One theme of this episode is how far ahead of the game ‘whiterose’ has become, with one brutal move, she took everyone off of their game.

Darlene has become a full-on druggie, doing enough coke (and other random drugs) to have her hallucinating sightings of Angela while also literally hosting wild parties in Angela's apartment.

Elliot has become so lost in his grief that all he can do is fall into the traps ‘whiterose’ had set for him. Just think of the juxtaposition of the first scene of season one with the third scene of season four. In both scenes he has set a trap for someone using information about them digitally doing something wildly inappropriate with kids but in this version, he loses his quarry (who shoots himself once realizing Elliot can’t protect him from the Dark Army) and ultimately the entire chain of events was really him being socially engineered by the Dark Army.

Elliot has turned to darkness (he doesn’t care anymore that non-central people got killed, going so far as to claim it was deserved)), he has gotten sloppy (so sloppy that the Dark Army is socially engineering him), and he has become so obsessed he can’t even see what is happening right in front of him (the old Elliot would never have fallen for an open door or the doorman who sent him right up).

Right now, ‘whiterose’ is winning, and winning by a large margin.

There was a nice bit at the end where Elliot’s mom tells Mr. Robot that he was supposed to protect them all and that she didn’t see it ending like this.

Luckily Phillip Price walks in at the last minute (after Sam Esmail shoots Elliot up with an overdose batch of heroin) and Sam gives Elliot Narcan.

Message sent.

Also, nice guest appearance by Jake Busey. I also thought it was a nice twist to have Mr. Robot appear as the visual manifestation of Elliot’s surveillance through the cameras at Grand Central Station. Not exactly an homage to the Grand Central Station dancing scene in Fisher King, but well-choreographed nonetheless.

“Sometimes the Good Guys Really Do Come Out On Top”

Wellick is getting all of the credit for turning Ecorp around but, as we know, he is really just a miserable puppet of the Dark Army. A different character would just go through the motions and then enjoy the trappings of the job whenever he got an opportunity...But for Wellick, this situation is a lot like Vic Mackey being assigned to desk duty for the rest of his career as a cop in the last episode of “The Shield.”

The economy is growing, E-Coin is thriving, no more troops on the streets and Christmas decorations are everywhere.

Don is hiding out in her Mom’s house (for what reason it is hard to fathom). My best guess is she, like everyone else on the show, is trapped in trauma. While we have not seen Irving during this episode, we do see an interesting and terrifying Dark Army lackey named Janice.

Janice showed up for dinner at Dom’s mom’s house and right before she leaves, Janice tells Dom that if she doesn’t go back to work and clean up the Santiago affair she will have to slit Dom’s mom from, “neck to cunt.”

When Dom tells threatens her, Janice mentions that no matter what Dom does to her, she won’t be able to stop the other Dark Army trolls who will take over when she dies.

Dom is going to have to snap out of this and get to work.

I am starting to see a scenario where Darkene, Dom, Tyrell, Elliot, and Phillip Price come together to take out ‘whiterose.”

I am not sure they will all be singing kumbaya, but that is how the board is set up.

In an odd way, Phillip Price, in this scenario, is playing the role of Vader (only Luke appears to have died).

While everything is spinning out of control, and all of our heroes are losing, one thing did happen that gives me a small bit of hope...when Elliot mentioned Cypress Bank, the main heavy looked up...in order to get Elliot to the honey pot, it is possible they set the trap using real and live bait.

It may not be much, but it is something, it is a start.

Don’t worry, be happy.

Welcome back, Mr. Alderson.

Fun Society