Darlene Alderson

**Darlene Alderson** is a hacker, programmer, and member of fsociety. It is also revealed she is Elliot's sister.

She was portrayed by Carly Chaikin.

## Background

Darlene was born on November 5, 1990. She states she was 4 years old when she first saw Susan Jacobs when E-Corp was vindicated in the Washington Township trial. Her father, Edward Alderson, died on February 28, 1995. Her mother, Magda, was abusive towards her and her brother.

When she was 5, she was kidnapped by a woman during a family trip to an amusement park. She slept at the woman's house, in a pink bedroom, and awoke the next morning to the police. Darlene recalls the experience somewhat fondly. However, in contrast to her story, her father was dead by the time she turned five on November 5, 1995.

According to Elliot, Darlene once took a kitten home unbeknown to her mother. She named it Moonpie after her favorite food and kept it in her room for a while. Eventually she built a secret house for it in her backyard where it was discovered by her mother. She drove Darlene, Moonpie and Elliot to a nearby lake with the intention of making Darlene drown the cat. Darlene ran off with the cat and was missing for at least three days. When she returned, she explained that she had given it to an old lady three blocks away and that she felt like she had won. (“eps1.91\_redwheelbarr0w.txt”)

She and Elliot would sleep in the same bed when their mother was mean to them and spend the whole day in movie theaters. They both developed a love for an obscure horror movie *The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie*, every Halloween they would watch it, joined by their friend Angela Moss, whose mother died in the Washington Township scandal. Darlene would often ride her scooter outside their house.

On Halloween night 2014, she makes a surprise visit to her brother's apartment, returning to NYC. While watching their favorite movie, Elliot is inspired to form fsociety. By Thanksgiving, she is working with Mobley and Trenton. During this time, she is dating Cisco and living with him. She breaks up with him when he asks her to marry him.

### Season 1

Darlene is first seen at the fsociety headquarters, working on her laptop. While Mr. Robot shows Elliot around, Darlene stares at Elliot and goes about her own business.

Later, when Elliot returns to fsociety, Darlene is seen smoking near the entrance. She asks Elliot when he is going to give them access to the root directory from the E-Corp DDoS attack. She tells him that she wrote the rootkit for the attack, and still needed to put Terry Colby's IP to the files in order to incriminate him. When Elliot shows confusion, she puts her cigarette out and calls him a dickhead before walking away. (“eps1.0\_hellofriend.mov”)

The day after Colby is arrested, Elliot returns home to find Darlene taking a shower. She yells at him for pulling the shower door open. She tells him he was supposed to come to the arcade last night and asks if he forgot. She takes one of his shirts, joking that her dress has cum stains. Darlene puts on her headphones and blasts hip hop as she requests to stop for Froyo. On the subway, Elliot expresses confusion as to why she knows where he lives. Darlene explains that she has broken up with her boyfriend and has nowhere to live. Suddenly, she helps Elliot avoid men in suits following them. Darlene resigns to crash at Mobley's. She takes him to the arcade when the other hackers congratulate him for framing Colby. When Elliot leaves after hearing Mr. Robot's plan to blow up Steel Mountain, Darlene yells at Elliot for disappearing again. (“eps1.1\_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg”)

When Elliot gets out of the hospital, he finds Darlene has broken into his apartment again. There she meets Shayla. Darlene has things to discuss, but Elliot kicks her out. Mr. Robot then appears to Elliot after Darlene's failed attempt to get Elliot back to work. (“eps1.2\_d3bug.mkv”)

On March 29th, Darlene knocks on Elliot's door and informs him that Romero has a problem with the Steel Mountain plan. As the team reconfigure the plan to execute ASAP, Darlene elects to stay behind with Trenton to finish the software needed. She also assures them that she will hit up her Dark Army contact to reschedule the China attack. While the guys are on route to Steel Mountain, Darlene has trouble locating her contact, Cisco. She returns to the arcade the next day, she finds Trenton trying on her scarf. She leaves her have it after receiving an Advil from Trenton for her hangover. The two search Cisco's normal Sunday hangout, a Chinese bar. Finding nothing, they wander outside with Darlene clumsily walking over park benches and talking loudly. She sees a limo nearby and inside they find masked Dark Army members. They are brought to Cisco's location. He lets her know that the Dark Army has pulled out. (“eps1.3\_da3m0ns.mp4”)

The next day, communicating with the Dark Army on IRC, Darlene discovers she is banned. Darlene confronts Cisco at the library he works at. He lets her know Dark Army was out before even before Steel Mountain became a problem. Darlene screams in frustration. Upon passing the information to the rest of the team, Darlene tearfully tries to initiate their side of the hack before Mr. Robot stops her. Elliot takes her back to his place, where he finds out that Shayla has been kidnapped. (“eps1.4\_3xpl0its.wmv”)

Darlene helps Elliot during his dilemma with Vera and his crew. She leaves a USB outside of the prison so that Elliot can hack the system. She also flirts with a cop in his car to hack the network. Darlene is present in Elliot's apartment with Vera's henchmen but is allowed to go free. (“eps1.5\_br4ve-trave1er.asf”)

