'Mr. Robot' Final Season: Inside That Fateful "Howl of Death"
[This story contains spoilers for season four, episode four of USA Network's Mr. Robot, "404 Not Found."]
In the opening minutes of the final season premiere, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail announced his deadly intentions for the road ahead, with the death of Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday). If Angela's shocking end wasn't enough of a warning signal about the lethal final string of episodes, then viewers certainly got the big, blue message by the end of "404 Not Found," in which yet another major character met the end of the line: Tyrell Wellick, the original Mr. Robot antagonist played by Martin Wallström.
The shocking death comes at the end of an episode that calls to mind an iconic episode of The Sopranos: "Pine Barrens," in which Paulie Walnuts and cousin Christopher wander through a snowy forest on a quest to finish a hit job gone bad, before ultimately settling on fighting for their own survival. For the USA Network drama's version of events, Rami Malek's Elliot and Christian Slater's Mr. Robot join Wallström's Tyrell as the veritable Paulie and Christopher, stalking through a wintery wood on a mission to find a Dark Army operative who should by all rights be dead — and if they fail in their mission, their own deaths are all but guaranteed.
Over the course of the long Christmas Eve spent in the wilderness, Elliot and Tyrell hear a moaning death knell somewhere from deep within the woods, an ominous sign of what's to come. The two men, who have alternated between being business partners and bitter rivals over the course of the series, finally confront their true feelings for one another, including Tyrell's barely unspoken love for Elliot.
"Here, we get the missing piece of why Tyrell is so in love with Elliot: it's that he just doesn't care," Wallström tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Tyrell doesn't have to be someone for Elliot. Elliot turns out to be almost an idol, someone Tyrell wishes he was, that he didn't have to care about what other people think of him, to fit into this frame that he created for himself and his wife, all of it. Elliot stands for all the freedom that Tyrell really wants."
Moments after the epiphany, Elliot and Tyrell come across the Dark Army operative, who kills himself, but not before fatally shooting Tyrell. Recognizing his own impending demise and the ramifications of what happens if his body is discovered by the Dark Army, Tyrell chooses to walk back into the woods to die alone, buying Elliot some time in his quest against Whiterose (BD Wong). The episode ends with Tyrell stumbling toward a glowing blue light, before the scene fades to white.
From the outside looking in, Tyrell's death comes as a shock on a few different levels. For one, it's only a quarter of the way into the final season; Tyrell has been a central figure in the Mr. Robot mythos from the very beginning, even earning the iconic penultimate line of the pilot: "Bonsoir, Elliot." For another, Tyrell dies just as he was about to be named the new CEO of E Corp — literally, dying one day short of the coveted appointment. But as Esmail explains to THR, Tyrell's inopportune demise was right for the same reason he felt it necessary to kill off Angela: "The story told us when it was time."
"On a script level, this is one of my favorites," says Esmail. "We knew this was [going to be] it for him. We knew he wouldn't be long for this world. But then we started thinking about, 'What does that episode look like?' The way this guy entered our show, it was like he was from Pluto. He was really bizarre and weird in an emotional and pathetic way. We needed to create an episode that leans into who he is as an odd creature that really loves Elliot. Tyrell's relationship with Elliot was the best part of that character. We really wanted to spend an episode with just the two of them, because we had never really done that."
"We needed to construct an episode where we could have those two people finally hash out how they feel about each other, what they think about each other and what they really want out of the worlds and their world views," he continues. "We wanted to see them connect — and then, in Tyrell fashion, we wanted to have a surreal tone to the whole episode. That's why we thought having these two guys go through the woods really felt right: a surreal and existential backdrop of the desolate woods and the cold, with nothing else in sight, and nothing to hear, except for an odd sound they can't quite pinpoint … the howl of death. It just felt so appropriate."
According to Wallström, Tyrell's final episode hit all the right notes: "It was funny, it was sad … it had everything." He also feels it has one surprising component for Tyrell: redemption.
"For him, taking that bullet was one good thing he could do," says Wallström. "The fact that Tyrell and Elliot are all alone in the woods, physically left to each other without any other choice other than continuing on with each other… and as soon as he gets to clear up all of his stuff with Elliot, he finally gets to do something good. Because in a way, he takes the bullet. He's sent off having finally done something good — one good thing after four seasons."
In the context of the Mr. Robot universe, Tyrell's death comes months after the death of his wife Joanna (Stephanie Corneliussen), which led to their newborn son being placed in foster care. Wallström believes Tyrell's decision to die alone is redemptive on the level of protecting the child: "If he survives, he would put his own son in so much danger [from the Dark Army]. So if he can take a bullet for Elliot here, then the best thing for him that can happen now is he can die for his son. It's the only way for him to make things up. It's the only way for him to make sure that the future is somewhat safe."
