Review: “Mr. Robot” Says “Control is an Illusion”

Elliot doesn’t comply. Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) moves closer, revealing a gun. Elliot (Rami Malek) remains in place, sitting on his bed.

Mr. Robot pulls the gun up to eye level. He points the muzzle between Elliott’s eyes and pulls the trigger. Blood splatters all over the wall. There’s a hole in his head.

Sam Esmail kicks off the second season of Mr. Robot pulling no punches. Esmail immediately submerges his audience into a fairly unfamiliar environment filled with new characters and new occurrences.

While new elements are added to the show, the general ideas remain the same. Esmail’s additions only serve to further our understanding of his major ideas. Those ideas are deeply embedded in the show.

Mr. Robot addresses themes, including isolation, corruption, and control.

“Control is an illusion”, says Mr. Robot.

As in the first season, Esmail capitalizes on his ability to confuse and disturb viewers. He uses dark images and intense confrontations to evoke unsettling emotions.

The whole episode is about control. There is a constant tug of war. Power is not stagnant. It is taken and given.

In the show’s previous season audiences learn to not immediately perceive things as they seem. There were major twists. Each character and each event contained various layers.

Mr. Robot–Elliot’s father and delusion–was revealed to be a conception of Elliot’s imagination by the end of the first season. He comes back relatively strong in this season’s first episode.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character interact with someone who isn’t real quite the way Elliot does with Mr. Robot. At multiple points in the episode Elliot and Mr. Robot have intense feuds with each other, which almost always result in a scramble of violent emotion.

As the episode goes on, Elliot’s delusions seem to be more and more real and manipulative of his actions.

The constant delusions serve to suggest the reality of Elliot’s mania. From the first episode, Elliot seems to be far more damaged than he appears in the first season. All of his trauma, both physical and mental, have burrowed deep into his thoughts and rests in his mind.

All of his actions are manipulated by his thoughts. And his thoughts are toxic.

He only has two significant connections to reality that guide his way. Both exist inside his mind granting him no growth and no escape. He lacks control almost entirely–or does he?

There are questions that remain. Some may or may not be answered. Either way, you’ll have to watch this and the coming episodes (which air every Wednesday) to find out.