After a month of the plan being stalled, she tries to get it all restarted. She talks with Mr. Robot about getting fsociety back together and getting the Dark Army back. She tries to convince Trenton to resume work while Mr. Robot recruits Romero. For the past month she has been posing as Cisco after stealing his IRC handle, repeatedly requesting a meeting with the Whiterose, head of the Dark Army. At the library, Cisco lets her know a meeting is in the works. (“eps1.6\_v1ew-s0urce.flv”)

On May 8th, before the meeting, Darlene steals a handgun from a banker, Xander Jones, a person who she has slept with. Later at 7:00 am, Darlene attends a ballet class with Angela, where the two are shown to be good friends. At the arcade, Elliot refuses the gun and instead hides it in the popcorn machine at the arcade. She gives Elliot her phone number, despite fsociety protocol, uring him that they need to protect each other. Later that day, Darlene creates an fsociety video at Elliot's request, and hacks the Allsafe TV to distract Gideon. After Elliot disables the honeypot, ensuring the Dark Army's cooperation, she is ecstatic and tells Elliot of her admiration and love for him. Elliot kisses her, to which she pulls back in disgust. Darlene tearfully asks if he forgot she was his sister "again". (“eps1.7\_wh1ter0se.m4v”)

The next day, Elliot is missing. Darlene calls Angela, who found him the last time he ran away. They can't find him at that place, a museum. Angela asks what's going on, citing that the Aldersons have been spending a lot of time together and the Elliot's change in behavior coincides with Darlene's return to NYC. When Darlene says nothing, they part way. Darlene goes to New Jersey to look for him. After word from her father, Angela finds Darlene visiting the old Alderson house. They notice broken glass outside of Elliot's old bedroom. They find Elliot at Edward Alderson's grave. Darlene takes him back to his apartment. When she leaves to get his medication, Elliot goes with Tyrell to the arcade and initiates the Five/Nine hack. (“eps1.8\_m1rr0r1ng.qt”)

Three days later, Darlene and fsociety incinerate their equipment and throw a party at the arcade. Darlene's 256-bit AES that took her two hours to code has encrypted E-Corp's banking data, crippling their company and the world economy. (“eps1.9\_zer0-day.avi”)

### Season 2

In June, Darlene and fsociety terrorize Susan Jacobs, General Counsel for E-Corp, out of her smart house so they can use it as a base. Darlene has taken control of the now expanded group, encouraging the nameless foot soldiers that E-Corp has them in a corner. She is seen crying on a number of occasions. Leslie Romero is murdered and Elliot has plead guilty to an 18 months prison sentence. Her romance with Cisco is rekindled.

Together with Elliot, working inside prison, and Angela, working inside E-Corp, fsociety hacks the FBI to find out who killed Romero. They uncover a massive surveillance program, Project Berenstain, and leak it to the American public. On the same night, July 4, Susan Jacobs finds them in her home. The gang kidnaps her and she is later killed by Darlene using a stun gun on a woman with a pacemaker. She claims it was an accident, although it is possible she could have known about the pacemaker from her emails.

Darlene and Cisco cremate her body in the morning and return to his home. Upon finding suspicious communications with the Dark Army, Darlene hits Cisco in the head with a bat. A month later, Elliot is released from prison, but Mobley and Trenton have gone missing. They visit some kind of retirement home where their mother lives, although Darlene stays in the hallway while her brother goes in the room.

Darlene, Elliot, and Cisco hack a DA henchman to find out what "Stage 2" is. Meanwhile, Darlene remembers she left a discard video tape with her face on it at the smart house. Cisco volunteers to retrieve it. As Darlene is listening to the Whiterose, she overhears that Stage 2 is Elliot's plan.

At that same moment, Cisco returns to his apartment with a badly wounded Vincent Campbell, a foot soldier of fsociety. He found him at the smart house, as it is later explained Vincent was involved the attack on Congress, was involved in a car chase and crash with the police, and returned the base. Darlene advocates keeping him there while Cisco wants to drop him off at an ER. They bring him in and stay in the waiting room. When told to wait an hour, they go to a nearby restaurant.

Meanwhile, the FBI has released a sketch of Cisco's likeness to the news. Agent Dominique DiPierro deduces from the ER nurse that Cisco and his accomplice are close. She tracks them down to *Lupe's* diner and just as she confronts them, assassins open fire through the window. They are identical to the gunmen from China and Dom strongly suspects they are Dark Army. She wounds one of them, who then commits suicide, while the other drive away on motorcycle. Police swarm the area as a bloody faced Dom stands in the street.

Cisco is killed and Darlene is held in an FBI interrogation room, still wearing her bloody jacket. Santiago tries threatening her with the Patriot Act when she pleads the 5th. After he leaves, Dom tries to appeal to her as Jersey girls and offers her condolences. Darlene is allowed to smoke, although she is dismissive of the evidence Dom produces: identifications from fsociety militants and Xander Jones, the man whose gun she stole, as well as filming equipment and the fsociety mask found at Cisco's apartment. Eventually, Dom takes her out into the office, where the FBI agents stare at Darlene. She is taken to a room where the walls are covered in evidence. A web links all the members of fsociety, including Elliot, to the Dark Army, including Minister Zhang, to nearly all players involved in the story. Dom reveals that the FBI has been monitoring them all, waiting to pounce on the man at the center of it all, Tyrell Wellick. Dom says that Romero was simply killed by a stray bullet from a neighbor. Darlene stares at it all in disbelief.

