the season 2 haters are WRONGGG so far, this episode is amazing and easily top 3 of the show right now. very slow and meticulous character focus but it’s so well written I LOVE THIS SHOW 🐺❤️ [SPOILERS] so much to break down here. two plots assert their dominance on “init 1,” the detached elliot’s self discovery and outlining of his dreams and the chaotic fsociety reeling from romero’s murder. before that is one of my favorite cold opens ever, a point in the past before these two things became separable: the creation of fsociety, the spark that would bring about elliot’s descent into his father. this scene made a lot of his character click for me, i think he adopts his father’s persona of “mr robot” as a sort of coping mechanism for his father’s death so early in life, by pretending he’s still here. and evident by what we actually know about elliot’s father’s motives, through the opening flashback in 1x10 and the “stealing” monologue from 1x1, it’s very likely elliot is faithful in how he’s imagining his father. the way his body language changes once he puts on the mask is genuinely disturbing and is one of the best moments of the show so far. but the cold open does more than just clarify elliot’s character and give us a creepy scene, as it subtly sets up said two major plots of the episode: elliot’s deep self discovery and darlene dealing with the dread created by fsociety. the haunting orchestral music carries from the cold open to the second scene of the episode, musically representing the transmission in tone and topic between the opening and the rest of the episode. slowly and meticulously, this episode develops its two plots through the hour runtime. trying to find direction in life, elliot assesses the philosophies of ray, leon, and even mr robot. taking leon’s to heart, he literally “dreams,” and while doing so imagines a better world, coming to the conclusion that such a world is worth fighting for. this is honestly my favorite scene of the show so far, seeing someone like elliot who used to have such a clear direction in life find it again is beautiful. the chess game further clears up how he’s going to reach such a world, being with, not against, mr robot. in parallel, darlene has been descending into a sort of panic, starting the episode after the cold open by asking elliot for guidance, but not mentioning romero’s murder, turning him into a sort of unmentioned ghost that haunts the episode. as an omnipresent viewer we are able to see later in the episode how quickly the case is progressing through the fbi woman, adding to our stress because darlene isn’t aware of their bust yet. once she’s made aware after a tense walk in the street, cisco delivers the information, someone both the audience and darlene know isn’t very reliable. with the screen painted red, the notorious color of danger, we learn that the feds are surveilling darlene and her crew, and we’re reminded of the dark army’s blanket rule. if feds are involved, you’re killed. stress on stress on stress. these two separate plots develop and develop, each eventually coming to their boil as the ending approaches: the ending being the point where both slam into each other, and create the shock wave that is the payoff. elliot accepts darlene’s earlier offer and logs onto their old shared channel, to which he learns about the fbi’s surveillance and has to make a decision for himself, darlene, and fsociety. god… for such a broken apart episode, the way these two come together, each fulfilling each other’s plot, is incredible: elliot can only exercise his will to fight through darlene’s problem, and darlene’s problem can only be solved (or at least temporarily eased) with elliot’s new direction. neither is spared development, each unrelated plot is painstakingly built up just so they connect and complete each other. so much clarity and power is felt in these last moments because the writers put in the effort and set up this episode so brilliantly. with elliot deciding to hack the fbi, we get his pay off, as he’s now back with fsociety, but darlene’s pay off is reserved for the next episode, creating an energy between 2x4 and 2x5 that allows them to transition perfectly. god this season is hitting so hard.