Introduction Fanfic Season 5
I've been sharing outlines of the final 20 episodes I'd write, if Sam Esmail were to be hit by a bus and someone had to conclude the series.
PREFACE:
There are real disruptive technologies and real discoveries that make major change possible. From Blockchain decentralization, to my own personal epiphany that our voting method (and all ordinal methods) are scientifically falsifiable, incapable of tallying total approvals. With those tools in hand, the Western Hemisphere can be turned completely on its head.
Twisty's eps5.0_helloworld.pdf
A season premiere should start with a good character flashback. This scene conflates the memory of young Elliot at his father's burial service with the deaths of his other friends, mixing in the Memorial Day 2014 awakening of Mr Robot, and Elliot abruptly waking from the nightmare.
While 8 yr old Elliot sits with sister and mother in folding chairs, the casket rotates angles and become a glassy transparent server cabinet laid on its back, exposing the view of Edward Alderson lying there, hands crossed.
Price: "Edward was a magnificent engineer and a model employee, the likes of which will be sorely missed."
Whiterose: "...and with his work for us complete, he can die for us."
Young Angela nudges young Elliot, "Don't worry, we'll see them all soon."
Young Elliot begins saying softly, "No. This has to stop!" But the body of Edward begins switching to the bodies of other victims... Angela Moss's mother, the bloody body of Shayla, Leslie Romero, Mobley, and Trenton. Young Elliot walks to the server case, now under fluorescent lights, and grabs a pale blue envelope labeled "don't delete me."
The boy is then surrounded by college aged coworkers who pick him up and throw him into the server case. "THIS HAS TO STOP!" he continues, pounding against the glass casing. But from inside, he can now see the fast moving figure of Mr. Robot, moving from server to server with a fire extinguisher, continuing to shout (like Elliot) "THIS HAS TO STOP! THIS HAS TO STOP!"
Elliot springs up in bed, face full of tears, unleashing one more "THIS HAS TO STOP!" He trembles and collects himself, then brings himself to his feet.
Krista: "...and that's the event that brought you and I to meet, in what the court called 'your anger management issues.' "
Elliot: "Mr. Robot and I need each other more than ever before. We've finally grown to trust that we work for each other's protection, yet we're still living in separate timeshares, and have no experiences in common."
Krista: "I think you and your other identity are entering a new phase to be understood. It's not like you have a dead father who needs his spirit to be avenged, but rather like a subconscious part of you can rise to your defense, unfiltered and fully aware of your primal need for justice."
Elliot: "But how do I 'manage anger' if we cannot even negotiate control?"
Krista: You are the conscious ego, the rational and patient one in this relationship. Play to your strengths. Be the deep thoughtful facilitator that he can count on, and he'll be there for your needs too.
Elliot leaves Krista's office, pacing down the NYC sidewalk to arpeggio music. "Hello, friend. NYC has dozens of HackerSpaces and MakeLabs. Luckily, Darlene knows them all quite well. It looks as if Mr. Robot and I might have new footing for cooperation. It seems he's the uninhibited amoral id, and I'm the conscientious ego. But you're only in my head, since I invented you less than a year ago. Who does that make you?"
Darlene arrives at a MakeLab and places her backpack on the table before an expectant group of hackers. "So I've got this DJ friend who wants to perform, but he's too socially anxious to be seen on stage. He heard a mask can help. Might have heard that from Deadmau5, but I picture him more as an intentionally forgotten member of Daft Punk." She lays out some sketches of robot gloves and mask.
Elliot arrives in Coney Island, and boards the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel. "Patience is on her way here with new discoveries for the revolution. It's time we avenge your death and the death of the others. If there's ever a time we need each other, it's more so now than ever before."
Patience, Tyrell, and Angela join Darlene and Elliot assemble in a new underground headquarters, what looks like a basement space that might have been part of the Red Wheelbarrow tunnel system.
Patience lays out key elements of the team's new strategy:
- Crypto-currency: ECoin is no Bitcoin. It's more streamlined and centralized, but also more exploitable with backdoors and lacking anonymity.
- Blockchain: an anti-authoritarian approach to journal transactions openly.
- Digital Signatures: The means that votes and transactions can be mathematically proven as delivered with credentials. These can still be anonymous ("pseudonymous") if desired.
