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Mr. Robot season_2.0 |OT| We Would Care, Bill - Wednesdays on USA
- Thread starter CRS
- Start date
Leona Lewis
Banned
It won't help if this show keeps teetering perilously close to 0.1 ratings in demo. At least last season had a big DVR boost, but the ratings utterly cratered this season.
Prestige television thrives on a subscription model or when the audience (like that of Mad Men or The Good Wife) skews older and has more disposable income.
Awards don't pay the bills, and NBCU isn't in the business of losing money.
Oh no, I'm in the position of concern trolling now. y u do dis to me sam
Spoiled Milk
Banned
Hey, NaM. Can we get video proof of you eating crow?
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Yes. Stage two is overloading the power supplies, creating fire/explosion, and blowing the whole building down.
E-Corp hasn't been as affected by the hack because of the physical copies of its documents (loans, deeds, etc.). For some reason (probably to reestablish their database) they've been sending its physical documents from all over the country into one building in New York. Stage 2 is destroying that building using their uninterruptible power supplies and blowing it up.
What if the crow isn't real? ��
Tyrell has been writing the malware to execute stage 2, destroying the building containing all of the physical documents.
Spoiled Milk
Banned
Discotheque
Banned
Honestly would have liked some matrix esque sci fi twist after that faux-lynch fuckery in the last episode.
But it all played out fairly naturally more or less. Ehhh decent finale, loved the music though.
So is stage 2 executed now and the building taken down or are they still waiting to implement it?
Tyrell is kinda useless to this whole thing now I don't know why they brought him back. Or were viewers really on the edge of their seat about his status that whole time?!
But it all played out fairly naturally more or less. Ehhh decent finale, loved the music though.
So is stage 2 executed now and the building taken down or are they still waiting to implement it?
Tyrell is kinda useless to this whole thing now I don't know why they brought him back. Or were viewers really on the edge of their seat about his status that whole time?!
Tyrell loves that he matters, that he has all that power, and Elliot is the reason why.
TimeEffect
Member
HAHAHA. Tyrell screaming "WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" when Elliot assumes he and Mr Robot are the same person (himself) was hilarious.
I mean, he called Elliot or rather his plan " God". I think it's safe to say Tyrell is a little bit on the emotional unstable side of things.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
He probably has a lot of debt and mortgages, and now that hes jobless, destroying the records is a way to set himself free.
I don't know. This show is ruining me.
Angelus Errare
Banned
Dominican Power
Member
Great finale. Shit is just getting good.
EmpressInYellow
Banned
I really don't get a lot of the complaints about this show or this season.
Angela is fine.
Part 1 of the two parter was great, weird Lynch tribute and all.
The show is nowhere near as cryptic as people seem to think.
On that last point - seriously, there's not even that many unanswered questions, and you knew that the likelihood of every single question being answered was pretty much nil so long as season 3 is happening.
EDIT: I have to admit I laughed out loud when the credits started rolling. Fantastic.
Angela is fine.
Part 1 of the two parter was great, weird Lynch tribute and all.
The show is nowhere near as cryptic as people seem to think.
On that last point - seriously, there's not even that many unanswered questions, and you knew that the likelihood of every single question being answered was pretty much nil so long as season 3 is happening.
EDIT: I have to admit I laughed out loud when the credits started rolling. Fantastic.
I think part of the problem is that the show tries to obscure a lot of details for no particular reason.
For example, the first half of the season was a dumpster fire with a lot of buildup that was ultimately nothing.
Second half finally picked up, but so much time kept getting wasted (could someone hack time please?) that it ultimately lead us to the final question: "What's going to happen next in stage two, aka season 3?"
They could have already introduced a lot of that in here, but instead they meandered a lot.
EmpressInYellow
Banned
But does it? Granted, I wasn't watching week to week, but I can't recall ever feeling particularly confused over the course of this season.
Sure, there's stuff that we don't learn until later - what's up with Tyrell, the nature of stage 2, etc., but those are clearly established as actual mysteries to be revealed at some point. I feel like some people are turning things that aren't mysteries (and which the show has more or less explained) into mysteries.
At this point, most of the uncertainty remaining has to do with Whiterose and her plan (and whatever the hell is going on with the Washington Township plant). Whatever it is, Angela clearly found it pretty persuasive.
