Holy heck. Things are kicking into high gear.

Finally.

Mr. Robot Season 2 Episode 5 was probably the most exciting of the season so far (aside from the Mr. Robot Season 2 Premiere's Gideon shooting). At just under the midway point of the Mr. Robot Season 2, the pieces are all falling into place.

In the closing moments of this installment, Dom and Elliot were both attacked (albeit in very different ways), which is yet another parallel between the two characters (social anxiety, isolation, and savant-level brilliance are a few of their other similarities). 

But let's back up a bit first. There are several plot threads at play here, and most of them are slowly but surely coming together (FINALLY).

First, there's Elliot, our protagonist. This season, he's been mostly absorbed with the internal battle waging in his own mind – the fight for control against his "other self," Mr. Robot. Said battle took up a large portion of Mr. Robot Season 2 Episode 4, which was visually and technically stunning (as per usual) but dragged a bit because of its length and how introspective it largely was. 

In his dealings with Ray and, more recently, his conversations with Darlene, Elliot's been brought out into the "real world" a bit more, becoming involved in larger plots again.

Ray, as we discovered by the end of "Logic Bomb," is a bad, bad dude. To put it mildly.

Elliot agreed to work on Ray's complicated site migration in order to put an end to the bitcoin hacks, because Elliot needed access to a terminal in order to hack the FBI and save Darlene and the rest of his friends.

Obviously, this show being what it is, Elliot quickly realized he was in way over his head.

Ray's site? It's a Tor site – a hidden webpage apparently on the darknet or the "deep web." RT, Ray's old IT guy who was beaten to a bloody pulp by Ray and his thugs (in an attempt to get him to continue working on fixing their site), revealed the truth to a curious Elliot.

In a quick glance at the page, Elliot realized that it was an illegal services marketplace – there were ads for human trafficking, illegal weapons sales, and hit men services.

OK, first of all, HOLY CRAP. Second of all, it's super disturbing to see the usually-jovial and friendly Craig Robinson play such an awful, menacing character. Ray, with his sad, dead wife backstory and his cute dog, seemed harmless and inconsequential at first. Sam Esmail really delivered on a shocking reveal of how truly despicable this character wound up being.

Elliot: I want to help them.
Mr. Robot: We have other battles to fight.

• Permalink: We have other battles to fight.

Elliot briefly considered that Ray might not know what the site specifically contained. But if he did know, Elliot immediately wanted to turn him in – hearkening back to Elliot's more personal hacks of Mr. Robot Season 1, which were focused on taking down bad people rather than bad international conglomerates.

Hard no on all that, as it turned out – Ray had his thugs kidnap Elliot and beat him senseless (as they beat IT dude RT, who is probably now dead for having revealed to Elliot the truth about Ray's online business).

Elliot's kidnapping itself was an interesting moment. I wasn't sure whether it was another hallucination at first, which I'm sure was purposeful – it was very reminiscent of his Adderall-induced hallucination earlier this season, brought on by Mr. Robot. But nope, this definitely seemed real, unlike that earlier kidnapping.

Meanwhile, Darlene was working on her side of Elliot's plan to hack the FBI. She recruited Angela to leave a hacking device in the FBI's on-site office at Evil Corp (where they're apparently stationed while they investigate the 5/9 Hack).

Angela was, understandably, totally against this at first. Her resistance made perfect sense, given how we've seen her character develop this season. Angela is ruthless and seems primarily interested in looking out for #1 – herself.

Despite Darlene's warnings that the FBI potentially had information about Angela's part in the hack (I knew Angela putting that CD in the Allsafe computer last season would come back to bite her in the ass!), Angela sent Darlene away. She didn't want to involve herself in anything that could blow up the comfy new life she'd made for herself.

Elliot was in agreement, too – he didn't want Angela involved or implicated in any way. (Because he loves her, duh.)

The resistance to involving her quickly took a back seat when Angela met with her terrible ex-boyfriend Ollie, who knew about the hack CD and recorded Angela after she arranged a meeting with him.

As if this dude couldn't get any worse after cheating on Angela and displaying general d-baggey all last season. I'm not sure what was worse – Ollie trying to reunite with Angela, hitting her up for a job recommendation, or recording her.

