Just finished now. Truly incredible. That last shot. Holy shit, and the song. I was in tears man. I never thought I'd say a show would surpass Breaking Bad for me personally, but this is it. Season 4 was truly incredible. I cannot wait to rewatch this again, and again. I think we all knew a twist was coming, but I didn't see that coming. Just...wow.
I just do not understand how we had so many clues, how completely within the realm of possibility that outcome was — and how the twist still just smacks like a tidal wave. Phenomenal storytelling Imagine starting to film a show like this full well knowing the extent of your vision, and then just putting it all into the hands of the general public to watch enough to keep it on the air. This world don’t deserve Mr. Robot
Did anybody else cheer out loud at the title card with Mr. Roboto playing? I involuntarily whooped like my team just scored the first touchdown in the super bowl
I’m a little confused about “real elliots” periodic awakenings. Darlene told real elliot about Vera returning. 1) real elliot wouldn’t know who Vera was 2) why wouldn’t real elliot tell Darlene that he’s been trapped in a loop in his own mind? There’s also still a bunch of missing time after the 5/9 hack that’s unaccounted for, it doesn’t make sense for real elliot to be running the show for those 3 days or whatever.
Yeah I thought some of the expositiony dialogue with him and his mum/Angela's parents wasn't great and he was behaving WAY too weird for them to brush off by being "our" quivering, quiet, 20 minute dramatic pausing, confused Elliot in comparison to the cheerful, life of the party "normal" Elliot that they knew. The ending was phenomenal though.
Absolutely had this thought too — hate the trope where one person is clearly acting out their mind and the other acts like nothing is wrong lol. Revealing it all to be a subconscious environment designed to keep the Real Elliot happy and safe at all costs was the perfect out
That is a good point and i'm willing to allow that to pardon some of the rough bits of pt1. Though it was funny when Elliot is laying on the ground after smacking his head saying he can't move, and immediately starts fighting back when R.E. starts strangling him
@Rowan5215 knowing what you now know about the version of Elliot we’ve been watching, do you have any new feelings in regards to the Olivia situation?
It's actually a really tricky one in light of everything. I thought grimdark Elliot was a silly choice this whole season, but knowing what we know, you can see it now as Mastermind getting more and more in control, which pushes Mr. Robot further and further into the voice of reason role. That goes a long way to filling some gaps, but like, he still drugged an addict and let her go to the bathroom like a day after she showed him a razor she had stashed there. And they showed her with slit wrists in basically full graphic detail with almost no warning, which is something I just don't think they considered the dangers of (speaking of something like suicide contagion, a very real thing). Worst of all is how they just swept it under the rug like I knew they would - not a single mention of Olivia or what Mastermind did to her after it happened, not even an acknowledgement of how fucked up it was. Of course there's not really much you can say to redeem that, but like, it was a real sore spot every time I remembered it while these emotional scenes were playing out, like Elliot thanking Darlene for never giving up on him- wonder what she would have done if she knew about Olivia? I don't know how it affects my feelings on the series as a whole but it's definitely a huge red mark, and honestly you could take the entire thing out of this season and barely interrupt the narrative at all, which is pretty fucking infuriating. Thanks for asking though!
Nah I definitely hear ya, was interested to hear your perspective on it since it affected you in a more significant way. Definitely don’t think you’re wrong for wishing we had a little more closure for her, obviously things ended poorly for a lot of supporting characters in the show but we seemed to have gotten a confirmed happy ending for all of the ones that made it out alive besides Olivia
Olivia's lack of closure is the one that's gonna stick with me for ages (I'm also still bummed that Joanna's whole storyline was a non-starter, cos Stephanie Corneliussen fucking rules, but that's a pretty old complaint at this point). Other than them I thought everyone's arc wrapped up incredibly, especially Dom and Darlene
There's a part of me--and this may be the person currently neck-deep in revision of his own novel having to re-order chapters--that wonders what this reveal could've been like in a middle season where the audience tension of us knowing this isn't the real Elliot could've played out for awhile.
It's a fair point but there's something beautiful in how we never see the real Elliot, I think - this wasn't his story
I think a lack of closure for Olivia is very much intentional. "Mastermind" Elliot and FSociety in general are entirely goal focused, as were Dark Army and, honestly, any real life superpower. People are pawns to them. There will absolutely be casualties and it's fucked. It should be difficult to reconcile that a character you're meant to be rooting for does something morally reprehensible. But that doesn't mean that the narrative owes any closure for that. I'm rambling, but Olivia served her purpose in the narrative. She was nothing more than a pawn, a soldier, in a war she really had no stake in. It's terrible what happened to her, but it shouldn't be a surprise that we don't have a scene of her at the end of it all. Just like we don't see every soldiers fate in a massive war movie. I think that was a point Esmail was trying to make.
And as rough as that shit was, I think the show is better for it. Fiction shouldn't have a straight up hero character who is perfect. That ambiguous morality makes "mastermind" Elliot more interesting. (keeping in mind Olivia is a fictional character)
Only good thing about the show ending is Xfinity will stop sending me DMCA Claimed Copyright notices after I download each episode. Somehow within seconds of clicking the torrent.
Just finished watching 12... so. Many. Tesla’s. Hybrids. And white cars. That ending was fuuuuucked up.
Watching that Elliot and Krista scene at the end just before he wakes up and the screen shakes hard was... something to watch with a couple beers in.