When is a twist not a twist at all?
When it happens onMr.
Robot (Christian Slater), the elusive leader of an anarchist hacker collective known as fsociety.
Credit: USA Network
His capacity for self-deception was as deep and dangerous as his pain.
Would Elliot sprint toward greater authenticity and honesty or sink deeper into his kingdom of bulls?
Robot monkey off his back.
Was the worlds most-wanted cyber terrorist really hiding out in his moms house in Brooklyn?
Who was outside Elliots apartment and pounding on his door?
But the proofs werent just implied.
Bravura filmmaking sequences functioned as metaphors for Elliots condition.
(Youd think Leon would have had an opinion about that.)
There was the horror flick parody ofThe Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, a classic of surrealist dream narrative.
Robotsmost celebrated metafictional stunt of the season, an unhinged Mr. We neednt be so fancy in our analysis.
The basics of Eliots story line came off as a clue, too.
A guilt-wracked individual exiled from society, wrestling with his conscience and patterns of out-of-control and destructive behavior?
Sounds to me like a penitent jailbird doing time.
Even the clear-as-day logic flaws of Elliots story played like winks.
If Elliotwasnthallucinating his reality, and if Esmaildidntwant his audience to actively suspect this, thenMr.
Robotwas doing something worse than toying with its audience: It was being really stupid.
Last week, Elliot removed the wool over his eyes and ours and presented cleanly what we saw fuzzily.
Last weeks revelation was confirmation that for now fantasy is part of the storytelling franchise of the show.
Another critic might use big twists in place of fantasy in that last sentence.
Heres why Im not.
Big twist stories venture to disguise their nature as big twist stories.
With the exception of the Darlene business last season,Mr.
Robotis transparent about its trickery.
(Here,Mr.
As he waxes and wanes with improvement, so will go the unreliable narrator high jinks, I think.
Its a nutty show.
That said, I do have problems with the dramatic presentation of Elliots practice of fantasy.
I enjoy a challenging encounter with art and wrangling elusive meanings to the ground.
Of course, the season isnt over.
We still dont know why Elliot was sent to prison.
My guess is it has nothing to do with the Five/Nine attack.
He was busted for hacking and messing with Kristas (Gloria Reuben) sleazy, treacherous, adulterous ex-boyfriend.
She could represent the most direct fulfillment of the Leo Tolstoy/Resurrectionreference/clue.)
Theres surely more to the story with Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom).
Last week, Mr.
Robot told Elliot that he did shoot him on the night of the Five/Nine hack.
It was rather poignant watching Elliot accept responsibility for that violence.
But I suspect Mr.
Robot is still hiding something from Elliot, and more, hiding something about why hes hiding something.
Was Ray an inmate or prison official?
Was Elliot projecting fiction upon him?
Was he distorting a few details of an otherwise true story?
Its interesting to note the affect that Ray had on Elliot.
Their shared story has reactivated Elliots heroic drive and left him newly committed to finishing the fsociety mission.
This, you might recall, isexactlywhat Mr.
Robot has wanted since the beginning of the season.
Its trippy to consider that Elliots Ray fantasy was actually a long con manipulation by Mr. Nowthatsa crazy theory and maybe not a terribly helpful one at that.
It would also probably send me to the cuckoos nest myself.
See you at the recap tomorrow.
