'Mr. Robot' Recap: Explaining The Most Tragic Episode Yet

The newest episode of “Mr. Robot” premiered Sunday night, and it was not an easy one to swallow. Season 4, Episode 7 continues the trend of three-digit number errors as titles, and "407 Proxy Authentication Required" brought us deeper into Elliot Alderson’s psyche, where viewers learned a stomach-churning truth about his relationship with the titular Mr. Robot.

Early on in the series, we learned that Mr. Robot himself exists within Elliot’s own mind as an extension of his own personality, the image of whom was based on his father, Edward Alderson. Edward is Elliot’s hero and together, they opened up an electronics repair shop to help pay for Edward’s cancer treatments after he was fired from Evil Corp.

Throughout the series, Elliot has juggled this second personality as he tried to medicate and get his mind straight, until eventually giving in to the suggestions of Mr. Robot. Thus the corporate hacker war began.

Fast forward three seasons and we hit a brick wall.

The episode is structured much like a 5-act play centered around three main characters: Elliot (and Mr. Robot), newest villain Fernando Vera, and Elliot’s therapist, Krista Gordon. Taking place entirely in two rooms, Krista is held captive in one room while Elliot sits in the other.

Vera has the intention of recruiting Elliot for his own devious plan by essentially widdling him down to his most desperate so he can control him. The one “person” standing in the way of Vera’s sort of mind control tactic is Mr. Robot. Vera is one of the few characters to be aware of this imaginary person.

Enter the therapist, Krista. Vera uses Krista to hold a hostage therapy session, with the goal of revealing that secret Elliot holds on to.

This is where things take a gut-wrenching and tragic turn.

From what we’ve known about the man Mr. Robot owes his facial likeness too, Edward Alderson, he was a good man. In fact, one of the only people that stood up for Elliot when his mother or bullies were cruel to him.

Elliot’s pivotal moment is when he fell from that window and sustained a head injury. It was this injury, around the news of his father’s illness, that gave birth to Mr. Robot, who was created to “protect” Elliot. That’s what adds a sad significance to Mr. Robot actually being a version of his father, as someone there to “protect him.”

“I can’t protect you anymore,” Mr. Robot says to Elliot as they approach the truth.

The truth that shatters everything is that Elliot jumped from the window to escape his own father’s sexual advances. The always deadpan and apathetic Elliot, absolutely destroyed by this realization, gets hysterical.

Vera tries to connect with Elliot over a shared history of abuse for the last act of this television play. It’s cut short when Krista breaks free and stabs Vera to death. We’re not left with much as the ending of the episode shows the lights turning off one at a time, very similar to an actual theatrical performance.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the revelation brought things full circle, as the very first thing we see Elliot do in the very first episode of “Mr. Robot” is busting a child predator in a coffee shop. Elliot’s sense of justice could have potentially been born from this traumatic experience, mistaken by Elliot as him avenging his father’s death. Evil Corp is, for the first time, the lesser form of evil that occupies that dark, cynical world of “Mr. Robot.”

Watch "Mr. Robot" Season 4 on Sundays on USA Network.