So here we are, at the end of a very long journey through a relatively short book.

The main thing I have learned from Red Wheelbarrow is that both Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) and his alter Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) are complex characters capable of great compassion and of great narcissism and even of great evil.

In other words, the two "parts" of Elliot have many similarities. So many similarities that one of my running theories (not saying I am right, just suggesting that it is possible) is that Mr. Robot is actually the dominant personality in the Elliot Prime superstructure. But even if this is not true (and I am not at all sure that it is) I am starting to think that the alter's are not central to the storyline at all beyond informing us about the internal battle that Elliot Prime is constantly fighting. In terms of how Elliot Prime relates to the outside world, for the most part, Mr. Robot is Elliot and Elliot is Mr. Robot.

But the internal dialog, which would play out less dramatically in someone who doesn't have DID, has resulted in some softenings. And remember, there are good reasons for Elliot's protective narcissism (abuse as a child) and his Robin Hood complex (he had to watch helplessly as his mother abused his sister). Elliot does want to be a better person, he is striving to find a happier and more connected future, and he is trying to see people less as X's and O's and more as complex beings.

There is an interesting juxtaposition between the first few minutes of the entire series when Elliot turns in the coffee shop owner after discovering his secret child porn operation and how he treats Ray at the end of Red Wheelbarrow after he finds that Ray is operating a site with "girls for sale" which Elliot clarifies as "and I mean girls."

The juxtaposition of these two events is interesting because of Elliot's response, in the pilot (eps1.0_hellofriend.mov) he turns the pornographer in immediately and in Red Wheelbarrow he offers warden Ray Hayworth (Craig Robinson) a choice - take down the site or get exposed. Ray is unable to take down the site, and as you probably remember he punishes Elliot (during the MasterSlave episode), but eventually he basically asks Elliot to take him down.

In other words, Elliot is still playing Robin Hood and Elliot is still a narcissist but he is seeing a broader picture and is more capable of seeing things in a less binary fashion. He believes that Ray was mostly overtaken by events and had no idea what was happening on his site. The site still needs to be destroyed immediately, but he sees the good and the bad in Ray.

On the other hand, Elliot found out about what was on Ray's TOR site by forcing RT (Luke Robertson) out of retirement and asking him so many questions that he got RT killed. RT was just another jail inmate with programming skills who was induced to work for Ray without knowing what the site was really about. Once RT found out what was going on he did what he could to take down the site by disrupting its payment service and, at great risk to himself, standing firm on pretending that he did not know how to fix the problem. RT was the collateral damage of Elliot's narcissistic need to play Robin Hood.

Another interesting example is the "owner" of Red Wheelbarrow Carla (Eve Lindley). During these last few days of the book, Elliot finds out that Carla has finally started receiving hormones in Jail (as a result of Elliot's intervention with Leon). Now sure, both Leon (Joey Bada$$) and Elliot get out of prison soon after this happens, but let's assume Leon set Carla up with someone who can keep getting her hormone shots before he left. At the end of this day, you have to credit Elliot's interventions making Carla's life in jail better but it is hard to forget all of the ways his interventions also made her a pariah (suggesting that she had AIDS to Santos without asking first) and put her at risk physically (ultimately, Santos revenge was taken out on her rat Reynaldo).

Does Mr. Robot (the Show on the USA Network) Have a Discernible Agenda