- Falsification of Ordinal Methods: Proof that methods like FPTP & IRV cannot correctly sum voter approvals. This logical proof can turn the Western Hemisphere on its head; the demand for Approval Voting can give us the democracy we've been secretly denied.*
As Elliot costumes up, Mr Robot (Christian Slater) takes over for the first recording (use smartphones, no more VHS) and a whopper speech.
"Hello, World. In the weeks to follow, you will be unshackled from your wage slavery and the capricious rule by disinterested parties. We are Mr. Robot. We are the impartial referees of the free world. We are the blockchain, balancing the books. We deny the unjust their spoils. And we are coming for you."
Twisty's eps5.1_blockchain.dat
An interrogation of Whiterose takes place in a black ops site. There is much talk of torture and terrorism, but "Minister Zhang" is too high profile to undergo brutal treatment. "His" accommodations are not luxurious, but neither is (s)he denied respect, dignity, and most of all diplomacy. (S)he makes it clear to "his" captors that "war crimes trials" will have no consequence to "his" legal defense, and it's time to make a phone call.
Patience talks with Elliot about the next couple of stages. One IRC channel is talking crypto-currency... both about the state of ECoin, and about a "DemoCred" digital currency that looks to succeed BitCoin by backpedaling greedy rewards, and eliminating wasteful mining competitions.
Another IRC channel is talking about Verified Voting. The other techs have done the heavy lifting, prototyping a self-check system that uses a "blockchain lite" to journal signed ballots... Registered voters are confirmed for their unique voting district, the district has a public-listed/private-keyed authority to verify the voter, issue the ballot, and exchange the validated/signed/certified ballot with a pseudonymous receipt. It's all entered into a blockchain, so votes are counted-as-cast and tallied verifiably.
(to be continued...)
Twisty's eps5.3_badblocks.drv
Darlene and Night visit a NYC councilman to discuss using DemoCreds to 'redistribute wealth' in a mutually remedial way: taking lessons from Curitiba, Brazil [1]*, the abundant NYC subway system can exchange tokens and credits for overdue trash cleanup, security patrols, and other shared city problems. Taking lessons from 1966 Ireland [2]*, coffee shops and bars can act as new "decentralized currency resources," replacing centralized banks for DemoCreds.
Tyrell makes a shockingly public announcement that he's running for Senator, under a new third party, 'The ELEVATE Party.' "We now see that 'Democracy versus Tyranny' has been a sham. With our traditional 'Plurality Voting' method now scientifically falsified, indeed all ordinal ballot methods shown to be frauds, Approval Voting can level the field for new parties equally. 'Hope and Change' are no longer impossible promises. The Elevate Party will elevate humanity to new standards of Dignity, Leisure, Security, and Justice that our past rigged system has disallowed." He appears a good family man to the public, with a new spouse (male or female?) and baby boy in their arms.
Elliot & Robot are watching the news in dismay. Who is this new Tyrell and what has he done with the old one? Philip Price watches on with a deep sigh, but he views politicians dismissively as mere pawns. Whiterose, on the other hand, wants better ownership of this 'plant' he put in EvilCorp, and starts to move toward getting Tyrell "back on script."
Angela wants to get the Mr. Robot movement on track. She's both a good persuasive bridge and an independent revolutionary. (Is that a contradiction?) She's setting up pseudonymous social media to instigate flash mobs, marches, cover ops, and hacktivism.
Dark Army sends David ("Dwarf") to meet personally at Tyrell's office. Several videographers have to leave, signed on to showcase The Elevate Party to vimeo/youtube, news interviews, and journalistic documentaries. An electronic sweep is done to assure security of the conversation. David expresses Whiterose's 'dissatisfaction.'
* [1]&[2]: "Rethinking Money," by Bernard Lietaer & Jacqui Dunne
Twisty's eps5.4_airdecloak.wav
Tyrell welcomes Angela into his EvilCorps office. "I'm consulting her extensive expertise in cybersecurity." She's aware of the awkwardness that follows their complicity in the Dark Army, but that exactly why she continues to offer concern for his aftermath. He confides complete in her: He wants to atone for his sins in their mass murder, which he facilitated under duress. Now, they want to continue their downward race while he wants to turn for the opposite. Angela likes what he's doing with modern media, and offers "her security guys" to his service. Then both ask after Elliot, with both missing that closeness they had.
