Hello, friends.
Now we know why Elliott was in jail: he was arrested following a complaint by Mr. Shannon, Krista's boyfriend, whom he hacked and whose dog he stole. Elliott proceeds to show us the truth of what happened, starting from that knock on his door at the end of season one, which was the police coming to arrest him. Against the advice of his attorney, and the wishes of Mr. Robot, he pleads guilty to the charges in court. He is sent to prison, where he only serves 86 days becuase after the 9-5 hack, the prison is releasing a high number of non-violent offenders. We see the real version of his time there, including his meeting with Leon, who is a bit of a prison fixer, Hot Carla, and the white gang. The one thing Elliott doesn't show us is who, exactly, Ray was in prison.
While the opening credits roll, Depeche Mode's "Walking In My Shoes" plays. The reason? Lyrics. “Now I'm not looking for absolution / Forgiveness for the things I do / But before you come to any conclusions / Try walking in my shoes.”
That's all we missed. Except, now we're missing more because when Darlene picked him up from prison, she whispered into his ear. Was she simply catching him up on everything we know already? Or something more? Can we trust Elliott to tell us?
Angela hacks her way into the Washington Township files, with the worst poker face imaginable on the whole time. She finds somethig big enough to take to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, although it turns out they're in the pocket of Evil Corp. We find that Washington Township is the particular project of White Rose, who is so invested in whatever project he had going there that he had the previous CEO of Evil Corp killed for attempting to pull the plug on it. It's a particularly cruel twist, as this means White Rose both killed Elliott's father and helped him bring down E Corp in revenge. In a face-to-face with current Evil Corp CEO Price, it comes out that the government are planning to take control of the plant. Price blackmails White Rose for the cash that E Corp needs to keep going and keep control, but when White Rose makes one threat too many, Price promises to go for the nuclear option if he does anything. It's like the Cold War with these two: two superpowers threatening to end the world eight times over unless they get what they want.
The lines between Mr. Robot and Elliott are dissolving into one and neither of them knows what to do. What does Elliott know? The ruse of jail has blurred the lines so badly taht he doesn't even know. When it's revealed by the Dark Army that stage two, what follows the 9-5 hack, is Elliott's plan?
And, to our surprise, Joanna is outside of Elliott's apartment when he finally goes home following his release from prison, waiting in Tyrell's SUV. What exactly happened in fsociety that night when the two of them were together? Can we trust Elliott to tell us? Does he even know?