Mr. Robot: Season 2/ Episode 9 "eps2.7_init_5.fve" – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16fQ3rEAkVI

Topic 1: Making Moves & Tons of Mistakes (Angela, Dominique, and Darlene)

Angela discovers a nuclear power plant not being properly maintained by E-Corp and decides to go to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, after getting spooked out she decides to go home only to find Dominique at her door, and eventually shoving her way into her apartment, to warn her that her day of reckoning is coming and either she can help Dominique or mentally prep to be swooped up by another agent.

Meanwhile, Darlene thinks she may have left a VHS tape at Susan Jacobs, with her face on it. Also, she once again performs an out of character action by opening the door, while not expecting anyone, and alone in Cisco’s apartment, while the city goes through a brownout.

{Commentary}

Angela has come so far, yet it may be all over for her. With her attempts to whistleblow on something which seems potentially major, you know her days at E-Corp are numbered. Especially since Deputy Director Phelps seemed to already have been putting the pieces together as to who Angela was. Even with Angela not revealing a thing to her. So whenever that investigation begins, and heads roll, you know Angela is going to be out. Though the question will then become, will her attempt to whistleblow save her from imprisonment? Dominique maybe playing good cop with Angela, but you know if she doesn’t cooperate all this friendliness will go away. After all, Dominique’s co-workers died because of this case and on top of that she has a reputation to uphold. So can you imagine her letting some blonde girl, sweet as she may seem, mess things up for her?

As for Darlene, I will just continue to question why is the most paranoid person on the show making so many dumb mistakes?

Topic 2: Blood On The Rose (Whiterose & Mr. Price)

White Rose and her alter ego, Minister of State Security Zhang, appear in this episode, and it seems that plant Angela is whistleblowing on, it belongs to Whiterose. In fact, that plant is so important that when Mr. Price’s predecessor tried to tamper with it, that man met an unfortunate end. Something which may happen to Mr. Price for with him losing the US government’s support for a bailout, now either he gets Chinese money or else the nuclear plant will be taken over by the feds. Something Whiterose doesn’t want but with Mr. Price getting rather snooty and confrontational, it seems once the deal is done it may be time to take out another CEO.

{Commentary}

With it being shown and said the Dark Army can cause plan accidents, get people like Elliot out of jail, and even perhaps cause massacres, they seem like such an odd entity. If only because it is hard to tell in whose interest they work for? Is it Zhang or Whiterose? Are they simply an arm of the Chinese government when they can’t do something directly? Much less, when it came to Whiterose helping with the 5/9 attack, was the belief that weakening E-Corp would benefit China or even Whiterose’s personal investments? Also, all things considered, did the 5/9 attack ultimately bite Whiterose in the ass?

Topic 3: The Truth, Stage 2, and A Glitch In The System (Elliot, Mr. Robot, Darlene, and Cisco)

Why was Elliot in jail? Well, because he stole the dog and hacked the computer of his psychologist’s ex-boyfriend. Then, to spite Mr. Robot, plead guilty to the crimes. From there, it is hard to know what was true or not. Ray is the prison warden, so who knows if Elliot did actually do any work for him. Leon is the same, just now in an orange jumpsuit, but at the very least it does seem that maybe Mr. Robot and Elliot did eventually makeup.

From there, however, things are a bit screwy. Elliot is experiencing memory loss again, as shown by him forgetting what stage 2 is, and he is also glitching. In one case it deals with how him and Mr. Robot switch, another case deals with him feeling trapped within himself, and the last one is the weirdest. Ollie, the fall guy who Cisco gave the CD, for some reason Joanna calls Elliot by this name. On top of that, Dominique mentions how she met with Ollie and you are left questioning was Elliot masquerading as him in both situations, one, or maybe even neither and Joanna is just trying to find her husband and is name dropping for Elliot’s attention?

{Commentary}

For every answer, there is a question, and at this point when it comes to Elliot, I feel it is best to just get the gist of things and then to move on. However, it is hard to ignore that we are left rather unsure what the truth is anymore, especially if it deals with Elliot’s timeline. For with him now magically forgetting stage 2 alongside this very weird Ollie situation, one which Dominique and Joanna might be involved in, you have to wonder who is he lying to? Them, us, himself, could Mr. Robot be the one lying? It’s all rather hard to tell and with Mr. Robot, as a show, increasingly trying to throw us off, who knows if we may ever see clearly.

Things To Note

Both Mobley and Trenton are MIA. Trenton, in particular, has left so abruptly her family has put a missing person’s report on her.