Episode 4, or ep2.2 by the show's own count, is messing with my head. I can't sort out the order of things.
So, what do we know by now? Romero is killed. Near his body, his cell phone was taken apart. I think we can assume that his SIM card has been taken, and all his calls have been traced. Elliot and Darlene may have been exposed to whoever killed him.
Before Romero was killed, he was researching on a government surveillance program called Operation Berenstain. He downloaded an FBI roster of agents who were in the program. It's unknown whether Dom DiPierro is in this Berenstain program, but her name is on Romero's printouts. Dom has mentioned to the policeman at the crime scene that all the agents who interviewed Gideon Goddard (also killed) were on the printouts. Therefore, we can infer that Operation Berenstain is in some way connected to the 5/9 hack or its investigation.
We know that Romero himself did not execute the 5/9 hack --- it was Mr. Robot and Tyrell Wellick. So what had led Romero to FBI's Berenstain? Clearly that's why he was killed.
In the episode, White Rose (ie, Dark Army) was given a copy of FBI's internal memo (either from a mole or from hacking the agency), presumably about the 5/9 hack investigation. Subsequently, Cisco told Darlene that Dark Army suspects that her group may have become FBI informants. One can therefore deduce that White Rose/Dark Army is not working with the FBI. Also, Romero was NOT killed by the Dark Army, or they would have known that Darlene and co were not FBI informants.
So there is another force operating behind the scenes, clearly not Dark Army or E Corp, since these two are working together. FBI? Operation Berenstain? If yes, then Dom must not be in the operation, because she did not know about Romero. Then her connection to Berenstain is through the 5/9 hack investigation.
Another question: Who is behind Gideon Goddard's murder? Several possibilities:
1) Random act as it appears.
2) Dark Army to prevent him from exposing Elliot to FBI. Possible, because they knew Gideon was suspecting Elliot back in Season 1.
3) Operation Berenstain? Why? Would the 5/9 hacking investigation threaten to expose it?
The two deaths seem to strongly suggest that Operation Berenstain and the 5/9 hack are connected, but to date both Elliot/Mr. Robot and Dom DiPierro seem to be unaware of the former.
Funny enough, the name Berenstain is involved in a bizarre parallel-universe conspiracy theory:
http://www.avclub.com/article/how-you-s ... ara-223615
So perhaps Tyrell Wellick is being held by Berenstain in a parallel universe.
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A separate question: Why are we seeing a long and apparently static arc of the Elliot-Mr. Robot struggle in the first 4 episodes that seems to go nowhere? Of course, the simplest and most obvious answer is Sam Esmail's artistic self indulgence. If this is not the true answer, there are a couple of other possibilities:
1) A narrative challenge similar to Daenerys Targaryen's stay in Essos. She cannot sail for Westeros in Book 3, when she could have, because other events in Westeros (eg, Cersei burning down King's Landing) require more time to occur before her arrival. Elliot is needed to do something after some other things unfold. So he has to remain "sequestered" for the first 4 or 5 episodes.
2) The annoyingly mundane routine in Elliot's insanity arc serves as a red herring to distract us from paying attention to important clues in other scenes involving Darlene (connected to Dark Army) and Angela (connected to E Corp and Price) and Joanna Wellick (connected to Tyrell and E Corp).
Note that 1) and 2) are not mutually exclusive, and both may be true.
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Joanna's scene with the bartender about Madrid kind of blew my mind. What does she mean? It's unlikely anything I have seen or read or heard. It's so ... dope. I feel like it's about money, particularly Joanna's psychological relationship with money, but we don't know what that is. Everything related to Joanna is very mind tickling.
Her paying off Kareem the parking attendant suggests that she has discovered something in the car or she was seen driving and/or parking Tyrell's car during those 3 days. I can derive nothing more beyond this.
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The E Corp (Philip Price)-Dark Army (White Rose)-Angela Moss section.
Angela is probably correct in identifying E Corp's intention to remove the requirement that a third party will monitor their chemical plant in Washington Township. It's of unknown but critical importance. We don't know what secret is hidden in that plant. The plant is also key to E Corp and Dark Army's alliance, as suggested by the phone call. Dark Army's interest may or may not converge with E Corp. This subplot explains: 1) why Dark Army helped FSociety hack E Corp and 2) why Angela was hired by E Corp. Everything that seems odd or awkward plotting in season 1 can be logical. The plotting is in fact very reasonable and meticulous, as we have seen.
Curiously, the plant is a real thing that kill people, in contrast to all the online stuff and digital money. This tension between the real world/objects (eg, paper money) and the non-substantive world (in which Elliot operates) is a major theme.
It remains unclear whether Angela is undercover in E Corp or being corrupted by money and success. I'm inclined to the former.
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From season 1, we know Esmail likes to hide critical information in a line of dialog. Darlene's line, "We might be owned." seems important. Remember that this story was inspired by Arab Spring. That was a real example of how a revolution for progress, started by students and the poor, later got owned by more powerful and organized forces. The same can be said of many other revolutions throughout history. I think we're all familiar with some such cases.
So I think we can safely expect the revolutionary youths like Elliot and Darlene to be owned and used by older and more powerful people in the story, be it the bitcoin mafia run by the seemingly benevolent Craig Robinson (mental hospital warden?), or E Corp suits like Price, or FBI's Berenstain program.