My oh my. This episode had a lot of big twists, including one that changes the nature of everything we've seen this season and everything we think we know. Much like the Mr Robot twist last season, I predicted it within the first couple of episodes but then completely forgot about it as I was engrossed by the story. Like any twist that changes the nature of things we've seen, it raises many questions about things we've seen and things we haven't seen. Some of them will need answering in future episodes, but many more can be more or less solved by just thinking back on the previous episodes through a new lens. The big twist's reveal was cinematically delightful, as always in this show.
Another important reveal in this episode is the fate of Tyrell Wellick. The show has been teasing that angle of the story a lot this season, and yet the reveal was strangely anti- climatic, and doesn't entirely fit the given evidence. I'm pretty sure that there's more to it, but it's good to have something resembling an answer for now.
This episode contains too many other little reveals and payoffs to recount, but it is worth noting that the episode also contains a lot of great character development. Angela takes centre stage here, while Ray and Leon also have important moments.
This season seems to alternate between episodes full of very long scenes and episodes full of very short scenes. This was the latter. Curiously, the pacing feels no different between episode types. But it's obvious which is which, because episodes like this one and episode two (counting both parts of the premiere as one) cram an unbelievable amount of material in, while episodes like last one and episode three hold a lighter load despite having the similar run-times to their counterparts.
In case it wasn't clear enough, I really liked this episode. Mind you, I'm only okay with the twist because I'm at a point with this show where I trust it to clarify certain elements in future episodes. Should it fail to do so, I might find this episode problematic in hindsight. But for now, I'll give Sam Esmail the benefit of the doubt and say that this was great.