"He, and maybe all of us, kept running away from trying to not be like his parents," Wallström adds. "Then we realize: 'Well, I am like my parents.' It's complicated. It's not easy to be perfect and everything you wished you wouldn't be, only to suddenly realize, that's what you are. It's all a realization that his own son would probably hate him, too. But that depends on his legacy. The world thinks he's a hero, even though that's not the true story. But maybe it's the best way for him to leave the show, when the legacy is at least somewhere close to where he wanted it to be."
As for the enigmatic nature of Tyrell's final moments, bloodied but bending toward a great blue glow, the actor is just as confused as the viewer: "It wasn't clear to me what that was. Sam and I talked about it, but in my mind, we weren't sure if it's something that only we see, or if it's something that's in his head. When I thought about it, it was so much about coming to peace with everything finally working out. For me, I saw it as him realizing that his son would be okay. It's not the way he planned things, but his son will be okay now, and Elliot will be okay, too — and he'll take down Whiterose. It's a relief for Tyrell. I think he's thinking: 'All of this struggle, it was useless, but it's fine now. I'm going to die now.'"
"When I look back upon these four seasons, we have something like two and a half episodes where he's actually on his way toward achieving his goal, on this upward spiral, and then we have three and three quarters of a season where it's a downward spiral," says Wallström. "The price he had to pay to achieve what he dreamed about was staggering. It was way too high. He's gone through so much — he's been in and out of the show, he was almost caught [after the Five/Nine hack], he was abducted … so much. And now, it just feels natural to me that he had to die. But it was very heartwarming to see that he at least did one thing good in the end."
Follow THR.com/MrRobot for more final season coverage.
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'Watchmen': A Closer Look at a Comic Book Legend
[This story contains spoilers for season one, episode two of HBO's Watchmen, "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship," as well as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel on which the show is based.]
"Nothing ever ends." It's not just the final line of "The Watchmaker's Son," the very revealing — if not quite riveting — play written by Jeremy Irons' still unnamed mystery Watchmen character. It's also one of the most iconic lines from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel from which the HBO drama extends.
It occurs in one of the closing scenes of the comics, as the highly intelligent Ozymandias (birth name Adrian Veidt, the man who may or may not be "the Lord of the Manor") exchanges words with the highly powerful Doctor Manhattan (birth name Jon Osterman, the man who was definitely at the heart of "The Watchmaker's Son"). Ozymandias seeks Manhattan's approval over the so-brutal-but-so-brilliant-it-just-might-work plan to save humanity via false flag interdimensional squid attack, asking if he was right, given how everything worked out in the end. Cue the line from the erstwhile Jon Osterman, who exists in various points in time, leaving both Ozymandias and readers with those chilling words — the same words the Lord leaves at the end of his play, as suggestive of his true identity as anything else glimpsed in the Damon Lindelof drama thus far.
Of course, even more suggestive to the point of being definitive: Lindelof's own assessment of the Lord of the Manor's abilities as a playwright. As he tells The Hollywood Reporter: "By episode two, we're not quite ready to tell you who Jeremy Irons is playing, except that he's playing exactly who you think he's playing — and while that person may be the smartest man on earth, it doesn't mean he's the best writer."
If and when an official Ozymandias reveal drops, expect it to land with the full impact of a tentacled monstrosity, even if a different appendage was front and center in HBO's second week of Watchmen. It's not just because of "The Watchmaker's Son," either, although that was certainly a big part of it. Beyond the play, Doctor Manhattan was name-checked throughout "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship," co-written by Lindelof and Nick Cuse, and directed by Nicole Kassell, who helmed the pilot as well.
The Doctor Manhattan of it all first arrives as early as the third scene of the episode, during a tense conversation between Angela Abar (Regina King) and the man who is soon identified as her grandfather, Will (Louis Gossett Jr.). For now, in this moment, Angela knows Will only as the man sitting next to the swinging body of her police chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), dead for reasons that are beyond her ken. Will insists he's the man who pulled off the deed — "I'm the one who strung up your chief of police," he says again and again. And when pushed on how he could pull it off, Will offers a theory: "Maybe I'm Doctor Manhattan."
