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Rarity
Oct 21, 2010

~*4 LIFE*~
Is it just me or was the Red Wheelbarrow worker that walked past Dom as she went to the loo Bobby Cannavale without his glasses/moustache?

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Gonz
Dec 22, 2009

"Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?"
Whiterose built the quantum mirror laser thingy from Paycheck and is going to try and kill Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman, now.

Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene
Maybe all the parallel universe bizzaro stuff is just an affectation adopted by a scheming political force of nature to obscure their true purpose of simply taking over the world?

maskenfreiheit
Dec 30, 2004

Kawasaki Nun posted:

Maybe all the parallel universe bizzaro stuff is just an affectation adopted by a scheming political force of nature to obscure their true purpose of simply taking over the world?

I like this theory

Blind Rasputin
Nov 25, 2002

Farewell, good Hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.

They annexed the Congo to get specific diamonds out of Solomon’s lost city. These will be used to power ultra powerful lasers needed for the fusion protoflux reactor.

Also here is a picture of Angela

Gonz
Dec 22, 2009

"Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?"
I hope Mr. Robot doesn't get engulfed in molten rock!

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Rarity posted:

Is it just me or was the Red Wheelbarrow worker that walked past Dom as she went to the loo Bobby Cannavale without his glasses/moustache?


It's just you.

counterfeitsaint posted:

I don't fully understand it, but from what I do understand, they had a backdoor where they'd update the UPS firmware with evil explody code. Elliott changed the UPSes so that they would only accepted updated firmware that was trusted and legit with a security certificate of some sort. So Angela got into the ultra secure airgapped computer and got a copy of the keys so they sign their firmware with the actual security certificate so the UPSse would once again accept their evil explody code.
Thank you, this makes so much sense!

Accretionist posted:

They covered more ground in two episodes than all of season 2
Yeah this is basically why the episode is scoring so high with critics. Even one of my friends who quit the show after last season and is watching now because he's a slave to his DVR said it was an amazing episode. People who are super in love with the show don't want to admit it but the over-arching plot pacing is super important and this show has been failing at it terribly since S2 started. That said, I've always explained that the reasoning for this is because it's a feature film turned into a TV show. At this point, it's possible that this latest episode is the end of Act 2 and now Act 3 gets to begin, which would be an interesting idea instead of having the next 1 or 2 (read: final) seasons be Act 3 alone.

PhazonLink posted:

Question about people that work in IT.

Is one of your co-workers having an episode and smashing their computer or smashing their head against pipes unremarkable? Those two unnamed dudes seem remarkably chill about it.
The guy in pipeland seemed to just be in avoidance mode, not chill. I think it's rather normal for anyone to be in avoidance mode if they're all alone in a hallway and see someone smashing themselves against walls. The guy in computer smash room was scared stiff until Elliot looked at him, at which point he ran away. Neither of these seemed like "chill" cases to me and both were realistically just trying to avoid Elliot. No, people doing that stuff isn't normal.

Hey so call me crazy but is a single trash bin on fire really going to make that much smoke? (Nobody needs to reply to this.)

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Nov 17, 2017

Blind Rasputin
Nov 25, 2002

Farewell, good Hunter. May you find your worth in the waking world.

DaveKap posted:


Hey so call me crazy but is a single trash bin on fire really going to make that much smoke? (Nobody needs to reply to this.)

When I burned all my wife’s (ex-wife’s) stuff it took a solid week for her to recover from the smoke inhalation. So yes.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Blind Rasputin posted:

When I burned all my wife’s (ex-wife’s) stuff it took a solid week for her to recover from the smoke inhalation. So yes.
I don't know what's crazier. This entire post or the idea that your ex-wife had "all her stuff" in a single trash bin.

Hey Thread

Blind Rasputin posted:

Is the young Angela the same girl that Angela met earlier?
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6403396/?ref_=tt_cl_t13
She's the same girl who interviewed Angela in Whiterose's room. Welp, here's your loving time travel, thread!

Edit: Or she was drugged and we weren't seeing reality during that interview or who the gently caress else knows. Honestly I wouldn't be too surprised if at this point Angela's the insane person and Elliot's the sane one.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 11:13 on Nov 17, 2017

Kabuki Shipoopi
Jun 22, 2007

If I fall, you don't get the head, right? If you lose the head, you're fucked!

maskenfreiheit posted:

Well they play fast and loose with psychiatry... the whole split personality thing is totally Hollywood.

I’ve gotten a strong Lynch vibe at a couple points but I’m hoping they don’t go down that road.

