Mr. Robot Final Season Premiere Confirms SPOILER's Death in Gruesome Moment Fans Totally Missed

MAJOR SPOILERS!!! - Mr. Robot has returned for its final run, and season 4 wasted absolutely no time establishing that things are going to get very real in this final installment of Sam Esmail's tale of rebellion and social upheaval. The prologue to season 4's premiere episode saw Elliot Alderson's (Rami Malek) childhood friend Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) violently gunned down by Whiterose and the Dark Army, after her father, Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer) tried and failed to bring Angela under Whiterose's thumb. However, initially Esmail on shows viewers Angela's death indirectly, as we see her gunned down in a blurred background, as Phillip Price walks away from the bench where he and Angela had their final talk. However, a blink-and-you-miss-it moment later in the episode hammers it home that Angela is very much dead and gone.

Here's the gruesome final shot of Angela's corpse, which Esmail included in just one subliminal shot, a la Fight Club:

This gruesome image appears for literally one second, at around 40:00 into the episode. It's a key reveal in a scene where Elliot and his "Mr. Robot" persona (Christian Slater) are in Elliot's apartment, debating how Elliot is handling his sister Darlene (Carly Chaikin) regarding Angela's death. Elliot has told Darlene that Angela is dead, but he cannot bring himself to show her the photo of Angela's corpse that Whiterose sent as warning to keep Elliot on a short leash. However, as the scene clearly illustrates, the image of Angela's corpse is burned into Elliot's brain - an image that he is trying to suppress at all costs, by throwing himself completely into the act of revenge.

While this is one of the biggest character deaths that Mr. Robot has ever revealed, how the show is approaching the event is in keeping with how Esmail's series distinguishes itself from so many others. Mental health, delusion, and tricks of perception have been major themes throughout the show's run - be it the season 1 reveal that "Mr. Robot" is Elliot's split personality (based on his dead father), or the season 2 reveal that Elliot's crushing routine urban life was actually a fantasy to help him cope during his stint in prison. Season 3 revealed a terrorist attack that revealed Mr. Robot and Dark Army's plans were much more destructive than Elliot ever imagined - and now, season 4 seems to be playing with the idea of how denying the reality of what he's caused may ultimately come flooding out of Elliot, possibly drowning him (mentally speaking).

How did you feel about Angela's death and Mr. Robot's final season premiere? Let us know in the comments!

Mr. Robot's Final Season airs Sunday nights on USA Network.