As for the first half of the season being wasted...I disagree. The show is about more than forward movement of the main plot.
Net_Wrecker
Member
The scene where Elliot falls to the ground after being shot has to be a direct reference to the climactic scene of The Last of The Mohicans. Exact same angle, expression, and odd body positioning, just flipped horizontally. Disco, pls tell me you noticed this as well so I don't feel like crazy fan
As for the finale.....ehh. I'm really not invested in the overarching narrative at this point, so i need to see what season 3 does with everything from season 2 before I know where I sit. The show's still very watchable on a performance/technical/stylistic level, but this storytelling on a week to week pace after 2 years isn't completely working for me. The stakes don't seem legitimate or as grand as the monologues and carefully sculpted scenes, which lends all the obfuscation, and plot turns, and reveals a hollowness I'm not sure is supposed to be there. I feel like people who binge this series when it's all said and done will have a completely different, ultimately better experience. I do still think the quality of individual scenes is very high though, and unlike anything else on TV, so at least there's that.
On to season 3. After S2, my expectations will be more properly set for next year
As for the finale.....ehh. I'm really not invested in the overarching narrative at this point, so i need to see what season 3 does with everything from season 2 before I know where I sit. The show's still very watchable on a performance/technical/stylistic level, but this storytelling on a week to week pace after 2 years isn't completely working for me. The stakes don't seem legitimate or as grand as the monologues and carefully sculpted scenes, which lends all the obfuscation, and plot turns, and reveals a hollowness I'm not sure is supposed to be there. I feel like people who binge this series when it's all said and done will have a completely different, ultimately better experience. I do still think the quality of individual scenes is very high though, and unlike anything else on TV, so at least there's that.
On to season 3. After S2, my expectations will be more properly set for next year
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Elliot's part in the first half seemed like a waste since the jail thing (at least seemingly) didn't amount to anything. The fight with Mr. Robot could have happened in any context... and it all seemed to happen just to have a twist revealing his mental state, but we already know he's a completely unreliable narrator... so ultimately it's a twist for the sake of having a weird 80s sitcom episode more than anything else.
Angela's plan to infiltrate E-Corp to get to the township files is ultimately pointless because once you figure out their plan to burn down the entire company, even she says "fuck it" and hops on board the train willingly, to the point where she's having fun phone calls with Tyrell. So none of her actions actually mattered since all she needed was a quick pep talk from the Chinese hackers.
I don't even really remember if there was a real point to the whole F-society thing, other than Angela inadvertently letting them install the backdoor that will let them burn down all the documents.
Honestly, I think someone could have just started watching after Elliot left jail and be fine in terms of actually following the narrative of this season.
EmpressInYellow
Banned
This all feels a bit "Why didn't the eagles just fly them to Mordor?" to me.
Elliot being in prison did a number of things. It took him out of play, more or less, meaning both Angela and Darlene were basically left to do their own thing. The latter is especially important, since Darlene's decisions are a large part of what ended up compromising the group. It also established Elliot's relationship with Leon. It resulted in Elliot coming to terms (or at least coming to some sort of uneasy truce) with Mr. Robot.
Whiterose had no reason to involve Angela at all until Angela kept popping up as a result of her pursuing her own schemes. Her plot also gives us an additional POV inside E-Corp now that Tyrell is out of the picture. It shows her struggling with a feeling of moral compromise as she tries to reform the system from within. Her failed effort to turn whistleblower demonstrates just how far the conspiracy actually reaches and confirms the near impossibility of actually taking on the system through legal means. Also, it's clear that some unspecified amount of time passed between Elliot being shot and Angela receiving the phone call from Tyrell.
The F-Society plotline not only had them installing the Femtocell, but it also had the group disintegrating and getting sniffed out by the FBI.
I dunno - I firmly reject the idea that something in a story has a "point" only if it advances a specific plotline some arbitrary amount. There's more to a story than moving things along a bullet point list of major plot points.
Dominican Power
Member
It seems like Joanna loves to be with weak men and gets off on manipulating them.
We learned more about Elliot in the prison scenes than maybe the entirety of season 1. Once again, it's not about the supposed twist,but what it tells us about the character. These obsession with twists and "calling it" is making nearly every conversation about this show utterly tedious.
