Mr. Robot: What does the season one finale mean?

As in gymnastics, sticking the dismount is important for TV shows.  A disappointing finale can leave faithful fans let down, their expectations unmet (Lost series finale).  A bad finale can make fans re-evaluate the quality of the show in general (How I Met Your Mother).  A good season finale can leave fans eagerly awaiting further episodes (Lost’s magnificent season 1 finale, possibly the best ever).

There were high expectations for the Mr. Robot season one finale, made even more so by the one week delay in broadcasting it because the show, typically, had trouble staying ahead of current events (I don’t mean that as a criticism; no other scripted show on TV even attempts to be current).  The expectations were more than met, and the chess pieces neatly arranged for season two.

The most astonishing thing about the episode “Zero Day” was that the hack that we’ve seen planned all season actually worked.  This is as surprising as when, in Animal House, John Belushi’s plan to spy on the girls in the sorority succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.  We expected failure, because the collapse of the world economy was not something we expect TV characters to accomplish; failure would set up a season two scenario where fsociety plans an even bigger, better hack.

But series creator Sam Esmail blew it up.  The merry band of Bolshevicks undid the world’s economy, freeing the masses (and a few dogs along the way) and paving the way for a new social order.  Of course, the question arises; how will freedom taste if you can’t get money from your ATM?  If you can’t buy a car because no one can run a credit check on you?  People might find themselves in the same situation as those dogs that were liberated from the pound—yippee, we’re free; now what do we do?

The show did a brilliant job of defying expectations, of denying the audience (Elliot’s “friend”) hard answers and clear exposition.  What happened to Tyrell?  Was that him in the Mr. Robot mask in the video?  Can his wife seriously get any weirder?  Did anyone find the gun in the popcorn?  We are as clueless as Elliot, who woke up in an SUV and discovered the world had changed.

Hypocrisy seemed to be one of the major themes of Zero Day.  The shoe salesman was contemptuous of Angela for working for Evil Corp, yet he still sold her new shoes to replace her brain-splattered ones.  She should quit her job, but he should keep doing his?  Evil Corp head Phillip Price thinks the world is better off without James Plouffe, but he publicly mourns his untimely passing.  Krista’s old flame Michael, excuse me Lenny, wants Elliot thrown in jail for revealing all the disgusting stuff Lenny was up to, as if Elliot’s crimes were morally worse than what he had done (by the way, nice way to work in a reference to the Ashley Madison hack).

If I have any quibble with Mr. Robot’s season finale, it’s that it seems a little unfocused when it claims to be supplying answers.  Someone, somewhere, wrote that in many cases penultimate episodes now contain the major jolts a series can deliver, while the finale just cleans up the pieces.  Zero Day did more than that, but after the revelations about Mr. Robot, Darlene, and just how unreliable a narrator Elliot is (how unreliable?  Really, really unreliable) the finale lacked a little punch.  Is Mr. Robot’s rant giving us answers, or does he only THINK he’s giving us answers?  Or is Elliot just nuts?

The murkiness of Zero Day reminded me of another season one finale, the final episode of The Prisoner, Fall Out.  I mean that as extremely high praise.  Patrick McGoohan said that after the final episode of The Prisoner aired people accosted him on the street, shook their fists in his face and demanded an explanation for the series that Fall Out failed to provide. Zero Day doesn’t attempt to explain anything.  Why is there a woman with a parrot on her shoulder on the subway (in a shot that duplicates a prior shot)?  Where had Elliot been for two days?  Who knocked on his door at the end of the episode?  What the hell happened to Tyrell?

I guess we’ll have to wait for season 2 and hope answers are more forthcoming than they were with Lost.  I also hope that Emmy voters remember the show, and especially Rami Malek’s performance, when nomination time rolls around almost a year from now.  Mr. Robot has been the best, most exciting new show since the debut of Lost.  Can it keep it up?  Maybe the 10-episode model can keep the plates spinning more easily than Lost’s 22-episode a season model could.  Given the assuredness and the confidence that exuded from every frame of Mr. Robot, I do not anticipate a sophomore slump.