Double Takes is a series in which two Emerald writers compare notes on a recent piece of media. In this installment, Emerald writers Chris Berg and Emerson Malone share their thoughts on Mr. Robot’s two-part season two premiere.
“I tell you, the human condition is a straight-up tragedy, cuz.” – Leon (Joey Bada$$)
Emerson’s take:
Mr. Robot’s second season picks up a month after the first season’s finale; the “Five/Nine attack,” which scrubbed out debt and pummeled the American economy, went down like gangbusters.
This episode has President Obama, Leon Panetta and Nancy Grace, all of whom comment on fsociety and the smithereens left of the global financial market. But the hacking victory, which was spurred by Tyrell and executed by Elliot during the hours he’s lost last season, doesn’t make the future look any brighter for its architects.
Despite the hack’s ubiquitous effects, it appears that E Corp is alive and well, but hackers are still intimidating the corporation, as they re-calibrate a smart house’s speaker system, lights, shower and thermostat settings to chase away corporate lawyer Susan Jacobs (Sandrine Holt) in a masterfully filmed sequence.
Elliot, himself, is disciplining to a regimented schedule, scribbling QR codes in his journal and dealing with his increasingly violent split-personality disorder. Luckily he now has a new (real-life) friend, Leon, played by Joey Bada$$, who just discovered Seinfeld (“Man, that Kramer dude, if I knew him in real life I’d knock his ass out.”)
Elliot’s dad is getting extra vicious – shooting Elliot in the head, cutting Gideon’s throat – just to get his son’s attention. Darlene is housing some fsociety hackers, who’re beginning to act more and more like members of Project Mayhem in the post-Five/Nine world, with stunts like castrating Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue.
The show continues to be one of the most beautifully shot programs on TV, evidenced by the haunting transition between blood dripping on Elliot’s journal scrawl “Control is not an illusion” to the snarl of bronze Charging Bull statue at nighttime.
The soundtrack also includes some choice cuts, from the close-up of Elliot’s brain scan while I Monster’s “Daydream in Blue” plays to Phil Collins’ “Take Me Home” playing as an E Corp exec dons an fsociety mask and burns a hefty pile of ransom money in Battery Park.
This was only the eleventh episode of Mr. Robot in total, and it’s already relishing in a level of depravity and horror that took Breaking Bad four seasons to reach.
Follow Emerson on Twitter @allmalone
Chris’s take:
Returning this week to boosted expectations, the second season premiere is a proving ground for this ambitious hacker saga. If there was any concern that the show’s first season was an undeserved hit, this incredible two-part episode has eliminated it.
Set a month after the infamous Five/Nine cyberattack that culminated season one, this episode marks the start of a brave new world. Riots rock world capitals. Ordinary Americans have started to horde their cash. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are pushed into the mainstream.
Esmail’s vision of our nation shows people clinging to a way of life, desperate for normalcy. It’s hauntingly written, but often feels limited by the show’s budget.
We’re only given shots of civil unrest through re-purposed news footage, or see the aftermath. It’s a minor complaint however, given that the focus of the show remains on the characters themselves.
Rami Malek continues to be the on-screen soul of this show with an outstanding performance as the anti-social Elliot, whose split-personality/ghost-dad Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) is threatening to take the reins.
While the first season put Elliot’s psychological issues in the periphery, his role as an unreliable narrator is front-and-center for season two. Mr. Robot has fully embraced the madness that was once only teased.
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisBerg25
