Shutdown -r/Summary

The Alderson family photo falls from the shelf as Dark Army  soldiers kick in the door to Elliot’s apartment. Grant finds the Mr. Robot jacket in the closet and has his men toss the place to discern their target’s whereabouts. Elliot  waits in Shayla’s empty apartment next door with Flipper. After the intruders leave, Elliot returns home and worries about Darlene not returning his texts and being targeted, all the while hoping she made it to their rendezvous point.

Darlene  is asleep in interrogation when Santiago disables the camera. He forcefully zipties her hands and removes her as she protests. It is the morning of 10/23. Dom gives her report of what happened to who she believes is the agent reassigned the case, but he has no knowledge of it. She sees that Santiago’s office and the interrogation room are empty. In the garage, Santiago puts Darlene in the back of a car when Dom confronts him. She sees past his explanation of supposedly transferring her. He claims it is classified, but Darlene shakes her head in sight of Dom. Dom tries to call their superior, but Santiago knocks her out.

Elliot arrives at the arcade. He wonders if Mr. Robot was right and the FBI caught Darlene. Looking at the Dark Army network, he sees dozens of operatives in Manhattan. He doesn’t have time to search through 600,000 systems for her. He thinks hard and panics that she may die. He punches the popcorn machine and overturns a gaming cabinet. He regrets his actions concerning 5/9 and blames himself.

Outside, he buys a ticket for the Ferris wheel. On the ride, he asks Mr. Robot for help. Mr. Robot is annoyed at their lack of communication as of late. Elliot admits he missed him and confronts him about the 71 bombings. Mr. Robot says he didn’t know. Elliot asks if he would’ve done it. Mr. Robot claims he would’ve found another way. Elliot notes there may be a part of Elliot in Mr Robot and vice versa. He asks about the note on mirror.

Santiago is driving with Dom and Darlene in the backseat. Dom wakes up ziptied. She blames him for hiding in China while the FBI were attack, for leading the Dark Army to kill Cisco, for the Tyrell kidnapping cover up and framing Mobley and Trenton. Santiago explains she would’ve done the same in his position. Dom protests, which he calls naivete.  He explains it as things he was forced to do. He saved her “girlfriend” Darlene’s life by not revealing her to DA. He insists he is not a bad guy, claiming they hold stuff over him.

In Santiago’s apartment, Mr. Robot points him out in a family photo, according to Wellick. He muses that he kept the FBI off them after 5/9. Mr. Robot hacked the desktop remotely and found nothing useful. Elliot picks a drawer for physical evidence. Mr. Robot finds a Red Wheelbarrow menu with a cypher. As Elliot is deciphering, Irving appears behind him. Elliot concludes they must have Darlene. Irving stops him from talking his way out and tells him to come along.

Angela sits in a room in a fancy house. The house manager enters the room with a friendly greeting. Angela insists she has important info for Whiterose. The man refers her to talk to Price when he arrives and offers her breakfast.

Irving, Elliot, and Mr. Robot arrive at the DA farmhouse next to Santiago’s car. In the barn is a masked DA soldier, Leon  on his phone holding a gun, and Dom and Darlene on the hay bales. Santiago tells Irving the situation is salvageable. Irving takes note of the loose end, Dom. Santiago demands they clean up his mess for a change. Irving takes Dom outside. Elliot sits next to his sister and asks if she’s okay. She says no.

As they walk across the field, Dom makes her case to Irving that she knows what they’ve done, they won’t get away with this. Santiago follows, telling her to stop talking. In the barn, Mr. Robot is plotting and escapes, noting that Leon is good with his knife. Elliot states he isn’t trying to escape, but talk to Whiterose, who he believes is watching them on camera.

Dom is at the wood cutting stump where an axe waits lodged. Irving begins to take off his top. Santiago tells him to flip her, as she can rise far in the FBI. Dom vehemently refuses and begins to cry. Irving tells her to calm down and look at the sky. He plunges the axe into Santiago’s chest. Irving announces he is replacing him with Dom. He tells Dom she is going back to work, business as usual to be called upon when needed. She says “fuck you” and will not be a traitor. She vows to arrest him. Irving begins to name her family members and their location as he continues chopping up Santiago. He demands a verbal confirmation of her understanding, which she gives. He tells her to get back to the barn as he starts chopping Santiago for personal reasons.

Dom reenters the barn in shock and sits on the hay. Darlene asked what happened. Leon says she was initiated and offers her weed. Mr. Robot thinks they all are going to be killed. Instead, Elliot knows they’re waiting, preparing for someone important. Grant arrives in a car outside. Irving has dressed and is cleaning his hands by the house. He claims he has taken care of everything, noting he had to kill the FBI mole to Grant’s annoyance. However, he claims Dom has upsides as the new mole. He goes back to his car when Grant asks where he is going. Irving says his overdue sabbatical, perhaps working on his book in Barbados. Grant says they have work to do. Irving gets in Grant’s face, grabbing it. He notes that Whiterose is prone to spontaneous overtures. He wonders if she has made him taste her. Irving tells him he was Grant years ago and says she would be good with him instead. Irving walks away.

The following two sequences cut between each other rapidly.

1. Grant enters the barn with two DA soldiers. Everyone stands. Grant says he has reviewed Stage 3, which Elliot admits it bullshit. Now they can talk honestly. Elliot demands Dom and Darlene go free. He admits to taking over the entire DA network with infected malware. Everything will be released. Grant laughs, calling it impossible. Elliot notes that seven days ago the Russians bribed the DA to hack the DNC. The DA has also recently installed backdoors into South Korea’s military and helped Philip Price annex the Congo for China. Elliot threatens is one of them die, it all leaks. Grant notes that that can survive leaks.

