Mr. Robot season 4, episode 8 recap: Request Timeout

Elliot deals with the repercussions of learning the truth about his father in this week’s emotional episode of Mr. Robot.

Mr. Robot is nearly at the end, and with it come a lot of emotional and heartbreaking reveals. Last week’s episode was tough to get through as Elliot recalled the tragedy of his childhood and the truth about his father. This week, Krista tries to pull Elliot back from the edge but he’s so shattered.

It’s such a difficult moment in Elliot’s life, and despite all we’ve seen him go through, this one seems like it may be the end of him. The episode, “Request Timeout”, kicks off in 1995 at the Queens Museum. A young Elliot and Angela are running around the museum, and it’s clear that Elliot has created Mr. Robot already.

As we’ve come to learn, Mr. Robot is what Elliot created to protect him and his memories from the truth about his father’s sexual abuse. We come back to the present during which Krista is trying to figure out their game plan. They have Vera’s dead body to get rid of but they need to get out of there before Vera’s men find them.

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Stuck in a conundrum, Krista takes Elliot and sneaks down the fire escape and into a cab. The men come upstairs to find their boss is very much dead and gone. It’s a desperate and emotional moment for Elliot because he can’t seem to do anything.

Nothing makes sense in his world, and he’s suddenly more detached than he’s ever been. He isn’t sure what one does after learning such a horrible truth, but Krista says it takes time.

Of course, it does. That statement may be a cliche but it’s one that stands true time and time again. This trauma isn’t going away in one day and will take work to get through.

Mr. Robot then dives into Elliot’s journey of self-reflection, as Krista heads off to the police station. He spots his younger self in the distance and follows him to the subway and then into the Queens Museum. There’s a moment here where Elliot is apologizing to his younger self for not protecting him from his father.

It’s such a riveting performance by Rami Malek who expresses so much hurt, anger, and confusion here. He’s talking to someone who isn’t there but it’s about something so raw, so painful. In the flashback at the start of the episode, we see young Elliot hide his wallet in the museum. In the present, Elliot finds that wallet once again and realizes there is a key inside of it–to his bedroom.

He hid the key from his father, which proves that Elliot was trying to fight against his father and the hurt and pain he was bringing upon him. Ugh, what a difficult thing to realize.

Meanwhile, Dom and Darlene are in all sorts of pain and danger thanks to Janice, who wants to know Elliot’s location. Darlene erased everything on her phone and doesn’t plan on helping Janice and putting Elliot in danger. However, when Darlene starts threatening Dom’s family and then stabs Dom right in the chest, things take a drastic turn.

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Darlene finally saves and gives a location that takes them to Krista’s apartment. No one is there, except the cops who are taking Vera’s body. Janice is not happy about that, let me tell you. So, once again she attempts to give orders to kill Dom’s family, but no one picks up her call.

Basically, Dom set up a plan to have her family “kidnapped”, aka taken to be kept safe from anyone that could hurt them. And then things get Mr. Robot level crazy. Dom pulls the knife out, slashes one of them in their feet and then shoots everyone else including Janice. She has Darlene hand her the phone so she can call for help and tells Darlene to get out of there STAT. Dang, that was so stressful.

The Mr. Robot episode closes on a somber, saddening note as Mr. Robot appears once again. He apologizes for blocking Elliot’s mind from all those horrors. He reminds him that he’s not his father, and just someone Elliot created to protect him. As he says that, I realize that is the truth. We associate the idea of Mr. Robot with the father, but this version that Elliot has created is not the actual guy.

I’m not sure Elliot is going to get out of this hole just yet, but things are just starting to get crazy.

Mr. Robot airs every Sunday on USA at 10 PM EST!