Elliot & Robot are wrestling over issues of morphine addiction and the greater needs of the revolution. Like a battle of Jedi versus Sith, Robot demonstrates his ability to "apply the brakes" as well as destabilize Elliot motor control. In turn, Elliot proves, "there is not only fight or flight, but also freeze... because my patience can wade far beyond your emotional drives to -- OR THERE'S STILL FIGHT," when he draws a dagger to Robot's throat. But seeing that puts the knife to Elliot's own throat, they both relinquish struggling to fall back in laughter.
Agent Dom is acting as liaison between FBI and Secret Service for a public press conference by Tyrell. Her coworkers sense a bit is off... she's usually the face-breaking critic of lax performance, but her own unenthused and sloppy behavior has them worried.
Angela's private (or volunteer?) security force is causing friction by competing with the Secret Service. There are a mix of knowns and unknowns among the players. The press camera is at City Hall, but it's being televised on big screens everywhere, including Times Square.
Whiterose is not above asserting violent dominance over matters of her capricious demands. Approaching gunned hostiles are triggering all kinds of alarms, but the only response to the overpowering numbers is to begin a strategic retreat. Darlene and Elliot are also getting alarms, as their phone texts report activity on the pwned Dark Army Network.
Gunfire opens another public massacre at the Press site, but Tyrell is successfully ushered to a bulletproof limousine. Elliot and Darlene race to the site they predict they will find Tyrell... the parking garage of his campaign HQ. They arrive as the limo is pulling in, but both have been beaten by Agent Dom and the two traditional Dark Army henchmen that come with the office.
Tyrell is shot by a crouching henchman. Dom draws her gun, unfired, and approaches. "You got the message," she says, and walks away. She passes Elliot as he rushes toward Tyrell's side... and she says to him, "Tell that sister of yours I say hey."
Darlene is not far behind, but catches only an icy sideglance as Dom leaves. Elliot and Darlene tell Tyrell, "hang in there! If she wanted you dead, she'd have finished you." Tyrell replies "she doesn't give a damn if I live or die, just that we all got the message."
"Elliot, I've got a son who needs to grow up on the shoulders of giants... He needs to see what's been above us."
Elliots begins to weep. "He need you, his dad! And I didn't see it, but I still need you! Don't you fckin' die on me!"
"Elliot, don't say it. Some things are left better unsaid," Tyrell says with a forced smile. "You know... Subtext."
The paramedics crowd the Aldersons aside and carry Tyrell on the gurney into the ambulance. The frantic struggle to stabilize him looks unpromising.
Fifteen episodes down... Five more to go!
As you may notice, I'm trying to build to a climax... not only in midseason action, but also in the escalating stakes and suspense of final season.
It's a credit to Sam that he utilizes a writer's room. There are many tough calls I'd leave for a larger groups of writers to decide: Do we let Tyrell's wife/partner get shot at the Media site? In the garage? Should I "refactor" to make Angela his partner? (For an end game where Elliot and Angela may be raising the boy, that may be the most elegant solution.)
Twisty's eps5.5_Snake_Case.asp
Elliot goes to Coney Island, where he takes a ride to share an introspective narration. We start on the Wonder Wheel, where Robot as always is expected to appear.
Elliot is clearly shaken and unhappy at Tyrell's shooting. "You may not be my real dad, but the dead have their own serious problems. Without a mechanism to engage new memories, the dead learn nothing new. If you expect them to praise or judge your new actions, that comes from how you've already come to expect them to praise or judge. If you learn of them through their writing, they cannot write anything new."
Robot: "I may look like the dead to you, but I assure you, I'm very much a living part of you. My justice is unfinished. I do grow, do learn, do intervene, and do hatch the schemes that will change this world we live in."
Elliot: "Then why the f*ck are we stuck here again?!?" The wheel halts them at the top, in order to board more passengers below. "We are literally stopped here in the loop of the past! We have nowhere new for this to take us! It's the definition of our insanity! And while this familiarity in me is breeding contempt, in you it is breeding contentment!"
The camera pans up from white dressy boots, tight black slacks, and a long white lab coat, we see Angela wearing a hard hat. She has just returned from Flint, Michigan, and is continuing to lead the "internal inspections" expected of Evil Corp.... now at the Washington Township Nuclear Power Facility. She gives a speech to her inspection team that completeness is mandatory... so every little problem discovered ought to come as no surprise to the problematic reports already on file.
