Collecting some bits and pieces that connect to the so-called Mandela Effect and M-Effect adjacent phenomena in the universe of MR. ROBOT. Note that this is no doubt far from comprehensive. As any watcher knows, this show goes deep. =)
Elliot’s employee ID number…
072391. As a date, this is July 23, 1991. The date on which Nelson Mandela died as reported in a non-non-fiction essay published in South Africa in 1991. Before the essay was identified as non-non-fiction, this was passed around as a possible artifact/proof of the Mandela Effect. The ME explains that the phenomena of a great many people remembering hearing that he died in the 80s when in fact he passed away in 2013 is the side effect of a manipulation of the past of our timeline (somehow imperfectly allowing for some people to remember the original, or earlier timeline’s history) or the memory/history of an alternate timeline somehow psychically bleeding into ours.
This Esmail Egg is not strictly speaking evidence on which to build a logical theory about the MR. ROBOT universe, but a wink and a nod for us, the audience, a hint, but, y’know, possibly a misleading one.
Project Berenstain…
The FBI runs an illegal surveillance initiative dubbed “Project Berenstain.” Within the world of MR. ROBOT, we’re not given a reason for this code name, but the first reference that comes to mind is the children’s book series, the Berenstain Bears. Why that would be associated with surveillance, I do not know, but maybe that’s the point in choosing a project name for the FBI. Not to be clever about it, but to name it according to some agnostic system or order—children’s book characters in alphabetical order?—and so, give nothing away about the nature of the program in the name, right?
However, in *our* universe, “Berenstain” is another collective memory glitch of the Mandela Effect. Many—including myself—remember the bears’ family name being spelled with an “e,” “Berenstein.” Seriously, I pronounced the name like “Einstein.”
Darlene’s a Sinbad fan!
In an episode this season we got a glimpse of Darlene’s monitor which showed her torrenting SHAZAAM (1996), a movie that I believe was manufactured by the Internet (as Photoshopped posters, cases, fake trailers) in response to another Mandela Effect glitch—a memory of Sinbad playing a genie in a kids movie. The movie that seems to have inspired that mismemory, or overwritten it, is KAZAAM (1996), which starred Shaq.
What does this mean?
I’m sure there are more Mandela Effect droppings in the world of MR. ROBOT, but this is all I’ve got in my head just now, sorry. Still, in a story with BACK TO THE FUTURE REFERENCES, discussions of alternate timelines, and a cameo by what appears to be a particle accelerator, I don’t (want to =) believe they’re insignificant.
Assuming these facts of the reality of MR. ROBOT matter, they tell me that what we’re watching on the show is an earlier iteration of our own reality. So, when we examine the world and history and people in MR. ROBOT, we are seeing the source of the apparent aberrations we are now pointing to as evidence of the Mandela Effect. In the universe of MR. ROBOT, the bear family was named Berenstein, Sinbad starred in Shazaam, and Nelson Mandela passed away in the 20th century (I don’t believe that last event was reported in the show in any way, but please allow me the zany extrapolation). Then *something* altered the history of that universe, maybe once, maybe multiple times, ultimate resulting in *our* universe, one in which the bears are the Berenstains, Shaq played Kazaam, and Nelson Mandela died in 2013.
Could that *something* be WhiteRose and the Washington Township project (transferred, recreated, or completed in the Congo)? Has WhiteRose worked out the psychohistorical math to send information back in time to alter history so that the Washington Township leak never happens, Edward Alderson and Emily Moss never get sick and die, their kids grow up with their parents to be very different people, and WhiteRose herself is reborn as B.D. Wong, star of stage and screen, as she’s always truly wanted to be? =)
I go on about this rewriting of reality in this post: Some Pre-finale Big Picture Theories…
Note that this bothers my brain a bit because in changing reality to change herself, WhiteRose may alter events so much that she will never acquire the resources to create and use a time travel device in the new reality (not that B.D. Wong couldn’t make it happen, I did say “may alter” =). If MR. ROBOT only allows for one precious universe/timeline, then that could result in a paradox (that may or may not be resolved by the universe itself somehow), but if it allows for multiple timelines, then she will have created a new reality (possibly ours), but not overwritten her current one. Sad.
If you like this idea, here’s a fun thought… Think of the universe of MR. ROBOT as the first, original timeline. If WhiteRose’s machinations lead to the creation of *our* universe and our Mandela Effect is real, then the Elliot and Angela and Dom and Tyrell that we’re watching have no equivalent to the Mandela Effect in their world. There are no memories or history of a previous iteration of reality to leak into theirs.
Also, if the universe is as good as a simulation and hackable, then something something something… =)
Take the day off!
Something I’ve noticed that I consider ME-adjacent, in that it reinforces for me the experience of MR. ROBOT as an alternate reality…
When you compare the dates in MR. ROBOT to the days of the week they should fall on in our world, when it’s noted, they appear to be one day off. Someone pointed this out to me in season 1 or 2 but I can’t remember the details. I think it must have been about 5/9. In season 3, I noticed it when several people refer to the execution of Stage 2. They give the date as September 29 (2015) and refer to it as a Monday. On our calendars, 9/29 fell on a Tuesday.
I also found this little rabbit hole…Dom’s badge number: 22958. At least, I think that’s what it is. She identifies herself by it when she calls OpCenter for help. As a date, it becomes February 29, 1958. A leap day, but one that never actually happened! And the title—as ”Feb 29, 1958″—of a poem by Allen Ginsberg about a dream he had “last night” of meeting T. S. Elliot (aka Terribly Sexy Elliot). I’m no poemologist, but I take the the poem to be Ginsberg recounting a dream of himself dreaming of an evening spent with an imagined version of his hero. MR. ROBOT-y enough for you?
Be seeing you.
Keep on keepin’ on~
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