Mr. Robot 3×07 – frederick+tanya.chk Review

Counting this, the last three episodes of Mr. Robot have been among my favorites of the series. Things are going at such a rapid pace to places I didn’t think we’d go and yet each episode continues to surprise me. Despite thousands of people dying at the end of the previous episode, this may have taken the cake as the darkest episode for me as the Dark Army is showing nobody can stop the plans they’ve set in motion in the world.

At the end of Season 2, the post-credit sequence revealed that despite Mobley and Trenton leaving New York and fsociety behind to adopt new identities in the form of Frederick and Tanya, they couldn’t escape the Dark Army. What we didn’t know is that the scene we were shown at the end of last season didn’t take place until now as we open with Leon watching the news of Stage 2 on television alongside Mobley and Trenton. He had murdered Mobley’s roommate as the less witnesses against Leon, the better. Mobley and Trenton are scared for their lives, but Leon assures them he’s just a babysitter for them in the things to come, cut in between classic Leon talking about his viewing of cult television shows like Frasier and then later Knight Rider. After the news wraps up, Leon drives the duo out to the middle of the desert in order to bury the body of Mobley’s deceased roommate.

Back in New York, Elliot doesn’t know how to cope with the realization that he was the reason Stage 2 had to be upped in scale. His only refuge is to head to Krista for therapy, but he’s still not fully able to wrap his head around accepting what he’s done. Elliot’s continued trauma allows for Mr. Robot to take the front seat, where he surprisingly reveals everything to Krista. He was the architect of the 5/9 hack and responsible for part of Stage 2. Even Mr. Robot accepts that he was played by the Dark Army and it shouldn’t never came to this if he was in control though. The Dark Army had their own plans for Mr. Robot’s ideas, so they used him as they saw fit and it worked flawlessly. Krista refuses to believe Mr. Robot’s claims at first, but he makes it easier for her by connecting the dots between Elliot’s extracurricular activities and what has happened since then. After he takes his leave, Krista later speaks with her lawyer and debates informing the police about Elliot, but he advices her she can’t break the doctor-client privilege unless Elliot revealed he intended to go forward with another attack.

Speaking of another attack, at the FBI another fsociety video has been released claiming that one will occur within the next 24 hours. Tyrell’s lawyer uses the release of this video, coupled with the cover the Dark Army made him go forward with last episode in making it seem like he was captive, in order to free Tyrell of being considered the mastermind of Stage 2. In exchange for protection and immunity, Tyrell can name the real masterminds behind the plan. Dom doesn’t want to go along with this as she’s sure the Dark Army is covering Tyrell, but since Santiago is Dom’s boss and also a Dark Army agent, he’s able to shut her down and allow Tyrell what he wants.

At Angela’s apartment, she still refuses to accept the reality of what the Dark Army has done and seems to have fully gone insane. Whiterose has seemingly convinced Angela that a new world will eventually be created where everyone who has ever died will come back to life, so the events of Stage 2 don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Darlene isn’t sure how to handle this, but leaves to pick up a few things from her apartment and lets Angela know she’ll return. Once she does, she find Angela even further down the rabbit hole, continuously rewinding and replaying a E Corp building collapsing, convinced it’s proof that everything can be brought back eventually and nobody will have died.

Tyrell plays along with the FBI and gives them the information they desire: the people in charge of the Dark Army and Stage 2. In return, he demands that he finally be allowed to see his wife and child. Santiago is informed of this and decides to pay a visit to Tyrell himself, making sure to disable all recordings so they can talk candidly. Santiago cuts straight to the chase in giving Tyrell the bad news: Joanna is dead, murdered by her ex-boyfriend, and Tyrell’s son is currently in a foster home. Tyrell believes Santiago to be lying, but this causes Santiago to double down on the news, adding in that if Tyrell even thinks about ratting out Santiago as a Dark Army agent, he’ll have Tyrell killed and his son suffer as well. He then leaves Tyrell to sulk over the news in his lonesome.

Mobley and Trenton are still trapped in the back of Leon’s car and debating on what they should do. Mobley is sure that the Dark Army found them because Trenton sent an email to the FBI, but she state she never ended up actually sending it. Rather, it is set to be sent out to a reliable person if she doesn’t make it back to her computer in a certain amount of time. Trenton manages to break free from her ropes and attempts to drive away in the car, only for her to crash it due to her lack of experience with driving. Leon forces the two to continue digging the hole as punishment for their escape attempt and continues to claim he knows nothing of what the Dark Army has planned for them when Mobley and Trenton start to believe they are being recruited.

