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 0.437 million household viewers and gained a 0.2 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
In a flashback, Gideon (Michel Gill) holds a meeting with Tyrell (Martin Wallström), Price (Michael Cristofer) and Terry Colby (Bruce Altman), after they hire Allsafe to provide computer security at E Corp. During the meeting, Angela (Portia Doubleday) enters to give a folder to Gideon, catching Price's interest.
Despite Elliot's claim that the Dark Army controls the FBI, Darlene leaves to get information from Dominique (Grace Gummer).
The episode was written by Kyle Bradstreet and Courtney Looney, and directed by series creator Sam Esmail.
[2] This was a slight decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by an estimated 0.444 million household viewers with a 0.2 in the 18-49 demographics.
The site's consensus states: "The penultimate episode of season three takes narrative risks and fractures character focuses, to laudable but mixed results.
"[7] