In the ‘Mr. Robot’ recap we travel back in time to see Tyrell Wellick’s journey from the Five-Nine hack until his fateful meeting with Elliot Alderson…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Following a somewhat confusing and perhaps over packed season 2 for ‘Mr. Robot, it appeared that season 3 was back on track while focusing on the primary storyline that drove the show ever since the pilot.
The spotlight has once again been focused on Elliot Alderson’s continued struggles with his dual personalities as he battles against himself after unleashing the Five-Nine hack on the world. There are forces working with Elliot in a continued attempt to topple Evil Corp while the other side of his fractured brain is trying to undo what he’s already done by saving the company that he felt was responsible for his father’s death.
The first few episodes of ‘Mr. Robot’ season 3 have felt much more in line with the freshman year when the show was the breakout hit of the summer and awards shows were lining up to hand out trophies to the series.
The latest episode was the first misstep although not a bad offering whatsoever, just somewhat unnecessary to the larger narrative — at least at this point into the third season.
The episode focused on following Tyrell Wellick, who largely disappeared for most of season 2, from the moment the Five-Nine hack was unleashed to that fateful moment in the basement of the warehouse where he shot Elliot in the stomach and believed he was dead.
It was an interesting exposition into the history of where Tyrell Wellick went and while there was one revelation about an FBI agent who is actually part of the Dark Army, the rest felt somewhat unnecessary to the bigger story being told this season. That being said, perhaps the writers behind ‘Mr. Robot’ dropped in a few Easter eggs that will play a larger part into the story as the season continues because nothing is accidental when it comes to this series.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Mr. Robot’ titled ‘eps3.2_1egacy.so’…
The Path of the Righteous Man
The history of Tyrell Wellick’s journey begins all the way back during the season one finale after he tracked Elliot back to the funhouse and discovered that he launched the Five-Nine hack just seconds ago. What Tyrell didn’t know at the time, however, is that he was dealing with Mr. Robot and the invasion of privacy was not welcomed by the founder of FSociety.
That’s when Mr. Robot picked up Darlene’s gun from the popcorn machine, pointed it directly at Tyrell’s chest and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the gun jammed and Tyrell saw this as a sign from God that he was meant to work with Elliot to bring down Evil Corp. Like a scene ripped straight out of Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’, Tyrell is convinced this was divine intervention….thankfully Elliot then didn’t shoot poor Marvin in the face.
Of course, Mr. Robot sees Tyrell as a raving lunatic but that kind of crazy could be useful so he agrees to let him live and help launch Phase 2 where they will eliminate the hard files that Evil Corp will undoubtedly use in an attempt to restore their data.
Soon the pair are interrupted when Irving — the strange Dark Army operative we met back in the season debut played by Bobby Cannavale — has arrived with two soldiers in tow as they break into the funhouse and begin to lay out a plan for what’s going to happen next. See he says that Elliot and Tyrell have fucked up, which now requires his services (much like Mr. Wolf) and he’s got to get this place scrubbed and remove them from the equation before the authorities lock down on both of them.
Mr. Robot is sent packing in Tyrell’s SUV and told to lay low for a few days — which then explains why he woke up in the back of that SUV in the season one finale, with no clue how he got there. Meanwhile, Irving takes Tyrell with him before stashing the former Evil Corp executive in an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere for safe keeping. Tyrell is about to become the most wanted man since Bin Laden and the Dark Army has to keep him far away from anybody’s radar.
Before they can enact Phase 2, however, Elliot is arrested and sent to jail for eight months after he hacked his therapist’s boyfriend’s computer and stole his dog. That means, Phase 2 will be delayed while Tyrell is told to wait patiently until they can get him started again.
The Puppet Master
News of Elliot’s arrest doesn’t seem to concern Whiterose too much as she essentially laughs at the charges and his subsequent jailing. She orders her soldiers to ensure that Elliot is protected inside, which is where Leon comes into play — and he even revels in stabbing a few neo-Nazis as part of his protection services — while having their legal contacts help him get out early on good behavior.
Meanwhile, Whiterose then takes a meeting with Frank Cody — the right wing Alex Jones stand in, who spouts out all sorts of conspiracy theory rhetoric — as he orders him to make sure that Tyrell Wellick is not painted in a bad light after he’s made the most wanted man in America. Whiterose also tells Cody that he might have a new presidential candidate he wants to get elected and then points to the television where Donald Trump is giving a speech.
