History NightmareFuel / MrRobot

--> '''Mr. Robot:''' When that cold, brutal reality closes in on us, [[ThisIsGonnaSuck we're gonna need a friend.]]

--> '''"Original" Elliot:''' I think you should look away, too.

--> ''Please, don't judge me. This was inevitable. You saw the earthquakes. Both of us can't exist here in this world. [[IDidWhatIHadToDo I had no other choice.]]''

** The contents of a hidden flash drive Mr. Robot apparently left for Elliot: a looping Vimeo clip showing Elliot in the distance, repeatedly jumping from the pier in the second episode, with the title [[BlackComedy "Boardwalk Fail"]]. The way it's shot makes Elliot look more like a shadow than a person.

'''There are unmarked spoilers below.'''

* Turns out that the Elliot we've been following [[spoiler: the entire series wasn't the real Elliot at all but rather another alternate personality known as "The Mastermind".]]

* Elliot's UnreliableNarrator status gets taken UpToEleven in the eighth episode, where he finds out that Mr. Robot is his father, Darlene is his sister, and he may have erased his own memories in the same CD-burning fashion he's dealt with everyday hacking jobs. We can't trust ''anything'' he sees, hears, or says anymore. Gets worse in the following episode, when we learn that Mr. Robot isn't even real and Elliot's father is deceased. Every time Mr. Robot roughed Elliot up, including tossing him from a pier in the second episode, was Elliot doing it to himself.

* The PersonalHorror that is Elliot Alderson's mental illness. He is haunted by an [[SplitPersonality alternate personality]] named Mr. Robot whom he devised as a youth to cope with the death of his father, Edward. As such, Mr. Robot appears more or less exactly like Edward, but [[HisOwnWorstEnemy frequently torments Elliot]] and takes over as the dominant personality [[GollumMadeMeDoIt for sinister purposes]]. Because of these personality shifts, Elliot is often unaware of certain actions that he may or may have not done while in the backseat, including ''murdering another person''. It has also been shown that Elliot can be aware of when Mr. Robot is taking control, and [[AndIMustScream can only watch]] as his consciousness is [[SplitPersonalityTakeover shoved away into the proverbial closet of his mind]]. This can last from a few seconds to a few '''days''', and Elliot almost always has to reap the consequences of whatever took place in those time intervals despite him being technically innocent and having no involvement in the matters at hand. Mr. Robot is a literal MindVirus; one that cannot be truly eliminated without Elliot ceasing to be, [[spoiler: which nearly ends up being the case by season three.]]

[[folder:season 1.0]]

* Elliot's [[spoiler: Dissociative Identity Disorder isn't scary by itself, as it's simply a complex coping method for childhood abuse. Symptoms like losing time and the overall feeling of something unknown could be scary to the people experiencing the disorder. Thankfully the season 3 finale has shown that Mr. Robot and Elliot plan to work together rather than in season 2 where they were trying to destroy one another.]]

* Elliot finding [[spoiler: [[KilledOffForReal Shayla's body]]]] in the trunk of the car. His inner narration completely cuts out, leaving only [[NothingIsScarier uncharacteristic silence while the camera follows him for a while instead of showing what he found]]. It takes almost a minute before we're shown [[spoiler: the blood, dashing all hope that she's just unconscious.]]
** Then the horrible realization that slowly dawns on not only us, but must be on Elliot that [[spoiler: all of his actions have been for nothing and that he has endangered who knows how many lives by releasing the absolute worst of society]]. That laugh Vera had after Elliot told him how he was going to break him out suddenly [[HarsherInHindsight takes a much darker meaning]].
* Tyrell and Scott's wife from the above example meet on the roof of an office building while Scott is celebrating his promotion to CTO at E Corp, the job Tyrell has been shooting for. After a brief talk, Tyrell initiates a passionate make-out session, and they both fall to the floor while romantic music kicks on. [[spoiler: [[AxCrazy Then he slowly strangles her to death]] [[SoundtrackDissonance while the music continues.]]]]
* Elliot's UnreliableNarrator status gets taken UpToEleven in the eighth episode, [[spoiler: where he finds out that Mr. Robot is his father, Darlene is his sister, and he may have erased his own memories in the same CD-burning fashion he's dealt with everyday hacking jobs. We can't trust ''anything'' he sees, hears, or says anymore.]] Gets worse in the following episode, when [[spoiler: we learn that Mr. Robot isn't even real and Elliot's father is deceased. Every time Mr. Robot roughed Elliot up, including tossing him from a pier in the second episode, was Elliot doing it to himself.]]
** On the topic of "wh1ter0se" there's something unnerving with Elliot accusing [[spoiler:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the audience]]]] (in both narration and verbal dialogue) of [[spoiler:being "in on this"]], even going so far as to [[spoiler:[[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou throw the camera to the ground]]]].
* Near the end of the ninth episode, [[spoiler: Tyrell comes to visit Elliot, knowing that he is responsible for the hacking and desiring to be let into the loop. When Elliot initially proves uncooperative, Tyrell [[OhCrap puts on rubber gloves]] and [[DissonantSerenity quietly talks about how he felt while strangling Sarah Knowles]].]]