For her part, Angela immediately rebuke's Will's claim: Doctor Manhattan lives on Mars, and he can't look like human beings. Will offers a rebuttal: Manhattan can make copies of himself, he can be in two places at the same time, he can be hundreds of feet tall, and he can change the color of his skin — all of which is true, based on what we see from the character in Moore and Gibbons' graphic novel. As a refresher for those who haven't read the comics in a while, or those who have never read the comics, here's a very awkward scene where Doctor Manhattan duplicates himself and subsequently alienates girlfriend Laurie, set to appear in the HBO drama as played by Jean Smart:
Before long, Will relents, saying he's not Doctor Manhattan. Let's believe him. But maybe we shouldn't believe everything the show wants us to believe about Doctor Manhattan, especially the fact that he's on Mars. At the end of the graphic novel, Manhattan declared his intention to leave our galaxy for a new one, where he would create life of his own. Why would he stay on Mars for 30 years instead, doing little more than creating and destroying structures, as seen in satellite footage in the series premiere — especially when we know he can create copies of himself and be in two places at the same time?
(As an aside, based on the other major reveal in "The Watchmaker's Son," do we think Tom Mison and Sara Vickers' various Phillips and Crookshanks doppelgängers are the product of Manhattan's project? Hard to say; if the Lord of the Manor and Ozymandias are the same person, he's certainly treating his servants with the same callousness he's exhibited toward individual humans in the past.)
It's worth putting a pin in the idea that Doctor Manhattan isn't on Mars, or at least not entirely on Mars, considering Angela's husband, Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), reiterates the same line about the atomic demigod's existence on the red planet; if this is the common wisdom in a world where no one seems to know the true origins of the "squid rain," then it's not a leap to assume they're wrong about the most powerful entity in the known Watchmen universe, too.
A couple of other notable comic book takeaways from Watchmen week two, which you can read about below or hear even more about in this week's Series Regular: Watchmen podcast:
1. Will offers another theory about how he could have killed Judd: psychic abilities. In Moore and Gibbons' text, Ozymandias creates his giant squid hoax at least in part using the brain of a psychic, so he can influence all the telepathically sensitive human beings around the planet. In other words, there's at least a modicum of psychic ability in the world of Watchmen, and it's worth paying attention to characters who might boast such a gift.
2. The "American Hero Story" sequences are rich with looks back on Watchmen culture, from the obvious focus on Hooded Justice (and even the rumors swirling around his true identity, which remains unrevealed and only guessed at in the canon), the brief mention of "War of the Worlds" via an alien hoax headline (a clear callout to the squid hoax) and the slow-motion violence that feels ripped straight out of Zack Snyder's action-oriented 2009 feature film adaptation.
3. The graphic novel features several scenes set at a newsstand, with two men front and center: Bernard and Bernard, owner and client, both of whom begin forging a human connection just in time to die together when the squid arrives in New York City. "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship" introduced a newsstand story of its own, complete with The Wire veteran Robert Wisdom running the operation. The scene makes mention of two specific newspapers of utmost importance in the Watchmen canon: the right-leaning New Frontiersman, which the late Rorschach worshipped; and the left-leaning Nova Express, Ozymandias' paper of choice.
4. Also featured in the background of the newsstand scene, some literal comic book callouts, including X-O Manowar, created by Jim Shooter, Steve Engleheart, Bob Layton and Barry Windsor-Smith, as well as Bitch Planet created by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro. Shows based on comics supporting comics! You love to see it.
5. Rorschach's still very dead, even though his actions have clearly influenced the Seventh Kavalry, but there's another heir apparent as far as the whole taking-masks-way-too-seriously thing: Looking Glass, played by Tim Blake Nelson. In week two, LG exhibits two behaviors commonly associated with Rorschach: snacking on the job (the peanuts in Angela's glove, considerably more civilized than the raw beans Rorschach consumes at Nite Owl's house in the comics) and wearing his mask at home when no one else is around.
6. Mad Men alum James "Not Great Bob" Wolk made his debut this week on Watchmen as Senator Joe Keane, aspiring presidential candidate. It's not the first Keane we have encountered in the Watchmen universe. In the comics, the original Keane passed a piece of legislation that outlawed vigilantism.
7. In the Crawford household, Angela wears a pair of advanced goggles to assist in her search for clues about Judd's death. The goggles are straight from Nite Owl's arsenal, featured in the comic; there's more about Nite Owl's fate over in the ancillary material on HBO.com, should you choose to seek it out.
8. Angela finds a Ku Klux Klan robe in Judd's closet, a dark mirror of Rorschach discovering the Comedian's costume in Edward Blake's closet in the graphic novel.
9. Closing out once again at "The Watchmaker's Son," two additional clues about the Lord of the Manor's true identity: his horse is named Bucephalus, and he's written a line of dialogue about "the Gordian Knot," both of which are deeply connected to Alexander the Great, Adrian Veidt's greatest inspiration in life.
10. Finally, there's the obvious:
Enough said.
Follow THR.com/Watchmen for continuing coverage.
