Mr. Robot, in its second season on USA, is a powerhouse of paranoia and doubt.
Our hero, Elliot, is at constant war with the hallucination of his father, Mr. Robot, who inspires him to commit crimes and generally wreak havoc. Basically the whole first season passed without us realizing that Mr. Robot was a Fight Club -style illusion, but now that cat's out of the bag and banging around Elliot's subconscious.
We're left with a set of characters stuck in the aftermath of the worst cyber attack in US history. Evil Corporation, the show's first-season villain, is reeling and the government seems almost powerless to fix things. But questions abound about what happened, what F Society is up to, and basic facts of Elliot's reality. The show is full of red herrings, cryptic half-truths, and ripe for speculation. What happened to Tyrell Wellick? How do Leon and Elliot know each other? Where is Elliot, anyways?
What follows is all the fan theories fit to print, focused on untangling the thickly-woven web of lies, deceit, and outright hallucinations.
The Tommy Westphall Universe Theory
A tip of the cap to Andy Greenwald, who now hosts the Mr. Robot aftershow, for this one. The theory goes that Elliot is creating this entire story in his head, a device used on St. Elsewhere as the series wrapped. Westphall was an autistic child character who imagined the whole series. Elliot is lucid dreaming, or suffering from some other psychological detachment, creating the universe of Mr. Robot.
Photo: Courtesy of USA.
Tyrell & Elliot Are The Same Person
When the two go to fsociety together at the end of season 1, only Elliot comes out. Tyrell is missing. But did he ever really exist? Some people think they are the same. Call it the Tyrelliot theory. That doesn't explain if Joanna, Tyrell's wife, is living in a reality that doesn't exist since she talks to Elliot and doesn't know who he is, after Tyrell disappears.
Photo: Courtesy of USA.
Elliot & Mr. Robot Killed Gideon
Gideon's tragic murder by a 5/9 truther may not have been a cut and dried crime. Some theories floating about have it as a hit, taken out by Mr. Robot (when he took over for Elliot) to suppress the truth about their involvement in the hack.
Photo: Courtesy of USA.
Elliot Is A Honeypot
In season one, we learned that honeypots are laid in code to catch hackers. What if Elliot is a human honeypot? Imagine he's been programmed by a power (maybe Evil Corp, maybe the Dark Army, maybe the Chinese government, maybe something even bigger) to lure in and catch other hackers. He wouldn't know, as the program would be running beneath his consciousness.
Photo: Courtesy of USA.
Elliot & Whiterose Are The Same Person
This theory comes courtesy of a very The Usual Suspects kind of clue: remember when Tyrell and Elliot had lunch in the executive cafeteria at Steel Mountain in season one? Did you notice all the white roses decorating the room? This theory, from Reddit, would certainly support the idea that Elliot contains many personalities, and explain why Mr. Robot calls him his "god."
Photo: Courtesy of USA.
This theory posits that Elliot is in jail or a mental institution. He has the same meal in the same place every day. He talks to the same people, watches the same things, and has no internet access. He also has to talk in a support group, which Ray mysteriously knows about, and lives in a rectangular room. While we've seen evidence that Elliot's reality connects to New York, we also saw evidence that Mr. Robot wasn't a figment of his imagination. So we don't know what to think.
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