The Alderson family photo falls from the shelf as Dark Army soldiers kick in the door to Elliot's apartment. Grant sees the Mr. Robot jacket the soldiers found in the closet as his men toss the place to discern their target's whereabouts. Elliot waits in Shayla's empty apartment next door with a whimpering Flipper. After the intruders leave, Elliot returns home and begins to worry about Darlene not responding to his texts and being targeted, all the while hoping she made it to their rendezvous point.
Darlene is asleep in the interrogation room when Ernesto Santiago disables the camera and removes the recording. He forcefully zip-ties her hands and removes her as she protests. It is the morning of 10/23. Dominique gives her report of what happened to who she believes is the agent Kaz reassigned the case, but he has no knowledge of it. She sees that both Santiago's office and the interrogation room are empty. In the garage, Santiago has Darlene in the back of his car when Dominique confronts him. She sees past his explanation of supposedly transferring her. He claims it is classified, but Darlene shakes her head in sight of Dominique. Dominique tries to call their superior, but Santiago knocks her out.
Elliot arrives at the empty arcade. He wonders if Mr. Robot was right and that the FBI caught Darlene. Looking at the Dark Army network, he sees dozens of operatives in Manhattan. He doesn't have time to search through 600,000 systems for her. He thinks hard and panics that she may die. He punches the popcorn machine and overturns a gaming cabinet. He regrets his actions concerning 5/9 and blames himself.
Outside, he buys a ticket for the Ferris wheel. On the ride, he asks Mr. Robot for help. Mr. Robot is annoyed at their lack of communication as of late. Elliot admits that he missed him and confronts him about the 71 bombings. Mr. Robot says that he didn't know. Elliot asks if he would've done it. Mr. Robot claims that he would've found another way. Elliot notes that there may be a part of Elliot in Mr. Robot and vice versa. He asks about the note on the mirror.
Santiago is driving with both Dominique and Darlene in the backseat. Dominique wakes up zip-tied. She blames him for hiding in China while the FBI were attacked (“eps2.3_logic_b0mb.hc”), for leading the Dark Army to kill Francis, for the Tyrell kidnapping coverup, and for framing Sunil and Shama. Santiago claims she would've done the same in his position. Dominique protests, which he calls naïveté. He explains it as things he was forced to do. He saved her "girlfriend" Darlene's life by not revealing her to the Dark Army. He insists that he is not a bad guy, claiming that they hold stuff over him.
In Santiago's apartment, Mr. Robot points him out in a family photo, according to Tyrell. He muses that he kept the FBI off of them after 5/9. Mr. Robot hacked the desktop remotely and found nothing useful. Elliot picks drawer locks for physical evidence. Mr. Robot finds a Red Wheelbarrow menu with a cypher. As Elliot begins to decipher, Otto Irving appears behind him. Elliot concludes that they must have Darlene. Irving stops him from scheming his way out and tells him to come along.
Angela sits in a room in a fancy house. The house manager enters the room with a friendly greeting. Angela insists that she has important info for the Whiterose. The man suggests she talk to Phillip when he arrives and offers her breakfast.
Irving, Elliot, and Mr. Robot arrive at the Dark Army farmhouse next to Santiago's car. In the barn is a masked Dark Army soldier, Leon is on his phone holding a gun, and Dominique and Darlene on hay bales. Santiago tells Irving that the situation is salvageable. Irving takes note of the loose end, Dominique. Santiago demands that they clean up his mess for a change. Irving takes Dominique outside. Elliot sits next to his sister and asks if she's okay. She says no.
As they walk across the field, Dominique makes her case to Irving that she knows what they've done and they won't get away with this. Irving tells her to stop talking. In the barn, Mr. Robot is plotting and escapes, noting that Leon is good with his knife. Elliot states that he isn't trying to escape but can talk to the Whiterose, who he believes is watching them on camera.
