NOTE: This post contains spoilers for Episode 3 of USA’s television show Mr. Robot.

Last week’s episode of Mr. Robot saw Elliot forced to make a decision between Evil Corp and FSociety, and more importantly whether he was a 1 or a 0. Though he initially told both parties no, (for obvious reasons) it is Mr. Robot’s side he crept back to at the end of the episode, offering him an alternative way to dump the sensitive information without hurting anyone. The only catch here, is that he had to open up about how his father died (as a result of E Corp), thus explaining the reason for his deep seated hatred of the mega corporation. To end both the conversation and the episode, Mr. Robot pushes Elliot off the railing and the credits roll.

Episode 3 “D3bug.mkv” curiously kicks off with E Corp’s Senior VP of Technology Tyrell Wellick practicing a monologue explaining why he deserves to replace the recently arrested Colby at the helm of the company. Despite his efforts to nail his performance — and convince himself that he’s going to snag the position — his meeting is postponed because they’ve found the perfect CTO candidate. Oooh, that’s a slap to the face. Clearly let down, Wellick heads to an alleyway and pays a homeless man $300 so he can beat him up. Would you believe me if I told you this guy gets even more twisted later on? He definitely does, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Following that bizarre intro, we find a pretty damaged and confused Elliot looking up at Shayla and his therapist Krista from a hospital bed. It appears he had pretty far to fall after being pushed by Mr. Robot. Upon waking up, he rants about debugging software and how it’s actually about “understanding why the bug was there to begin with” and “knowing that its existence was no accident.” Though he chocks up his random thoughts to the serious amount of hospital drugs running through his veins, what he says in this moment pops up several times throughout the episode.

“Debugging’s actually all about finding the bug. About understanding why the bug was there to begin with. About knowing that it’s existence was no accident.” — Elliot

While Shayla was there because she was listed as Elliot’s emergency contact, Krista informs him that he requested her when he came in and that she has to give the okay for his release. She realizes something is wrong and he confesses to using morphine again, prompting her to get him to agree to bimonthly drug screens in exchange for rehab. Elliot being Elliot says yes because hacking the hospital’s IT department and changing his results is easy.

Shayla then takes him home where they find Darlene chilling on the couch. After telling her to get out, Elliot heads back into work at Allsafe where he finds Mr. Robot waiting for him at his desk. If it wasn’t already clear how similar this show was to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, this particular meeting between Elliot and his supposed alter further cements that idea. When they head to the bar next door to have a talk, all of the interactions with the bartender happen with Elliot. Despite the fact that Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot is making remarks the whole time, the worker never breaks his gaze with Elliot. It’s like he isn’t even there. It could mean anything, but the hints are stronger than ever.

After their conversation, Mr. Robot ends up leaving to please Elliot and tells him that it’s all over. Just like that, his part in Fsociety is over and he plans on living a normal vanilla latte-sipping life with Shayla by his side as his girlfriend (if she accepts, that is). Spoilers* she does but I’ll get to that in a minute. Before that, he accepts his boss’ invitation to a dinner party. I’m having a hard time imagining our anti-social protagonist being normal, but there it is.

When he fills Shayla in on the party, he awkwardly asks her to be his girlfriend and they head out for the night, meeting Angela and her dirty no good cheating beau outside Gideon’s apartment. The party is stuffy, pretentious and out of Elliot’s comfort zone but in an attempt to live a normal life, he sucks it up and tells his boss the reason he didn’t tell him about Colby before the meeting was because he didn’t know if he was right. Accepting his honesty, Gideon tells him to never doubt himself again and hugs an uncomfortable Elliot. Awww.

Thinking he was in the clear, his perfect world comes crumbling down when a report on the news reveals that Colby was one of three executives that covered up the toxic waste leak that killed 26 employees including Elliot’s father — and now we learn Angela’s dad was affected as well. Ah. That bug Elliot was talking about at the beginning of the episode has been discovered. Using the information Elliot gave him about his father, Mr. Robot forced the hacker’s hand, leading him once again back to FSociety’s headquarters at the end of the episode.

While all of this was going on, we saw Tyrell finding and consummating things with Anwar just to find out the name of the ideal CTO candidate. After their sexual encounter, the scheming baddie puts a bug in the guy’s phone and heads home to his pregnant wife who apparently enjoys S&M, even in her condition. Tyrell and his wife continue to make plans to help him score the coveted position by whatever means necessary.

The other sub-plot centered around Angela and her boyfriend Ollie. After receiving a mix CD from a random stranger last week, they’ve been monitored by the creepy hacker. He’s not only watching them through their own web-cam but also has all of their banking information and knowledge of Ollie’s affair. Under pressure from both his side chick and threats from the hacker, Ollie breaks down and tells Angela what’s going on. With both her dad’s and her personal information in the hands of the creep, Angela tells Ollie they need to meet his demands and infect Allsafe’s network.

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Are you as curious to see what happens next as I am? Let us know in the comments below or start a conversation with me on Twitter: @sam3214.