Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot Season 2 Trailer: Rami Malek Struggles with Memory Loss

“There’s no order. There’s no power. There’s more work to be done.”

“Our revolution needs a leader,” Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot tells Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) in the first trailer for Mr. Robot’s second season. But first, it might help if Elliot could remember what happened on the night of the hack. It seems he’s still just as in the dark as we are on what exactly happened, and it seems Tyrell Wellick is still missing. “Remember the night of the hack? Remember what happened to you?” Mr. Robot asks. “All I remember is I woke up three days later,” Elliot says. Great.

The trailer then cuts to a press conference with President Obama, who seems to be taking the hack and its ramifications very seriously. As we saw in the Season 1 finale, whatever Elliot managed to pull off, the effects were devastating. “There hasn’t been anything like this in the past,” Obama appears to say, in either an amazing use of editing technology or a stealthy under-the-radar cameo. “This is going to be affecting our economy in ways that are extraordinarily significant.” He adds that the F.B.I. has pegged the attack to fsociety and to Wellick.

From there, it’s a series of fast cuts, as we move from the somewhat dazed face of Angela, who says she “will follow her dreams no matter what,” to the usual dystopian scenery and creepy masks to scenes where it looks like Elliot might be in some serious danger when the show comes back in July. As Elliot becomes more unhinged, the trailer closes with an ominous, very on-theme message: control is an illusion.

“Our revolution needs a leader,” Mr. Robot concludes. Whether or not Elliot will be in any position to assume that mantle any time soon remains to be seen.