“It all depends on what your definition of real is.”
Mr. Robot is now going full-on David Lynch. The sequence with Angela and the girl is the show at its most surreal, and the way it’s all set up is certainly reminiscent of the director’s work. It’s a brilliantly executed set of scenes that culminates with a riveting conversation between Angela and whiterose, and it’s driven primarily by B.D. Wong’s magnetic performance. The scene poses a big question for the show: what the hell is real? Over the course of the season, the series has been moving steadily toward the surreal, expanding outward from Elliot’s mind to encompass an entire cast of characters. It’s been probing and questioning its characters, and it’s when they realize reality is slipping away that they also realize they may have dug themselves too deep of a hole.
whiterose talks about a world in which imagining something makes it true, and Angela responds as such: “That’s just not the real world, even if I want it to be.” These characters want to believe in something more than the shitty life they’ve been given, and that explains why someone like Dom is so caught up in her work. When she gets home, all she has is the Alexa on the other side of the room, telling her that it’s not capable of love or friendship. It’s a sad scene played beautifully by Grace Gummer, and I’d say it’s also one of the more relatable scenes in the show.
Aside from that, we also have the big doozy: the return of Tyrell Wellick. We’ll have to wait till next week to see how this all plays out, and the episode does a solid job at the end of teasing out the finale (as expected). Once again, though, the question is: what is real? What’s Phase 2? What’s Tyrell’s role in all of this? What’s Elliot’s? Is he just a silent observer, or is he in way over his head?
GRADE: B+
OTHER THOUGHTS:
–Back to the Future references galore!
-I complimented B.D. Wong up there, but we definitely can’t forget about Portia Doubleday. She’s been great this season.
-I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see both episodes tonight–as was the original plan–but next week should be really interesting. We’ll see whether Esmail’s games throughout the season lead anywhere, and this will probably be a series-defining episode for the show either way. I’ll be here for it.
Photo credit: USA Network, Mr. Robot
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