'Mr. Robot' Finds and Loses Normalcy 

Elliot wants out of this world. The world of digital hacking, ruining international businesses, constant secrecy, but more importantly he wants to get out so he can grab a single moment to blink. Cause when he blinks, Mr. Robot or another member of Fsociety appears in his life at the worse possible moment to ask of him more than he’s ever willing to give. He wants out. And in the season’s third episode, “eps1.2_d3bug.mkv,” he gets a brief respite.

Mr. Robot appears at his work, they go to a bar and Elliot says he’s had enough. Mr. Robot says that his entire plan needs Elliot and if he isn’t interested then that is the end of the project. Elliot, in this moment, finally sees the sun in his perpetually gloomy Manhattan world. He wonders if he might be able to lead a normal life, if maybe he can have a girlfriend, if he should go to the gym, drink Starbucks. He even contemplates the impossible: hearting a photo on Instagram. This moment of ease was shattered before he got to enjoy it for twelve hours, once Fsociety found the one weakness that still haunts Elliot, hopefully he enjoyed the vanilla latte.

But while Elliot failed to get off the grind, other characters in the show were further jacking into it. Ollie (Ben Rappaport) and Angela (Portia Doubleday) have their own issues with Ollie being blackmailed into corrupting the security of Allsafe the place both of them work. Angela threatens to leave, but eventually falls back. However, because all of the shady cheating we already know he’s done, the thought of him finally being out of the show wouldn’t be too soon. Sadly, she doesn’t follow through and we last see them on the couch in their apartment trying to figure out if Ollie should follow these hackers’ demands or jeopardize the digital identities of Angela and her father.

Then there was Tyrell, the E(vil) corporation employee that showed off multiple dark sides in the space of a single episode, thanks to beating up a homeless guy to relieve the stress from not getting a promotion at work; he was also forced into S&M sex with this pregnant wife to make up for the fact he had a successful evening after another executive’s male assistant and Elliot thought he had a bad day. Elliot is the show’s main focus — his face is the plastered on all of the ads. This episode showed the secondary characters aren’t just filler. The episode also turned down the thriller vibes until the final few minutes when it became clear that all of these characters are just on the beginning of their journey.