At the motel, Elliot and Darlene share a parting hug. He thanks her for not giving up on him, and Darlene (speaking to Mr. Robot) admits that she has begun to like him since his behavior has improved. Elliot turns away, stating that he has to go to Washington Township and destroy Whiterose's machine. Mr. Robot protests, advising that Elliot leave with Darlene and Dominique. Elliot refuses, explaining that Whiterose will not be truly defeated until her project is in shambles. Mr. Robot points out that coding the necessary malware will take too long, but Elliot reveals that he is using the same malware that ushered in Five/Nine to destroy the machine. He orders Mr. Robot to stay out of it, and that he has to do this by himself. Elliot walks away, with Mr. Robot being joined by the hallucinations of Magda and a young Elliot.
Taking a bus, Elliot arrives at the Washington Township Power Plant as several vehicles speed past him, away from the plant. Elliot cautiously approaches the plant to find that there is no security and strolls in unopposed. Inside, Elliot accesses an office terminal and successfully uploads the malware into the system controlling Whiterose's machine. Before Elliot can leave, he spots a dead body lying in one of the cubicles, and hears police sirens coming. He turns to find several Dark Army agents, with the Hamburger Man informing him that he is in the wrong place.
Escorted into the guts of the plant, Elliot is shown a door by the Dark Army agents, and he slowly walks through it. He finds a desk with his childhood computer, a copy of Leo Tolstoy's Resurrection, and Qwerty, swimming in the water behind a window. Whiterose enters shortly thereafter, and Elliot claims that whatever she is planning will not work on him, unlike Angela. Whiterose elaborates that she is not trying to brainwash him or anyone else, and is merely forcing him to understand her truth about the world. She claims that her machine will take away the many ills of society and the pain that she along with everyone else has endured because of those ills. Elliot objects, admitting that while he does loathe society and people, he recognizes that there is still good to be found and that Whiterose is truly lost if she cannot see past her own pain.
Suddenly, alarms begin to sound as a nuclear meltdown rages in the plant's reactors. Whiterose tells Elliot that she is leaving him to decide what to do next with her machine, before pulling out a gun and shooting herself. Elliot attempts to escape but finds that he is locked inside, at which point Mr. Robot manifests to help him. Elliot learns the code to escape the room but realizes that if he doesn't stop the meltdown, everyone in Washington Township will die. Despite Mr. Robot's protests, Elliot finds a game called "eXit" hidden in the Resurrection book, deducing that the game is really a process to deactivate Whiterose's machine. He seems to shut down the machine just in time, but the meltdown has grown out of control, leaving Elliot trapped by flames. Mr. Robot accepts that there is no way out, and sits across from Elliot, who tells Mr. Robot that he loves him, and echoes Mr. Robot's first words to him:
"It's an exciting time in the world."
Explosions shake the plant, and a brilliant red light shines into the room, overtaking Elliot and Mr. Robot.
Cut to the buzzing of a phone alarm, and a hand reaching to silence it. It is Elliot, inexplicably alive and surprisingly content. As Elliot begins his morning routine, he starts to develop a headache, and an earthquake shakes his apartment. He is drawn to his computer by the ringing of a Skype call. It is Angela, who asks if he felt the earthquake as well, and accuses him of hiding something from her based on his strange behavior. Elliot denies it, and Angela says that she can't wait to marry Elliot the next day. Elliot calls Edward's cell phone, but he doesn't answer. Elliot then calls the Mr. Robot shop, and Edward finally answers. Elliot shares his anxiety over Angela knowing about a surprise he is planning. Edward reassures him and, after hearing a customer enter the store, goes out to greet them. Edward finds that there is no one there, but instead spots his cell phone lying in the middle of the floor.
At Allsafe, Elliot, now a CEO of the company, converses with Lloyd and Ollie. Elliot takes notice of an ad for "F Corp" that briefly morphs into E Corp, and his headache worsens. Elliot goes to a meeting to secure a deal with F Corp that would make them a client of Allsafe. The CEO of F Corp orders his associates to leave, and turns around, revealing himself to be Tyrell. Tyrell expresses his pessimism over the nature of his company, worrying that it could harm more than it helps. Elliot convinces Tyrell that Allsafe will keep his company protected from any attack.