Dominique is at the wood cutting stump where an axe waits lodged. Irving begins to take off his shirt. Santiago tells him not to kill her, as she can rise far in the FBI. Dominique vehemently refuses and begins to cry. Irving tells her to calm down and look at the sky. He plunges the axe into Santiago's chest. Irving announces that he is replacing him with Dominique. He tells Dominique that she is going back to work, business as usual, to be called upon when needed. She says fuck you and will not be a traitor. She vows to arrest him. Irving begins to name her family members and their location as he continues chopping up Santiago. He demands a verbal confirmation of her understanding, which she gives. He tells her to get back to the barn as he continues chopping Santiago for personal reasons.
Dominique reenters the barn in shock and sits on the floor. Darlene asked her what happened. Leon says she looks like she was initiated and offers her weed. Mr. Robot thinks that they all are going to be killed. Instead, Elliot knows that they're waiting for someone important to arrive.
Grant arrives by car. Irving is dressed and is cleaning his hands by the house. He claims that he has taken care of everything, noting he had to kill the FBI mole, much to Grant's annoyance. However, he claims that Dominique has upsides as the new mole. He goes back to his car when Grant asks where he is going. Irving says his overdue sabbatical so he can finish his book, maybe in Barbados. Grant says that they have work to do. Irving gets into Grant's face, grabbing him. He notes that the Whiterose is prone to spontaneous overtures. He wonders if she has made him taste her yet. Irving tells him that he was in Grant's position years ago and says that she would be good with him instead. Irving walks away.
The following two sequences cut between each other rapidly.
1. Grant enters the barn with two Dark Army soldiers. Everyone rises. Grant says that he has reviewed Stage 3, but Elliot interrupts to admit it is bullshit. Now that they can talk honestly. Elliot demands Dominique and Darlene to be let go. He admits to taking over the entire Dark Army network with infected malware. Everything will be released. Grant laughs, calling it impossible. As proof, Elliot notes that seven days ago, the Russians bribed the Dark Army to hack the DNC. The Dark Army has also recently installed backdoors into South Korea's military and helped Phillip Price annex the Congo for China. Elliot threatens him that if one of them dies, it all leaks. Grant notes that the Dark Army can survive the leaks.
A soldier forces Darlene to kneel. Elliot claims that he can help move the project to the Congo. Leon receives a message on his phone. The soldier puts his gun to Darlene's head. Elliot is restrained. He looks up into the Whiterose's camera. Grant dismisses him as one person against an army. Elliot declares that he is better, touting what he did in one night to take down E Corp versus what they tried months to do. He is forced to kneel. Elliot pleads. Grant says that he's sorry. Elliot and Darlene gaze at one another. Grant raise his gun to Elliot. Leon shoots the three Dark Army soldiers. Grant's phone starts ringing. Grant must be snapped out of his shock by Leon to answer the call.
The Whiterose on the line from her bath. She tells Grant that jealousy has blinded him to Elliot's usefulness. Grant says that Elliot is lying. The Whiterose promises to find him when the project is complete. Their time has come to an end. She tells him that she loves him. Grant drops the phone. He speaks Mandarin to Elliot, telling him to "take care of her" and shoots himself in the head. Leon takes out a laptop and has Elliot come through on his offer. Elliot hacks the Coast Guard so that an international aid shipment to Iran can transport the project. Leon says he doesn't need to tell Elliot will happen if it doesn't go through but also proclaims he has faith in Elliot. Mr. Robot asks what they will do now. Undo the hack, Elliot says.
2. Angela is sitting on a bench at the luxurious estate when Phillip walks up to her. She wants to leave, claiming that she wouldn't have come here if she knew who was taking her. Phillip explains he was concerned because she hadn't been to work in weeks and wasn't answering his emails and texts. Angela says she wants to be with the Whiterose, to which Phillip says that he knows about the Whiterose's delusional plan. Phillip had Colby hire Angela so Phillip could get her to drop the contingency in the Washington Township lawsuit. Otherwise the Whiterose would have simply killed Angela. He goes on to reveal that he had met her mother Emily 32 years ago. They dated. He loved her, but never told her so as to torture her and make himself feel strong.
