Who Is Mr. Robot’s Landlord? Recap of Season Four “406 Not Acceptable”

Hello friend...

I have been writing about Mr. Robot for a very long time. You can read all my earlier writing about the show using this guide.

We have finally come down to this one final season, hopefully, we will get answers to many pressing questions (I put together this list of questions in advance of the final season)

You can also follow me on Reddit (I am ypsifactj48, I usually hang around r/Mr.Robot and the Black Mirror and Orange Is the New Black rooms.

If you have not watched every episode of Mr. Robot or read Red Wheelbarrow this could contain spoilers *Spoiler Alert*

“Two Large Peppermint Mochas”

This episode puts major characters in the position of doing something unacceptable:

Elliot threatening Olivia
Dom threatening Darlene
Vera threatening Krista (and ultimately Elliot)

Only in Elliot’s case, this isn’t the first time he has put other human beings in dire peril to serve his purposes.

If you have read my recaps and breakdowns over the last several years, you know I have often hypothesized that Elliot might actually be a terrible human being.

The first time I suggested this as an option it was after watching the episode where he and Darlene were watching “Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie” on Halloween. If you watch that episode again watch Elliot’s face throughout the discussion when he comes up with FSociety.

There is nothing warm in his face, quite the opposite, he looks like there is not an ounce of human compassion in his entire body.”

And let us not forget, he spends a great deal of the series playing Robin Hood, which is another way of saying being a vigilante. When he is not ruining the lives of people who have done bad things, he hacks his friends, often ruining their lives in the process.

He also literally took down the entire world economy crushing millions of lives in the process. Sure, he did it to erase the debt, but everyone who did not have debt most likely lost everything they had accumulated when the economy cratered.

At the very least, his narcissism is unprecedented, Imagine the amount of who required to think they could ethically and effectively redistribute all of the wealth of the world in a fair manner.

Turns out he was wrong about that regardless, so wrong that he actually only increased the power of the Deus group and the super-wealthy.

Anyway, Elliot - or at least one part of Elliot - is a ruthless SOB.

When Olivia says:

“I may work for monsters, but you are one. And you’re the worst kind because you don’t even know it.”

"And you're the worst kind because you don't even know it." #MrRobot pic.twitter.com/6a52QtKpyE
— Mr. Robot (@whoismrrobot) November 11, 2019

She was not lying.

My continuing theory is that BAD Elliot is Magda (because Elliot’s memory of his mother is that she was brutally effective and capable of great cruelty). But it is certainly possible that Tyrell was right and Elliot (or at least most of Elliot) really doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his anger.

Remember, even as a kid, Elliot was doing things that were right in our face, go back and watch the episode when he tells his dad - who is dying - to basically go to hell before going and watching a movie after Edward collapses on the floor.

But, at the same time, there is the Elliot who is tortured and alone. The last episode one of the most powerful moments in the entire “silent” episode was when Elliot was falling apart in the corner until Darlene showed up, which forced him to put on his social mask and quickly pretended that everything was perfectly okay.

We have even recently heard Sam talk about how his own loneliness had something to do with the creation of Elliot.

I am sure at the end of the day, we will see the whole Elliot, and I suspect it will answer a lot of questions. I suspect knowing the instigating incident, the thing that caused his personality to become fragmented, would help.

I do think and have for a long time theory that Elliot was not all good (or bad), but that there was something really dark working within Elliot Prime.

It is sad to see that Olivia was a real and regular citizen of the world and not a Dark Army operative. Her story seemed too perfectly tailored to what would work to draw Elliot in. I did think setting the razor blade up several episodes ago was a nice (sad) payoff. There was a lot of good writing in this episode (even if I said to myself as it happens, don’t let her go into the bathroom alone Elliot).

It is heartbreaking that Elliot has both potentially gotten her back on drugs (remember addiction to Oxy is such a national crisis that overdoses have become one of the biggest causes of death in the United States). As you look back on Elliot, remember she was a really nice person.

I particularly like that she called out Elliot’s ethics, he believes that if you have done anything wrong, you deserve what is coming to him. Elliot himself has hurt countless thousands, tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of lives. Tyrell more or less chose to commit suicide rather than live in a world knowing that Elliot didn’t love him back.

Olivia had a kid, and 8 years sober, everything could be okay for her, but Elliot risked everything in her life to serve his plan.

