Mr. Robot: Who Can You Trust?

As the enigmatic world of Mr. Robot gets more intense with each week, it’s easy to wonder who Elliot should be associating with, and if any of his ties might be better off broken. Everyone has an agenda of some kind, whether they mean well or choose to only look out for themselves, and much of the tension is derived from the separate relationship dynamics in Elliot’s life. With three episodes of shadowy machinations from every corner on the table, it’s time for a rundown of every major character and whether our misanthropic hacker antihero can count on them.

Mr. Robot: Leader of the anarchist group known as fsociety. Entertaining as he is, I don’t trust him further than I can break into someone else’s email account (which is to say, not at all). No television character that charismatic-yet-manipulative can be trusted, and his favored tactic of using Elliot’s deep-seated traumas against him does not endear him to me. RUN AWAY.

I mean, Elliot won’t run away, because then we would have no show. But I’m worried anyhow.

Darlene: Another member of fsociety. We don’t know very much about Darlene yet – she seems pretty loyal to her organization, and Mr. Robot by extension, but her character could go in any direction at this point. I’m inclined to put my faith in her, if only because brutal (and hilarious) honesty seems to be her thing, which is rare on a show where
pretty much everyone is apparently hiding something. As far as we can tell,  Darlene makes no effort to hide who she is or what her intentions are. One  of my friends suggested that she might eventually team up with Elliot to  work around or against Mr. Robot’s controlling leadership, an idea I’m  extremely into. My vote: trust Darlene.

 Angela Moss: Elliot’s best friend; has no idea about his cyber-vigilantism and generally illegal activities. She seems like a sweetheart and we have no reason not to trust her, but “eps1.2_d3bug.mkv” hinted that she may be willing to go to ruthless and damaging lengths to protect her loved ones if pushed. Also, that bizarre scene where she accidentally helped a stranger get away with robbery indicates that this show’s universe has no intention of rewarding her internal goodness. I trust her but I’m also very concerned for her. Protect Angela!

Ollie Parker: Angela’s cheating boyfriend. Generally selfish and unpleasant. Much like Elliot, I do not believe he is actually a threat to anyone, but he’s also a jerk and I wouldn’t ask him to take care of my pet while I was away.

Shayla: Elliot’s neighbor and new girlfriend, as of the third episode. I like her a lot but I’m not sure she should trust anyone, since her request that Elliot not let her down felt like it was full of alarming foreshadowing. Given that Mr. Robot likes to mine Elliot for vulnerable points and mess with various parts of his life, we might see him target Shayla the next time the two men clash, and I would hate to see her get hurt after she’s already had a rough time in her handful of appearances.

Tyrell Wellick: E Corp’s Senior Vice President of Technology. DO NOT TRUST TYRELL WELLICK. He is terrifying. Have you looked into those cold, shark-like eyes? The man paid a homeless person to let Wellick beat him up.
Elliot  knew something was wrong with him and he is absolutely correct. I would  not be surprised if a late twist in the season revealed there is an eldritch  abomination lurking under his skin. (Kudos, by the way, to Martin  Wallström for making the character so quietly scary. All that restrained,  chilly aggression underneath the calculatingly receptive smiles! Yikes!)

 Gideon Goddard: Elliot’s boss at Allsafe Security and a decent guy so far.  His investigations into fsociety’s hack and his general attempts to be supportive in an almost parental manner towards Elliot keep making me think he’ll end up in danger somehow later on. Maybe Mr. Robot will whack him over the head with a keyboard.

Krista Gordon: Elliot’s exasperated therapist who keeps trying, bless her heart. Her apparent detachment from most of the action so far makes me wonder if she’ll play into things in a larger, unexpected way; after all, Elliot can only lie to her and evade her attempts to help him so often before their interactions become stale. Is it too silly and out-there to think she could be connected with Mr. Robot, E Corp, or some equally malevolent third party? Elliot’s paranoia about being followed has mostly been left ambiguous
as to its credibility, so it could be shocking if the person who seemed the furthest from his experiences in the A-plot turned out to be in the thick of it. Plus, it would lend credence to the specific thematic point in “eps1.2_d3bug.mkv” that Elliot can’t actually know everything about a person despite what information he gains from hacking into their online accounts. This is all totally baseless speculation on my part, though – Krista has given us no reason to doubt her. For now, she’s just a normal person trying hard to do her job and not quite succeeding, through no real fault of her own. We’ll see where the remaining episodes take her.

Which characters do you think are the most trustworthy, and who do you think has the potential to betray Elliot? Sound off in the comments.