What really seemed to get Matt Zoller Seitz goat most was the idea that Elliot was in jail for the entire first half of the season. He really hated this "twist" (which he didn't even entirely seem to understand after the reveal - he said Ray was another prisoner etc.):

"Can we expect a twist, or "twist," along these lines in every season of Mr. Robot? Because, if so, I might have to stop watching — not because it's devoid of other merits (it's brilliantly directed, photographed, edited, and scored, and has a superlative cast), but the insistence on building perceptual tricks like these into the narrative diminishes the show's real and far more substantive virtues."

Except that was the opposite of the point.

First, there was a good reason for the twist (renegotiating the relationship between E2 and Mr. Robot) and the evidence was right in front of our faces (Ray's computer - why would Ray have the only computer that Elliot could use in the entire city of New York).

I don't mean to be dismissive but I think Seitz is mostly angry that he didn't figure it out (you can look back in my writing to E2 and see that I was on top of it). And that's the point, the season wasn't about the twist, the twist was part of understanding "reality" as Elliot sees it.

Elliot was misleading us because he was mad we left him alone but, at the same time, he was also maintaining the illusion in order to make his own existence in jail survivable. We are given a window into this "magical" thinking when he imagines an overdose on Adderal as being abducted by sinister Government agents. E2 does the best he can to make sense of reality, and when he no longer can translate it into something he can handle, he dissociates (The entire "Word Up Wednesday" episode - the one with Alf - demonstrates this).

Seitz also has a bit of shade to throw at us Redditors:

"I should probably ’fess up here and admit that I don't watch Mr. Robot, or any other TV series, to test my knowledge of TV tropes and say, "I called it!" whenever I successfully predict where a show's plot might be headed. That particular viewing approach doesn't interest me. I know there's a pretty sizable contingent of people who watch films and TV series mainly to see if they can successfully guess what will happen next — Reddit is a virtual mecca for this sort of viewer — but I've never encouraged that impulse, because it seems to me that it rewards screenwriters who are thinking about their plots and characters on the most superficial level, constructing a puzzle for others to solve and to feel good about having solved; this also encourages some writers to cheat a bit, withholding evidence that might tip their hand early, or just obscuring details and piling twist upon twist and reversal upon reversal until none of the characters make sense anymore as anything but figures in a nonsensical dream."

I will admit that, like Whiterose (B.D. Wong), I enjoy contemplating the possibilities hidden on the show, but Seitz is just flat wrong here. There have been three twists on Mr. Robot so far:

1. Darlene is Elliot's sister

2. Mr. Robot is Elliot's alter

3. Elliot was in jail for the first half of S2

I believe I have explained why the S2 "twist" explicitly furthered character and the understanding of the characters and the plots. I welcome a debate with Mr. Seitz at any time on how each twist was a help and not a hindrance to plot and character on Mr. Robot.

How in the world can you convey the world Elliot sees or how he dissociates without visually depicting the world as HE sees and/or translates it (at least at times). Elliot is a Dissociative with depression and social anxiety.

These are not cheap parlor tricks, this is Sam Esmail trying to share a unique interiority with us.

In addition, most of the most interesting discussions that I have ever had about the show were with Redditor's as we played out different theories on Reddit. In every instance, we were deepening our understanding of the show and characters using free-play with Esmail's ideas and not just trying to one up each other in some kind of odd pointless gamification exercise.

Finally, I deeply believe this all has one other point. I believe that Sam Esmail deeply believes that art is co-productive. I believe that he thinks that the Mr. Robot universe is open to other interpretations beyond the ones that he "intends". And, I certainly do not think his point is for us to figure him out.

It is odd that Mr. Seitz name-drops David Lynch without understanding that sometimes the point of experiencing art is to feel it and not (necessarily) understand it. Esmail's universe is incredibly detailed, but I believe that it is not entirely a hegemonic exercise.

Our free play with his ideas is, I believe, often intentional and encouraged.