A soldier forces Darlene to kneel. Elliot claims he can help move the project to the Congo. Leon is texting. The soldiers puts the gun to Darlene’s head. Elliot is restrained He looks up into Whiterose’s camera. Grant dismisses him as one person against an army. Elliot declares he is better, touting what he did in one night to take down E Corp vs what they tried months to do. He is forced to kneel. Elliot pleads. Grant says sorry. Elliot looks at Darlene. Grant raise his gun to Elliot. Leon kills the three Dark Army soldiers. He has Grant answer a phone call.

Whiterose  is in the bath. She tells Grant jealousy has blinded him. Grant says Elliot is lying. Whiterose promises to find him when project complete. Their time has come to an end. She tells him she loves him. Grant drops the phone. He speaks Mandarin to Elliot and shoots himself in the head. Leon takes out computer and has Elliot come through on his offer and brings out a laptop. Elliot hacks the Coast Guard so that an international aid shipment to Iran can transport the project. Leon warns him what will happen if it doesn’t go through, although reminding him he has faith in him. Mr. Robot asks what they do now. Undo the hack, Elliot says.

2. Angela is sitting on a bench at the luxurious estate whenPrice  walks up. She wants to leave, claiming she wouldn’t have come if she knew who was taking her. Price explains that she hadn’t been to work in weeks and that he had to intervene. Angela wants to be with Whiterose, to which Price says he knows about her delusional plan. Price had Colby hire her and drop the contingency in the Washington Township lawsuit. Else, Whiterose would have simply killed Angela and the families involved. He goes on to reveal that he met her mother Emily 32 years ago. They dated. He loved her, but never told her, so as to torture her and make himself feel strong.

When Emily found she was pregnant, she wouldn’t allow her child to be raised by a monster. Emily then married Angela’s “father.” He laments what Whiterose has done to Angela, claiming the plan is not possible, simply a denial of reality. Whiterose murdered countless people for a fantasy. Angela don’t believe him, asserting he is lying. Price says “I am your father” biologically speaking. Angela cries over the bombings and her role. Angela wants to know why. Pettiness, Price explains, a dig at him. Angela doesn’t want to believe it’s over, rather that her mom will come back and they can be reunited. Price begins to walk away. Angela asks what he is going to do to her. Retribution. When she wants to help, Price says she can only accept that she’s been conned and find a way to live with what she did.

Dom and Elliot get into the car. It’s a little after 2:30pm. She logs into Sentinel, saying she’s not doing it for him. She gets out. Darlene wants to talk to her. Dom calls her a terrible person who deserve agony having taken everything from Dom and ruining her life. She tells Darlene to live and die with that.

Darlene gets in the car with Elliot. He decrypts the file, only to find Romero was just spying. Someone else was exporting the key data to reverse 5/9. Darlene wonders who.

The Aldersons are riding the subway as soldiers are announcing 9pm curfew. Darlene asks Elliot why he recently brought up the snowman they built. Elliot notes that it was the day their father pushed him out the window. Darlene is alarmed, disputing it. She explains he was looking for the camera when he started freaking out. Dad came home and Elliot snapped and started swinging a baseball bat. Elliot doesn’t believe it, but Darlene insists she remembers. Elliot said he was going to jump out the window and then did. Elliot says he doesn’t remember any of it, to which she says she’s there to remember for him. At their stop, Elliot wants to ride a little longer and promises to get it done. As she leaves, she notes that Trenton must’ve sent that email to him because she trusted him, as does she.

Elliot is alone in the subway car when Mr. Robot arrives and sit across from him. Elliot tells him to come with me at the next stop. They are sitting on a bench at the stop where they first had a conversation. Elliot says Mr. Robot exported the keys and asks why. He says what the hack has done is close to success. He doesn’t want everything th be for nothing, a huge cost he still believes in. Elliot says not, they will have won. Mr. Robot questions if it will help anything? Elliot admits he’s doing it for himself, that he can’t live with what he did. He says Mr. Robot is wrong. They won’t win. One good thing came from all this: they showed themselves, the top 1% of the 1%. Elliot’s gonna take them down: all of them. Mr. Robot wants to keep talking and be a team. He admits he can’t force him, so he’s asking. Elliot notes he wasn’t pushed out the window, but he jumped.

A small gathering watches a TV in a store window, the scene from Superman the Movie when Superman goes back in time. Elliot walks past the crowd, a street preacher, a line of people waiting for food. He thinks of what Mr. Robot just told him in the subway. He sent the backup data in case they were wrong or failed. It’s what Elliot would’ve done, admitting there’s a part of Elliot in Mr. Robot. He doesn’t exist to be an independent agent. Only Elliot know why he’s here. Mr. Robot transferred the keys to the computer at home and burned it into a CD. The seed data is in one of the family picture. Elliot will know the one, where he and his dad dressed up as Doc and Marty for Halloween. It will restore E Corp’s data. It is 8:24 pm. Elliot prepares an email to the E Corp recovery team. Subject: “Key to decrypt.” From the address: Falkensmaze. Elliot hits send.

Post credits: A car drives down the street. It almost hits Darlene and a prostitute she's talking to at the crosswalk. On the sidewalk, they're talking about the economic crisis hitting everybody hard. Darlene says things are gonna change and get better. The woman mentions the US preparing to attack Iran. E Corp might get their data back, including her student loan. The economy doesn't just bounce back, she contends, that's not how capitalism works. She suggests Darlene brush up on Marx. The only thing that can fix it all is an act of God. They arrive outside Elliot's apartment, Darlene saying she was glad they met tonight. The car parks across the street, causing the prostitute to avoid them. A group of four men emerge and approach Darlene. She asks if she can help them, sarcastically. The leader talks about the North star, the cosmos, and his dark mind. The brave traveler has come home. It is Fernando Vera.