There’s Something About Elliot: Why Tyrell and Vera were obsessed with him and what’s the difference?
In Mr. Robot, we all know that most of us love our Elliot so much. Who wouldn’t? He is smart, intelligent, selfless, kind, and beautiful. But his smarts and beauty did attract a lot of unwanted attention from most characters, but mostly Tyrell Wellick and Fernando Vera. Both had gotten obsessed with Elliot from the first time they bat their eyes on him. But what were the differences between their obsessions and what made these two the way they were.
Tyrell first met Elliot at All Safe and found him a bit endearing. Then later had his men kidnap him and bring him to E Corp to offer him a job there because he wants to work close with him. But Elliot politely turns him down and Tyrell despite being a little hurt by the rejection respects his decision. We then later see what his life is like outside of E Corp. He is trying hard to be the CTO and gets rejected for it constantly (not gonna condone him beating up a homeless man though). He even has sex with both men and women to get what he wants and is having a baby with Joanna, who is as ruthless as he is. Things get worse for him when he accidentally kills his rival’s pregnant wife, Joanna kicks him out and he gets fired from his job. He then finds out that Elliot might’ve something to do with the fsociety attacks on E Corp and later Elliot takes him to the arcade, where he reveals that the reason why he wanted to do this was because he wanted to save the world. Later, both Mr. Robot and Tyrell commit the 5/9 hack and Tyrell is taken to the Dark Army barn while Elliot ends up in prison for hacking Lenny Shannon and stealing Flipper. Tyrell ends up being driven insane due to isolation and manipulated into thinking he and Elliot are gods. Later when Elliot is released, he and Tyrell reunite and is shocked to find out about Stage 2: it will kill innocents and he tries to stop it, until Tyrell shoots him in the stomach. He then regrets it and tries to make it up for it. He then goes forward with the Stage 2 attack when Elliot tries to stop it after Angela exposes him and then things get worse for him when he finds out not only is his wife Joanna dead but now his son is taken away from him. He is then appointed as the CTO but at the point where he has lost everything. He then agrees to help Elliot take down the Dark Army and is on his side fully now. He knocks out a Dark Army thug keeping an eye on them and he and Elliot try to cover it up, but when the van goes missing, Elliot and Tyrell try to find it and in the process, Elliot finally shows his kindness to Tyrell despite being hurt by him several times and admits that he felt good that Tyrell liked him and opens up to him about his love for his sister Darlene and becomes vulnerable on his own terms with him. And then when the Dark army soldier tries to shoot Elliot, Tyrell ends up getting hit and Elliot offers him to take him to the hospital, but Tyrell refuses in order to keep Elliot safe and wishes him well to take down Whiterose.
(TW: RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, CSA)
Vera first bat his eyes on Elliot when he came into Shayla’s apartment looking for her, before finding Vera relaxing on the sofa. He then introduced himself to Elliot and took a liking to him because he reminded him of himself when he was younger because he was also depressed, hated himself and tried to kill himself back then. He then gives his speech on hate as a power and announces Shayla as his own property, before leaving. After he leaves, Elliot finds out that he raped Shayla, which causes him to turn him to the police and have him locked up. Later, Vera finds out about this and finally turns his focus to Elliot. He has Shayla kidnapped and then killed when Elliot has him released to save her. And when he returns, his obsession for Elliot has gotten worse the last time we saw him. He wants Elliot to be his partner for his criminal empire in New York and he wasn’t gonna let anything stop him from achieving that. He even goes as far as to kidnapping and torturing Elliot’s therapist Krista to get more information about Elliot, believing that he and Elliot are “soulmates”. He then kidnaps Elliot and expresses his excitement over his reunion with him and tells him the tale of how he got bored of his victory in his hometown and why he came back to New York and why he solely wants Elliot to be his partner. Elliot rejects him until he knows Krista is alive and well, Vera doesn’t take the rejection well. He then forces Elliot to bring out Mr. Robot by sexually assaulting Krista in front of him and then when Elliot dares to fight back by trying to shoot him, Vera then threatens to kill Krista. He then demands an impromptu therapy session to see what made Elliot the way he is. It is then revealed that Elliot was molested by his dad. Vera then swoops in as his “knight in shining armour” to comfort him and tells him that he did it for his own good. He then opened up about his own abuse at the hands of his mother’s friends and mentions how his abuse would make him the “storm”. He succeeds at having Elliot in his own arms, until Krista kills him.
Both Tyrell and Vera had gotten obsessed with Elliot, but with different reasons and in different manners. But while Tyrell has shown genuine admiration and respect for Elliot and just wanted to be noticed by him without hurting anyone close to him and at least allowed Elliot to have his own agency, Vera was a classic Yandere who was willing to hurt anyone or cause destruction in order to get Elliot in his arms and acted like Elliot was his personal property/trophy. He used the tropes such as “Stalking and Abduction is Love” in order to make Elliot as his partner and control and abuse him, much like a fucked up version of The Taming of The Shrew. Also, Vera is basically a much more successful, sadistic and a much more dark mirror of Tyrell. He is everything that Tyrell should’ve been and does things that Tyrell doesn’t even dare to do like rape or sexually assault anyone to get what he wants. While Tyrell is an example of Unrequited Love/Simp, Vera is a classic example of a dangerous Stalker who should be avoided.
