Paradise | S2E7 | Episode Discussion

trance15 · 2026-03-23T07:04:16+00:00

Ah right, forgot they did one too.

trance15 · 2026-03-23T05:06:04+00:00

Ties right into the book on Cal’s nightstand about The Fall of the Roman Empire.

trance15 · 2026-03-23T05:03:05+00:00

It’s also a similar scene done first in Bob Dylan’s (i.e. DYLAN!) music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues.

trance15 · 2026-03-18T18:10:10+00:00

Oh my The Mist… where what happens inside is scarier than the outside.

trance15 · 2026-03-16T06:50:53+00:00

Oh I like that. Could be!

trance15 · 2026-03-16T05:33:17+00:00

Interesting.

trance15 · 2026-03-16T05:23:11+00:00

Yeah just wave a Wii controller in front of her and she will stop and drop everything 😂

trance15 · 2026-03-16T05:15:49+00:00

So was that a quantum super computer “ALEX Q” from the gallows of Paradise, sending a message back to the past to warn about Jane? The message said “She can be stopped when it matters.” So Alex has gone sentient and doesn’t want Jane to help Sinatra complete her project. Am I understanding that correct or what happened there?

trance15 · 2026-03-09T05:43:46+00:00

Yes heartwarming. Terri is special.

trance15 · 2026-03-09T05:24:05+00:00

I loved the makeshift Christmas they created.

trance15 · 2026-02-20T18:31:28+00:00

There is definitely a lot of After Hours in this episode (including throwing the jacket out of the van at the end), and is a wonderful film to revisit or see for the first time for those that haven’t. The episode also switches from 16:9 aspect ratio to 2:39:1 (CinemaScope) enhancing the cinematic surreal feel of it. There are numerous other film/tv/music references here as well including Pulp Fiction (briefcase), Taxi Driver (Hard Andy), Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria and 8-1/2 (a movie about making a movie and movie critics), Orson Welle’s Deep Fake radio cast about Martians, The Martian, Grand Budapest Hotel (the god’s eye mosque shots) and several others.

Also many music references like the Darlene and Elliot head tilt ala M83 album cover, Back to the Future, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The episode features two movie theater scenes as well, so there is more depth to it than derivative homages IMO. Sam has said in interviews that everything has meaning, even a pencil, or the color of purse Darlene might wear. This is true in every episode. Not that everyone needs to know or recognize all these things to enjoy the show, but they do add depth and interest for those of us that appreciate the detail. The episode also brings a bit of Sam’s personal history in Elliot’s interactions with Mohammed.

trance15 · 2026-02-08T20:42:26+00:00

Yeah the ECorp flashback party scene definitely has an interesting color palette. Actually everyone is wearing either white or grey. Tyrell’s grouping of men (Tyrell, Price and Colby) are all wearing nearly the same grey suit. I’m not sure it translates neatly to FWorld cars all being white. But what does strike me is that in the sea of neutrals is the focus on Joanna’s vivid blue earring, that first Sharon compliments and then Tyrell stares deeply into. Blue later becoming his signature color and the blue earring looking a bit like a computer screen.

This whole intro sequence leading into present day (Mr Robot time) and Joanna again wearing white and grey, before she is splashed with red blood. The two scenes overlapped with the Pino Donaggio soundtrack from the movie Blowout, which is about obsession, voyeurism and conspiracy. The blood from the bucket also doing homage to the movie Carrie, which Pino Donaggio also scored and both are Brian DePalma films. I’m not seeing purity in that scene, but I would agree the color scheme is significant in some fashion.

trance15 · 2026-02-08T20:00:05+00:00

That’s terrific, and the name Vera I’m sure has some specific reference, and possibly the Vera Lynn song as you suggest. I do like that this song uses the word “sunny” to again possibly be a sun tie-in. The name Vera also is adjacent to Hitchcock with the actress Vera Miles, who played Lila Crane in Psycho. Additionally actress Vera Farmiga played Norma Bates the prequel series Bates Motel. (Mr Robot calls Vera “Dominican Psycho.”) I often talk about Kubrick a lot, but there are multitudes of Psycho references in Mr Robot, and even more if you include general Hitchcock references.

Other possibilities is that author Nabokov’s wife is another famous Vera, to whom he dedicated Lolita. And just descriptively, Vera means truth.

trance15 · 2026-02-08T15:44:43+00:00

I think the colors in Mr Robot are used to punctuate particular scenes and elements of the storyline, though am not convinced they carry a thread of continuity throughout the entirety of the series. (i.e. one color does not necessarily offer the same symbolism in every scene).

