Mr. Robot: 5 Things We Want to See in Season 3

Mr. Robot wrapped up Season 2 in big fashion – or rather, what many fans thought would be big fashion.

Word has already started building that the Mr. Robot Season 2 finale was a disappointing ending to a season that has not been free of “sophomore slump” criticisms, despite a highly acclaimed first season and recent Emmy win for lead actor Rami Malek.

No show, no matter how popular, gets through its second season without learning a few lessons (some harder than others). Keeping that in mind, we’ve gone over Mr. Robot to examine a few things that we think the show should incorporate into story and storytelling formula during the next season.

Here are 5 Things We Want to See in Mr. Robot season 3.

Fewer Twists, More Depth

Mr. Robot was carried through season 1 on the strength of an ambitious premise and storytelling approach – but also the novelty of some twists and reveals, fueled primarily by Elliot as an unreliable narrator. Mr. Robot season 2 arguably took that reliance on mystery and big reveals too far, with mystery hanging over so much of the season, it was hard to keep track of them all (we tried).

The fact that those mysteries mostly petered out into disappointing or easy-to-predict reveals would’ve been fine – if the answers had enriched the finale and overall seasonal arc. But they didn’t. Mr. Robot ended season 2 by unabashedly punishing the spoiler-hungry viewer with red herrings were nothing but that, both for us the audience, and the characters in the show. 

Now that Esmail has made it clear that he does not want to be beholden to mystery-heavy storyline, let’s all just take that sentiment to heart and allow Mr. Robot season 3 deal less with making reveals, and more with exploring in depth what the impact and ripple effects of those reveals are. 

A Less Conflicted Elliot

Put an asterisk on this, since we technically don’t know for sure if Elliot even survives the season 2 finale. Assuming Mr. Robot isn’t pulling one of the boldest moves in television history by ditching its primary protagonist and narrator, we hope that in season 3, we can get a different depiction of Elliot – one that leaves a lot of the internal conflict behind. 

Elliot learning the extent of his mental issues was fascinating in season 1; watching Elliot battle his Mr. Robot persona for control was less interesting in season 2, but seeing Elliot (read: actor Rami Malek) actually acting out the Mr. Robot portions of his performance (instead of Christian Slater) was pretty fascinating, as well. 

When Season 3 starts, we want to see Elliot in a place of greater certainty and more solidified identity. Not that character psychological drama isn’t rich material; but somewhere in season 2 it felt like this story thread went all “Walking Dead Hershel’s farm” on us. We need movement on this front. 

More of Dark Army

Mr. Robot has an increasingly big cast of characters, and one the most interesting ones in the bunch has been the Dark Army hacker group, and its leader, Whiterose (B.D. Wong). The Dark Army is still shrouded in mystery, and yet every single piece of their organization we have seen has been interesting. 

Cisco was a street-wise American kid who happens to be fluent in Chinese; Whiterose is a trans master hacker, who just so happens to also be the Chinese Minister of State Security; Leon is a deeply philosophical inmate with a pop-culture fixation, who also happens to be violent and deadly Dark Army agent. Even their faceless agents are featured in some of the show’s best action sequences, and fascinate with their suicidal policies. 

In other words: Dark Army is interesting on all levels. Therefore, we want Mr. Robot to follow that interesting thread, by giving a more expansive look at Dark Army, and a deeper look into their origin, philosophy and purpose. 

Return of the Wellicks

Tyrell Wellick and his wife Joanna were a major part of Mr. Robot’s initial intrigue. As two of the show’s best drawn characters, the Wellicks were great to watch, whether together in their twisted Macbeth-style marriage, or working separately toward their goal of power and status at E Corp. Season 2 broke up the band, with Tyrell largely absent, and Joanna sent off on a tangent storyline that had middling returns, at best. 

Mr. Robot season 3 needs to bring the Wellicks back to the forefront where they belong. Ideally that means having Mr. Macbeth and his lady side-by-side, but given circumstances, we’ll take having Tyrell back as a main character, and Joanna back in a position of power, rather than in the struggling place we found her in during season 2. 

More Action

We get that Mr. Robot isn’t an action show (it’s an intense character drama), but in season 2, we saw several high-tension action sequences that had us having True Detective memories.

Now that things are getting deadly serious for Elliot, fsociety, Dark Army, and the government forces trying to bring it all down, we expect there’s going to be more conflict to come in Mr. Robot season 3. And with the way the show handles action and suspense, we hope to see more inventive sequences that make shootouts, chases, and other intense moments into something as artful as they are memorable. 

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What do you want to see happen in Mr. Robot season 3? Were you happy with season 2? Discuss with us in the comments or on Twitter @ComicBookNOW or @KofiOutlaw