** [[spoiler: The effects of Elliot and Tyrell's successful hack. It almost feels like the apocalypse, something that is commented on by several people.]]
** Elliot waking up [[spoiler: in Tyrell's SUV, apparently having parked and slept there for two days, with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of where Tyrell is or what they did together]]. Elliot has a strong suspicion that he may have murdered Tyrell. This is never cleared up within the episode.]]
** An E Corp executive [[spoiler: loudly denouncing any hope of fixing the system after the hack, and promptly [[AteHisGun shooting himself]] on live television. This is ''not'' done with a GoryDiscretionShot or an invocation of PrettyLittleHeadshots.]]
*** [[spoiler:This is actually a reference to the RealLife televised suicide of Robert "Budd" Dwyer, right down to the executive demanding to be given his bag (containing the gun), mirroring Dwyer being handed a manila envelope containing the revolver he used to kill himself. Even his request that everyone "be calm" as he shoots himself in the mouth, the blood splatter on the window behind him and the blood running from his nose and mouth mirror the infamous Dwyer death tape.]]
** The contents of a hidden flash drive Mr. Robot apparently left for Elliot: [[spoiler: a looping Vimeo clip showing Elliot in the distance, repeatedly jumping from the pier in the second episode, with the title [[BlackComedy "Boardwalk Fail"]]. The way it's shot makes Elliot look more like a shadow than a person.]]
** [[spoiler: Elliot tries to confront "Mr. Robot" in the middle of the fsociety tribute march, only to start hallucinating his mother and himself as a child alongside him. He closes his eyes to escape their words, and when he opens them, the city is completely empty. [[FromBadToWorse Then all three of them pop up on a skyscraper's broadcast screen]] and taunt him with the fact that they will never go away.]]

[[folder:season 2.0]]

** Mr. Robot [[spoiler:(albeit a hallucination) shooting Elliot in the head at point blank range.]] This alone is a disturbing scene because of how realistic the effects are, but it becomes even creepier when [[spoiler: Elliot sits back up, unfazed, with the bullet wound still plainly visible. He later "bleeds" over his journal while writing.]]
** Elliot later [[spoiler: hallucinates Mr. Robot slicing Gideon's throat with a knife.]]
*** This takes on an even darker light with [[spoiler:Gideon's sudden death in the bar at the hands of a conspiracy theorist named "Brock". Doubles a TearJerker as Gideon has more or less lost everything at this point and now his life, too.]]
*** Reading the Red Wheelbarrow tie-in book reveals that Elliot was practically tortured by [[spoiler: Mr. Robot]] during his time in [[spoiler: prison]]. One instance has Elliot describing (in real-time no less) how Mr. Robot takes the pencil he is writing with and [[spoiler: ''''slices his fucking throat with it''''.]]
* In the second episode of the season, [[spoiler:Robot threatens Elliot again. He turns away, and when he turns back, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness he's smiling]]. Then he's ''laughing''.]]
* Elliot overdosing on Adderall causes him to hallucinate [[spoiler:that he has been kidnapped by TheMenInBlack and force-fed concrete]]. When he comes to he's vomiting violently. There is no VomitDiscretionShot. And then, after [[spoiler: realizing Mr. Robot made him hallucinate]], [[NauseaFuel he digs the pills out of the vomit and swallows them again]]. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Mr. Robot is horrified by how desperate Elliot is.]] The music (Mishima’s Opening by Phillip Glass) [[SoundtrackDissonance does not help at all.]]
** Later in the same episode, he takes massive amounts of Adderall again and [[spoiler: goes into a FreakOut where he behaves erratically and spontaneously before suddenly crashing. Seeing him hyperactive and overly open is nightmarish enough, but after five days without sleeping, he hallucinates Leon talking backwards, [[CreepyChild a trio of creepy little girls]] in [[MalevolentMaskedMen fsociety masks]] standing in his house, and a washing machine spinning behind his eyes.]]
* Ray's home business turns out to be [[spoiler:a Silk Road-esque black market on which drugs, weapons, and sex slaves are sold.]]
* At the end of "Logic Bomb", Dom walks through the FBI building in China and talks to her colleague about the situation. [[spoiler: Then, [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath out of]] [[JumpScare nowhere]], unidentified men in balaclavas storm into the building and start gunning people down. We only see from Dom's perspective, curled up behind a desk as she tries to fend them off, [[NothingIsScarier leaving the rest of the chaos to our imaginations]].]]