What’s more likely IMHO is a quantum computer or some sort of simulation that can “predict” the future in a “we ran several scenarios and this one seems statistically likely “

See now this, I can sort of buy into.

Shooting Blanks
Jun 6, 2007

Real bullets mess up how cool this thing looks.

-Blade



nickmeister posted:

One thing that really disappointed me was that Eliot never got revenge on that drug dealer for killing his friend. But I guess he was bigger fish to fry now, lol!

The show keeps coming back to this idea of "nobody has died/will die" like some sort of alternate reality. What do you want to bet that she'll be his reintroduction into the final season when they get to whatever conclusion Sam Esmail is aiming for?

Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene

Shooting Blanks posted:

The show keeps coming back to this idea of "nobody has died/will die" like some sort of alternate reality. What do you want to bet that she'll be his reintroduction into the final season when they get to whatever conclusion Sam Esmail is aiming for?

I bet nothing because that's an idiotic premise which reduces the stakes of everyone's collective actions to 0.

I dunno why all of you want to buy in to clearly crazy Angela's delusions. Considering her connection to Price it seems plausible to me that Whiterose is simply having her drugged and abused to A)gently caress with price and B) maintain a well placed asset in E-corp.

That even Elliot was saying she sounds crazy should give you some indication of where the show is headed.

Accretionist
Nov 7, 2012
I BELIEVE IN STUPID CONSPIRACY THEORIES
I'll be incredibly entertained if Whiterose convinced Angela that reality's a simulation and their quantum computer can edit this reality.

Kuroyama
Sep 15, 2012
no fucking Anime in GiP

Kawasaki Nun posted:

Maybe all the parallel universe bizzaro stuff is just an affectation adopted by a scheming political force of nature to obscure their true purpose of simply taking over the world?

I'm willing to accept that Whiterose legitimately believes she'll be able to control time/universes/whatever, but is also trying to establish world domination as a consolation prize.

Feenix
Mar 14, 2003
Sorry, guy.
The problem with cockteasing all this fantastical poo poo (which, set in a real world setting, becomes fascinating) is that to eventually go “ hey I knew we teased this and alluded to a character being convinced it was real but we’re going to do a hasty 180 and just drop that poo poo with a “it was all a lie! We just wanted financial superiority!” is tantamount to having a movie about aliens taking over the world and get right to where the ships land and the doors are opening and then, smash cut, a kid wakes up, the whole thing was a dream! Now it’s a movie about a family drama.

Like, I don’t mind Mr. Robot being about a hacker and the societal aftermath of their actions, but don’t lean so heavily on this other crazy poo poo if you’re just gonna handwave it.

And that’s why I think the crazy poo poo might be real.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
Yeah I don't think Esmail would so heavily tease reality fuckery (even with the editing, the way what "we" see has been glitching when Elliot/Mr. Robot swap) and then go "lmao nah just kiddin' yall"

For better or worse, whether you like it or not, I'm pretty sure some genuine Weird poo poo is gonna go down, or it's going to be completely ambiguous and Lynchian, which is functionally the same thing from the audience POV

Angela meeting her younger self kinda cements that for me. You don't just do something like that "for the lulz"

Fried Watermelon
Dec 29, 2008


When Irving chats with Angela in the Red Wheelbarrow she asks him if Whiterose showed him.

Irving goes into a monologue about how technology is become so crazy, that no one can predict what happens next.

Nearly every episode this season has teased something regarding parallel realities. I'm expecting that to be the reveal at the end of this season, season 4 deals with that aftermath

Harminoff
Oct 24, 2005

👽
Maybe there is a parallel universe/reset but Whiterose couldn't get the U.S. / Price behind it because they had no reason to, but now they do?

Or maybe Whiterose knows about us too and is just loving with us?

Laterite
Mar 14, 2007

It's Gutfest '89
Grimey Drawer
My problem with these theories is why the show would introduce time travel/alternate dimensions 4 years into its run? My assumption all along has been that Esmail is playing the audience with these ideas as he has with many other tropes throughout the series. The show's POV so far has been to depict Elliot as a mentally ill unreliable narrator, with all "real life" consequences stemming from that fact. Tyrell and Angela are now shown to be highly unstable as well. I'm on the fence on whether Whiterose is just as delusional wrt time travel or if it's just another page in her playbook to sow influence and control. I lean to the former, and that her quest will result in a bad accident with the accelerator that fucks up the world even more, but WILL NOT actually involve alternate realities or time travel or anything.

