'Mr. Robot': How a Change In Season 2's Episode Titles Could Be KeyTheWrap

(Note: This article discusses major season 1 spoilers and minor plot details in the Season 2 premiere of “Mr. Robot“)

There are many reasons why the debut season of “Mr. Robot” beat out heavy hitters like “Game of Thrones” for a Golden Globe, but one of them might have been creator Sam Esmail‘s attention to detail. While it’s possible to enjoy the cynical travails of Elliot Alderson and fsociety even if the right button on your mouse is a mystery to you, the writers have left little narrative treats for those who know their way around a Linux.

One of those treats has been the show’s cryptic episode titles, which have often contained references to computer terms that double as a clue to the story and its themes. One example is “eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4,” a title that refers to programs that run in a system’s background without user operation. Daemons become a key element of the episode but also serve as a clue to the big twist at the end of season 1, when it turns out that Mr. Robot is actually in Elliot’s head… a daemon that his brain has been running without him knowing.

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But there’s another changing element to “Mr. Robot”‘s episode titles: the file format in which it’s presented. Every episode title in season 1 ends in a different video extension. The pilot title comes in a Quicktime MOV format, and the finale comes in Microsoft’s phased out AVI. This season, the formats have changed. The season 2 premiere episode’s title, “eps2.0_unm4sk-pt1.tc,” comes in a format native to the obsolete encryption program, TrueCrypt. All the titles now come in different encryption extensions, referencing programs like KeepSafe, SmartEncryptor, and Android’s encryption system.

At the “Mr. Robot” panel at this year’s SXSW, Esmail said that encryption would be a major topic in season 2, which is certainly fitting considering how encryption has been the cause of much debate in Washington and Silicon Valley recently. Apple had a big spat with the FBI this past spring over the iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack, which the FBI wanted Apple to unlock with a specially-designed program that would circumvent the iOS encryption system.

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But could the tweak in the title extensions signal more than a change in theme? One interpretation of the titles that has been suggested by some fans connects them to Elliot’s fourth-wall breaking speeches to the audience, a la “House of Cards.” In the first season, the story starts with Elliot greeting the viewer, saying that the person he’s talking to is only in his head. He speaks to the viewer as a confidante, allowing us to get a deeper glimpse into his motivations than the other characters he interacts with.

This season, however, Elliot’s already intense paranoia may be escalating thanks to the chaos created by his successful destruction of E Corp and his discovery of who Mr. Robot really is. In the premiere episode, he is far more wary in his soliloquies than before. “Hello again,” he says. “I don’t know if I can tell you secrets like before. Friends are supposed to be honest with each other, and you weren’t.”

If Elliot is becoming even more suspicious of others than he was before, could the encryption extensions in the episode titles be a signal of that? If each episode is a depiction of events shown through Elliot’s unreliable perspective, the encryption may mean that there are details ahead that our hacker protagonist will keep secret from us. Sam Esmail seems to want us to question everything in “Mr. Robot,” even our own lying eyes.

“Mr. Robot” airs Wednesdays at 10 on USA.

Need a quick brush-up on the tech terms used in “Mr. Robot?” Check out our glossary below.

'Mr. Robot': A Guide to Tech Terms Used in the Series (Photos)

