Mr. Robot Season 2, Episode 7 Recap: They Want To Follow You

Hello, friends. The world is not a safe place. Joanna gets blood thrown on her on the sidewalk, while she has her baby with her. Trash collection has stopped. The bull anatomy that was removed previously turns up in Congress. Elliot is still in a locked room with Mr. Robot, his face bloody from the fists of Ray’s henchmen. Angela completes the hack, against all odds, and surprises Darlene later by knowing she and Elliot are behind fsociety (the masks from “that shitty movie” Darlene made them watch every Halloween gave it away). The conversation is the first rift between Angela and her past in the episode. The second is the one that opens between her and her father when she informs him that she’s resolved the lawsuit, getting enough defendants to waive the independent inspections like Price wanted. It’s a cold courtesy. In return, Angela asks to be moved to the risk management division. She’s got plans to “make change from within.” Her newfound strength shows when Price asks her if she’d like to celebrate his birthday with him that night and she simply says no. Joanna dreams of her life with Tyrell. Her sexual needs are become more extreme. Her boytoy issues an ultimatum regarding her attendance at his birthday party. She doesn’t go, but shows up at his apartment where he’s got a Cocktail poster and a deer head on the wall (who is this dude?). She gives him a birthday gift: she’s serving Tyrell with divorce papers. That's the end of a love story. Elliot wants to know why Mr. Robot is hiding Tyrell. He’s told, “It was either us, or him.” Mr. Robot says he went for the gun Darlene hid in the popcorn in fscoiety and shot him. “No, I shot him,” Elliot says. They’re becoming one. After Ray pulls Elliot out to fix his illicit online marketplace, the two play their own game of chess. Ray tells him a story that’s undoubtedly false, that his wife was a hacker who started the site and they decided to let the market dictate what was sold. He tears up when he claims to have never looked at it until Elliot came along, which is obviously a lie or a chess move, as he’s planting the story Elliot will have to relay to the authorities and undercutting future prosecution. He lets Elliot go, and NYPD and the FBI raid the house because of the anonymous tip they were emailed. Something’s up because they don’t detain Elliot. The problem with his freedom is that now all the people who were selling things on Ray’s site are now coming for Elliot. Guess those tips flow both ways. The showdown they have Leon is a precursor to one of the most violent killing sprees in the show, including the almost-rape of Elliot by a gang of men. Leon is Elliot’s raging bloodlust. The, the control illusion is broken. Elliot was in jail. He tells us he's sorry for not telling us this, and offers his promises that this will be the last time he keeps anything from us. The illusion of control was our own.