He can tell himself he's doing this because he wants to help her. That, "people put all sorts of stuff on Facebook" and "she shouldn't have such an easily guessable password." But these are all rationalizations. Doing something "for the greater good" as he sees it, justifies his lying, stalking and threatening
Elliott is called into work by Amanda during a massive late night attack on Evil Corp that is big enough to warrant Gideon and Elliott hopping on the corporate jet and going to the data center.
Elliott saves the day, but there is a mysterious message left for whomever fixed this problem. When he returns he again meets Mr. Robot in the subway who promises answers about the message. Elliott, curious, decides to go with him to an old building in Coney Island.
Slater explains that Elliott has been selected and introduces him to the gang (A black man! A woman! Yay casting director!) He lays out some of his philosophy and mentions a big project they are all working on.
I'm not sure I buy the story given by Mr. Robot, it has a generic, "Get back at the rich bastards who hurt my family" feeling that appeals to Elliott's sense of justice. (Elliott's own father was harmed by a corporation, but he couldn't prove it.)
Maybe Mr. Robot, like Elliott, knows how to read people and offers them what they want. Elliott is painfully lonely and this is a group of like minds he can talk to in real life. (There is a stunningly shot scene of Elliott huddled in a small space between his bed and the dresser crying about his loneliness.)
Elliott is still not certain he wants to join this crew, so he prepares to turn them in after revisiting the Coney Island site. There he hears more of Mr. Robot's reasons for doing what he is doing, and his plan. He wants to take down Evil Corp because they own 70% of consumer debt. If done right the group could erase all people's debt and mortgages and create "the single biggest incident of wealth redistribution in history."
Elliott reminds Mr. Robot of how bad the last financial crisis was and how framing the jerky CTO at Evil Corp won't accomplish much. Mr. Robot explains:
"You don't take down a conglomerate by shooting it in the heart, they don't have hearts. You take them down limb by limb."
The next day Elliott is at work where Angela is explaining what happened to Evil Corp's CTO, the FBI and US Cyber Command. Elliott is getting ready to expose the Mr. Robot gang when Evil Corp's CTO has Angela kicked off the account. Elliott, upset at how she was treated, changes his mind and provides the FBI and Cyber command with the info that frames Evil Corp's CTO.
A few weeks go by and still no news of any arrest, meanwhile Angela is distant from Elliott. She explains that she was embarrassed by what happened and doesn't want to talk about it. In the future he should let her fail, "Even if I'm losing, let me lose, okay?"
This exchange is very important. The character that he wants to protect, doesn't want the protection. She wants to deal with the situation herself and move on. She doesn't want the experience taken out of her hands by someone who thinks he knows what is best for her. I'm glad they are showing an important female character doing this.
Mr. Robot sees a huge problem with how wealth is distributed in our country, but it is Elliott's personal relationship with Angela, who is in debt, that helps him justify a larger action.
Dealing with the big issues reminded me of some of the people who I met and worked with during Occupy Wall Street. So much of that was about first pointing out income inequality.
Think about the phrase: The 99% vs. the 1%. This is an accepted concept now, but it represents a
major mental metaphor shift for the country.
However, the mainstream media, used to finding, elevating and then destroying leaders that challenge the status quo was frustrated. They needed individual humans with backstories and motivations to focus on, otherwise it's too abstract.
With no humans, but an interesting idea, the media asked, "So what are you going to do about it?" This is where the show Mr. Robot picks up. It provides humans and a plan to do something about it.
So, really, what is to be done? Worried about massive student loan debt, and want to stick it to the corporate jerks who hurt your friends? You could blow up the entire system, but are there other alternatives?
One of the post Occupy Wall Street groups that I like is "Rolling Jubilee" They buy debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgive it. That is the kind of lateral thinking and problem solving that should be explored and encouraged.
As the show ends Elliott is brought into the inner sanctum of the men who "really run the world."
These people have a powerful world view and the ability to enforce it on entire governments. They can make it seem "right," and even the best choice, to starve Greek children and crush a generation of students with debt. The only alternate they present if things aren't done their way is the the world will burn, for everyone.
For dramatic purposes crashing Evil Corp from the inside makes for exciting TV. But the reasons
why they would want to do it, as well as alternatives to the status quo, makes it thoughtful.
Following the end of Season 2 of House of Cards my friend Joel and I discussed the importance of how our nation's storytellers write about the economy. What models and metaphors do they have in their heads? Ones articulated by Elisabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Jamie Dimon?
I don't know where the rest of the series is going. They just got renewed for a second season. My hope is that the writer/ creator
Sam Esmail* keeps intelligently digging into the characters and ramification of the story line he lays out in the first episode.
*
Hey Sam. If you want to talk about the economy for the second season with Bernie Sanders or Elisabeth Warren I can totally set you up, I know people who know people. You don't even need to hack my email to contact me! I'm spockosbrain at gmail.