What I’m Watching: Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot: Season 3, Episode 3 “eps3.2_legacy.so” (B+)

This show has never been one to present its events in a linear fashion, and therefore I’d argue that this is the most straightforward, comprehensible hour this show has produced yet. It’s ironic since it fills in the many things that it left unknown before now, tracing the entire trajectory of Tyrell Wellick when he was absent for all but the final moments of the second season. It’s incredible to see the devotion he expresses for Elliot based mainly on the fact that the gun jammed when Mr. Robot tried to shoot him. While I don’ think Mr. Robot values him nearly as much, he did seem satisfied with the notion of him being the perfect kind of crazy who could protect “me from me.” The fact that he wanted to get dressed up and look his best when he finally saw Elliot afte so long was Anytime we see Bobby Cannavale’s Irving is more than fine by me, and he did quite a job controlling Tyrell, telling him invented stories about his nonexistent children and bringing him Swedish Fish so that he would feel like he was back at home. The fact that he’s writing a novel is interesting, and I wonder if we’ll ever see more of that. I also liked seeing Wallace Shawn as another fixer who hit Tyrell with question after question about Sharon, his wife, and his loyalty, which he kept putting off until he finally cracked and said that he was loyal to Elliot. Tyrell’s decision to venture out into civilization resulted in a broken finger and a dead cop, and the revelation that Agent Santiago is working against the FBI’s best interests, putting Dom in more danger than we realized. Hearing that Whiterose wanted to back Trump as a candidate for president was intriguing, since only this show could insert a transformative event like his election as a believable piece of its narrative.