Yesterday, the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, encouraged Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's email account and "find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” He made this bizarre, and many believe treasonous, statement in a serious tone. Many on the right groaned; many on the left demanded his head, which, as we all well know, will never be delivered. Why? Because he is white and male and rich, he can say treasonous things without fear. If Obama had made a statement of that nature in 2008, he would never have become the first black president of the US. If Hillary Clinton even dared to make such a statement during this campaign, her chances of becoming the first woman president would fall to zero. But Trump need not worry. His chances always remain the same no matter what he says.
But Trump's statement, and also Debbie Wasserman Schultz's fall from the position of DNC chairwoman (which was caused by emails Wikileaks leaked), made it clear that hackers had now become a major part of the most important event in American politics. Indeed, there is fear that hackers might fuck with voting machines in November. These are the days of Mr. Robot, a TV show about a team of hackers who access the data system of a huge bank, E Bank, and fry all of its information. The goal of this mission? To liberate Americans from debt, cripple capitalism, and open the way to a new society.
(Spoiler Alert) That was season one (the hackers, fsociety, succeeded; the bank lost all of its information). Season two, which had its third episode last night ("eps2.2_init1.asec"), has been about the world after the revolution. This world, depicted in the first two episodes, is in a state of suspension. The mind and surroundings of the hero, Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), are a mess and the only sure thing is E Corp. Though badly shaken by the hack, this corporation, led by the preternatural confidence of its CEO, Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer), is steadily and surely preparing to mount a counterattack and restore its power.
The third episode opens by recounting the birth of fsociety. It happened in Elliot's apartment. His sister, Darlene (Carly Chaikin), paid him surprise visit. They smoked some pot and watched an '80s slasher movie called Careful Massacre of the Bourgeois. This is where the show's version of the Guy Fawkes mask comes from. In this cheap horror movie, which is nothing like the Hollywood one that popularized the Guy Fawkes mask,V for Vendetta, a man in a mask goes around killing yuppies with a metal pick. When Elliot wears this mask (which his sister found and bought earlier that day in some store) with his father's Mr. Robot jacket (which he kept in his closet) fsociety is born. The rest of the show is about Elliot coming to terms with his madness/father-in-his-head, and ends with him sitting at a desk with a computer screen and keyboard and finally getting the plot of the show back on the sure track. The track that made the first season so great. He is a hacker, he is powerful, he has to save the revolution he started.
Three interesting things:
Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström) the leading baddie in season one, makes his first appearance this season in this episode, but he is not in the real world. He appears in a magnificent dream that involves a lavish dinner party in an alley and the 9/11-like collapse of an office tower in the distance.
The scene that has Elliot wearing the Mr. Robot jacket is scored with great dramatic effect by Holst's "Neptune" from The Planets Suite. This piece of music also opened my Zoo.
The transgender Chinese American and head hacker of the Dark Army, Whiterose (BD Wong), has a scene that concerns his close connection with the CEO of E Corp and also recalls another scene in The Last Emperor that has the beautiful Joan Chen eating a flower with a melancholy that can only be described as royal.