Elliot and Robot continue arguing on the Wonder Wheel. Robot argues: "On the Cyclone, sitting toward the back is a greater rush... the lead cars are already accelerating you down the drop before you even reach it!"
Elliot rebukes: "You could have at least suggested the Thunderbolt. If we can't look at anything new, we could at least see it upside down...
"This has to stop. We can't keep rewarding their terrorists demands just because we're under duress. 'Deny The Unjust Their Spoils!' Wasn't that our new motto?!?"
Robot points across the horizon. "It's time to stop looking just in front of us, and instead look at what's above us." What is he pointing at? "Flying over us are sea gulls... the avian dinosaurs that continue to race aside the dominant mammals. We see them even from the ground, but what do they see? They see the highest rooftops of everything we've constructed, even Manhattan's skyscrapers we can see from here. Every place we've elevated ourselves to reach, they continue to fly even higher, looking down on us. We need aerial supremacy."
Elliot looks duly puzzled. "So what are you suggesting? Space? Last I checked, they're not flying over us on the Space Station."
"We need to be the ones flying above our dinosaur rivals. Take the moral highground. Like this 'Elevate' Party of Tyrell's. Maybe it was motivated by religious fervor... or maybe by business savvy. But it's a movement now. It offers a restorative narrative people buy, and a common aspiration toward greater status for all humanity...
"It IS time to Deny The Unjust Their Spoils. It's time our currency become a vehicle of new construction instead of inventing debt! It's time to begin a voting system that is no longer scientifically falsifiable! It's time to grab our government from the hands of the puppeteers and take it back into our own! But most importantly, it's time we close the market on our human species and our dwindling life support system!"
Angela sits behind a desk, still in hard hat, as she collects reports from her inspection teams.
Agent Dom DiPierro watches Angela through security cameras throughout the Power Plant. Leon watches Elliot from the concessions at Coney Island. And Darlene is being watched, on an array of a dozen high def screens, by someone eating BBQ.
I haven't given up on my own version of a Mr Robot finale. I mean, you never know who that bus is headed for... LOL :-D
Sixteen episode outlines down, four to go!
Twisty's eps5.6_rawshark.hccap
We start with a flashback of Edward Alderson, working at the Washington Township Power Plant. He's having lunch in the cafeteria as Angela's mother, Emily Moss, seats herself in view. An alarm sounds, people scramble, and Edward holds the door.
Once outside, she comments that he seems pretty calm. He chalks it up to lessons in parenting: One of the greatest gifts you can give your kids is an air of calm and a smile for every child. He gloats a little about his 8 YO Elliot, who just wrote a chess program last month, and his daughter Darlene, who at 4 YO is in a race to outshine her big brother. Emily concurs that her daughter Angela, and her budding future, mean the world to her.
Darlene is booking flights to China.... luckily her basic Mandarin is quite good. She walks outside and tells Night that she might not be seeing her a while, if ever again. "I live a pretty rootless existence." They part with warm regard and appreciation of lessons learned.
Angela is meeting with Patience and a ghost writer. They are collaborating on a book that combines the transcribed recordings of the late Tyrell Wellick with the new vision of Elevate and the collaborative commons. Patience has all the digital tech ironed out, and the ghost writer is a historian who can write the narrative for "a new paradigm" coming onto the world stage... one blurring class distinctions while the whole species shifts from insecure markets to the new network of living security.
Philip Price is following up on the orphan of Tyrell. In a parallel to his role as "anonymous benefactor" to Angela's mom, he is taking a token responsibility to watch after the son of his former CTO. New CTO vetting is quietly taking place among Evil Corp chiefs.
Mr Price is also at war in the Congo with the Dark Army. Strangely, the strategy isn't to move personnel in to secure ground, but to neutralize facilities and logistic routes into "an impasse." The strategy of the Dark Army, however, seems content to displace thousands more refugees.
Elliot returns to his apartment only to find Leon sitting on his couch, smoking a fatty. "Can I gather I'm not interrupting something important this time?" He shares his smoke, mentioning a grow in California that does nothing but crazy strains of indica. "Times like these can call for some mellow." Elliot reluctantly sits down and accepts.
