What I’m Watching: Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot: Season 1, Episode 9 “eps1.8_m1rr0r1ng.qt” (B+)

I said that last week that I can’t handle this show and its constant twists, and that’s doubly true as we got confirmation of something that The AV Club has suspected all along. It was clear from the end of last week’s episode and its twin bombshells about Darlene and Mr. Robot that Elliot has some severe disassociative personality disorder, one that causes him to fail to recognize people he’s known his entire life and convince himself that he’s meeting them for the first time under entirely different circumstances. Mr. Robot showing up to tell Elliot that he’ll never leave him only to disappear as a confirmed figment of his imagination at his grave was an intense final road for the fabulous Christian Slater, who I hope will be back again in some form, especially since imaginary friends always seem to need to vanish as soon as they’re revealed not to be real. Talking out his hallucination with Angela seemed therapeutic as she noted how much she’d love to spend time with her mom even if it was all in her head, while Darlene took a more direct approach to try to unlock Elliot’s brain and remind him that he was the one who started fsociety with her. Joanna made her wishes and intents very clear to a devastated Tyrell after the baby arrived, and his subsequent business meeting did not take things in a very good direction. Price’s conversation with him about playing out how he would react in his mind made for a fascinating scene, and now it looks like Tyrell is ready to take out his fury at the world and try to win his wife back somehow with the help of a truly confused Elliot, which should make for a wonderfully engaging finale.