The secret Mr. Robot Season 2 premiere came and went in the blink of an eye. Unless you were trolling around on Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter late last night, chances are you probably missed all or most of the episode. Mr. Robot Season 2 episode 1 airs July 13 at 10 p.m. on USA, but if you don’t want to wait until then to find out what happened, here’s a recap of what you missed.
There are two flashback scenes. One shows Elliot falling out a window during his childhood, and the other depicts a conversation with Tyrell Wellick at fsociety. After the flashbacks, we find out Elliot is back living with his mother, who he hates. He’s cut himself off from the outside world, wallowing through a rigid daily routine of household chores, watching basketball games, church group, and meals with his Seinfeld -obsessed friend Leon.
Leon is quite talkative in the diner scene where he tells Elliot about the philosophy behind Seinfeld -- how it’s actually about nothing and it illustrates life is meaningless. Even though he appeared to be quite miserable during the interaction, any entertainment is better than the pencil and notebook he now uses to document his life in place of his computer screen.
Elliot’s delusions are even stronger than last season. In one scene, Mr. Robot shoots him in the head with a handgun. When Gideon Goddard comes to Elliot hoping to somehow clear his name from the fsociety hack, Mr. Robot gets into Elliot’s head and taunts him by talking about killing Godard with a knife:"If I sliced open his neck right now, would it be me doing it, or you doing it?" Mr. Robot says.
Meanwhile, Darlene is in charge and tries to get the fsociety members focused and back to work after days of celebration and partying. The next step of her plan? Blackmail.
Fsociety demands $5.9 million in cash and an in-person meeting with an E Corp executive, or else tons of money will be unloaded from E Corp’s banks. CTO Scott Knowles decides he’ll deliver the demands after a back-and-forth between CEO Phillip Price and new cast member Susan "Madame Executioner" Jacobs.
The only spotting of Tyrell Wellick is in the opening scene when he watches the fsociety hack unravel the world. Elliott reaches into a popcorn machine, but we don’t see what he’s reaching for. Could it be the gun that was stashed there in Season 1?
The episode felt like more of a character study than the action-hacker drama we experienced in Season 1. Instead of Elliot’s character moving the plot forward, time with him was spent listening to one-sided conversations, life or death delusions with Mr. Robot and examining the specifics of his volatile mental illness. As a viewer, it was extremely hard to tell what scenes were real, and what was just in Elliot’s head.
We still have no idea who was knocking on Elliot’s door at the end of Season 1, or whether Tyrell Wellick is dead, alive or missing. There is also absolutely no sign of Angela, so we’ll have to wait until Wednesday to find out what she’s been up to.
Do you think Elliot killed Tyrell Wellick? Let us know in the comments below!
