This being the follow-up to what is possibly the most heart-wrenching episode of the series, you might want to have some tissues handy.
- Elliot. Poor, poor Elliot. In a show where he has suffered numerous traumas, both physical and emotional, we find our budding hero at the lowest point of his life, just barely clinging to hope as he wrestles with the truth of his father's sexual abuse, and the weight of his responsibility to take down Whiterose.
- Like most survivors of sexual abuse, Elliot blames himself for not putting a stop to it in his youth. He shares the crushing shame that he feels to Krista, who reminds him of his worth, and confesses how much that she cares for the man who has bared his soul to her the most throughout the series. She tells him that what he went through was not his fault, and in a moment both heartbreaking and heartwarming, Elliot voluntarily reaches out to embrace Krista, thankful for the help she has provided to him since the beginning.
- The item that Elliot hid in the wall of the museum storage room in the opening flashback was the key to his bedroom. The same key that Edward would use to enter and abuse him. Elliot learns through an interaction with his hallucinated younger self that he did it in an effort to stop Edward, in the only way he knew how.
- At Allsafe, Mr. Robot finally manifests to reconcile with Elliot about the truth of Edward's abuse. Mr. Robot fiddles with his hat in guilt, expressing regret that he hid the truth from Elliot, but rationalizes it as his way of protecting Elliot from the traumatic memories. He states that if he had the means to, he would go back in time and save Elliot from enduring the abuse. In the end, all that Mr. Robot desired... was to be the father that Elliot never had.
- This scene is capped off by Elliot breaking down in tears, saying that he cannot go through with the Deus group hack. Elliot Alderson: hacker extraordinaire and prodigy, is so broken that he is unable to code.
