Who Is Mr. Robot’s Landlord? Recap of Season Four “409 Conflict”

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*

Winner Winner...Chicken Dinner?

Elliot won.

No really, he took all the money from every member of the Deus group including ‘whiterose.”

‘whiterose,’ as Zhang, was so furious she shot Phillip Price in cold blood right on 2nd Avenue (well, I don’t think it was 2nd Avenue, but you get my point). 

And apparently,  Mr. 2nd Avenue himself was at the party (or at least they strongly implied that he was...personally, I am not sure they would allow him to be a member of their club).

Basically, they created an exploit to get everyone’s phone numbers, an exploit to run those phone numbers  against the bank accounts, an exploit to capture all of the pin numbers necessary to liberate all of those requisite accounts, and the willingness to run a process liberating all of those accounts of all of their money. 

As Mr.Robot put it:

And just like that Rome falls, no more Deus Group, no more top 1% of the top 1%, no more controlling every part of our lives, no more playing God without permission, we took them down, all of them. 

I sure did not predict that Elliot would beat ‘whiterose’ before the last episode, but I guess this was not really a man against man or woman story, it was a man against himself story. 

Also ‘whiterose’ is either about to be dead or in custody for the murder of Price.

I am not sure if our time with ‘whiterose’ is done, but if we are, she has been one of my favorite characters ever (right up there with Omar from ‘The Wire;).

This is all very unexpected (to me).

Also, Darlene was critical to making it all happen. She will also be critical to Elliot coming to grips with the entire “Elliot Picture.”

Full House

Okay, another mystery solved (at least to some extent).

Mr. Robot is an alter

Young Elliot is an alter

Magda is an alter

There is Elliot

And there is at least still a mystery, but possibly another alter that Elliot doesn’t know about. At the very least, there is something Mr. Robot, Magda, and young Elliot know but which Elliot does not know.

So, what is it that Elliot doesn’t know that we don’t know either? 

Usually, I have some theory, but this time I am at a loss.

I also want to take a second for appearing arrogant last week. I do occasionally take victory laps, but I also try to make fun of myself at the same time (I think I called myself an idiot in the same recap). 

I love Mr. Robot, and I do take it very seriously, but I don’t really take my part in any of this particularly seriously. As I have said before, my favorite part of the whole show is that all of us can have our own theories of the show that are equally valid. In this way, our theories function like a show parallel to the show.

All I am saying is that occasionally my theories and my version of events squares with the real version of Mr. Robot. These moments are very satisfying for me, but that doesn’t mean I take them seriously. 

In the end, I don’t really think any of us writing or theorizing about this show are right or wrong, I just think these versions of the show we construct occasionally align with the actual show and those moments are fun (at least they are for me).

As ‘whiterose’ put it once, “the contemplation moves me deeply”

Anyway, I feel bad about sounding arrogant. 

Angela’s Ashes

Maybe an even better way to explain this is that I have always thought of Mr. Robot as a game, part of the game is trying to figure out elements of what is going on. Part of the discussion is going through what you got right and what you get wrong.

I honestly am pretty lost right now. I don’t think there is much more point to trying to figure out anything, it is going to be much more fun, from here on in, to just watch the events unfold.

I feel a bit strange saying this after that apology, but I did mention this in my very first recap of this season:

“Although it is also possible that Angela is not dead (notice nobody could find the body and we did not see the entirety of her being shot on screen). There were two references later in the show on this issue, so they have built some scaffolding to suggest that Angela, a true ‘whiterose’ believer, might still be around.”

Okay, here is the reason this might be real, ‘whiterose’ had no reason to lie about Angela, she needed Elliot to join her in order for her plan to come to fruition. In theory, it could have been a last-ditch desperation move, but ‘whiterose’ knew she was taking a perhaps life-altering risk blowing off everyone in the Deus group to take one more swing at bringing Elliot into the fold.

It seems to me, the most likely explanation is that Angela is alive.

Now here is the crazy thing, it is Elliot’s plan that is moving ‘whiterose’ project to the Congo, Elliot also now has Phillip Price’s jump drive with all of the information about what the plan is.

So, Elliot, if he wants to, can now try to make whatever ‘whiterose’ was trying to do into a real thing, it is possible that he can use the infernal machine to go back to a place where he is whole and where everyone can finally sit at that table together like he hoped they could in season two.

Do you think Elliot will try to create a new world?

Going to be an interesting landing for sure.

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.