Mr. Robot: Season 2/ Episode 8 "eps2.6_succ3ss0r.p12" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvM5-LgMzX4

Recap

Darlene gets sloppy, and with this comes Mobley and Trenton starting to freak out. All the while, Dominique is getting closer to the source of the five/nine attacks.

Major Characters

Darlene | Cisco | Mobley | Trenton | Dominique | Angela

Main Plot (with Commentary)

Topic 1: Bumps in the Investigation (Dominique, Angela, and Mobley)

As good as Dominique is at her job, thanks to Angela getting FSociety access to FBI’s servers, they learn about a conference call which allows them to expose that the FBI is planning to illegally wiretap people. With this, multiple operations are threatened and it makes Dominique trying to put the pressure on Mobley directly, or using an agent to get close to Angela, seemingly all in vain.

{Commentary}

Setting aside the Mobley thing, and the F-Society Leak, I really only found myself questioning Dominique’s approach with Angela. She sent a man to seduce her and try to get her to talk about FSociety? Really? Being how Dominique seems, you’d think she wouldn’t go with such a plan which could be prone to not only fail but seem kind of sexist in a way. The idea that a man, who Angela meets at a bar, could easily sweep her into a false sense of security to the point she blabs about all the illegal stuff she is into? I mean, why even do such a long game when there was a leak of a confidential FBI conference call and you just saw the girl days before on a floor she didn’t belong on? On top of that, you suspect she has FSociety ties and you aren’t even trying to figure out concrete ways to tie everything together? Come on!

Topic 2: A Different Kind of Revenge (Darlene, Cisco, Mobley, and Trenton)

Dominique isn’t the only person dropping the ball. Susan Jacobs, chief counsel for ECorp, she comes back home and finds FSociety still using her home as a base. Leading to her being tied up and prepped for blackmail, but then Darlene just decides to kill her. Leading to Mobley, who is already paranoid about what has happened to Romero and whether the Dark Army is involved, deciding he is calling it quits. Something Trenton would like to do as well, but with her having roots thanks to her family, she doesn’t have the mobility Mobley has. But still, with Susan dead she wants out as safely as possible. Thus leading Cisco and Darlene to get rid of the body, cover their tracks, and present their form of normalcy.

{Commentary}

Arguably, Darlene is not a planner. Well, at least when it comes to long-term things. She is the type who wants instant gratification and can’t hold back on getting it for too long. Hence why all her actions under her leading FSociety has been a bit showier and had a bigger risk potential. Thus leading to Susan walking right up into operations for when you try to be showy and grandeur, you always forget a few details which quickly go from minor to major.

Now, her killing Susan wasn’t a surprise, for again Darlene is not much for long term things, but I must admit her speaking on how she felt nothing after doing it, that made me wonder how messed up is Darlene? We know why Elliot is screwed up in the head, but why Darlene? She seems to despise her mother, so could she be the source? Could it be she has her own Mr. Robot in her life, maybe in the form of her mom, that has yet to be revealed?

Topic 3: Et tu Cisco? (Darlene & Cisco)

Throughout both Elliot and Darlene’s run in being the leader of FSociety, Cisco has always been there. He has especially looked out for Darlene and it seemed like he was her ride or die. However, after that wake-up call from the Dark Army, it seems things may have changed. Well, at least they have in Darlene’s mind. As Cisco showers, she hacks into his computer and sees messages from the Dark Army which makes it look like Cisco is setting up Darlene. So, as he steps out of the shower, he gets hit with a baseball bat.

{Commentary}

It seems Darlene’s recklessness is going to catch up to her and while there has yet to be the death of someone major on this show, in my opinion, Darlene is making it seem like a possibility. Though with Elliot returning to the fold in the next episode, and surely to be a source of guidance, solace, and guilt, it is going to be interesting to see how those two plant to confront the slew of issues Darlene caused. Especially as we try to figure out how what Elliot lied to us about meshes with the truth.

Review Summary
On The Fence

Both Dominique and Darlene’s incompetence was surprising this episode. Dominique tried to use a man to get to Angela, rather than just build a case through a more guaranteed efficient way, and Darlene not only slipped up and got caught but decided it was better to murder someone than have a liability on hand. Neither character was at their best, which is good for flaws make characters interesting, but even a flaw in character doesn’t make up for such out of character incompetence.