being asked to take the reins again.

Deb also hits her first “return the merch!” problem. She gets caught in the “I didn’t wear these $800 shoes” and the guy blackmails her to return the shoes. She ends up not doing the favor (which I didn’t find believable at all) but he end result is that she has to be way more careful with the merch. One thing is to not wait until the 30th return day as that is the first red flag.

Frank’s not the only one trying to make moves for himself. With a wrap on his military career, Carl has to go back to the rat race and heads right back to the shrimp joint where he’s welcomed back with open arms by his boss who loves him. While he was gone, a young woman (Hello, Anne!) was hired to take his place. It doesn’t take long for him to notice her drug side hustle. She’s selling vape pens with meals and Carl swoops in, bringing Liam in for the action. She pulls in the Hispanic kids, Carl the white kids, and Liam the black kids. By expanding the product and market place, they’ll make a ton of money.

Kev has given up his basketball dreams and packs up his new shoes to return them. A delivery guy comes in to pick it up and asks for a beer and a shot before running into the bathroom. A little later a patron finds the guy dead on the floor of the bathroom, due to some sort of stroke emergency. Miffed by the driver’s attitude of drinking on the (driving) job and doing something stupid in her bar, V agrees with everyone to raid his truck. They have a great time of going through the trucks and Kev takes it one step further, driving around the truck to pick up the returns on his route and selling that stuff on their own. When times are tough the people will take any advantage they can.

Of the plot lines going on, I’m the most interested in Liam and Lip. Lip’s stuff I’m sure won’t break any new ground but he’s one of my favorite characters. Liam’s story is just starting and they could go anywhere with it, so that’s the most exciting.

Proxy Authentication Required

In this daring episode, Vera digs into Elliot with the help of Krista. Layed out like a 5 act play, this entire episode takes place in Krista’s apartment with no movement on any other plot of the show. Once again, Sam Esmail pumps the breaks to focus on one single piece of the puzzle.

It’s safe to say that Vera is obsessed with Elliot, convinced that they can be and should be partners in taking over Manhatten. Vera has grand plans and he needs Elliot to do it. Now that he knows about Mr. Robot, he pivots that thought to Mr. Robot instead. By threatening Krista, he’s able to talk to Mr. Robot.

And Mr. Robot isn’t impressed. Vera, high on meth, doesn’t really have a plan. It’s very basic, just wanting to take things over and have everyone come to him for…drugs? He doesn’t offer up any scheme to do this, seemingly under the impression that Elliot can come up with the how to get what he wants. Mr. Robot scoffs at him for many good reasons (shades of Breaking Bad’s Walter White as Heisenberg) and pivots to the plan that’s already in motion–the one with the death clock ticking down. Help with Deus Group hack and I’ll hook you up with all the money you want to get your enterprise going.

While the hook does sink in (“Look at all those zeros!”) Elliot tries to get out of this with force only discover that Vera isn’t that stupid. He had his guys remove the bullets from his gun before they got to the apartment. So Vera goes back to his original plan and uses Krista to crack Elliot. What’s he hiding in there? Why does Mr. Robot exist?

And through deconstruction, we finally find out why Mr. Robot came into existence. Elliot and Darlene’s dad was not a “friend” as Elliot has always referred to him. Mr. Robot is Elliot’s protector from childhood sexual abuse. It’s a devastating realization for Elliot and it’s one that Vera can relate to. Vera sees his opening and begins to start his friendship with Elliot. He did say he’d never be able to work with Elliot with threats or fear, he’d rebel against that. They had do be on the same level for it to work. So as Elliot listens, Krista jumps at the opening and stabs Vera in the back.

A visual and acting tour de force, this was another riveting episode. Totally unexpected, I didn’t know where it was going and while a major plot for the show has been answered, there are still a ton of questions.

Elliot now has another dead body to deal with and he has to figure out what to do about it, and the 2 thugs Vera has with him wandering around somewhere outside. So the two of them have physical threats to deal with.

Next, Mr. Robot has seemingly left. He pleaded with Krista not to lead Elliot to the truth and his last words are “I can’t protect you anymore” and walks off the screen. Is Mr. Robot really gone? Will Elliot be forced to tap into that part of himself again to take out Whiterose’s empire? And how is Elliot going to even function after this?

