Everything to know about the hit show

Hello, friend.

Whether you’re looking to go once more down the rabbit hole of Mr. Robot‘s many mysteries, or you’re seeking your first venture into its labyrinthine ways, there’s good news — all four seasons of the formerly USA Network hit are now streaming on Netflix.

Before hacking into the show, here’s everything you need to know about the Emmy-winning techno-thriller.

What is Mr. Robot about?

On its surface, Mr. Robot follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer for fictional megacompany Allsafe by day, who moonlights as a hacker cybervigilante by night. In season 1, Elliot is recruited by a mysterious anarchist who calls himself Mr. Robot, who leads a team of hacker activists known as fsociety. Together, among other things, the group hopes to cancel all consumer debt by encrypting all the data of one of the biggest corporations in the world, and Allsafe’s largest client — E Corp (or, as Elliot refers to it, Evil Corp). Bubbling below the surface, though, is a psychological thriller about mental health, and the dangers of consumerism and capitalism.

Who stars in Mr. Robot, and who do they play?

Rami Malek plays Elliot Alderson, though Elliot is played as a child in flashbacks by Aidan Liebman (seasons 1–2), Alex Bento (season 3), and Evan Whitten (season 4).

Christian Slater plays the mysterious anarchist Mr. Robot. (More on this below.)

Carly Chaikin plays fellow fosciety hacker and malware coder Darlene Alderson, who is also Elliot’s younger sister.

Portia Doubleday plays Elliot’s childhood bestie Angela Moss. Angela also works at Allsafe and later serves as E Corp’s PR Manager. As a child, Angela is portrayed by Mabel Tyler.

Martin Wallström plays Tyrell Wellick, the Senior Vice President of Technology at E Corp when we first meet him, but who later becomes part of fsociety. He and his wife, Joanna (Stephanie Corneliussen), have one son. He famously originated the line, “Bonsoir, Elliot.”

Michael Cristofer plays the nefarious Phillip Price, the CEO of E Corp.

Grace Gummer plays Dominique “Dom” DiPierro, an FBI field agent tasked with investigating fsociety’s hack of E Corp.

BD Wong plays Whiterose, secret leader of the cyber-terrorist group the Dark Army. Whiterose is a trans woman, and it is later revealed that under her birth name, Zhi Zhang, she is also China’s Minister of State Security.

Elliot Villar plays dangerous drug dealer Fernando Vera.

In later seasons, Bobby Cannavale plays Irving, a Dark Army fixer by night and car salesman by day.

Who created Mr. Robot?

Mr. Robot hails from creator Sam Esmail, who also served as showrunner and director of the series throughout its run on USA from June 24, 2015 to December 22, 2019.

How many seasons of Mr. Robot are there?

There are four seasons and a total of 45 episodes. Each of the episodes generally has a runtime of between 40–65 minutes.

What did Entertainment Weekly say about Mr. Robot when it originally aired?

Mr. Robot, which gained something of a cult following, was also a critical darling throughout its run — all four seasons have above a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Additionally, the show was the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Peabody Award. For our part, EW named it as one of the best shows of the year several times, including as our No. 1 pick of 2015 for its premiere season. At the time, EW TV critic Jeff Jensen wrote: “In 2015, TV’s best moved us to feeling, reflection, and tweeting by surveying the relationship between broken people and broken society. No show pushed my buttons more than Sam Esmail’s thriller about the moral compromises and systemic injustices of our times. Elliot — a misfit yearning for coherence and connection; a cog raging against the machine that owns him — rebooted the alienated hero to electrifying effect. Rami Malek, mesmerizing, kept us emotionally invested in a mystery that entertained even as it implicated us with “kingdom of bulls—” invective. Like the striking negative space aesthetic, Christian Slater’s walking, talking gadget-play transcended gimmickry by meaning many things: a buggy coping mechanism; a corrupt fantasy gone viral. Enthralling and resonant, Mr. Robot reminded us that revolution begins under the hoodie.”

How can I watch Mr. Robot?

All four seasons can be watched in their entirety on Netflix. They can also be purchased on services such as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube, and Fandango at Home.

Spoiler alert: How does Mr. Robot end?

Before the twisty final season of the show, the season 1 finale pulled off one of the greatest TV twists of all time, which set the stage for everything to come. Elliot’s headful of delusions and antisocial behavior suddenly made sense when it was revealed that Slater’s Mr. Robot character was not in fact real at all — but an alternate personality of Elliot’s, manifested as an idealized version of his dead father. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, it turned out that Elliot had completely forgotten that his fsociety friend Darlene was actually his sister. Ouch.

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For a show that often was forged around paranoia, anger, and fear, Mr. Robot ultimately ended on a hopeful note of mental health and healing. Instead of literally tying loose ends, it reaches its conclusion by bringing all of Elliot’s personas together and having them reconcile with their actions and place in the Mr. Robot world, ultimately allowing “the real Elliot” to regain control of his psyche. We finally meet the real Elliot Alderson when he wakes up in a hospital bed, where he was recovering from the events of prior episodes (TLDR; there was an explosion, Whiterose is dead, and a nuclear meltdown was avoided). Darlene comes into view when he opens his eyes. “Hello Elliot,” she says, mirroring the first episode of the series when the viewer was first greeted with Elliot’s words: “Hello, friend.”