Re-Introducing Elliot Alderson Before the Season 3 Premiere
It is less than three weeks until the season three premiere of Mr. Robot so, I figured I would take a few minutes to reintroduce some of the main characters starting with Elliot Alderson.
<If you haven’t watched the first two seasons of Mr. Robot *Spoiler Alert*>
If you asked me the question, “Who Is Mr. Robot?” several answers might come to mind:
- Mr. Robot is a television show on the USA Network
- Mr. Robot is Elliot Alderson
- Mr. Robot is an alternate personality (Alter) of Elliot Alderson. That alternate personality is played by Christian Slater who is also one of the producers of the show.
- Mr. Robot was a computer repair store owned by the late Edward Alderson (Elliot’s Father) and the name for the store was chosen by Elliot Alderson.
Mr. Robot Is A Television Show On the USA Network
Mr. Robot will return to the USA Network on 10.11.2017
In case you are unfamiliar with the show it follows the journey of a uniquely gifted but troubled hacker named Elliot Alderson.
If you start watching Mr. Robot hoping it is a series about a plucky group of brainy hackers trying to take down an evil corporation, let me warn you ahead of time, this is NOT what Mr. Robot is really about.
Mr. Robot is concerned with the moral culpability and moral agency of every single person on the show no matter if they are a hacker, work for an evil corporation, a sub-national organization, or for the US or a foreign government.
Characters on Mr. Robot are generally complex constructions and not two-dimensional caricatures or simple binaries (good-bad, male-female, love-hate) engaged in simple linear quests (Mr. Robot, in other words, could never make the CBS lineup).
If I were to suggest an overall theme of the show, it would be that actions have consequences and that revolutions carry massive costs.
Anyway, During season one, Elliot became a member of a hacker collective called F-Society who, with his help, carried out a hack that caused massive damage to the US and World economies (called the 5/9 hack).
During season two, Elliot tried to hide from the damage he had caused and also tried to find a radical solution to his mental health issues.
Here is a recent (short) interview with Rami Malek about what to expect in Season Three:
Mr. Robot Is Elliot Alderson
Elliot Alderson has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). A person with DID functions like a fragmented whole in which each element of a person’s personality takes on a personality and tackles the tasks that they are best suited to handle.
These personality elements or fragments, which take over when appropriate are called ‘alters.’
Mr. Robot is the main alter of Elliot (I could confuse things even more here, but for now, let’s just assume Mr. Robot is the alter).
It is always really important to keep two things in mind when watching Elliot:
- Mr. Robot IS Elliot
Dissociative Identity Disorder is NOT a disease that sets two or more personalities fighting against each other for control of a single body.
Serious Dissociation usually starts with a traumatic event or break, usually these breaks happen in childhood. Most likely, Elliot’s break happened when his Father (who he loved and loves deeply) grew angry with him as a child and pushed him out of his second story window (breaking Elliot’s arm).
Dissociation is a protective coping mechanism which allows someone to isolate the parts of a personality that are deeply hurt or threatened by events to withdraw when necessary.
Addicts, for instance, often act out using a substance or behavior in order to escape from pain while people with DID dissociate.
A person with DID represents one whole, but fragmented, personality which defends itself emotionally by deploying the fragment best suited to cope emotionally with a certain situation for the duration of that situation. There is usually a dominant fragment (best suited to deal with the majority of situations) and an alter or alters who takeover situationally.
I, for instance, am left handed at most things but there are a few things that I do better right handed. The deployment of personality fragments works much like my own internal governor which has to constantly decide which of my hands would be better suited to dealing with the particular tasks I face (only deployment can be based on which fragment is best suited to emotionally cope with a situation as well).
So, while watching disagreements between Mr. Robot and Elliot, it is important to remember that these disagreements are like extreme versions of internal moral conflicts (like when you imagine the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other). The larger Elliot (who I dubbed E-Prime several years ago) sets the fragments on course and the fragments can work together or engage in debate or withholding behaviors, but these are generally disagreements about tactics and guilt more than they are over tasks.
In other words, deep down, both Elliot and Mr. Robot willingly helped to carry out the 5/9 hack but they most certainly have come to different conclusions about how they feel about having carried out the 5/9 hack.
2. Mr. Robot Looks Like Elliot To Everyone But Us
Part of the fun of Mr. Robot is that it is an exercise in audience manipulation (all art is manipulation, Mr. Robot is just more honest about its intention to manipulate us — Elliot’s narration gives us warnings all the time that we can’t trust what we see or him).
One of the easiest mistakes to make while watching the show is assuming that the people who Elliot interacts with sees Mr. Robot’s face when he is in control of Elliot (or hanging out when Elliot is in control). It would be very easy, for instance, to assume that Darlene (Elliot’s sister) or Angela (his oldest friend) know when Mr. Robot is in control or when the ‘Elliot’ we know (I usually refer to the Elliot we know as E2) is in control.
The truth is, in most interactions, even the people closest to E-Prime only see Elliot’s face regardless of who is actually driving at any particular time.
Mr. Robot Is An Alternate Personality of Elliot Alderson
Mr. Robot, the alter, is the more aggressive and single-minded part of Elliot’s personality best suited to taking any physical punishment and doing any dirty work necessary to get tasks completed.
The face E2 (the Elliot we know) sees when he sees Mr. Robot is the face of his deceased Father Edward Alderson.
Edward Alderson died from Leukemia that he contracted while working for E-Corps at a facility called “The Washington Township” plant (when he was fired from E-Corps, in order to indemnify them from liability, Edward opened a computer repair shop).
It is very clear to see that Elliot deeply loved his Father but we learned more about Edward he turned out to be a more volatile and ethically compromised character than was initially suggested. Edward had a quick temper (as does Mr. Robot) and can be abusive (as can Mr. Robot).
As I mentioned before, Edward pushed Elliot out of a second-story window. There are also some strong hints that Edward looked the other way or was not able to stop abuse committed mostly by Elliot’s Mom against his sister Darlene (as well as some suggestions that he may have also been a womanizer).
There was also tenderness in Edward (in particular in flashbacks at or around the Computer Store Edward seems incredibly kind and protective of Elliot).
It seems clear that Mr. Robot represents all of those things that bother him that E-Prime sees of his Father Edward in his own personality.
Mr. Robot seems to be in charge of doing anything Elliot wants to accomplish that requires something he would consider evil or uncomfortable. Perhaps this is because he had a complex relationship with his Father who both loved him and also famously pushed him out his room’s second story window. Mr. Robot takes over whenever Elliot is at physical risk, highlighting the very complex relationship between Elliot and his Father being played out inside his own head.
This dual nature of Elliot’s actual Father, loving and protective at times and abusive and enabling at others, explains why Mr. Robot can seem, at times, to be helpful, hurtful, or outright dangerous.
Mr. Robot Was A Computer Repair Store
This shop (and storefront) represents Elliot’s most tender and warm memories of his Father.
While Elliot is seriously conflicted (even fragmented) about how he feels in total about Edward, he is also deeply angry and irritated about his loss. Together his anger toward Edward and about Edward’s death have made Elliot’s personality volcanic and explosive (even if he doesn’t always realize it).
In the shows two seasons we have seen extensive collateral damage from Elliot’s hacking of the people around and close to him (he tends to relate to people better digitally), his attempts to avenge injustices he finds unaddressed during his hacks, and as the result of the 5/9 hack.
Sometimes, this collateral damage will be addressed by E-Prime as necessary evil. You will also often hear Elliot and Mr. Robot talk about the moral case for taking down E-Corp.
But, the 5/9 hack, in which E-Prime put together a group of hackers who tried to take down E-Corp and managed to massively damage the United States economy was arguably more about revenge on E-Corp for killing his Father than it was about taking a stand against corporate greed (in one of the series sub-plots, we found out that Angela Moss was pursuing legal redress for what happened to her Mother and to Elliot’s father all while Elliot was secretly engaged in the 5/9 project).
Some of this notion of failure to take responsibility (close your eyes), is dealt with here in the most recent Season 3 trailer:
Okay, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Hope everyone is as excited about Season 3 as I am.
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