They’re portrayed by two different actors. Of course, that’s obvious within the context of the show. The biggest factor at play though is that it’s finally become easy to believe that Elliot and Mr Robot are distinct entities. Part of it is that the show has made us complicit. Part of it is certainly Rami Malek’s superbly empathetic portrayal and big ol’ doe eyes. The old woman moving in with her daughter, the young man desperate enough to rob a train full of people and Angela, too broken to even process her surroundings.Īnd still. The lion’s share of Angela’s damage and the damage to virtually everything else in the world is on Elliot Alderson. That intro never quite comes close to justifying her behaviour. Which now increasingly includes the belief that Whiterose will somehow allow her and Elliot to see their parents again someday. Give him a little push for me.”Īs we cut back to the present it seems like this should be a good justification for Angela’s behaviour. He offers some kind words of wisdom and then adds ominously “somewhere down the road if Elliot needs some help and I can’t be there for him. Elliot’s father is there, the real one, not the ghostdad one. In the episode’s first scene we’re treated to a flashback of young Angela at a grim social gathering where neighbours and friends have come to say goodbye to her dying mother. “No, no one is gonna die,” Angela says, dreamily repeating the promise she received from Irving and on some level knowing it’s not true.Īngela is not at her best in Kill Process. “You could have died,” the woman says to Angela after the gunman has taken off. She’s seated across from two elderly women discussing their living situation. Then she heads out into the streets like a sleepwalker and ends up on the subway. After Elliot has sufficiently screamed at Angela for her role in kicking off stage 2, she pulls rank and orders Elliot out of the office. Kill Process features one of the most striking examples yet. All because Elliot Alderson couldn’t make friends and wanted to f society. Sam Esmail’s camera has a habit of lingering over little tableaus of misery throughout the city: people lining up for food, ongoing riots, power outages, etc. Nearly every episode we are reminded why. Poor Elliot Alderson goes through hell to do so. Having said that, Elliot should not by any means be a sympathetic character. Kill Process is so well-acted and sharply-edited that it’s not hard to get invested in Elliot’s success in stopping stage 2. I really thought Elliot had pulled it off. Within the show’s mythology, Elliot’s successful hack has come to be known as the 5/9 hack. If nothing else, Mr Robot guarantees that we’ll have a second calendar date to memorise. Instead it settles for merely pulling off the thrilling and upsetting conclusion to stage 2. So this week’s episode doesn’t bother with any outside-the-box visual techniques. Deploying the single take format is like setting off an EMP: you only get to do it once if it’s big enough. Kill Process doesn’t reach the same creative heights of Runtime Error. 45 more minutes of wonderful, chaotic action. Now, however, the show has followed up last week’s wonderful 45 minutes of chaotic action in Runtime Error with…. Season 2 had its moments but was more a disquieting and intensely intimate view of our lead character’s deteriorating mental health. Hell, one could argue that Mr Robot, itself, has been deliberately paced since Elliot Alderson was dressed down in a villain monologue from Mr Robot in a frenetic Times Square post-hack in the season 1 finale.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |