Fans were left confused by the ending of a psychological thriller series dubbed ‘better than Breaking Bad’. High praise.
Mr Robot starred Oscar-winning Rami Malek in the lead role and centred on Elliot Alderson (Malek), a cyber-security engineer who becomes a hacker by night. You can check out a trailer here:
The series was written by Sam Esmail, whose name you may recognise from the recent mind-bending Netflix movie Leave The World Behind.
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The show ran for four seasons, between 2015 and 2019, but despite having a near-perfect 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an almost-as-equally-impressive 8.5 on IMDb, it’s still a bit of a hidden gem that has managed to slip under the radar for many of us.
But those who are familiar with the show are pretty die-hard fans, with one viewer going so far as to say it’s ‘better than Breaking Bad’. A bold claim indeed.
A synopsis for the series explains: “Elliot, a brilliant but highly unstable young cyber-security engineer and vigilante hacker, becomes a key figure in a complex game of global dominance when he and his shadowy allies try to take down the corrupt corporation he works for.”
Sounds good, eh?
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That said, viewers who binged the whole show have been left absolutely baffled by the ending.
So much so, that one viewer turned to Reddit to ask: “Can someone explain the end in a simple way?” A highly relatable comment for me, to be honest.
While over on X - or Twitter as it was known then - someone said: “I just finished Mr Robot and I… am so confused.
"Either the ending was totally f**ked up or I lost the plot.”
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Another wrote: “Got so confused with Mr Robot ending that I had to take help of Google to understand it and still my head is spinning trying to figure out what was real?”
A third X-user commented: “I am so confused by the ending of Mr Robot.”
However, others loved it, with many describing it as 'perfect' and one fan pointed out that Esmail doesn’t like to spoon feed an ending to viewers - as anyone who has watched Leave the World Behind can attest to, I’m sure.
So what exactly happened? Well, strap in.
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After learning that Christian Slater's Mr Robot was a figment of Elliot's imagination at the end of the first season, it turns out the entire show has taken place inside of Elliot's head.
He has created multiple personalties, with the Elliot we've been following the entire time just one part of his true self.
These personalities include The Protector (Slater's Mr Robot), The Persecutor (his mum Magda), his younger self, The Mastermind (the Elliot we've been following) and The Voyeurs (us, the audience).
And if things are still clear as mud, that's the best we can do.
If you fancy checking it out yourself, Mr Robot is available to watch for free on ITVX in the UK.
Topics: TV and Film
Claire Reid