#little elliot alderson

[dino-boyo-agere]

little Elliot (Mr. Robot) & cg Argyle (Stranger Things) mood board, because their to cute not to!

╰→ & @froggy-clubhouse will probably appreciate it!

(Did I do this right? I've never made a mood board before. Let me know if I did it wrong & maybe how to fix it! 💖)

Lots of primary colors, 90s vibes & affection!

[troubledontlastalways1999]

euphoria (2019-present) // herakles, euripides // taxi driver (2021-present) // a little life, hanya yanagihara // take a bite by beabadoobee // mr. robot (2015-2019) // ? // ? // nothings matters anymore but you by madison beer // what was i made for by billie eilish // normal people (2020) // girl from nowhere (2018-2021) // ? // looking for alaska by john green // a pearl by mitski.

[antigonenikk]

in love with a dying man

pairing: eugene sledge/merriell ‘snafu’ shelton; eugene sledge/elliot alderson

fandom: the pacific, mr. robot

tags: modern au, mr robot fusion, drug addiction, attempted suicide, dissociative identity disorder, hurt/no comfort

summary: eugene’s life is going great. he’s teaching multiple classes. his thesis is on track. he doesn’t miss elliot at all. then he gets a call that elliot has fallen off of the fucking coney island pier.

He gets the call at two in the morning. For a second, he doesn’t move. Just shoves his head further beneath his pillow. His neighbors were up blasting house music until four AM, and Eugene is desperate to get at least five hours of sleep before he has to give his 11AM lecture to a room of 60 undergrads who are only taking Intro to Biochemistry as a means to an end. The class is torture, his least favorite to teach. Nothing at all related to botany. But with so few graduate students at Tulane, the ones that are willing to work overtime, like Eugene, have been assigned classes beyond their specific specialties. He reaches his arm out for a moment, expecting to find a warm body next to him in that hazy state between sleep and wakefulness, and can’t help the deep pit of despair that comes from finding only empty air instead. A year ago, Elliot would have been sleeping beside him, rolled into a small ball. Or he would have been sat up by his computer, typing furiously. Or chain smoking on the balcony. Or staring at Eugene as he slept, wide light eyes shining eerily in the backlit room. The point was, he would have been there. Here. And now he just wasn’t.

He picks up the phone, and holds it away from his ear to try and make out what’s going on. Because the voice at the other end of the line should not be calling him.

“Gene. Thank god.”

“Darlene?”

He hasn’t seen her in a year and a half. Since she visited them for Thanksgiving, somehow ate four edibles, and ended up sprawled out on their couch claiming that the sky was actually just fake—an illusion. That they were actually all just fish living inside of a glass bowl painted like the sky. Elliot had laughed at her, and told her she was remembering that stupid movie Chicken Little, that the three of them had gone to see the day before for purely ironic purposes. Just like the three of them had gone to eat at Margheritaville two nights before, for purely ironic reasons of course. Eugene had watched from the kitchen, feeling deeply fond towards the two of them, and the way they were able to laugh together. It had been years since he had laughed with his own brother.

Before shipping off to bootcamp, maybe. Before him and Elliot had come out as a couple and Edward declared Eugene dead to him. Probably even earlier than that.

“Darlene. What’s wrong?”

Because something has to be wrong. And Eugene knows what it must be. Eugene saw it when Elliot refused to stop using, when his eyes grew more and more sallow after his mom’s death. Saw the glimmer of a life coming to a close. Saw it in the hidden foils stashed in empty canisters of Kodiak chew, needles taped to the tank of their toiletbowl. He had fought and screamed and wrecked his life trying to stop the inevitable, before he finally let go. He knew this day was going to come. A call that would tell him that the only person he had ever truly loved was dead. And there was nothing he could have done to stop it. Because Elliot always chose the morphine over Eugene. Always, always, always.

“It’s Elliot—“

Eugene’s heart stops and starts and stops again and the world goes quiet.

“He…he fell off the pier. At Coney Island. I…I don’t know what’s going on. The doctors won’t let me see him because you’re his emergency contact still. Please—“

She breaks off sobbing. Eugene sprints out of bed, pulling on a sweatshirt and jeans and a pair of boots, no time for socks, he can’t find his socks. He realizes he’s dropped the phone and picks it up, panic coursing through him.

“I’ll be there. Give me a few hours. I gotta—just give me half a day to get up there.”

“Okay.”

She’s quiet when she says it. Scared. He remembers she’s two years younger than him, and frightened out of her mind, and all alone.

“It’s going to be okay. Alright? Everything is going to be okay. Just sit tight and let me know if anything else happens. I’m coming to you right now.”

They both know it’s a lie. But she sounds grateful to hear it. Eugene takes her quiet sigh and stores it away as a source for his determination. He’s beat himself up against the wall that is Elliot Alderson’s slowly protracted suicide before. He’s willing to do it again. He’ll be willing to do it until the day he dies.

———-

The easiest thing to do is take a flight. Eugene sits first in the back of the Uber. Then in the flight terminal. Then on the plane itself waiting for takeoff. He feels like he did the day before him and Snaf—Elliot—first shipped out for their second tour in Baghdad. Sweaty and still. Like his heart is beating so loud it’s drowned out his ability to move at all. At that point it hadn’t been a game any more. He knew what he was getting into. He knew what it meant. Knew there was no choice. The only way out, once you were on that plane, strapped in, was through. He remembers Snaf puking on his shoes, grim and shaking, and Bill giving him shit for it. He had cradled the back of his buzzcut, the small soft hairs there at the nape of Elliot’s neck, and let the clammy feel of his skin calm him. As the ground beneath him shakes and he rises into the air again he can still feel the phantom sensation of warm skin on his palm. He doesn’t try to wipe it off.

———-

The hospital is worn down and desolate under the fluorescent lights. Darlene looks small, scared and young and out of her depth. Her makeup is smudged. Eugene realizes suddenly that he didn’t bring a change of clothes for when this is all over. Whatever it is that this ends up being.

He holds her in his arms without saying anything, and feels the tension collapse out of her. Running his hand through her hair, which is so unlike Elliot’s.

He fell. Almost. Only once. After they got home. Eugene remembers waking up in the middle of the night to Elliot on the balcony of their apartment, legs hanging over the railings, a faraway look in his eyes. The kind he got when he turned inwards. And mean. When he said “Elliot isn’t here right now, boy.” Like that meant anything. For hours he would brood like that, refusing to answer any questions. It was better than the opposite, better than the mask that was Snafu, casual cruelty stripping dead Afghani corpses for cigarettes. Better than the manic ramblings about the state of society and how if they just worked together they could fix it, really, Eugene!

Eugene remembers the sheer terror he felt grabbing him back, pulling him down beneath him like they were under flak. Remembers screaming, why why why? He remembers placing his hands on Elliot’s blank face, looking for any sort of answer.

“He thinks his father pushed him out the window. I wanted to show him what really happened. But he’s not ready yet.”

He had said it later, to the wall, when he thought Eugene had fallen asleep. The He in question would become clear weeks later. If Eugene had done something then. Involuntarily committed him, maybe. But that would have just been speeding up the inevitable.

————

When he gets to Elliot’s room he sees two women already there. One he recognizes as Angela. They lock eyes before he turns to the other woman. She looks confused to see him there. Anything to avoid the bed, and the form inside of it who looks so small and frail. A breakable sparrow that has been pushed too far from the nest. If only—he could have done more. For Elliot. If only he had done more. Tried harder. This time he will. The nurses say he’ll wake up soon. Maybe they can fix things. Start over. Back to when it was easy to be in love. Back when it felt less like a leash and more like the ultimate freedom.

“Hello ma’am.”

She shakes his hand.

“Hello…?”

“Eugene Sledge.”

She still looks confused. She can’t be Elliot’s girlfriend. That would be…

Who is she?

“I’m Mr. Alderson’s therapist.”

Hope springs, even when he knows it’s fucking stupid to hope for any sort of real change. He’s seeing a therapist. He’s getting help. Maybe they really can make this work. All he has to do is wait for Elliot to wake up. And he’ll say it. How much he misses him. How they can go back together, to New Orleans. They can find him help there. A program, an NA group. Or they can commute even. Long distance. Eugene would do anything. He could even move here maybe, when his thesis is presented next Spring. There’s loads of research opportunities in New York.

———

Elliot wakes up in starts and stops. His eyes, large and wonderful and bleary, look around the room. They pass by Eugene. Darlene went home two hours ago to get some sleep. They pass by her empty seat. They land on Angela and the therapist.

He feels like an intruder as they gush over him. Handing him water and worrying about his fall. His jump. To think that once he knew Elliot better than any person in the entire world. Knew him down the very marrow of his soul. And now… now. Elliot turns to him, finally. And Eugene holds his breath. Going on 20 hours with no sleep and no food he feels like he might pass out. The green eyes that he has loved past the point of reason, past the point of distraction, stare straight through him.

“Who is he?”

Distantly, he can hear Angela’s quiet gasp. Who is he? Why is he here? Three years. One in bootcamp. Two in Afghanistan. One and a half back stateside. Who is he anymore, to Elliot?

The first night in their newly rented apartment, they had no mattress. Elliot joked that it wasn’t that big of a change from deployment. They had drunk cheap cherry flavored vodka, passed back and forth, and played cards. Curled around each other, later, skin to skin. Elliot had whispered in his ear, “You are the only good thing that ever happened to me.” He was smiling, crying silent tears. Eugene had never seen him cry before that night. Eugene had kissed his temple and whispered back that he was never going to leave. Never. It was forever, what they had.

Eugene can taste salt water on his tongue. What is he now? Stranger, cut down the middle, rocked open again bleeding out. He keeps trying like a dog, coming when called, throwing himself at the wall. The wall that will never bend nor break nor crack. Not for him. Not for anything. He gets up and walks out of the room with measured steps. The kind you take when you do not exist. He hides himself away between two vending machines, curls into a ball, and sobs so violently he feels like he might be sick.

[retro-cows]

here's an art class assignment i did

[misscammiedawn]

Dissociative Identity Disorder in Mr. Robot

So I have been writing little essays about Mr. Robot recently.

Dom's Sexuality, Gay Marriage and Whiterose

Back to the Future and Brainwashing

Today I wish to talk about the DID representation in Mr. Robot.

Actually I want to talk about the DID representation in the Hulk comics but there are 40 years worth of storylines involving it and it would require me to write about clinical understandings from the 1980s when it was called MPD (admitedly Mr. Robot's stumbles at the finish line with some of these same outdated treatment models) and that would take a while. Suffice to say it will happen eventually*. I shall make a new tag "Media Myself and I" and post it under that when I have more time to do it justice. Maybe I'll do others. I am uncertain. I believe I want to focus on positive depictions where there are no murder alters. The goal is to get people to want to enjoy things, not to steer them away. I have a few shows and games in mind at the very least.