A few hours have passed in the apartment. It’s night time at the end of the episode and since it’s the end of the year it’s somewhere around 4-5 pm. There is very little time left before the Desu Group meeting that Price forced to happen. Plus we have no idea what’s happened to Dom and Darlene with Janice and the Dark Army. That must be what we’re going to see next week.

And there wasn’t a single word about Elliot having another personality. I thought for sure we’d see that, and nothing. There’s no way Mr. Robot could have know what Vera wanted, that he’d find Krista and use her. So why would he lie about not being the one that talked to Darlene about Vera sniffing around two months ago? I’m completely lost on this thread.

This episode, for as good as it was, kept me feeling like we’re in limbo. There have been a lot of diversions with a few moments of world plot progress. While Elliot is on a severe time limit, and the show is too with only 6 episodes left, it’s like the show doesn’t know it’s on a time limit. I think this is the 3rd episode on Christmas Day, we’re hours away from ‘make it or break’ it time and it always feels like Esmail doesn’t think that’s important. Is he trying to cram too much into the final season?

Still, it feels like Esmail has a very clear vision of what he wants to accomplish this season. He puts incredible planning into this, I just can’t figure out what road he has us on. The reveal of Elliot’s father is huge. It also means we’re going to get an intense scene with Darlene about it. Was she abused too? I have so many questions, I hope most of them get answered.

We Few, We Lucky Few, We Band of Gallaghers!

We’re back with the Gallaghers a few months since Fiona left town and the new normal (which is never normal) has been established: Deb is in charge of the finances since Fiona left her the 50k. It seems like the most logical and safest bet considering Deb is currently the most trustworthy with finances. Or at least she acts like it. Everyone is pretty spread out at the start, so the opening episode establishes what everyone is up to now.

Ian is in prison and we don’t get to see him but the family is planning to go see him very soon. Fiona is shown calling Deb’s phone at the very start and they talk later so we know that the character hasn’t been sucked into a void. She’s not on the show for us to see and hear, but she’s still part of the universe. I’m sure this will fall to the wayside quickly (and they don’t need to show her on caller ID all the time) but I appreciate the recognition.

Deb managed to bring Liam back home by agreeing to some of his culture demands. He’s all about the black power education, growing his hair out naturally, wearing a dashiki to school, picking a new culturally appropriate name and going to classes with V about African heritage. You have to give the kid credit as he endures a beating at school for wearing the dashiki and otherwise not fitting in (which isn’t out of Liam’s life experiences so far in his young life). It’s great to see V travel with him on this journey and she cooks traditional African meals for them which seems to be the first real roadblock to his new lifestyle. Pig intestines aren’t high up on the tasty scale, apparently. Being a 10-year-old American has its limitations as one of the last things he says to V is about getting pizza.

Deb has everything charted on for the Gallagher finances. That 50k from Fiona is a major advantage for the family, something they’ve never had. She’s being careful to keep the household afloat, ahead of the bills for once and making repairs. Frank is offended Deb won’t give him any money and he’s incensed that she’s docked him $600 for a new couch. Frank’s leg has healed but living on the couch for 5 months destroyed it. So while Deb has put up a responsible front to everyone, she’s secretly bought a ton of expensive clothes. She’s rented a storage facility to house it all, she basically has her own secret bedroom in this thing. She’s keeping all the tags on it, has an elaborate system to return everything on time so technically she’s not spending money on all of this. It’s more of a loan. This is Shameless so there is no way this is going to work out. I’d say she has 10k worth of merchandise.

Frank, broke as he’s ever been and now without pain meds for his leg, kicks off his next hustle. He has a really funny argument with Deb about not giving him money, essentially saying every irresponsible thing about money and being an adult to her, and storms off. He can’t scam any more pills from the doctor so he figures out a way to steal some. On the run from his bait and switch, he runs into Mikey, his partner in crime from last season. He’s also working the scam scene and they end up hanging out for the day, stealing nice couch cushions from a hotel and doing some drugs. Frank now has a sympathetic ear to complain about his family to.

Kevin has air balled himself into a midlife crisis. He embarrasses himself at a pickup game of basketball and he’s mortified that his status as an athlete–as a man–has fallen into the trash. So Kev is on the hunt to get his mojo back. He doing weird diet stuff to get into better shape for basketball and he blames his old sneakers for holding him back. V shoots down buying $250 shoes because they are on a budget so he goes back to an old job to make some quick money: a dancer at a gay bar. He makes a quick pile of cash and gets the shoes he wants. Of course that does nothing since shoes don’t help your jump shot or make you run faster, or give you the knees you had 15 years ago.