Cody laughs him off because Trump is such a buffoon but Whiterose reminds him that she’s the one in charge and every puppet can be controlled if you pull the right strings.
Ain’t Going Out Like That
At the safe house, Tyrell is tested by the Dark Army to find out how much he can be trusted as he deals with an inconceivable human lie detector (played brilliantly by Wallace Shawn aka Vizzini from ‘The Princess Bride’). Repeated questions keep flying at Tyrell as he gets more and more agitated — did he kill Sharon Knowles? Does he hate his father? Did he ever cheat on his wife?
Over time, Tyrell finally tells the truth with each question including the most important of all — he has no loyalty whatsoever to the Dark Army. But as Irving is just about to leave and presumably order Tyrell killed, he turns and promises that he will always have undying loyalty for Elliot. That’s good enough and with that the Dark Army gives Tyrell the tools he needs to begin working on Phase 2 of the Five-Nine hack.
Meanwhile we get a brief glimpse of Darlene in this episode as she meets with Cisco to get the femtocell that’s eventually plugged in at Evil Corp to enact the second phase of their plan. Cisco laments with Darlene how he wishes they could just be a normal couple, thinking about vacations to Budapest rather than doing the Dark Army’s dirty work. Cisco leaves and hands over the femtocell, which is actually worked on by Tyrell Wellick before being returned to Darlene, as he’s told to be careful with this mission.
It seems Cisco was put onto Darlene as a project by the Dark Army and they are concerned that he’s getting too close to her. Irving then warns him that Darlene is protected — as Elliot’s sister — but he is not. Cisco found that out the hard way in season 2 when he was gunned down.
After Elliot is released from prison, Tyrell is going stir crazy at the farm, spending most of his days either typing away at a computer, staring at his child, reading inflammatory stories about his wife finding a new suitor and chopping wood to pass the time and release some stress.
Tyrell finally snaps and decides to make a run for it as he walks out of the property and makes it down to a convenience story near the safe house. Unfortunately, Tyrell walks almost directly into a police car with an officer who spots him immediately.
Tyrell is arrested and the cop is overjoyed that he just captured the most wanted man on the planet. In fact the cop is so happy that he even tells Tyrell that he’s gonna have to get a selfie with him before turning him over to the FBI.
When the FBI arrives to get the transfer, the cop is shot in the head and Tyrell is set free. Back at the safe house, we find out that Santiago — the agent in charge of the FBI investigation and Dom DiPierro’s agitated boss is actually working for the Dark Army. He’s pissed that he had to kill a cop to save Tyrell from being captured but ultimately he’s living to serve the Dark Army no matter what they want or need from him.
Irving does his best to calm Tyrell down and put him back on the right track while telling his own story of woe about losing his wife and kids thanks to the devotion he had to his job. Of course we later find out that Irving runs an auto service shop and used car lot and he lies to customers about his supposed family because it makes them feel more comfortable buying from him. In reality, Irving lives alone, watches TV by himself and then works on a novel on his computer in those few moments he’s away from work.
Wake Up
After months of waiting, Tyrell is told to pack because they are finally bringing him back to the city where he will be reunited with Elliot. Tyrell shaves for the first time in months and insists that he puts on his best suit before meeting with Elliot again.
That’s when we catch the scene from last season where Elliot is taken by a cab to a mysterious location and Tyrell hops in the car, which at that point was the first time we had seen him during season 2.
This time around, we see it all unfold from Tyrell’s point of view as he’s reunited with Elliot before taking him to the warehouse where they will enact Phase 2. Unfortunately as we already witnessed, Elliot is not himself and it forces Tyrell to shoot his hero in the stomach to stop him from undoing their plans for Phase 2.
We then see Tyrell anxiously awaiting word on whether or not Elliot will survive the gunshot wound as a secondary scene to what happened after Irving first arrived at the warehouse during the debut episode this season. Doctors frantically work to remove the bullet while Tyrell sits with Angela, who he called after shooting Elliot in the first place.
Tyrell is racked with guilt while remarking how Elliot just didn’t seem himself after arriving at the warehouse. That’s when Angela tells him the truth — Elliot wasn’t himself because he was dealing with the real Elliot Alderson and now his split personality known as Mr. Robot. Tyrell is stunned by this revelation as he looks over at his hero.
At that moment, Elliot wakes up but a second later, it’s Mr. Robot staring back at him.
‘Mr. Robot’ returns for a brand new episode next Wednesday night at 10pm ET on USA.
