Mr. Robot season 3 finale preview: “shutdown –r”

The season finale of Mr. Robot season 3 is here and the odds are good that we’re not ready for whatever is about to happen.

The Mr. Robot season 3 finale is here, and odds are pretty good that we’re not at all ready for whatever’s coming. (It seems kind of wild to think that we’ve reached the finale already, but, here we are.)

Last week, the season’s penultimate episode saw Elliot and his alter ego Mr. Robot strike what appears to be an uneasy truce after they both (separately) manage to get on the same page about the Dark Army threat. Darlene got caught trying to steal Dom’s FBI badge and confessed everything about their plan to undo 5/9 to her partner, putting her life in danger. Whiterose and her assistant decided it’s time to take out Elliot. Elliot, for his part, found out that the FBI is compromised.

In short: This episode put a lot of pieces in place for this week’s finale. And it left all of us incredibly anxious about the (many, terrible) things that could happen to our faves as a result.

It doesn’t help that the official synopsis for the finale seems surprisingly grim.

"elliot tries to save darlene but sh*t doesn’t go as planned. mr. robot needs to step up or step back ffs. angela considers the price."

This implies that … well, a whole heck of a lot is going to happen in this finale. Yes, this synopsis is super vague, as is par for the course for this show, but it also hints at the big things we could be seeing.

This not only makes the threat against Darlene seem very real but also implies that Elliot could, somehow make things worse for his sister by trying to help her. Whether this means that Elliot himself ends up in FBI custody, or that his actions somehow put her life at further risk is unclear. It could be either — or possibly both. You never know with this show.

The synopsis also indicates that the ongoing evolution of Elliot and Mr. Robot’s partnership will continue in the finale. This is a development that will likely have big ramifications for season 4, depending on what the new relationship between the disparate pieces of Elliot’s psyche turns out to be.

If you need something else to worry about, the episode trailer for the finale also indicates that something big is definitely coming.

In it, there’s a shot of virtually every major character looking various degrees of upset, as an Elliot voiceover ominously talks about how everything is his fault.

Of course, we have no idea what any of this means. Plus, the Mr. Robot trailers haven’t always been super forthcoming about what we’re watching, or the context for the clips they include.

That said, there are a ton of dangling plot threads this episode could deal with. Will Angela finally tell us what it is that Whiterose promised her? Or will she realize that she too may have been misled by a group only out for themselves? Can Darlene survive the Dark Army knowing that she has a plan to undo the 5/9 hack? Will Dom figure out that her boss isn’t just a straight up jerk, but a Dark Army double agent? And where does Tyrell Wellick fit into all this? True, he and Elliot haven’t exactly been on the best of terms of late. But he also realized last week that he’s basically nothing more than a puppet of the Dark Army now. Will that push him to the other side?

Whatever happens, it’s clearly going to be a wild ride. Hold on tight, folks.

Next: Mr. Robot season 3 review: eps3.8_stage3.torrent

Mr. Robot season 3 concludes Wednesday, Dec. 13 on USA Network.