Warning: The following contains spoilers from the season two finale of Mr. Robot. If you haven’t watched yet, bookmark this page and don’t come back until you have. Proceed with caution.
What. Just. Happened?!
Season two of Mr. Robot just came to a close and we’re still struggling to keep our jaws off the floor. We finally got our answers about whether or not Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom) was nothing more than another figment of Elliot’s (Rami Malek) imagination, while also learning exactly what the second phase of their big plan was. Of course, as is always the case on Mr. Robot, with answers only comes even more questions. How long is the wait until season three?
Before we go our separate ways to obsess over this twisty season’s shocking final moments, and what they mean for the future of the show, let’s break everything down. Consider it group therapy.
Elliot’s Big Gamble
After Wellick took Elliot to his new loft lair, we learned along with Elliot exactly what the next step in the plan they made last season was: With Evil Corp’s digital infrastructure hobbled by the hack, the company was slowly amassing all of the physical documents necessary to rebuild from across the country in one single location. With all that paper in one place and Elliot’s malware capable of actually creating a spark that could ignite a power source in its vicinity, it dawned on Elliot that the goal was to completely level the building—innocent people inside be damned.
And when Elliot grew a conscience and decided he couldn’t move forward with the plan, Wellick pulled a gun on him. Convinced he didn’t actually exist, Elliot called his bluff—and lost. Not only is Wellick alive, but he was prepared to go through with the plan at any cost. Watching Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) flicker out of existence while Elliot bled out on the ground was harrowing. But did it really happen like we think? We’ll get to that in a second.
Dom the Python
It looks FBI Agent Dom DiPierro (Grace Gummer) wasn’t as in the dark as we thought all season long. After getting nowhere in her interrogation of Darlene (Carly Chaikin), who survived the shoot-out at the Mexican restaurant, as if there was any doubt (Cisco was not so lucky. RIP, Cisco.), Dom trotted fsociety’s reluctant leader though the office before taking her to a larger conference room where we learned that the FBI (or Dom and her partner, at the very least) had been on to everyone for quite some time. Seriously, they had everything all mapped out, with Elliot and Wellick rightfully in the nucleus.
“Sure, the strategy was risky, but we knew we only had one shot. If we rounded everyone up guns blazing, we thought we would never get the man in the middle. And with the stakes being this high, it was imperative that we got him before he knew we were getting him,” Dom explained. “So we sat back and waited. They call it the python approach. They’ll lie in wait for the right moment to strike. You know some can go up to a year without waiting? A patient predator.”
“You’ve got to be fu–ing kidding me,” Darlene said, staring in fear.
Joanna’s Secret Admirer
Tyrell may be alive, but as we found out tonight, he wasn’t concerning himself with sending gifts to his ice cold wife Joanna (Stephanie Corneilussen). So who was? None other than Evil Corp CTO Scott Knowles (Brian Stokes Mitchell). Why? “I wanted you to feel what I felt,” he told her. “I wanted to give you hope that I could step on.” You’ll recall that it was Scott’s wife who Tyrell screwed on the roof before throwing her off to her death.
After she verbally unloaded on him in a way that only Joanna can, he attacked her, choking her and punching her in the face to within an inch of her life. He’ll probably wish he’d finished the job once her new plan to get her hunky new BF to tell the police it was Scott who killed his wife, and not Tyrell, is complete.
Angela and the Darkness
When in the hell did Angela and Tyrell team up? We’ll have to wait until season three for those answers, but that phone call she received from him at the end makes it clear that nothing is what it seems. “Don’t let anyone near him. I should be the first person he sees when he wakes up,” she tells Wellick. “Tyrell, you did what needed to be done.”
And what was with Tyrell’s response? “I love him,” he said, choking up. What happened between him and Elliot during those lost three days? Tyrell’s version of their bond speaks to something remarkably intimate.
But before that could even really register, the city was plunged into total darkness (and we mean total), accompanied by the soundtrack of cars crashing thanks to the startling absence of light.
The chyron on Angela’s TV screen said it best: “What is really happening?”
The Sad Ballad of Frederick and Tanya
So that’s where Trenton (Sunita Mani) and Mobley (Azhar Khan) wound up: Working at a Fry’s Electronics in what looked like Walter White’s Albuquerque under the assumed names of Frederick and Tanya. What did Trenton find? And how could it potentially put everything back the way it was? And will it even matter now that Leon (Joey Bada$$), a.k.a. Elliot’s Dark Army prison protector, has found them? And after White Rose’s soliloquy about time last week, there’s got to be more to him asking if they have the time, right?
Is it too much to ask for season three, like, now?
What did you think about the season finale? Got any early theories on what the hell just happened? Share them in the comments below!
Mr. Robot returns for season three in 2017.
(E! and USA are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
