Mr. Robot season 4 episode 2 review: A family-fueled hour with a shocking twist

The relationship between the Alderson siblings forms the emotional spine of a strong episode of Mr. Robot that hints at even bigger twists to come.

Mr. Robot is the sort of drama that’s always prided itself on its technical wizardry – whether that means depicting complicated, thrilling hack scenarios or crafting an episode that unfolds in real time over what appears to be a continuous take – but it’s the characters that really make the show great. And ever since the series began, it’s Elliot’s relationship with his sister Darlene that has formed the emotional spine of the series.

Over the course of the past few seasons, Darlene and Elliot have worked together, been at odds, kept secrets, lied to each other, and more  – but they have  always had each other’s backs when it counted. No matter what, their love for each other has been a firm truth planted in the often swirling and confusing world of this show.

Following the season premiere’s non-stop thriller-style story, “Payment Required” is a quieter hour, and one which is almost exclusively focused on the Alderson family. Sure, we see some fallout from last week, specifically related to the fact that Philip Price saved Elliot from a fatal overdose and his ultimate decision to help try and overthrow his former partner. (There’s a whole other conversation to be had about the way Angela’s death is used as little more than a device to motivate men to action, but we’ll get to that later.)

But even though “Payment Required” drops plenty of information about Whiterose’s personal history and the internal set-up of both E-Corp and the Dark Army, it’s not actually about any of those things. It’s about the Alderson family. As soon as Darlene calls to tell Elliot their mother is dead the entire tone of the episode changes, becoming less about the overarching Whiterose plot and more about the things these siblings have survived, simply because they faced them together.

It’s not a secret that the Alderson family was troubled and that neither Elliot nor Darlene had a particularly great childhood, especially after their father’s death. Therefore, it’s understandable that neither of them seems to know precisely how to grieve their mother’s passing – none of them were particularly close, and they weren’t exactly getting ready to reunite for family time during the holidays.

Mr. Robot presents this in a refreshingly straightforward way – Elliot’s more interested in powering through the details required of him, throwing his mother’s personal items into boxes with obvious disinterest and choosing the cheapest, simplest burial options offered. Darlene, for her part, becomes overly attached to a mysterious secret deposit box, hoping that it will hold the secrets of her mother’s life that she never shared with her children. But, as the episode ends, we learn that all of this is a cover for the Alderson siblings struggling to figure out how to grieve Angela, someone who had a much more lasting and impactful presence in their lives.

The scene in which Darlene and Elliot listen to a cassette tape message they recorded with Angela as children, wishing Mrs. Moss a Happy Mother’s Day is heart-rending, as it illustrates without saying so directly just how much Angela meant to both of them, and how absent their own mother was from their lives.

By the end of the hour, Darlene and Elliot have patched up many of the problems between them, and Elliot has informed his sister about his plans to go after Whiterose and bring down the shadowy conglomerate of elites she heads. Darlene has confessed to her murder of an e-Corp lawyer way back in season 2 – a narrative call-back that none of us were probably expecting, tbh – and declared that she’s helping Elliot’s crusade whether he wants her to or not.

This is all honestly a scene that feels like a long time coming, but is nevertheless an  extremely emotionally satisfying one. Darlene and Elliot haven’t been entirely on the same page and working together for any extended period of time since Mr. Robot’s first season, and it’s great to see the Aldersons so in-sync again after so long. (Not for nothing, but Rami Malek and Carly Chaikin are wonderful together, and I’ve honestly missed their sibling chemistry so much.)

However, not all is perfect in Alderson family land. Darlene reminds Elliot about the return of drug dealer and murderer Fernando Vera – who, in case anyone’s forgotten murdered Elliot’s girlfriend Shayla back in season 1 – information that her brother is sure he has never heard before. Darlene insists she told him about it, presumably at some point during the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4. Elliot has no memory of this and, more disturbingly, neither does Mr. Robot.

So…does Elliot have a third personality we’ve never met before?

The continual appearances of a younger Elliot that’s safeguarded by his mother certainly seem to indicate that that’s the case. But if that’s true – what does that mean for the rest of the season? And what does it mean for Elliot’s personal psychological journey? We’ve seen Elliot and Mr. Robot go from being constantly at odds to partners and something almost like friends, an evolution that in some ways stands in for Elliot’s own ability to heal and accept himself. But if there’s a third personality that neither he nor Mr. Robot are aware of…well, that kind of changes things doesn’t it?

The final season of Mr. Robot continues Sunday nights at 10pm on USA Network.