Leon continues, "ya know, I continue to grow a respect for life; it's powerful with potential. But I ain't gonna lie neither, it feels good to be the one wielding it. I was there in Arizona, shortly before your friends took the fall for the 71. I gotta tell you, I'm really unhappy seeing how that went down when I left. That was Grant's hand that did them, like he later did himself; you were there for that. But it felt raw then and things are feeling more raw now, with the war in the Congo and all."
Darlene is phoning Angela. She's uploading video for Angela's review and approval. Angela raises the question "Did you stay on script? We know how you like to go off script..."
Darlene replies "Just review it, okay? I'm sure you'll like it. The sooner this is nailed, the sooner I catch my next flight."
Back on Elliot's couch, Robot takes the wheel. He stares Leon in the eye (uncharacteristic for Elliot), and starts in. "There are times you've had my back, and times you haven't. Trust doesn't come easy for me, with anyone."
Leon looks surprised. "Dude, I've seen you sullen, seen you beaten, even seen you all hopped up on Adderall. But this is new, this must be the robot I've heard about."
Robot says, "Just think of me as Elliot uncut. You don't travel without an agenda, but you've always been straight with me in the past. So what's your ask today?" Robot takes a drag off the joint.
"I think you've got a wire on this 'Elevate' thing. It seems like you... a continuation of the FSociety revolution. And now that the Dark Army trashed the best thing you brought to the world... I want 'Elevate' to succeed. I want on board."
Robot says, "Then I'm just the guy to see."
Twisty's eps5.7_repack.dmg
Flashback to recordings of Tyrell as he's delivering an 'Elevate manifesto' for posterity. He's in the room with his infant son as he videorecords his thoughts. He carries the presence of an aspiring politician. But the event isn't without the interruptions that only a crying baby can offer.
Angela arrives at the office of Philip Price. She has in hand a book, and wastes no time putting it into his hands. "Elevate, by Tyrell Wellick and Angela Moss" the title reads. "I suggest you read it sooner than later. I don't want to see you left behind. Don't wait for the movie."
Mr Price responds, "Isn't there an audiobook? You know I'd sooner have an assistant bottom line it for me than mismanage my time on the full public reading."
Angela replies, "I have an active schedule, too, so let me nutshell it for you. I'm running in Tyrell's place for Senator. And the Elevate movement is a force of nature that will disrupt E Corp to its roots. But that's just what's in the book... Let me tell you the real dirt breaking outside of its pages..."
Darlene arrives at Elliot's apartment. She's there to give her last goodbyes before flying off to China. "You know this has to happen. On the bright side, you get to be the brother of the next Edward Snowden." Elliot is clearly shaken, upset, but physically pulling back. Darlene waves her hand before his face, careful not to offend his sense of touch. "LISTEN TO ME. I'm not abandoning you... we're the last family we have of each other. You've always meant the world to me and what we're doing now just raises that world to a higher pedestal! You're still the greatest! You know that, right?"
Elliot hugs her at the brink of tears. "You know we still have that vengeance pact, right? You make it f*cking difficult to watch your back when you let our world get a whole lot bigger!"
Darlene resumes. "You remember when we were kids, and you were programming games, and I was hacking ways to cheat them? We entered an arms race, that started in innocent fun, but ended up learning a different competition, of hardening security and outwitting whoever has control. Sure, it threw a wet blanket on the creative fun, but it made us sharp as tacks. Be that leader. Best those adversaries. Deny the Unjust those Spoils."
Newscasts televise the funeral of Tyrell Wellick. Angela Moss is present. The Eulogy gets rather impassioned... "Your struggle will not be forgotten. Your calling will not be forsaken. Your vision will make its change upon this world."
Disruption from the Dark Army break out at the funeral, and Angela is escorted off stage. The episode ends with Leon striding in the indoor shade, rapidly firing his weapon.
Twisty's eps5.8_ctrlaltdel.exe (one more until the finale!)
Flashback to the arcade as the original FSociety are planning the raid on Steel Mountain. A new perspective is seen as Elliot gains the praise of the crew, but flips erratically to a disinterested, ADHD, diversion-seeking Robot. The Mallard Murder arcade game becomes an on-and-off distraction.
Action resumes as Leon is firing over the funeral site. The gun action parallels the flying ducks of the arcade game seen seconds earlier. (Perhaps arcade sound effects play a role in the bloodier reality.) Leon is dropping leather-clad movers, who look unsuspicious until they drop their own guns.
