What can we expect from Mr. Robot season 3

Mr. Robot returns to USA Network on October 11. But the series’ highly anticipated third season has a lot of questions to answer.

Mr. Robot is one of the most celebrated and, occasionally, one of the most controversial shows on TV. And everyone’s waiting for its third season to kick off this October. Because the show’s second season left us with a lot of questions and at least one pretty big cliffhanger. (Though your mileage may vary on whether you consider more than one finale twist a “cliffhanger”, honestly. There’s kind of a lot going on.)

As we count down to the series’ return this October , let’s think through just a handful of the questions we’re going to need the season premiere to answer for us.

Is Elliot okay?

In the final moments of Mr. Robot season 2, Tyrell Wellick shot Elliot Alderson. Our last view of him is on the floor, surrounded by blood. Now, there was also that cliffhanger phone call between Wellick and Angela which sounded as though Elliot got some kind of medical attention after all. So we probably shouldn’t worry that much. After all, this show is often nuts, but it’s not crazy enough to kill off its lead character for real. (At least not at the end of the second season, at any rate.) The show needs him.

So, on paper, it seems deeply unlikely that Elliot will die from his injuries. Or even end up terribly incapacitated by them. But we’ve at least got to clean up his gunshot wound and deal with the fact that Tyrell shot him. (On Mr. Robot’s orders, to boot.) So maybe the question here isn’t whether Elliot will survive, but how Wellick got to a place where he was willing to shoot him. And why Mr. Robot told him to do so in the first place. Elliot’s alter ego’s primary concern has always been self-preservation. What changed?

How will Darlene escape the FBI?

The season 3 trailer clearly shows Darlene out and about, although acting very afraid of the Dark Army. However, when last we saw Elliot’s feisty sister, she was with Dominique and very clearly in FBI custody. Sure, Agent Dom and the gang didn’t fully suspect her as an fsociety ringleader. In fact, they placed her well down the chain from Elliot and Wellick. At one point, an agent seems to view her as little more than a hacker’s girlfriend. (Thanks sexism, I guess?). But even given all that, it doesn’t seem likely the FBI would just let her go, either. Not when she’s a direct connection to the group they’re hunting.

Now maybe the FBI doesn’t have any concrete evidence to charge Darlene. Or maybe they don’t think she’s a big enough fish to worry about. Or is it possible that Darlene has turned on some of her fsociety friends? Would she swap information for her freedom?

What’s up with Angela and the Dark Army?

Following her extremely creepy meeting with Whiterose last season, Angela seems to have fully gotten on board with hacker group Dark Army. But why? Sure, Whiterose seemed to have a pretty good read on Angela’s mental state. And she seems oddly over-invested in the Washington Township plant. (Why? Well we don’t know that yet, either.) But is all of that enough of a reason for Angela to completely cross over to their side? What is she hoping to gain?

Perhaps the Chinese hackers do represent her best shot at taking down E-Corp for good. After all, Angela’s quest to destroy the company from within doesn’t seem to be going so well. And we’ve definitely seen that she’s become a woman willing to try anything to get what she wants. But even for Angela, this seems like a bit much. Sure, she has admittedly gone through some serious characters shifts since the show started. But telling Wellick he did the right thing in shooting her BFF? That’s cold, girl.

Are Trenton and Mobley alive?

The post-credits stinger following the Season 2 finale showed fscociety members Trenton and Mobley meeting Elliot’s old prison buddy Leon. Yeah, that Leon. The one who works for the Dark Army, and who also casually murdered several people on Whiterose’s orders last season. Does this mean the duo – already on the run from the Chinese hacker group – were his latest targets? Are they dead now?

Of course, it’s possible that Leon was sent to fetch the two wayward coders. Maybe he was supposed to bring them back to New York to help implement Mr. Robot’s Phase 2. But given how dedicated the Dark Army is to cleaning up lose ends – particularly two who just claimed to be able to undo the hack that started all this in the first place – how likely does that seem?

How much can we trust what we’re seeing?

Since this is Mr. Robot, this question is an obvious one. How much can we, as viewers, trust what we’re seeing onscreen? Both seasons of the series so far have featured unreliable narrators to varying degrees, whether we’re talking about Elliot misleading himself or straight up lying to the audience. Why would we ever expect anything in Season 3 to be straightforward after all that?

We already know that there are gaps in Elliot’s memories and that Mr. Robot has been making deals and plans outside of his awareness. We don’t know how the Phase 2 bomb plot came about, nor do we know what’s been going on with Tyrell during his absence for the bulk of the season. How much of Elliot’s behavior has been manipulated by his alter ego? What if what we’re seeing is also all part of his plan?

Next: Praising the fearless women of Halt and Catch Fire

Mr. Robot season 3 begins October 11 on USA Network.