Regardless… Mr. Robot is an easier topic to cover and is my hyperfocus of the moment.

So Mr. Robot is a show about isolation in the modern world. It's a show about socioeconomic stress, late-stage capitalism and what it means to enact meaningful change on a broken world.

But above all it is about the healing journey of Elliot Alderson, a man with dissociative identity disorder.

I say that at the start because Elliot's condition is never named until the final episode. In many ways a realistic depiction of a real world disorder was an afterthought noted in the final hour of the journey as a means of justifying the split personality trope and hiding a final twist. In spite of that the roadmap for the show was always leading to this destination and along the way they managed to get some fairly good representation out of the mix.

Season 2 even involves the only time I have ever seen a piece of fiction depict "blending" on screen. Blending isn't a symptom listed in either DSM or ICD manuals. It is, however, something one would hear about if they had a conversation with someone who had DID. I have used that scene to depict what it feels like to my partners.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

I love Mr. Robot. It is currently my favorite show of all time. If you have never seen it then please give it a shot. This post will be spoiler heavy and I'd hate to rob anyone the opportunity to watch S4E7 and have a pure emotional reaction to it. The show is on Amazon Prime and the full box set is available for $35-50 depending on format and vendor.

Go with my blessing.

-

The first season of the show begins with Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) living a double life. By day a cyber security expert and by night he spends his time at his computer hacking people's accounts and satisfying a "little itch in the back of his head" that guides him to uncover the murky facts about people. The first scene of the show has him take down a cafe owner who hosts an illegal and deeply unpleasant website. I have seen individuals walk away from the first episode thinking that the show is "Dexter but with computers" but it is more lulsec activism with a Fight Club aesthetic.

The show has 4 seasons and each season depicts a different stage of Elliot's healing journey and with it completely different rules and depictions of his condition. I'll break down each season for what they do right and what they do wrong.

Season 1: Discovery

Elliot's system in season one is undiscovered but he has overt symptoms, meaning he is unaware that he has any alters but he suffers from clean breaks in his consciousness and drastically altered behavior patterns both which are a detriment to the "hidden" nature of the condition.

Commonly most people do not discover their condition until their 30s. I was 37/38 when our therapist started guiding us towards accepting our condition.

DID manifests in childhood but it's a hidden illness that does its best to go undetected. The point of the condition is to remain hidden. The internet and the educational resources it offers are helping younger individuals to recognize their symptoms and advocate for themselves at an earlier age but the standard medical understanding is that most people are developed adults before they are diagnosed.

Published statistics for DID indicate the global population of those with the condition is about 1.5% (some organizations argue the number should be higher due to how difficult it is to receive an accurate diagnosis, but 1.5% is the most consistent figure) which is rare but not to the point of never encountering it. For comparison, according to a 2023 census 1.0% of people in the USA identify as transgender. There are no tested classifications for Covert vs Overt display of symptoms but it is widely agreed that an overwhelming majority of cases within the 1.5% are covert.

We learn that Elliot is desperately lonely, abuses morphine and has paranoid delusions about men in black stalking his every move. Whenever Elliot is on screen we can never be sure what is real and what isn't, so there are times when men wearing black suits are on screen and we cannot be sure if Elliot is paranoid or delusional.

The show takes place through his perspective after all and we are a character in the show.

See… the narrative device of the show involves Elliot speaking to "friend", us. The audience. "Hello, friend." is a common refrain spoken throughout the show. The narrative begins a short while after Elliot had a complete mental breakdown and smashed up a server room, he is seeing a court appointed therapist, is socially paralyzed to the point of which we see him linger outside a birthday party and retreat home to cry in loneliness.

The entire first season Mr. Robot is depicted as another character, akin to Tyler Durden, a wild revolutionary who wants to encrypt the data of the world's largest bank in order to seal the debt records and reset everything back to 0. He starts off appearing in scenes involving the men in black stalking Elliot to mingle him in with the paranoid delusions and eventually begins interacting with him in earnest. Though the reveal is treated as a twist 8 episodes into the show Elliot does accuse the audience of knowing the entire time and he refuses to speak to us for some time, even going as far as to keep secrets from us because he cannot trust us any longer.

It's at this point that I will note that media depictions of DID tend to lean heavily on the phrase "it's a visual medium" and depict ways that characters can see, interact with and communicate with alters/parts in a dramatic setting. Off the top of my head Hulk is about the only form of fiction I've seen where the temptation to do this doesn't take over and even then the old "other face in the mirror" trope shows up there.

So for what it's worth the paranoid thinking and hallucinations are not DID symptoms and typically a person with the condition cannot see or hear their alters. In fact a testing criteria included in the MID exam is to rule out schizophrenia by eliminating the possibility that the voices heard are external or that any hallucinations exist. In Mr. Robot they are likely caused by Elliot's morphine addiction, but he gets clean after season 1 and Mr. Robot is always there.

There are some plot elements which I want to talk about but they do spoil the final "twist" of the show. So I want to warn again that anyone in the process of watching should be warned we are getting into entire show spoiler territory.

The Elliot we see in the show is the result of the stress fueled breakdown that Mr. Alderson had 6 months prior to the show starting. The timeline is fuzzy in my head but there were two triggers which set him off and began his condition flaring up (and/or caused him to lean harder into his drug addiction which in turn fueled his condition). The one we know about is that he was locked in a server room and forced to work long into the night on an issue and the already upset and stressed Elliot snapped and had a black-out.

We come to learn that he has had these his whole life but this is the first time such an incident occurred that he couldn't self-justify what had happened. He smashed up a server room, something he felt himself not capable of.

But the second trigger is the more important one.

His sister, Darlene, moved to NYC and started visiting him.

The bigger and better twist of season 1 is that Elliot and Darlene are siblings. This is hidden from Elliot and the audience for the first 7 episodes and her presence is treated much like Marla Singer from Fight Club, of whom she likely contains some inspiration, where she keeps showing up in Elliot's apartment and acting overly familiar with him.

In the earliest episodes when we are learning about Elliot's lonely life he looks at a photograph of himself and his mother at Coney Island. Due to some hallucinations we know that Magda is an abusive mother and screamed at/hit Elliot a lot. We learn more about her in future episodes and she is a truly horrible parent. Likely more than was ever depicted in the show.

The photo is actually of the full Alderson family including Darlene and Edward but is not shown as such until the reveals that Darlene is Elliot's sister and Mr. Robot is modeled after Elliot's father. The photograph is a reference to Back to the Future.

But it also is a fairly good visual representation of self-filtering information, even when it is contradictory in nature. This is common not just in DID but in all forms of CPTSD.

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition that develops during prolonged exposure to trauma and makes radical changes to the nervous system. CPTSD is considered a root of DID and it is universal for those diagnosed with DID to have a CPTSD diagnosis also.

One of the ways CPTSD symptoms manifest is "Emotional Avoidance". The nervous system is activated when triggers related to the trauma exist within the person's life. In order to function their brains push away these reminders and naturally avoid interacting with them. This causes those with the condition to become withdrawn, to isolate and to have distorted and often contradicting patterns of thought. For instance Elliot needs connection and safety that he associates with family but his family were his primary abusers and so he edits his memories to focus on positive associations such as a family trip to Coney Island that has become an obsession to him in adulthood. We later learn that Elliot's obsession with movies was born from it being his primary way of connecting with his father... which is fairly relatable.

His positive memories of his parents are held in high regard even though we know that his father "pushed him out of a window" and his mother used to put out cigarette butts on Darlene, tried to force her to commit animal cruelty and is often depicted in hallucinations as beating and screaming at Elliot.

In a case where it is impossible to avoid the traumatic trigger, for instance the return of relative who is a living reminder of his abusive childhood, the individual may begin to dissociate. Dissociation being where a person, overwhelmed by what they are experiencing has a separation from their normal state leading to a disconnect from emotions, sense of self and reality.

Episode 8 in particular contains a visual depiction of it when Elliot is having a quiet meltdown over finding out he has a 2 day deadline and his boss at work has known about the server exploit he installed all along.

(the show often uses the camera in ways to emphasize emotional walls, dissociation and isolation like this. This sequence does so by having hard cuts, shaky cam and frantic pace melt into a gliding slow lull where the background noise filters out and we can share in Elliot's distance from his situation for a moment)

Elliot's form of blocking out is extreme but has half a foot in reality (and half a foot in the logic born from the "twist" ending) in that in order to continue interacting with Darlene he views her as a member of Fsociety and edits out their connection until it is revealed in episode 7.

A small brilliancy about Fsociety is that the entire group is formed around Elliot and Darlene's need for childhood safety. The hacking elements of the show undoubtedly born from 9 year old Elliot spending time at Mr. Robot computer repair with a smile. The anon-mask that the show uses comes from an in-universe movie that Darlene and Elliot watched every Halloween and their base of operations is Coney Island. A place that both siblings seem to associate with safety and happiness...

Which is extra messed up when you factor Season 2's revelation that Darlene was kidnapped while on a family trip to Coney Island.

Darlene's panic attacks, need to feel special and her abusive upbringing are not the topic for this essay, but I wanted to make mention that Magda was such a horrible mother that a 4/5 year old Darlene thinks of being kidnapped from a family trip to Coney Island as one of her most precious childhood memories.

The desire to reach into the past and change things to create an ideal future is a heavy theme of the show and I feel it's important to note that though the Alderson siblings reject Whiterose and her scheme, they are both living in an almost literal fun house distortion of the few unambiguously GOOD childhood memories that they each have and have wrapped them around themselves like a protective blanket.

The plot of season 1 gets a lot more uncomfortable when you realize how much of Fsociety is two traumatized kids recreating positive elements of their childhood and trying to live inside of those memories while lashing out at those who took their father away from them. The entire plan is centered around events from 1995. The show takes place in 2015.

Mr. Robot himself is, of course, the ultimate symbol of that take on events.

Edward Alderson was a monster. He's referred to as such overtly in Elliot's detox fever dream. Everyone asks him who his "monster" is while handing him the key that we learn was to his childhood bedroom. A key that he hid to prevent Edward from entering his room late at night.

Yet throughout the first 3 seasons of the show we are only shown him in context of the positive memories that he and Elliot shared. Elliot was 9 years old when Edward passed away from leukemia.

