Mr. Robot: eps3.9_shutdown-r

December 14, 2017 7:27 AM - Season 3, Episode 10

Elliot tries to save Darlene, but things do not go as planned; Mr. Robot must decide whether to step up or step back. There's a discussion or three on a farm that cleans up some loose ends, and some new family bonding. Oh, and a brave traveler returns. [Season finale]

‘Mr. Robot’ Season 3 Finale: Reveals, Reversals and Reconciliations (Jeremy Egner for New York Times)

The frenetic Season 3 finale of “Mr. Robot” was thick with reveals, reversals and reconciliations, and left no tone unturned as it cycled through suspense and tragedy, high melodrama and horror spectacle. (Heeere’s Irving!) The final shot — not counting the post-credits stinger — struck an optimistic note as Elliot consummated the season’s radical reset theme by handing E Corp the keys to undoing the 5/9 hack.

Mr. Robot finale recap: 'Eps3.9_shutdown-r' (Kyle Fowle for Entertainment Weekly)

The very first shot of the season 3 finale of Mr. Robot frames the family picture of the Aldersons that we’re all so familiar with at this point. The photo’s always been there as a reminder of what these characters have been through. More importantly, it acts as a reminder that Elliot, Darlene, Mr. Robot, and even Angela, in her own “adoptive” kind of way, are all a family. It makes sense to frame that photo at the beginning of “Eps3.9_shutdown-r” because, more than any previous episode, the season finale explores the various pitfalls and triumphs that comes with being part of a family unit, whether you define that as being linked by blood or not.

Mr. Robot Season 3 Episode 10 Review: Shutdown -- Just in time for another middle-chapter of a Star Wars trilogy, Mr. Robot confronts all manner of daddy issues in its Season 3 finale (Alec Bojalad for Den of Geek)

“Shutdown” fares pretty well in terms of what we look for in season finales. There are twists! Price is Angela’s biological father, Elliot wasn’t actually pushed out of that window as a child, he jumped. There is action! The setpiece on the Dark Army’s nice little farm upstate is legitimately tense - particularly once the guns come out and are pointed at our three (or four if you count Mr. Robot heroes). There is a cliffhanger! Well sort-of. Elliot hits “Enter” on the recovered data to Evil Corp* and we cut to black, leaving the implications of the act for season 4.

Watch this week’s Mr. Robot Digital After Show with BD Wong and Michael Cristofer (The Verge; Direct link to YT video, 50 minutes)

The Mr. Robot Hack Report: Follow the Private Key -- Where do you hide the most sensitive data in the world? (Russell Brandom for The Verge)

Songs in the finale, referenced on Tunefind

And don't worry: Mr. Robot was renewed for a 4th season (The Hollywood Reporter)

Hot on the heels of a Golden Globe nomination for series star Christian Slater, and with precious few hours remaining before its season-three finale, Mr. Robot is getting a fourth-season renewal, USA Network has announced. The writers room for season four of the computer hacker thriller, created by Sam Esmail, is open. There is currently no word on when season four will air.

posted by filthy light thief (19 comments total)

I think a good question for next season is whether or not whatever constitutes E Corp at this point wants to undo the hack. With E Coin poised to take over, maybe they want to keep this new status quo in place. Also, I bet they would get lots of emails containing what claims to be the key. How long until they actually even try it? Maybe the season will open seven months later and the email is still sitting in some sub-sub-folder in Outlook.

Note that Elliot sends the key from falkensmaze@protonmail - in Wargames this was the game on the WOPR server that was the key to David guessing the backdoor password and tracking down Professor Falken, who originally programmed the system.

I never noticed before that a Chinese restaurant on Elliot's street is named "Happy Family", which is arguably what Elliot desires/desired most.
posted by mikepop at 11:16 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

Oh, yeah, Shayla. That feels like part of a different show at this point.

Poor Angela. Maybe she stands to inherit that house and the creepy house guy, but that is a bad consolation prize.