And it also introduced Leon, who seems like he's got a role to play.
Edit: I also agree with Empress that all the complaints about pacing, often in direct comparison to S1, are misguided, since the two seasons set out to do very different things.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I mean, I don't disagree in that things happened of course. But if this was a British show and they only had 6 episodes to tell the same story, I'm genuinely convinced that it would have been a better viewing experience.
Like for example, that Variety interview seems to imply that Angela may be playing Whiterose by pretending to team up with the Dark Army, and perhaps she may be working some kind of triple bluff. But since they purposefully didn't show us what Whiterose told her, all we have is 12 episodes of a milquetoast Angela bumbling her way through E-Corp to get to the Township files that she doesn't do anything with because of a secret revelation that we're not privy to. Instead of paying off her arc, instead we're treated to a cliffhanger of sorts and are supposed to wait for season 3 to see where she ends up. Treating season 2 as its own thing, I feel like Angela basically went nowhere. There isn't the moral complexity of a woman betraying her principles and her own father to work for the big evil corporations because she had this secret plans, because we see her immediately compromise herself to get in league with the Dark Army (at least in the last two episodes of this season). Maybe there's some flashback in season 3 that explains all of Angela's decisions, but since we don't see any of that, I can't really make any assumptions about her character either way.
I'm not even sure if I necessarily disliked the season. Just that I found it dull for the most part, after a relatively engaging first season.
Monocle
Member
Awesome finale. I expected stupid shenanigans that I wouldn't be able get on board with, but the show managed not to aim too high and faceplant. I'm so pleased it didn't attempt to top the madness of Season 1's finale by trying to be The Matrix or something.
I approve of all the twists, revelations, and developments:
- Darlene's survival and interrogation with Dom
- The nature of Mr. Robot's plan, which follows logically from the 5/9 hack
- The way the Dark Army, Tyrell, and Angela facilitated the plan
- The fact that Tyrell is not a figment of Elliot's imagination (Hell yes!)
- The fact that Angela is on board with Whiterose now, which connects her to the characters and plotlines she was isolated from throughout the season
- The culmination of Joanna's sideplot with the gifts, and her ruthless plan for revenge (which connects sexy bartender guy to Season 1 stuff in an interesting way!) What a woman.
- The overall intersection of all the different characters and plot threads
I still think this season could have arrived in exactly the same place by a more engaging route, but the fact that it arrived there at all deserves kudos. Very well handled toward the end. I'm glad this finale didn't put me off the show.
P.S. Tyrell x Elliot 4-ever. I ship it.
P.P.S.
P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.S.
I approve of all the twists, revelations, and developments:
- Darlene's survival and interrogation with Dom
- The nature of Mr. Robot's plan, which follows logically from the 5/9 hack
- The way the Dark Army, Tyrell, and Angela facilitated the plan
- The fact that Tyrell is not a figment of Elliot's imagination (Hell yes!)
- The fact that Angela is on board with Whiterose now, which connects her to the characters and plotlines she was isolated from throughout the season
- The culmination of Joanna's sideplot with the gifts, and her ruthless plan for revenge (which connects sexy bartender guy to Season 1 stuff in an interesting way!) What a woman.
- The overall intersection of all the different characters and plot threads
I still think this season could have arrived in exactly the same place by a more engaging route, but the fact that it arrived there at all deserves kudos. Very well handled toward the end. I'm glad this finale didn't put me off the show.
P.S. Tyrell x Elliot 4-ever. I ship it.
P.P.S.
Not really.
P.P.P.S.
Kind of really.
P.P.P.P.S.
NOW KISS
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I guess it's like the "Fight Club" revelation in S1 being kind of mundane because it wasn't really that big of a secret.
There's perhaps an interesting examination of psychology here - who is Elliot? Are we as the audience even sure that we're getting the voice of the real Elliot? But I don't know if we needed 6 episodes of him being in jail to explore all of that, particularly when the ending basically reveals that the audience-facing version of Elliot will never know the truth and that "Mr. Robot" will never truly reach a compromise with "our" Elliot.
As for Leon, like I guess I'm supposed to be shocked or care about the fact that he shows up at the end and tracks down Mogley and the girl... but when I saw that, I just sort of shrugged and didn't really feel the need to think about it. So the Dark Army (or perhaps he's working for Elliot/Mr. Robot) tracked them down. But it could have just ended with a random guy in a F-society mask showing up and had the same effect for me.