At a point, Elliot is picked up from school. He has a bruise on his cheek and the scene begins with Edward asking "If I had to guess, you didn't tell Principal Howard your side.", assuring him it's okay to share his side of the story. Because Edward is convincing him to tell his side I am going to assume Elliot got into a fight but it's not impossible to assume that the school pulled Edward in to discuss the signs of physical abuse on the child. Edward would never tell Elliot to tell his side of that story so I assume it was a fight.

It's unclear if Mr. Robot is the one who participated in those fights (we only have 2 confirmed instances of Elliot's alters showing up in childhood. The window incident and the day Edward died) but Edward picks him up and protects him from his mother's wrath and bonds with him during that drive, he reveals his diagnosis to Elliot before inviting him to work with him at the computer repair store. Likely this is what leads to Elliot's hacker skills being born.

A hauntingly similar event in my own life is why I am a photographer.

Given that the majority of Season 1 has Elliot in the dark about his condition we are only given context as to why he is the way he is and see the display of dissociative symptoms which manifest from CPTSD. Mr. Robot existing at all is actually not required for this to be a good depiction of adults who grew up in abusive environments and the way they maladaptively cope.

I also want to give a little praise to the "itch at the back of [Elliot's] head" that shows up when he feels the desire to hack someone or dig deeper and the way he pushes forward with his own will until he calms down enough to let a creeping hesitation overcome him and prevent him from acting.

Passive Influence is part of DID. It's a situation where a "fronting" (that is to say part that is in control at a time) performs an unthinking action or is emotionally swayed by the influence of another part/alter that is not presently conscious. These are one of the biggest ways that the condition flies under the radar for many. When they are close to discovering proof of their condition they will often feel an unconscious push away from it. The phenomenon is fairly easily brushed aside internally as "a gut feeling" or an "impulse" but it's observable under the right conditions.

An instance I can think of in my own life is when our survival part is trying to push people away and our emotional part desperately tries to reach out. I will often find my hand grabbing a person's wrist and clinging tightly to it without even noticing that I've done it.

In the show Elliot is compelled by Mr. Robot when he feels someone is a danger or has a weakness that can be exploited. Part of him knows he needs to do something about it and so he lets himself be guided.

The season ends with The 5/9 Hack succeeding, all the financial data being encrypted and Elliot sent to prison for (minor) hacking charges.

He knows who Mr. Robot is now and he fears him as his enemy.

Season 2 (and the book): Exploration

The first 8 episodes of Season 2 are a filter for those watching the show, many drop off. Personally I love it but I can see why it's not for everyone. Season 2 is much slower than the first and Elliot is in prison for those 8 episodes. He's also imagining that prison is his mother's house.

That daydreaming coping mechanism is largely there to add a fairly unearned sense of mystery to a character development season and make things a little more visually interesting. For the most part I don't really want to focus too much on it or the way Elliot treats "us"/"friend".

The fact is that for this season Mr. Robot and Elliot are in direct conflict but they are feeling out their landscape and trying to find common ground. They are pulling in different directions but they are reacting and responding to one another. The show uses a chess match as a visual symbol of this and in such they are keeping one another in a constant state of check. They are opposed to one another but they are communicating and working things out.

So let's start by looking at the book. The book is a recreation of the in-universe journal that Elliot keeps while he is in prison. We see him writing in it during the show and the entire thing is available, it even includes little ARG elements to let you decode the messages Mr. Robot is receiving from The Dark Army.

The book is detailed like this and it's possible to note when Elliot's handwriting turns into Mr. Robot's handwriting. There are even points where there is "blended" handwriting. It's easy to spot in the above image because Mr. Robot writes with a heavy hand and in all caps where Elliot is soft and uses lower case, in the top line of the second page "you NeeD atteNtioN aNd aRe Willing to pay a lotta MoNey to get it." you can see Elliot slipping from one headspace to another while becoming upset at society.

Even still if you look above the FUCK SOCIETY image you see Elliot's calmer handwriting as clear and flowing.

When we were in denial of our condition we poured through journal after journal and chatlog after chatlog hunting for evidence to prove or disprove the theory.

It was when I looked at our old gaming journals (we took notes in pen/pencil live during TTRPG sessions because memory issues are gonna memory issues) that we noticed similar. Cursive used in some phrases, individual letters separate on another, the letters g and y getting curled at times and not at other times.

Subtler than what is displayed above but no less real.

Season 2 introduces us to Ray the warden brilliantly played by Craig Robinson. He empathizes with Elliot because he speaks to his dead wife as a means of coping with grief and assumes that Elliot is the same.

He offers Elliot guidance by asking him to play chess "against himself" and this leads to Elliot and Mr. Robot playing endless games of stalemate against one another with deletion on the line for the loser. It's the same brain and neither side wants to lose (nor do they truly want to win, Elliot admits as much in Season 3 that he likes having Mr. Robot and misses him when he's not around) and as noted above with passive influence, the games are always guided to end in a stalemate because no matter how opposed they are as forces, they both want the same things.

So... how about the Sitcom episode?

Elliot breaks his promise to Ray and looks at the website that he is tasked with doing tech support on. It's--- not good.

Ray uses a combination of crooked cops and convicted Neo-Nazis to have Elliot beaten into submission so he won't report what he saw. Elliot cannot handle this and has a mental break and wakes up in a 90s 4 camera sitcom world.

Alf is there. Because old episodes of Alf are playing in the medical ward at the time Elliot is being treated for his wounds.

The entire time he is taking a beating Mr. Robot is protecting Elliot by fronting and forcing him into an inner-world fantasy.

Okay... so Inner-Worlds.

In the show we actually had one of these in Season 1 during the detox trip but I want to talk about it now and round back and talk more in Season 4.

Inner-Worlds are a thing within DID treatment. Emphasis on the word treatment. It's one of the more commonly misunderstood things within discussion on the condition because it's regularly reported as part of the experiences within those who are diagnosed with DID but it's important to know that the existence of the diagnosis indicates the existence of treatment.

During any adapted 3 or 4 phase trauma treatment program that includes parts work, whether this be Internal Family Systems model which is used for individuals who do not have DID or system mapping and stabilization for those who do, the patient must work on creating a "meeting" space to visualize (or sense out emotionally for those with aphantasia) and much of the work of developing safety and structure within comes from filling that space with comforts and generating communication between parts.

I'll talk more on the "conference table" in Season 4.

It is possible for those not going through therapy to create one outside of the context of a therapeutic alliance but the creation of one is an intentional act. Not something that comes free with your childhood trauma.

Elliot's trip to the inner-world keeps him from experiencing any of the beating that the body is receiving and at the end Mr. Robot earnestly says he only wanted to take the punches for Elliot, nothing more. Elliot falls against him, tearful and whimpers out "Thank you" before we are given the flashback of the day Edward picked up 9 year old Elliot from school after the fight and confesses his leukemia.

For the record, my heart swells every time I see Mr. Robot acting as a protector.

So, let's talk S2E9 and the "blending" incident.

Blending is what happens when two parts/alters are co-conscious and are present enough that they are sharing control of the body. It's an uncomfortable experience. Co-Consciousness means that more than one part/alter is actively perceiving the world at any given time.

It's more complicated than binary yes/no. Every one of these experiences exists on a spectrum and no two people with the condition experience it quite the same way but there are levels of presence that one has.

The following is me talking more from anecdotes and personal experience than textbooks. I like to be clear when I'm not being academic because I do not want to spread misinformation in my arbitrary analysis of TV shows that will get 20 notes on Tumblr Dot Com.

Front is to be driving the body, to have your inner monologue playing (if you have one, most people do, but it's not a given) and have your emotions interact with the nervous system if you are grounded enough to feel your experiences. As I said, it's a spectrum. Everyone gets dissociated at times and can just go into auto-pilot or a trance. That all still counts as being in front.

To be conscious but not front is to exist in an emotionally reactive state. If Fronting is driving then co-consciousness is to be in the passenger seat.

It's truly difficult to describe and my therapist doesn't even fully comprehend it despite her being the one who educates me on these topics. Presently as I type this I can only feel one of our system (5 parts) active and "with" me right now. She's not speaking but she's reacting. I can feel her apprehension to us typing this much about our personal life, little flits of paranoid thinking that we'll get anon-hate or that people from our former life will see this and judge us. It's a presence and exists on a gradient. She's "awake" right now but I do not consider her fully "co-con" because if I asked her to tell me what she thinks about this sentence I can feel an emotional reaction (apprehension) but not a direct answer akin to "I think you should edit out references to our journal and focus on talking about the show" (which is what I imagine she would say right now). That's the spectrum.

Closer to the front a part/alter is the more direct communication happens.

There's also "asleep" and "dormant" when they are unresponsive. Pretty self explanatory. Elliot's system has 5 parts(plus "friend") and until Season 4 we only really see Mr. Robot and the main character version of Elliot. Magda and Young Elliot show up in hallucinations in Season 1 and Young Elliot is co-con in Season 4. Magda never shows up outside of emotional flashbacks and the inner-world.

So after Elliot and Mr. Robot combine forces (though Mr. Robot is still working with the Dark Army and is trying to move in secret) they have moments where they rapidly switch and cannot keep straight who is fronting at any given time.

There's a scene where Elliot is in another room thinking to "friend" when he hears an argument in the next room and realizes Mr. Robot is in the argument. As he walks in, Mr. Robot is surprised to see that Elliot is aware when he is fronting and he trails off and they switch.

Mr. Robot says that something feels off about how they are acting and that they feel like they're overheating.

A later scene depicts Elliot phasing out mid-conversation on the subway and picturing himself in the next car observing Mr. Robot talking to Cisco while a passenger plays erratic music on a keyboard.

That is such a horrifyingly accurate depiction of something we live with that I was stunned to see it on screen. I've included it in some of my stories that go over living with these experiences but the idea is when we are stressed out, can't keep our head straight and are blended like this we tend to have snippets of music playing over and over in our head. We also get what I refer to as "static" and that seems to be relatable in support groups.

A++ for the show depicting something about the DID experience that simply does not get spoken about outside of the spaces of people dealing with it. It was the moment I knew they actually spoke to people who experience this stuff and did proper research that wasn't just media depictions and medical textbooks.

The final part of Season 2's wild ride I want to talk about is the "lucid dreaming" bit.

Mind awake. Body asleep. Mind awake. Body asleep.

This again goes into Overt DID which I cannot comment on as much as covert depictions but the idea is that Elliot trains himself to remain awake when Mr. Robot takes over. We have seen from the blending experience that he is starting to remain when Mr. Robot is active and so he tries to force himself to stay when Mr. Robot is active.

In therapy this would be achieved through trust, communication and awareness. It's said in communities that systems tend to become more overt as they go through treatment as they are able to identify lines, parts can advocate for themselves and there's better understanding of what "self" means for every alter.

In my experience there's also an element of trying to pretend to be consistent and whole. We were coming out transgender when our therapist guided us towards DID diagnosis and there was a lot of tearing ourselves apart because we needed to act in a certain way for our safety and inability to do so put us at risk of being targeted. In accepting our system we have stopped trying to be the same individual and that has lead to a more overt presentation. As I tell my therapist "we need to act out our gender expression anyway. Every action we take is a performance."

That is to say, Mr. Robot has never attempted to maintain the illusion that he is Elliot Alderson (albeit he never identifies himself. He's even surprised to learn that Elliot calls him that) and Elliot doesn't even know he is "The Mastermind".

In opting to remain hidden and conscious he gains a greater degree of control and agency in his situation.

These things get easier as you learn your condition, build system trust and allow yourself to experience that which you feel comfortable experiencing. With the example of the beating earlier, Mr. Robot shut Elliot out and took the beating for him and Elliot resisted but ultimately did not want to be present. In this episode he learns that if he wishes he could have pushed through and been there and experienced everything, albeit as a passenger rather than the driver.

Therapy also teaches how to "go into the back room" to maintain stability. A technique that lets you volunteer to not be involved in a situation. My system all use this whenever I (Dawn) perform erotic intimacy of any kind. They cannot handle the thought of associating with those acts and prior to treatment it would emotionally disregulate our nervous system if parts that couldn't handle the concept were to be present during those moments because parts of me would be trying to dissociate while I am trying to act. It would either trigger a switch, cause blending or make a part shut down and become unresponsive for a large period of time- one of our partners actually discovered our system this way. She saw us shut down during a scene and realized it wasn't just a "mood swing" as we had insisted.

Elliot learns how to intentionally open up and be present when Mr. Robot is active and because Plot happens he is shot and decides to use this skill to close himself off and create a stronger divide between parts.

Season 3: Rejection

If Season 2 was the pair working things out on a chess match where they keep one another in check then Season 3 is after Elliot has tossed the board and decided to shut Mr. Robot out completely.

The arc words are "battling in our own voids", in Season 1 Mr. Robot was always aware of what Elliot was doing but Elliot was unaware of Mr. Robot's actions and in Season 2 they were fairly co-conscious to the point of overheating. Season 3 the connection is shut down. Mr. Robot has no concept of what Elliot is doing and Elliot no concept of what Mr. Robot is doing.

This goes back to the Overt/Covert thing mentioned at the start. It's a rare thing even within a rare disorder to have that level of amnesia barriers between parts and so I can't really comment on accuracy. It's a frustrating season for me in that regard because Season 2 was doing so well at depicting something that I have lived through that going back to Fight Club tropes was fairly disappointing to me.

Season 3 is great by the way. It's a debate on if 3 or 4 is the best but it's close enough that there is a debate.

The real meat of the discussion, spare for the events of the final episode where they reconcile, is in how other people treat them and talk about their condition.

Angela Moss is Elliot's childhood best friend and also lost a parent to the disaster that claimed Edward Alderson's life. She discovered Elliot's condition during his breakdown in S1E8 and was brainwashed by the show villain Whiterose in S2E11 (I have a write-up of the psychological principals at play with the brainwashing here).

In Season 3 she acts as Elliot/Mr. Robot's handler and is responsible for helping Mr. Robot continue his hacktivist terrorism without Elliot finding out. She betrays Elliot and exploits his condition. She also tells people about it without his knowledge or consent, which is pretty fucking monstrous in my eyes.

Don't out a person. Just don't do it.

When Mr. Robot asks how she can tell who she's talking to she responds "Your eyes. You're never trying to look away." which is accurate enough that I messaged my girlfriend to be sappy and grateful towards her as the first time she noticed our condition she told me it was our eyes.

From a 2022 IM chat, shared with permission:

"it's ... well, it's [...] your eyes soften, kind of, when going to Cammie. Dawn has this piercing gaze, like she's looking right into my heart and soul. Camden is just very alert, noticing so many things but not the level of piercing. Cammie... her gaze is softer. More focused, but in a ... drinking everything in, rather than seeking it out sort of way"

and added today when I asked for permission to share the quote:

"(for the record, Craig draws his eyebrows down in a particular way that makes his gaze intense in a good way)"

The show works as hard as it can to never let the audience wonder who they are seeing on screen at any time. Most scenes where Rami Malek is depicting Mr. Robot it is a brief perspective view to remind us what the other characters are seeing before switching back to Christian Slater playing the character. There are a few scenes which involve Rami playing the character for a full sequence. One is the context for a flashback where we see a scene Slater performed through another character's eyes where they see Malek.

The others usually involve us being in Darlene's perspective to highlight her unease and uncertainty of what is happening with her brother.

The only scene where it is ever treated as a surprise is when Darlene plants a bug on Elliot's computer while staying overnight and is roughly interrogated by "Elliot", only to realize midway through the conversation "Jesus. It's you".

The camera cuts back to reveal it has been Mr. Robot the entire scene. They avoid that trick throughout the show so it has large impact when it actually happens.

I feel like that scene (as well as the scene where Elliot wears the real Mr. Robot jacket and gives birth to the 2 Stage plan to take down Evil Corp) are important for reminding that no matter how differently Malek and Slater play their roles, to an outside observer they are the same person and when he acts "out of character" it could easily just be an emotional outburst.

Incidentally you can see the physicality of the acting if you go back and watch it again.

The end of the season has Elliot, betrayed, alone and terrified for the safety of his sister; finally reach out to Mr. Robot and open a dialogue.

He even goes out of his way to have this discussion on the Ferris Wheel at Coney Island both as a Season 1 callback and as a sign of trust. Elliot admits in this conversation that he missed Mr. Robot while he shut him out and wants him to be part of his life and in the season finale Mr. Robot says that he wants the two of them to keep talking.

Elliot also finds out that the window incident wasn't his dad pushing him out of a window. They jumped. Elliot asks in a kind and soft way to Mr. Robot, representing both his protector and an element of the loving father he wished he had, "did you know?"

Mr. Robot, the one who jumped. The one who wanted to protect Elliot from Edward says nothing. But he finally feels an alliance form with Elliot.

The road to healing finally has opened.

Season 4: Integration and Fusion

So let's address the elephant in the room right away. The show uses the word "real" to describe the Elliot who existed before the show started and considers him to be the only legitimate alter. There is enough wiggle room within the show to think that is in-universe ignorance but the show does nothing to prevent the fumble at the finish line.

I want to say upfront and before I start dissecting this season that outdated models of DID believed that there was a crack formed in a person's sense of self and that healing involved restoring the identity prior to the crack.

This is 100% UNTRUE and it upsets me that people once believed it. DID is formed in childhood during a time of a person's life (between ages 4-9) where the child is taking in data from their surroundings and integrating it into their socialized survival mechanics to form a personality. The child is working out what traits it can exhibit to receive nurture, care and protection from other humans and will adapt to those processes. Attachment Theory goes into greater detail about how this relates to the formation of psychological disorders, especially personality disorders.

For a traumatized child they will find that their environments do not offer consistent and reliable safety and thus they are unable to adapt to a version of their reality where they are able to maintain stable safety. This may be horrifying forms of physical, emotional and sexual abuse placed upon a child and is often depicted as such but it can also be a confused child trying to get affection from a cold and distant parent or having a parent who abuses alcohol and becomes inconsistent in their ability to give affection and care. Child psychology is a heavy and depressing field, sadly.

The result is that the child never forms a permanent sense of identity. This is a large factor in the formation of Borderline Personality Disorder and is why DID and BPD are so often thrown together within medical treatment and diagnosis. It's at the point of which when my therapist gave me our diagnosis she presented a clinical list of "myths" regarding DID and "BPD is the same thing as DID" was 5 on the list of 6.

The point of this detour is to say that there is no original self. A person who has DID never managed to form a stable sense of identity in childhood and thus they find themselves acting as chameleons in their day-to-day life, adapting to what they feel they need to become in order to receive the things they need from their surroundings. It's why there is a stigma in the BPD community over the concept of being "manipulative". In reality people with that condition are unconsciously adapting to their environment as a survival mechanism. With DID the added layer of dissociation is there to help the self function even when they are forced to interact with materials that are incompatible with their ability to function.

Pre-show Elliot was living a fairly comfortable life but his emotional needs were not met and at the time he was alienated from his sister. He was miserable and lived in a society that he felt was crumbling. His daydreaming gave birth to "The Mastermind" to remove the threats from his reality and Mr. Robot who had been there all along went into Protective Sicko Mode and decided to expedite the process in a way only a protector's morality could.

We'll get into system roles a little later.

The point is that day-to-day life Elliot (Janina Fisher's book "Healing the Fragmented Self" refers to the part untouched by trauma as the "going about daily life" part) is not Real. He is not The Original. Those terms do not exist and are meaningless in this space.

True/Real/Orignal-Elliot is as much a construct as Mr. Robot. He's a version of Elliot who does not have to think about the trauma, he can just live a happy normal life. The kind that Elliot speaks often and derisively about in Season 1.

With that out of the way, I'm going to ignore the bad use of language and talk only about what is depicted on the screen and not said out loud. Because if you remove the misconception about real/original from the mixture, this is a perfect depiction of final fusion model healing.

Season 4 introduces us to the conference table in the inner world. A conference table is a therapeutic technique used in trauma therapy where you bring the alters/parts to a conference. The idea is that it needs to be a neutral ground where everyone is comfortable and able to share their thoughts and ideas. With practice it can be a space one can close their eyes and imagine, seeing their system and allowing communication to happen between parts.

Mine is based on the Minerals Gallery in the Natural History Museum in London. I refer to it as The Library. You didn't need to know that but I didn't want to discuss this section without mentioning it.

Elliot's is the conference room in Evil Corp where he and Tyrell spoke in the first episode.

Interestingly enough there are only 4 seats in this set. I'm not sure what the implication is here as in the scene depicted above Magda (Persecutor Alter) is scolding Young Elliot (Child Alter) for sitting in a chair that isn't his. They mention all 3 alters who are not present (Elliot, Mr. Robot and The Other One).

My thought is that this is the show going all in on the idea that Elliot ("Real") is not an alter and does not take a seat at the table. Which I have issues with.

I'll note as I did with the inner-world that this is a therapy technique and not something Elliot would just have in his mind. It's an accurate depiction of DID treatment but Elliot isn't being treated for DID. Krista is no way near close enough to be able to help Elliot. She's wonderful and deserves the world and more for how she handles things in this season but she's in the pre-stabilization phase of therapy where she knows more than Elliot is willing to accept and needs to wait for him to come around.

Speaking of Krista. Episode 7 is the greatest hour of television rivaled only by Ozymandias from Breaking Bad and the M*A*S*H finale. At present it has a 9.9 on IMDB.

The episode is structured as a bottle episode in way of a 5 act play depicting the stages of grief. This is the episode where Elliot peels back to dissociative layers and understands the truth. The truth of what his father did.

I won't type it.

I don't need to.

The next episode involves Elliot seeing Young Elliot and following him to a museum exhibit with a model of Manhattan. In Season 1 when Elliot had his psychotic break after realizing Darlene is his sister Darlene and Angela checked this location stating it was a place he used to go in times of crisis.

It turns out when he was young Elliot hid the key to his bedroom here to prevent Edward from getting in. All these years later adult Elliot (or "The Mastermind" if you prefer, which I do not) discovers it and has a heart-to-heart with his younger self, screaming into the emptiness that he's sorry for not protecting him. Sorry for letting him get hurt.

The scene is lit in the golden hues that symbolize safety in this show. The final season also takes place during Christmas in New York so it gets to show off that color palette more often which is great for symbolism and aesthetic.

Young Elliot shows that the act of hiding the key from their father was protecting him. It was fighting back. Sometimes surviving is the best you can do and you need to forgive yourself for not being able to do more.

God I love this show so much.

That episode ends with the scene I most want to just overtly show off to an audience.

I already loved the show. The final episode may have broken my heart a little with its talk of "Real" but this scene? This scene gets it.

Prior to the above video clip Mr. Robot cautiously approaches and says "Hey, kiddo". Something he always says. It's who he is. Regardless of anything else he, Mr. Robot, is designed from the father Elliot wishes he had and when he hears Mr. Robot-- no Edward's voice he tenses up in terror, allowing the above scene to take place with Mr. Robot so scared that he has failed as a protector by allowing Elliot to remember and that he cannot be there for him any longer because of who he is based off of.

Those with the condition commonly create alters who are based on the traits of those in the child's life at the time the symptoms developed. I... have experience.

The lines I want to focus on the most are:

Mr Robot: If I could go back in time and change everything that happened to you... just make it all go away...

Elliot: Then I wouldn't be me... *He turns to finally look at Mr. Robot* ...and I wouldn't have you.

The final arc of the show is where the "Mastermind" twist takes center stage and Elliot enters his inner-world and finds out that he created a peaceful reality for "Real" Elliot to exist in so that he is unharmed by the horrors of the world that is crumbling in reality. Mr. Robot, as a protector, wanted to expedite the whole hack and destruction of capitalism in order to rescue "Real" Elliot from the inner-world prison. In time he came to accept "Mastermind" as a part of the whole and not a rogue alter who was endangering the body and their "Host".

S4E13 lays it all down. An imagined version of Krista speaks directly to Elliot and explains the system and their functions. Mr. Robot a father and protector who could prevent Elliot from intolerable situations. Magda, a persecutor who blamed Elliot for the abuse. Young Elliot, who Elliot could push the traumatic situations on, a common thing that many do unconsciously in CPTSD situations, dissociating from the person the trauma happened to, disconnecting until they are just another version of self.

Elliot then says "I guess she doesn't know about you." referring to us, the audience.

Krista(*) looks into the camera and addresses us directly, calling us the voyeurs who pretend we're not a part of it even though we have been here for it all. She even claims we are on her side in getting "Mastermind" to accept he is a constructed personality who was there to lash out at the society that caused him so much pain.

"You loved him so much you wanted to keep him safe, no matter the cost."

The episode ends with "Mastermind" Elliot waking up in a hospital and reuniting with Darlene only to realize that she has known the entire time that the person we have been following throughout the show wasn't her "real" brother.

...and god damn it I hate this element of the show so much.

I'll accept that they had very little time to clean things up and needed to get a way to have Mastermind agree to the fusion. I'll even demonize Darlene and say she was being selfish and ignorant in saying something hurtful because she missed the version of her brother that existed before Fsociety.

But Our version of Elliot says that he loves her and she doesn't reply. Her disappointment and resignation causes Our Elliot to go back inside and agree to the fusion.

The show ends in a first person perspective of Darlene seeing her "real" brother wake up and that's it. I'm glad we never actually see "Real" Elliot, that feels fitting.

Here's the thing about that last minute fumble though.

Let's talk about Integration and Fusion. They are different things.

Integration is when dissociative barriers come down. The system is stabilized to the point of which the alters are capable of communicating openly, sharing thoughts, memories and experiences and every part has the ability to opt in or out as life goes on.

"Functional Multiplicity" is what happens when a system is in harmony, no memories are being withheld and the system is able to go about everyday life with minimal disruption or disregulation. It is a valid goal for trauma therapy and there's a decent amount of medical stigma around it being used as the goal and not a step towards the goal. Many clinicians prioritize the appearance of normalcy over the function of the individual(s).

Fusion is when you go the extra step and take this communication and sharing of memory and experience and as you tore down the dissociative barriers you tear away the division between parts.

A system is made up of parts that make up a whole person and Fusion is the process of all parts uniting to "become" that whole person. It is a valid and normal goal for treatment. It shouldn't be held up as the only legitimate method of healing but it shouldn't be demonized for being an option. I say this because I have seen some people in support communities get real upset when the topic comes up.

The final sequence of the show, prior to Elliot opening his eyes, involves the system at the inner-world conference table agreeing to go through with it and walking towards a cinema screen. Elliot says this will only work if we go too.

The family (and audience) sit down in the movie theatre and memories flood onto the screen and pour out until all experiences and emotions are shared in one pool and Elliot Alderson opens his eyes with all 5(+audience) alters fused into one.

It was almost perfect if only Darlene hadn't have rejected the "not real" brother.

The cinema screen projecting memories, all the thoughts and experiences being shared as the Alderson System accept their parts in the whole and agree to the process? It was a beautiful visualization of a healing journey.

There are imperfect moments here and there. There are great moments I skipped over such as S3E8 (I'm not up for talking about Self-Deletion today) but all in all it's the best depiction of DID for a main character we'll likely get on TV. It's a whole and complete narrative and I love it so much. It makes me feel seen.

[samissobsessed]

10 FAVOURITE CHARACTERS FROM 10 FANDOMS:

Thank you for tagging me @somin-yin, and I present to all of you my favourite characters from different fandoms.

1. Selena from Arcanum in Romance Club.

2. Draupadi from Mahabharata.

(Pooja Sharma as Draupadi in Star Bharat's Mahabharat adaption).

3. Kang Sae byeok from Squid Game.

4. Ahkmenrah from Night at the Museum trilogy.

5. Kirari Momobami from Kakegurui.

6. Choi Nam-ra from All of us are dead.

7. Joe March from Little women (movie).

8. Jennifer Check from Jennifer's body.

9. Elliot Alderson from Mr. Robot.

10. Eugene 'Sledgehammer' Sledge from The Pacific.

And that's it for my post. Honestly i have so many favourite characters from different fandoms and i can talk about them for HOURS.

Tagging: @reykalot @hinsaa-paramo-dharma @arachneofthoughts @vijayasena @radio-silencepdf and anyone who wants to join <3.

[alcblanc]

withdrawing from morphine (Elliot Alderson x reader)

Summary: While Elliot is dealing with his withdrawal, you are left alone with him working on your part in the upcoming attempt to penetrate Steel Mountain. When Elliot wakes up distressed, you are there to comfort him.

Word count: 970

A/N: Not smutty at all! Comforting and a little angsty. The inspiration for this story was from Mr Robot - S01E04, eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4. Where he is left alone to  hallucinate about his life and is dealing with his withdrawal.

Everybody was pretty pissed at Elliot when he told us we have to stop somewhere so that he can sleep off his withdrawal. You didn’t really mind, because friends of yours and you yourself had struggled with drug abuse. So you knew the feeling, and understood his thought process.

When you stopped at the only place you could find on such short notice, Elliot was very quick to get in bed. He quickly took off all unnecessary clothes and sheets, got under the blanket and tried to sleep, you guessed.

Romero was the most angry of all, he thought Elliot would ruin this whole operation. Mobley tried to convince him it would be okay, and it would give us more time to finish what was yet to be done. To be honest, you weren't paying much attention to what they were saying, because you couldn't help but notice how much Elliot was struggling. He was moving a lot and sweating terribly. You were beginning to feel very worried, but didn’t say anything, because there was already so much tension. 

Romero and Mobley decided to go check out Steel Mountain, just to be sure about all their calculations. You wanted to go along because you were the mathematician of this group, that was your status and place. You were responsible for developing the software. But Mobly and Romero thought I could stay because ‘’I'm very good and don’t need practice’’. You obliged.

While they were gone, you were mostly on your computer, doing last minute research. You were sitting at the end of the bed on the ground, so if Elliot were to wake up he couldn't really see you, because the bed was pretty high and worked as back support. In the background you could hear weird sounds and noises coming from Elliot, but you tried not to pay attention and not worry yourself. It sounded like he was having a horrible nightmare or something, maybe a sleep paralysis or lucid dream of some sorts.

Three or more hours had gone by, Elliot was still asleep (if you could call that sleeping), Romero and Mobley were still gone and that was lingering in the back of your mind, because they didn’t tell you how long they would be gone or nothing for that matter really, you tried to not think about that. Your eyes had gotten pretty tired from all the screens, so you briefly closed them, just for a second you thought.

When you woke up, all you could hear was Elliot saying, ‘’I’m alone, I’m alone! I’m alone again, they left me!’’ You struggle to get up so fast and you’re very confused , because you have no idea how much time had passed since you closed your eyes. When you finally stand up, Elliot has his face covered with the blanket and is rocking back and forth. 

’’Hey, hey! Look I’m here, don’t worry!’’, you move closer to the bed, where he is sitting, still a little confused about what is happening. Elliot removes his blanket and looks at you slowly, you can see he was crying. You get closer to him and stand right next to him, you try to look at him, but can’t read his emotions fully. ’’Are you okay? I’m here, you’re not alone, look!’’, you say, in hopes that this somehow helps. You don't touch him, because you know he doesn't like that. Elliot turns his body to face you, not standing up, but putting his legs on the ground, the blanket still hanging over his legs and the floor. You’re standing over him, when suddenly he hugs you, very tightly. You’re not sure if you can hug him back, but you slowly lift up your arms and comfort him. When he hugs you even tighter and buries his face in your waist you almost lose your balance “Okay, okay, that's all right, you’re okay’’ you say to him, as you sit next to him not letting go of his embrace. So now you are both sitting next to one another, you can feel his wet face and breath on your neck. 

