This week’s episode of Mr. Robot, “eps3.2_legacy.so” fills in the blanks on what Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström) has been doing since the 5/9 hack. This review/recap of Mr. Robot contains spoilers, so read with caution.
An Act of God?
Chronologically, the story takes place at the same time as events in season 2. As you may remember, Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) told Elliot (Rami Malek) that he killed Tyrell in self-defense in the old fsociety arcade. It turns out that wasn’t exactly true, which is par for the course in this father/son, ego/alter-ego relationship. Mr. Robot tried to kill Wellick, but his point-blank shot had no effect. Wellick, believing this to be an act of God, tells Mr. Robot to try it again and he’ll accept “whatever fate decides”. Instead of killing him, Mr. Robot sees an opportunity to use him in his plans to destroy Wellick’s former employer, E-Corp.
After this, Irving (Bobby Cannavale, making a welcome return after being absent in episode 2) shows up with some Dark Army goons to take Wellick into hiding/custody to keep the FBI from getting to him. From here, the episode and Wellick himself go all Breaking Bad, taking place largely in an isolated rural safe house. Here he is subjected to an intense third degree by Mr. Williams (a mustachioed, coke-snorting Wallace Shawn). While his honesty is found lacking, his devotion to Elliot proves to be good enough for the Dark Army.
Between not being able to talk to Elliot and reading online that his wife Joanna filed for divorce in absentia, Wellick is growing frustrated. Eventually, he (much like Walter White) grows too anxious to see his family and makes his escape. It isn’t long before he is picked up by a local cop who thinks he just lucked into the collar of the century. The cop’s dreams of being the next Elliott Ness are soon splattered, along with his brains, on his car’s partition window. We already knew that the Dark Army’s reach is extensive. What we didn’t know is that FBI agent Santiago (Omar Metwally), partner of Dom DiPierro, is one of their soldiers. After being returned to Irving, Wellick ends up in the warehouse where he ended up shooting Elliot in last season’s finale.
“If You Pull the Right Strings”
Outside of the Wellick story, we find out that White Rose/Zhang (BD Wong, who shines so consistently in this role that one finds oneself taking his brilliance for granted) is a puppetmaster whose strings encircled the globe. He orders TV talk show host Frank Cody (Erik Jensen) to rehabilitate Wellick’s public image and (oh, by the way) is implied to be responsible for Trump getting elected.
We also get a cameo from one of my favorite characters, Leon (Joey Bada$$), contemplating the pros and cons of killing Neo-Nazis. If USA Networks is looking for spin-offs, I humbly suggest one about Leon, shanking members of murderous prison hate groups and discussing sitcoms from the 1990s. Tell me that wouldn’t be a hit.