Finally, Lip is navigating the very pregnant Tami. She’s super happy which is not Tami. Lip is thrown off by her sunny deposition and Brad assures him that once the baby is born, she’ll swing back to normal in no time. At work, Tami suddenly goes into labor, Lip gets her to the hospital and complications arise. She has to have an emergency C-section and while the baby boy comes through fine, Tami takes a sudden turn and is rushed away to surgery. Last season Lip went all-in on being a parent with Tami. She tried to run from him (literally) so many times that he wanted her to know that she wasn’t going to be a single mother. Her fear of that shouldn’t be what makes her determine what to do with the baby (adoption or otherwise). So on this momentus day of their future together, it’s possible that Lip will be a single father instead. I’m not sure if they are going to go through with killing Tami off the show and I’m not sure if I want them to. Either path leads to a lot of story possibilities and I don’t think they need to do something so dramatic just to be dramatic (of course this scenario is, unfortunately, a real one).

A solid start to the season.

Not Acceptable

This is an episode of moral quandaries and boy does it get rough. Elliot has always been an anti-hero. While he’s held the moral ground in most cases, a lot of his hacking is “for the greater good.” He’ll extort/blackmail people to get what he wants and now that he’s on an intense time table with no room for error, he’s never been more aggressive.

He needs more from Olivia so he goes to visit her again. Getting access at Virtual Realty wasn’t enough, he still needs the digital key to the door to get in so he needs Olvia’s boss to log into work so he can steal his password.

He left Olivia on good terms, she didn’t know what he stole from her so she has no reason to be wary of him. When we last left her, I even wrote that he met a kindred spirit. She’s been through things that Elliot can relate to and I came away from it noting that he made a personal connection with her (I’m ignoring the sex in this btw) which is rare for him. When he shows up at her apartment, coffee in hand, he cuts to the chase. He tells her what he did and what he needs her to do and in order to force her to do it ASAP, he’s spiked her drink with an opiate. If she doesn’t call her boss and get him to log in, he’ll rat her out and her kid will be taken away from her for good.

The fallout is intense, to say the least. Elliot tries to make himself feel better–justify his actions–my slandering her job. ‘What do you think offshore bank accounts for megacorps are for? You know you work for an evil company, you’re complicit.’ In many cases he Elliot doesn’t see what he happens to the people he leverages, but here he’s face to face with it and he now has to walk around with that guilt. This scene is one of Elliot’s worst.

As I said last week, the threads are coming together. First, Dom goes straight for Darlene and we’re in another horrific scenario of blackmail. Janice tells Dom to take Darlene’s phone to find Elliot (who they really need) and kill Darlene. She has until 3:30 to do it (a little more than an hour iirc) and Dom understandably freaks out at the thought, as does Darlene. This scene was the most intense of the night for me with some of the best acting on the show. At the end of it, we’re probably in an even worse scenario. Let’s just say Janice is very punctual.

Finally, we’re with Vera and Krista and this goes pretty much as I expected it to. There’s a ton of menace going on here as Vera simply wants the goods on Elliot. At one point she tries to switch the tables and use her profession on him but it doesn’t work at all. She had a glimmer of hope for about 3 seconds that she could get the upper hand on him but she was grasping at straws trying to get into his childhood. Vera is also wrong too but to a lesser extent. He thinks the two were a couple, which is completely wrong and at first he doesn’t believe it. It doesn’t take too long for her to figure out she has no leverage and gives up her files on Elliot. Vera is about to find out about Mr. Robot.

Out of everything that is going on, this plot seems the most like a tangent to the entire Mr. Robot universe. The big question is, how important is this really? If this wasn’t happening, would we miss it? There would be fewer episodes, that’s for sure. The only answer is where is this going and that’s tough to nail down. What’s Sam Esmail’s point with this?