* The start of "m4ster-sl4ve" is a dream sequence presented [[StylisticSuck as a cheesy upbeat late '80s sitcom where Elliot and his family are driving down the road on a family vacation]] [[spoiler: but there are moments where the "sitcom" becomes very dark like when Elliot's father starts coughing up blood (mirroring his lukemia), Elliot's mom physically abuses Darlene, it turns out Tyrell is kidnapped in the trunk, a police officer who looks like Gideon is run over by a car being driven by Alf and Elliot looks at Darlene's Game Boy and the rear view mirrors of the car and sees himself being beaten up by Ray's thugs. These moments are made far more disturbing by the upbeat tone they are presented in, especially with the laugh track laughing over it all.]]

* In the episode, "Handshake", Elliot is dragged into an alley by a bunch of neo-Nazis who were pissed that he [[spoiler: shut down Ray's site and got him arrested.]] They pin him up against a fence, beat him up, then the leader says he "needs to have his spirit broken". [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil One of them starts pulling down his own pants, with the very heavy implication of how exactly they were going to break his spirit.]] Fortunately for Elliot (and rather unfortunately for the neo-Nazis), Leon comes out of nowhere and slaughters them all with just a shiv, ending with a literal AssShove on one of the mooks.
* The entirety of "Hidden Process" is a case of NothingIsScarier, as each scene slowly ramps up the tension, but the ending takes the cake. [[spoiler: Dom finally closes in on Darlene and Cisco, and an unbroken steady shot shows her running into their restaurant from the outside, with all three quickly becoming visible in a window. As they argue about something unheard, a motorcycle drives up [[OhCrap and a man with a gun jumps off]], walking slowly toward the window. When he reaches it, he sprays it with bullets, and is suddenly shot by Dom, who stumbles out of the restaurant spattered in blood as the masked man [[DrivenToSuicide proceeds to shoot himself]], revealing himself to be a Dark Army agent. [[UncertainDoom There is no indication of whether Darlene or Cisco survived or not]], but there is an ominous blood spatter on the wall where Cisco was sitting.]] ''Damn.''
** Earlier the same episode, Elliot gets a call in a tech store on the phone [[spoiler: Joanna]] gave him. [[spoiler: It's the sound of [[TheGhost Tyrell]] breathing heavily. And when it clicks off, Elliot turns around to find that Mr. Robot has disappeared.]] No explanation is given for this within the episode.
* Near the start of "Python Part 1", Angela is [[spoiler: abducted and brought to a black room with a desk, a leaking fish tank, and a little EmotionlessGirl who starts asking her questions ranging from extremely personal to surreal. The room turns out to belong to Whiterose, who meets her after the questioning is done and claims that what she wants more than anything is Angela's belief.]] The entire sequence plays out like a slow, queasy Creator/DavidLynch fever dream.

** And at the end of the episode, Elliot follows a message decoded by Mr. Robot to a cab parked on the corner of the street. As arranged by the message, he gets in after a discussion with the driver. Then the other door opens. [[spoiler: [[WhamShot Tyrell nonchalantly climbs in]] [[OhCrap and starts talking to Elliot like an old friend]], leading Elliot to have a FreakOut on the driver about [[UnreliableNarrator whether Tyrell is really there.]]]]
* In "Python Part 2", Elliot finally finds out what Phase 2 is. [[spoiler: Over the last few months, Tyrell, the Dark Army and he (under the control of Mr. Robot) have been working on a plan to blow up the main E Corp building. This would destroy the paper records being held there and irreversibly ruin the company, at the cost of hundreds of lives and untold damage to the economy. He's unsurprisingly horrified by this and tries to stop it, only to find out at the worst possible moment that Tyrell was real all along when Tyrell shoots him in the stomach. The way he stumbles back in surprise, then looks down to see blood seeping out of his stomach and drenching his hands, then finally collapses to the floor is absolutely horrifying.]]
** Even more terrifying, is that Mr. Robot [[XanatosGambit told Tyrell to shoot Elliot if he attempted to deviate with the plan.]] Which means Elliot subconsciously told Tyrell. In other words, Mr. Robot/Elliot had a contingency for everything, [[CrazyPrepared EVEN HIMSELF.]]
** The [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown brutal beat down]] [[spoiler: Scott Knowles]] gives [[spoiler: [[WouldHitAGirl Joanna]]]] in the finale is unpleasant to watch, to say the least.