Mr. Robot decides to pay a visit to Irving in order to know why Stage 2 went the way it did. The Dark Army was expecting Mr. Robot to show up eventually as two agents are waiting for him and knock him out. When he finally comes to, Irving has brought him to the location of a rooftop party. He shows Mr. Robot that everyone is completely unfazed by the events of today and it’s just a normal Monday for them. Irving explains that what Elliot and Mr. Robot got wrong about their plan was that it was never really a revolution due to the fact that people like those at the party have been bankrolling it from the beginning and have a greater purpose for the events than what Elliot and Mr. Robot desire. No matter what they choose to do from here on out, nothing will ever bring an end to what the Dark Army has in store.

Due to the attacks on E Corp, Price and Zhang are still residing in Mar-A-Lago. Price has enough of pretending everything is alright between the two and begins pressing Zhang on why Stage 2 was necessary. He knew that the 5/9 hack was Zhang’s way of forcing Price to help with the Congo annex and to increase the chances of it actually succeeding, but he fails to see the point of what happened now. Zhang explains that this was due to Price failing to protect Zhang’s power plant. It’s all he had asked of Price and yet Price still allowed Angela to go forward with her lawsuit plans. This made Zhang have to deal with Angela formally and due to this inconvenience, Stage 2 was a way of getting back at Price. Not everything will be bad, however, as Zhang kept the promise of China going to Ecoin and it will allow E Corp to survive, but Price realizes that Zhang’s plan is to also have Price out as CEO. E Corp may survive, but Price will not.

Leon brings Mobley and Trenton back to Mobley’s home where the Dark Army and Whiterose’s assistant are waiting. Leon says he’ll cross his fingers for whatever comes next for the duo, but it seems he didn’t cross them hard enough. Mobley and Trenton are led to the garage, which has been upgraded to look like a control hub for…Stage 3. Paper records and computers show flight patterns and airport traffic controls, revealing Stage 3 is meant to crash planes. Mobley and Trenton try to convince the Dark Army that they can be of use in another way, but the assistant explains this is the way they will be used. Their sacrifice of being the scapegoats behind the recent attacks will allow the Dark Army to carry on without increased interference.

Mobley and Trenton’s faces have begun to appear on the news after Tyrell’s confirmation of them. A coworker of theirs decides to call it in, which leads to a FBI raid on Mobley’s home. They are too late, however, as the Dark Army staged the scene to look like Mobley and Trenton killed themselves to avoid arrest, also adding a video camera with the fsociety mask alongside it to make it seem like they were responsible for the recent videos. Dom and Santiago receive news of the failed raid, but Santiago tells Dom it wasn’t all in vain as they’ve stopped a potential future attack. Dom shrugs this off and instead heads to her suspect whiteboard. She crosses out Mobley and Trenton as deceased and then adds a white piece of paper that simply says “Whiterose” above Tyrell, knowing that is the true mastermind. She then quietly questions to herself if Whiterose and the Dark Army are really going to get away with all of this.

This was an episode that saw many of the good guys at their lowest points, but the Dark Army taking win after win. Stage 2 happened and they managed to shift the blame to fsociety. The only ones who know the true story can’t do anything about it as the Dark Army is becoming unstoppable. I don’t even know if a team-up between Elliot, Mr. Robot, Dom, Tyrell, Angela, Price, and Darlene would be able to stop much at this point, but something has to happen eventually for a crack to begin to form for the Dark Army. The first of which may end up being whatever was in the email Trenton discussed. Since she stated it’ll head to someone she trusts if she can’t make it back in time, I assume it has to be Darlene. Or since the FBI was mentioned, maybe Trenton was familiar with Dom at some point?

frederick+tanya.chk – 4 out of 5

Pros:

• The darkness of the Mr. Robot world just keeps going.
• Nice to have Leon back, I really hope he was actually as oblivious to the Dark Army’s plan for Mobley and Trenton as he let on.
• Mr. Robot finally opening up to Krista was a nice and surprising scene.

Cons:

• Mobley and Trenton finally show up this season, only to be killed off in the same episode.
• Is Angela’s character arc destroyed now? Does she only go downhill from here?