I am glad Irving wrote himself out.
posted by minsies at 5:55 PM on December 14, 2017

'Mr. Robot' Creator Discusses That "Savage" Season 3 Finale Twist and the Show's Imminent End (The Hollywood Reporter)

"Imminent end" is not accurate, as Sam Esmail isn't sure if the next arc will be one or two seasons, and how long those seasons might be.

'Mr. Robot' Season 3 Finale: That 'Star Wars' Level Twist, Explained (THR)

An interview with Kor Adana, in which he talks about the little things (Elliot didn't just press "enter," but "control + enter," the hotkey combo to send an email in ProtonMail), the little musical cues that tie this episode back to the first season, and what was and wasn't part of original character designs.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:30 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I spent a lot of this season being confused and alienated from the show. I think they screwed up the storytelling early on somehow, I just couldn't follow it. But now it all makes sense and things are settled down pretty well. It's almost a clean end, really, the show could stop now and be satisfying. They're almost starting back from the beginning next season.

The Angela / Price reveal seemed lame to me. Also sort of expected. The part of the reveal that was exciting was that Price knows all about Whiterose's science fiction plan and thinks it's total nonsense. I believe him.

The other reveal I liked was spread out over the last two episodes' Whiterose's romantic relationship with her right hand men. I was genuinely surprised when Irving explained he used to be in that role. Sexual manipulation gives an extra sinister twist to Whiterose's machinations. I made a crack last episode about Whiterose being a Bond villain. The Other stereotypes are fast and thick with her: transgender, Chinese, neuroatypical. But it's also good campy fun and I think the show has earned this indulgence. BD Wong is fantastic.

The brutal axe murder felt like an off note in the show to me. Mostly reminded me far too much of Fargo. I liked the quick gunshot killing in the barn much more, that felt truly Mr Robot.
posted by Nelson at 6:30 AM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dom is going to be amazing to watch and I cannot wait.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:37 AM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, one question: does Elliot know/remember Leon, or not? I can't remember exactly how all that jail stuff panned out.
posted by minsies at 6:56 AM on December 15, 2017

minsies, that's a strange one. It's Mr. Robot who says "Leon's pretty good with a knife" when he's assessing the House of Loose Ends, as the folks on The Verge call the remote barn. But alternate (prison) reality Leon was kind of Elliot's only/best friend - Elliot would just sit and listen to Leon talk about Seinfeld philosophy.

Dom is going to be amazing to watch and I cannot wait.

Agreed! I wonder if she'll decide to side with the lesser of two evils and work with Darlene and Elliot to take down Whiterose and free herself from the Dark Army, or if Whiterose will see that coming and do something extreme... I'm pretty excited all-around, even if the (apparently) clean reboot feels to neat at this juncture. (Then again, we only see Elliot send the email to E Corp, now they need to use it. As mikepop pointed out, they're in a really good position, all things considered. Being the fiat currency is huge power, probably more lucrative and sustainable than holding everyone's debt. But maybe having a functioning economy is more lucrative than a post-apocalyptic barter + ecoin scenario they have now.)
posted by filthy light thief at 7:22 AM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

filthy light thief, thanks. I kept muttering to myself during the barn scene "but Elliot knows Leon! They hung out!". He didn't even really seem to register that Leon was there. I also rewound during one of the shots from Whiterose's camera, because it looked like Leon wasn't there (he was, but sitting on a hay bale just out of frame), and I thought maybe that Elliot was imagining him, but nah. Those gunshots destroyed that idea.
posted by minsies at 8:03 AM on December 15, 2017

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I've found the latest season frequently frustrating. There have been some really stand-out moments - the 'one-take' ep, the 'Elliot-goes-to-the-movies' ep, and some great performances - but there hasn't been as much movement on Whiterose's goals as I would have liked.

