Spoilers for the latest episode of Mr. Robot are ahead, so if you aren’t caught up with “Kernel Panic,” feel free to take care of that now. I’m fine waiting – I can use the time to figure out what happened to the U and the N.
When Mr. Robot first hit the air last year, it was anyone’s guess as to how well it would do – including Mr. Robot‘s network, USA. As it turns out, the first season of Mr. Robot was a smash hit (even if it didn’t gain any real traction until the off-season, when an impressive word-of-mouth campaign introduced a larger audience to the show, including yours truly). For the first time in its history, USA Network had a successful, legitimately prestige program in its line-up, and it was thanks to the creative vision of one man: series showrunner Sam Esmail.
Based on the success of the first season, USA was obviously more than happy to have Esmail continue as writer/showrunner for the second season, but they also did him one better: they agreed to Esmail’s request that he direct every episode. Allowing Esmail to put this kind of responsibility on himself was a risky move for USA, but now that we’re three episodes into Season 2, I’m feeling pretty confident that the network made the right decision.
The cool thing about watching a show that’s the product of one person’s creative control is that every shot you see, every piece of dialogue you hear – it’s all extremely deliberate. The camera movements, the editing within and between scene, the sound – it’s all being overseen by the mind that first envisioned it. While I love the products of collaboration, there’s something special about getting to see a story that was conceived with such passion as to remove as many people from the creative process as necessary. Esmail wants this story told just so, and I can get on board with that. And with “Kernel Panic,” it’s clear that Esmail is in full control.
One thing I’m really enjoying is some of the other character development Esmail is working on in Mr. Robot right now. Last season spent most of its time developing Elliot for obvious reasons, but even as he was pulling off the biggest hack the world has ever seen, we learned precious little about the dedicated group who helped him pull it off. It wasn’t until my second watch of the season that I finally stared remembering the names of Mobley, Romero (RIP), and Trenton. Now that we’re getting into the meat of Season 2, it’s clear that Esmail has more in store for these guys.
“Kernel Panic” opened with a flashback, where Romero is telling Mosley a story as they walk through Coney Island. I’m not sure if Romero’s tale about the history of fsociety’s arcade hideout had any information in it that will inform future developments, but I’m glad it was there. It gave us some pretty cool backstory on how things came together for the hacker group, and it served to endear us to Romero – if for no other reason than to make his death have more impact when it finally came. It also gave us more Mosley, who seems poised to emerge as a strong supporting character. It wasn’t until tonight’s episode that I began to see him in three dimensions, but now that he’s rightfully fearing for his life, I’m interested in seeing how the story pans out from his point of view.
On the subject of new points of view, I’m loving Grace Gummer’s turn as FBI agent Dominique DiPierro. Gummer imbues Dom with a humanity and vulnerability that makes her instantly sympathetic, and it’s only with a detached awareness that I realize that to root for her is to root against Elliot. At the same time, it’s becoming clear that Dom and Elliot have a lot in common. Both are lonely and in search of a human connection, though they go about it in different ways. I have a feeling that when they inevitably come face to face, it will play out in ways more complicated than him simply being arrested and taken away.
As much as I’m enjoying all the work going into developing other characters, Mr. Robot is at its best when Rami Malek’s Elliot is on the screen. “Kernel Panic” finds him continuing his fight to rid himself of Mr. Robot – he’s now turned to gobbling Adderall to keep himself focused on his routine. It works for a few days, but after sleep deprivation begins to set in, Elliot begins to lose his control. As his world begins to crumble into a bizarre waking nightmare, Esmail’s keen direction steps to the forefront. Esmail’s ability to synthesize Malek’s one-of-a-kind acting with various visual effects creates a sort of frenzied emotional balance that would likely falter in lesser hands. Hell, even Elliot digging through a puddle of his own vomit and sucking down his regurgitated pills had a degree of poetic symmetry (at least to the point that it kept me from heaving up a sympathy gag or two).
Between his ongoing war of identity with Mr. Robot and his dealings with the mysterious Ray, it’s hard to know where Elliot might end up by the end of the season. As for now, I’m pretty curious as to who Ray is, and what he wants from Elliot. Is he really a nice guy looking out for Elliot, or is he manipulating him to exploit his computer knowledge? There’s a pretty cool, potentially spoilery theory going around right now that would explain a lot about Ray (and other things), but as it stands, we’ll just have to wait and see.