When Ollie confessed that he'd spoken with the FBI, something in Angela's mind clicked. She realized she had to go through with Darlene's plan and went to Elliot to discuss it with him.

She was confident that Elliot wouldn't let her do anything incriminating without being sure that he could save them both with the FBI hack. There's no way Elliot will let Angela go to jail. I have faith.

Darlene formally bringing Angela in on fsociety was a huge, huge moment. I was shocked to find Trenton and Mobley waiting to meet Angela there at Darlene's swanky new fsociety headquarters.

While Darlene was dealing with the FBI hack, she sent another, unnamed ally to lead the federal bailout attack in DC. What's she up to with that? I'm intrigued and a little bit terrified about what Darlene has in store.

Elsewhere, Joanna Wellick continued to be utterly ruthless. Who else but Joanna would calmly discuss the assassination of a blackmailer while simultaneously cooing and singing to her newborn baby?

Realtalk, though – I saw all that coming a mile away. As soon as we were reintroduced to Kareem this season, the parking attendant who saw Elliot three days post-hack in Tyrell's car, I knew he was a goner. He was all twitchy and paranoid. He was a liability. He had to go. Poor Kareem.

Joanna's explanation about why she specifically wanted Kareem to die fully aware of what was happening was incredible, terrifying, and illuminating.

Killing a man instantly robs him of explanation. He has no time to process his final moments. Now, even though he was paralyzed, his mind was still able to understand why his life was ending. We let him die with answers. Otherwise, we're nothing but ruthless murderers.

Joanna

• Permalink: Killing a man instantly robs him of explanation. He has no time to process his final moments....

Screwed up as her morality is, she has a code of honor, in a sick sense. Joanna continues to be one of the most interesting characters on the show. I'm minding Tyrell's absence less and less since we're getting all this Joanna focus.

Finally, there was Dom. Like I've already said, she and Elliot are extremely similar, so it makes perfect, poetic sense that Dom would be the one to crack the case.

Well, okay, she hasn't quite cracked it yet. But she's so close. Otherwise, why would there have been a terrorist attack on the FBI?

The attack shortly followed the trip to China, where the FBI (including Dom) met with Minister Zhang (aka Whiterose, GASP). It's unclear as of now who orchestrated the attack, but I'm leaning towards the Dark Army.

I was wondering why Zhang/Whiterose opened up to Dom and had that weird bonding moment with her when she was at Zhang's house for the party (a totally brilliant, well-acted sequence, by the way – BD Wong continues to be amazing in the role of Whiterose). If Zhang was just planning on having her killed anyway, to prevent the FBI from making the Dark Army-Zhang-Whiterose-5/9 Hack connection, this makes a lot more sense.

Alas, the assassination (if indeed Dom was the ultimate target) seems to have failed, because Dom is a total badass. She took cover and took down two of the shooters, before one killed himself (to avoid capture, most likely).

Of course, the shoot-out was still happening when the installment ended, so we don't know her ultimate fate just yet.

Stray thoughts:

• The use of lighting in the opening FBI hack sequence, while Elliot is reminiscing about his first-ever hack on his local library, was stellar.
• Whiterose = Minister Zhang = China's minister of state security. That is some seriously dark and ironic humor – that the one person meant to protect the country's security is at the forefront of a secret group trying to destroy it.
• Speaking of Whiterose: this character is so fascinating and mysterious. Why are they working both sides, with Philip Price and with the Dark Army? Will we find out their true motives this season? Or will this be a longer arc? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
• Darlene revealed that Elliot wiped the Allsafe records to protect Angela. HE LOVES HER SO MUCH. Their brief scene together tore my heart up.
• On that note, I'm really starting to think Angela might die soon. It's just a hunch.
• Tyrell contacted Joanna yet again, but still isn't revealing his whereabouts to her. He's in deep hiding and even Joanna's security dude can't track him down.
• Dom's story about joining the FBI (she freaked and skipped out on a marriage proposal) wasn't quite what I expected.
• RIP Dom's foreboding-dream-having unnamed coworker.

What did you think of "Logic Bomb"? Leave me a comment below and watch Mr. Robot online anytime here at TV Fanatic!

Caralynn Lippo is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.