eps2.3_logic-b0mb.hc opens with an extended sequence of Elliot at a terminal, doing what he does best: hacking. By intercutting shots of real text commands, Esmail draws back the curtain on what hacking actually is. We hear about hacks all the time in the real world, but how does it happen? Did a team of Russian geniuses use supercomputers to hack Hilary’s email? What about the bandits that made away with over $65 million in Bitcoin? Surely they must have been using top-of-the-line computers, fancy applications, or at the very least needed help from other individuals or reference material.

But in Season 2 Episode 5, Elliot needs none of that. Here he is, alone at a terminal on an outdated Windows computer. No fancy applications, no scripts, no copy-paste. Nothing but the sheer capacity of his own intellect. Here is an individual exerting his will on the entire world, attacking the unassailable institutions: big banks, data warehouses, the FBI. It seems to reason that whomever can influence the machines that allow an institution to function is capable of influencing the institution itself.