[[folder:season 3.0]]
* The third season premiere, "Power Saver Mode", has a [[CharacterFilibuster long, fourth-wall-breaking monologue]] from [[spoiler: Elliot, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizing]] that his attempted rebellion just made the world that much easier for the ones in power to pick over. This monologue is spliced in with [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou footage of recent]] [[ParanoiaFuel real-world political events]], heavily implying that these were brought about because of Elliot. This at least drives him to become TheAtoner, but it's one of the scarier moments in the show.]]

** Toward the end of the episode, Angela wakes Elliot up in her apartment. [[spoiler:Mr. Robot is the one who slowly rises up and steps out of the darkness. This is the first time we've seen him actively take over without Elliot's POV, and it happens [[HopeSpot just when it looked like the gunshot erased him]].]]
** [[spoiler: Angela's treatment of Elliot can count as this. Imagine being put through DomesticAbuse by someone you know and especially not knowing what they are doing to you whenever you blackout.]]
* [[spoiler: Krista meeting Mr. Robot for the first time.]] The scene in general is ''''creepy as all hell'''', but Mr. Robot's behavior makes him seem like a predator stalking his next victim; he moves in a deliberately slow pattern around the room, getting a feel of everything in the environment. All this while [[spoiler: Krista is slowly becoming more unnerved as Mr. Robot circles back around to her, clearly demonstrating that she cannot rely on her expertise nor her history with Elliot to appease him.]]

* Elliot finding out about [[spoiler:Angela and Tyrell working together. The knowledge of having someone who has been your friend/crush since childhood work with your enemies is pretty terrifying not to mention the fact that Angela calms down a freaked out Elliot by knocking him out with a syringe.]]
* [[spoiler:The protesters attacking the E Corp building]] is utterly terrifying, especially when rendered as TheOner.
* In "Kill Process", [[spoiler:Mr. Robot starts taking over Elliot while he's conscious, causing him to repeatedly lose time. As Elliot becomes aware of this, he tries fighting back, only for Mr. Robot to force him to repeatedly slam himself into the wall.]]
** And at the end of the episode, [[spoiler: [[WhamEpisode Stage 2]] '''''[[WhamEpisode happens]]'''''. Except the Dark Army didn't blow up the New York recovery building -- they blew up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the 71 storage sites where Elliot diverted the paper records]] to.]]
* "Frederick+Tanya" might be the single-scariest episode yet. To wit: [[spoiler: it's revealed what happened to Trenton and Mobley following S2's stinger. They're kidnapped by Leon, who just murdered their housemate; driven to the desert and made to bury said housemate; handed over to Dark Army goons who then proceed to brutally kill them both as they plead for their lives, setting the whole thing up as a joint-suicide in the face of an FBI raid.]]
* "Shutdown" covers a lot of territory, much of it [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome]] or SugarWiki/{{heartwarming|Moments}}, but there is a particularly nightmarish bit: [[spoiler: Irving leading Dom and Santiago out to a field [[OhCrap with an axe buried in a log]], pretending he's about to kill Dom for almost two minutes, [[BlofeldPloy and then]] going full [[Literature/AmericanPsycho Patrick]] [[AxCrazy Bateman]] on [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves Santiago]]. The way Irving hacks up his corpse while naming off members of Dom's family he might threaten, and continues to do so after she agrees to be TheMole, is incredibly unsettling coming from someone who's been a smooth-talking AffablyEvil guy for the whole season.]]

