As I wrote in my preview of Mr. Robot's season two, this popular show makes many references to late-20th century science-fiction films and literature. We can discern, for example, the character elements of The Matrix in show's main character, Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), and the structural elements of the novel that launched the cyberpunk movement, Neuromancer, in the machinery of the show's plot (a techno thriller). I also mentioned the first name of season one's leading bad guy, Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström), is the same as the name of the biotech corporation that dominates LA's skyline in Blade Runner, Tyrell Corporation. Wellick also looks and behaves like one the products that that corporation makes, a replicant. But there is even more to Tyrell Wellick, who has a big role in the last episode ("eps2.9pyth0n-pt1.p7z; eps2.9pyth0n-pt2.p7z") of the very messy second season. Early in the first season, he does something that the European elites do in J.G. Ballard's 2000 novel Super-Cannesârelieve work-related stress by beating up on homeless people. The only difference is Wellick has the decency to pay for this service.
(Spoiler alert at this point.)
Last night, Tyrell Wellick made a full return to the show after his disappearance at the end of season one. But he is no longer the bad baddie he was before. He is now a man who seems to worship and have made a major plan with the show's star, Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek). Of course, Alderson can't remember anything about this plan and thinks it and Wellick only exist in his head. What is real and not real for Alderson has provided the show's main plot twists/surprises and is now played out.
But what is clear from the final moments of "eps2.9pyth0n-pt1.p7z; eps2.9pyth0n-pt2.p7z" is that the TV show will enter its third season in a state of zero gravity. Too much is in the air, and it's hard to believe that any of these suspended elements (the FBI's dreary investigation of the hackers, the Dark Army's role in the revolution instigated by fsociety, the multiplying schemes of E Corp, Darlene's real relationship with Wellick) will come together to make any meaningful narrative sense. There is a good chance I will not watch season three, but there is also a good chance I will revisit the stunning first.
