Buckle up for these shocks in Season 4 of Mr Robot
Don’t worry, we’re not going to bore you with an in-depth look-back of Mr Robot – it’s too complicated to brush over, and you’re only going to be able to follow the final season is if you’ve seen the first three.
What you need to know if you want to start streaming from the very beginning on Showmax (Seasons 1-4 are all there) 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 flash drive that’s been put next to a magnet (in non-geek terms, that’s bad – so pay attention).
Even if you know your Unix from your Linux systems, your brute-force hacks from your redundancies, Mr Robot has the most amazing details placed throughout to tickle your fancy. It holds an 8.4/10 on IMDb.com and a 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.”
Spoiler warning
Unless you’ve seen Seasons 1 to 4 of Mr Robot, you’re going to want to stop reading here.
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! Such as…
Episode 1: Angela dies
Wardrobe had kept Portia’s clothes vacuum sealed, her hair had to be cut and styled in the exact same way, new freckles were digitally edited out…
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, new freckles were digitally edited out – everything was done 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
Elliot’s mom’s death brings out his third personality.
Yep, 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
As much as Elliot has been leading the fight, he steps aside to let Darlene finish them off.
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).
“Reality is never to be trusted”
After four seasons, Elliot and company know what they’re doing – and by the end, they get what they want, even if it’s not exactly the way they wanted.
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.
Wondered why there are only two lines of dialogue in the entire episode 5? 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 and company 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.”