Still at Price's estate, Angela reveals to him that she knows of a way to steal Whiterose's project. Even though Price tries to dissuade her from seeking retribution against Whiterose, Angela refuses. A vehicle pulls up in the distance, and Angela realizes that she is about to executed. Price begs her to relent but Angela tells him that she is not running, and should leave. As Price walks away, he rips out a wire hidden within his shirt. Two Dark Army soldiers approach Angela in the distance and kill her. Inside, Price breaks down, and receives a call from Whiterose telling him that Angela's death was necessary. Price disagrees, claiming that had he been given more time, he could have brought his daughter into the fold. Whiterose expresses sympathy and hangs up. Meanwhile, it is revealed that her project is set to be fully transported to the Congo within two months, just in time for the holidays. Whiterose tells her assistant to send Elliot a message warning him of the consequences for any disobedience, while also hoping that he enjoys his last Christmas.
Two months later, lawyer Freddy Lomax is sent a package containing a thumb drive along with damning evidence of his involvement with online child porn. He receives a call from Mr. Robot, who blackmails Lomax into copying files from his computer. Mr. Robot directs Lomax to Grand Central Terminal to make an exchange. Mr. Robot realizes that Lomax is being followed by the Dark Army, and tells him to meet on one of the departing trains where Elliot is waiting. Lomax attempts to threaten Elliot with a gun, but Elliot calls his bluff. Lomax reveals information relating to Cyprus National Bank, a financial institution that is funding the transportation of Whiterose's project, and a name: John Garcin. With the Dark Army closing in, Elliot and Lomax leave. Outside, Elliot calls Lomax, telling him to regroup. Lomax refuses, realizing that Elliot cannot do anything to keep Lomax safe from the Dark Army's wrath. Lomax withdraws the gun from his coat and shoots himself. Elliot sprints to the scene to find Lomax dead on the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, Tyrell is apathetic to his new position as CTO at E Corp, and Dominique is slowly unraveling as a result of her traumatizing encounter with the Dark Army back in October. Living with her mother Trudy, she nearly shoots a renovator who lets himself into the house. At Allsafe, Mr. Robot and Elliot have set up a new base of operations, coordinating their next move against Whiterose and the Dark Army. Mr. Robot and Elliot argue over how they should approach John Garcin, their new leader. Elliot states that time is not on their side and that if they do not act quickly, Whiterose's project will be complete, and their existence will be moot. Mr. Robot tries to appeal to Elliot's morality in regards to his newfound vendetta, but Elliot affirms that he no longer has qualms about who will suffer next, just so long as Whiterose pays for her crimes. Darlene texts Elliot, saying that she has new information on Angela.
At Elliot's apartment, Darlene arrives, obviously intoxicated. She claims to have seen Angela at a nearby shelter, but Elliot brushes it off as a result of Darlene indulging in cocaine. While Mr. Robot tries to reason with her, Elliot ultimately lashes out at Darlene in anger after she accuses him of hiding from the situation. He tells her that Angela is dead and that it is not their fault. Darlene leaves, and Mr. Robot questions Elliot's decision to not show her a picture of Angela's dead body that was sent to him. Elliot admits that he doesn't want to break Darlene's heart, and returns to his machinations. Mr. Robot begins to address us, the viewer and reveals that Elliot has been ignoring us since Angela's death. In his place, Mr. Robot hopes to be the one to inform us of what is happening, and pleads with us to still be a friend to the two of them in the time that they have left.
At John Garcin's apartment, Elliot and Mr. Robot find that the door is ajar. Elliot lets himself in only to discover that the apartment is not only empty, but staged with unused furniture; he quickly pieces together that John Garcin isn't a real person, that Lomax misled him, and that he is standing in a honeypot with no way out. Meanwhile, two goons enter the building and apprehend Elliot, who screams as he is dragged out. At the DiPierro residence, Dominique and Trudy have dinner with a guest, Janice. Trudy makes inappropriate conversation which alienates Dominique and Janice, who leaves. Outside, Dominique helps Janice carry the leftovers from their dinner, and Dominique notices a prominent stuffed tiger in Janice's front seat. Janice explains herself to be a taxidermist and tries to chat with Dominique about the latter's recent struggles. Dominique wishes Janice a nice evening, and Janice tells Dominique that she needs some rest given that she has an interview in the morning regarding Santiago's treachery. Dominique is halted by this and slowly comes to the realization that Janice is another Dark Army agent who has been sent to keep their story intact. Janice harshly threatens Trudy's life should Dominique fail, and drives away, leaving Dominique to stare down two suspicious vans parked on opposite sides of the street.
