In Episode 3, it seems to me that Ollie invites Tyrell back to his place (that he shares with Angela). While Tyrell is in the shower, Ollie takes Tyrell’s phone and we are shown that he puts it into something called “Root Mode” and performs some updates on the OS.
By way of explanation, almost all the smart phones in the world are either Android phones or Apple phones. I think slightly more of them are Android than are Apple. All Android phones run under the Linux Operating System. The difference is that Linux is an open source OS so people can read it and improve it whereas the Apple OS is closed and no one outside of Apple can ever see it or read it or change it. There are lots of pros and cons on both sides. I’m just trying to give you a very basic introduction to the difference between Apple and Android phones so that you may be able to understand what it means to put a Linux phone into “Root Mode”. You can’t do that with an Apple phone.
I’m pretty sure that someone here will be able to explain “Root Mode” better than I can. But for most smart phones (essentially all of them except Apple), they run under the Linux OS. When you put them into “Root Mode”, you can access the full power of the Linux system which also carries the very serious danger that you can mess something up which will basically “brick” the phone.
To “brick” the phone is an Android phone term which means your phone is rendered useless - or in another way of saying that - as useful as a brick. That is where that saying comes from.
It is not clear exactly what Ollie is doing to Tyrell’s phone or why. According to Elliot, Ollie is an idiot and an idiot would not be able to put an Android phone (I’m guessing that about 95% of smartphones are either Android phones or Apple phones) into Root mode. But if he’s not an idiot, this would mean he could take full control of Tyrell’s phone and make it do all kinds of stuff that Tyrell would not even know he was doing.
If I haven’t mixed up the characters Tyrell and Ollie, the question remains, what is Ollie attempting to accomplish and if he’s not doing this on his own, who is pulling his strings?
A final thought … in Epi 3, there is a scene at a bus stop with young Elliot and his mother. The mother speaks a few lines and at first, I thought it was the Johanna character. In other words, Elliot’s mother (who has always been a big mystery to me) seems to have a very similar personality and appearance to Johanna and I’m wondering if this is part of Elliot’s imaginary world or what is going on there.
I think you’re mixed up here, it was Tyrell pretending to be gay to have sex with…that guy can’t remember his name so he could hack his phone while he was in the shower, not Ollie.
Nobody was hacking Tyrell’s phone. Tyrell hacked the gay E-Corp assistant’s phone. The guy who gave Ollie the infected CD was a completely different dude.
Finally got a chance to watch this. It was my binge show over the long weekend
Pretty good, and I stuck it out til the end. But did anyone find the dialogue to be a little bit Freshman Creative Writing? Most of the stuff they had Elliot saying in his inner dialogue, especially, would be stuff I would use to parody the thoughts of a 19 year old who is trying to hard.
That aspect of it did melt away for me after 3 or 4 episodes, once the action really started going. And they did manage to write a compelling story despite some of the garbage dialogue. But had I not made a point of being glued to the couch all day Monday, I may not have finished the series.
I like Carly Chalkin (Darlene). She is playing the exact opposite of her previous role from Suburgatory where she was like a wax model Stepford daughter. She nailed that role. I don’t think her role in this show is as stand-out as *Suburgatory *but it’s pretty cool to see her range!
I thought that was interesting because it’s arguably the second reference to the Titantic sinking in the episode (the first being the Allsafe founder talking about rearranging the chairs).
Maybe an allegory about arrogance and the unthinkable sinking of the ship of corporate global commerce or something.
The entire first season is available on Amazon Prime. It took a recommendation from a brother for me to finally try it because for some bizarre marketing decision the icon for it has ‘Democracy has been Hacked’ written all over it leading me to believe it was a conspiracy theory documentary. I’m on episode 6, and so far it’s solid writing and a capable cast (except, perhaps, Christian Slater. Pump Up the Volume was good, is that the limit of your range, dude?).
I thought I’d mention it because I don’t think it’s getting the attention it deserves and what is CS for if not to turn us all into series binge watching zombies.
I’m having trouble getting through ep 3.1. During previous seasons it was sometimes difficult to stay on track but this first episode has a lot of WTF is going on.
Your post gives me hope that there is better stuff ahead.
I’m watching. Creator Esmail was smart to bring back the ‘hacker easily maneuvers around his clueless corporate bosses’ element of the show (which was missing during Season 2).
I’m not so sure how well the Evil Chinese Guy Plotting thing will work, but I’m willing to stay with the show to find out.
Started watching a few weeks ago and am partway through season 2, the one where[spoiler]Elliot escapes his beating in an 80s sit-com.
I was wondering if they found the ALF puppet in a closet somewhere or had to make one. Also, who was the guy in the trunk? Looked like Tyrell to me but with all that tape, who knows?[/spoiler]Ordinarily I get irritated at excessive narration but it’s kind of necessary in this case. At least it’s in-universe, the first words out of Elliot’s mouth being that he is talking to his ‘imaginary friend.’
I was impressed in the trivia to read about a dozen cyber-security types and hackers were brought in as technical consultants, to the point where their genuine line commands were CGId onto the laptop screens (to reduce flicker I assume). This is lampshaded by Mobley and Romero laughing at Hollywood’s inept portrayal of hacking while watching a movie (Swordfish?).
It’s also very depressing. I have to watch an episode of My Little Pony as an antidote.
I have wondered why the protagonist decided to (and apparently succeeded in) reverse his original hack (wiping out everyone’s financial records and therefore debts) after he realized some Bad Guys profited from the resulting chaos? Near the end of Season 3, a streetwalker scoffs at the idea that reversing the hack would fix the economy, and the Chinese bad guys explicitly tell him to his face they couldn’t care less if he reverse the hack, as it had already served its purpose. So, why the change of heart? Merely because his original idea was exploited and co-opted by bad people?
BTW, for those who watched the show as it aired on USA network, the final season is scheduled to premiere on Sunday, October 6, or three weeks from now. It’s scheduled for thirteen episodes.