All of a sudden you feel weird about this situation and don’t want him to get the wrong impression of you, that you are somehow using his vulnerability against him. So you slowly lean your body back and try to look at him. At first he doesn't look at you, and keeps his eyes at your neck, looking at your wet shirt. It's like you could read his mind and knew how he was thinking about how he ruined your shirt or this being embarrassing, so you touch his shoulder and shake it a little bit and say, ‘’Hey, It’s okay, I’m not going anywhere’’ This is when he finally looks up at you. He very softly and quietly says, ‘’Thank you’’. He then looks at your eyes, your lips, then your eyes again. It’s weird but you feel like you both are thinking the same thing, when suddenly the door opens and Mobley and Romero are finally back.

You remove your arm from his shoulder and you both look at the door. They didn't pay much attention to what you were doing or how you were sitting, they got right down to business. ‘’You know kid, It’s good that you decided to take your little withdrawal trip and delay the operation, because look what we found’’, Romero says to Elliot, while pointing at something in his laptop. You squeeze Elliots hand, before standing up and walking away, to give more room for Romero. 

You and Mobley talk on the other side of the room, he is explaining everything that Romero is to Elliot. You are paying attention, obviously, but you can’t help think about something else, sitting across the room...

[vhbutter]

Intro post, REJOICE

Hello friend, IM VINNY RAGHHH

Im a minor, and preferably would prefer if people under 13 didn’t contact me, cuz im not for that kinda life.

Im am Trans FTM, but I’m also not? Im just Vinny and that’s all that counts, any pronouns are fine, but I mainly go by he/him.

Im gay and somewhere on the aromantic spec, I am often told my taste in men is appalling.

I have autism so a lot of my posts will be about my hyperfixations or interests

Hyperfixations (might miss some mb)

Doctor who

Little Nightmares

Bendy and the ink machine

Zelda

Hollow Knight

Elden ring

Magnus Archives

ENA

Deltarune/Undertale

Ultrakill

Spiderverse

Gotham

DFTM

Mr robot

Until Dawn

Portal

HLVRAI

Arcane

My special interests are essentially just: the ocean, space, computers and philosophy.

SORRY THERES LIKE A FUCKTON OF INTERESTS MB MB

Okay so, I make art, that’s a plus right? Maybe I’ll say something funny once in a while, joy. These are the benefits of being my friend, that’s sad.

THINGS TO KNOW

I never contact first, that shit terrifies me. So if you wanna talk, just say and I’ll be more than happy.

Forgot to mention I’m British, that can be a bit of a dealbreaker for some, I’ll admit.

I type how I talk, which is pretty flatly. Pray to god someone finds that charming.

I like friendship magic and fun, gang I promise.

KINS

Im gonna make a kinlist now, as cringy as that may be and stuff. But I want to.

Kris Dreemurr

Because I don’t say much unless I feel all cool and jolly and that. Also I eat glass, which is fairly similar to moss.

Elliot Alderson

Internal monologues and wide stares.

Viktor (Arcane)

I struggle with disability, it’s shit. Makes me feel like shit but we are thriving.

Edward Nygma (Gotham)

Autism, “hey wanna hear this nerdy fact” all that stuff.

12th Doctor

I’ll be fr I can come across as a prick, that’s my bad and also not going to change. Constantly questioning if you’re a good person or not is a good way to pass time.

Edward Teach (OFMD)

Mood swings! Hell yeah!

Herbert West

Not good with talking to people, my own mind means a lot to me. Arrogant, I’m not making myself sound the best.

Papyrus

HERES A GOOD ONE, finally! I too, wish to wear four pairs of hotpants, it’s great to see a guy with priorities.

Outro

Okay I’m Vinny I like stuff I do stuff please think I’m cool.

Goodbye

[thatrando13]

Look at him, he's beautiful

-> Atlas

[dino-boyo-agere]

Okay,

more about my CG Argyle (Stranger Things) + little Elliot (Mr. Robot) head canon, because I am obsessed..

(tagging @froggy-clubhouse again, because he gets me)

At first, their like super awkward, Elliot doesn't trust Argyle, because he doesn't know him all that well. And Argyle, just knowing glimpses of his past, is overly cautious as to not scare Elliot away. This results in Argyle often stammering/ blabbering incoherent sentences and Elliot just looking at him like: "What the hecc is his problem? What does he want? Why is he so weird? Is he hiding something?"

But!!! After just a few weeks of hanging out (Argyle got notified by Eddie, whenever Elliot hung out with them and would find an excuse to 'stop by') they basically became inseparable!

Elliot feels safe with his CG and not only enjoys cuddling with him, he even initiates physical contact. Argyle is so proud, every time he noticed his Kiddo coming out of his shell a little more and he adores his dude so much. Seriously, he would die for this kid.. It's just heart eyes whenever he looks at him, so, SO much love and affection! <3

Elliot generally seems happier and way less stressed, no matter if he's regressed or not. (especially when Argyle is around)

Argyle, aswell as Eddie and Steve, also teach Elliot that stimming is completely normal and nothing weird to be ashamed of... He's trying to unmask, bit by bit, he is getting there, it just takes time. They are still so proud of him!

Also, this is little Elliot, every time he sees his best friend and play pal Stevie... No, really.. Every. Single. Time. No matter if one of them just had to go potty real quick, when they reunite it's always exactly this overly excited energy... He's the cutest!

Little bonus:

Halloween!

Stevie didn't show up on time (he was 3 min late because Eddie couldn't figure out the buttons on his darn pumpkin costume) Elliot already prepared himself to be stood up and disappointed but tried to play it cool Infront of Argyle. The ladder obviously saw right through his little muffin and assured him that they would come as planned, while already typing an angry message to Eddie for worrying his baby. However, he deleted the message, because the doorbell rung, before he was even able to send it.

So all was good in the end!

(I actually might try drawing little Pumpkin Stevie and Vampire Elliot, because this mental image is just so heccing cute.. I can't-)

[plural-swag-competition]

We have our bracket! This was seeded by number of submissions. Some were given nicknames in the picture for space reasons. Apologies if we entered anything weird, this took a real long time to put together, and we're feeling a bit cross-eyed.

The top left is the top tier, top right is mid tier, bottom left is low tier, and bottom right is the one submission wonders! We'll be starting today with the bottom and working our way up for four days of round one before tackling everything all at once after the numbers are a bit reduced. Maybe two days of round two, depending on energy levels.

The Top Tier:

Shallan Davar/Veil/Radiant - The Stormlight Archive vs Yellow Guy - Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Harrier Du Bois - Disco Elysium vs Frisk/Chara - Undertale

Epsilon - Red vs Blue vs Sora/Xion/Roxas/Ventus/Vanitas - Kingdom Hearts

Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lochley) - Moon Knight Marvel Comics vs ENA - ENA

Yugi Mutou/Atem - Yu-Gi-Oh! vs Arthur Lester/John Doe - Malevolent Podcast

Raphael Hamato - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs Uendo Toneido/Patches/Kisegawa/Owen - Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice

Greed/Ling - Fullmetal Alchemist vs Link (Green, Red, Blue, Vio, and Shadow) - The Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures

Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama - Mob Psycho 100 vs Sunny/Omori - OMORI

The Mid Tier:

Dr Alto Clef - SCP wiki vs Ford Cruller - Psychonauts

Madeline & Mirrorline - Celeste vs Darcy Wu - Amphibia

Hojo Emu, Tensai Gamer M, Parado (Kamen Rider Ex-Aid) - Kamen Rider Ex-Aid vs The Wildcards - Persona

Link/Deku Butler’s Son/Darmani III/Mikau/Fierce Deity - LoZ Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask vs The Sunken - Oxenfree

Bruce Banner/Hulk/Joe Fixit/Devil Hulk - Marvel comics vs Goldia die Heilige/Fleta/Harpae/Lisette - Pocket Mirror

The Warrior of Light - Final Fantasy XIV vs Mike/Chester /Vito/Svetlana/Manitoba/Mal - Total Drama

Blitzwing - Transformers: Animated vs Patrick and Rey Sprigs - Megaman Starforce

Cassie O'Pia - Psychonauts 2 vs Peter Nureyev - The Penumbra Podcast

The Low Tier:

Edward Teach - Our Flag Means Death vs BMO - Adventure Time

Diavolo and Dopplio - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure vs the Legion system (David Haller and headmates) - Marvel/X-Men Comics

One-One - Infinity Train vs Raiden Ei/Raiden Shogun - Genshin Impact

Jaden Yuki/Haou Jaden/Yubel - Yu-Gi-Oh! GX vs Sylvie Ashling and Dr. Beefton - Epithet Erased

Mikoto Kayano - Milgram vs Kris and the SOUL - Deltarune

Triad/Luornu Durgo - LoS Legion of Superheroes Post-Zero Hour run/1993-2003 run vs Gray Reverse - Helios: Rising Heroes

Vyncent “Virion” Sol - Just Roll With It: Prime Defenders vs Alluka and Nanika Zoldyck - Hunter x Hunter

Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde - Monster High vs Hajime Hinata/Izuru Kamukura - Super Dangan Ronpa 2

The One Submission Wonders:

Izuku Midoriya - Boko No Hero Academia vs Mollymauk/Kingsley Tealeaf/Lucien Tavelle - Critical Role

Roronoa Zoro - One Piece vs Sho and Minazuki - Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Miyao/Meow Mitake - Ciconia When They Cry vs Webber - Don't Starve

Eda Clawthorne - The Owl House vs Jesse Faden - Control

Aubrey Little - The Adventure Zone: Amnesty vs Pyra/Mythra/Spoilers - Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Dirk Strider - Homestuck vs Sawada Tsunayoshi - Katekyo Hitman Reborn

Killer B & Gyuki - Naruto vs Jace - Magic the Gathering

Red - Twitch Plays Pokemon vs Elliot Alderson - Mr Robot

[antlerqueer]

When people on tv are bad people and that's kinda the point and viewers are like "um doesn't anyone think this is fucked up? How do you like this?"

These aren't real people that's how 💜 let Elliot Alderson commit a little cyber terrorism 💜 he's earned it 💜

[bonsoir-tyrelliot]

In 2x12 when Tyrell tells Mr. Robot about his father’s poem and not wanting to become his father, Mr. Robot 100% looks like he’s about to say something before it cuts to the next scene. He looks away thoughtfully and then he looks up at Tyrell likes he’s made a decision.

Then we cut to Tyrell and Elliot walking together in the present (bc that scene in 2x12 is a flashback), and Hall of Mirrors by Kraftwerk plays. The first line is “The young man stepped into the hall of mirrors, where he discovered a reflection of himself.”