The main point I can think of goes along with what Elliot just did to Olivia. Fallout and consequences. Now Vera is 100% a piece of garbage and I’m totally on Elliot’s side with what he did to Vera to get rid of him. Until now, just about everyone Elliot dealt with in this way, Elliot didn’t have to worry about. They were done. They were gone. Vera is now the opposite of that. Vera knows he can use Elliot as a tool for his own power gain now he’s forcing himself back into Elliot’s life. Vera is now the consequence of Elliot’s actions. In life, things don’t always have a clean end.

Plus, we have the plotline of Elliot having a third personality that was snuck in a few weeks ago in the episode where Mama Aldersonr dies. The personality that kept the news that Vera was back from Elliot. Clearly this plotline was made to give Sam Esmail something to explore with of Vera. He put that (complicated) seed in there for a reason. But what is it? Where is he going with this? Some kind of message about power struggles? The scourge of criminal violence and drugs? At this point, I think it’s impossible to say. We have to go with, In Esmail We Trust on this one.

Method Not Allowed

Hacking! Lots and lots of hacking!

It’s been a while since we’ve gone on an elaborate hack with Mr. Robot but gadzooks did Sam Esmail pull off another one. These episodes are always a ton of fun and some of the most riveting to watch. There’s some crazy direction going on in the entire hour (Esmail could direct a fantastic action movie) and I think there were all of five lines of dialog spoken. Some gap filling is done with text messaging but besides that, this was a kinetic episode right from the start that rarely slowed down. After last week’s slow moon groove, this was like holding on to a rocket ship.

Darlene finds Elliot right by the crashed Dark Army van and he hops in without a word–and without Tyrell. Zero word on what happened to him which is the biggest disappointment for me. The Alderson’s have a busy day ahead of them, so they speed off back to the city leaving the burning van far behind them…

With the Cyprus Bank servers located in a company called Virtual Reality, the siblings get to work at 11 am sharp. Being Christmas Day, there’s no one in there except for two security guards and a handful of people in the gym that’s right off the lobby on the main floor.

Darlene and Elliot’s plan is elaborate, to say the least. I won’t be able to do that half hour of screen time justice, you have to see it. I will say there are fake IDs, fingerprints, and a whole lotta fast typing and running involved. They do all of this without a word too, which worked surprisingly well. Considering what Elliot has been doing, it’s safe to say Darlene came up with most of the plan and by the time they drove up to the doors, they had the plan memorized to the second. They basically sprint to each step, knocking down each barrier as they come to one. The best was when Elliot wordlessly ran distraction for Darlene and she improvises her own way out.

In addition to getting this huge step done, other important plot progress is made:

• Price finds when and where the shareholder’s meeting is. The timer for that has started–8 hours.
• Vera finds Krista as she comes home from running errands. He’s going to get dirt on Elliot. How horrible he is to get it remains to be seen.
• Dom is ordered around by Janice, the world’s most chipper taxidermist/shadow organization handler. The Dark Army put her onto finding out what happened to their van and to do everything she can with her FBI credentials to cover up any evidence about them. When Darlene got Elliot away from the scene of the crime, she ran a red light, which took their picture. This puts Dom back onto a head-on collision with the Alderson’s.

A lot of plot threads are now being held by the same hand and are we’re beginning to see them be pulled together. Dom has been separated from Elliot for some time now and Vera has been out for a few seasons. It’ll be interesting to see how these roads intersect, the big question is when. Eight episodes are left and that’s quite a bit room to move around in. The obvious next event is the shareholder’s meeting. That’s just a few hours away in the show’s universe, so will we see that next week? Or will next week be devoted to Dom and Vera’s movements? I’m also wondering how far past Christmas this story will take us.

Elliot and Darlene are in the dark about Dom and Vera so they are going to be wildcards being thrown down. I don’t think Darlene really knows Vera, so when he shows up it’s going to send Elliot for a loop. Vera’s goal seems simple in comparison to what else is going on, he as no idea about the Dark Army. So will coming into Elliot’s orbit put him into the DA’s crosshairs? The go-to scenario for Dom is for her to work with Elliot and Darlene but with Janice on her tail, that’s going to be a challenge. There are a lot of possibilities.

Not Found

This was a ponderous episode. In a final season where every episode is precious, “404 Not Found” was seemingly a side show with very little plot progress. I’m confused about this approach after such a dramatic episode last week.

