‘Mr. Robot’: 4 Questions We Need Answered After Those Shocking Reveals

This week’s episode of Mr. Robot resolved one of the season’s biggest mysteries by finally revealing what happened to Tyrell Wellick (or did it?), patched things up between the estranged Elliot (Rami Malek) and Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), and neatly tied up the storyline with Ray (Craig Robinson) and his criminal Craigslist, no pun intended. But just when it seemed like things were circling back to a place where Elliot would get his act together and rejoin fsociety in its anti-E-Corp crusade, creator-director Sam Esmail pulled an Inception style twist, revealing that the whole thing had been a series of self-induced dream sequences within a dream sequence. “This will be the last time I keep things from you,” Elliot explained, “I promise.” Here are a few of the many, many questions last night’s episode raised.

Why is Elliot in prison and how long has he been there?
The reveal that Elliot is in prison is a major bombshell, but as of now, it’s not clear what put him there. It seems pretty likely from the storylines taking place outside of Elliot’s head that he’s not in jail for anything related to fsociety. Both Krista (Gloria Reuben) and Leon implied in the episode that Elliot would be back on the street soon, Krista by asking him to continue his regular therapy sessions and Leon by asking him to say “Hi” to Whiterose (BD Wong). If Elliot had been taken in for something like the 5/9 hack or for murdering Tyrell, he would probably be looking at a little bit more time than a few months. Given his previous criminal record, this could be something as simple as a parole violation, or it could even be a drug charge, but it’s hard to imagine it being much more than that, since the FBI is still in the dark about fsociety’s membership.

RELATED: TV’s Representation of Real-World Tech in the Age of Mr. Robot

Who the hell is Leon, and what’s his connection to the Dark Army?
Elliot’s comic relief, Seinfeld-loving buddy Leon (Joey Bada$$) may or may not be a straight up ninja who can get very creative with his knife work. It seems safe to assume that Leon actually exists, since he appeared in the big reveal flashbacks of Elliot’s prison life, but his newly revealed brutal skillset and his name drop of the Dark Army’s big boss make him an enigma. Was he someone that Elliot knew before he went to prison? Was he someone the Dark Army sent specifically to protect him? If so, why? What will the letter Leon mentioned tell Elliot to do?

How much of what happened with Ray was real?
Assuming Elliot really did communicate with Darlene about the FBI hack, he would have needed to have some pretty serious internet privileges. This means that at least part of what happened with Ray had to have been real enough to get him to a terminal. It’s not too much of a leap to assume that Ray could have been a corrupt correctional officer or warden with an office at the prison and the ability to take prisoners in and out of solitary confinement.

RELATED: Mr Robot: Grace Gummer on Dom’s Pursuit of fsociety

If Tyrell really is dead, who sent his wife that fancy rattle?
Mr. Robot is a notoriously unreliable source of information for Elliot, so it’s still not 100% confirmed that Tyrell is actually dead. The show has been spending a great deal of time on Tyrell’s wife Joanna for his storyline to end so abruptly, and there have been a couple of mysterious phone calls and gifts that hint that there could be something else going on.

Mr. Robot, Wednesdays, 10/9c, USA.