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Summary[]
In "Payment Required", the bill comes due for Magda Alderson, Darlene confesses up to her brother Elliot about her biggest secret, and an unlikely but advantageous alliance forms between Elliot, Mr. Robot and Phillip Price as potential payback for what the Whiterose has done.
Episode Notes[]
Introducing the Deus Group: Phillip pays Elliot a visit at Allsafe and has now seen his cards—meaning the matrix of Post-It Notes. Phillip fills in the gaps. Zhi Zhang is the mastermind controlling the most powerful and wealthiest people in the world under the ruse of Deus, which was originally pitched as an investment group to leverage the world's growing reliance on connectivity. By the time the members figured out they were working for him, not with him, it was too late for them to bail. With Zhang's earnings, he clandestinely built his billion-dollar mystery machine under the Washington Township nuclear power plant—Zhang’s singular purpose all along.
Still an Uphill Battle: Phillip claims that the Deus Group, which funds both the Whiterose and the Dark Army, is impenetrable and that Elliot's little "heist" is impossible. Not to mention, the E-Corp liaison for Cyprus National Bank has been missing for several months.
Death in the Family: Darlene calls Elliot to tell him that their mother has died.
Dead Man Walking Away: Phillip goes to see Zhang to resign. Zhang says that's unacceptable because the project has not yet shipped and besides, the Deus Group must all agree on his successor in person. (Hmm…) With nothing left to lose, Phillip is like, great, do it, even though it pisses off Zhang. After, Price calls Elliot to tell him he played his hand and now all they can do is wait.
Honesty Turns Out to Be a Pretty Good Policy: After seeing that Elliot has been trying to hack Susan Jacobs' E-coin wallet, Darlene lets the truth about what happened spill out. At first, Elliot is irratated, Susan is dead?! And Darlene is responsible?!, but then he realizes that Darlene has control over Susan's digital life, which is what he needs more than Susan alive. Despite Elliot's protests, Darlene convinces him to let her help him.
The Opposite of a Throwaway Comment: Darlene mentions she thought maybe Elliot's secret project had something to do with Fernando Vera. It freaked her out, she says, when Vera showed up at Elliot's building a couple of months ago but when she told him, (“shutdown -r”) Elliot apparently blew it off like it was NBD. Elliot and Mr. Robot exchange a look like "holy crap". After she leaves, Elliot goes off on Mr. Robot about not telling him about Vera. But Mr. Robot promises that Darlene never told him. So if it wasn't Elliot, and it wasn't Robot, then who the heck did Darlene tell?!
A Holy Trinity, Not a Dynamic Duo: The episode ends with a flashback in the same E-Corp boardroom from the last scene of the very first episode in Season 1. This time, Elliot is a young boy, spinning in a chair. His mother comes in and says she's been looking all over for him and that he shouldn't be sitting there, because it's not his seat. When he asks why, she cryptically answers, "They’re not ready yet. We need to wait for him". When young Elliot asks, "You mean, Mr. Robot?" she says no. "Elliot? No. The other one". They leave and the door shuts on us wondering who the heck "the other one" is.