I think Mr. Robot tells Tyrell something about Edward Alderson in that scene after it cuts away. Tyrell opens himself up, he flays himself alive in that scene. If Mr. Robot didn’t then reciprocate at least a little, would Tyrell really have been as obsessed as he became? And why Hall of Mirrors and the idea that they are reflections of each other right after that scene if they didn’t connect over this? Mr. Robot may even have told him about the CSA, since he knows about it. That would explain why we don’t see it, because the audience doesn’t know yet.

[sleepy-vix]

Name some fictional characters you resonate with? Mine are kinda weird but there's a pattern to them I think at least.

1. Elliot Alderson from the show mr robot

2. The 2013 great gastby nick caraway played by Tobey maguire

3. 2003 Bruce banner/hulk

4. Snufkin from the moomin series

5. Morphues from the sandman specifically from overture

6. R from warm bodies

If you guessed introvert with anger issues then you guessed correctly lol

ooh introvert with anger issues? sums u up quite well it seems

tbh i only know morphues but they all sound pretty cool if you like them

mine's

1. angel devil from chainsaw man

2. tori spring from solitaire/heartstopper/osemanverse

3. jo march from little women

4. amity blught from the owl house

idek what the connection between these characters are 😭 iyk then yk iggg

edit: agsvdj i had this in my drafts for ages sorry for the late reply :(

[chevy2497]

Thursday 31st August 2023. Last day of Winter. Tomorrow is the Friday 1st September 2023, first day of Spring.

Anyways I’ve done a part two of Rami Malek as Louis Dega and Elliot Alderson. 🥰🥵😎🥰🥵😎🥰🥵😎🥰🥵😎

Top Left (Home Screen) Rami Malek as Louis Dega (Papillon)

Top Right (Lock Screen) Rami as Elliot Alderson from the tv series “Mr. Robot”

Bottom: Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek)

I look at my phone screen more then my Fitbit for the time.

@crewman-penelope @rami-malek-yeah @ramimalek4ever @ramibabe @ramicastiel @rami-hoe @maleklovers @malekedd @robotedit @mrrobotsource

I have seen about 16 of Rami Malek’s films. Those films are:

- Night of the Museum (2006)

- Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)

- Larry Crowne (2011)

- The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (2012)

- The Master (2012)

- Short Term 12 (2013)

- Need For Speed (2014)

- Night of the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)

- Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus (2014)

- Buster’s Mal Heart (2016)

- Papillon (2017)

- Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

- Dolittle (2020)

- The Little Things (2021)

- No Time To Die (2021)

- Amsterdam (2022)

Even though I hear that Rami Malek is either dating Emma Corrin. Well I’m happy for him.

I know and understand that age doesn’t matter but he’s like 42 and she’s like older then me by two years)

Rami Malek is 42 (he’s 16 years older than me)

Emma Corrin is 27 (she is two years older than me)

[misscammiedawn]

Back to the Future, Brainwashing and Mr. Robot

Our little journey into rewatching Mr. Robot with our girlfriend continues and we ended Season 2 last night and got to the point of Angela's interview with Whiterose.

See, Season 2 Episode 11 asks a question that the show has asked a number of times "How do you hack a human being?" but this time applies it to Angela and Darlene. Elliot's two most trusted humans. His sister and his love interest.

Is it possible for the FBI and Whiterose respectively to get them to betray Elliot?

Well, Elliot said it himself in season 1

"People always make the best exploits. I've never found it hard to hack most people. If you listen to them, watch them, their vulnerabilities are like a neon sign screwed into their heads."

Darlene even monologued about hers in the previous episode. All she needs is to feel special and you can exploit her.

But Whiterose does not exploit people like Elliot does. She owns them.

Let's talk about how she brainwashed Angela.

Before I begin I want to just mention that I am a hypnokink blog but there is a world of difference between consensual hypnosis play (I write a lot on the topic) and literal brainwashing.

My post/analysis is through a lens of muted horror because I know the tactics being employed and I want to break down the scene from the perspective of someone who reads the theory. I do not in any way shape or form endorse the methods being played out on screen.

I do know members of my community who would very much enjoy recreating elements of this scene in their play but it would be in a risk aware and negotiated manner. Full love and respect to y'all, I am not yucking on your yum. The difference is fantasy vs reality and consent vs coercion.

I know I shouldn't need to write that but I'm a hypnokink blog and this may reach fandom spaces and I want to make it clear that this sequence depicts psychological torture and it is not the same thing as my hobby.

---

At the start of the episode Angela is in the back of a van being driven by two Dark Army agents.

The plot of the show is instigated by a leak at a nuclear facility that claimed the life of Elliot's father and Angela's mother. Much of the narrative is the pair of them on their relentless individual crusades to destroy the company that allowed this to happen, covered it up and took no accountability for the disaster. In fact E(vil) Corp knew the radiation levels were unsafe and hid that fact, allowing Mr. Alderson and Mrs. Moss to perish.

What's worse is Angela has evidence that the levels are still unsafe to this day and the company knows about it. She is about to whistleblow and that attracts the attention of the big bad of the series, Whiterose.

We do not yet know the connections but we do know that Whiterose refers to the facility as "my plant". It is clearly important to her. Enough that threats to the plant are motive to kill.

But they didn't kill Angela for her attempt at whistleblowing. They recruit her. A good idea, all things considered, as she is Elliot's exploit.

It is night time when Angela is taken and daytime when she arrives at her destination. During the ride she is kept in the back of the van while the two riders stare on ahead. Angela pleads with them, screams, tries every trick she can to get their attention and they refuse to acknowledge her.

All the while a song plays on the radio.

In universe we know that Back to the Future is Angela's favorite movie. It's come up a lot and much as Darlene's need to feel special was directly referenced in the prior episode, Angela's love of BttF was mentioned when she refers to a tender moment in season 1 when she wanted to get high and watch Back to the Future 2 with Elliot.

The show takes place in 2015 by the way. That becomes plot relevant later but at this moment it's just a lovely coincidence.

When Angela has run through her options her captors pump the volume on Marvin Berry & The Starlights.

Later in the episode we cut to Angela waking from a sleep. It is daylight now and there is still music playing on the radio...

I was watching the show with my girlfriend, @soveryverytired and she is as big a BttF fan as Angela and she recognized this instantly. These musical stings are diegetic and so they are for Angela but let's not forget that we the audience are a character in this show. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence.

Angela is released from the van and guided into a house which seems to have been tailor made to mess with her. The brainwashing began the moment she was picked up but this is when the audience gets to share in some of Angela's emotional state.

The hallway she is guided down is full of family photos with the faces inked out.

Itself a reference to the artwork of John Baldessari.

In the portraits Angela sees she is given the idea of family and the image of a family home. A place which exists in memory for Angela as she may have been raised in Jersey but she's a New York girl now who lives in modern chic apartments.

The portraits have their features removed as a stand-in for an idea. Family. Comfort. Safety. Home. Just ideas right now of course, but it also evokes alienation. There is nothing for her to latch onto. Her captors refuse to look at her.

(Incidentally I am uncertain of why they picked the people who caught Angela. Neither of them look like Dark Army agents and they do not radiate nostalgia or identity in any meaningful form. They are disparate and just appear to be people who caught Angela. I cannot place anything on them)

Angela has been isolated and kept for an elongated period of time in transit. She does not even have the comfort of human faces to latch onto.

Which makes her entrance into the brainwashing room all the more startling.

Blue, Green and Red in stark contrast with White and Black. The room is barren of features spare for the objects that are intentionally placed there for her. A Commodore 64 computer, a red phone, a copy of the book Lolita.

There's also a copy "Hang in there" poster. Angela likes motivational posters and listens to confidence tapes a lot.

As I mentioned in my previous Mr. Robot analysis, Esmail really enjoys giving us parts of the code to go back and try and look at things again with context. In that analysis I spoke of how Whiterose detected Dom's sexuality from a single sentence. Here we have a more direct decryption.

Eliott comes into a room much like this later in the show and instantly identifies the pieces placed out for him and what their significance are. These are objects from Angela's childhood home. Whether directly the same ones or replicas created from Whiterose digging on Angela's life is unknown. But there's always the implication...

Between every phase of Angela's ordeal she is given a well of time to stew in her situation and remove all distractions. She tries the door and discovers it is locked. She is given time to understand and accept her circumstance. She stops struggling in the van and lets the BttF soundtrack lull her to sleep. She stops trying to escape the room and sits in the chair.

Every step of the process thus far has been to isolate her and allow time to guide her into compliance. Whiterose likes using time as a weapon after all... it's her obsession.

Then the interview begins and we are introduced to Angela's interviewer.

A young caucasian girl in a suit with blonde hair in a high pony tail. A child version of Angela.

We don't know this yet but in Season 3 there will be a flashback of a 9 year old Angela watching Back to the Future while her mother is dying. Both the interviewer (credited as "Girl") and 9-year old Angela are played by the same actress, Mabel Tyler.

The implication goes beyond her just being dressed to look like Angela did at that age. Whiterose found someone who looks exactly like she did.

Angela's stint of social isolation has finally been given reprieve with the dignity of a human face, even if it is her own (but that's impossible, right?) and she, bewildered and confused, asks for answers. "Who are you?"

The response is "There's water coming out of that fish tank. We don't have much time. Let's begin."

No urgency. No emotion. Just matter of fact.

Time, which was once drawn to unbearable stretches of isolation has now been flipped on its head and suddenly Angela is not allowed time to process anything. She is instantly asked a number of questions.

"Have you ever cried during sex?" - "Have you ever fantasized about killing your father?" - "Are you a giraffe or a seagull?"

Any attempt Angela makes to talk with the child results in the question being asked again. (The sequence makes direct references to text adventure games also, showing that Angela has no control in this situation, the prompts will continue repeating until she gives the desired answer)

After a number of failed attempts the phone will ring and the girl will get instructions to force the test to proceed. The first time she displays heavy bruising on her back and tells Angela she will be beaten if she does not complete the test.

The fish will die if she does not answer fast. The girl will be punished if she does not finish the test.

Empathy is being used against her. A time limit and the girl constantly forcing her to engage with the question prevent her processing.

So now should be a time to mention the real world mind control techniques on display here. They're brought up in movies a lot. For a simple and harmless version of it you need to look at the Baseline Test from Bladerunner 2049 and for a disturbing but all too realistic version of it you need to look at The Master.

Massive warning on the scene from The Master as it contains exceptionally dark content.

There are a number of factors at play and I feel even with as much as I've read there are others in my community who could break this down better than me.

