I did notice the 23.

Agreed. So she must not have. She must have just thought that he'd lost his nerve, which he clearly had. He'd become a risk.

it was a surgical mask, but there was a big guy wearing one of those before Dom got on the escalator where she saw the Dark Army masks.

I know a lot of people love the Institutionalized theory, but if he was, he'd be on so much meds he wouldn't be hallucinating anybody.

I knew she was going to have him killed as soon as she told him in the restaurant that everything was going to be alright.

Since everybody lies in this show, Whiterose's parallel universe thing might be more about hir nature as a transperson and wishing for a non-dysphoric world than about wishing for one where 5/9 never happened.

The main thing wrong with the "Institutionalized" theory is that if he was, and was this delusional, they would just medicate the fuck out of him until he wasn't seeing people and hearing voices anymore.

I think that possibly the opener points us to the real origin of Mr Robot: just as he programmed himself to hear and see all references to "E Corp" as "Evil Corp", he programmed himself to forget that he wanted to take down Evil Corp so that he could be a more perfect trojan horse. I'd love it if the MrRobot persona…

I agree with 2/3s of that: pretty sure Leon's not real. Elliot doesn't meet people very easily, or even willingly.

I like how Esmail is visually name-checking (if that's a thing) not just Kubrick — this ep with Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining — but Requiem For A Dream (Elliot bouncing around Coney on speed), A Beautiful Mind (via his abduction by the Men In Black — also a wee bit of Fake William Burroughs added for spice),…

Agree with you about Shutter Island. Not really ready for Slater to be the real person and Elliot to be the dream.

Leon ain't there.

You know how this show is full of homages to famous movies? That stuff, esp when Gideon was there, gave off a Sixth Sense vibe. Not that I'm thinking she's a ghost — except maybe to Elliot. He could be hallucinating her. Hell, he could have killed her and it's the guilt that's driven him around the bend, a la psycho,…

Tyrell's too good a bad guy to kill. And it's too obvious at this point. For all we know, Elliot pulled the gun out of the popcorn machine and gave it to Tyrell.

I'm not quite sure how we were supposed to get word to him about Mr R. Hardly fair of Elliot to blame us for that, even if we got to enjoy the dramatic irony and he didn't :)

Bettin' on the bull in the heather…

Who is really real on this show? Elliot? Tyrell? Mr. Robot himself is way more frightening than Tyler Durden ever was, and closer to the terrible reality of actual mental illness.

As affirmations go, sleeping with the random stranger was just saddening. As is Angela's new makeup look ("mask") and the whole I Am Powerful self-hypnosis video.

Elliot doesn't trust us because we aren't telling him things? Uh, getting word to him might prove problematic…

There's no reason to think Daenerys will live through the end of the show. Before it's all over Jon could be the last man standing AND the rightful heir to the Iron Throne by Targaryen logic.