Mr Robot Season 4 Episode 2 'Payment Required' has fans racking their brains over the identity of the 'Other One'
When Darlene Alderson (Carly Chaikin) tells Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) in the final moments of Episode 2 'Payment Required' that she had told him about drug lord Fernando Vera's (Elliot Villar) return a few weeks ago and he had blown it off, Elliot shoots a betrayed look at Mr Robot (Christian Slater). He believes Mr Robot had been blocking him again and waited till Darlene was out of ear-shot to give him a piece of his mind. When Mr Robot professes complete innocence, both of them have the same dawning and horrifying realization. There was a third part of him that both of them were unaware of.
To introduce a third alter so late in the game can seem like jumping the shark, but according to creator Sam Esmail, the concept of the third alter has been part of the story from the very beginning and there are clues that fans can find in the previous seasons.
With that, there has been an explosion of theories around the identity of this third alter based on the clues Esmail has dropped so far. One user pointed out that the third alter had to be a "he" referencing the conversation the child Elliot has with his mother, Magda (Vaishnavi Sharma) in the E Corporation's boardroom about the "Other One".
One intriguing theory is the third alter is you, the viewer. However, this is unlikely given that Elliot has always been 'aware' of the show's audience, constantly breaking the fourth wall to address his "friend". Now, when he has shut down, too focussed on his plan to take down Whiterose, Mr Robot has started speaking to the viewer instead. This means both Mr Robot and Elliot have been aware of the viewer.
However, there has been a lot of references through the show of God or someone watching from above. Elliot tells Tyrell (Martin Wallström) in Season 2 about seeing "what is in front of you but not what is above you" and many shots in the show take a bird's eye view POV. The name Deus Group (Deus Ex Machina) to Tyrell's obsession with being God to Whiterose playing God as he controls hackers, terrorists, world leaders and the world's richest men and women are just some of the references of being the unseen puppet master or "ghost in the machine".
We have also seen a lot of Christian imagery of the cross around Elliot in episode 2 with the big reveal and the 'official' recap of episode 2 of Season 4 talking about the "Holy Trinity" rather than the "Dynamic Duo". Since Mr Robot is modeled on Elliot's father and Elliot is the "Son", that only leaves unseen "God" in the equation. Thus the theory that the third alter is the person (behind) the fsociety mask or the alter that takes over whenever Elliot or Mr Robot dons the mask (either literally or figuratively since Darlene doesn't see this third alter acting very differently from the OG Elliot).
The Man in the Mask is shown in season 1 when Elliot sees the first video message of fsociety that Elliot has no memory of recording. In another dream sequence, Elliot is watching another fsociety video on the TV, and after it ends, he finds himself in the arcade with the masked person giving Elliot his mask, which has another mask behind it.
We also hear the words: "made in the orient, just for your head". This could point to Whiterose (BD Wong) brainwashing or programming Elliot's 'God mode' persona to control his actions -- Elliot in fact could be one of the first 'successful' test subjects of the billion-dollar machine Whiterose has been building under the Washington township's nuclear plant and is now hell-bent on shipping to Congo.
This fits in with Whiterose playing God and why this third alter (controlled by Whiterose) has deliberately hidden himself from Elliot and Mr Robot as the 'ghost/God in the machine' or the Deus Ex Machina. At the end of the same dream sequence, Elliot finds himself alone in the dark arcade in front of a camera which has an fsociety mask hanging on it. Elliot is asking: "Am I still alone? Is this the face of my only friend? Are you my Monster?" Once Elliot puts a mask on, he says in a distorted voice "I am here. You are alone"
In Season 2, in the Halloween flashback, we see Elliot put on the 'dad' jacket and the mask just before he declares his plan to take down E-Corp (uniting the Father, Son and the Ghost in one image). We also have Elliot's intriguing quotes around masks like the one in episode 6 of Season 2: "How do I take off a mask when it stops being a mask? When it's as much a part of me as I am?" or the one in episode 2 of the same season when he asks why people try to mask who they are or what they become when they put on the mask.
He then asks the viewer what mask they wear, before saying he is "different". This could mean that behind all the alters is the Man in the Mask who uses the alters of Elliot and Mr Robot to function 'normally' in the world but is actually the monster that Whiterose has created that "cannot be named" -- a common trope in sci-fi and fantasy.
'Mr. Robot' airs on the USA Network Sundays at 10/9c.