In short, if Mr. Robot becomes just another time fuckery show, I will be severely disappointed.

Laterite fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Nov 17, 2017

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

Harminoff posted:

Maybe there is a parallel universe/reset but Whiterose couldn't get the U.S. / Price behind it because they had no reason to, but now they do?

Or maybe Whiterose knows about us too and is just loving with us?

This is actually a really good idea. Destroy the US so that the US Government has a reason to want an alternate reality machine.

Alternate realities I would be fine with. I don't really want to see time travel and causality fuckery.

I kind of like the idea of Mr Robot being Elliot from another reality and having essentially hacked his brain across realities.

It's similar to how things work in Neal Stephenson's Anathem.

d0grent
Dec 5, 2004

The Dark Wind posted:

Totally forgot about the particle collider at the beginning of the season, didn't register it. Right before the start of the dialogue with Whiterose, there's a random scientist guiding some other folks around and he says the following:


Feels too elaborate to be just some throwaway thing. I hadn't even thought about it until reading this thread, but it feels quite possible that there might be some sort of sci-fi time-traveling/parallel-universe-hopping aspect that is getting ready to unfold. Maybe that's why Angela doesn't think anyone is going to die, because of some sort of understanding of infinite parallel universes? Not sure how this ties into China or Whiterose's overarching ambitions, but it doesn't feel totally out of the realm of possibility. :tinfoil:

Yes this has been telegraphed since early-mid season 2

bring back old gbs
Feb 28, 2007

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Harminoff posted:

Maybe there is a parallel universe/reset but Whiterose couldn't get the U.S. / Price behind it because they had no reason to, but now they do?

Or maybe Whiterose knows about us too and is just loving with us?

lmaooo season finale cliffhanger with Whiterose looking into the camera and addressing the audience would be fuuuuuuuucked and I hope it happens

d0grent
Dec 5, 2004

Laterite posted:

My problem with these theories is why the show would introduce time travel/alternate dimensions 4 years into its run? My assumption all along has been that Esmail is playing the audience with these ideas as he has with many other tropes throughout the series. The show's POV so far has been to depict Elliot as a mentally ill unreliable narrator, with all "real life" consequences stemming from that fact. Tyrell and Angela are now shown to be highly unstable as well. I'm on the fence on whether Whiterose is just as delusional wrt time travel or if it's just another page in her playbook to sow influence and control. I lean to the former, and that her quest will result in a bad accident with the accelerator that fucks up the world even more, but WILL NOT actually involve alternate realities or time travel or anything.

In short, if Mr. Robot becomes just another time fuckery show, I will be severely disappointed.

its not introducing it 4 years in, it started foreshadowing this stuff pretty heavily in season 2

To quote a post I made like a month ago:

d0grent posted:

Season 2 Episode 5 - when Dom is speaking with whiterose/zhang in his bedroom

"Have you ever wondered what the world would look like if the 5/9 hack never happened? How the world would look right now? In fact, some believe there are alternate realities playing out that very scenario. With other lives that we're leading. Other people that we've become. The contemplation moves me very deeply."

Besides, the idea that reality is a computer simulation wouldn't feel out of place in a show about computer hacking, even if it is an ambitious route to take with the plot.

empty baggie
Oct 22, 2003

And, as pointed out earlier in the thread, It was mentioned in season 1 that Eliot and Angelas favorite movie growing up was Back to the Future 2, which would definitely be the one movie in the series that heavily deals with alternate timelines. I'm not a big fan of the thought that the show is going this route, but the signs are definitely there.

maskenfreiheit
Dec 30, 2004

The Dark Wind posted:

Totally forgot about the particle collider at the beginning of the season, didn't register it. Right before the start of the dialogue with Whiterose, there's a random scientist guiding some other folks around and he says the following:


Feels too elaborate to be just some throwaway thing. I hadn't even thought about it until reading this thread, but it feels quite possible that there might be some sort of sci-fi time-traveling/parallel-universe-hopping aspect that is getting ready to unfold. Maybe that's why Angela doesn't think anyone is going to die, because of some sort of understanding of infinite parallel universes? Not sure how this ties into China or Whiterose's overarching ambitions, but it doesn't feel totally out of the realm of possibility. :tinfoil:

even if you can jump from reality to reality, her parents are still dead.

unless they want to pull a rick & morty and just feel no attachment and swap realities when poo poo hits the fan

one movie they seem to have not ripped off yet is the matrix, so maybe white rose will just shove angela into a matrix where her mommy is alive

Poppyseed Poundcake
Feb 23, 2007
I guess they decided to end the plotline where white rose is a lady. The last few episodes she’s looked pretty manly.