At Angela's apartment, Darlene has thrown a rager, and is on a binge of alcohol and cocaine; she later ingests a pill without asking what it even is. Darlene hears a few guests rummaging through Angela's wardrobe, which causes her to have a mental breakdown and curse out the other guests. As they leave, Darlene finds Angela's ballet shoes on the floor and goes to bed sobbing. Meanwhile, Elliot has been taken back to his apartment where a third goon is preparing a shot of heroin. Elliot pleads with the henchmen to let him go, understanding that they are all just on payroll and that he can't leave like this without making things right. The third goon finishes preparing the heroin before filling up a syringe and walking up to Elliot, who begs for the goon to say something. He kneels down, says, "Goodbye, friend," and injects Elliot with the heroin. The henchmen release Elliot as he begins to overdose and hallucinates his parents and himself as a child, looking on with shame. Elliot's life literally flashes before his eyes, and he breathes his last breath...
...until the henchmen return with a dose of Narcan, which they use to bring Elliot back from the brink. As Elliot tries to catch his breath, he sees Price enter the apartment. Standing over Elliot, Price dryly welcomes him back.
Tropes
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Angela accepts her impending demise with grace. Price on the other hand is the one begging her to abort her mission against Whiterose and even advises her to beg as well. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
- All for Nothing: Everything Price did to keep Angela safe from Whiterose was in vain. His attempts to talk her out of seeking vengeance against Whiterose ultimately fall on deaf ears and end up causing Angela to inadvertently sign her own death warrant.
- Amoral Attorney: Freddy Lomax, to the... well, max. If his involvement with the Dark Army isn't bad enough, he is also a pedophile.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Janice makes her alignment with the Dark Army more than apparent when she threatens to hurt Dominique's mother, Trudy, and vividly explains how she would do that.
- Aside Glance: When Mr. Robot begins talking to us, he makes several of these right into the camera.
- Asshole Victim:
- Angela, considering she psychologically abused Elliot on multiple occasions with no concern for his wellbeing despite being his childhood best friend. You'll feel worse for Price than for her.
- Freddy Lomax: A lawyer who is also a huge scumbag for three reasons: 1) He's involved with the Dark Army. 2) He's a pedophile who's also involved in child porn. And 3) He tries to threaten Elliot with a gun. All this is shown before he offs himself with said gun and only Mr. Robot shows some shock at his death.
- Broken Bird: Darlene. She has more or less spiraled into drug addiction to cope with Angela's death.
- Dominique isn't faring well either. After her encounter with the Dark Army back in October, she has become an agoraphobe and borderline alcoholic, putting off her duties as an FBI agent.
- Downplayed in Elliot's case, where he becomes more of a Cute and Psycho. While he is braver and stronger than before, he is so traumatized from Angela's death to the point where he is completely apathetic and has stopped acknowledging us.
- Both Sides Have a Point: While arguing about Angela, Darlene is right about Elliot shutting people out and suppressing his emotions after her death and Elliot is right about Angela bringing her execution upon herself due to her egotism, her ill-treatment of both him and Darlene, and cutting both of them out of her life.
- The Cameo:
- Sam Esmail, creator of the show, makes an appearance as the goon who administers the fatal dose of heroin to Elliot. Unlike previous examples, however, he actually has a line of dialogue:
- Emmy Rossum of Shameless fame as well as Sam Esmail's wife appears as one of the Christmas carolers that Elliot and Mr. Robot walk past on their way to John Garcin's apartment.
- Cliffhanger: Elliot is injected with a fatal dose of heroin that actually kills him, but he is then brought back to life with Narcan only to be met by Phillip Price, who welcomes him back.
- Cradle of Loneliness: Darlene does this with Angela's ballet shoes.
- Crappy Holidays: The season begins around Christmas time, two months after the season three finale. Things are... not that great, for pretty much everyone involved. Angela is murdered by the Dark Army, which sends Elliot and Darlene into separate downward spirals; Elliot is overcome with an insatiable bloodlust against Whiterose while Darlene has turned to drugs and alcohol to numb her emotional pain. Dominique is reeling from post-traumatic stress after her own encounter with the Dark Army, Tyrell is beset by apathy, having finally "achieved" his desired position as CTO within E Corp despite his promotion having no real meaning beyond serving another agenda, and Price, begrudgingly, has to continue his "partnership" with Whiterose. Meanwhile, Mr. Robot, the non-existent, malicious personality that Elliot shares his consciousness with, is the only headliner who even remotely has his shit together.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Thankfully subverted: Elliot appears to meet his end in a forced heroin overdose but is quickly saved by Price.
