IMO this is the worst of the very sophomoric writing of the series, bra. And I can't believe there is any set left after Vera's death, having chewed it up more than Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.
1
Outstanding. One of their best episodes, ever.
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@jackzfun of television. This episode, though a bottle episode, was perfect from start to finish. It's what TV desires to be at its best, in my opinion.
4
I'm not buying the argument that Vera is Elliot's other alter ego. Elliot only has one body. Any alternate egos have to share the same body in a space and time and appearance. Vera's posse would see him as Elliot. Vera's time spent in prison and The DR would be time Elliot's body spent there as well. Vera and Elliot have lived separate lives, clearly.
3
As I watched, I had no thought of Elliot knowing that Krista was creeping up with the knife and I'm not sure he did see her.
8
Amazing episode; it was like Hitchcock, Shakespeare and a Sam Shepard play all wrapped up into one tense ball of drama.
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Sexually molested as a child by his parent????? Puhlease--while I don't discount the horrible effects of such behavior, and realize that sexual predation of children is extremely widespread and terrible and results in terrible traumas for victims, it seems like a cop-out by the writers of (what I consider) a breakthrough drama to default to this "same old, same old" easy way to explain how a damaged protagonist got that way. Really--are we back to Sybil???
4
@Anonymous This has been in the show from episode 1. Hints have been dropped throughout the entire series. Many of us who watched were expecting this reveal, and even still, to me at least, it was more powerful than I could have expected.
I also don't think it's as simple as "Elliot was sexually abused, and it was so traumatic that he developed DID". It was because his father otherwise was very caring, and as Elliot says, his only friend in the world. It wasn't a random alter, it was a protective version of his father... a rejection of an overwhelming reality manifested into what he wanted or believed reality to be.
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What a ridiculous and insensitive comment. You are obviously looking at it from the perspective of someone to whom abuse is some kind of intellectual point or concept without any true understanding or empathy. Abuse is abuse, physical, sexual, psychological, all ultimately emotional abuse and in children in particular is a gross abuse of care and immensely damaging . The series handles the mental health repercussions of the abuse of both Elliot and Darlene in a nuanced and sensitive way. And as someone with experience of this, something I can entirely relate to, how as a child you have few options for survival. To hide within a shell, or adopt defensive strategies, create your own fantasy worlds, or have selective amnesia, all impacts on the young mind, fighting for survival after being affronted and attacked. The type of abuse in this episode, in actual fact isn’t particularly dwelled on, and although sexual abuse is mentioned, clearing this is linked to the other abuses that were happening at that time in their small lives. Neglect, boundaries not respected, physical, name calling etc etc..
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@Anonymous
A cop out.. what are you saying?… don’t see many cop out in front of my eyes and ears.. I get the feeling from your tone, that you feel that it’s rather terrible and all (sexual abuse that is). but it’s too easy an explanation. But it isn’t. Almost feel like you are diminishing sexual abuse. Much like the certain members of catholic clergy did. Sexual abuse isn’t just sexual abuse. It’s a deep betrayal and cruel wounding another soul and damages thier wellbeing to the core, and sense of self.
2
Am I the only one who thought Vera was one of Eliot’s alters? Elliot tried to get Christa to see him in a previous episode but she wouldn’t because she was afraid of him. He developed the Vera alter ego, the tough thug, to break into her office and hold her hostage, to make her tell him the truth. When Vera was talking to Elliot after Elliot’s breakthrough, that was Krista talking. That was an empathetic therapist talking, not a meth-addled thug. She stabbed Vera and killed him metaphorically for Elliott. He didn’t need Vera or Mr. Robot anymore. His/her last words were, “I see you now.”
2
@StevieLadd This is a far-fetched theory and probably you might the only one but it would've been fascinating line.
Time to re-eatch every season. A whole different story after this episode. What a great drama! The whole run of Mr Robot has been a master class.
5
Episode 6 was all action and (almost) zero dialogue. Episode 7 was all dialogue and (almost) zero action. Thank you, Mr. Esmail, for a most entertaining ride.
9
@Brian oops....meant episode 5, not 6.
1
Completely agree with review. In my opinion Elliot Villar was the star of this episode. As the acts unfolded I couldn't help but think Sam Esmail was a very very good student of Alfred Hitchcock. The music was a perfect accompaniment. One of the best serial episodes I have seen in a long time.
7
I was in awe watching this episode, which will surely nail several top Emmys in the Series categories. I'm glad Sean mentioned the theatrical effect of the thunderstorm. This was old-style theater, Shakespearean. It reminded me of Lear raving in the storm on the heath.
8
I've been a massive fan of the show since the pilot. This was the best episode yet, and one of the most poignant episodes of television I've ever seen. Thank you to Sam Esmail, Tod Campbell, Rami Malek, Elliot Villar, thank you thank you thank you.
7
@MC And Gloria Reuben?
12
One of the most moving episodes of television I have seen in a long time.
10
At the end of the scene I started to feel that Vera before he was stabbed was going to become Elliott’s new alternate ego, (“Become the storm”) and so very ironically was destroyed by Krista as a good psychiatrist might have prevented her patient from becoming attached to another split of her patient’s psyche by stabbing Vera. Brilliant writing as always! I will miss this series when it’s over.
5
I think Vera was his alter. Crystal killed him symbolically, not literally as he was a part of Elliott’s imagination.
@StevieLadd totally agree. I felt that this was a scene playing out in his imagination as well. That’s what I really trying to convey, glad someone else thinking that...hahaha!!
@Martha It could've been his imagination but in this-- i highly doubt it was his imagination, Krista killed the man.
1
A beautifully executed piece of drama, wonderfully written, staged, and shot. Kudos for all that and for the decision to run it commercial-free; that’s what helped it flow so seamlessly.