T-man
Aug 22, 2010


Talk shit, get bzzzt.

Here's an idea I came up with stoned:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk
There's this "thought experiment" that goes that, in the far future, a highly developed AI creates the technology to simulate long-dead humans using remaining historical data and magic determinism. (It then goes on to say that the AI is Good but also torments anyone who didn't help the AI come into existence who knew it could happen. It's pretty dumb.)

But what if that's what Whiterose is selling? "Help me build a computer that can recreate anyone from memory or mementos, like a souped up version of the sexbot in Black Mirror." It fits thematically with S1 showing how much of our daily lives are recording online, but can also be subverted by the positive bias in most people's social media profiles. And if it can recreate people, it can also duplicate them forever, no matter the time since they were duplicated. (And, hence, help Whiterose get around her mortality.)

e:

Poppyseed Poundcake posted:

I guess they decided to end the plotline where white rose is a lady. The last few episodes she’s looked pretty manly.

I'm 99% sure that Whiterose is supposed to be a trans women, a type of person not very welcome in the Chinese government. Just because she hasn't been alone or with accepting people, and hence is in "guy mode" as trans women call it, doesn't mean she isn't daydreaming about dresses and pickles.

T-man fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Nov 17, 2017

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

Poppyseed Poundcake posted:

I guess they decided to end the plotline where white rose is a lady. The last few episodes she’s looked pretty manly.

I can't tell if you're being serious?

White Rose is a lady, and is the alter-ego of Chinese Minister of State Security Zhi Zhang, who is a man. The Minister has always presented as male, and White Rose has always presented as female.

It is unknown whether they are one personality or two. It's possible if the alternate reality thing is real, that Mr. Robot and White Rose are hacking in from the other reality, and White Rose is allied with Minister Zhang, instead of being enemies like Elliot and Mr. Robot.

edit: ^ That's also basically the technology from the end of A.I.

CheddarGoblin
Jan 12, 2005
oh

Blind Rasputin posted:

Is the young Angela the same girl that Angela met earlier?

DaveKap posted:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6403396/?ref_=tt_cl_t13
She's the same girl who interviewed Angela in Whiterose's room.

I think this is huge. Also when I went back to rewatch both of these scenes I noticed the message on the cake in the flashback:

Gobbeldygook
May 13, 2009
Hates Native American people and tries to justify their genocides.

Put this racist on ignore immediately!

DaveKap posted:

Hey Thread

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6403396/?ref_=tt_cl_t13
She's the same girl who interviewed Angela in Whiterose's room. Welp, here's your loving time travel, thread!

Edit: Or she was drugged and we weren't seeing reality during that interview or who the gently caress else knows. Honestly I wouldn't be too surprised if at this point Angela's the insane person and Elliot's the sane one.
One of the writers talked about that scene at the time.

quote:

Interesting! Okay, forgotten. The girl asking the questions looks like a young Angela. Coincidental, or deliberate?

I think it’s safe to say that most things we do on this show are deliberate. The notion of “doubles” is prevalent in both Mr. Robot and Lolita. In our show, we have Elliot and Mr. Robot, who are two sides of the same coin. I think it was part of Whiterose’s plan to have Angela confront a young girl who looked very much like her. Even in Lolita, you have the characters of Humbert and Quilty who function as doubles in throughout the story.
If Angela was interrogated by what she recognized as her younger self, rather than just a girl who looked an awful lot like her, that means Angela is an unreliable narrator or they have some way to alter reality, access alternate realities, or the like.

maskenfreiheit
Dec 30, 2004
Meanwhile, at Dom's desk

maskenfreiheit fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Nov 17, 2017

Skizzzer
Sep 27, 2011

Gobbeldygook posted:

One of the writers talked about that scene at the time.

If Angela was interrogated by what she recognized as her younger self, rather than just a girl who looked an awful lot like her, that means Angela is an unreliable narrator or they have some way to alter reality, access alternate realities, or the like.

unreliable narrators is part of the fabric of the show. we are figments of Elliot's imagination.

i really like all the parallel dimension hints in the show, but i still think there are strong 'realistic' reasons for what we're seeing. Eg, the flashback Angela had, who's to say she didn't replace her mental image of herself with the girl that she was interrogated by? At this point, I think it's safe to say Angela's memories are suspect and it might be reasonable to say Whiterose is omniscient enough to know exactly what buttons to push for Angela.

