6 Mind-Blowing Fan Theories About "Mr Robot"

TL;DR: Nothing is real.

1. Darlene is not Elliot's sister.

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The main fuel behind this theory is that Darlene doesn't appear anywhere in the Times Square hallucination Elliot has about his family. There's also a family photo that originally only has Elliot and his mother in it, but later on in the season the same photo shows Elliot's father and Darlene, too. But we later see that photo again, and Darlene is missing again. We also only know Darlene is his sister because Elliot says so: Darlene never does. And we all know Elliot is an unreliable narrator. Something's not right here.

2. Elliot has been "hacked" to take down Evil Corp.

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There's a theory out there that Elliot is essentially a human honeypot – brainwashed to take down Evil Corp. We know that Elliot was arrested in the past for hacking a financial organisation, and some fans believe the Dark Army or Evil Corp (who could be working together) have programmed Elliot to hack on their behalf after he was arrested. Elliot is forced to take therapy sessions with Krista – who's a pretty bad therapist – and fans believe this is just a method to ensure Elliot doesn't find out he's been programmed.

Why? Well, there's also a theory that the Dark Army or Evil Corp are secretly backed by a government agency to control the population. There's also a theory that the Dark Army and Evil Corp are working together to take down Evil Corp for sinister gains – but we'll get to that later.

3. Elliot and Tyrell are the same person.

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Is Elliot an alter-ego of Tyrell's? A ton of people think so. The most damning evidence for this is that it's implied Tyrell helped out with the hack but then he's not seen again. When the hack happens, Elliot blacks out and can’t remember the past few days. Crucially, he wakes up in Tyrell’s car.

When Elliot realises the hack's gone ahead, he says: “Why did Tyrell let this happen? He was with me. I told him the whole plan. He was going to stop it.” Tyrell also says to Elliot earlier in the season, “We’re the same," and Elliot’s subconscious says, “I was only born a month ago.”

4. Whiterose is connected to Evil Corp and orchestrated the collapse for their own gain.

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In the season finale, Whiterose talks to CEO of Evil Corp, Phillip Price, about Roman Emporer Nero, who is believed to have burned down Rome so he could rebuild it exactly how he wanted it. Putting two and two together, some fans speculate that Whiterose is a major stakeholder of Evil Corp, and he has managed the attack on the company to rebuild something even bigger – and more terrifying.

Fans also think Price is in on the whole thing and has played on Elliot's weaknesses to get him to carry out the hack on Evil Corp. Whatever's going on, Evil Corp definitely isn't in the dark about it: in the ending scene, Whiterose asks Price if he knows who initiated the hack, and Price replies, “Of course.”

"Our democracy has been hacked," indeed.

5. The person knocking on Elliot's door is Shayla.

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The ending shot of the Season 1 finale shows someone knocking on Elliot's apartment door. One fan noticed that the knocks we hear in this episode – four quick, loud knocks, over and over until Elliot answers – are the same knocks we hear at the start of Episode 7. And who was knocking on the door in Episode 7? Shayla.

In the finale, we see Elliot talk to his family, including his younger self. His younger self says to Elliot, "We're deep down inside you, Elliot. You can't leave us, and we can't leave you. Ever." This theory suggests Elliot is now so unhinged, he's seeing people he loves when they're not actually there, and therefore it's possible he's going to start seeing others he cares about, like Shayla.

6. Elliot Alderson is a personality created by Elliot.

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Now, this theory gets deep. It puts forward that Elliot created the personality "Elliot Alderson" to carry out the hack on Evil Corp, and controls Alderson through Mr Robot, another personality. When we think Elliot is breaking the fourth wall to talk to us, he's actually talking to Alderson.

The "monster" Elliot character we see during Alderson's morphine withdrawal experience therefore could be the real Elliot, and there are a bunch of moments that support this, namely Angela saying, "You're afraid, afraid of your monster. Do you even know what it is? You're not Elliot. You're the –." It's pretty reasonable to draw the conclusion that the final sentence is, "You're the monster."

Intrigued? Fall deeper into the rabbit hole with Season 2 of Mr Robot, streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime.