#tyrell wellick analysis

[bonsoir-tyrelliot]

This is my Tyrell Wellick character analysis or: Some bullet points that explore the absolute dismantling of a character over 3.5 seasons of television 

He denies what’s inside him in favor of what he thinks other people want from him. This results in a nagging feeling of emptiness he is for sure subconsciously aware of even when we meet him at the show’s start. By 404, he is fully consciously aware of the emptiness, and of why it’s there. 

Vain, but out of fear of not being approved of 

He’s ambitious, but out of fear of not feeling valuable enough 

He’s impulsive

He’s quick to anger but also quick to moving beyond anger into something else, often sadness 

He’s quick to tears; more on his general emotional instability later

He tends to subsume himself in other people’s goals 

He’s desperate for approval and positive attention 

He tends to sacrifice his own wellbeing for his goals, and his goals always have to do with working for other people. As a result, he feels entitled to success and certain privileges, and he gets mean when he doesn’t feel he’s been given what he’s owed due to his sacrifices. 

He is self loathing as fuck, and this probably undergirds a lot of the rest of this.

He feels best when he is hurting others because what he wants more than anything is what he’s always felt he lacked: Control. He lacks control over his emotions, he lacks control over what he thinks he wants (other people’s approval, something you can never control the outcome of), and he arguably grew up poor and therefore helpless in the capitalist system (there are many references to rural life in his past) which may have created his strong desire for control. 

Yet counterpoint, I think his killing of Sharon Knowles took his solace in hurting others to a logical conclusion, and it turned out to be a logical conclusion he did not like. Watch him in the moment after he kills her. That is the behavior of a man who can’t decide if he wants to cry or vomit. He wants to have enjoyed it because hurting others has been a go-to solution for him, but he doesn’t enjoy it. This is one potential reason the murder becomes the bug in Tyrell’s system that he has to find in order to run properly, a thing he is beginning to do in season 4 just before his death. 

He’s filled with deep wells of love that he does not know what to do with. The man is simply overflowing with affection and a desire to protect, care for, and serve. He is likely overflowing with these impulses because he gives them such limited expression. He’s controlled these impulses all his life, but after he kills Sharon he finds himself gravitating toward expressing these impulses, perhaps because taking violence to its logical conclusion via murder did not bring him any relief. 

He is compulsively self-sacrificing for the things and the people he loves, including a willingness to sacrifice his own conscience. He has a protector/provider complex that convinces him he’s expected to do whatever it takes to support those he loves, no matter how horrible it is. His worldview is morally neutral in that way. Yet his body disagrees, as is evinced by his reaction to Sharon’s murder. 

He really is a perfectionist, as he tells Elliot he is. And we all know that perfectionism is really fear and self-loathing. 

He seems, as late as the end of season 3, to have a childlike worldview where simple things like hard work or the “will to take” can carry you past the messiness of human betrayal and counter-betrayal and systems of power. The disintegration of this worldview in the wake of realizing he’s a Dark Army puppet is probably what breaks Tyrell, or it’s a major part of it. This worldview may have been constructed to help him feel like he has control in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, and realizing that the capitalist system/the power systems in the world are utterly outside his control and he is a powerless little piece of that system and nothing more is a truth he’s been running from his whole life. 

He’s more afraid to lose what he has than he is lustful for gaining more. As a result of this and some above points, I would say Tyrell is driven by fear of loss and love of other people. That makes losing Joanna and his son the absolute worst thing that could ever have happened to this man. 

He trusts too easily, which is kind of sweet actually, especially considering he has literally been one of the vipers in the viper den of corporate politics for years. Why is his trust intact in spite of this? That’s unclear, but it’s another factor that contributes to the overall sense that Tyrell is in some ways still a child by the end of season 3. By season 4, and certainly by 404, his trusting nature is I think one of the thing’s he’s lost. For example he no longer has faith that Elliot cares for him back, or that he ever will. 

But conversely he thinks he’s this master manipulator. What’s funny is that many of the attempts to manipulate we see have absolutely no hope of success. Possibly, this is a subconsciously intentional self-destruction mechanism. Think about his line to Scott Knowles early in season 1: “If I were you I wouldn’t have let me in the house.” He delivers it suavely and confidently like it’s going to contribute to his overall dominance, and yet saying that cannot possibly do him any good, and in fact could hurt him. This man is a sensitive who aspires to psychopathy and it’s killing him. 

He’s empathetic as in he feels other peoples’ emotions, but has no idea what to do with it and just ends up confused and crying and not being of  use to anyone. He teases Joanna about being “miserable” when she’s calmly scheming and she doesn’t deny it. He senses accurately that Elliot is much more than he seems. He’s correct in his suspicion that Sharon Knowles is dissatisfied. 

His obsession with the “will to take” is also partly the result of the fact that he doesn’t know what he wants to take, so the simple act of taking becomes a substitute for wanting things and getting what he wants. This worldview is also another way to feel that he’s in control, since he can control whether or not he attempts to take. 

A summary of some of this could be: He’s a control freak because of fear of losing things if he’s not in control, who desperately wants someone to safely take control away from him so he can fucking rest a minute and figure out what he really wants. Tyrell’s fatal flaw is not knowing what he wants or even thinking about what he wants. It’s sacrificing his inner life for a world of appearances for the sake of approval, resulting in emotional instability due to suppression and therefore unpredictable behavior. Tyrell’s growth would have to start with figuring out what he wants. That might start with his son, which is the only real thing we see him want in the show. 

By 404, Tyrell has gone through a set of experiences custom-designed to dismantle everything that kept him standing. He really only has two choices at that point: Change himself or fucking die. With limited inner resources and no external support, it’s unsurprising he chose to die. The story of Tyrell Wellick is the story of the stripping down of the illusions necessary for someone to believe they can survive in the plastic, rigged capitalist game, and ultimately suggests that the impulse to win the capitalist game is at root an impulse to death.  

#mr. robot #blogging about Mr. Robot in 2023 bc I'm like this #tyrell wellick #tyrell wellick analysis #mr. robot analysis #mr. robot meta

[aulel-process]

“Susceptibility and flawed perception of how intimate relationships are. Tyrell loved Joanna more than anything and was willing to do and sacrifice anything for her, just as later he was willing to do and sacrifice anything for Elliot and fscociety. However, Joanna never really loved Tyrell. This is made clear in how easy it was for her to replace him, and also shown in her confession to said replacement about what attracted her to Tyrell. Not him, but the fact that he could satiate her greed— getting her whatever she wanted at any cost. He gave her material wealth, a higher social standing, and sexual satisfaction. To put it simply, she used him, and he was never truly aware of it. Tyrell’s susceptibility is also made clear in how easily and frequently he finds himself switching from E-Corp to fsociety to the Dark Army. He is frighteningly loyal to people, but not to causes. After just a month of being with Elliot, he becomes so attached that he says he “loves him” and that they could be “gods together” regardless of the fact that Elliot returns none of this, even going as far as to use Tyrell for his own purposes.”

https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/vlh98c/tyrell_wellick_an_analysis/

Interesting commentary on Tyrell possibly having histrionic personality, which was also what the actor thought while portraying him…

Ahh aches for Tyrell because he does seem to feel used in the end, or at least he expresses his feeling of Elliot not reciprocating… “You honestly don’t care about me, do you?”

Elliot’s tenderness towards Tyrell’s vulnerabilities:

Poor baby ;_;

Then he dies ;_;

The scene when they are dressed differently (Tyrell in a hoodie and Elliot more formally)… the internet says it’s an alternate reality, a better universe and Tyrell asks, “I just want to know if you’re on my side.” And Elliot responds, “Always.”… but I’ve also seen it interpreted as a dream that Elliot has and he says “always” because he wishes he had been there for Tyrell in reality and had said that to him but wasn’t able to ;_; heartbreak 💔

#tyrelliot #tyrell x elliot #tyrell wellick #elliot alderson #mr. robot

[popanalysis99]

There’s Something About Elliot: Why Tyrell and Vera were obsessed with him and what’s the difference?

In Mr. Robot, we all know that most of us love our Elliot so much. Who wouldn’t? He is smart, intelligent, selfless, kind, and beautiful. But his smarts and beauty did attract a lot of unwanted attention from most characters, but mostly Tyrell Wellick and Fernando Vera. Both had gotten obsessed with Elliot from the first time they bat their eyes on him. But what were the differences between their obsessions and what made these two the way they were.

Tyrell

Tyrell first met Elliot at All Safe and found him a bit endearing. Then later had his men kidnap him and bring him to E Corp to offer him a job there because he wants to work close with him. But Elliot politely turns him down and Tyrell despite being a little hurt by the rejection respects his decision. We then later see what his life is like outside of E Corp. He is trying hard to be the CTO and gets rejected for it constantly (not gonna condone him beating up a homeless man though). He even has sex with both men and women to get what he wants and is having a baby with Joanna, who is as ruthless as he is. Things get worse for him when he accidentally kills his rival’s pregnant wife, Joanna kicks him out and he gets fired from his job. He then finds out that Elliot might’ve something to do with the fsociety attacks on E Corp and later Elliot takes him to the arcade, where he reveals that the reason why he wanted to do this was because he wanted to save the world. Later, both Mr. Robot and Tyrell commit the 5/9 hack and Tyrell is taken to the Dark Army barn while Elliot ends up in prison for hacking Lenny Shannon and stealing Flipper. Tyrell ends up being driven insane due to isolation and manipulated into thinking he and Elliot are gods. Later when Elliot is released, he and Tyrell reunite and is shocked to find out about Stage 2: it will kill innocents and he tries to stop it, until Tyrell shoots him in the stomach. He then regrets it and tries to make it up for it. He then goes forward with the Stage 2 attack when Elliot tries to stop it after Angela exposes him and then things get worse for him when he finds out not only is his wife Joanna dead but now his son is taken away from him. He is then appointed as the CTO but at the point where he has lost everything. He then agrees to help Elliot take down the Dark Army and is on his side fully now. He knocks out a Dark Army thug keeping an eye on them and he and Elliot try to cover it up, but when the van goes missing, Elliot and Tyrell try to find it and in the process, Elliot finally shows his kindness to Tyrell despite being hurt by him several times and admits that he felt good that Tyrell liked him and opens up to him about his love for his sister Darlene and becomes vulnerable on his own terms with him. And then when the Dark army soldier tries to shoot Elliot, Tyrell ends up getting hit and Elliot offers him to take him to the hospital, but Tyrell refuses in order to keep Elliot safe and wishes him well to take down Whiterose.

Vera

(TW: RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, CSA)

Vera first bat his eyes on Elliot when he came into Shayla’s apartment looking for her, before finding Vera relaxing on the sofa. He then introduced himself to Elliot and took a liking to him because he reminded him of himself when he was younger because he was also depressed, hated himself and tried to kill himself back then. He then gives his speech on hate as a power and announces Shayla as his own property, before leaving. After he leaves, Elliot finds out that he raped Shayla, which causes him to turn him to the police and have him locked up. Later, Vera finds out about this and finally turns his focus to Elliot. He has Shayla kidnapped and then killed when Elliot has him released to save her. And when he returns, his obsession for Elliot has gotten worse the last time we saw him. He wants Elliot to be his partner for his criminal empire in New York and he wasn’t gonna let anything stop him from achieving that. He even goes as far as to kidnapping and torturing Elliot’s therapist Krista to get more information about Elliot, believing that he and Elliot are “soulmates”. He then kidnaps Elliot and expresses his excitement over his reunion with him and tells him the tale of how he got bored of his victory in his hometown and why he came back to New York and why he solely wants Elliot to be his partner. Elliot rejects him until he knows Krista is alive and well, Vera doesn’t take the rejection well. He then forces Elliot to bring out Mr. Robot by sexually assaulting Krista in front of him and then when Elliot dares to fight back by trying to shoot him, Vera then threatens to kill Krista. He then demands an impromptu therapy session to see what made Elliot the way he is. It is then revealed that Elliot was molested by his dad. Vera then swoops in as his “knight in shining armour” to comfort him and tells him that he did it for his own good. He then opened up about his own abuse at the hands of his mother’s friends and mentions how his abuse would make him the “storm”. He succeeds at having Elliot in his own arms, until Krista kills him.

So what did we learn.

Both Tyrell and Vera had gotten obsessed with Elliot, but with different reasons and in different manners. But while Tyrell has shown genuine admiration and respect for Elliot and just wanted to be noticed by him without hurting anyone close to him and at least allowed Elliot to have his own agency, Vera was a classic Yandere who was willing to hurt anyone or cause destruction in order to get Elliot in his arms and acted like Elliot was his personal property/trophy. He used the tropes such as “Stalking and Abduction is Love” in order to make Elliot as his partner and control and abuse him, much like a fucked up version of The Taming of The Shrew. Also, Vera is basically a much more successful, sadistic and a much more dark mirror of Tyrell. He is everything that Tyrell should’ve been and does things that Tyrell doesn’t even dare to do like rape or sexually assault anyone to get what he wants. While Tyrell is an example of Unrequited Love/Simp, Vera is a classic example of a dangerous Stalker who should be avoided.

#mr robot #mr. robot #elliot alderson #tyrell wellick #fernando vera #tyrelliot #essay #miscellenous #analysis #stalker #yandere

[mr-qwerty]

Same annon would you do an analysis in your opinion on how Tyrell and Vera's disturbing obsession with Elliot were different from each other and what motivated them to be attracted to him?

Good question! As a preface I should say that I think I read a post on reddit about that too so idk how much I have an own opinion.

I See Elliot as a sort of middle ground between Tyrell and Vera, and I think both Tyrell and Vera were attracted to Elliot because of the different as well as similar qualities they saw in him (I'll explain).

Tyrell is overly concerned with how other people perceive him, he cares and is completely consumed with trying to please others and prove himself, because he only feels valuable when others validate him.

Vera on the other hand, is completely focused on himself. In that way he is the opposite of Tyrell, because he draws his self-worth from hurting others and causing them pain--he only feels content when others fear him.

Elliot is interesting because he's kinda a combination of the two, imo. His pursuit of changing the world is equally selfish and altruistic, because he wants to make the world a better place for himself and others, especially those who are vulnerable. In that sense, he is more congruent and whole than Tyrell and Vera, who focus too much on the outside world and their internal world, respectively. Elliot strikes a balance between Tyrells and Veras extreme mindsets and I think both Tyrell and Vera strive for that kind of balance because it makes Elliot more grounded (and, dare I say, stable?) than both of them--even though, on the surface it looks like Tyrell and Vera are each more successful in their own fields than Elliot is in his. But ofc, they both sooner or later recognized how brilliant Elliot is at what he does and the kind of power that comes with his talent.

-> Proof:

-Tyrell wanted him and Elliot to be Gods together, he thought Elliot could help him become so powerful that he'd be praised/acknowledged by others for good; maybe he also set that as a challenge to himself, as in'I do this, and I'll finally approve of myself and be independent of others opinions'..--we know he was intrigued by Elliot not caring about anyones opinion so maybe in being gods together he was also hoping to learn that from him

-Vera saw what Elliot could do when he broke him out of prison, and as he explains later Elliot was significant to him because their names were linked by the universe and Elliot was the one who closed all doors for Vera in New York, which was pretty impressive given the violence Vera was in charge of.--speaking of intrigue, I think Vera was impressed by Elliot not being scared of him when they first met

It's interesting that both Tyrell and Vera pretty much immediately related to Elliot: Tyrell said, he was exactly in Elliots place once ("just a tech"), and Vera at least tells us that the moment he met Elliot he saw the same pain he himself had been carrying on Elliots face.

But Tyrell, Vera and Elliot are all similar in their need for power over other people and for being in control of situations they otherwise wouldn't feel safe in. Of course the specifics are different for each of them--their type of abuse and corporate world vs. criminal underworld vs. hacktivist scene are obviously all very different-- but I do think they are more in need of that power and control than other characters (for example, Angela is motivated more by justice). So they have that in common. I also suspect that that might stem from their respective childhood trauma, they all seemed to have problems with their parents (we know that Tyrell hated his father, we know what Edward did to Elliot, and Vera confessed what his mother did to him--assuming he told us the truth, but I don't really know why he wouldn't've). So that could be another reason for why they were drawn to Elliot.

I think the fact that Tyrell and Vera could see parts of themselves in Elliot, while Elliot also displayed desirable qualities they wanted to have (consciously or subconsciously), is interesting. In combining of these two factors of familiarity and display of theirs goals (almost part of their dream-selfs), Elliot gave them a sense that their goals could be attainable. And I imagine it would've also just been interesting to see some of their traits play out so differently in Elliots character.

TL;DR: Tyrell is obsessed with external validation while Vera is chasing internal validation and they both think Elliot can somehow satisfy those issues for them. Their need for control and power resulted in them acting the way they did.

Alright I hope this makes sense! Sorry it took me a while to respond, I had to think about the question, it was an interesting one. I tried to find the reddit post I saw about this to make sure I was somewhat original but I couldn't find it so I hope I'm not ripping anyones ideas. Anyways yeah that's how I see these character dynamics. I would love to see Tyrell meet Vera, I can't even try to predict how that'd happen (obviously doesn't work with the timeline too well) but I think given that they are polar opposites in many ways and are both so obsessed with Elliot, it would be veryyy interesting I think. Also let me know what you think if you like! I'm not sure if I'm 100% convinced of my interpretation.

PS. feel free to send more questions!! :) <3

#mr robot #mr spoilers #elliot alderson #tyrell wellick #angela moss #tw abuse #tw csa mention #mr robot analysis #hope this makes sense #sorry for rambling #idk this makes sense in my brain. but I really can't gauge if its coherent or if its just word salad too everyone else rn #i need sleeeeeeeeep #ok

[sociopath-analysis]

Sociopath Profile: Tyrell Wellick

From the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015-2019) Played by Martin Wallström Requested by an anon

Tyrell sees himself as one of Elliot’s biggest rivals. For much of the series, he is a major antagonist. However, even with the amount of influence he has as an immoral businessman, he is ultimately a low-functioning sociopath. This could be with histrionic features as Wallström suggests that Tyrell has HPD (or possibly HPD with antisocial features). For all that he gets done, he isn’t nearly as clever as he thinks he is.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

His grandiose sense of self-worth shows though how he views himself and Mr. Robot as gods among men. Thanks to the 5/9 hack, he essentially sees himself this way along with his wealth and status. However, Tyrell is also perpetually bored of his status. A typical disposition of sociopaths and psychopaths.

He can be charming, but it tends to be incredibly superficial. He’s able to play the part of the successful and suave tech mogul while still pretending to understand the people lower down in the company. This image of kindness is largely false since he only really cares about his own pleasure. He’s also not as good at manipulation as he thinks due to his overwhelming need for control. And he seems more suggestible when involved in larger schemes with others calling the shots, lending to the histrionic interpretation.

The only people he cares about are his wife, his son, and Mr. Robot. The former seem to be genuine connections since he was devastated after Joanna’s death. The latter, however, is framed more as an obsession. And outside of those exceptions, he has no problem screwing over others to further his goals. He sleeps around with others simply to get to the top and doesn’t see much problem with killing to get ahead. Even when he kills by accident, his only concerns are not getting caught.

Tyrell is also has an impulsive streak. Compared to his wife who is more high-functioning, he is more along the lines of a temperamental child despite his desired image as a scheming mastermind. When things don’t go his way, he starts throwing fits and lashing out with random violence. Killing Scott Knowles’ wife was one of these impulsive decisions that He also satiates his perpetual boredom with random sex with men and women.

Ultimately, the only thing that brings him to change his ways is his devotion to Mr. Robot, which is something that doesn’t invalidate his previous actions. He openly admits to Elliot that he doesn’t regret strangling Sharon Knowles because of the thrill of power it gave him over the victim. And while he seems to agree that the Dark Army needs to be stopped, it’s only for self-interest and the idea of getting on Elliot’s good side.

See more profiles here.

#Tyrell Wellick #Mr. Robot #Mr Robot #Martin Wallström #requests #anon #profile #character analysis

[oculus-dawes]

Okay, so i happened across this:

I never like to accuse people of not understanding stuff, but i really feel like this ignores the entire establishment of Tyrell's character. How else can you understand a persons motivations without first observing and understanding their personality?

Anyways, I've tried to do a breakdown of Tyrell's character.

Cleary shown to be driven by his (very strong) emotions, including inappropriate breakdowns - reaction to being fired

Extremely morally grey eg cathartic violence in s1 ep3

Strong attachments to people, not groups (E Corp or DA) eg "no, but i will always be loyal to Elliot"

Power hungry - "we were supposed to be gods together" first tried being CTO, but when it became unattainable, he tries to gain power a different way

Believer in fate - he believes he was destined to work with Elliot.

Joanna acts as his Lady Macbeth - she wanted him to be CTO and do whatever it takes. Him gaining power=pleasing his wife

Ive seen people suggest Tyrell has Borderline Personality Disorder. On the NHS website, the main systoms of BPD are listed to be: emotional instability, disturbed patterns in thinking or perception,impulsive behaviour, intense but unstable relationships with others

Ive probably seen the show too many times at this point, but this this is how i see Tyrell.

To the redditor: it wasn't a random and confusing switch of teams, Tyrell was fired from E Corp and looking for new stability, he emotionally attached himself to Elliot and thus aligned himself with his goal.

#mr robot #sorry for the long post #Tyrell could not more obviously be unstable #Tyrell Wellick #Elliot Alderson #character analysis #mr. robot

[stvlti]

S1E09

【warning brave traveller here be spoilers】

i know y’all be shipping Tyrelliot and also there’s been lots of people comparing this series to Fight Club so can I raise y’all this:

Back in s1e09, when Elliot brings Tyrell to the Fun Society arcade space, as he reveals everything to Tyrell, a piano cover of Where Is My Mind? by The Pixies begins playing. And as Elliot says “I wanted to save the world”, the popcorn machine starts to pop, a visual stand-in signifying that the explosions (i.e. thermostat meltdown at Evil Corp’s multiple Steel Mountains) have begun. Now i’m sure the Fight Club parallel here was intended. But if we remember what the Fight Club ending looked like - not only did the Narrator and Marla stand there watching explosions happen over the non-diegetic track Where Is My Mind - they held hands. Now i’m not saying that cinematic parallel was homoerotic subtext intended by Sam Esmail, but i’m saying there is metacinematic homoerotic subtext *winkwonk*

#mr. robot meta #tyrelliot #elliot alderson #tyrell wellick #i'm yelling could you be anymore obvious Mr. Esmail #why out of all the characters did this Swedish Patrick Bateman knockoff intrigue me so #like why am i rooting for him #also i should've seen that twist coming - I didn't take the Fight Club comparison so literally #although looking up the casting sort of spoiled the twist for me #so now when it finally happened on screen i'm back in film analysis mode #it bugs me people are calling it the 'Elliot collective' or something thoug #that's a system NTs #and that term fits right in with the technobabble metaphors Elliot is so fond of #another metatextual element ayyy #Eugenia watches Mr Robot #fsociety txt #spoilers //

[knownoshamc]

Tyrelliot Appreciation Week → Day 7: Free Choice  -Not so one-sided Tyrelliot

#tyrelliot #tyrelliotaw #elliot alderson #tyrell wellick #rami malek #martin wallström #christian slater #mr robot #ain't one-sided come on #click the link for analysis if you want #gaaaaaaaaaaaay #otp: my darling dear love you for all time #mrrobotedits

[itdependsoncontext]

Review and analysis

SPOILERS AHEAD

At first, the show is seemingly about Elliot Alderson, cybersecurity analyst by day and vigilante hacker by night, and how he joins an Anonymous-inspired anarchist hacker collective, fsociety.

Their leader, the eponymous Mr. Robot, wants to target a multinational called E Corp to delete all their debt records and provoke "the biggest mass redistribution of wealth in world history". They want to recruit Elliot because he works for Allsafe, the company responsible for E Corp's cybersecurity, and also because he left their backdoor in E Corp's server. To execute their plan on a global scale, fsociety needs the help of the Dark Army, a violent Chinese hacker group.

We also meet Tyrell Wellick, an ambitious senior VP of technology at E Corp who is taken with Elliot and wants to recruit him to E Corp. Tyrell and his wife want Tyrell to become CTO and they will do anything to achieve their goal, much like the Underwoods in House of Cards. There is a cat and mouse game going on between Elliot and Tyrell. On this surface level, Mr. Robot is an anarchist criticism of capitalism.

However, Mr. Robot burries the lede. It turns out it and Elliot contain multitudes and minor plot points and characters are more important than they appear to be:

We hear Elliot's paranoid internal monologue as he adresses us.

Much like Dexter, Elliot hides trophies. Except that Elliot's aren't of kills but of vigilante hacks, which he keeps on fake music CDs. The first vigilante hack we see him do is to tip the police off to a pedophile.

Elliott struggles with a drug addiction and dates his dealer, Shayla, who is beaten by her possessive supplier, Fernando Vera. To protect Shayla, Elliot tips off the police about Vera's operation and gets him arrested. However, Vera develops an unhealthy obsession with Elliot's hacking skills and has deep connections. He gets Shayla abducted to blackmail Elliot to hack him out of jail. When Elliot breaks him out and Vera escapes, he discovers that Shayla had been killed earlier.

Jump cuts imply that Elliot loses track of time and when he kisses Darlene, a fellow member of fsociety, it breaks Elliot's grasp of reality, as she claims to be his sister. We then discover proof that Elliot has been misremembering events and that no one else sees Mr. Robot, because Mr. Robot is an alter ego and Elliot founded f society with Darlene.

The above elements are our first hint that there is more than meets the eye and that there are large gaps in Elliot's stories. It becomes clear that he suffers from DID, which is still a controversial diagnosis. This condition is believed to be triggered by traumatic events where the mind represses the event by splitting itself into alters as a survival mechanism. In this light, chosing a computer analyst as the main character is an interesting metaphor, since computers can also be split into partitions. I believe that naming his alter Mr. Robot and saving his trophies to CDs and burning the original motherboard hint to DID. At the same time, the show also uses real hacks and in this case a real-life safety procedure. A nice bonus is that the show's hacks were all vetted by security analysts, which is apparently rare. Following the QR codes, links and IP addresses also lead to Easter eggs when the show was broadcast.

The rest of the show is about Elliot struggling to break free of his Mr. Robot alter, especially after the 5/9 E Corp hack which he forgets since Mr. Robot took over to launch phase two of his plan.

Another interesting character from Elliot and Darlene's past is their childhood friend Angela. Angela got Elliot his job at Allsafe and their favorite movie is Back to the Future. Angela is attracted to men who treat her badly and Elliot is protective of her. What unites them is the leak of the Washington Township power plant, where Elliott's father, who had a computer repair shop called Mr. Robot and looks like Elliott's alter ego, and Angela's beloved mother were exposed to irradiated matter and subsequently died. Angela uncovers new evidence of E Corp's involvement and almost single-handedly manages to re-launch the class action lawsuit. Her gumption impresses E Corp's CEO Phillip Price and he offers her a job, which she unexpectedly accepts. She becomes his protege. Unbeknownst to Elliot, she has been helping his Mr. Robot persona achieve phase two. This is also why she got Elliot a job at E Corp, which he used to try to atone for 5/9 and try to prevent phrase two.

After 5/9 a massive FBI manhunt is launched to find Tyrell Wellick, believed to be the f society's leader, and the divide between poor and rich becomes even more marked. E Corp even launches their own bitcoin, so they profit from 5/9.

A key collaborator of E Corp's CEO is the Chinese Minister of State Security, who keeps pushing for a UN vote so that China can annex Congo as a quid pro quo where China would adopt E Corp's digital currency. We gradually learn that there is more than meets the eye and that this Chinese minister is actually the Dark Army's mysterious leader Whiterose, a time-obsessed transgender woman. Dark Army is also more important than we were lead to believe, as they have plants everywhere, including in the FBI. They had been hiding Tyrell Wellick since 5/9 and have nefarious plans involving the second phrase and moving a power plant to Congo. Whiterose kidnaps and radicalizes Angela by convincing her that she can bring her mother back from the dead. Angela is instrumental in phase two. During large protests, violent rioters planted by the Dark Army break into E Corp wearing masks in a scene reminiscent of Clockwork Orange. Angela uses the confusion to access the server room and insert malware that makes 71 server farms explode. She was lead to believe that there would be no casualties, but thousands of people die. Darlene visits her out of concern and she is in complete denial rewinding the tape to bring everyone back.

Then there is an intermezzo where we are introduced to several colorful Dark Army assassins and two FBI agents.

One of the assassins is Irving, a mustache-wearing pathological liar, who is a budding writer and enjoys barbecue. He enjoys his job as an assassin but wants to retire to write his book. In some ways, he's like Colin Farrell's character in the Gentlemen. What makes him interesting is that he also has a friendly demeanor and often give the other characters good advice, although he keeps lying about his background story to put them at ease. Irving hides Wellick and also kills the FBI plant when he becomes a liability, which saves the main characters.

The other assassin is Leon, a cool black man who loves pop culture and literature references. Leon also does not feel a deep allegiance to the Dark Army and later becomes a gun for hire. Among other things, Leon debates the injustice of Knight Rider not having recieved an Emmy since it anticipated our modern relationship with technology, while Frasier recieved many.

He's right that the title song is hard to forget (you're welcome):

Leon does this while seemingly driving two fsociety hackers, Trenton and Mobley, to their death in the desert. He however helps the protagonists on multiple other occasions.

A character who illustrates our relationship to technology particularly well is the insomniac FBI agent Dominique DiPierro, who replaces human contact with her Alexa. Dominique has an unshakable moral compass and has been on the Dark Army and fsociety's trail for a long time. Her chief is revealed to be a Dark Army mole, which explains his reluctance. She becomes linked with Darlene's story when she catches her after Darlene's boyfriend is assassinated in front of their eyes by the Dark Army. Darlene refuses to talk, but Dominique shows her the extent of her investigation and manages to turn her into a criminal informer. After Darlene is no longer an informer, the two get drunk together and have a one night stand. When her chief is murdered by Irving, Dominique is blackmailed to take his place. She resents Darlene for her involvement, since her family is threatened and her moral values are compromised. She finally gets a good night sleep on the plane to Budapest, where she was supposed to escape with Darlene. However, Darlene thinks Dominique abandoned her and has a panic attack in the airport's bathroom where she decides that she doesn't need anyone and she can be fine on her own. This resolves her character arc.

Two remaining character arcs concern Whiterose and Elliot, whose moral arguments are also interesting. However, before we discuss that, we need to delve into the cause of Elliot's DID.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

If you have PTSD or experienced trauma in the past, I suggest that you skip this part.

At this point, it has become clear that Mr. Robot is an idealized version of his father that always says the right thing. Though flashbacks we realize that Elliot's mother was very mean and we also see that he and his sister aren't close to her. During his visits to his psychiatrist, Krista, Elliot reveals that he jumped out of the window to escape his father. This does not match the flashbacks where Elliot and his father are close. Elliott's sessions are cut short when he reveals his Mr. Robot alter and his involvement in 5/9, which scare Krista.

However, they are forced back together by an unlikely third party. Fernando Vera comes back after he conquered the drug market of his native Dominican republic. He has grandiose plans of taking over NYC with Elliot's help. After seeing a photo of Elliot interacting with Krista, he decides that she will help convince Elliot and abducts her. He then forces her to reveal Elliot's file in breach of her oath. When Elliot turns up to save Krista, he reads Krista's notes to manipulate Elliot and forces the two to continue their therapy session and keeps interfering. Krista protesting that this is not how therapy is supposed to work and apologizing to Elliot, but Vera does not care. However, they keep going because Elliot also desperately wants to understand what happened to him. Krista then asks about what lead to Elliot jumping out of the window, what he remembers and finally if he was abused by his father. A tearful Elliot doesn't know how to go on and Vera consoles him to manipulate him. Krista then stabs him in the back and the two escape from Vera's henchmen. Knowing this allows for the appearance of Elliot's child alter who he apologizes to for not protecting him. It is unfortunately very common for survivors to blame themselves. It turns out that Elliot hid the key to his room, so he did actually attempt to protect himself. We also discover that Mr. Robot, child Elliot and a mother alter meet in a skyscraper in Elliot's mind.

⚠️ END OF TRIGGER WARNING ⚠️

What motivates the primary antagonist, Whiterose, becomes clear in a flashback. In the 80's, she successively negotiates a large deal with the US on behalf of the Chinese government. In her room, her interpreter is revealed to be her lover who she comes out to as trans. They want her to become ambassador to the US, because their love is forbidden in China. However, the deal is so successful that she is offered a better post in China. She takes it, hoping to change goverment policy. Before that happens, her lover kills himself before his wedding to a woman, since he lost hope. This sends Whiterose on a path to get her lover back. She forms the Deus group, a large conspiracy between the one percenters headed by E Corps' CEO. This somewhat vindicates Elliot's paranoia, but the most interesting part is what she is using her influence for. We already know that she pushed for China to annex Congo, but why? She wants to move her power plant in Washington Township there.

This power plant is shown to be a VLHC (Very Large Hadron Collider) a hundred times more powerful than the one at CERN. It is also heavily implied that Whiterose believes it to be a time machine or at least a machine that can link parallel worlds, which explains all the references to Back to the Future. This is where the show veers from realism into scifi, since the technology presented in the show is normally realistic (save for the simultaneous translation engine Darlene used, of course).

After the E Corp riots, Angela wants retribution. She discusses this with Phillip who reveals that he is her biological father. This also explains why Allsafe got the E Corp contact and why he wanted to make her his protege. He revealed this in an attempt to protect her, but since she won't back off, the Dark Army kills her. This motivates Phillip to help Elliot avenge his daughter by taking down the Deus Group and Whiterose's plant. After Elliot and Darlene steal the Deus Group's funds, Philip is killed by Whiterose. She is then hunted by a SWAT team, but manages to escape thanks to her security detail who overpower the FBI.

This leads us to the events at the Washington Township power plant. After Darlene and Dominique escaped, Elliot is captured by the Dark Army while attempting to hack the power plant. He is then lead to Whiterose who attempts to convert him like she converted Angela. Their different outlooks are especially interesting:

- Whiterose believe herself to be the good guy, since she wants to use her machine to erase all the events that went wrong.

- Elliot, on the other hand, believes her machine to be dangerous. He is afraid that the machine isn't stable and she will kill many people when she launches it.

This makes Whiterose laugh in disbelief since she points out that Elliot named his group f society. She also believes that that have much in common. She ultimately tries to prove that she is right by shooting herself, since she believes she will be brought back once her machine starts. Elliot tries to stop the machine but then blacks out.

He wakes up in bed, but nothing is quite as it seems:

Elliot has a completely different demeanor and it is revealed that he is the founder of Allsafe. He convinces a more introverted Wellick to give Allsafe the contract with F Corp. He is about to marry Angela who's parents are together - Phillip retired. Elliot's parents are also both still alive and married. Surprisingly, they are great parents. Elliot gets home and we see our Elliot at his keyboard. We then see the same events unfold from our Elliot's perspective. He leaves the area where the power plant was and it doesn't exist. He sees a 50's billboard going into town which is likely a Back to the Future reference. It is revealed that Darlene doesn't exist. It becomes clear that he is more introverted than this Elliot. They compare lives, but then the other Elliot hurts his head during an earthquake. Our Elliot hides the body in a self-storage unit, which I found rather funny. Unfortunately for Elliot, this world isn't real. He created it to store his primary self in an ideal world. This is also why Darlene doesn't exist, since she is his tie to the real world. Elliot has to come to terms with the fact that he's just another alter. He then watches his life unfold in a cinema like the one he went to with his father as a child. The camera zooms out to reveal an eye that looks like Whiterose's particle accelerator. We then view Darlene welcome the real Elliot when he wakes up in POV. This makes sense, since he became a bystander as a result of his condition. It is left ambiguous whether he time travelled or not, but I believe it was all just a clever metaphor.

I enjoyed the show overall, especially:

the level of attention given to coding

the stand-alone episodes like the ones with Trenton's brother or Elliot and Darlene's heist

the pop culture references

I am also a fan of time travel stories, so the last few episodes and references to Back to the Future were an added bonus.

I'd love for more people to watch it. Unfortunately it's also hard to recommend due to the heavy themes it goes into.

#mr robot #review #spoilers #sam esmail #rami malek #possibly triggering #tv series

[dxxtruction]

Tyrell Wellick - Character profile - (sorta an unprofessional psych analysis) 

NOTE: I’m not an expert and this is also non-exhaustive of everything I could write about Tyrell. Can’t observe every little thing. This is also super unorganized below the cut I’m sorry. 

Words I’d describe Tyrell by: Ambitious, Boastful, Selfish, Controlling, Violent, Impulsive, Emotional, Loyal, Strategist, Enthusiastic, Extroverted, Adaptable, Vain, Desperate, Observant, Insightful, Driven, Fearful, Intelligent, Cunning, Technical, Prepared, Outwardly Friendly, Resourceful, Loathing, Self Loathing, Sometimes Cooperative, Caring, Vulnerable, Fearful, and Influenced.

Psyche: Erratic behavior, attaches own goals into a special person, delusions of grandeur, looks down on and has disregard for many others, has a certain lack of guilt or regard for breaking ethical or personal boundaries, adapts self in order to achieve goals, wearing masks over the more vulnerable and perceived weaker sides of himself, perhaps hiding various amounts of self loathing, maladaptive perfectionism, strong desire for control.

 I’ll avoid anything official and say he likely has some form of personality disorder and/or perhaps an attachment disorder.

Tyrell seems to be driven almost entirely by his own ambitions and goals for his life. Those goals change but he continues on doing anything possible to meet those ends. Believing he is destined to have them over others who seek similar ends. 

He care’s a lot about his appearance, both in how he looks and in how others perceive him suggesting a need to garner their respect and control perceptions. Perhaps fearing rejection and public humiliation. Feels it necessary to hide himself behind the best of outward appearances. Feeling equally deserving of respect and deeply afraid of losing it. The latter suggesting a point in time where he saw himself associated with certain perceived inferiorities (perhaps his family being poor, his accent, a lack of knowledge or skill, a lack of restraint), that still lingers in him even though he’s tried (relentlessly) to escape them.

Tyrell tries to maintain a look of control and professionalism, something he’s well developed in order to get to where he is. With control, having the upper hand, he believe’s he can not lose. He however cracks under the pressure of perhaps not having control by lashing out and acting on impulse, often violent impulse. Regaining a sense of power over the situation in destructive ways that run counter to what he’s trying to achieve. 

There’s hints at a fear of showing weakness and vulnerability suggesting perhaps toxic masculinity and could also be the same fears of rejection and public humiliation. The amount of effort he seems to put into this suggests he fears in some way that he could very well be exposed as a fraud. Tyrells mask is there for a reason and I think that reason is to avoid his fears, of which there are many.

He is aware of many of the masks he wears (but maybe not all of them), and seems to practice and perfect them. He’s a perfectionist: self defeating, even self harming, towards unrealistic goals and expectations of himself, causing undue stress. Tyrell has a hyper-fixation upon inadequacies he sees in both himself and others. This causes quite a lot of black and white, narrow ways of thinking.  

Tyrell can also crack and shed off his mask, showing his vulnerable side when alone or when he is feeling weak or defeated. He cries. I think he feels his emotions fairly intensely at all times. Which may contribute to why he tries so hard on maintaining a different sense of himself which is far more collected. Creating distance from how he feels things in order to see himself as more in control. And as always in order to meet his goals. I get a sense of self hatred, a certain level of shame from Tyrell in the ways he seems to cover up who he is from the world. Perhaps from the amount of things he has bottled up. 

Despite feeling deserving of his goals, he knows you must work to get the things you want, and so he will resort to ANY means necessary. Boundaries mean nothing when it works towards his goals. Conventionality and reason can be sacrificed if needed. Breaking conventions seems (to me) a last resort measure as Tyrell is proven to be sufficient at getting to where he is through his social and technical skills along with keen professional insights and overall intelligence within his field. He is very eager even without the more harmful ways of getting what he wants. These are all factors which make him appear desirable for high ranking positions within his field, and probably prove to him a sense of higher worth and tangible achievement. 

I do want to point out that he is observant of things most people tend to not notice or have foresight on. This quick internal observations lead him towards quick assumptions, making for keen awareness of how others will act, yet he holds strong to the initial judgements he has of people. The skill of reading people seems fairly important if you are to strategize with or against them and Tyrell is always following some type of plan and agenda. While not always in complete control of how he may act or feel he can control and manipulate the direction of his life to the ends he needs. He needs have it planned out for him to feel secure. 

While at first glance Tyrell may seem like only self concerning. He seems to have a pattern of attaching his goals in with a loyalty/contract to a specific person who he does them for. This leans towards delusions of grandeur especially with Elliot. 

In these relationships there is perhaps also seeking consistent validation from them. Going out of his way to make sure they notice what he’s willing to do for them. Idolizing them and desiring these relationships to succeed in the ways he envisions them to. Likely has fears of his own inadequacy to succeed within the relationships goals, and fears that he could ruin the relationship by not succeeding. Leading to a suppressed but present low self esteem and easy influence over his actions.

He feels a strong need to provide for them, and they provide him with something as well or he wouldn’t show such loyalty. (Ie: Ability to seek the highest ideal of the American dream/Ability to rule the fate of the world). In other words they seem to offer a boosted ego or chance towards something he finds valuable to his personal ambitions. He cares about them but can’t ever shake what drives him.

In a world where he can get anything and impress anyone those who subvert that are incredibly intriguing to him, and it also must be incredibly painful when he starts to develop strong feelings of attachment and they reject him. These people (Joanna and Elliot) are withholding and inconsistent in showing Tyrell that validation he wants. Making him have to chase their approval and respect. Which keeps him interested in continuing to succeed for them, to show off and get their attention. (Ex: Joanna’s gifts, Tyrells insistence on appearing good for Elliot). Winning their approval becomes a part of his core driving ambitions to succeed. 

Joanna is the perfect partner to fuel his more worldly ambitions. He wants to provide for her everything and anything which proves they are both successful and victorious in their dreams in life. While Elliot seems more to fuel his delusions of grandeur - he can have ultimate control and power via Elliot’s perceived ultimate power and control. In both instances he wants to share in success, feels this sharing as very intertwined with his life and the direction it needs to go. This intertwining can lead him to accept certain approaches he shouldn’t, but again he’s easy to influence in this position. 

I feel Tyrell fears most of all not having control (like many in this show), when feeling this way he tends to act out in anger. Tyrell uses violence often as a means of control, an outlet for his own anger and rage when he senses a lacking of power in a situation. He is also impulsive when angered showing a instinctive pull towards violence when he feels this way. He lacks a certain control over these emotions, making him erratic. I sense Tyrell does a great deal of work to mask this side of himself from others, at the very least to keep up appearances. (keep in mind I never said he ever did handle himself well.) 

The root causes of all of this is likely some combination of genetics, upbringing, and stress from the crushing weight of his goals. He has pointed out a strong desire to be unlike his father, who he sees as weak and pathetic for not trying hard at anything in his life. This seems to be near the root of his pathos as Tyrell shows he must be strong and in control while always doing anything to succeed. He isn’t afraid of the taboo either and almost seems to seek out what is most ambitious, risky, and rebellious in order to prove himself. Especially when it achieves some greater end. 

Tyrell has two side really, the conquerer and the meek. He is selfishly driven, but easily influenced. Prone to violent behavior, but passionately submissive to those he loves. Willing to do anything to get what he wants, but can be equally vulnerable and saddened by loss and failure. He suppresses himself but is easily emotional and erratic. Driven by success but also ruled by fear. Insightful but also delusional and narrow minded. 

Tyrell may have precarious ways of dealing with situations and getting at his ambitions but ultimately his concerns are always fairly human and usually seem reasonably achievable for him at face value. He wants to provide for his family, make sure they’re safe, he wants to get the position he’s worked hard for (things get ... confused when it comes to Elliot but I think it starts with noticing how Elliot could be a good potential hire to boost his reputation then things just continue to escalate as they seem to toy with one another to his mind). He reacts perhaps with probably just too much passion, and I don’t think he can help it. What I’m getting at it is Tyrell has a very human side to him that’s fairly normal and awkward even, he’s kinda just a huge techie nerd and loves that he is, we see a lot of the normality of Tyrell in 404. 

#tyrell wellick #mr robot #read me to filth on this #I always feel bad tagging these long posts in the fandom ags #Anyway this is wha I wrote in order to actually be able to write tyrell for like one thing lol

[ra-lek]

I have watched mr robot so many times and I am still confused to why they picked “red wheelbarrow” as season 2 and 3’s symbol and how it ties the show together? Where did it come from? What’s the actual significance of it?

aalright first thing’s first- i’m so sorry for the long wait. i’ve been busy & all over the place but i wanted to give this ask my full attention because i’m beyoNd excited to get into it!! 

second- this gets long. like, very long. so if you’re cool w that; buckle up, click on that ‘read more’ and let’s go: the red wheelbarrow

i’m gonna attempt to explain all the questions above- to the best of my ability. but to do so i have to make something clear: as you will see in my analysis below, or if you’ve, y’know, seen the show- mr robot does not play episodes in chronological order. or scenes, for that matter. 

there was absolutely no way to know anything about a red wheelbarrow until the end of s2- so, naturally, there are going to be gaps in my list. but in order to fill them, we need to see what we missed out on once s4 comes out. (this is basically my apologies in advance if some questions are left unanswered)

so, some facts: the red wheelbarrow is a poem written by william carlos williams & published in 1923. it’s a real, existing poem, and the first time it appears in mr robot is actually in the FIRST season. and that’s exactly why it’s such a staple to the rest of the story. 

but you see, the scene itself is split into puzzle pieces across 3 seasons.

so let’s treat it as such. i’m going to list & highlight important scenes in each season the best i can and then we’ll piece it all together, sounds good?

