During the past week since Mr. Robot‘s season two premiere, a fan theory from Reddit has been circulating around online discussion and writing about the show. The theory is that Elliot is suffering through a far greater delusion than the one he experienced in season one, when his dead father emerged as a separate personality that led the hacker group fsociety as Mr. Robot. The delusion is that Elliot is actually in prison or a psych ward.
The fan theory does have some merit, which you’ve probably discussed with your friends and fans who watch the show. Elliot is living a strictly regimented life in which he’s moved back into his mother’s house, largely restricting himself to a sparse bedroom and sticking to a strict schedule. His only interaction with the outside world is meeting with a new friend Leon at a diner for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and watching pick-up basketball games at a nearby outdoor court.
It’s the basketball games in particular that made this theory credible for many fans. Who goes to sit and watch pick-up games with no interest in eventually playing? Isn’t it likely that Elliot and Leon are watching games played in a prison yard? Isn’t it also plausible that Ray (Craig Robinson), another new character who tries to befriend Elliot and seems aware of his hacker background, is a fellow inmate or patient?
But episode three, “k3rnel-pan1c.ksd,” appears to dispel the Elliot-is-really-in-prison theory. (The season premiere was actually a two-part episode, so this is considered episode three.) For one thing, we see Ray away from Elliot. And he apparently has his own delusion, or at least a lost loved one whom he’s turned into enough of a delusion that he speaks with on a regular basis over breakfast. Later on, Ray shares this with Elliot, explaining to him that he relates to what Elliot is experiencing, because he’s been through the same thing.
However, Elliot has something else to deal with before his conversation with Ray at the end of the episode. He’s adopted Adderall as his new drug of choice in an attempt to stay awake, sharpen his focus, and most importantly, keep Mr. Robot out of his head. Leon warns him not to take too high of a dosage and later sees the effects when Elliot is just a little too interested in their daily conversations about Seinfeld episodes. At least temporarily, Elliott’s new plan has worked. He feels good, he has energy and greater focus, and Mr. Robot is nowhere to be seen. But Elliot has to keep popping those Adderall pills and sleep deprivation (he’s awake for five days) eventually catches up with him.
Despite Elliot’s best efforts, Mr. Robot hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s just let Elliot work through what he needs to before he eventually realizes that he can no longer stay off the grid and avoid those who want to exploit his skills. In the most troubling sequence of the episode, Elliot is abducted by some shadowy operatives who take him to an undisclosed location and torture him by pouring concrete down his throat.
That’s what he imagines anyway. We see that Elliot is really vomiting up the Adderall pills that he’s taken. Apparently, it’s Mr. Robot trying to get those drugs out of Elliot’s system so he can get some sleep and return to normal. Or whatever passes for normal in Elliot’s world. Elliot isn’t quite on board yet, however, and picks the pills out of the vomit and ingests them again. This guy is even more unhinged than we may have previously realized. But Ray may be the guy to pull him back toward reality, or at least help him deal with Mr. Robot enough that he can properly function. Ray needs Elliot to help him with whatever operation he’s running, something involving site migration and Bitcoin wallets that only a skilled hacker can handle.
Elsewhere outside Elliot’s mind, Angela is getting closer to Evil Corp CEO Philip Price, who appears to have taken a liking to her. What is it exactly that he sees in Angela, going back to last season when he convinced her to join the company and work in its PR department? That may have become a bit clearer after Price takes Angela out to dinner at one of New York’s most exclusive restaurants. Joining them for the meal are two mid-level executives who Price later reveals had something to do with the toxic chemical dump that killed Angela’s mother and Elliot’s father. Both executives have been embezzling from the company and Price gives Angela the evidence of their crimes to leak to the media. Is this ultimately what Price has in mind for Angela, to wipe out all of his enemies within Evil Corp?
The far more interesting story for now concerns the other three members of fsociety, who have their own issues to deal with. Mobley visits Romero and finds that someone has shot him in the head. (As we learn in a flashback at the beginning of the episode, Romero owned the arcade from which fsociety operated and all the previous owners suffered horrible deaths. Is the arcade cursed?)
Is the Dark Army, the Chinese hacker group that helped fsociety with the 5/9 Attacks, looking to wipe out any loose ends that could link them to the Evil Corp hack? That’s certainly what Mobley thinks, though Darlene insists that the Dark Army didn’t know about Mobley, Romero and Trenton. Only Darlene dealt with the Dark Army through her ex-boyfriend, and only Elliot met the group’s leader, Whiterose. (Darlene might not even be aware of that meeting, which is something that could possibly be addressed in future episodes.)
Meanwhile, Romero’s murder has attracted the attention of FBI Agent Dom DiPierro (Grace Gummer), whose home companion is her Amazon Alexa. She wasn’t called in to investigate the murder, but her name was on a list of agents that was released to the public as part of fsociety’s hack. DiPierro was the first to respond to the inquiry and is given part of the list that Romero printed out before he was killed. Cybercrime appears to be DiPierro’s beat (she knows that Romero probably booby-trapped his computer to destroy its hard drive) and she visits Romero’s mother to try and find some clues about what he may have been involved in. (DiPierro gains her trust by offering to roll joints for her medicinal marijuana. Some skills always come in handy.)
A couple of documents and flyers that mention fsociety lead DiPierro to where the “End of the World” party was held after the 5/9 hack occurred. We learned in the episode-opening flashback that fsociety has essentially been hiding in the open out on Coney Island. The El Dorado Arcade which has served as fsociety’s headquarters had a sign on its facade that read “Fun Society” until the “u” and “n” in fun fell off. (Romero alluded to Mobley that there was a story behind that. Perhaps we’ll eventually hear that one in a subsequent episode.) It really didn’t take much for DiPierro to find the fsociety hangout, which raises the question of whether The Dark Army easily figured that out as well. Maybe she won’t find much in the abandoned arcade as fsociety is scattering, but she’s certainly on their trail.