And, it is a little cheap to suggest guilt through the transitive process of having “worked for monsters” as an acceptable response. Given Elliot’s view of capitalist entities, virtually everyone has transitive guilt to pay down and his logic fully whitewashes his vigilanteism. Having her acknowledge her small part in the chain of agency in whatever her employers did seems a cheap excuse for the things Elliot did to her and has always done to others.

I should also probably mention that the coffee shop is familiar because it is the same location from the beginning of the first episode (the more things change…)

“We All Have A Purpose In This World”

Before Vera called out Krista for calling him a little bitch, he called himself a little bitch by implying Elliot was “his bully” and that Krista was going to be the baseball bat with which he was going to break Elliot’s head open.

Two problems here;

One, Mr. Robot might have scared Krista, but he is the nicest personality that Elliot has inside him.

Mr. Robot can play mean, maybe even do mean things, but he is not the real deep dark secret. Mr. Robot represents the Edward in Elliot and Edward was a sweetheart. He will try to protect Elliot through whatever means are necessary but he is not the brutal personality.

Alter Three is the real badass (I am guessing) and I am still predicting that is Magda (because we already saw her...Occam’s razor).

Two, and I am hoping this is not the case, but Leon is back in play.

I say I am hoping this is not the case because it would be too easy for Leon to show up, announce he is a free agent, and then show up to save him from Vera.

It would go down like this when Elliot told Mr. Robot he had to go save Krista at Washington Square Park, he also told Leon who had told him he would help him out if needed.

Okay, one side note here.

It is theoretically possible but unlikely Leon is the third alter. I don't think he is because he has been in the same room with Angela and Elliot at the same time and both of them spoke to him. In addition, I find it hard to believe that Elliot would play a direct role in the death of Trenton and Mobley (although my mind might be changed a bit more after what Elliot did to Olivia).

Anyway, Vera is a psychopath and dangerous, but I have a feeling he is still about to be going down hard. Either through Leon or through whoever the third alter is (who is Elliot at his most brutal). A final option is the Dark Army somehow finds Elliot in time and saves him from Vera.

Elliot is too smart to just run right into an obvious trap. Except that he has done so time and time again this season. The legend of Elliot’s competence is starting to come up against some hard limits of his repeated incompetence (remember when he trapped himself in the apartment honey pot?).

“Working On The Same Side”

Wang Shu, like the former assistant to ‘whiterose’ is really hot to kill Elliot but ‘whiterose’ stops her by telling her Elliot had yet to see the full picture and that once he sees the full picture he will know that they are, ‘working on the same side.’

There is some sense to this.

Remember a few episodes ago when we saw Zhang’s lover take his own life? The powers that be were what drove him to kill himself. It is very possible that this is both a love and revenge story, a way for ‘whiterose’ to reunite with her lover and a way for her to get revenge on the powers who caused their separation.

Of course, I have mentioned that it could still be possible this is about cobalt bombs. I haven’t thought about it in a while. But when ‘whiterose’ says they are both on the same side, this could be about watching the world burn.

On the other hand, ‘whiterose’ could just be working to bring down the rest of the companies that made it impossible for her to be forever together with her lover and that means the Deus group.

And maybe something to do with time travel or parallel universes.

“I Was Not Expecting This”

Dom caught Darlene at Angela’s apartment.

Janice ordered Dom to kill Darlene and bring her Darlene’s phone so that she can use it to find Elliot.

Dom tried very hard to comply and was fully made aware that the consequences of not playing along would be the death of all the people whom she held most dear. But Dom could not pull it off (although she was able to club Darlene pretty hard in her noggin) and even worse, in not pulling it off, she allowed Dom to erase the phone which they needed to hack in order to track Elliot’s whereabouts.

Dom thought of a third way, having Darlene kill her, but Darlene was not able to pull it off before Janice had entered Dom’s house and taken control of the situation.

It is a good thing that Darlene erased the phone, If Darlene had not erased the phone, they would have no need for Darlene’s continued existence and would have killed Darlene and punished Dom. Now, they may need Darlene’s assistance, which could potentially keep them from going after Dom’s family (to appease Darlene). In addition, she thinks she saved Elliot’s butt (although we now know ‘whiterose’ wants Elliot alive).

Darlene deserves credit for quick thinking either way.

Okay, kind of a crazy episode, almost too much information to process, we will see what happens next week.

Fun Society

Every week, I will write another recap until we finish this journey together.

If you have any interest in criminal justice reform I am also the host of the Decarceration Nation Podcast

If you like Orange Is the New Black, you can read my recaps of that series using this guide.

If you like Black Mirror, you can read my recaps of that series using this guide.

Christmas In A Cup 406 Not Acceptable