'Mr. Robot' Season 2 Finale Review

Image from Collider

By Darian Scalamoni

            I have been one of the biggest advocates for Mr. Robot since I binge watched the first season about three months ago. Season 1 was one of my favorite seasons of television ever and this season started on an incredibly high note but had its moments where it began to falter. The season 2 finale of Mr. Robot falls somewhere in between as it answers some questions that we had but ultimately, doesn’t fulfill exactly what the viewer was looking for completely.

            In a show with so many twists and turns it’s hard to pick up on everything that happens on a week to week basis especially when you can’t even trust your narrator half the time. Unfortunately, the finale was just as disjointed as the latter part of this season. It’s interesting to note just how separate all the characters were this season compared to last season. We do discover at the end of the episode here that Angela and Tyrell are working together but it took 12 episodes for us to reach that discovery and it also took us until the 11^th installment of this season in which we saw Tyrell for the first time this season. Seeing interactions between Elliot and other characters were a key element of season one and though Angela evolved into a tremendously strong female character this season, it seems she might’ve been focused on too heavily at times. Darlene was a character that I didn’t feel for at all this season either. She murdered someone as an out, that was a character decision that I don’t know that I can side with and now that we know her boyfriend, Cisco was shot at the diner (which was inevitable), I didn’t even feel for that character’s death or think Darlene deserved any empathy for losing him. It seemed that last season weaved so perfectly interlocking relationships rather than this season which sloppily (at times) interlocked plots. It wasn’t about the crisis and growth of characters but more of a problem solving puzzle each and every week.

            Some of the characters that we did meet this season I did come to truly appreciate but I don’t know if I’m truly on the bandwagon yet for Grace Gummer’s role as FBI agent Dom. She has her moments where she shines but I feel like it’s been more of a flash pan moment every other episode. Though this finale fits the description as her scenes with Darlene seemed so genuine and interesting that it formed an interesting relationship between characters (hint-hint season one), I still was more intrigued with characters like Leon (more on him later). Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot is another character that I wanted to see more interaction with Elliot. Elliot had an interesting sort of downward spiral but also an awakening. It was something that the viewer really had to piece together every decision and thing he said within every episode to try to bring together a surreal incarnation of a character who was loved and misunderstood in season one.

            The thematic effect that the show had was once again top notch, with interesting shot styles and experimentation throughout that makes me so excited for anything Sam Esmail decides to do post-Robot, I’m on board. Obviously with the confusing and conflicting storylines throughout you can make a point where the direction seems scattered but I tend to disagree just because the tone of the show has always been designed to make the viewer think and not be able to trust the protagonist of this surreal USA Network drama. The music was a big factor for me this season, featuring all types of genres for a show that seems to sometimes have too much up its sleeve, the music production was fantastic all season long.

            As we head back into the details of the finale, we now know that Elliot actually does have a friend in Tyrell Wellick. That’s right, he wasn’t just seeing him as merely a projection like he does with his dead father. Unfortunately, Elliot being the schizophrenic that he is, can’t determine that until he is ultimately shot by his friend in the final moments of season two. Quite a cliffhanger but obviously, Elliot is not dead. Rami Malek is an essential part of why the show works and he just won an Emmy for his performance in season one, so it would be foolish to take his character out of the show. So, Wellick is real and back for good which at least in my eyes is great news. Tyrell was one of the best characters in the show and it’s nice to see him back but also fascinating to see how he’s had such a close friendship with Elliot this whole time. I say that because when he does contact Angela, he clearly seems distraught over the fact that he shot our lead by saying “I love him” before sobbing strongly.

            In regards to Tyrell’s wife, she might be framing someone else for a murder that he, in fact, committed. She decides to head to Mr. Sutherland’s house to tell basically tell him he’s a nobody, this leads to him beating Joanna to a bloody pulp before deciding to flip the script by getting her new “boyfriend” to tell the police that it was him that killed Mrs. Sutherland last season. It’s an approach that I’m not quite sure I understand just yet and we’ll have to wait till next season for more details. It seems to come together though as Dom decides to make an offer to Darlene in which they can help each other if Darlene can help Dom track down Tyrell. How will Joanna discover that her husband is working with Elliot and how will she feel about it? Just more questions for Season 3 that we can hope will get answered sooner rather than later.

            The finale of this show was far from bad, in fact I think it was one of the better episodes of the season but tried to fit too much in at the last minute. The cataclysmic events that occurred within this season made it for a good watch but not near the almost perfect rookie season of a show that will go down as one that changed the landscape for television especially going forward for USA Network. I’m excited to see where we’ll go from here though and I believe that Elliot will be back stronger than ever next season especially with his new “big three” along with Angela and Tyrell.

8.3/10