Mr. Robot (spoilers).... 'cause I suck at this stuff

[Dr. Pepper]

1 hour ago, Martini Sigil said:

I didn't see Trenton's name on the board... I don't think the FBI knows about her... if so, she split w/ Mobley for no reason

Near the beginning of next season, I would like to see a flashback as to what the hell happened with Angela & Whiterose

Why hasn't Joanna had Knowles locked up for assault already? ... it would make sense if she's going to frame him for his wife's murder

Trenton was on the board, with her real name Shama Biswas.  

Did she split with Mobley?  I had to check out youtube for the post-credits scene with her and Mobley as it was cut off on my feed. It seemed like she and Mobley were definitely still together unless something happened after the prison dude showed up.  

[Martell Spy]

 

Quote

 

Trenton was on the board, with her real name Shama Biswas.  

Did she split with Mobley?  I had to check out youtube for the post-credits scene with her and Mobley as it was cut off on my feed. It seemed like she and Mobley were definitely still together unless something happened after the prison dude showed up.  

 

 

Yeah, they were together.

 

 

[Corvinus85]

My conclusion was that Trenton and Mobley had been scooped up by the FBI and put into witness protection. But now the DA found them.

[Consigliere]

Decent enough finale. Phase 2 is not really a huge game changer and felt underwhelming as it was unnecessary for this to be dragged out all season. I really want to know more about what happened between Angela and Whiterose - surely can't be just that single scene that made Angela do a 180. I wish that meeting took place earlier in the season.

Count me in as one of those who likes Dom. Hers, Angela and Darlene's storylines were better than Elliot's arc this season. While the show continues to tease that Tyrell might be another personality of Elliot's, I think it is pretty obvious that he isn't just as the Fight Club reference between Elliot/Mr Robot was obvious right off the bat. Pretty interesting that Trenton has discovered something that could undo 5/9. I tend to agree with the speculation upthread that this failsafe was deliberately included by Whiterose and Dark Army - first, destroy Ecorp and then use the failsafe to replace them.

I rate this season 6/10. Acting, directing, cinematography are all great but there has been far too much wheel spinning and poor pacing.

[Disturber of Peace]

Maybe that was Angela's special second personality finally being triggered by the ones who created it.

[Consigliere]

That would be disappointing. I'd much rather have Whiterose offer Angela what she has been searching for: a sense of self worth and value plus the opportunity to take down Ecorp (PetyrPunkinhead did a really nice analysis on Angela upthread). If it turns out that Whiterose simply unlocked a dormant personality then, for me, the show will have officially crossed the line into ridiculous. Not to mention that would render Angela's season 2 arc completely pointless.

[Disturber of Peace]

I agree. I was just playing into the earlier theory a bit.

[Kalbear]

7 hours ago, Corvinus said:

My conclusion was that Trenton and Mobley had been scooped up by the FBI and put into witness protection. But now the DA found them.

They made it clear that it was one of Mobleys friends who got them out and got them the job. And apparently stares at Trenton.

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, Kalbear said:

They made it clear that it was one of Mobleys friends who got them out and got them the job. And apparently stares at Trenton.

Oh, did not get that. Other than the last lines about fixing this, I did not catch any of their dialogue.

[Martell Spy]

Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on How He Handles Criticism of the Show

http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/mr-robot-sam-esmail-on-how-he-takes-show-criticism.html

 

[red snow]

6 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on How He Handles Criticism of the Show

http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/mr-robot-sam-esmail-on-how-he-takes-show-criticism.html

 

Fascinating interview. I like how Esmail isn't all "you don't understand!" but explaining himself and saying "we took some risks". He's surprisingly honest and I think it disarms a lot of the criticism because he knows these things aren't his strengths. eg to paraphrase "I'm a director first and i only write to give me something to direct" and this actual quote from the man himself is pretty much what a lot of us have been saying about the show

  "For me, the biggest thing is not about the plot or the story, sometimes it's not even about the characters but more than anything, it's really about tone. It's about a vibe or an emotion or a state of mind or whatever you're trying to put your audience into."

I also liked his reasoning behind those cool long shots - especially the action ones. I guess a close up can be more personal to the victim/aggressor but the "guy observing from a safe distance" does work far better in terms of making you feel like an active witness.

His comments on how the actors can shape the role remind me quite a bit about Whedon's comments on writing "buffy" over the years. I think James Marsters was a big part of how Spike evolved and that wasn't his original plan. I've heard it in quite a few other shows too. I think this is an important thing to consider when making a long-form tv show as it can be crippling to stick to the plan when the actor brings interesting avenues into play. It must be one of the nightmares with adapting books where the actor brings a nuance that conflicts with the gameplan. I guess this can be overcome with direction and simply shutting an actor down when they diverge.

The vulture link in the piece raised an interesting point. What about Ray's dog? I guess some prisons have dogs but do they hang around with them all the time? Is that type of dog used for sniffing?

I'm releived to hear that Rami is a completely different person from his role in the show! He's a great actor though to not be socially anxious and withdrawn in real life when he's so convincing in the show.

 

[Kalbear]

Yeah, I loved that interview. That is a textbook example of how to speak with critics without arguing with critics. 

It also did a good job of reaffirming why the show can be awesome (I'm still thinking about the Moth and flame Darlene walk days afterwards) and why it can be frustrating (the lack of trust with the show and the facts). It's a show that makes me uncomfortable and uneasy to watch, which I have to remember is the goal of the show. That is the subtext. And that doesn't mean that it is a good thing or a bad thing - if you don't like it, that makes sense. I don't like it a lot of times. But that's the point of the show, and arguing that they didn't do it correctly or well misses the point. How Mr. Robot affects you is precisely what they're going for. 