### Season 3

Six days later, Darlene is in Elliot's apartment, having lit candles during the blackout, when he returns home. She's angry and wants answers, but he tells her to shut up as he turns on a white noise device and warns her of men waiting outside in a car. She tells him about Cisco's death by the Dark Army and the FBI interrogating her, both forces scaring her. Elliot wants to know what she told the FBI and she calls him a shit brother. She confronts him about Stage 2 being his plan and he tells her about the femtocell opening a backdoor for a bombing on E-Corp. She challenges him about the death toll, but he declares it wasn't him. As he tries to put an end to it, she tells him the Internet is still down, but she knows where to access it.

The Aldersons arrive at an underground hacker party. She tries to find him a computer to use, but the CTF tournament is busy. As Elliot decides to win the game himself, Darlene notices men she believes to be Dark Army watching her. Elliot confirms her suspicions, but tells her to calm down as they are after him. She flees to the bathroom and has a panic attack. She calls someone and asks for help as there is Dark Army everywhere. The men knock on the door to take her, unplugging Elliot's computer midway and taking him.

They are told to be picked up in a taxi by Irving to avoid be followed by FBI. He has them help him use OnStar to slow down the tail and safely rendezvous at a Red Wheelbarrow BBQ. Irving tells her to get them all food and punch his ticket card. She refuses, but sits away from them at Elliot's assurance, throwing up a middle finger at Irving's use of "miss." After their conversation, Elliot tells her Stage 2 is called off. She asks if Tyrell Wellick is involved. He believes the backdoor being shut down is enough, but Darlene doesn't want to bury her head in the sand. As he stops her to indicate they may be the last survivors (presuming Trenton and Mobley dead), she says fuck you and leaves. (“eps3.0\_power-saver-mode.h”)

On September 17, Darlene is sitting on a couch in an FBI safehouse watching the latest fsociety video on a lap top with Dom, Santiago, and another FBI agent Norm. Darlene assures them it isn't fsociety. Dom contends that it's from the same Vimeo account. Darlene thinks it must be Dark Army, having been given access by Cisco. Santiago gets angry, reminding her that she is a Confidential Human Source with the mission to get intel on Tyrell from Elliot. Darlene says Elliot isn't talking to him, having asked her brother 5 weeks ago after they lost the FBI tail. She invites them to bring Elliot in to ask him. They decline tipping him off as that would violate her immunity. After Darlene vehemently denies any relationship between the two, Dom plays the prison call from June 16 when Tyrell called Elliot. Darlene is surprised.

Later, at Coney Island. Elliot walks up to Darlene sitting on a bench. She is surprised he came, given his silent treatment of her. He recalls that she last said to him, fuck you. She asks when did he start remembering everything? Darlene just wanted to say happy birthday. Elliot asks if that's it, to which Darlene asks why he wants to shut her out. He tells her she's a trigger for Mr. Robot. Darlene retorts that what happened to dad fucked her up too and he can't hog their childhood. She wishes dad was here, he’d know what to do. Darlene lets him know she's leaving, crashing with a friend upstate. Spending the past year with Elliot was not about whatever they did, but spending time with him, just so he knows.. He brings up that day they built the snowman. Her mood changes and she asks if he wants to talk about it. Elliot instead invites her to stay with him tonight. It's not on her behalf, as she believes, but he doesn't want to be lonely.

As Elliot sleeps, Darlene is fiddling with his computer monitor in the middle of night. She gets her coat and sees the photo of Elliot and their parents at the beach. Elliot is suddenly behind her and asks what she’s doing. She says she's looking for a pen and leaving for a bus. He notes that the transportation strike has stopped the buses. She says she'll take a train. Elliot grabs her and puts her against the wall asking, "Why are you here?" Darlene realizes it's Mr. Robot. He yells at her and Darlene pushes him away, leaving while calling him a psycho. Elliot stands there shocked.

The next night, Elliot's monitor is broadcasting onto Dom's screen in the safe house. Dom tells Darlene "good job." Darlene goes outside to sit on the steps. The next morning, at 8 am, Darlene is not at the safe house when Elliot breaks into her downstairs apartment, having traced the FBI. (“eps3.1\_undo.gz”)

## Personality

Unlike her brother, Darlene is outwardly cynical and jaded. This does not make her completely emotionless, however. She genuinely cares for her brother and maintained a healthy relationship with Cisco until his untimely assassination. She is also a skilled hacker in her own right, and remains loyal to her brother and fsociety even after being recruited as an informant for the FBI.
She is extremely loyal, to the extent that she would lie to her brother about their past in order to protect his sanity, and refuses to give up her brother's location despite it risking her and Dom's lives.

## Trivia

* She is bisexual as seen in the fourth and final season of the series.

## See also

* Carly Chaikin

**Mr. Robot**