"eps1.0_hellofriend.mov"
"MR. ROBOT follows Elliot, a cyber-security engineer by day and vigilante hacker by night, who gets recruited by a mysterious underground group to destroy the firm he is paid to protect."
New York City, 2015. Coffee shop owner Rohit Mehta is overlooking one of his many establishments going by the chain name of Ron's Coffee when a young man named Elliot Alderson approaches him, claiming that he often visits the shop for its exceptional wi-fi service and that this peculiarity led him to hack Rohit. Puzzled, Rohit is presented with evidence that Elliot acquired through his extensive hacking of the shop's bandwidth, which reveals that Ron's Coffee is in fact a front for marketing child pornography and that the previously noted wi-fi is how the pornography is trafficked at such a remarkable rate. Rohit panics, pleading with Elliot to not go to the police with the information. At first empathetic, Rohit inquires about Elliot's past: his father had passed away due to leukemia, likely a byproduct of exposure to radiation at the Washington Township Plant that he worked for. Elliot expresses bitterness at the continued success of the plant's owner, E Corp, a multinational conglomerate with a finger in every corporate pie ranging from technology to agriculture. Elliot also admits to having personal struggles with social anxiety and that while he doesn't get his rocks off looking at child pornography, he understands what it's like to be different. Rohit proceeds to call the man's bluff, correctly declaring that he has also broken the law by obtaining the information regarding the criminal activities occurring in the shop's network, and writing off the confrontation as petty financial blackmail that he will not comply with. The man concedes, but only in part; he has already submitted an anonymous tip to the police, and the whole confrontation was merely an exercise for him to overcome his previously noted social anxiety. Right on cue, flashing lights of police cruisers pull up to the shop as Rohit reneges and tries to bribe him with cash. Elliot smirks, proclaiming as he leaves and cops storm the shop:
"That's the part you were wrong about, Rohit. I don't give a shit about money."
Some time later, Elliot is aboard a subway train as his Inner Monologue reveals that he was originally supposed to attend the birthday party of his childhood best friend Angela at a local bar that night, but was too intimidated by the large crowd. He also admits that he believes that E Corp has sent The Men in Black to spy on him as he could be a danger to them based on his technological expertise. After all, he had just single-handedly ruined a man's life, or as Elliot puts it, "deleted him." Just before Elliot leaves the subway upon seeing the men, a strange man tries to spark a conversation with him, saying:
"Exciting time in the world. Exciting time."
We then cut to Elliot at an appointment with his therapist, Krista, whom Elliot has been forced to see as part of a court mandate for anger management, and has also hacked in his spare time out of curiosity. Krista tries to probe Elliot about his misanthropy and distaste for society as a whole, at which point he proceeds to go on a lengthy rant about how he despises the cowardice of people who don't want to admit that the idols they're supposed to look up to are fictional, social networks are cheapening human connections, and that everyone would rather be sedated by mindless entertainment and psychiatric drugs to hide from the painful truth and artificiality of it all.
"Fuck society", he utters in disgust.
Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Some UST between Elliot and Angela at the office and they almost get to kiss. Only interrupted by a news broadcast.
- Establishing Series Moment: The very first scene in which Elliot turns Rohit over to the police tells us everything we need to know about the show: lots of Grey-and-Black Morality, paranoia and tension, proof it did its homework on how hacking works, and it is not afraid to enter dark places.
- Frameup: Elliot's first mission by Mr. Robot is implicating Terry Colby in the Allsafe hack by adding his IP address to the .dat file.
- Homage: Mr. Robot propositioning Elliot on the Ferris wheel is a very obvious one to Morpheus's speech to Neo in The Matrix, just replace "the Matrix" with "money".
- I Just Want to Be Special: Elliot has dreams of saving the world, but feels he is not special enough to realize them.
- Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Elliot gives his therapist a passionate speech about why he hates society which turns out to have been all in his head.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Elliot was ready and willing to rat out Fsociety at the meeting, but when Terry Colby rudely berates Angela over a minor mistake, this prompts Elliot to go with Fsociety's plan and switch the report with the one that contains Colby's IP. Setting him up to be arrested for the attack.
- Pædo Hunt: Elliot targets Rohit Mehta, the owner of Ron's Coffee, who is actually in possession of child pornography. Elliot brings him to justice.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Rohit Mehta thinks that Elliot is just blackmailing him. He plays tough like he's not going to pay but then gives in. Too little too late, as Elliot has already tipped the police about Mehta's kiddie porn stash and was never after money.
- Sigil Spam: When E Corp is introduced as a global conglomerate, we see their symbol displayed on all kinds of mobile devices.
- The Men in Black: The men that Elliot believes are following them wear black suits and look intimidating.
- Thinking Out Loud: The way the episode opens allowing for an Info Dump.
- Unreliable Voiceover: Elliot tells his therapist that he went out last night and got a girl's number all while we see footage of him not doing any of it.
- Villain Opening Scene: The first five minutes of the episode follow Elliot's takedown of a pedophile named Rohit Mehta, with the police arriving as soon as the title flashes across the screen.
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