Mr. Robot transmits another bombshell video about the puppeteers, controlling governments globally. He announces new data dumps that expose the Dark Army and their complicit agents. Then he issues a call to hacktivists.
Newscasts feature Darlene Alderson as "the world's first supergovernmental whistleblower." The Press Release convenes as she likewise calls for hacktivism... "The gloves are off. The masks are down. The false foundations of the systems are laid bare. We're here to deny the unjust their spoils."
(to be continued...)
Twisty's eps5.8_ctrlaltdel.exe (one more until the finale!)
Flashback to the arcade as the original FSociety are planning the raid on Steel Mountain. A new perspective is seen as Elliot gains the praise of the crew, but flips erratically to a disinterested, ADHD, diversion-seeking Robot. The Mallard Murder arcade game becomes an on-and-off distraction.
Action resumes as Leon is firing over the funeral site. The gun action parallels the flying ducks of the arcade game seen seconds earlier. (Perhaps arcade sound effects play a role in the bloodier reality.) Leon is dropping leather-clad movers, who look unsuspicious until they drop their own guns.
Mr. Robot transmits another bombshell video about the puppeteers, controlling governments globally. He announces new data dumps that expose the Dark Army and their complicit agents. Then he issues a call to hacktivists.
Newscasts feature Darlene Alderson as "the world's first supergovernmental whistleblower." The Press Release convenes as she likewise calls for hacktivism... "The gloves are off. The masks are down. The false foundations of the systems are laid bare. We're here to deny the unjust their spoils."
Whiterose is found watching all of this from a rather palatial home theatre... sofa seating with arm tables for refreshments, before a full theatrical stage. While the videos and newscasts play, Whiterose watches on, fingers tented in anticipation. Irving enters to stand before her. She gestures with her hand, "Sit."
He complies and waits for her to start the conversation. "You do know it's a myth that we all all created equal. We are born into different strata of potential, of ownership, and of power." Irving nods knowingly, eyes cast fully into hers. "I have underestimated Mister Alderson. He seeks to destroy our entire way of living... and no one knows the scope with which he's thought this through."
Irving inhales. "We've got a fix on his sister, but she's bording a private flight owned by E Corp corporate. We've got a fix on Angela Moss, but she's got the full protection of Philip Price. And we had a fix on Elliot up until his broadcast from Washington Township nine hours ago. But the moment he broadcast, he dropped off the map." Whiterose scowls. Irving stands to leave, and walks out continuing to match her stare.
Darlene phones Patience as she boards the private jet. Her backpack carry-on is hardly larger than usual. "Have you got our hackerspace at the ready?"
Angela sits in a corner executive space as Leon enters to meet her. She pushes a silver case his way. "Here's the latest from the Fab Lab. We got it much smaller than expected thanks to a patent we own on a fractal antenna chip." Leon lifts out a device the size of a hand taser. "Careful with that--You don't wanna set off any 'friendly fire' by accident. We call it 'The Un-Gun.' "
Elliot rides in the back of a canine van. He holds the new Mr Robot mask in his hand, and the Robot persona appears to sit across from him. "Ya know, we've gone after debt, we've expanded to wage slavery, we've reinvented elections, and now we're looking to unroot the monopoly of property itself. There's a lot to upset the regime change, and even those who just fear change."
"Yeah, but I still wanna save the world. I'd say there was a time when The People made the social contracts, set the rule of law, denied the unjust their spoils... but as long as we've been alive, that's been a myth. It's time we give democracy a fighting chance to start."
Darlene is skyping with Chinese hackers as her jet lands... but her screens go blank. Her jet is surrounded by Chinese military fighters. Irving is on the ground to supervise the infiltration of her aircraft.
Okay, inhale. Ponder the situation. Exhale.
I'm about to finish a post soon to offer a series finale of Mr. Robot... and I'm finding there are many characters that I've "underserved" thus far. It's at this point I start to wonder "Do I need twelve episodes? Specials? Spin-offs or Sequels?
And then we get this news: The fourth season is coming, but it may or may not be its last. (?!?) http://collider.com/christian-slater-interview-mr-robot.../
Admittedly, this "may or may not" isn't really news itself. It's good to know that he has a writers' room that's committed to telling a good story. What is uncertain is distraction... Sam is beginning additional projects. If he does right by his vision for realism, for hacker culture, his cross-section of characters to explore, and his opportunity for innovative "augmented reality" story telling, then there will have to be a fifth season. But since the easter eggs and publicity activities have been evaporating, it raises the question: "Is his writing force running out of stuff, or is he just playing his secrets closer to his vest?" :-/
Twisty's eps5.9_byecruelworld.eml (Series Finale!)
Flashback: A young Asian boy is brought via limousine to his 'Uncle Zhang's" estate. The hired hand escorting the boy explains that he's handled his mother's death quite poorly: withdrawn, depressed, and given to emotional eating.
Zhang speaks to the boy: "I know how you much miss her. I miss her too. We've been classmates at the Tsinghua University where she taught me much about finding answers to uneasy questions." The boy seems unresponsive. "She envisioned all manners of possibilities, just waiting for our discovery. Even her return here with us is within the realm of what is possible."
"What is this, BBQ sauce, here on your pants? Did you get this on my limousine as well?" Zhang produces a pocket handkerchief to dab up some of the mess. "You are about to be shown a life of privilege, of opulence, the likes of which few boys have ever seen. But understand this: You do not walk the halls of splendor while dragging common filth on your clothes. Yours is a world removed from the struggles of the common."
Modern times: Irving signals his henchmen to close in upon the landed aircraft that Darlene occupies. They begin rolling an exit ladder at the plane when several on that front line experience explosions and fire on their gear... Their ammunition is combusting without being triggered!
Irving is not amused. He lobs his handguns at the plane, and shouts to his men, "Lose the ammo! It's a knife fight now!" The plane is forced open and Darlene is apprehended. RPGs and other ordinances continue to explode from time to time.
Music plays "Mercy Mercy Me" by Marvin Gaye as the title board appears. We're back in Queens at the private home of Krista, Elliot's therapist. She sits down to breakfast and opens her laptop. There, a custom "vmail" awaits. Elliot explains that he must "disappear," and he doesn't know if they will ever see each other again. But he's hopeful... He expresses his thanks for her help, and says that "we may be getting closer than ever to helping ourselves and helping each other, as a society." Krista catches her breath. "No surprise that he is fully Mr. Robot now." She continues her breakfast as she turns on the television.
The Bank of E is back in the news... All the centralized servers controlling the new global currency of E-Coin are immobilized. Another video from the Mr Robot mask explains that the quid-pro-quo currency of the past is dead. There is a new "ecosystem" of digital currency awaiting the brave new world... where consumption, unconditional gifting, and auctions take on whole new meanings. And governance is changing too: without the old root of campaign finance, and an added check and balance of The People over our bicameral chambers of legislature, real "approval" elections will launch true democracy, and the voters will keep watch over its representation.
Philip Price is not pleased. He immediately phones Angela Moss. She answers from an SUV cohabited by others in clean suits. "You've known this was coming. You've transferred enough ECoin into holdings and Democreds to ride everything out. But know that it was Tyrell Wellick who brought this to its close, never to be unhacked... He was the CTO with all the keys, holding all the dreams of either side in his hands. This extinction event, and its phoenix from the ashes, are all his gift from beyond the grave."
Darlene is bound and gagged in the back of a limousine approaching the Zhang estate. In the foyer, an Asian man ("Hamburger Man") is met by a house manager, who checks over his clean-suit and hands him his goggles. As the limo pulls up to the front door, Hamburger man enters the back seat, while Irving is continuing a one-sided conversation with Darlene. "Don't get me wrong... what you pulled off is phenomenal. It's the narrative stuff of legends. David conquering Goliath against insurmountable odds. And we all know that such stories are the currency of human social interchange." Irving and Hamburger Man exchange wordless nods. "So... who's up for BBQ?"
Elliot and Robot are pulling into an airport hangar, driving a nondescript compact car. They look around bewildered until Leon coolly approaches the front. "This address you got looks like a decoy. I think they drew you out of hiding." Elliot and Leon follow the hangar in confused stares, as Robot invisibly contributes his own. "You got 'em, right where they want you!"
Price places a call to the Washington Township Power Plant. "Are all the arrangements in place? The engineering team? The final installations? Most importantly the data systems... everything must be good to go."
