WTF? The Strangelove of S3: Predicting Robot (Mr. Robot Season 3)

Predicting Robot

This is my new series where I am sharing my predictions for Season 3.

This week I am going on a rant about the almost complete snub for Mr. Robot in the Emmy Awards Nominations and gathering together for the first time the several pieces of what I have previously called the "Dr. Strangelove Theory of Mr. Robot.

My goal isn't to create spoilers or to solve Mr. Robot as much as it is to engage in discussions about my perspective of what has happened so far and how things could play out from that perspective. I have long believed that one of the coolest things about Mr. Robot is that it is an "open universe" where multiple theories can be correct at the same time.

I will be as surprised as anyone if I am occasionally right

As always, if you haven't watched all of Season One and Season Two of Mr. Robot already *Spoiler Alert*

WTF (Part One)? The Emmy’s Give Mr. Robot the Mr. Finger (My Rant)

Before I get started on my prediction for this week, a few thoughts on the Emmy nominations.

I generally don’t care too much about award shows but sometimes I get irrationally angry about silly popularity contests (Full disclosure, I have been known to go a bit crazy on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from time to time...Okay, TBH I go crazy on the RARHOF every year).

In that spirit, bear with me as I rant.

But first, huge congratulations to B.D. Wong for the well-deserved nomination as Whiterose/Minister Zhang.

As many of you probably suspect, Whiterose is one of my favorite characters (congrats also go to Ron Cephas Jones who is a Mr. Robot alum).

Second, no Rami Malek?

So, he is good enough to win last year and the Emmys are famous for nominating people over and over again even well after the performance justifies the nod, but he doesn’t even get a nomination this year?

WTF?

As I have stated publically many times, Season Two was superior to Season One in every way and that includes the performance by Rami Malek (who dealt with much more complex and challenging character situations in every single episode but the one episode that he didn’t appear in).

Third, the show is literally built around the performances of three really strong female characters but not one nod for either Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, or Steph Cornelussen?

I know Angela Moss is a divisive character in the Mr. Robot universe, but I personally think Portia Doubleday had one of the hardest jobs on the entire show in Season Two and was consistently brilliant.

Fourth, how in the hell does Sam Esmail not at least get a nod for Directing or for writing (at least they used to throw Woody Allen nominations for writing and directing when they chose not to nominate his casts).

For directing, feel free to peruse the many inciteful YouTube videos detailing the genius of how Sam directs the show,

And for writing, you just have to be kidding me (I hope to get to the point where I am able to write one-tenth as well as Sam Esmail on a regular basis).

I have personally watched and participated with hundreds and thousands of people on Reddit for over a year now just parsing the incredibly rich and detailed writing of Season 2.

Name another show that creates so much never-ending discussion over dialog, inference, and innuendo (aside from Twin Peaks which wasn’t eligible)? I write about television almost every day of my life and I am flabbergasted by the total lack of respect shown to Sam Esmail’s work.

I guess B.D. Wong’s nomination was the "Allen Award" for Mr. Robot?

But, the snub that made me the most furious had nothing to do with Mr. Robot.

How in the world can you ignore Michael McKean (much less Rhea Seahorn) in Better Call Saul? I love Jonathan Banks but this was NOT his season at all, for this season to work Michael McKeon had to deliver a flawless performance as Chuck and he was absolutely brilliant.

I mean what does Michael McKeon have to do (was absurd he wasn’t nominated last year too)? He grew up in the business. For goodness sakes, he played Lenny on Laverne and Shirley. Dude paid his dues. If you watched Halt and Catch Fire this season you know how ridiculous this snub was.

Totally ridiculous, I will now go back to just writing off the Emmy’s as a total joke.

Okay rant over and now we can go back to our regularly scheduled predictions post.

WTF (Part Two)? Congo Line

When Terry Colby and Phillip Price had their conversation about E Corp, the USA, China, and the Congo last year, it peaked my interest. Here is what I first said about it on Reddit at the time:

[Spoilers S2E10] China, The USA, and the DR Congo...It's Really a Thing from MrRobot

So, after thinking about this, I started to consider why Whiterose was so invested in maintaining control of the Washington Township Plant (which I started intentionally referring to as the WTF or Washington Township Facility).

WTF (Part Three)? The Dr. Strangelove Theory of Mr. Robot

So, after deciding that Cobalt and the Congo were important I turned my attention to Whiterose. I wondered what Whiterose's play was in all of this.

Here is what I said on Reddit:

[Spoilers S2E10] China, The DR Congo, The US and Dr. Strangelove...Might have figured Whiterose out folks from MrRobot

There is only one small problem with my theory, the Washington Township Facility may not be a nuclear facility at all (it could be purely chemical). So, I did some work on that too. Here is what I wrote on Reddit about that:

[Spoilers S2E10] Washington Township Plant Information So Far (from Transcripts) from MrRobot

Okay, not 100% for sure, but this seems like a decent possibility. And let us not forget that the flyer to the End of the World Party was modeled on one of the posters for Dr. Strangelove.

Now, next week, I will stomp all over all of this with an alternative theory of what Whiterose, Elliot, and Angela all learned from what might have been going on at the Washington Township Facility.

Let me know what you think!