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Kalbear said:

Yeah, I loved that interview. That is a textbook example of how to speak with critics without arguing with critics. 

It also did a good job of reaffirming why the show can be awesome (I'm still thinking about the Moth and flame Darlene walk days afterwards) and why it can be frustrating (the lack of trust with the show and the facts). It's a show that makes me uncomfortable and uneasy to watch, which I have to remember is the goal of the show. That is the subtext. And that doesn't mean that it is a good thing or a bad thing - if you don't like it, that makes sense. I don't like it a lot of times. But that's the point of the show, and arguing that they didn't do it correctly or well misses the point. How Mr. Robot affects you is precisely what they're going for. 

It's interesting how in doing the show right they can make viewers turn off. Probably the best reason for upsetting people and far better than the walking dead which never has such lofty goals. And not telling critics/fans that they are a minority voice so don't count.

It seems like there may be a different tone for the next one so it maybe won't be as frustrating, Although "disentegrate" as a tone sounds like a challenge too. I sort of hope it's phase 2 being implemented and everyone having the rug pulled out from under them - including Price and Whiterose

 

[PetyrPunkinhead]

18 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Mr. Robot Creator Sam Esmail on How He Handles Criticism of the Show

http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/mr-robot-sam-esmail-on-how-he-takes-show-criticism.html

 

Interesting interview, especially in how Esmail doesn't see the reveals as tricking the audience but rather a part of the language of the show. I think that's why the gut shot came as a surprise for some but not for others yet I think it works either way. Also interesting to know he sees the show going for sure to four seasons and "maybe" five.

Anyone care to speculate on what Esmail said about S3 being a disintegration of Elliot & Mr. Robot?

Quote

GE: In terms of season three, is there anything you can tell us about what vision you have?

SE: Here’s what I'd say. I always look at every season as the stages of Elliot's evolution. So the first season is this naïve Elliot who goes down the rabbit hole and has a shocking realization about himself by the end of the season. The second season is this all-out battle with himself and Mr. Robot, and trying to battle this realization away, basically.

So when we go into the next stage, I always say it's the disintegration part. Now all bets are off. These guys, there is no way they can be copacetic, so now they're gonna disintegrate. I know that sounds cryptic but it wouldn't be Mr. Robot if it wasn't.

My guess is we'll see a lot more of the melding of the two as they interact with others and the "real world," meaning similar to what we saw the last few episodes post-prison and in that deciphering of the menu to get to the cab to meet Tyrell.

[Relic]

 

 

[Martell Spy]

Very interesting video. Esmail said in it that there's something being telegraphed that people are missing. I wonder what it is? It must be big, since he took the trouble mention it. It was mentioned near while he was talking about Price and the E coin solution. My vague guess is that Price is going to try to set up some kind world wide black market, a huge version of what Elliot encountered in prison.

 

 

[.H.]

On 9/23/2016 at 0:03 PM, Winterfell is Burning said:

This is probably the most important aspect of that scene, hell, maybe even the entire finale, and it isn't really being discussed.

I'm thinking the Dark Army itself put this backdoor to recover the data. Their plan if that's correct would be to bankrupt E-corp only to, after it's finished, take it's place.

Well, didn't we already know that they didn't shred the data, just encrypted it?  I thought that was mentioned from the get go.

7 hours ago, Martell Spy said:

Very interesting video. Esmail said in it that there's something being telegraphed that people are missing. I wonder what it is? It must be big, since he took the trouble mention it. It was mentioned near while he was talking about Price and the E coin solution. My vague guess is that Price is going to try to set up some kind world wide black market, a huge version of what Elliot encountered in prison.

As soon as they mentioned a crypto-currency, a couple episodes ago, my first thought was that it is going to get hacked. 

[dbunting]

On ‎9‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 9:17 AM, Consigliere said:

While the show continues to tease that Tyrell might be another personality of Elliot's, I think it is pretty obvious that he isn't just as the Fight Club reference between Elliot/Mr Robot was obvious right off the bat.

I think the show made it clear in the finale that Tyrell isn't part of Elliot. If you remember back to the FBI board, there was a picture of Elliot and right above it was a picture of Tyrell.

[Consigliere]

35 minutes ago, dbunting said:

I think the show made it clear in the finale that Tyrell isn't part of Elliot. If you remember back to the FBI board, there was a picture of Elliot and right above it was a picture of Tyrell.

I thought so too but apparently the 'Elliot is Tyrell' stuff refuses to die. I didn't even need the finale to confirm this. When the speculation first started, I didn't give it any credence because Tyrell being another personality of Elliot's never made a lick of sense.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, dbunting said:

I think the show made it clear in the finale that Tyrell isn't part of Elliot. If you remember back to the FBI board, there was a picture of Elliot and right above it was a picture of Tyrell.

The Angela scene confirmed Tyrell is real. The FBI board didn't change things at all.I was under the impression most people accepted Tyrell was real in season 1. It was after the show had suggested Mr Robot killed Tyrell that the suspicion Tyrell was now a split personality in Elliot's psyche. So Tyrell being on the board didn't change things either way - much like Tyrell shooting Elliot didn't change things. Angela talking on the phone to Elliot strongly suggested Tyrell was real though. Unless we get into the bizarre territory of Angela accepts Elliot is 3+ personalities and just plays along with it all. eg she talks to Tyrell-Elliot about Elliot-Elliot. I doubt and hope that's not the case.

I was just talking to a colleague about the finale and he made a good point about the FBI not revealing anything surprising. Elliot being on the board is not a surprise - he designs IT protection programs for the source of the E-core hack and is the sister of the person they'd just arrested in connection with it. Elliot not being on the board would be more of a shock. Or Mr Robot being on it. For me the "surprise" was more that the FBI aren't conveniently being idiotic for the plot.