The show follows two trips: Elliot with Tyrell and Darlene looking for Elliot. We pick up right after the last episode ends. Elliot tells Tyrell they are being listened to by the Dark Army. Tyrell goes outside while Elliot keeps talking in his apartment and Tyrell ambushes the DA guy in the van with a solid bonk on the head. Tyrell thinks he killed the guy and they are pleased to find that the conversation he and Elliot just had wasn’t relayed to the evil powers. So the boys jump into the van and head upstate to get rid of the body. At a pit stop, the DA guy isn’t so dead and takes off in the van, stranding the boys who have to hoof it to the next town to get cell service. Positive that the DA guy has passed on the info that Tyrell is working with Elliot to bring down Whiterose, Elliot is panicked that Darlene is now just hours away from being killed. He has to warn her so he leads the charge into the woods, the so-called short cut to the next town.

Back in the city, Darlene calls Elliot to tell him their plan won’t work. Olivia Cortez doesn’t have the security clearance to get into Whitrerose’s financials. They’re going to have to beak in and enter a business to get access to the correct servers. Elliot is off with Tyrell– with no cell service–so she has to leave a message for him. She rants for three minutes about how awful of a brother he is, and when the voicemail service cuts her off for the time limit, she does it again but much shorter without the diatribe. She hides her feelings.

The information that Darlene gives us, is the only plot progression in this episode. The rest is character confrontation.

Elliot and Tyrell get lost in the woods (big surprise) and are forced to deal with each other because they have no other choice. Elliot is laser-focused, keep moving to that other town. Tyrell laments about his life. How is life focus on doing everything to climb up the enterprise later–stepping on everything and everyone in the way–hasn’t done anything to make his life better. His wife and kid are gone and his new job title, CEO of ECorp is meaningless. It’s one of the biggest companies on the planet but he’s nothing more than a puppet with a guillotine blade hanging over his head. All he has to show is his misery and the $6,000 suit he’s wearing in ankle-deep snow. He goes on to imply that Elliot’s life is much easier because he doesn’t care about anything, wearing the same clothes every day is like his armor to ignore everyone around him.

That statement shows how little Tyrell knows about Elliot. Elliot worries about everyone he knows, he just bottles up everything as a shield to the world. Right now in fact, he’s petrified for his sister and that’s his motivation. Tyrell keeps saying they should quit and Elliot shuts him down every time. He admits–without hearing Darlene’s first voicemail–that he’s a horrible brother and he has to do better. His admission to Tyrell is that his reason to live and keep fighting the hydra of ECorp is Darlene.

Darlene ends up traveling towards Elliot with a drunk Santa Claus named Tobias. While Elliot and Tyrell use each other as a shrink, Darlene opens up to Tobias. She’s mourning the death of basically everyone she knows. Elliot is her only anchor and she’s furious with him and at the same time, she’s petrified that he’s dead. It’s conflicting emotions that she’s having a hard time coming to grips with. As she talks to Tobias, he gets into his personal life and he’s having struggles of his own, so much so that it sounds like he’s suicidal.

Darlene spends just a few hours with Tobias and she comes to care about him. When she drops him off at home, she goes the extra mile to confront him, that his life is worth living despite his problems. It turns out that she misinterpreted most of what he said, he isn’t suicidal. Considering she’s been chased by the grim reaper for the past few months, it’s not surprising how she (and we the audience) turned his words based on her current perspective on the world.

Still, that was a very powerful conversation she had with Tobias. She doesn’t have anyone to talk to and lately, she’s terrified of getting close to anyone (a parallel with Dom’s small story this week). More importantly, as Tobias bobbles into his home, Darlene breaks down in the car and he has his own moment of great concern for someone he barely knows. He goes back to the car and gives her words of encouragement for her own life—another thing she hasn’t heard in a while.

At the very end, Tyrell and Elliot discover the van crashed on the side of the road with a dead deer nearby. The DA guy was well enough to drive away but a surprise road crossing by a stupid deer is a serious danger to everyone. Tyrell ends up getting shot in the stomach by the gravely injured DA guy and tells Elliot to leave him behind. This puts Elliot into a bind and cannot be the way Tyrell goes out. I can’t believe Sam Esmail would write out one of his best characters like this so I’m just going to have wait until Sunday to find out if I should rage about this or not.

Despite being a weird pump of the breaks in story progression, this episode still delivers memorable character moments and fantastic dialog (Darlene and Tobias have a string of highlights).