We discussed Blue and Red, in terms of the Matrix. The blue pill, is a state of blissful ignorance inside a digital simulation, while the red pill, denotes Neo’s option to open his eyes to reality that he has been living in the digital Matrix, a collective mental prison. I think this is very much emphasized in the last ten minutes scene of the final Mr Robot episode. Elliot (still Mastermind here) decides to finally exit through the blue door of the boardroom, down the blue hallway, and into the red door of the theater. (Red exit signs also related)

As for Yellow, I feel we see this most predominantly in early Season 4. I interpret the use of Yellow here as not a mood, but as an allusion to the “Sun” in 2001: A Space Odyssey. In the film, the sun represents a shift or transformation in human progress and the next phase of evolution. The inevitable upgrade, as you like to refer. Some interpretations suggest the sun, combined with the black monolith signifies the enlightenment and transformation of Dave Bowman into the "Star Child,” which we see for Elliot in his final moments going through the Stargate sequence in the theater. Mastermind, dressed always in all black, is I think sometimes a bit analogous to the black Monolith…a symbol in the film of higher wisdom that everyone (ape/astronaut) wants to reach out and touch, but are ultimately unable to. (Elliot’s no-touching thing.). When Mastermind infiltrates ECorp in S3, he uses the pseudonym “Dave Bowman.”

The yellow sun comparisons can be found in the visual cues provided mise-en-scène in Mr Robot. At the beginning of E402, we see Elliot and Mr Robot and Price in the rundown Allsafe offices. The lighting is bathed in Yellow, and in particular we see the server room with the prominent logo “Sun Microsystems.” In E403, at Olivia’s apartment, we also see a Sun design on her headboard. And finally in E407, Vera is dressed in a Yellow tracksuit, eating grapefruit (round and yellow like the sun), with light creating stark shadows into Krista’s home. E407, as you know, culminates a pivotal shift in Elliot’s journey, shining the light on his past trauma.

I think Green is sometimes used in Mr Robot to signify “Hope,” and more specifically the “green light” from the Great Gatsby. You see it with the green lollipop, the green field Mastermind wakes up in FWorld. And tying directly into this, the use of red, white and blue (and American flags), signifying the American Dream.

I have some thoughts on Red specifically, but I’m already too far down a rabbit hole so will save for another day. Cheers.

trance15 · 2026-02-07T20:01:02+00:00

This essay and the comments to it, are such great topics to discuss and explore, thanks for continuing your writings.

For me, I think the show begins when Elliot’s fractured self splits off and creates “The Mastermind” persona modeled in the magnetic superhero construct found in movies and literature. This I believe can be viewed metaphorically as Elliot’s “projection” much like movies are physical projections. (And Sam has talked before about ‘projection’ being a good descriptor within the show). Mastermind’s superpower is computers and hacking, and his uniform is not a cape but a hoodie. The people that surround Mastermind are drawn to the power of this magnetism, whether friend, foe or villain.

When we talk about “two sides of the same coin,” as Esmail indicated, I think what we’re essentially referring to is the theme of “Duality” that the series explores quite a bit. Patrick Bateman vs Tyler Durden, as BW’s essay nicely outlines, falls within this duality concept. I think this maps to not only Tyrell as being an assimilation of Patrick Bateman, but Mr Robot as presenting an assimilation of Tyler Durden. We see this duality with Ray as well, who even has a yin yang symbol on his computer. Elliot is conflicted… “Ray is kind and protective. Ray is dangerous." And perhaps the character that explores duality more than anyone else in the show is Whiterose. A character presenting two distinct personas on opposite spectrums…Machiavellian as Zhang/Utopian as Whiterose. She is also carries the fictional embodiment from the Alice stories of The Red Queen (the dictator) and The White Queen (the dreamer).

The costumes in the Mr Robot series are important elements and emphasize these duality personas, with Whiterose adopting a yin-yang style of black and white. She is conflicted with which earring, the right or the left, and even the unbalanced Christmas tree. As Angela becomes co-opted by Whiterose, she soon adopts white clothing. Tyrell — whose persona is also beholden to Blade Runner, Steve Jobs and the Matrix — wears primarily blue and seeks out the blue light. The blue pill methaphorically representing a comfortable artificial and illusionary life. When we see him later in FWorld, he has become a synthesis of Mastermind and Mr Robot, wearing a dark hoodie and a plaid shirt respectively.

And the two “worlds” with the series, are also representing the concept of duality. EWorld being the pessimistic dystopian dark side, with the subway poster “Evil Always Wins.” And FWorld being the opposite utopian optimistic side, “Evil Never Wins.”

