another amazing episode, but one that i don't have a huge motivation to write a big review for. i watched this a few weeks ago and i thought it was a great way to close out the season, but i still think it's not one of the best of the season. it's cinematography is incredible and every storyline is good yet there's something keeping me from giving this a 5, but who knows what it'll be by the time i finish the show. UPDATE: i finished the show before finishing up the review and this episode is very significant for the rest of the series, so i'm bumping it up to a 5 considering the fact that what was keeping me from giving it a 5 was a lack of finality for some aspects of this episode, which end up being resolved later. SPOILERS as always, mr robot excels at creating a huge mystery that won't be revealed for an entire season, which is what happened in those three days that elliot can't remember. there'll be answers spread throughout season 2 but the full story will take a bit longer to be pieced together. it's one of the shows biggest intrigues considering just how important these events are and this is the episode that kicks off the mystery. elliot wakes up in tyrell's car in a parking lot, with no recollection of the past few days. mr robot refuses to show up and tyrell is nowhere to be found. it doesn't take long for elliot to realise that they went through with the hack, which sends him down a rabbit hole of finding out what he missed out on. he tries his luck with joanna but we get another piece of evidence that she's just as crazy as tyrell. in an episode full of tension and unease, she somehow stands out for the creepiest scene of the episode of her telling 'ollie' to wait until tyrell shows up. she immediately suspects elliot for being involved in tyrell's disappearance, a nagging thought that persists with her throughout season 2. tyrell talked to her about god being above them and this is her first meeting with that god and she stays much truer to herself than tyrell and his obsession with elliot. it's notably infuriating for elliot that once he found out mr robot is a part of him he isn't showing up. it's the first of many scenes where it seems to be that mr robot is manipulating elliot and trying to take control, tying into that theme of control that's ever so recurring in the show. this episode has one of the first main instances of elliot taking control, but the way it's executed is hilarious. making his first big stand against mr robot be comedic is a clever way of making it much more remarkable which is very important considering how important their dynamic and control is throughout the show. elliot is fed up of mr robot keeping things from him so he brings him out the only way he knows: turning himself in. it works, but it leads to violence between the two, which is just elliot harming himself. just like when he threw himself out the window to push his father, here he's choking himself in broad daylight to get answers and it looks completely ridiculous. the thing is, this split personality is new for elliot, while mr robot has known the whole time, so he's trying to beat him at his own game. he gives elliot a little reminder of who's really in control right now by getting him beat up by a stranger in the internet cafe. it's too much for elliot to handle considering that for him it's only been a day since he found out mr robot is both his father and himself, which turned his world upside down. before talking about elliot's final scenes i need to mention the 5/9 hack and how it affects the show as a whole. the instant elliot wakes up in tyrell's car there's hints that the world has changed with mentions of allowances. we see how all the fsociety members feel betrayed that elliot did such a monumental thing without the rest of them, yet the scale of the hack doesn't really click until we see angela's subplot. i honestly think angela's mini arc in this episode is the best part of it besides elliot's final scenes which age really well as the show goes on. her character progression has made so much sense and every decision changes her monumentally. after being offered a job at e corp from colby, she takes it despite knowing there's some ulterior motive. maybe she could even change things from the inside like colby said while maintaining stability after being fired from allsafe. after all, her father is in crippling debt and she needs to fund the washington township lawsuit. it doesn't take long for her to become another suit among the masses, with the key difference being that we know her and who she is. the other thing that separates her is what she goes through on one of her first days. as i mentioned, we don't see a lot of the aftermath of the hack until we get to angela's perspective which is quite literally face to face with the consequences. she witnesses a brutal suicide that leaves her stained with blood, some of which lingers on her shoes for the following scenes, representing how she's slowly being corrupted by e corp. the suicide itself is a very no holds barred way of showing the darker side of the hack. debt has been erased, that's true, but the economy has taken a huge hit and stable jobs are becoming a thing of the past. from the two people present when this devastating hack took place, one is missing and the other can't remember what happened, so the chaos is surrounded by mystery. elliot's hack is not only affecting the top 1% of the 1%, but also people he cares for such as angela. one thing does come out of her witnessing the suicide, which is her meeting the ceo of e corp, philip price. he immediately takes notice of both her and her shoes and sends her to buy new ones immediately. there's another instance of angela's gradual change when the store owner asks how she could possibly work at e corp after what they've done and she defends them for providing a stable job in this economic turmoil. i seriously don't know how people dislike angela or underrate her storylines, especially considering how much foreshadowing an episode like this provides for the rest of her arc and for the show itself. the minute she gets attention from someone as powerful as price, she feels her self worth beginning to change. she was never valued at allsafe and now in her first few days she's already being singled out by the ceo of the biggest conglomerate of the world despite everything that's going on. it's enough to give her a momentary lapse in judgement as she accompanies price to the funeral of sorts, where it doesn't take long for him to reveal his true colours. the show goes at great lengths to show every side of price's nature, both his cruel and obsessive drive for power, but also his humane side later on in the show. here though, there's the first glimpse of the side we mostly see from price in the early seasons, with him talking about how plouffe deserved to die for the kind of person he was. it's exactly the kind of merciless