Irving, Hamburger Man, and Darlene arrive in the Congo airport. They are transferred immediately to an SUV fleet that escorts them to the reconstructed Power Plant facility. Nuclear cooling towers surround the place. The fleet pulls into an underground parking structure. A young woman from the engineering team asks Irving if she could ask about a sensitive matter, so they walk to a nearby office room, and draw the shades. There inside, Agent Dom DiPierro is waiting, and the two women taser and subdue Irving.
Leon says to Elliot, "You do realize this is likely a trap? We should leave if it's not already too late." Elliot disagrees. "Whiterose is more nuanced than that." As if on cue, a telepresence robot approaches their cars. Its face screen displays nothing but a sound spectral graph. "Gentlemen, I'm sure you already know why I've called this meeting..." The video displays Darlene secured between guards. Whiterose's watch gives its characteristic beep.
Dom starts onto Irving with a hammer to the knee, followed quickly to the back of his right hand. "You don't get to wield terror over may family, and you don't get to walk away from this." Irving is still huffing in pain. He collects himself to ask "You really think you can save them? And even then, we still own you... You were complicit in the killing of Tyrell." She looks to her partner agent, who grins with a nod. "I've removed my family from harm's way when Elliot owned your network. Tyrell's murder was at the hand of your guys we've brought down. This ends here."
Hamburger Man enters an area of the compound that is fashioned like a luxury hotel room. He removes his clean suit to reveal a finely tailored and expensive tuxedo underneath, with an almost 'discotheque' radiance. The clean suit and goggles are placed in a cardboard box by the door. He straightens his appearance in the mirror.
Dom's engineering team uncase a series of Un-Guns and magnetic rail rifles. They start on their march to rescue Darlene. In the guard room, ordinances begin exploding before anyone knows what is happening.
Whiterose wraps up his talk with the lads. "I believed you were going to play a more intimate role in my final triumph... The Multiverse Portal. It was your father who scaled the computing strategy to find entire histories from Bayesian certainties and neural networks. It took hundreds more minds to connect Fermi states to the junctions of other realities. In the end, all you contributed were some final logistics, how mundane... but enough to make this place operational. So now I will kindly ask you to watch on, no wait necessary, as history is about to be remade."
Elliot cracks out his laptop from his black backpack. Connected through skype-like conferencing, Angela appears on the screen. "We're looking for the probabilistic plate. Are you familiar with the double slit experiment?" She acknowledges. "This will serve that kinda of purpose, but look much more like the Hayden Planetarium's astronomical plate... a metal dome with lots of fine holes. Instead of stars, this dome maps out probabilistic interference patterns."
Whiterose and Hamburger Man enter what looks like a Death Star hangar chamber, dressed in resplendent attire. Several displays appear, mixing earth maps with Greek formulae and constellations of node spheres depicting historic moments.
Elliot continues with Angela. "The numbers make little sense by themselves, but are cataloged to match moments in history to their Bayesian results. I think the hole at the south pole, labeled 'construction genesis,' will take it all down." Angela, standing at the sphere, places metalic tape across the southmost pinhole. Warning lights begin to flash, and she exits hastily.
Whiterose gives a verbal command to engage the multiverse portal. The amount of energy summoned is breathtaking. But as everything it powering to a stormlike force of nature about to be unleashed, Angela appears on the screen before Whiterose. "You've led many people down many roads under the luring promise of recapturing their losses. The 'restoration narrative' is always a good sell. But your next stop is retribution. I've a restoration narrative of my own to write."
The sphere surges with energy, and the world seems to lift away. We cut to a familiar E Corp commercial about its found over a century earlier... but the iconic scene is toppled by bombs. A historic collage runs at high speed to a modern day of Enron, Amazon, Walmart, Google, etc... the world we know today.
Elliot narrates an ending summary. E Corps was never successfully created in 1884 (May Day didn't fail?), but most of us were still born under different circumstances. His FSociety friends were never killed by the Dark Army, but they had other lives to follow. Angela, who held his heart, was the untouchable politician she would always have grown to be. Romero, Mobley, and Trenton would still meet a crazy coding hacker to Demand the Democracy we've always been cheated from attaining. Darlene would continue gaming the system, winning her dad's approval and astonishment.
POST-CREDIT SCENE:
"What a Wonderful World" plays as a nondescript van enters Coney Island. An FSociety video lays down the new law. An onlooking FBI Office watches the ultimatum, and Agent Dom DiPierro replies. "I'm on it."