EmpressInYellow
Banned
Just to pick out this one particular point -
It's not immediate. It's the culmination of everything she'd been through this season. It's not like she was on the verge of a principled victory when Whiterose strolled up and made her pitch. She'd been isolated from her family, found out a bunch of nasty stuff about her friends, been repeatedly leaned on by the FBI, and despite all that, she continued with her plan to get the files and do things the right way.
Only when she did THAT, she found out (or at least had reason to believe) that the people she was going to were in on it. She had nowhere to go, and here's Dom again, breathing down her neck. So she decides she's had enough. She's going to turn herself in. She steels herself, says her goodbyes, reconciles herself to likely spending a significant amount of time in prison, and...she's grabbed off the train by two total strangers who put her in a van and drive her into a David Lynch film. Then, and only then, does Whiterose make her mysterious pitch (after revealing, of course, that having Angela killed was always on the table).
PHOENIXZERO
Member
Wow, I got distracted and ended up posting way too late, shit is getting fuzzy already. It'll be interesting to rewatch and see how everything flows when there isn't a week break between episodes.
Leon isn't going to kill them, he's bringing them in, this whole thing started because they got paranoid from what happened which ended up not being the Dark Army which is kind of funny in a fucked up way, they never killed anyone that was part of their group. All this because some random neighbor shit. Darlene's "you gotta be fucking kidding me" seems to be that with all the FBI knows they still think Tyrell is the guy and Elliot is just a connection or a "middle man" of some sort which probably means they really haven't figured it out at all. Though they would know Elliot was locked up for hacking but eh...
I laughed when Elliot got shot, because it reminded me of that "congratulations you played yourself" GIF.
That's pretty much it, that Variety interview goes into why they have a bond but Tyrell I imagine Mr. Robot Elliot is basically his male Joanna in giving him a purpose and pushing him into doing something that makes him "strong", you know with that whole gods talk and all that.
I'm not sure she gets off on it, I see Tyrell as her ball of clay that she's molded into what he is but deep down Tyrell is still weak (just like his father) despite the facade he put on, he's Patrick Bateman as he always was. Elliot as Mr. Robot is this strong figure that Tyrell wishes he was. That bartender was always her toy until she found a use for him and Scott's last gift was a gift that will lead to him being framed for killing his wife and getting Tyrell off the hook for it. Tyrell and her child are basically the only things she cares about.
Leon isn't going to kill them, he's bringing them in, this whole thing started because they got paranoid from what happened which ended up not being the Dark Army which is kind of funny in a fucked up way, they never killed anyone that was part of their group. All this because some random neighbor shit. Darlene's "you gotta be fucking kidding me" seems to be that with all the FBI knows they still think Tyrell is the guy and Elliot is just a connection or a "middle man" of some sort which probably means they really haven't figured it out at all. Though they would know Elliot was locked up for hacking but eh...
I laughed when Elliot got shot, because it reminded me of that "congratulations you played yourself" GIF.
That's pretty much it, that Variety interview goes into why they have a bond but Tyrell I imagine Mr. Robot Elliot is basically his male Joanna in giving him a purpose and pushing him into doing something that makes him "strong", you know with that whole gods talk and all that.
I'm not sure she gets off on it, I see Tyrell as her ball of clay that she's molded into what he is but deep down Tyrell is still weak (just like his father) despite the facade he put on, he's Patrick Bateman as he always was. Elliot as Mr. Robot is this strong figure that Tyrell wishes he was. That bartender was always her toy until she found a use for him and Scott's last gift was a gift that will lead to him being framed for killing his wife and getting Tyrell off the hook for it. Tyrell and her child are basically the only things she cares about.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
My thing is that her story might have felt like it paid off it we got something meaningful out of that Whiterose conversation as opposed to a seemingly instantaneous change of heart. We don't even really know why she changed her mind - was she afraid of dying? Or did she want to join on their crusade to destroy the company? I don't know if her actions throughout the entire season really give us an answer, which is the primary reason why I don't think watching her journey through the E-corp bureaucracy was really all that necessary. Yeah, you see how she seemingly boxes herself in - but the huge leap to where her character ends up, without any real explanation, means that there could be ANY explanation for her behaviour, which ultimately means that at least until we see more of her story, it didn't really matter why she got put into that position in the first place.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
How can you be disappointed in this season when Darlene looked RIGHT AT THE USA LOGO IN THE CORNER OF THE SCREEN.