SEASON 1

this is the very base of the series. so it’s not surprising the red wheelbarrow is nested within it. trust me, if i attempted to piece everything together in one post it’ll be longer than a fucking bible so i’m only going to focus on the god night™

okay, so- the first time some shady shit happened was in episode 8 when we saw an SUV parked at coney island in which tyrell and mr robot were sitting & having a discussion. tyrell starts the conversation by saying he has to know what mr robot is planning because they were meant to be allies; that they want the same thing & he wants to be involved. 

mr robot responds with flat out telling him he’s wrong- that there’s nothing they could possibly agree on. tyrell demands more explanations and mr robot is so fed up at this point he goes to leave only to be pulled back by his shirt. tyrell asks “aren’t you forgetting i know about your dirty little secret? there are people close to you who wouldn’t be happy if they knew what i know” to which robot replies casually. they’re both too smart to allow pettiness to dictate their actions, there’s no benefit to either one of them to say those things to anybody- and that the best thing for tyrell to do when it comes to HIM? is nothing.

the scene ends there but transitions into mr wellick coming home lookin’ like a wreck and downing half a bottle of vodka- this surprises joanna since she actually heard some good news from tyrell’s lawyer- but he interrupts by telling her none of that matters; because there’s this tech he met a month ago, talks about his motives a bit to a very concerned woman at this point- and when he mentions not seeing what’s above them- she asks what it is exactly. he responds, “god.”

at this point into the show, the ‘who is mr robot’ reveal hasn’t happened yet. 

the conversation he had with tyrell happened the day before it, actually. since, in the same episode, elliot gets to find out who his family is- and the episode ends with mr robot saying “it’s time to talk.” and the reason i know this is because the following episode starts and,

episode 9. 

suddenly, it’s morning. elliot is freaking out and yelling and he’s confused and we’re confused and we’re yelling and mr robot is not helping at all by being so goddamn vague but there is one sentence that stands out and that is - “especially since that unprompted visit from tyrell wellick last night”

he is referring to the car scene only. because both he and tyrell came home after that talk- so it is not a 5/9 attack they did then. because, once again, there’s a sentence mr robot says: “i’ll explain everything. tonight.”

alright then so how do i explain the fact darlene was in elliot’s room looking for his meds after the reveal scene and THEN tyrell entered? – it’s actually pretty simple, it didn’t happen the day of the reveal. 

because, remember, elliot realized who darlene was the day before. she is concerned because he forgot again. those are the meds she’s looking for- they never acknowledge HIM.

once she leaves, and says she’ll be back with the meds soon- it’s understandable why she’s been looking for elliot for quite some time earlier in the episode and why mr robot came to elliot’s apartment at night- but they only had the ‘talk’ in the morning.

that same, unfortunate night for elliot tbh, tyrell enters the room and says he’s been waiting for darlene to leave. he approaches him for the first time, tells him how he strangled a woman and how he knows everything elliot’s been behind. that’s he’s the one constant in the sea of variables. so, he puts on his ‘fighting’ gloves and-

next thing we know, we’re in the arcade. elliot talks about changing the world and whatnot- says no one else is involved- tyrell very beautifully says “well it’s you and me now” and the episode ends with elliot looking over to the popcorn machine.

this is the night of the 5/9 attack.

we know, because elliot wakes up in tyrell’s car- 2 days later- and is met with world destruction (the song) playing in the background. you know what i mean- the deed has been done we don’t have time for this.

one more thing to point out about s1 before we wrap that one up is: when elliot searches for tyrell, joanna recognized him as the young tech her husband told her about when he was going on about god or whatever. she asked him when she last saw him and if he seemed strange- elliot replied with “a week ago” and “no” which she found funny because, the last time she saw him, he was acting very strange. 

SEASON 2

elliot put himself in jail out of spite. anyway, as i said, not a lot of time to decipher everything so let’s get to the main meal. we get some teasers about tyrell being a wanted criminal associated w fsociety and the one behind 5/9. that’s all the info we need cause the piece we’re searching for here is in episode 12.

we get the full version of the car scene!! this time, we see elliot as mr robot- delivering the same line. however, we were lead to believe that once mr robot exited the car it was the end of the scene but no no no no no- tyrell now opens his door and calls out to elliot.

he’s desperate and just wants to be a part of this project honestly so he says there’s something between them and he can feel it. now, mr robot/elliot says “you’re only seeing what’s in front of you. you’re not seeing what’s above you” tyrell asks for an explanation, doesn’t get one, and so he decides to fight cryptic with cryptic and recite the poem we mentioned like 7 hours ago.

“so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow, glazed with rainwater, beside the white chickens.”

now mr robot/elliot is intrigued. he lowers his head slightly and tyrell explains how his father used to quote that old poem all the time, how it meant so much to him, that it had been the only english he knew. so today, tyrell is using it as a reminder. a reminder of him, and a reminder of what he never wants to become.

i’m going to take one more paragraph to dedicate to this season and say: no this is not the only important thing. i’m just trying to not spiral out of the main focus. but if you’re interested you can send me an ask about red wheelbarrow spottings and meanings in s2 by just sending “godot?” and i gotchu, granted, in a few days- but i gotchu.

SEASON 3

this is where we get the full picture. well, sorta. because we don’t know exactly what happened after they part ways. but it’s okay, it’s not like the show is over.

now, a psychology break: elliot alderson suffers from dissociative identity disorder. (shocker, i know) mr robot is an alter. but you know a fun fact? most DID cases have more than just one alter. there’s at least two besides the host personality. and they all serve a specific purpose in order to keep you alive and help you cope with extreme trauma. 

mr robot, as we’ve seen him, is a protector. the moment tyrell put on those beating gloves it was a trigger and mr robot took over. same for when those neo-nazis were punching elliot, same for when he took a beating from ray’s men, and so on. — point is: alters come out with a help of a trigger. just how elliot says talking to darlene makes him see mr robot more often, for instance.

this is important because, even though neither he nor mr robot remember the quote, elliot can’t stop thinking about red wheelbarrows. he’s named his journal after it, he draws wheelbarrows in it.

the red wheelbarrow. something tyrell associated with his father whom he despised. something about that changed something in elliot- it could’ve been a trigger, it might’ve pulled another alter forward.

so, without further ado, let’s paint:

how about we pick up from what we see in s1e9. since, all of this happens in that day. welcome to 5/9

elliot remembers leading tyrell into the arcade, he remembers looking at popcorn. and that’s it. (he says so at the beginning of his journal, too) elliot switched with mr robot for enough time to remember tyrell and popcorn. but also there’s just something about wheelbarrows that keeps ringing in his head during his time in prison.

next, everything is from mr robot’s perspective. he slowly reaches for the gun, aims it at tyrell, fires- but nothing happens. this leads tyrell to an impressive conclusion: they’re gods. he insists they were destined to be together and work together. so he says “now i understand- when you told me i wasn’t seeing what was above me” and while he goes off we see mr robot’s face frowning with confusion because.

“what the fuck are you talking about?”

he doesn’t remember saying that, doesn’t remember the poem. but he disregards all of that once tyrell drops on his knees and aims the gun at his own head. he wants to test fate once more, so they do. which is when mr robot decides tyrell is just the right amount of crazy to save him from himself.

as the hacking is happening, the dark army arrives. irving, walking in, explains the honeypot situation which was reported to the FBI (dark army owns them) so. they’re here.

remember, elliot had discussed the honeypot with whiterose- not mr robot.

irving sees the gun on the table, sees the situation, casually threatens both of them in this very charming way of his. it’s very clear they’re fucked and have to comply with what the dark army says. they ask mr robot if he knows how to drive that SUV out front- he says yes. irving explains they will be taking care of tyrell, cause now he’s the most wanted criminal there is- and robot is advised to drive it to a location elliot wakes up in season 1 finale.

above him, glasses with an usb containing the ‘boardwalk fail’ clip. 

NOW,

tyrell got taken to a cabin, kept away from the world, chopping wood and asking where elliot is, chatting with irving occasionally- until one day he wakes to see some unusual things, among which is mr. williams if you remember, that’s the last name of the poet- but doesn’t have to mean much. 

he asks him questions, until he proves he’s loyal to them. however, he says he is only loyal to elliot. which is a good answer- because the DA is now giving him a laptop and they’re starting to work on stage2. but then;

“the operation will be called the red wheelbarrow, mr. alderson’s request.”

THAT is how it ties everything together, where it came from, who said it, the only thing left to decipher is why it stuck. maybe we can leave that for another time?

there are plenty of different interpretations when it comes to the poem, honestly. it seems tyrell’s resentment towards his father, and mr robot calling elliot’s dad a zero- was what got to elliot, or whoever it was, that can relate.

lemme know what you think!! i hope you’re satisfied w the answer and, again, im so sorry for the long wait. 

if there are any mistakes just keep in mind it’s 7am right now and i need some mercy.

#a very very long post #im not even gonna proofread it im so tired im gonna go straight to bed #mr robot #elliot alderson #tyrell wellick #/mine #shutupneil

[secureshark6441-blog]

SA | Mr Robot Episodes 1 to 3 Analysis

EPS1.0_HELLOFRIEND.MOV

Plot Summary

Elliot Alderson works as a cybersecurity engineer at AllSafe, a firm that specialises in protecting large cooperations like Evil Corp from cyber attacks. Evil Corp has recently been under a string of attacks and a meeting is called to understand what occurred.

Later, he gets a call from Angela Moss, his childhood friend, to go to the office as there appears to be a DDoS attack against Evil Corp. Upon arrival, he finds that the servers are infected and that the only way to fix it is to shut down all the servers, clear the infection, and restore from backup.

