The series follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, who is recruited by an insurrectionary anarchist known as "Mr.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 0.705 million household viewers and gained a 0.2 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
Joanna (Stephanie Corneliussen) is told by the park attendant, Kareem, that he cannot keep quiet any longer and that he fears the FBI might be watching him.
Dominique (Grace Gummer) and an FBI team investigate Steel Mountain, finding a Raspberry Pi installed in a wall.
After he leaves, Elliot is surprised to discover that Ray runs a black market website trafficking drugs, weapons, and sex slaves.
The episode was written by co-executive producer Kyle Bradstreet and directed by series creator Sam Esmail.
"[4] Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.4 out of 10 and wrote, "Though the Tyrell mystery is waning, in both importance and execution, I'm glad we found out what Ray was all about and I really enjoyed how it wound up being so much darker than I ever anticipated.
Likewise, I appreciated more time spent with Whiterose and the reveal of who she actually is, since she also was able to get super dark despite seemingly bonding with Dom.
Club gave the episode an "A–" grade and wrote, "Darlene may be leading the revolution on the ground, but Elliot's war doesn't differentiate between scale.
"[6] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "I don't think Sam Esmail wants to be a ruthless monster, so it'll be a matter of when, not if, we start finding out the other details and getting a clearer sense of the big picture for season 2.
But with Elliot active again – and immediately in harm's way with Ray (who is turning out to be the Vera of this stage of season 2) – this was a good start.
"[7] Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Elliot wanted to be hope for a world plagued with evil.
"[10] Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek wrote, "We may be excited that our boy is hacking the FBI again but access to a computer and strong ideals just bring him a vicious beatdown in the end.