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Mr. Robot “_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” Review

For those of you who were wondering if Rami Malek is worthy of his Emmy nomination then I ask you to look no further than “_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” because my man put on a clinic. What a tremendous, tremendous performance that just goes to highlight the awesomeness of Mr. Robot.

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  • The episode started with an origin story flashback to the arcade (or as I’m dubbing it the Hack Shack) as we learned that Romero came into it from a buddy of his in prison who believed it to be cursed. A theme that would turn up later on in the episode when Mobley discovered Romero dead, and dead for some time. I initially thought Romero had killed himself but it became evident that this was no suicide. Which raises a whole bunch of questions. The first being was it Eliot? Romero had clearly been dead for awhile (the smell) and there are still three days that Eliot can’t account for. While Mobley believes they are being hunted down by the Dark Army, Darlene has other thoughts and looks to find Eliot.
  • If Eliot is the killer it’ll be interesting as it certainly looks like the first mistake made by F Society. Our new sexting detective, Dominique DiPierro found a flyer for an End of the World party located, where? You guessed it. At the Hack Shack. Let this be a lesson to you would be hackers. If you’re going to pull off the hack of the century please destroy any paper trail immediately or things like this will happen. I’m digging the Dominique character and think she’ll make quite the adversary for F Society, but something also tells me that she could become an ally. I don’t know. Maybe it’s her joint rolling skills or her dependence on AI programs, but I think she can help at some point. Just a theory I’m still shaping out.
  • mr. robot 2x2Eliot really took the battle to Mr. Robot this week by attempting to keep himself awake for, presumably, ever. Eliot’s brief addiction to Adderall was some of the episode’s best work. Watching him defiantly popping the pills in front of Mr. Robot felt both like a win and something utterly insane. There was no way that one person would be able to handle that many Adderall pills at once, and it became quite clear that Eliot could not. The fake kidnapping/cement drinking scene was an excellent way to allow Mr. Robot to break Eliot’s spell for a minute, but it wasn’t for long. Even though Eliot throw up the pills, as soon as he realized Mr. Robot was talking to him he, very grossly I might add, started picking the pills up out of the vomit and popping them again. Despite how gnarly it was seeing Eliot swim through his own puke, I loved what this scene represented to Eliot’s state of mind. As a side note did anyone else notice that when Eliot woke up, Mr. Robot was writing in his journal? How much of that book is a lie and how much of it is actually Eliot? Does Eliot even know that Mr. Robot is writing in it? More perception issues.
  • Angela continues to grow a back bone, thought she was going out on a dinner date only to be fooled into a corporate dinner, and now finds herself at a cross roads. Mr. Evil Corp has presented her with a disc of information on two men who helped cover up the events mr. robot 2x2 2that lead to the death of her mother and has told her she can make that information public. Yes eating with these two fellas makes it more difficult but she’ll find it gets easier over time. Based on Angela’s projection this season I imagine she will leak the info as she continues to fall deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
  • We learned a bit more about Ray this week and I’m kind of digging his character as the anti Mr. Robot for Eliot. Ray had an online company that went belly up when the hack went down, he’s lost his wife but still has conversations with her over breakfast, and is just looking to get back on his feet again. I really think that Ray believes that he can be a help to Eliot, as they share similar demons, but I’m not entirely sure I trust his motives yet. There is just something about him that I’m not entirely sure is genuine, like there’s something underneath the surface.
  • I just wanted to touch base again on how excellent Rami Malek was in this episode. The montage of the six days he stopped sleeping was fantastic. Watching Eliot slip further and further into medically induced insanity was brilliant and exhausting (I loved his explanation of why he suddenly loved basketball). We knew there was no way that Eliot would be able to maintain this type of life style but it was crazy to watch as it unfolded. I also want to add that his speech about God during the AA meeting was fantastic. The whole thing. Especially having it capped off with the “did I just say that out loud” narrative.

There you have it Geeklings! Mr. Robot has forwarded the plot and there are a lot of wheels in motion. Can Eliot trust Ray to help keep Mr. Robot at bay? Who do you think killed Romero? How long before Detective DiPierro finds her way to Eliot? Lots of things to ponder this week. As always the comments are yours.

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Images from USA

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