commentary that angela heard from colby when he talked about the washington township plant, so it serves as a harsh wake up call to what she's becoming, but not before she's been slightly corrupted herself. all it takes is a look around to see what she's quickly surrounded herself with to realise that she might've taken the wrong path after her literal crossroads a few episodes ago. SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE SHOW FROM HERE ON OUT --------------------------------------------------------- i was originally going to post this review a few days ago, but once i saw the direction the final episodes were heading in with elliot's personalities, i decided to wait until i finished Hello, Elliot to see if there was anything to add to this, and im glad to see i was right. on first watch this episode can be a little underwhelming because of the lack of answers, but considering how many things are foreshadowed in this episode and how important the episode is, it's aged much better for me after finishing the show. the first big thing is angela and price's relationship. the show deliberately makes it seem like price is just trying to exert his power by getting something he can't have which is angela, considering she's suing his company. his goal to get her to remove the contingency for whiterose was definitely a key part in him approaching angela, but the fact that she's his daughter is the other pivotal factor. he never intended to tell her and that's clear in these scenes by how nonchalantly he approaches her and how little he ends up trying to hide his true self. he's manipulative, sinister and powerful, but revisiting these scenes with the full context of the show also shows a different emotion from price, albeit in smaller quantities. a big twist in their exchanges is that price chose to go with allsafe because of angela, so this isn't their first encounter. he wanted to be closer to his daughter even before the contingency had to be removed, so there is a sense of longing in price's attitude in this episode. then of course there's elliot's final scenes in this episode. as i already said, the overwhelming mystery of the 5/9 hack has him wanting to be alone, so he tries to escape mr robot, which leads him right into an fsociety protest in times square. he's surrounded by the very mask that he put on as the mastermind, to escape the cruel reality that elliot was living in, which leads to a momentary lapse in reality for him. mr robot resurfaces in the chaos of the crowd, which has elliot questioning his reality once again. the main takeaways from here is that when elliot tells mr robot he isn't real, mr robot doubles back with: and you think you are? it's a major slip up that already hints at HE's mastermind plot twist, so mr robot quickly delves into a long speech to change the focus of the conversation. mr robot tells him he can't be alone again and he removes all the people in times square, leaving elliot alone for a change. his mother and a young elliot are on a billboard and mr robot quickly joins them. they're as much a part of him as he is and it's thanks to them that elliot got to where he is. they're right, the mastermind is just as much of a personality as the rest of the ones elliot created and it's thanks to those original personalities of his family that elliot was able to drown out the sexual abuse he suffered from his father. it's hard to explain a lot of what happens in this scene, but the impeccable cinematography makes it stand out in a way that makes it easily come to mind after the show's ending, especially considering how much it foreshadows and hints towards it. after coming to terms with the fact that mr robot is a part of him, we get the devilish ending cliffhanger with elliot getting a knock at the door. this parallels 1x8s ending with mr robot which creates even more questions. could it be tyrell? or maybe mr robot? maybe darlene or somebody else? the actual answer isn't revealed until much later in the show but it's majorly hinted at in this episode. the opening of the episode is with michael hansen meeting up with krista, telling her he wants to get elliot arrested for his hacking and stealing his dog. it's another big demonstration that not a single scene in mr robot is pointless. it not only shows how elliot's acts affect others, but it gives significance to the small scene of elliot taking flipper to the vet, which is what alerted 'michael hansen.' he says the only way he'll be able to get elliot arrested is if latvia (i think it was latvia, correct me if im wrong) collapses. the very next scene is him watching the news about riots in latvia as the economy collapses. there's no direct mention of whether or not it's elliots hack that causes this, or at least not that i remember, but it's be very ironic for the very thing that he did to 'save the world' to be what lands him in prison. the knock on the door does turn out to be the police later on, which is hinted at throughout season 2 until the 2x7 reveal which all but confirms it, bit for now it's yet another mystery that sets up the next season. finally, i want to talk about the post credits scene. the slow reveal that the minister next to price is whiterose through the watch beeps is incredible and their whole conversation is layered with subtext and foreshadowing. they're discussing the congo plans, which on first watch mostly fall on deaf ears due to the surprise of the twist, and there's also the fact that whiterose is in a suit instead of her dress, the first instance of her own battle with identity that mirrors elliot's. however, my favourite part of the scene is what zhang/whiterose comments on the harp playing in the background. 'it is said that nero himself played one of these during the fall of rome.' he's directly comparing the people in this room to the rulers of the roman empire, the top 1% of the 1%, while also implying the incoming doom in the following seasons. it mostly foreshadows 409 and how rome finally falls when price defeats whiterose, pretty much forcing her to shoot him in public, but the fall of rome happens as early as this episode, with elliot's 5/9 hack which sets in motion the rest of the show; the turning point of the series as a whole. --------------------------------------------------------- to conclude, this episode ages so well after completing the entire show, but even on first watch it's brimming with passion from sam esmail and the other creative minds that poured their hearts into this show, which makes it all the more special. the foreshadowing alone makes this episode brilliant, so to add all the other interweaving storylines that simultaneously function so well on their own makes it even better. as a season finale, i can understand the argument that it feels underwhelming on first watch, but in the grand scheme of things this is one of the most important episodes of mr robot as a whole. low 5/5