IN 2016.
IN 2016.
...ain't no USA logo if you're watching it in the UK /s
I loved the season, but someone please reassure me that this is the first time there's been an end credits sequence, and I haven't been missing a bunch of stuff previously just like I did with the entire first season of Rick & Morty?
Also, what was the deal a few episodes ago where it was suggesting neither Elliot or Mr. Robot had full control? Was Mr. Robot just fucking with Elliot, and for what reason?
I disagree. This season could have been streamlined a bit but the quality was still there in spades.
And the only big "gimmick " this year was the prison which IMO made a whole lot of sense. And I liked the twist that Elliot has gone so far in questioning what was real and what wasn't, that it ended up biting him. Sooooo much better than if Tyrell had been another figment of his imagination.
Considering it's still entirely possible that Elliot could have shot himself while arguing with a fake Tyrell, I dunno if what we got makes any difference.
DirtyLarry
Member
What was the exact quote Tyrell said was the only words his father knew in English?
Only reason I ask is I know there was something about a red wheel barrel in it, and on the elevator going up to "Mount Olympus" the dark army kid who was with them eating, I believe the bag said Red Wheel Barrel BBQ.
That instantly made me believe Tyrell made up whatever the quote was.
Other than that, I can nitpick some shit, but overall I thought it was a decent finale. I always need a few days for each episode to marinate and I also usually watch it again.
I can say it seemed like this season flew by. And stylistically I still enjoyed it. Just not sure about the overall plot yet.
It no doubt suffered from sophomore slump. I also fully expected it as that first season was damn near magical. Would have been a minor miracle to match it, nevermind top it.
Only reason I ask is I know there was something about a red wheel barrel in it, and on the elevator going up to "Mount Olympus" the dark army kid who was with them eating, I believe the bag said Red Wheel Barrel BBQ.
That instantly made me believe Tyrell made up whatever the quote was.
Other than that, I can nitpick some shit, but overall I thought it was a decent finale. I always need a few days for each episode to marinate and I also usually watch it again.
I can say it seemed like this season flew by. And stylistically I still enjoyed it. Just not sure about the overall plot yet.
It no doubt suffered from sophomore slump. I also fully expected it as that first season was damn near magical. Would have been a minor miracle to match it, nevermind top it.
Why be happy you were wrong about Tyrell being dead, when you could just complain about something else you're wrong about like Trenton not being on the FBI board.
I'm not looking for an explanation from you about this, or why water isn't wet. I'm just mocking your absurd claim that the episode lacked tension.
umop_3pisdn
Member
No, it's a real poem.
It's usually interpreted as the simplicity/in-itselfness of experience endowing our lives with meaning, so it sort of makes sense that Tyrell would find it 'weak'.
I kind of have to agree. Really disappointed.
PHOENIXZERO
Member
I wonder what the deal with Knowles being framed and everyone probably looking at him now for murdering his wife making Tyrell look wrongfully accused will do, if anything to change the FBI's thinking on Tyrell being the man in the center of the hack.
Tyrell loves Elliott because he gave him the chance to change the world, to be a god.
Because she wants to punish ECorp for killing her mother and the dark army is trying to destroy them.
Because Tyrell called the dark army for medical help after he shot him because he doesn't want him to die.
Tyrell was never just a corporate guy. He beat up random hopeless people, and killed a rival's wife. And then he got kicked out the company and lost everything.
More evidence of ECorp's evilness, presumably.
Whiterose is in a battle with Philip Price for control of the American economy.
Something that would cause her and probably China as a whole a great deal of trouble if it was revealed.
He was always Elliott's dark army appointed guardian. When he saved Elliott from being beaten up/raped in prison, he told him that.
Oh man I guess I missed that.
Yeah, the line after he killed those dudes was something like "When you see White Rose, say I did well." It was something along those lines to say that he was always being watched over. Why Leon is in Arizona...I have no idea. Super curious about that.
Hero Prinny
Member
Dw about it, if i didnt check up on gaf sfter the episode i would have never known