Mr. Robot season 3, episode 3 review: eps3.2_legacy.so

Mr. Robot season 3 finally gave us the Tyrell Wellick story viewers waited over a year to see. Is it worth it? That truth is in the eye of the beholder.

Mr. Robot is known for its overly complicated, puzzle box style of storytelling. Everything is suspect. Most characters are untrustworthy. You can’t always be sure of what you’re seeing. Is your idea of reality even real?

So it’s a bit strange that the hacker drama offers up one of its most ambitious episodes to date simply by playing it straight. There aren’t any tricks in “eps3.2_legacy.so” — it’s a simple straightforward narrative that attempts to finally answer a long-asked viewer question: What happened to Tyrell Wellick?

The former E-Corp CTO virtually disappeared following the 5/9 hack, appearing only a handful of times in season 2. To Elliot (and viewers, to some extent) the absent Tyrell took on something of a mythic quality — the most wanted man in the world, the driving force behind 5/9, the face of fsociety. He is the man behind the curtain. He should have all the answers, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

The real shock of this episode isn’t the truth of where Tyrell has been all this time. It’s that he’s not the answer we thought he was. He never has been.

In the end, “eps3.2_legacy.so” is not an episode that’s necessarily critical for the narrative Mr. Robot’s third season appears to be building. And how you feel about its existence may ultimately come down to how you feel about Wellick — both as a character, and as a larger piece of Mr. Robot’s societal commentary. Could we all live without this episode? Probably, since the plot revelations contained within it could easily happen elsewhere. But I, for one, am glad we don’t have to.

you know that ghost is me

“eps3.2_legacy.so” is one long flashback, taking us all the way back to the end of season 1 and the night of the 5/9 hack. It covers Tyrell’s decision to join forces with fsociety, and his activities during the eight or so months that pass until he shoots Elliot in the season 2 finale. As narratives go, it’s pretty basic.

Despite the fact that Elliot — and, likely, many viewers — seemed to believe that Tyrell was some hacker mastermind, hiding somewhere off the grid to avoid the FBI, that isn’t the case. His real whereabouts and activities are much simpler. Irving — Mr. Robot’s answer to Pulp Fiction cleaner the Wolf, it would appear — arrives to clean up the Coney Island hacker lair, and whisks Tyrell off to a New Jersey farm compound. Once there, he ostensibly means to keep himself busy building the framework for Elliot’s Stage 2 plan, but instead spends the bulk of the episode brooding, growing a beard, chopping a prodigious amount of wood and having a mental breakdown.

As Mr. Robot slowly and consciously withdraws from Elliot’s POV this season, we find out that the world around us might not look exactly as we thought it did. We learn that many of the mysteries from season 1 have simple solutions, and most of them come back to Mr. Robot, rather than Tyrell himself.  When Elliot wakes up in Wellick’s car, and doesn’t know how he got there? Irving simply told Mr. Robot to get rid of it. When Elliot fears he killed Tyrell the night of the hack? Mr. Robot ultimately couldn’t pull the trigger a second time, but is happy to let Elliot believe he did. Tyrell isn’t the bogeyman, after all. The real monster was with us the entire time, and he looks a lot like Christian Slater.

and I will never be set free

The answer to the mystery of Tyrell’s missing season turns out to be incredibly basic. As a result, “eps3.2_legacy.so” is much more of a character study rather than a proper episode. Sure, we learn a few new facts here and there, but its primary focus is Tyrell, and what makes him tick. If that’s not something you care about — or if this character doesn’t interest you as a person — this episode is going to be a slog for you. If you’re intrigued by Wellick’s slow revelation as someone who can go toe to toe with Elliot in terms of personality issues, you’ll find plenty to enjoy here.

We always knew there was something not quite right about Tyrell Wellick. He used to pay homeless people for the chance to beat them bloody, after all. He is a man looking for meaning, for something to fill the yawning void that sits at his center. That thing, it appears, is Elliot. “eps3.2_legacy.so” reveals that Tyrell is not Elliot’s partner, but his acolyte, the truest sort of believer who willingly risked death rather than be turned away.  According to Wellick, his connection to Elliot is basically a cosmic one. He sees their bond as fated, their revolution as a destiny. The man is bonkers, yes, but from this moment forward he is 100% Elliot’s.

In fact, this episode takes incredible pains to explicitly underline Tyrell’s obsessive infatuation with Elliot.  Subtext, it would appear, is a thing of the past. “I will always be loyal to Elliot,” Tyrell sobs during his interrogation at the hands of the Dark Army, before giving up every aspect of his life that isn’t connected to the hacker and his mission. He misses his son and clearly dislikes reading about his wife on gossip blogs, but he yearns for Elliot more. He asks for him constantly, plaintively wondering when when they will ever reunite.

Untangling his complicated feelings for and relationship with Elliot will surely take the rest of season 3, but Wellick’s desperation — to be included, to matter, to impress — is palpable.  His decision to shave and wear a suit to his reunion with Elliot (“I have to look my best for him”) is simultaneously extremely creepy and deeply tragic. This is a man who is broken. And, despite what we all may have thought for the past year, he  doesn’t have any more answers than we do.

As the episode comes to a close, Angela tells Wellick the truth about Elliot’s multiple personalities. He appears confused, at least until he looks at a recuperating Elliot to find Mr. Robot gazing back at him. Elliot, you see, was never his partner at all. It was that other guy.

Wellick’s discovery of this truth is necessary to move this story forward. But there’s still a strange sadness in watching his illusions shatter. (And this episode is significant if only because now we know why that matters so much.)

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Mr. Robot continues next Wednesday on USA Network.