When Emily found out she was pregnant, she wouldn't allow her child to be raised by a "monster." Emily then married Angela's stepfather. He laments what the Whiterose has done to Angela, claiming that the plan is not possible, but simply a denial of reality. The Whiterose murdered countless people for a fantasy. Angela doesn't believe him, asserting that he is lying. Phillip says, "I am your father, biologically speaking." Angela cries over the bombings and her role. Angela wants to know why. "Pettiness," Phillip explains, a dig at him. Angela doesn't want to believe that it's over, rather that her mom will come back and they can be reunited. Phillip begins to walk away. Angela asks what he is going to do to the Whiterose. Angela wants retribution. Phillip says that she can only accept that she's been conned and to find a way to live with what she did.
Dominique and Elliot get into the car. It's a little after 2:30PM. She logs into Sentinel, saying that she's not doing it for him. She gets out of the car. Darlene wants to talk to her. Dominique calls her a terrible person who deserves agony for having taken everything from Dominique and ruining her life. She tells Darlene to live and die with that.
Darlene gets in the car with Elliot. He decrypts the file, only to find Romero was just spying. Someone else exported the key data to reverse 5/9. Darlene wonders who did it.
The Aldersons are riding the subway as the soldiers are reminding riders of the 9PM curfew. Darlene asks Elliot why he recently brought up the snowman they built. Elliot notes that it was the day their father pushed him out of the window. Darlene disputes it. She explains that he was looking for the camera when he started freaking out. Edward came home and Elliot snapped and started swinging a baseball bat, breaking things in his room. Elliot doesn't believe it, but Darlene insists that she remembers. Elliot had said he was going to jump out the window and then he did. Elliot says he doesn't remember any of it, to which she says she's there to remember for him. At their stop, Elliot wants to ride a little longer and promises to get it done. As she leaves, she notes that Shama must've sent that email to him because she trusted him, as she does.
Elliot is alone in the subway car when Mr. Robot arrives and sits across from him. Elliot tells him to come with him at the next stop.
They are sitting on a bench at the stop where they first had their conversation (“eps1.0_hellofriend.mov”). Elliot says that Mr. Robot exported the keys and asks why. Mr. Robot says what the hack has done is close to success. He doesn't want everything to be for nothing, a huge cost for something he still believes in. Mr. Robot questions if it would help anything. Elliot admits that he's doing it for himself, that he can't live with what he did. He says that Mr. Robot is wrong, they won't win. One good thing came from all of this: they showed themselves, the top 1% of the 1%. Elliot's gonna take them down—all of them. Mr. Robot wants to keep talking and be a team. He admits that he can't force him, so he's asking. Elliot notes that he wasn't pushed out the window, but jumped.
A small gathering watches a TV in a store window, the scene from Superman the Movie where Superman goes back in time. Elliot walks past the crowd, a street preacher, a line of people waiting for food. He thinks of what Mr. Robot just told him in the subway. He sent the backup data in case they were wrong or failed. It's what Elliot would've done, admitting that there's a part of Elliot in Mr. Robot. He doesn't exist to be an independent agent. Only Elliot knows why he's here. Mr. Robot transferred the keys to the computer at home and burned it onto a CD. The seed data is in one of the family picture. Elliot will know the one, where he and his dad dressed up as Doc and Marty McFly for Halloween. It will restore E Corp's data. It is 8:24 PM. Elliot prepares an email to the E Corp recovery team. Subject: "Key to decrypt." From the address Falkensmaze. After pausing, Elliot hits the send button.
Post-credits: A car drives down the street. It almost hits Darlene and a prostitute she's talking to in the crosswalk. On the sidewalk, they're talking about the economic crisis hitting everybody hard. Darlene says that things are gonna change and get better. The woman mentions that the US is preparing to attack Iran. Darlene says E Corp might get its data back, which would be good. The woman counters that people being in debt again, including her student loan, isn't going to help them. The economy doesn't just bounce back, she contends—that's not how capitalism works. She suggests that Darlene brush up on Marx. The only thing that can fix it all is an act of God. They arrive outside of Elliot's apartment, Darlene saying that she was glad they met tonight. The same car that almost hit them parks across the street, causing the prostitute to avoid them and later leaving. A group of four men emerge and approach Darlene. She asks if she can help them, sarcastically. The leader talks about the North star, the cosmos, and his dark mind. The brave traveler has come home. It is Fernando Vera.