The Season 2 finale was so exciting with Whiterose turning Angela, and I couldn't wait to find out more about that. How was she able to convince Angela she could bring her mother back? Angela isn't a dummy, there must have been really solid proof. And sure, we've had some tidbits - the glimpse at the particle collider, the whole Congo thing - but it feels very sparingly doled out given that it's really driving a huge amount of the plot. I guess I was expecting to learn more this season, and I got very little.
posted by adrianhon at 9:23 AM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I have a terrible feeling the show's writers don't know any better than Angela does how Whiterose's scifi magic thing is going to work.
posted by Nelson at 9:54 AM on December 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I heard an interview with Esmail around the premiere of season 2 where he said they had planned out what they thought was a 5 season story arc and they hoped they would get to tell the whole story.

I'd assume knowing how the Whiterose plan would play out is part of that planning.
posted by hippybear at 8:09 PM on December 15, 2017

I'm kind of surprised that I've seen no discussion of the return of Vera, the crazed drug dealer from season 1.
posted by nevercalm at 9:20 AM on December 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh is that who that was? Fernando Vera, for anyone else needing a reminder.
posted by Nelson at 9:32 AM on December 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

I was thinking that the slow-emptying fish-killing fishtank that was in the background of Angela and Whiterose's conversation may have been rigged and used to convince her that time reversal was possible.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 4:30 PM on December 16, 2017

After watching this season - while I've enjoyed it, it's really seeming more like they are planning for a show that will run until it is cancelled as opposed to a 5 season arc, with the amount of stuff going on... you have enough plot points that could easily be made minor, or stretched out into entire seasons, or even ignored entirely. While the storytelling has always been from the "unreliable narrator" perspective, it seemed well planned and thought out. This season was a bit messier - there are some seriously stand out episodes, but they don't seem as cohesive as I'd like.

I hope I'm wrong about this, but this seems like the sort of story that will have an unsatisfying end if it hasn't been planned for at this point, of if they are trying to stretch it out. It's something that any long running "open ended" show seems to fall victim to.

I have found myself wondering when the hell Vera was going to come back, because it was left open enough for him to return. But I'm not sure what that will add to the story, other than a separate arc that can last most of a season if they really are going for the more open-ended thing, or something that can be dealt within an episode or two if there's a planned direction for it. Reading some of the links above really confirms that, since they don't know if it will be 4 or 5 seasons. I'm hoping I can look back at it once it's done and see how everything was tied together in a brilliant way, but I've also been accused of being overly optimistic.

My fear is that we'll end up having a ho-hum season 4 that has way too much Vera that ends up being their last season, and they shove what would have been the "final" season into the last two episodes or similar... because that's how so many once great shows have ended.
posted by MysticMCJ at 1:54 PM on December 18, 2017

My hope is that they've brought Vera back for a brief but satisfying 10 minutes of us watching Darlene and Elliot beat the everloving shit out of him.

My fear is that he's been flipped by the Dark Army and we'll have to deal with his annoying ass for much more than 10 minutes of screen time.
posted by iamkimiam at 6:02 AM on December 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

#justiceforshayla
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:39 AM on December 19, 2017

fuck. fuck this show for being so good. it's so unfair to use M83's "Intro" for that penultimate segment.

I'm hesitant about the return of Vera. I wanted him dead and gone, and then he was gone. So maybe now he'll be dead too. But I hope he doesn't last more than 3 episodes next season.

I didn't see the "Angela, I'm your father" thing coming, and it's... wacky? but sure whatever. It's actually not a bad reason for Price to have been as kind to Angela as he has, to the point where Whiterose screwed him over for some petty shit. But I'd be surprised that s/he doesn't know he's Angela's father, which is what it seems.

I swear to almighty God if Dom doesn't come out of this a heroine I"m going to hack my way to retribution, Irving style.
posted by numaner at 12:28 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]

The brutal axe murder felt like an off note in the show to me.

It did, however, lead to one of my favorite Irving moments. When he was threatening Dom with the names of cities of loved ones he had to keep stopping to read them off of his hand!
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:46 PM on January 8, 2020