4 February 2020
It’s hacks to the max in Mr Robot
Okay so we’re not going to bore you with an in-depth lookback of Mr Robot – it’s too complicated to just brush over anyway. What you need to know when you stream the fourth and final season on Showmax here (you can still binge on seasons 1-3) is this: it’s a thriller, set in the world of hackers and cyberspace, the lead character Elliot (Rami Malek) may or may not be hallucinating a group of cyber “freedom fighters” and you can’t miss an episode or you’ll be as corrupt as a flashdrive that’s been put next to a magnet (in non-geek terms, that’s bad – so pay attention).
Nothing is what it seems in Mr Robot. Even if you know your Unix from your Linux systems, your brute-force hacks from your redundancies, the show has the most amazing details placed throughout to tickle your fancy. It holds an 8.4/10 on IMDB.com and 95% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and that’s a big thing – because the two sites are regarded as the be-all and end-all of show and movie ratings. And you can’t argue with experts like Liz Shannon Miller from tv.avclub.com, who review it like this: “On a production level, the penultimate episode of Mr Robot is a relatively unflashy thing. On a narrative level, eXit is perhaps one of the wildest episodes of the series yet, as Sam Esmail writes and directs an episode that begins in one reality, and ends in quite a different place.”
The thing is, having seen three crazy seasons before, what’s left to wow, shock and dazzle us in the final 13 episodes? As it turns out, a whole lot! Including…
Episode 1 – Angela dies
Okay, so characters peg all the time on TV shows. What makes this one so different? Did you know that the scene was filmed in two halves, two years apart? No, you didn’t! The first half of Angela’s demise was filmed for the beginning of season 3 and actress Portia Doubleday had to be calmed by her director Sam for the season 4 episode. “I was walking across the lawn with him and was like, ‘Wow, dude, I’m nervous! I haven’t been in this moment in two years and a lot has happened since then.’”
Wardrobe had kept Portia’s clothes vacuum sealed, her hair had to be cut and styled in the exact same way, everything down to new freckles were digitally edited out to make the episode seem like it was filmed at the same time as season 3’s instalment. And it was worth it, adds Portia: “Angela’s death is unbelievably powerful, especially in terms of Elliot’s drive.”
Episode 2 – Elliot’s mental issues aren’t new
Yip, it’s taken us four seasons of inanity and rollercoasters inside Elliot’s mind to find out that he’s struggled for years. And it’s not a secret – his sister hacker Darlene (Carly Chaikin) has known about it since they were kids. When the pair find out that their mom has died, Darlene immediately grabs Elliot’s hand and reminds him how she did it when he “lost focus” as a child. That’s a polite way for her to say “when you went crazy off the deep-end”. That’s not even the big thing – Elliot doesn’t deal well with death and losing his mom, whether they were close or not, and her death brings out his third personality… and they’re 10 times more dangerous than Mr Robot.
Episode 9 – The real genius steps up
Elliot and his multiple personalities are the face(s) of the show, but it turns out he’s not the brains… well, at least not all of them. The Deus Group are the baddest of the bad and for some time they’ve been the target. Who are they? This is how Elliot describes them: “There’s a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. I’m talking about the guys no one knows about. The guys that are invisible. The top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. The guys that play God without permission.” And as much as Elliot has been leading the fight, he steps aside to let Darlene finish them off. Who could’ve seen that coming? Even Elliot is surprised… somewhat. And it’s not even the season finale (although it could’ve been).
The thing with Mr Robot is that it keeps you guessing. You think you know, but you have no idea. Everything is disguised to make you watch the right hand, unaware that the left hand is busy manipulating behind the scenes. You think that there’s a bad reason there’s only two lines of dialogue in the entire episode 5? Think again! It’s not just a gimmick – Darlene saying “It’s cool, dude. We don’t have to talk” two minutes into the episode sets the tone and viewers are forced to watch closely and pay attention to what’s going on onscreen. It’s a well-oiled machine.
After four seasons, Elliot & Co know what they’re doing – and by the end, they get what they want, even if it’s not exactly the way they wanted. “It’s very nearly the end, after all, which likely means that this glimpse of what actual, real happiness for Elliot might look like is only that — just a glimpse of a man who has found both peace and excitement in settling down, who seems to trust the reality presented to him. Too bad that this is Mr. Robot, and reality is never to be trusted.”
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