Later, Elliot and Edward meet up for lunch. Edward hands Elliot a box containing a book to give Angela. Elliot tries to call Angela's mother, Emily, but she seems to hang up on him shortly after answering. Confused, Elliot reaches for his wallet and discovers that he left it at home, which Edward finds peculiar. Edward gives Elliot some money, suggesting that he also buy Angela a bouquet of flowers. Elliot does so and visits Angela's apartment to drop off the flowers and book. He calls Angela to check if her parents are in the city, and notices bloody napkins and shattered glass in the trash.
Elliot returns home, satisfied with the day. As he enters his apartment, he finds the original Elliot sitting at his computer. The other Elliot asks who he is, and the original Elliot slowly rises from the chair.
Tropes
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Dark Army takes over the Washington Township nuclear plant and slaughters all the employees.
- Ambiguous Situation: Everything that happens after Elliot disables Whiterose's machine. Did it really open the door to a new world as Whiterose promised? Is Elliot hallucinating all of it as his death closes in? No matter which side of the fence you stand on, there are many lingering questions.
- The Bus Came Back: The sandwich guy, last seen getting a package from Angela during the riots at E Corp, reappears, leading the Dark Army goons during the takeover of the nuclear plant.
- Ollie and Lloyd reappear in the alternate world.
- Elseworld: The last twenty minutes of the episode are spent in one.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave Whiterose and the Dark Army mow through quite literally everyone at the Washington Township Power Plant. By the time Elliot arrives, only the slain bodies of the plant's employees are there to greet him.
- Fake Better Alternate Timeline: Elliot ends up in a parallel universe where his parents are still alive and happy and he's engaged to a still-living Angela. It all seems perfect... up until he finds out that there's already an Elliot in that universe and they cannot co-exist peacefully with one another or reality will break down.
- Mind Screw: And an absolutely ferocious one at that: the last twenty minutes of the episode seem to confirm that Whiterose's fabled machine can actually open the door to a parallel universe; one in which the worst aspects of our world are non-existent. In this universe, Elliot is the CEO of Allsafe Cybersecurity, E Corp has become F Corp (with a shoddily dressed and downtrodden Tyrell as the CEO), Edward is alive, and Elliot is set to marry Angela. Even worse, when the alternate Elliot returns to his apartment, he finds our Elliot, the one we have been following since the beginning, at his computer. Roll credits!
- Shut Up, Hannibal!/Patrick Stewart Speech: Whiterose tries to convert Elliot to her side by appealing to his own angst about the world, reasoning that his desire to help the world is hypocritical because of his resentment towards it. While Elliot concedes that he does hate society and the people in it, he potently rebukes that some of those people still want to be around him, despite his attempts to push them away. He ends by asserting that there is still good in the world, and delivers a Precision F-Strike to Whiterose for her myopia.
- Talking the Monster to Death: It is the example above that forces Whiterose into an act of martyrdom; she pulls out a gun and blows her brains out in front of Elliot, leaving the fate of her project in his hands.
- Uncertain Doom: Elliot's fate is left unknown as the Washington Township Power Plant crumbles around him.
- Wham Episode: Whiterose martyrs herself, leaving Elliot to choose what becomes of her machine. While Elliot supposedly shuts it down, he (and Mr. Robot) are left trapped in the room as the nuclear reactor in the plant melts. What follows is a twenty-minute trip to crazy-ville that neither confirms nor denies the implication that Whiterose's machine was actually capable of accessing another world.
- Utopia: The "alternate universe" that we visit in the last third of the episode. Elliot is the happiest we have ever seen him; he has a successful career as CEO of Allsafe, and he is one day away from marrying Angela. Not only that, but both of their parents are still alive. The world itself is also cleaner and brighter, and in the case of the traffic we see, this is literal, as all of them are painted white and several are electric. Whiterose is a philanthropist and her gender identity is publicly known. Elliot's apartment is also lavishly upgraded, and the Mr. Robot shop is more lucrative, having caught up with the current trends in technology. Although there are discordant signs, like Elliot's headaches, Tyrell's uncertainties, and the complete absence of Darlene.
