So much in last episode was leading to this, so be sure you’re caught up before watching “shutdown -r”. This article contains spoilers, so beware.
Showdown at the Dark Army Hideout
Most of the cast ends up at the Dark Army’s upstate compound (Dom and Darlene are abducted by Santiago, Elliot/Mr. Robot are driven by Irving, and Leon presumably drove there while smoking a joint). Santiago (Omar Metwally), who was only supposed to bring Darlene (Carly Chaikin), tries to explain to Irving (Bobby Cannavale) why he brought along Dom (Grace Gummer), too. Santiago’s explanation is unsatisfactory and he ends up taking an axe in the chest a la Dick Hallorann in The Shining. Irving informs Dom she’s going to be the Dark Army’s new mole in the FBI. Dom politely refuses, but the Dark Army isn’t asking so much as telling. If she doesn’t cooperate, her family members will be the ones to pay the price. Grace Gummer gives her best performance yet and it will be interesting to see how the dedicated and capable FBI agent handles the situation in the next season.
Whiterose’s assistant Grant (Grant Chang), riding high from last episode, shows up to kill Elliot, but first he’s knocked down a peg by Irving, who is taking a sabbatical to finish writing his book. A bruised ego soon becomes the least of Grant’s problems, as Elliot lets him (and Whiterose, who is watching the situation via security camera) know that he owns all the Dark Army’s systems and if anything happens to him or Darlene, the Dark Army’s dirty dealings will be made public. This on its own doesn’t concern Whiterose, but when she hears that Elliot can also help speed up her plan in the Congo, she informs Leon (Joey Bada$$), who kills Grant’s goons. Whiterose calls Grant, tells him she loves him and will look for him after the project is complete, then Grant kills himself.
Family Ties
Angela (Portia Doubleday) finds herself not with Whiterose, but E-Corp CEO Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer), who tells her what we the audience have suspected for much of the season: he is her father. He met her mother while she worked at E-Corp but when she found out she was pregnant, she didn’t want a monster like him anywhere near her daughter. As if finding this out wasn’t painful enough, he also tells her that Whiterose’s plan, to which Angela has been so dedicated, is impossible. Angela has been complicit in killing thousands of people, and until now believed it could all be reversed somehow. Now she wants retribution against Whiterose, but Phillip tells her that’s not realistic and she needs to find a way to live with what she did.
Moving Forward
Dom gives Elliot access to the FBI files to reverse the 5/9 hack while letting him know she’s not doing it to help him or Darlene, who she tells off in brutal fashion. Elliot finds out that Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) is the one who exported the files to make reversing the hack possible. He also finds out that a crucial moment in his life, his dad pushing him out of the window, never happened. Darlene was there and she saw Elliot smash his room up with a baseball bat, then jump out himself. Elliot seems more reconciled with Mr. Robot and decides that now he has a new plan: taking down the top one percent of the one percent.
After the credits, we find murderous, philosophical drug dealer Fernando Vera (Elliot Villar) is back in town and looking for Elliot.