Samizdata
May 14, 2007

Skizzzer posted:

unreliable narrators is part of the fabric of the show. we are figments of Elliot's imagination.

i really like all the parallel dimension hints in the show, but i still think there are strong 'realistic' reasons for what we're seeing. Eg, the flashback Angela had, who's to say she didn't replace her mental image of herself with the girl that she was interrogated by? At this point, I think it's safe to say Angela's memories are suspect and it might be reasonable to say Whiterose is omniscient enough to know exactly what buttons to push for Angela.

Well, that whole "interview" was nothing but a twisted psych profiling session, and if you think Whiterose doesn't do due diligence and had her previously profiled every way from Sunday, with the interview designed to lock down anything they had questions about, I think you would be sadly mistaken.

KoRMaK
Jul 31, 2012



I thought that this was the season finale, and that the ep ended like 3 times at the end.

Each time I was so relieved. I'm glad they showed what he was seeing. thought they were gonna be cheap and cliff hang us but they didn't. Shows good

Fried Watermelon
Dec 29, 2008


KoRMaK posted:

I thought that this was the season finale, and that the ep ended like 3 times at the end.

Each time I was so relieved. I'm glad they showed what he was seeing. thought they were gonna be cheap and cliff hang us but they didn't. Shows good

Yeah and with all the teasing of parallel dimensions I was not expecting the huge terrorist attack to be the reveal.

Kabuki Shipoopi
Jun 22, 2007

If I fall, you don't get the head, right? If you lose the head, you're fucked!

d0grent posted:

its not introducing it 4 years in, it started foreshadowing this stuff pretty heavily in season 2

To quote a post I made like a month ago:


Besides, the idea that reality is a computer simulation wouldn't feel out of place in a show about computer hacking, even if it is an ambitious route to take with the plot.

Fans reading into innocuous dialogue isn't really foreshadowing though. Also, it would feel extremely out of place in a show about hacking that is actual.

I think there is a huge misunderstanding about how accurate the hacking is in this show. That is to say, very. Blowing up ups's is a little extreme, but everything else has been very legit.

This would be like watching Mindhunter, and one of the characters suddenly becoming psychic like Professor Xavier.

maskenfreiheit
Dec 30, 2004
What if young Angela is a clone? Human cloning isn't too far out of left field.

White Rose, being a weirdo manipulative type, clones Angela, then uses the clone to trick her into thinking WR can jump between parallel universes or time travel or whatever.

Skizzzer
Sep 27, 2011

Samizdata posted:

Well, that whole "interview" was nothing but a twisted psych profiling session, and if you think Whiterose doesn't do due diligence and had her previously profiled every way from Sunday, with the interview designed to lock down anything they had questions about, I think you would be sadly mistaken.

oh absolutely.

lots to gush about lately, but I particularly appreciated Elliot being the guy now saying "what the gently caress is wrong with you" rather than the other way around.

Shooting Blanks
Jun 6, 2007

Real bullets mess up how cool this thing looks.

-Blade



Kawasaki Nun posted:

I bet nothing because that's an idiotic premise which reduces the stakes of everyone's collective actions to 0.

I dunno why all of you want to buy in to clearly crazy Angela's delusions. Considering her connection to Price it seems plausible to me that Whiterose is simply having her drugged and abused to A)gently caress with price and B) maintain a well placed asset in E-corp.

That even Elliot was saying she sounds crazy should give you some indication of where the show is headed.

Yeah, this show has never tried misdirection. Not even once.

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Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene

Samizdata posted:

Well, that whole "interview" was nothing but a twisted psych profiling session, and if you think Whiterose doesn't do due diligence and had her previously profiled every way from Sunday, with the interview designed to lock down anything they had questions about, I think you would be sadly mistaken.

This seems like the most likely situation. Angela was already in an incredibly delicate situation, and had literally just put their entire plant operation at risk. Kidnapping her and loving with her head is a much quieter solution compared to putting two bullets in her, particularly given her connection to Elliot and his usefulness to the Dark Army

Shooting Blanks posted:

Yeah, this show has never tried misdirection. Not even once.

Yeah the misdirection is predicated on Elliot lying to us, his imaginary friend, about aspects of his reality or disease. Why the gently caress do you think this show about hacking features some type of chinese witch? If Whiterose really has such amazing things in store at the end of her plan, why not simply bring elliot or Price into the fold by demonstrating it to them? Why the subterfuge? (Hint: It's because the show is loving with you)

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