While inspecting the infected server, Elliot finds a fsociety00.dat file and a readme.txt file containing instructions “LEAVE ME HERE”.

After returning from the server farm, Elliot gets on a tram where he meets a mysterious man who tells Elliot to follow him but only if he didn't delete the files. Elliot follows the man to Coney Island, the base of operations for the hacker group fsociety, who's plan is to destroy Evil Corp's databases so that they can erase most of the world's consumer debt.

Elliot is asked by Mr. Robot to replace fsociety’s IP address in the .dat file with the IP address of Terry Colby, the head of technology at Evil Corp to frame him for the earlier attack.

Back at AllSafe, a meeting has once again be called by the executives from Evil corp and by the FBI. Elliot has prepared 2 files, one which the .dat file contains Colby’s IP and one which contains fsociety’s IP. Initially he planned on presenting the one with fsociety, but after Angela was blamed for the attacks, he changes his mind and gives the FBI the file that frames Colby.

After 19 days of silence. The media and news outlets finally reveal the findings, thus Colby is successfully framed. In the mist of this chaos, Elliot is whisked away to Evil Corp’s headquarters where he is greeted by Tyrell Wellick.

A side story in the episode are Elliot’s attempts to hack those that surround him or those that pip his interest. A more prominent one would be his psychiatrist, Krista, and her “significant other”, Michael. Elliot’s efforts revealed his real identity and the truth of their relationship. He then confronts Michael Lenny and uses blackmail to ensure that Lenny will break up with Krista and tell her the entire truth.

This is inline with his self proclaimed title as a vigilante.

Software Security Elements

The opening sequence is Elliot confronting a child pornographer with information he gathered from hacking his computer. Elliot explains his original motive in hacking the man as well as how he did it.

I started intercepting all the traffic on your network. Thats when I noticed something strange. So I decided to hack you.

There are many ways Elliot is able to monitor and intercept a network’s traffic. As it wasn't specified in the episode exactly if he was able to connect as a local network or wirelessly I have included possible methods for both below.

Using a Legacy Hub

These are placed at a choke-point of a network and are able to repeat all Ethernet frames arriving at one port to all the other ports on the hub.

A downside to this method is that all the extra packets sent from all the ports increase the risk of packet collisions. When this occurs, the nodes on the shared media segment will pause for a random amount of time before they resume sharing data.

This method is most likely not the method Elliot used in the episode.

Network Switch Port Monitoring

Also known as Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) ports or port mirroring, a monitor port is typically configured so that it mirrors all packets that pass through the designated ports. It is used on a network switch to send a copy of any frame sent or received from a particular port to a monitor port.

The downside of this method is that there is a risk of not always getting all the transmitted packets to the monitor port. This is because the primary function of a switch is to forward traffic from the sender to the receiver. As such, if there is a high load on the switch, it will prioritise sending the received frames instead of copying them to the monitor port.

This method is also most likely not the method Elliot used in the episode.

Using a Network Terminal Access Point (Network TAP)

A network tap is a “bump-in-the-wire” device, often placed between 2 nodes in a network, that is designed to copy traffic passing through it to a monitor port. This is a much more reliable way than using a monitor port as taps are less likely to drop packets during high traffic load.

The downside to this method is that it can interrupt network traffic while connecting and disconnecting the tap. They are also often expensive due to the extra hardware required.

This method is also most likely not the method Elliot used in the episode.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Poisoning

ARP poisoning is a technique where two hosts on a network are tricked into sending packets destined for each other to a sniffer machine on the network. This is done by associating the attacker’s MAC address with the IP address of another host, resulting in any traffic to the IP address is sent to the attacker instead. This method is often used as an opening for other attacks such as man-in-the-middle attack.

Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) Attack

An attack where the attacker inserts themselves into a conversation between 2 parties pretends to be the the them. The attacker is then able to access and possibly alter any communications or information sent between the 2 parties.  

This type of attack is easy to achieve as an attacker within reception range of a wireless access point could insert themselves as a MITM.

The weakness of this method is that the MITM attack can succeed only when the attacker is able to impersonate each endpoint without raising the other party’s suspicion.

Domain Name System (DNS) Hijacking

DNS hijacking is a process in which an attacker redirects queries to a DNS server. There are many methods to perform this attack including, installing malware on the target’s computer, compromising a router through a default password, or intercepting and hacking DNS communications.

You're using Tor networking to keep the servers anonymous. You made it really hard for anyone to see it but I saw it. The onion routing protocol, it’s not as anonymous as you think it is. Whoever’s in control of the exit nodes is also in control of the traffic, which makes me ... the one in control.

The Onion Router (TOR) Network 

It was created initially as a worldwide network of servers developed with the US Navy that enabled people to browse the internet anonymously. It disguises the user’s identity by moving and encrypting their traffic across different TOR servers so that it cannot be traced back to the user. 

TOR is useful for people who wants to keep their internet activities private from internet service providers and / or websites. It can also be used to host websites that are only accessible by other TOR users, which is what the perpetrator in Mr. Robot was using to distribute the photographs. 

In a TOR network, data comes in and is encrypted all the way through to the exit node. These exit nodes are the gateways where the TOR traffic hits the Internet. As such these nodes can be used to monitor TOR traffic after it leaves the network. Although TOR is decided so that locating the source of the traffic through the network should be near impossible, if the exit traffic is unencrypted and contains identifying information, then it can be traced back to the user. This the exploit Elliot used within the episode to find out the activities of the perpetrator. 

This is a “rudy” attack

R. U. Dead Yet (RUDY) Attack

A RUDY attack is a slow rate HTTP denial of service attack tool that aims to keep a web server tied up by submitting form data at an absurdly slow pace. Any web service that accepts form input is vulnerable to a R.U.D.Y. attack as the tool works by sniffing out form fields and exploiting the form submission process.  

The tool submits very long form friends are submitted and this process is dragged out by breaking it down into packets as small as 1 byte each. It then sends these packets to the server at randomised intervals of around 10 seconds each. The web server will keep the connection open to accept the packets as the behaviour of the attack is similar to that of a user with a slow connection speed submitting form data. This results in the victim’s web server becoming unavailable to legitimate traffic.

Hacking her was simple, her password Dylan_2791. Favourite artist and the year when she was born backwards.

Although the tool Elliot used here, elpscrack, is fictional, it does contain functionalities that are found in other tools such as CeWL, Burp Suite, and others. 

Custom Word List (CeWL) Generator

CeWL is a ruby app which when a given url, it will “crawl” the specified site as well as any external links found on the site to a specified depth. It then returns a list of words from that site that you can filter to include only words of specific length. 

This information is useful when targeting a specific individual as people tend to publicly like or follow things with their social media. More often than not, people will use something they like to form a basis for their passwords, as such, the list created by CeWL can be hashed and then given to a password cracker to potentially crack a person’s password. 

This is probably the closest to the elpscrk tool that Elliot used. 

Burp Suite

Burp Suite is a Java based web penetration testing framework that is useful in identifying vulnerabilities and verify attack vectors that re affecting web applications. It can also be used to brute force a web application log in page. 

Burp is designed to be used alongside your browser and functions as an HTTP proxy server where all the HTTP/S traffic from the browser passes through Burp. 

Burp requires a list of usernames and a list of passwords in order to brute force a log in page. Manually submit a log in request using any random username and password and Burp capture HTTP request. Then using the cluster bomb attack method, Burp will brute force the log in page using the given lists. 

References

NETRESEC: Intercepting Network Traffic

Geeks for Geeks: Carrier sense multiple access (CSMA)

Wikipedia: Packet Analyzer

Cable Solutions: Port Mirroring vs Network TAP

Netwrix: Top 10 Most Common Types of Cyber Attacks

NS1: The Anatomy of a DNS Hijacking

Life Hacker: What is TOR

Hacker Target: Exit Nodes

Radware:  RUDY Attack

Cloudflare: R U Dead Yet?

Imperva: RUDY

Digi Ninja: CeWL

Stuff Jason Does: CeWL

Pentest Geek: Burp Suite

Alpine Security: Brute Force using Burp

EPS1.1_ONES-AND-ZER0S.MPEG

Plot Summary 

SIDE NOTE:

I am not particularly knowledgeable in the technical aspects of security engineering, networks, or hacking so I may have gotten some details incorrect. The information in these notes are mainly from my research on the topics and techniques found on the internet.

#SA

[ao3feed-mrrobot]

Drawn to the blood

by CloudsArcade

Elliot is God’s lonely man — Fic Inspired by the song Drawn to the blood by Sufjan Stevens

Words: 1652, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Mr. Robot - Fandom

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Elliot Alderson, Tyrell Wellick, Mr. Robot, Darlene Alderson, Whiterose - Character, Leon (Mr. Robot), Leon

Relationships: Elliot Alderson/Tyrell Wellick, Tyrell Wellick/Elliot Alderson, Elliot Alderson/Mr. Robot, Mr. Robot/Elliot Alderson, Tyrelliot - Relationship, Ellibot - Relationship

Additional Tags: Fluff, Character Analysis, Love, Sufjan Stevens - Freeform, song inspired fic, Gay, Loneliness, Memories, story events, Cute, Sad, Too Many Thoughts, change

source http://archiveofourown.org/works/18866032

#IFTTT #fanfic #ao3feed #mr robot

[popanalysis99]

Dominique Dipierro: Analysis

Dominique “Dom” Dipierro is a character from Mr. Robot. She is an FBI agent who is assigned to solve the 5/9 case. She is shown to be a determined young woman who has noble goals in her heart and wants to solve the case. But she later sees that all of this isn’t an easy task and her obsession with solving the 5/9 case might affect her career and sanity. (Spoilers)

Early Life

Unlike Elliot and Darlene, Dom had a very good family life. She was born and raised in New Jersey. Her mother lives somewhere in Philadelphia. She has two brothers, one young named Joseph who has a son named Jaime and other older named Jerry.

