We begin with a correction.
Maybe the most ironic correction Ive ever had to write.
In my recap of theMr.
Credit: USA Network
Several readers brought the omission to my attention.
So I wrote some something new to make up for it.
A scene from the season 1 finale makes clear why Joanna would call Elliot by the name Ollie.
In my attempt to solve this non-mystery, I put forth ideas that risked confusing people about the storyMr.
I regret not doing enough fact checking before or after writing the piece and for the all-around fail.
But I stand by mygaslightingtheory ofMr.
The following piece has been edited to fix the buggy Hello, Ollie portions.
You know how onMr.
Nothing like that can happen in real life, right?
Well, Im here to tell you it can.
Somehow, someway,my recap of last weeks episodecompletely failed to acknowledge the moment everyMr.
Maybe I misheard her.
Maybe I have a terrible TV with terrible sound quality.
Or maybe I wasnt wrong!
You know, theBerenstain Bears memes.
Because memes are true!
The real truth is that I might have heard Hello, Ollie had I been anticipating it.
Something else I forgot?
Elliot was convinced that Joanna had the power to hack consciousness and eavesdrop on meta-fictional conversations.
Youve got to help me get out of this, he told us, his imaginary friend.
Theres something about her.
I feel like she can hear us.
He finally lied and told her his name was Ollie.
Did she believe him?
But she did say, in Danish, If youve done anything to him, I will kill you.
How did I blank on that, too?
Maybe Joanna broke into my brain and erased it from my mind…
Okay, lets be serious.
I owe you some analysis, and Ill make a run at make it good.
Call this: TheGas LightTheory ofMr Robot.
1.Lets start with the fact that theres no mystery regarding Ollie.
(Answering that question was the original goal of this essay.)
They even wondered if Elliot had a second split personality named Ollie.
Elliot called himself Ollie after Angelas ex-boyfriend and Allsafe colleague, Ollie Parker.
Elliot didnt care for the guy all that much.
Dark Army operative Cisco hacked Ollie and demanded that he infect Allsafes computers.
Angela executed the job on Ollies behalf, but using his name and log-in.
He was subsequently fired.
Elliot doesnt remember this because Mr.
Robot was in control during those encounters with Tyrell.
Last season, Tyrell had that still unexplained meeting with Mr.
Robot and told him that he new Mr. Robots dirty little secret.
Joanna might know that, too.
3.Over the course of the season, Joanna has received gifts from someone she believes to be still-MIA Tyrell.
Hes in hiding because hes the chief suspect in the Five/Nine hack.
Hes executing a secret plan and can only communicate in indirect ways.
He cant speak over the phone because of possible surveillance.
Shes running out of money and E Corp. wont release Tyrells severance.
Im still confused as to what, exactly, flunky Kareem was doing for her.
But I think it was one of two things, or both: 1.
Keeping tabs on Elliot in prison; 2.
Trying to hack the phone and locate Tyrell.
The press, which has been fixated with her, began portraying her as going bonkers.
5.I walk you though that history to suggest another way to consider the Tyrell-Joanna relationship.
His actions are hurting her as much as pleasing her, just like their S&M lovemaking.
Maybe hes trying to duplicate that perverse intimacy.
Or maybe the press is onto something.Maybe Tyrell is trying to drive Joanna insane.
Bella insists that the gaslights in their apartment are going dim during the evening.
Jack tells her shes just imagining things, but shes not.
Turning on the lights in this vacant apartment causes the lights in the building to dim.
(Got that?)
He proposed that such programs take the form of satire or parody.
Note how season 2s major meta moments were many things at once: examples of Mr. We later learned that this fantasy parody ofMr.
The alt-pop revolutions of today become the mainstream pop of tomorrow.
Note the faux commercial break during the faux show: They included ads for E Corp. past and present.
Later in the episode, Mr.
Robot explained why he took control of Elliots head and tried to fill it with a sitcom.
In the end, the experience of theMr.
Robotsitcom brought Elliot and Mr.
Which is exactly what Mr.
This, in anepisode entitled m4ster-s1ave.
I dare say Mr.
In short, Mr.
Robot is gaslighting Elliot, i.e., Elliot is gaslighting himself.
Another proof that gaslighting is at play metaphorically and literally inMr.
Robot: the new development of rolling brownouts, causing lights to dim and flicker.
Thats pretty freakin on the nose!
Interesting: The brownouts can also be seen as being linked to meta tomfoolery.
This is another example of conspicuous synchronicity:Cometis the name of a movie written and directed byMr.
Its a trippy, non-linear romance that floats the notion of alternate realities.
Whiterose loves it, Im sure.
Theyre happening because Comet Electric is redirecting energy to the plant to power… something.
A super-collider, probably.
Okay, back to Joanna and Ollie.
7.Last time Joanna saw Elliot, she threatened to kill him if he had harmed Tyrell.
Robot has since led Elliot to believe that he murdered Tyrell on the night of Five/Nine.
Joannas life has suffered as a result of Tyrells absence.
He was the human battery that powered her fantastic luxe life.
Now, hes gone and her matrix has crashed, thanks to Elliots subversions.
This is a fun bit of crazy more than anything, though it does bring us back to gaslighting.
It wasRectify, Mr. Robotstyle.
Elliot would see Mr.
Robot talking to other people in another room, then reconnect with himself as if teleported.
There were also shots of Elliot toggling in place between himself and Mr.
Robot, like a flickering, crackling image.
In a way, Elliot, too, was experiencing rolling brownouts.
An allusion toThe Matrixwould be appropriate for this episode for two reasons: A.
Robot is taking advantage of Elliots disorientation and manipulating Elliot.
(My prediction for the season finale is that Mr.
Robot will completely take over Elliot.
But well see.)
InThe Matrix, theres a scene in which the characters see a black cat pass through a room.
Another black cat soon follows.
Neo likens the experience to deja vu, but hes told that its a sign of something more sinister.
Now, there was a moment in init_5.fve that mirrored that black cat foreshadowing.
Esmail shoots the scene from across the street, as if spying on them.
Three cars pass in front of the camera and temporarily obstruct our view of the brother and sister.
The first was a black SUV.
The second was another black SUV.
Then, we see a police car.
Two black cats, arriving ahead of an agent of order.
Lets assume homage toThe Matrixwas intended and Im not being a Mr. Crazy-Pants.
You could see it as a nod to glitchy, rebooting Elliot.
Yes, Elliot should be afraid.
But what if Joanna has come to help Elliot, not hurt?
What if shes come to bring him to Tyrell, who I am sure is still alive?
In the language ofThe Matrix, she could be Trinity, bringing Elliot to his Morpheus.
9.The two black cats momentinThe Matrixis a kind of coincidence known as synchronicity.
Robot absolutely loves synchronicity, especially this season.
Robot, not just Elliot, is trapped inside a matrix.
Synchronicity also speaks to a worldview of intelligent design, where everything is controlled and nothing happens by accident.
Conspiracy vs. randomness, order vs. chaos, stasis vs. change have emerged as major philosophical tensions this season.
In this way, they experience life as uncanny and looping, deja vu all over again.
May they find true, liberating enlightenment in their gas-lit world.
