6) The Emotional Impact Is Huge
From the off, Mr. Robot presents itself as a sly modern drama, with a dark vein of comedy running through it. With the twist at the end of the second act (it’s best to think of Mr. Robot season one as one overarching story, seeing as that’s how Esmail originally envisioned it), though, it reveals itself to have an enormously affecting ace up its sleeve. That would be the story of Elliot, and his tragic history of mental illness.
With the show’s narrative shocker in episode eight, Mr .Robot becomes unexpectedly moving. It’s helped no end by great performances from Rami Malek and Christian Slater (more on them in a moment), but mostly it’s thanks to the crafty writing by Esmail.
Even though you can probably see the twist coming a mile away, it doesn’t stop the moment of revelation being heart-breakingly powerful. And in those scenes, when the twist comes, Malek is absolutely devastating.