After winning an Emmy, a Peabody and a Golden Globe, USA Network’s dark thriller Mr. Robot is finally coming back for another riveting season.
If you’ve seen the show but want a refresher, here are some of the craziest moments from the show’s first two seasons. We ended the first season with major plot twists:
1. Hacktivist group fsociety finally crushed E-Corp with its zealous hack (5/9), and the economy is in ruins. Fortunately, the people are free from debt, but unfortunately, due to the repercussions, the Executive VP of E-Corp committed suicide on live television.
2. Angela (Portia Doubleday) quit her job at the cybersecurity firm and is now working for E-Corp. I repeat: Angela is working for E-Corp! Why? To get back at them for the toxic waste cover-up that killed her mom and Elliot’s father (but she finds that it’s much easier said than done).
3. E-Corp’s Senior VP of Technology, Tyrell Wellick, is missing. Tyrell (Martin Wallstrom) allied with Elliot (Rami Malek), but disappeared soon after — and Elliot woke up three days later in Tyrell’s car. What are you up to, Tyrell?
4. Darlene is Elliot’s sister! Remember when they kissed? Yeah, turns out Elliot didn’t have to do that. All (light) joking aside, though, the fact that Darlene (Carly Chaikin) and Elliot are siblings is interesting because it’s one of the first and few times we learn of Elliot’s personal life.
5. Remember Whiterose? The transgender leader of the Chinese Dark Army, Whiterose/Zhang (BD Wong) aided fsociety with its 5/9 hack earlier in the season, but was last seen with the CEO of E-Corp, this time dressed as a man and eager to talk. Hmm …
6. And the biggest reveal of them all: Elliot is Mr. Robot. Uh-oh. What does this mean for the narrative?
Season two wasn’t that much clearer, either. It was filled with more secrets from both the plot and the characters — old, current and new. Creator, director and writer Sam Esmail isn’t afraid to mind-fuck his audience, and it’s great. Here is a quick recap:
1. Elliot is psychologically and emotionally broken. He went to prison for hacking/harassing his therapist’s ex-husband. He lied to us, saying that he was at his mother’s and trying to cope with this whole Mr. Robot/Elliot crisis, but in reality, he was chillin’ like a villain with new friends, Leon (Joey Bada$$) and Ray (Craig Robinson), and got out thanks to Whiterose. Oh, and that gunshot wound? He has to survive, right? (Update: Elliot has found a way to kill Mr. Robot: Adderall. Unfortunately, this makes him, Elliot, an insomniac.)
2. Angela is climbing up the hierarchy at E-Corp, and it’s almost as if she dropped the lawsuit against them. But then she got caught up in sensitive matters with fsociety; has become even more suspicious of her boss, Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer); and has had a run-in with the Dark Army. Basically, Angela’s been keeping busy.
3. fsociety has undergone renovations: Darlene is the new head of fsociety; Romero (Ron Cephas Jones), member of the hacktivist group, is (mysteriously) dead; and Cisco (Michael Drayer) is in a pickle with the Dark Army. But fear not, because Darlene and Cisco are now a thing (again).
4. There’s a new boss in town, and she’s hot for fsociety. Dominique DiPierro (Grace Gummer) is an FBI agent, and she’s currently investigating the 5/9 hack while masturbating to sexts and talking with her best friend, Alexa the Amazon Echo.
5. Who is Tyrell? Elliot’s not sure anymore, but Mr. Robot insists he shot the former VP dead. But then why does Joanna (Stephanie Corneliussen), Wellick’s wife, keep receiving mysterious calls from a man breathing heavily?
The show is getting grittier, and while it’s super confusing most of the time, Esmail is doing a wonderful job of rendering us speechless and thirsty for more.
Season three of Mr. Robot will premiere on Oct. 11 on USA Network. The first two seasons are free on Amazon Prime.