The first episode of Mr. Robot’s second season premieres this Wednesday at 8:30EST. USA has already temporarily released the first half of the two hour long premiere, and the internet is already abuzz with theories.
Here are some thoughts and predictions for the upcoming season:
Elliot is institutionalized.
In the first half of the premiere, we see Elliot locked in a strict regimen. He does not have access to an internet connection, eats everyday with the same guy (Leon played by Joey Bada$$) and lives with his mother who controls his strict schedule.
Reddit user Extenso came up with a theory that Elliot is actually in prison. His mother acts as a prison guard, telling him to wake up and to go to sleep. When his mother opens the door to his bedroom, a small rectangle with minimal furniture, she opens it sideways like a prison door and you hear a metallic creek, unnatural to a domestic home.
Also Elliot’s friend Leon raises questions. Why is Leon, a seemingly cool and talkative guy hanging out with a creepy bore like Elliot? They go watch people play basketball everyday, something that doesn’t interest Elliot. The diner at which they eat serves food cafeteria style. Why would Leon adhere to the same schedule as Elliot unless they were trapped together?
But Elliot’s institutionalization, whether it be in prison or some kind of mental health facility is lyprobab not due to him being arrested for the E Corp hack. This is evident by the visit from Gideon, which plays out very much like visiting hours at a prison. Gideon threatens to tell the FBI all he knows connecting Elliot to the hack, revealing that Elliot has not been caught yet.
So presumably, if this theory is true, Elliot either checked into a mental health facility or got arrested or institutionalized due to the downward spiral of his insanity.
Plus there is a scene from the season’s trailer where two big bald dudes wrestle Elliot out bed, much like you’d see a patient wrangled in a psych ward. The evidence is looking strong for this theory.
Angela will be the E Corp CEO’s protege.
The scenes from the the season’s trailer between Angela and CEO Philip Price look awfully like Emperor-Anakin scenes in Star Wars Ep 3. A distinctive line is Angela saying, “I will follow my dreams no matter what.” What are her dreams? It seemed last season it was to take down E Corp, but now is it to assume the ridiculously aggrandized position of CTO?
What does this QR code mean in Elliot’s journal.
During his regimen at his mom’s house/psych ward, Elliot keeps a journal to prove his own sanity. In it he sketches the QR code above. A Redditor was able to clean up the image to make it scannable and it leads to www.conficturaindustries.com. The site looks like a goofy 90s era page with the ToS linking back to USA’s website. Apparently “confictura” is fantasy or invention in Latin.
Some other domains registered by Mr. Robot are evil-corp-usa.com and e-corp-usa.com, essentially mirror sites with one portraying the company as evil and the other filled with corporate marketing garbage.
What does this all mean? Maybe nothing, but a fun easter egg.
Is Tyrell Wellick alive?
Will we see a return of the sexually ambiguous, ladder climbing Swede, who made such an impression the first season? We see Elliot reach for the the gun hidden in the popcorn machine in the leaked first episode, but the show cuts out there. It seems as if the showrunners want us to think he’s dead, but are they trying too hard?
The show just wouldn’t be as fun without a deranged psychopath who will do anything for the CTO job. Or maybe he was just popped in the head in the back of the arcade like everybody believes he was.
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