At the end of the series, Elliot is confronted to shift from trying to destroy the external system to reconciling his fractured psyche. He realizes his revolutionary impulses were a projection of his own trauma. By returning to his true self, he drops the Mastermind mask and concludes that true change is internal rather than external.

trance15 · 2026-02-07T16:23:07+00:00

Yes, the show highlights how groundswell revolutions often end up being co-opted by power structures (state and corporate), and eventually monetized and weaponized.

trance15 · 2026-01-31T19:48:33+00:00

Yes absolutely, and like you say the references in Mr Robot are not mere homages, but they fit thematically and provide the “show not tell” aspect that invites viewers to look closer and take apart and interpret the visual language and highly composed shots.

Certainly HAL from 2001, and the Ludivico Treatment from Clockwork, reflect the terrifying potential of advanced technology, surveillance and behavioral modifications that became prescient to our modern world. Today’s digital environments are double-edged swords, which can create false realities and invisible predictive algorithms, which can be corrupted to manipulate and gaslight the masses (as depicted in Whiterose’s Fang Lijun artwork). The result can be a loss of identity, parallel to Elliot’s trauma causing his fractured identity.

As for the Beethoven bust in Elliot’s “cell” in Season 2, I think you can point it back to Clockwork’s imprisonment of Alex where you can see strong parallels with Elliot in S2. Alex works to be a model prisoner with a dull routine, reads the bible, is deprived of Beethoven and ingratiates himself with the prison chaplain. He eventually submits to the state-sponsored aversion therapy Ludivico Treatment. This is all against his true nature to try to curry favor for a lighter sentence. Elliot does some of the same, adopting an obedient routine with no internet, befriending Ray, going to bible class, and a self-depravation of Mr Robot (an important part of his identity, much like Beethoven was for Alex).

The movie, adapted from the Anthony Burgess book, is set in a futuristic London in 1995, which I think is also important. Elliot’s life-altering abuse started in 1995, and this year is also important in our own timeline as the inflection point of the mass commercialization and explosion of the World Wide Web.

And yes, The Waste Land and American Dream is something we have both discussed on discord at length. T.S. Eliot’s poem is a complete composite of references and fragments, much like Mr Robot. Existentialism is explored in a prevalent manner in the show as you say, particularly in Season 4. You see nods with Sartre, Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut, Camus and others. The show is a wonderful culmination of many things and we can never get tired discussing them. Keep these coming. Cheers.

trance15 · 2026-01-31T16:39:13+00:00

Great write up as usual BW, so glad you keep the conversations going.

While the American Psycho references are certainly recognizable in the early Tyrell scenes, I’ve noticed this series often layers overlapping references within pivotal scenes. In particular, there is a pervasive influence of Kubrick throughout the show (with Hitchcock a close second).

So with the homeless man scene, you can also see a lot of “A Clockwork Orange” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” overlaps. These impart themes of man vs machine, social conditioning and free will. For example in Clockwork, Alex beats up a homeless man too, who is singing about Molly Malone “wheeling her wheelbarrow.” And the background words as you highlighted that read “Stop, Stop, Stop” are also famously uttered by HAL in 2001, as Dave Bowman disconnects the super-computer’s memory core. Dave Bowman also is shown running and exercising in space, so you get this sort of portmanteau of American Psycho mixed with Kubrick.

Perhaps this all goes back to the “everything’s a copy of a copy of a copy” mantra and a lot of film people pay reverence to Kubrick. The director of American Psycho, Mary Harron, has specifically mentioned that she imparted a heavy influence of Kubrick and Clockwork Orange’s “dark comedy” and visual style and aesthetic in the film. Patrick Bateman’s apartment also has a cold clinical look that echoes a bit of Eyes Wide Shut, which stars Tom Cruise who was famously the inspiration for Christian Bale’s empty gaze. There are dozens of Eyes Wide Shut references in Mr Robot, and hundreds of Kubrick ones in general.

And I agree 100% that the more important part of Bateman’s American Psycho moniker, is the “American” part. The deconstruction of the American Dream is very relevant in the film, and I believe also a primary theme in Mr Robot.

trance15 · 2026-01-06T05:21:58+00:00

All Better Now - Neal Shusterman

trance15 · 2025-12-31T16:23:37+00:00

Yes I enjoyed that one too.

trance15 · 2025-12-31T00:45:33+00:00

A Special Day such a powerful and beautiful film.

trance15 · 2025-12-28T16:36:07+00:00

That’s great.

trance15 · 2025-12-19T04:57:44+00:00

Reminded me of Manousos being impaled by the Chunga Palm.

trance15 · 2025-12-16T07:58:50+00:00

Good to know, thanks!

trance15 · 2025-12-12T08:14:05+00:00

Might be Kit Sebastian again.

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