"Mr. Robot" can be a challenging show to watch. The plot is told in a deliberately confusing manner with a mentally unstable protagonist who speaks to the camera, "House of Cards" style. It also uses heavy references to modern tech, computer terms, and hacker culture that might go over the heads of some viewers. Here's a quick explanation of some of the major terms used in the series so far, and the double meanings some of them may have (NOTE: Major spoilers ahead)
USA
TrueCrypt -- A once-popular encryption software that was recently discontinued. The title of the season two premiere uses TrueCrypt as the format, signaling a change in the show's episode titles from video files to encrypted files.
USA
Video formats -- Every episode of "Mr. Robot" has a title similar to a file name, featuring the episode number, title, and a file format (e.g.: "eps1.0_hellofriend.mov"). In season 1, all the file formats in the episode names are video formats, such as MP4, AVI, and WAV, as if you're watching the episode on a video file sent to your computer. The formats for season 2 are tied to encryption formats.
USA
Rootkits -- A piece of software that serves as a front to disguise unauthorized programs from cybersecurity systems. Elliot and fsociety use rootkits as a key part of their plans to break into E Corp and Steel Mountain in season 1.
USA
DDoS -- Distributed denial of service, a common type of hacker attack that fsociety uses against E Corp to get Elliot's attention in the pilot. Put simply, in a DDoS attack, hackers use computers infected with malware to send requests en masse to a single system, causing it to overload with traffic and crash.
USA
fsociety's mask -- The mask that fsociety uses as its logo is similar to the Guy Fawkes mask used by the real-life hacker group Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on organizations ranging from Paypal to the Westboro Baptist Church. Anonymous is currently monitoring ISIS.
Linux -- The operating system that all hackers swear by. Linux is an open-source system, meaning that it can easily be modified and customized. In the opening episode, Tyrell notes that Elliot is using Gnome on his Linux system and that he prefers KDE. Gnome and KDE are the two most popular desktop environments available for Linux, and as Tyrell suggests, many Linux users have their own preference.
Linux
Tor -- A web browser popular for its commitment to privacy. Endorsed by Edward Snowden, Tor runs web traffic through a series of volunteer-run servers spread out around the globe, making web activity difficult to trace.
USA
Enron -- The infamous company whose logo "Mr. Robot" creator Sam Esmail used as the inspiration for E Corp. Enron has gone down in history as one of the most infamous examples of corporate corruption, making it the perfect model for the company that Elliot sees as the root of all evil.
USA
Social engineering -- A psychological ploy used by hackers to get access to personal information. This includes sending emails and phone calls pretending to be banks or government agencies, or dropping USB sticks loaded with malware in plain sight so people can pick them up and put them in their computer to see what's inside.
USA
Iron Mountain -- The possible inspiration for Steel Mountain, the data storage company that fsociety attacks to bring down E Corp. Originally conceived during the Cold War as a way to protect valuables from nuclear strikes, Iron Mountain now owns a storage facility that used to be a limestone mine.
USA
Binary code -- Also known as "ones and zeroes," which is the name of the show's second episode. Binary code is the core of computer code, sending the on/off voltage signals that control a system's hardware. For Elliot, "binary code" represents the tough decisions he has to make from the start of the series, the big one being whether or not he should join fsociety's plans to turn global finance on its head.
USA
Daemons -- Used as the fourth episode's title, daemons are programs that run in a system's background instead of being operated by a user. Elliot compares daemons to the subconscious urges that drive human beings, which serves a clue to the true nature of Mr. Robot. By the end of the season, we learn that Mr. Robot is all in Elliot's head, like a daemon that has been operating in his system without him knowing it.
USA
Source code -- The code that produces what you see on a web page. You can view source code easily by highlighting some text and then right-clicking it. In one soliloquy, Elliot wonders what it would be like if people had a source code, and what one might find if you could gaze into their psyche...and possibly alter it.
USA
Mirroring -- Term used for creating an exact copy of something on another system, whether it's disk volumes or a screen display. This term is used for the name of the episode where Elliot discovers the true nature of Mr. Robot and realizes that he has been mirroring.
USA

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Brush up on the jargon that makes ”Mr. Robot“ the most accurate hacking show ever

"Mr. Robot" can be a challenging show to watch. The plot is told in a deliberately confusing manner with a mentally unstable protagonist who speaks to the camera, "House of Cards" style. It also uses heavy references to modern tech, computer terms, and hacker culture that might go over the heads of some viewers. Here's a quick explanation of some of the major terms used in the series so far, and the double meanings some of them may have (NOTE: Major spoilers ahead)

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‘Mr. Robot': How a Change In Season 2’s Episode Titles Could Be Key

'Mr. Robot': A Guide to Tech Terms Used in the Series (Photos)

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