I disagree with the contributor who said Elliot saw the stabbing of Vera coming. When it happened, we were looking through Elliot’s eyes. It was the director’s conscious choice to have us see it that way so as to feel some of what Elliot was feeling, and to experience the surprise when it came.
In any good drama, fiction, etc, it’s our job to suspend disbelief and allow the writer/director their to take us on the journey without examining and questioning everything for subtext. Not that this show hasn’t fooled us on occasion with the unreliable narrator device, this fantastic episode was a rollercoaster ride tour de force. For fans of the show who had all the background in hand, all we had to do was hop in and enjoy the ride.
6
I was so engrossed in this episode and then the screen went blank just be for the abuse allegation!!!!!! I couldn't believe it.
1
I enjoyed this episode. But I'm really glad Vera is gone - he's my least favorite character on the show, so incredibly annoying and pretentious. And I'm hoping we're done with the annoying, pathetic henchmen too.
6
I have long known that Rami Malek and Gloria Reuben were great actors. But that Elliot Villar as Vera! In this and the preceding episode he has shown brilliance. As you say in the reap, he has a role requiring an incredibly complex balance of contradictory elements. He handles them beautifully.
Vera. Isn't one of the meanings of the name Truth?
19
@Jonathan
Yes, Vera means truth and Vera stands in front of the fireplace with the pyramid and sun decoration on top of the mantle - "the seeing eye."
7
Esmail writes and directs every sentence, every scene and every episode with purpose. I felt like I was watching a Shakespeare or Camus play. This is so beautifully layered. Still trying to figure out how Krista got the knife unnoticed. I was prepared for the epiphany as most dis-associative disorders come from sexual trauma as a child, however why was the alternate "protecting" ego, Mr. Robot, also the perpetrator? - that's a bit unusual. Are we being played? Was Krista planting false memories to get out of a dicey situation?
Anyway, lots of visual metaphors - the back-drop of the mostly empty shelf except for some Nat Geo magazines behind Vera compared to a whole library behind Elliot was a nice touch (simple vs. complex minds). The last scene with Vera on the floor with the overhead shot (a-la Taxi Driver), looked like a full body with the kidney shaped coffee table on one side, Elliot on the other gut side and the Christmas tree for the head - all the different parts of Elliot. Remember when White Rose toppled the "little off centered" Christmas tree - oh yes - it's all making sense now. Well played Mr. Esmail. I only hope that the actors (especially the actor who plays Vera) gets a Emmy nomination. I hope all the creatives get recognized for their work on this show.This stuff is too good to ignore.
14
No false memories. This program is so brilliant that foreshadowing to this moment started right in Episode 1.
3
@Digitalslush An abused child fantasized a "good daddy" to protect him from his abusive daddy. And after the real daddy's death, it was even easier to pretend the fiction was real.
6
I am not convinced that we may be being played. I wonder if Elliot and Krista were giving Vera a play he could believe in. The "breaking" of Elliot via a simplistic Freudian conflict. All to convince Vera that he was in complete control. To get him to let his guard down. To get Krista untied and alone in the other room.
How else can you explain Elliot not warning his "savior" that a knife was on the way to his back?
2
@Dennis I think if that were the case, it would have been revealed at the end of the episode.
1
It reminded me of a Hitchcock movie. All the elements! Kudos.
3
I love this show so much, and every episode this season has been amazingly taut.
However, I had a few problems with this episode. As soon as Mr. Robot began yelling at Krista, I knew Elliot and/or Darlene had been sexually abused. The music and the thunderstorm were distracting. I enjoy how much Mr. Robot plays with form and substance, but those aspects of this week's episode didn't click for me. (Also those henchmen bugged me for some reason.)
All of the acting was stellar. Watching the scene between Elliot and Krista had me tied up in knots even though I knew what was coming. I was sure Krista would be killed, but I called it wrong. Malek nailed the emotional confusion and destruction of his inner life. Is Mr. Robot going to continue to be a character? I'm worried.
6
As soon as Elliot said he shoved his sister in the closet I knew it was to protect her from his father’s sexual abuse. I just wasn’t sure which sibling the father was abusing. It also makes sense of Elliott’s having no feelings about his mother’s death. She’s the parent who fails to protect her child from the abuse.
8
Could it be more pretentious?
3
Could you?
3
"Once Vera collapses, the power appears to go out in Krista’s apartment, one light at a time. It’s not clear why, as the storm raging outside would have knocked out all the power in one shot."
The episode was shot entirely on a traditional stage. It's presented in a typical five act structure. This was a play, not a television show. There were no Mr. Robot/Elliot 4th wall breaks, no other locations.
11
I think the whole setting was metaphorical. The thunder, lightning and rain weren't real (it's Christmas Day in New York, so they can't be), but did such a great job of drawing you in as the truth of Elliott's past was slowly revealed. Masterful.
1
@Paul Kaliciak It was unseasonably warm in December of 2015, in NYC. It's quite feasible that a storm like that could happen.
But yes, it's a metaphor for Elliot's storm. The one we learn about in act 4.
2
I think the reason the lights went out dramatically one by one at the end of the episode was to “End Scene” in the same way a play can end, like the playhouse shutting each switch off one by one. Elliott says at one point “we might as well give him a show,” plus each scene is labeled as Act I, Act II, etc. The dramatic, swelling, Hitchcock-esque music throughout further points to this. There was a dreamy, displaced feel to the episode, as if you were watching a drama in a theater.
29
The power went out such as it did because it is mirroring the way stage lights go out in a final scene in a play. Since this week was a tragedy in five acts it was appropriate to end with the lights going out as such.
14