The obvious ones are empathy and stress being put at play. Angela is being forced to capitulate via sheer aggressive coercion. If she does not obey the child will be punished, if she does not beat the time limit then a fish will perish. The captors would be punishing the girl and killing the fish but they have framed it in a way that she is volunteering responsibility. A simple and insidious manipulation that is all too common. How often are we informed that our not showing up to work will make things harder for our coworkers? The world is rife with people forcing us to take on empathetic responsibility for those around us despite the fact that the pain inflicted upon them is only our fault in that we allow others to force us to be at fault. Life is full of little trolley problems like that. After all... can Angela really ignore the fact that this child copy of herself will be hurt if she does not comply?

Then you have the more psychological ones. Fractionation is a term we in the hypnosis community use a lot. Within hypnosis it means to go in and out of hypnotic state often enough to maximize the impact of the altered state. Long story short, bringing someone down into a hypnotic state and then up again and then down again and then up and then down enough causes someone to become more susceptible, altered and heady.

It's fun!

Emotional Fractionation is a NLP technique that is so colonized by pick-up artists that I literally couldn't find a definition of it from a google search which wasn't buried in misogynistic dogma. The concept is simple. Put someone into several extreme emotional states of varying tempo to "prime" them. A person is more susceptible and emotionally malleable when they have been through a series of these quick short bursts.

"Have you ever cried during sex?" and "Have you fantasized about murdering your father?" are both examples of invasive questions that conjure extreme emotions of shame and disgust paired with topics of sexuality and violence which are typically taboo topics, especially when coming from a child's mouth. They are things that people would not casually answer. There is guard to them. The test is forcing Angela to answer questions which no person would give an unguarded answer to and doing so in a pressurized window where she cannot fully process the questions or continue to deny answering them.

The Master clip does something a lot more grounded with its blink test. Every time Joaquin Phoenix's character blinks the test starts again. He is forced to answer the same questions over and over. With that test his emotionally guarded replies are single word answers and denials. As the test deprives him and emotionally wears him down he begins giving honest answers. It's... not enjoyable to watch.

The interesting thing about Angela's questions is the Giraffe/Seagull question is how baffling it is.

Two emotionally volatile questions in a row and then a non-sequitur about animals. Emotional whiplash. But it serves a purpose. Flatten the landscape. Remove expectation. Interrupt an emerging. Allow answers to become automatic.

In hypnosis this kind of pattern plays with call and response to train a hypnotee to fall into a pattern of reactions that we guide. There's even a method of interrupting the pattern and creating a breakdown in critical thinking that allows us to communicate directly with the subconscious mind. That's not really at play here but I can't notice a pattern interrupt in emotional fractionation tactics without typing "transderivational search", it's a compulsion in me.

Anyway...

We cut away and next time we return the fish only has a third of the tank left.

"Are you red or purple?" and Angela, sat down and exhausted, simply answers "Purple"

As before exposure and time has caused her to just accept what is happening to her. She's going along with the process now and not trying to reason with her predicament. It's easier just to answer.

But as every other time Angela has become comfortable in her ordeal, a curveball appears.

"Is the key in the room?"

Every question until now, including during the implied time that the fish tank has been emptying, was a personality question. Personal and invasive or banal and trivial. Either way this provides another case of emotional whiplash. Angela is baffled and becomes frustrated. Her emotional resilience has been whittled into non-existence at this point, she cannot help but yell in frustration.

The phone goes again and this time Girl hands Angela the phone. A digitized voice says:

"You are standing in a dark room and can't see anything. There is a torch and a match. What do you do?"

The idea of a text based adventure is already on mind but now Angela is being trained to think how her captors want her to think. She obeys as she has been primed to do and says she lights the torch. No resistance. No confusion. No attempting to get the voice on the phone to identify themselves or answer to her predicament. She is given a prompt from a text based adventure and she follows the prompt.

Every other exploit in the show used the computer analogy as a metaphor for human behavior. Now we are seeing a human being programmed to run on simple prompts.

The voice continues this text based adventure until she reaches a door. She tries to open it but the door will not open. Much as the start of the test the voice keeps repeating prompts. Not deviating. Angela, frustrated begins yelling that she doesn't fucking know but the voice keeps saying "the knob doesn't turn, how do you open it?" until she breaks down and says that she uses a key. She opens the door with a fucking key.

The girl repeats her question.

"Is the key in the room?"

Angela looks at the copy of Lolita on the desk. The artwork depicting a closed fist.

She understands now and in an emotionally distant voice speaks, referencing a quote from the book "Yes. The key was in my fist. My fist was in my pocket."

The Lolita connection actually spans the entire show and this Reddit post does a better job explaining than I could.

The fact that both this show and the book are pastiches (one of modern cinema and the other of literary genres) is relevant though. Don't forget. The Back to the Future references are in universe and targeted specifically at Angela.

The interview concludes and Angela is left to wait a further 4 hours in the room. The fish dies. She's emotionally exhausted. She's no closer to understanding what is happening or what will happen to her. Then the big bad of the entire show, Whiterose, enters the scene.

Whiterose herself allots 28 minutes to their conversation. Which if you know her is remarkably generous.

The conversation is dense.

It starts with Whiterose following the format of the previous interview by noting the lack of time and saying they need to begin before playing some quick and easy mindgames. Insisting her time is more important than Angela's and simply shrugs off her request to leave with "No you wouldn't", she's already invested this much time (against her will or otherwise) and she's going to stick around for the rest.

Angela sits.

Whiterose then berates her lack of agency in attempting to do anything with the door. That she had simply remained in the room without attempting to change or alter her situation.

Angela says that the door was locked. That it was impossible for her to leave.

But Whiterose is training her how to think. She was presented a locked door in her interview and she manifested the key.

Angela, now faced with an actual human being who will converse with her, instantly attempts to claim some leverage in the conversation by accusing Whiterose of murdering the fish (she is not shaken) and hurting the girl.

Whiterose tells her it was make-up and that the child was not hurt at all. That her empathy was part of the test.

This is a subtle one but I want to highlight it. Whiterose killed the fish. The fish is dead. But she ignores that criticism and focuses on the child and tells Angela that it was make-up and the child was not hurt.

It's a brilliant bit of emotional manipulation because Angela has come at her with two immoral and disgusting acts and Whiterose ignored one and excused the other. The deflection throws Angela off her guard because her assumption was that Whiterose was torturing a child and now that's not true. That revelation (which is unconfirmed, mind you, we only have Whiterose's word) erases the accusation. Suddenly Angela is made to abandon her accusation despite the fact that this woman did force that child to conduct the psychological torture, that she kidnapped Angela from the subway and that the fish is dead and Angela can still see it.

Whiterose then gives a mild exposition dump about Angela's prevalence in the plot and the fact that her plot armor has kept her safe when by all estimations she should have been killed the very moment her actions threatened Whiterose's investment in the Washington Township Plant.

She then gives yet another emotional sideswipe to Angela by saying that she is important to Phillip Price (the head of E(vil) Corp) and Elliot Alderson. This serves to make her feel Whiterose knows everything about her because this unknown individual has intimate details about her childhood, her current life and her attachment to Elliot and the crime he committed on 5/9.

Plus after making Angela seem so important for the fact she keeps turning up in Whiterose's plans, she instantly puts her position as an attachment to Price and Alderson. Preventing Angela from even feeling as more than an accessory while giving her a taste of being important.

She then goes on to explain Angela's mother and Elliot's father died for her schemes and that both Angela and Elliot owe their current lives to that fact. After riling her up by insulting her mother's death and claiming personal responsibility for it she says she has no intention of killing Angela but she cannot be allowed to continue jeopardizing her plans.

Angela is broken by this point. Tears burning her eyes she finally says she will give Whiterose what she wants. Destroy the evidence. She submits.

But that's not what Whiterose wants. Elliot and F Society use fear and coercion to control people. Whiterose does not want Angela's fear.

She then asks if Angela has ever believed in something so hard that she could manifest it into being through sheer will.

Much like the key from the test.

Angela admits she used to but she is admitting that reality does not allow for such optimism. Whiterose asks her what "real" even is.

...and that's the sequence.

Next time we see her she is being driven by a Dark Army car to her lawyer's house to drop the case. It's night time and presumably she went straight from Whiterose's. She's been in captivity for over 24 hours at this point.

and she not only complies with Whiterose's request, she does so with zeal and a mildly disconcerting affect.

She's 100% a believer now.

...but of what?

Can you guess?

What do you think Whiterose convinced her of? Made her a believer of?

I think you know. She spent the entire episode priming Angela for it. We saw it. We were there.

Does that mean we were primed too?

So even if Angela's brainwashing is complete. We still have the audience to think of, we're a character in the show, we sit atop the forth wall, not behind it. Don't you want to be included in the brainwashing too?

The episode continues on without Angela, progressing the A-plot with Elliot and Mr. Robot. We also get Sam Esmail teaching the audience how to decode the cypher in the novel that covers Elliot's time in prison.

As the episode comes to an end and Elliot and Tyrell are reunited we get we hear this music in the background. This time it's not diegetic. It's the show's soundtrack.

Three times is a pattern.

As the credits roll and we get a tease of Silvestri's original score for the film. That is present in the track, you can hear it in the above YouTube clip. But the song itself, Earth Angel, is diegetic in the film and yet the final few moments of the song are part of the film's soundtrack. An outright confirmation for anyone watching that we are hearing Back to the Future right now.

See... Angela heard those songs in the van but only we heard the third, final and most crucial one.

Mr. Robot is a grounded show. Up until now everything has been remarkably realistic with all of the hacking based on real techniques and even the psychology of Elliot's delusions and his DID are associated with reality (sidenote: though like most media they happily pair schizophrenia and DID as a single condition which they are not. A successful DID diagnosis typically excludes the possibility of schizophrenia. To point Elliot should not be able to see or literally hear Mr. Robot. Those with DID are aware the voices originate within their head and any visualization of the alters is typically within and requires practiced/guided visualization in a therapeutic setting to accomplish)...

Yet...

The idea that Whiterose's plan involves time travel has entered your mind hasn't it?

Like a little seed. A virus that you can't quite delete from your mental operating system.

Every bit of evidence in this show tells you it's based in reality and time travel isn't real.

...but this episode has put the idea in your head... and it doesn't really go away, does it?

Esmail's script never says it. Whiterose alludes to parallel universes and creating the world that was always meant to be. But she never calls it time travel.

But there's the implication...

Either way. Angela believes it's possible now. She'd betray Elliot and let thousands of people die for her belief. One Whiterose worked very hard to give to her.