- Deus ex Machina: Philip Price arrives just in time to save Elliot from his fatal heroin overdose. All of this is seemingly according to plan.
- Downer Beginning: Angela is executed by the Dark Army within the first five minutes of the episode breaking Price emotionally in the process. The rest of the episode isn't necessarily a walk in the park either.
- Dramatic Shattering: Price grabs a vase and hurls it to the floor, enraged by Angela's termination. The vase practically explodes.
- Driven to Suicide: Freddy Lomax offs himself as soon as it is made apparent that the Dark Army is out for his blood and Elliot can't (or won't) do anything about it.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Angela Moss, a mainstay of the series since season one and Elliot's childhood ex-best friend, is murdered unceremoniously within the first five minutes.
- Dull Surprise: Elliot is not impressed at all by Freddy Lomax pulling a gun on him. If anything, Elliot only gets more annoyed by this and tells the man to sit down.
- Evil All Along: The quiet, homely Janice that has dinner with the DiPierros reveals herself to be yet another Dark Army plant sent to ensure that Dominique follows their script.
- Face Death with Dignity:
- In the end, Angela refuses to beg for her life.
- Even though it doesn't stick, Elliot faces a heroin overdose by cussing out and begging his assailants.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: As Elliot slowly dies from a heroin overdose, the screen fades to black before we're smacked in the face with credits, and its presentation is more than a little suggestive that, yes, this is indeed the end. Then the credits cut back to Elliot being resuscitated.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Angela's death is shown at a distance, to the point where she is just a blurry figure that slumps to the ground. This ends up being subverted later on when we catch a brief glimpse of her face with a nasty exit wound after the fact.
- Hourglass Plot: Elliot switched roles with both Darlene and Dom here:
- The series started off with Elliot numbing his pain with drugs while Darlene took charge of the plans, now Elliot is the one in charge while Darlene is on a downward spiral full of drugs and booze.
- Elliot and Dom. In season, 2 Elliot was distraught over the impact of 5/9 and hid in his "mom's house" (prison) while Dom was determined in going after the Dark Army. Now Elliot is the one taking matters into his own hands and going after them while Dom isolates herself in her mom's house.
- Lampshade Hanging: Forty minutes into the episode, whereupon there has not been a single line of narration from Elliot, Mr. Robot narrates that the viewer must've noticed by now:Mr. Robot: You gotta be noticing it, then, too, that he's not talking to you.
- Lured into a Trap: Elliot and Mr. Robot learn that the apartment belonging to John Garcin is a honeypot, complete with unused furniture, windows that are nailed shut, and a signal jammer. Even more, John Garcin doesn't even exist; Lomax merely used the name as a distress signal.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Angela being murdered without ceremony in the first five minutes of the episode is a rather blunt confirmation that everything is now officially wrong.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Discussed. Mr. Robot reveals that Elliot has not acknowledged us since Angela's death, which prompts him to step up to the plate and fill us in, despite not really caring about us in the long run.Mr. Robot: I know we don't usually do this, but I have to fill you in if he won't.
- The Ophelia: Darlene turns into this, getting high on booze and drugs and rambling about seeing Angela.
- Shout-Out:
- Taking a closer look at one of Freddy Lomax's e-mails reveals that his firm has had correspondence with the InGen Corporation.
- The Big Board that Elliot has set up in Allsafe is quite literally plastered with nods to other various works in film and literature, so much so that stalwart Redditor recreated the board and compiled all of the references.
They include A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and the Sprawl Trilogy.
- Skewed Priorities: Even after she realized that it was her fault that she let the cyberbombings happen, Angela was more concerned about getting revenge on the Dark Army and exposing them all by herself rather than the fact that she hurt people close to her in the process, including Elliot and Darlene and has to make up for it and redeem herself. It gets worse when she gets executed without making up for it.
- Taxidermy Is Creepy: Dominique is startled by a stuffed tiger that Janice has in the front seat of her car. Janice even admits that most people are put off by it at first.
- The Hero Dies: Zig-zagged in that Elliot actually does succumb to the heroin overdose, but he is quickly resuscitated before total brain death has occurred.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: Janice, the shy sweet taxidermist whom Dom's mother sets up with her turns out to be the latest enforcer for the Dark Army. She also makes very graphic threats against mom.
- Wham Episode: Angela is executed by the Dark Army. This happens just minutes into the episode, to boot.
- What the Hell, Hero?: You know that there are some serious moral quandaries at play when Mr. Robot of all people is trying to make others see reason. Case in point: Mr. Robot voices his concern about Elliot's true motivations for wanting to destroy the Dark Army, and his willingness to let people like Freddy Lomax die or otherwise suffer in his quest for vengeance.
