With Elliot MIA, Darlene runs the show.
Of all the tricksMr.
Robothas ever pulled on its audience, succ3ss0r.pr12 might have been the cruelest.
Credit: Michael Parmelee/USA Network
I, for one, was eagerly anticipating an immediate follow-up that filled in the blanks.
What crime did Elliot commit to get locked away?
Had we reached the end of unreliable narrator storytelling?
Robotfinally about to play straight with us?
It took me roughly half the episode to grieve what I wasnt getting and appreciate what Esmail was supplying.
Robotthat frankly Ive been missing.
The title could be read different ways, but all the meanings were relevant to Darlene.
succ3ss0R scans as successor, as in Darlene, Elliots successor as commander-in-mischief of fsociety.
First, fsociety hacked and cracked the secret of Operation: Berenstain.
It was an illegal FBI surveillance initiative executed in conjunction with 22 brand name tech companies, plus Uber.
Compromised and violated: the privacy of 3 million Americans.
Edward Snowden was not amused.
(Wasnt this the evil conspiracy in the newJason Bournemovie, too?)
This was no great victory for fsociety.
The realization that the Feds might have eyes on them made them more eanxious and paranoid.
Next came a catastrophic response to a chicken thst came home to roost.
Darlene thought they could control her by blackmailing her.
Didnt Darlene see the emails describing Susans heart condition?
Or did she just blot them from her memory?
(Assuming, of course, Elliot really did kill Tyrell.)
I didnt know I could do that, Darlene later told Cisco.
She didnt really feel bad about it, either.
Or so she wanted to believe.
In slaying the demon Susan, Darlene had become the Madame Executioner she abhorred.
Mobley made it plain.
What we did was colossally stupid.
We cant afford to not recognize that anymore.
But being paranoid doesnt mean youre wrong.
He was the only one with an eye to see the hazards their escalations were courting.
His comrades initially tried to calm him, talk him down, minimize his concerns, shame his anxiety.
It was every man for himself.
NEXT:fsocietyis lost in space.
succ3ss0r.pr12 was an effective sum-up ofMr.
Robotsview of the fsociety revolution.
They captured, for me, fsocietys fading gung-ho spirit and right stuff pride.
Theyre lost in space, and in many ways, always have been.
The episode was framed by a pair of American holidays.
The opening sequence, a flashback to November 2014, was set at Thanksgiving.
It took place at Rons Coffee.
Thanksgiving a feast of sharing, equality, and cooperation sums up the optimism and naivete of early fsociety.
Meanwhile, Darlene was dealing with certifiable treachery.
She couldnt trust Cisco.
She didnt know who he was anymore.
Just who the hell do you think you are, anyway?
Angela let the words rattle her.
Part of her believes them to be true.
But then she snapped, and then snapped back.
Someone who cleans up someone elses crap every day?
And Im just getting started, she said.
Steve looked stun-gun zapped and gutted.
Maybe she hated herself a little bit or a lot after that character assassination.
She flagellated herself by performing some somber karaoke.
It was the saddest Tears for Fears cover since Gary Jules Mad World, but 100 times more warbly.
It wasnt Justin Theroux-doing-Homeward Bound-karaoke-in-The Leftoverswarbly good, but it was affecting.
Did we know this earlier?
Im blanking on Angelas history with karaoke.)
We left Angela flirting with a man just her jot down.
Radiating accomplishment and success.
He told her she was probably younger than his daughter.
She tried to make him feel better by suggesting she was probably older than his granddaughter.
He said he had to go.
She said he should stay and keep talking to her.
We got the sense he probably agreed.
The man was played by Mark Moses, best known to me for playing Duck Phillips onMad Men.
Might Angelas new beau be yet another Fed?
While Elliot didnt appear in this episode, the story had great bearing on him.
When we left him last week, he was set to be released (I think?)
and he had decided to resume his place at the head of the fsociety table.
But the king couldnt have picked a more worse time for a return.
His organization is in disarray.
The feds are hot on their trail.
Might they involve manipulating him into hacking or coding for them by threatening Darlene?
Is that why the Dark Army wanted Cisco to keep her close?
Maybe well find out next week…
Which, by the way, Id totally watch.
