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Mr. Robot: eps1.6_v1ew-s0urce.flv

"I want a way out of loneliness. Just like you. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

It’s getting down to the nitty gritty. Only three episodes left after this.

“V1ew-s0urce” takes place a month after Fernando Vera killed Elliot’s girlfriend, Shayla. While Elliot is understandably in a state of mourning, everyone else just jumped to the point where their goals are in reach. Some gain ground, others flounder.

First off, let’s get to the disturbing end-result of Tyrell Wellick’s mounting insanity. On the night that Scott Knowles is officially given Tyrell’s coveted position of CTO, Tyrell enacts his and his wife’s plan to seduce Sharon Knowles. Despite Sharon’s persistent, and warranted, insults, things seem to be going Tyrell’s way. She follows him to Evil Corp’s rooftop (where there are no cameras), and when he kisses her, she kisses back. The love scene music kicks on and… Tyrell starts strangling her. The music doesn’t stop until she’s dead.

At least we know now that Tyrell hasn’t murdered anyone before, judging by his horrified reaction after killing Sharon. My guess as to why he did it is because his monstrous ego couldn’t handle Sharon mocking him and telling him her husband plans on firing him; probably not the sort of thing that’ll get that guy in the mood. Unless, of course, he’s in the mood for murder… Too soon?

Moving on to something just slightly less unpleasant, we see Angela continuing her crusade against Evil Corp by working with attorney Intara Nayar to make a deal with Terry Colby and his lawyers. She will lie and claim to have broken chain of custody with the .dat file that incriminated Colby in the first episode. In exchange, Colby will testify that Evil Corp covered up the toxic waste leak that killed Angela’s mother, Elliot’s father, and many others in 1993.

This leads to another hard scene to watch. Angela is forced to meet with Terry Colby, the chauvinist jerk who sandbagged her in the first episode, alone. After she refuses to simply be bought off, Colby sinks to Eric Cartman levels of douchebaggery and, to put it briefly, tells Angela to suck his balls. Rather than kicking his teeth in, which would be my first instinct, Angela delivers a powerful speech that not only seems to humble a corporate pig like Colby, but also makes him agree to her deal out of respect. Go, Angela!

Fsociety has apparently been out of commission since Elliot’s failures in “Brave Traveler.” Interesting. I guess he really was the key to their plans. Or maybe not, since Mr. Robot and Darlene work to get the band back together. Darlene regains the help of Trenton and even arranges a meeting with The Dark Army leader, White Rose. Mr. Robot basically threatens Romero back into the fold. There’s no scene with Mobley, so I guess his involvement is just a given.

I can only assume the same can be said for Elliot, and that he will be back working with fsociety next episode. For now, though he’s getting over his lost love, shunning Gideon’s emotional support, and revealing what he really is to Krista, as well as the fact that she is one of the many people he regularly hacks; I think she suspected he was one of her more unique patients, but she had no idea. It’s a powerful scene to end off on.

Bits and Pieces:

* The opening scene really twisted the knife in ours hearts, didn’t it. It’s like they made us love Shayla Nico even more, while knowing she’s dead in the present.

* Cisco accosts Ollie. The Dark Army has another task for him, I guess. As much of an ass as he is, it’s hard not to feel bad for him. He certainly doesn’t deserve to be in this predicament.

* I’ve read that Tyrell speaks Swedish with Joanna and she speaks Danish when talking to him. I can’t tell if they do it out of habit or if it’s just part of their strategy.

* Gideon tries to impress upon Angela the gravity of her actions, stating that she’s putting all of Allsafe at risk. Her determination to seek justice has cost her her job and friends. Sad to see a nice guy like Gideon trying to hold it all together while his “favorite employees” keep pulling the rug out from under him.

* Tyrell must not have been thinking when he tried to remove his fingerprints from Sharon’s neck with what looked like a used napkin.

Quotes:

Shayla: My niece gave him to me. I haven’t even named him yet. God, do you know the pressure of an ecstatic six-year old? I mean, I kill that thing and her whole world collapses.

Elliot: I wish we already knew each other. It’d make this feel less awkward.
Shayla: You really feel awkward right now?
Elliot: Yeah.
Shayla: Well I wish we knew each other too then.

Elliot: (narrating) Isn’t our life like a blip in the cosmic calendar or something? So that’s Shayla. A blip. Not even. Here one blip, gone the next. Makes me hate myself that I’ve already gotten used to the idea of her not being here. In a year, I’ll maybe think about her every once in awhile. Then she’ll become an anecdote, a thing to say. “I knew a girl that died.”

Gideon: I’m so sorry she was taken away, Elliot. But don’t let her death close you off entirely. Find someone you can be your honest self with. Okay?
Elliot: (narrating) I remember when I was a kid I got into web design by ripping off sites I liked. All you had to do was view-source on your browser and there it was, the code. You could copy-paste it, modify it a little, put your name on it, and like that, it was your site. View-source. What if we had that for people? Would people really want to see?
One of the show’s best scenes. This is the sort of stuff that people who work in computer coding, like my brother, love to see.

Mr. Robot: I’ve got a plan in motion.
Darlene: And God’s laughing.

Underling 1: Hot execs started out as hot assistants who fucked their way to the top twice as fast as the rest of us.
Underling 3: You know something screwed up? I’ve heard that, some assistants, they’re going gay to move up the ladder.
Underling 1: I’ll do you one better, there’s a special handful of pathetically desperate execs going cock jockey.
Underling 3: No!
Underling 2: Oh my god! Hahaha!
Tyrell: Hey Dwight, I meant to ask, how are your children?
Underling 1: Hell if I know, sent ‘em off to, uh, Lawrence. I think Julia likes… art? Oh well, can’t win ‘em all!
Tyrell: Lawrence? You’ll never be able to afford that tuition on unemployment.
Underling 1: Sorry?
Tyrell: YOU’RE FIRED!

Mr. Robot: (with a gun to Romero’s head) I didn’t want to hurt you, Romero. I love you, man. I just wanted you to come back to the arcade with me so we can change the world together. I am clearly too crazy for you to say no… BAM! Hahahahahaha, the look on your face! Priceless! (tosses the gun away)
Congratulations to Christian Slater on winning Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes. He certainly earned it.

Colby: I get it. You wanna know what it was like. Like did we all have cigars, and laugh hysterically as we signed the evil documents. Is that what you pictured? Well, I’m sorry, hon. See, the world doesn’t work like that.
Angela: Tell me. Tell me how it works.

Sharon: I should have known that you were nothing more than a bold entrance.
Tyrell: Are you saying you don’t crave a bold entrance? Every time. Over and over. Sustained. Meet me tonight.

We’re getting the ball rolling again, and things are about to heat up. Three out of four Golden Globes. Well, two out of three in reality, but you know what I mean.

3 comments:

  1. The murder scene was shuddery and confusing, and Angela was undoubtedly absolutely awesome. But it was that final scene where Elliot told Krista the truth about himself and how much he'd hacked her that was frickin' amazing. It was the final piece that made me a fan of this show. I'm in.

    Terrific review, Logan. Thanks for joining us here at Doux Reviews and getting me to watch this show.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Logan,
    I second Billie -- great review! This is the episode where the series started to slide in an undesired direction for me... That said, I agree with you and Billie that the scene with Krista was outstanding!

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  3. Thanks again for the comments, guys.

    I never heard the song Disintegration by The Cure before. I can see why Elliot wrote that on Shayla's disc. It's a beautifully forlorn song.

    Also, thanks to this show I now find it funny every time I have to confirm that "I'm not a robot" for these comments.

    ReplyDelete

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