On this chapter of The Queerest Things I Watched Last Week, it was a busy week of Thanksgiving cooking and eating for me, so I decided to do a Mr. Robot Dom and Darlene-only recap.
- Mr. Robot – Season 4 Episode 8 “408 Request Timeout” [Catch Up]
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I am absolutely OBSESSED with this season of Mr. Robot.
There are very few shows I’ll stay up late and drag my tired ass into work on Monday for, and this is one of them. It’s operating on a whole other level of television, and I am here for it.
I try to keep these recaps rated PG 13, but this one has a lot of blood and adult subject matter, so clutch your pearls and read on.
Last we saw Dom and Darlene, they were captured by Janice, The Dark Army’s favorite taxidermist, to crack Darlene’s phone and find Elliot. Dom and Darlene have a lot of issues to process and who knew Janice would be holding a couples counseling session!
When Janice first brings up their relationship, Dom acts like she doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but then Janice brings up that video.
Well, now that happened and Darlene knows what Dom does to her video.
Janice is a loathsome human, and every episode I fantasized of the moment she’d get taken down, but, WOW, Ashlie Atkinson does an amazing job of portraying her. She is a perfect bad guy.
Janice goes on to ask them about their relationship. She wants to know exactly what happened between the two of them.
Janice doesn’t believe her and picks out a knife from her taxidermy bag.
Darlene is still her smart-ass self even in the face of possibly being filleted by Janice.
I really didn’t need to make a gif of that, I just liked Darlene’s use of the term “cunt stick.”
Janice then immediately stabs Dom in the lung.
This season Dom is suffering from Female Agent Fall Apart Syndrome™. My wife complains about these highly trained, super-skilled female agents always being an emotional mess on TV. Like Eve on Killing Eve and Carrie on Homeland. Real kickass agents wouldn’t be crying all the time. It makes more sense with Dom since her entire life was ruined by The Dark Army, but still, I missed Agent Dom.
Janice makes a dramatic speech about Dom having 15 minutes left to live, and if Darlene gives up her brother, she’ll get her the care she needs. Then there’s the “You’ll kill her anyway.” “No, killing her is the last thing we want.” back and forth until Dom chokes out, “Don’t tell her anything.”
Janice says everything the Domlene fandom is thinking.
Darlene is not budging, so Janice kicks things up a notch and gets out her phone. She’s going to call her people, who have Dom’s family in captivity and tell them to kill them off one by one until Darlene tells her where her brother is. That move finally made Darlene agree to give her Elliot’s location.
One of Janice’s dudes goes to check the location out. He calls back from Elliot’s shrink, Krista’s apartment, where he does find a dead body, but no Elliot. That pisses Janice off and she accuses Darlene of lying. Darlene swears she wasn’t lying and Janice says the only way to know for sure is to start killing Dom’s family members.
Janice makes the call to get the killing started, but no one answers. From the floor, Dom tells Janice she should check her phone. She picks up Dom’s phone with 14 missed calls from “Lucky Irish Bastard” and calls the number back. It’s Deegan, an Irish mobster who I guess owed Dom a favor. He has Dom’s family, and they are on their way to the safe house. He also tells Janice he shot all her men in the brains.
Janice left is totally confused and then this happens.
There she is. Agent Dom is back!
Oh my goodness, I’ve watched that sequence about 20 times. It was one of the most satisfying payback scenes I have ever seen.
Darlene grabs the knife and cuts the zip ties off her and Dom. Dom calls the FBI for help and tells Darlene to go.
This episode is best summed up by this tweet by @Daburninator22:
Wow. Here are my thoughts. Did Dom feel confident the plan was working the entire time and faked being distraught? Was she trying to test Darlene to see if she was trustworthy?
My wife thinks I’m reading too much into it, and Dom was going to be distraught until she knew for sure her family was safe.
The official description of next week’s episode, “410 Gone,” is “we stan domlene.” I can not wait to see it!
This week: Mrs. Maisel is back on Friday! I wonder if Suzie is going to come out this season. Probably not.
