Many people might say that nothing much happened in this episode until the final few minutes. And to the extent that they are correct, it was some of the most beautiful "nothing" that I've seen in quite a while. In an episode full of moments worthy of awards, none stands out more than the scene between a suicidal Elliot and Trenton's little brother at a mosque.
Psychologically and emotionally, the entire series up to now can be summed up by an exchange later in the episode between Elliot and Angela, where Elliot brings up a "wishing game" that he and Angela used to play as children. "After we made all our wishes, we'd close our eyes really hard, hoping that when we opened them, it'd all come true," Elliot says. "And we thought the harder we closed them, the stronger our wishes would be. And even though they never came true, we still liked doing it. Because the ending was never our favorite part, anyway. It was the wishing. I didn't get that at first. You remember what you used to say to me right before we opened our eyes that would make it all better?"
Angela, hurting every bit as much as Elliot, takes a moment before replying. "No matter what happens, we'll be okay."
By this point, Elliot has decided not to delete himself after all. "That's the thing about deletion. It's not always permanent. There are many reasons why you wanna recover a file you just deleted. When you have that moment of panic, where it hits you, where that thing you thought had no value suddenly becomes important. Where you suddenly find new purpose for it. Maybe there are still things left for me to do."
For Elliot, one of those things is to restore some digital data that Trenton had sent to him and that had previously gone unread. Specifically, an email that she referenced in the previous episode. An email that Elliot now reads. An email that begins with: "I may have found a way to undo the hack."
Amazing episode.
Filler episode, boring. I guess it was supposed to be emotional sentimental stuff, but I really really didn't get into it. The kid is annoying af. I kept hoping that he wasn't real, that it would be Eliott's self projection or something, no luck. Be it with the kid, Angela, his sister or the families, Eliott displays here levels of social skills way above anything he's ever done. It's probably meant to be touching, but it feels extremely out of character and out of place. Like the I wish you were dead/So do I dialogue. Again I get the goal of it, Eliott, not thinking and admitting it, supposed to be a real emotional scene. But why in the world would the kid ever say that ? It really comes out of the blue with no reason at all, only to justify the answer. The scene with Angela is even worse. It just feels weird.
This type of scene does not fit with the character, does not belong in this show, and so they clearly don't know how to make it work. Well, unless the point was to make us feel these human interactions as fake and awkward as they are to Eliott. In this case, bravo. But somehow I doubt that was it.
The one brief good moment was when he was himself and displayed his hacker/blackmailer skills. Good stuff on the BTTF references though I suppose it's hinting more and more to a future rewind, not sure how it would really fit into the whole.
Review by Lucas MeloVIP 8BlockedParentSpoilers2017-12-01T11:24:37Z
Simple story, brilliant execution. Elliot is in a bad place, but a fateful encounter with Trenton's little brother averts his deletion and he starts using his skills (with Mobley's brother) and his memories (with Angela) for the better. We have also seen what appears to be his father's death - it could not be, but I'm inclined to believe it is.
Back to the Future returns, this time more prominently than ever set in the day of the travel to the future, and I don't know quite what to make of it. It is just an homage to the film? Is this day just supposed to be a game-changer in Elliot's mind?
I was glad this episode did not contain a lot of other characters and no Mr. Robot. I'm sure the next will double down on them as Elliot follows the information from Trenton's e-mail (which suggests the FBI currently has useful data from Romero in the form of evidence, but they don't know it).
This season is shaping up to be the best season of television I've seen unless the next remaining episodes go horribly wrong. But that doesn't seem like what will happen, at all. This season seems completely planned and carefully constructed in a very inspired way.