YMMV / Mr Robot S 04 E 07

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Several come up regarding Vera.
  • First of all, was Vera actually raped as a child, or was he lying in order to convince Elliot he was on his side? Vera has already been established to be a liar (in season 1 he did promise Shayla would go free when he already killed her) so it's not out of the question for him to make something like that up.
  • Was Vera really touched by Elliot's backstory, or was he crying Crocodile Tears in order to sell the idea that he did it for Elliot? Vera had previously stated his intentions to break Elliot and make him subservient to him. Alternatively, could this be a case of Vera believing his own lies?
• Draco in Leather Pants: After this episode, there are some people who ended up adoring Vera, overlooking the fact that he is a rapist/murderer/stalker who was obsessed with Elliot and was willing to psychologically hurt him so that he is the only one Elliot could run to.
• Ho Yay: Vera and Elliot's scenes are dripping with it, especially towards the end when Elliot is at the mercy of his emotions and Vera opens up to him in a way he never had before. Viewers could be forgiven for thinking the scene would end in a kiss.
• Realism-Induced Horror: This episode basically depicted the horror of you and your therapist being trapped by your own stalker, being threatened, psychologically abused into remembering your childhood trauma and almost ending up being gaslit into Stockholm Syndrome.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Not confirmed but most of the episode's tones are similar to You (2018) (mostly the season finale "Bluebeard's Castle"), especially the plot line where a psychopathic Yandere stalker (Vera and Joe) falls in love with a beautiful, shy and talented individual (Elliot and Beck). They later kidnap their object of affection and makes an excuse of doing dangerous and bad things to them in the name of "love" and claiming that since they both have a dark past and done terrible things, they are the same. Only difference is that while Beck is killed by Joe, Elliot survives and it's Vera who is killed.
  • And the ending is probably for the 2017 novel Final Girls by Riley Sager. Like Elliot, Quincy is forced to confront her real trauma and finds out that someone that she thought was a good guy turns out to be the bad guy. Both the villains Coop and Vera were obsessed with them because they are survivors and they share the same trauma. And later both of them get killed by getting stabbed.
• Sacred Cow: Amongst many viewers, this is not only the best episode of Mr. Robot, but one of the best hours of television ever thanks to its creative artistic merit in its play-like format and cinematography, some of the most relentless tension in the show, powerful use of Vera and Krista's roles in the story, and having undoubtedly some of the best acting on the show yet, especially from Rami Malek. Fans and viewers often compare it to the unanimously acclaimed and equally hard-hitting Breaking Bad episode "Ozymandias."