Days before she graduated from law school, a girl that she was dating proposed to her, it caused Dom to leave and change careers to become an FBI agent.

Dom’s characterization

Dom is introduced as a friendly FBI agent who is assigned the 5/9 case. But outside her work, she is shown to be extremely lonely as she suffers from social anxiety. She is even shown to be very smart and assertive as like Elliot, she also looks at the worst in people, (more on that later). During her meeting with Whiterose (disguised as Minister Zhang), she mentions how much she is “disgusted and fascinated” with the selfish brutality of the world. She is even shown to have clear survival and markmanship skills twice when she ends up in a midst of two Dark Army shootouts and shoots the attackers before they kill themselves. Dom later believes that the Dark Army might be behind all of this, but her boss Santiago, who is the Dark Army mole, constantly stonewalls her investigation and gives excuses to not let her continue. She then crosses paths with Darlene after Cisco is killed. She brings her in and tries to connect with her to get some information and believes Darlene is special. She then shows her the FBI wall which then complies Darlene to become an informant.

Dom continues to investigate the case where she digs into more about the Dark Army with Darlene as her mole. She continues her search for Tyrell Wellick and the Dark Army. When the 71 buildings attack happen and Trenton and Mobley are framed for the attack, her investigation gets shut down. 3 weeks later, she meets Darlene for a night out and then invites her back to her apartment, where they both start to make out (the birth of Domlene). Little did she know that Darlene was doing that just to get her badge to get the credentials, but Dom catches her and arrests her, which then causes Santiago to kidnap both of them.

A Fall from Grace

tw: blood

When Dom gets brought to an isolated barn along with Darlene and Elliot, she is taken outside by Irving where it’s first thought that he will axe her to death, but instead he axes Santiago instead. Irving informs her that she is the new mole to the Dark Army and threatens to have her family killed all the while axing Santiago’s body, which easily breaks Dom into a mess, causing her to comply. Despite all of this being the Dark Army’s fault, Dom blames Darlene for putting her in this position.

2 months later, we see Dom as a now weak willed, always paranoid and a fearful shell of her former self. She then meets her new handler Janice who threatens to kill her family in a graphic manner if she doesn’t follow orders. The Dom that we knew in the past 2 seasons is now gone. She spends almost the entire 4th season as nothing but a doormat for them. She even has a nightmare where she is drowned by a woman, just like what she told Angela back in Season 2.

Then she is asked to track down Darlene and told to kill her, which she is unable to do and causes her to cry again. When Darlene wakes up, she reminds her of that night and tells her that she genuinely loved it.

Then she tells Darlene to kill her instead as she has been feeling suicidal for months now and she has no other choice because she feels that her life puts everyone she loves in danger, before Janice enters and ties them up in restraints after Darlene wiped her phone to save herself from having her brains blown off (again!). After a bit of unnecessary black comedy from Janice, she then removes her tools to make it look like she will torture Darlene but instead stabs Dom in the chest, and then for no reason leaves her like this for a while. Janice then threatens to kill her family again and Dom cries and begs until Darlene gives in to give up Elliot’s location. When they are unable to find him, Janice decides to have Dom’s family executed which then leads to...

“Get a hold of yourself, dude.”

We see that Dom finally got a hold of herself when she made a deal with the Lucky Irish B****d she interrogated earlier. He had the Dark Army soldiers killed and freed her family, and while Janice is distracted by the call, Dom removes the knife from her lung to slash one of the guys, take away his gun and shoot Janice and the thugs dead. She then frees herself and Darlene and tells him to find Elliot and take down the Deus Group.

Trying to find peace

Episode 10 sees her trying to run away from the Dark Army with Darlene. She still has a lot of reservations about the world until Darlene convinces her. She then tells Darlene that she can’t go and she doesn’t need her to go with her or anyone for that matter. And Darlene tells her that she holds onto a lot of things which is her flaw. When they leave each other, both of them immediately change their mind and cross paths. Darlene gets a panic attack and decides to take care of herself and Dom decides to let go and leave for Budapest.

Becoming Elliot’s shadow archetype.

While we applaud Dom for how she took down Janice, we can’t help but deny the fact that throughout the 4th season, she became Elliot’s shadow archetype. Elliot had dealt with so much physical, mental and emotional trauma throughout his whole life, even more so than Dom did. But notice in “shutdown-r” how Elliot and Dom deal with being held hostage by the Dark Army. Elliot was calm and collected and tried to look for a solution to get out of the situation, while Dom was shaking and quivering out of fear. Irving’s axing of Santiago left Dom a broken mess while Elliot showed that he was not gonna take anymore crap from them anymore. This is explored more into Season 4 when their lives were threatened by the Dark Army.  Elliot is hardened and cold by the death of Angela and was more than determined to rain down doom upon Whiterose and the Dark Army while Dom was reduced to just being a fearful servant for them. Their gender roles are also flipped as Elliot takes on the role of a vengeful femme fatale who takes down mostly men, which we usually see in feminist revenge movies like Lady Snowblood, Promising Young Woman, Kill/Bill, MFA etc. He is basically the male version of the angry woman trope. It shows that despite all the pain and trauma he’s been through, Elliot is equipped to handle the Dark Army more so than Dom.

Conclusion

While Dom was a good and nuanced LGBTQ character, she should’ve been a little more braver and stronger and she should’ve used her position as a mole to help Elliot and Darlene take down the Dark Army. But overall, she was good.

#character analysis #mr. robot #mr robot #dominique dipierro #analysis #hero analysis

[mr-qwerty]

Mr. Robot: Tyrell Wellick, Histrionic Personality Disorder, and his love for Elliot

Ok, so here's my take on Tyrells and Elliots relationship! I think Tyrell is a really nuanced and interesting character, despite not having as much screen time as others and I think it's pretty fascinating how he seems dramatic at first but when you break down his personality everything he does actually starts to make a lot more sense... though I guess that could be said for all characters on this show (try me). Anyways! Martin Wallström (the actor that plays Tyrell) consider him to have Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD, characterized by intense, unstable emotions, distorted self-image, and having one's self-worth dependent on how others perceive you... honestly if you look into it Tyrell's a textbook example). And with this in mind, it occurred to me that maybe Tyrell loves Elliot because he sees Elliot as a reflection of himself, uses Elliot as a stand-in for himself to deal with his disorder--as in, him falling in love with Elliot is his attempt to love himself, him having as much power as Elliot (his whole Spiel with being Gods together) is an attempt to gain his own approval, in order to ultimately be free of constantly relying of other's approval. I think Tyrell just wants to finally be free (not a "prisoner" anymore, to use his words--ties in perfectly with the shows themes), as his instability and dependence on others creates a lot of internal conflict and pain for him. After all, he just wants to be independent and powerful (I'm saying "just" because I think Tyrell doesn't actually need to kill people or become CEO or anything to feel these things, he just pursues these extremes because he thinks that those will give him what he needs). I think because Tyrell and Elliot are so similar on paper, Tyrell sees Elliot as a way out of his endless loop of trying to please others, and as a way to learn how to care less about what others think.

(Of course he could also just love Elliot because of how powerful Elliot is. But I feel like that almost oversimplifies the complex characters and relationships in this show? Or maybe I'm just reading into it.)

(Side note--this doesn't mean that I don't think Tyrell's in love with Elliot in other ways, e.g. romantic love and projecting yourself on someone else/using your relationship to them as a coping mechanism aren't mutually exclusive, imo. There for sure is some sort of tension between Tyrell and Mr. Robot (unsure what kind) and it seems like MM cared about Tyrell as well, within his capacity as the rage holder. Also of course this is just my interpretation that I think makes sense within the show! I'd love to hear other theories too! :) )

Hope this all makes sense I just wanted to write some of this down before I get swept away by some other detail of this show!

#mr. robot #mr spoilers #tyrell wellick #elliot alderson #its late hope this made sense #txt #Mr. robot analysis #martin wallström #rami malek #Sam Esmail #<3

[tiffanybluesclues]

I've been wondering all week how the FBI having a recording of that “Wellick Prison Call” audio might factor in when Tyrell tries to pretend he was a hostage of F-Society.

Looking at that 8x10 photo of Elliot in the promo from last week, and what will he say about Elliot???! Pretending not to know Elliott at all would be ridiculous.

Will he say he was handcuffed to the bed in his Red Wheelbarrow bedroom and forced to accept a mystery call and be all weird on it? Saying the voice isn’t his–maybe, it’s an option, but risky to tell a lie that tech/analysis could disprove. Pinning everything on Elliott gets complicated when you consider how confused Elliot seemed about wtf happened that night.

Really though, the wording of the phone call is vague enough that it doesn't necessarily have to do with the 5/9 hack.

Hand them Santiago or something, man, not Elliot, never Elliot.

#mr robot lb #mr liveblog #mr robot 3x07