[[folder:season 4.0]]

* While the "How Many People Have You Hurt?" trailer [[Tearjerker/MrRobot fired up the waterworks]], the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4r1X1wG1FQ "Back To Work" trailer]] fired up pure adrenaline. Set to a haunting recitation of "Silent Night", we are shown clips of numerous body bags being zipped up among clamoring authorities and crowds, a cracked phone with fresh blood dripping down the screen, [[spoiler: Vera]] shoving a bound and gagged man into a dingy bathroom before coldly shooting him to death, and worst of all, [[spoiler: masked men storming someone's home, kidnapping a little boy, assaulting one of the home-owners, and ''[[WouldHurtAChild preparing to shoot a little girl huddled in a corner]]''.]] The whole tone of it is '''oppressingly''' dire.
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvhcemArvI "A Showdown Between Elliot and Whiterose"]] trailer further compounds the stakes of the final season with even more clips of implied carnage, such as [[spoiler: Whiterose descending a staircase being flanked by SWAT personnel as the camera pans to show the room below is absolutely ''littered'' with bloody corpses]] and [[spoiler: Dominique watching as another body bag is being loaded into a coroner's van.]] All the while, [[spoiler: an enraged Elliot declares that Whiterose has to pay for the malice she has wrought upon the world.]] The most horrifying part? [[spoiler: If Elliot fails, '''[[RaceAgainstTheClock everyone is going to die in one week.]]''']]
*** Another creepy scene in the trailer is [[spoiler: Whiterose looking almost directly into the camera, wearing a smile that suddenly cuts to a cold KubrickStare.]]
* The "Are You Still A Friend?" trailer. Full stop. [[spoiler: For the first time in the series, '''Mr. Robot himself is talking to us.''']] The burning question is [[spoiler: ''[[NothingIsScarier what kind of fresh hell would bring Mr. Robot to acknowledge us while Elliot is uncharacteristically silent?]]'']]

* The [[ColdOpen cold open]] of the season 4 premiere, "Unauthorized". It starts as a direct continuation of Angela and Price's conversation at the end of season 3, with Price telling Angela that Whiterose's project was a sham and that she should give up, and stop trying to oppose Whiterose. Angela refuses despite Price's begging and pleading, saying that Whiterose still deserves to face retribution... [[spoiler:and then the doors of the mansion behind them open. Turns out Price was wearing a wire, and Whiterose was recording the entire conversation. Price walks away (taking off the wire in the process) as two Dark Army goons approach and shoot Angela in the head.]]
* The reveal that Janice, the woman who was set up to be Dom's date by her mom, is [[spoiler: actually a Dark Army agent; she demands that Dom stop delaying her testimony with the FBI before casually threatening to slice Dom's mother, '''"from mouth to cunt"'''.]]

* The revelation [[spoiler: of why Mr Robot exists, and the root of Elliot’s rage and DID - his father sexually molested him repeatedly during his childhood. The fact that Mr. Robot is modelled after said father, to be the father who would fight for Elliot and protect him, that Elliot never had, makes it worse.]]
** [[spoiler: Elliot as he discovers the abuse - his face essentially contorts with agony and sadness, as he’s forced to confront the horrible truth]]
** [[spoiler: Linked to this, what actually happened during the window incident. Elliot heard his father coming up, and terrified at the thought of suffering his abuse again and Darlene having to go through it, switches to Mr Robot for the first time and yells at her to get in the closet. He grabs his baseball bat and starts swinging it around the room so Edward can’t get to him, to defend himself and Darlene. Then, panicking, he jumps out of the window to escape from his monstrous father in the only way he knew how in that moment.]]

* Elliot overdosing on Adderall causes him to hallucinate [[spoiler:that he has been kidnapped by TheMenInBlack and force-fed concrete]]. When he comes to he's vomiting violently. There is no VomitDiscretionShot. And then, after [[spoiler: realizing Mr. Robot made him hallucinate]], [[NauseaFuel he digs the pills out of the vomit and swallows them again]]. The music (Mishima’s Opening by Phillip Glass) [[SoundtrackDissonance does not help at all.]]

* Elliot overdosing on Adderall causes him to hallucinate [[spoiler:that he has been kidnapped by TheMenInBlack and force-fed concrete]]. When he comes to he's vomiting violently. There is no VomitDiscretionShot. And then, after [[spoiler: realizing Mr. Robot made him hallucinate]], [[NauseaFuel he digs the pills out of the vomit and swallows them again]].

** And at the end of the episode, [[spoiler: [[WhamEpisode Stage 2]] ''''[[WhamEpisode happens]]''''. Except the Dark Army didn't blow up the New York recovery building -- they blew up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the 71 storage sites where Elliot diverted the paper records]] to.]]

** And at the end of the episode, [[spoiler: [[WhamEpisode Stage 2]] ''[[WhamEpisode happens]]''. Except the Dark Army didn't blow up the New York recovery building -- they blew up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the storage sites where Elliot diverted the paper records]] to try and halt the attack.]]