Yeah who knows, the running theory on Reddit is that this 3rd personality is the malevolent part of Elliott that engineers the more horrible shit hes responsible for. The worse parts of 5/9, the destruction of the backup facility, etc.
That was neat. Spoiler Until Elliott got hit by the car, and the driver didn't say a word when he got out of the van, I was not 100% certain the show was so void of dialogue. In one of the previous scenes, I was like, why are they not saying anything? And, then at that point, I was like ohhhhh. There were only a couple spots where it seemed forced, so that was pretty cool. "We don't have to talk." then no talking for an hour then "It's time to talk." I think he could have gone with "We need to talk" instead, but still pretty cool. Similar to the single shot episode in season 3, I really enjoy how they continue to take some different chances. Especially ones like this that are consistent with the tone of the show, and not just stunts.
This show is really underrated for it's cinematography. That continuous shot going down the stairwell was simply mesmerizing.
And it was a plunge, too, since they were running. It was terrific. All the bright colors and contrasts in that building, too, were shot well, including the stairwell.
Oh, also, Spoiler the lack of dialogue forced Mr. Robot and any other personalities into hiding, and prevented Elliott from narrating.
The shooting of light and color in the episode was probably the best of the series. Made me think of Sam Mendes design in American Beauty. The budget is small, the pacing is slow, the dialogue is sparse, but each episode this season is playing out sharp as a tack, stretched tight with tension in each character's word choice. (Like when Elliott stood at the door of Olivia's apartment about to exit, but then looked back at her and her coffee.) This shot, with the piano music playing in the background, basically added another character to the scene, it was so rich.
Jesus fuck that episode was heavy. Rami Malik and Elliot Villar both deserve Emmy nominations from just this episode alone. I wasn't that surprised at the "revelation" itself since it's been heavily hinted at throughout the show, but the act of getting there was so tense and well paced that I'm pretty sure I had an elevated heart rate for about 40 minutes straight. Having no commercials and the obvious score changes for this episode really made it amazing to watch in real time.
Here’s my evolving theory, and I’ve seen it explained online a few places. Spoiler: Elliot I think we have a Shutter Island situation. “The Other One” is actually “Self Aware Elliot,” who knows his father abused him, acting out in all the guilt/rage/confusion that is created from that knowledge. Also, I think this isn’t the first time Krista has helped him to discover the truth, and she has been trying to help him to stop reverting back to using Mr. Robot as his protection.
That honestly felt like it could have been a series finale episode, yet knowing that there are 4 more to go makes me wonder how much more wild and crazy things are going to now get. I was honestly wondering if they were going to give Elliot a "win", but now that WR is basically in a no-win situation, I wouldn't be shocked if they somehow still end up pulling the rug out from under them. Also, the allusion to Trump being part of the Deus group was funny and done in a way that while you could obviously tell they were implying it was him, he was never called out by name.
Joking aside, I'm satisfied with the show. It didn't tie up everything, but it had a logical conclusion that I think paid off. I also now want to watch it again to see how well the big reveals were foreshadowed. As opposed to shows like Lost, where we were told "everything will be explained" and then it wasn't at all (Hmmm... J.J. Abrams, creating something that raises so many questions, and isn't ever fully explained? Shocking).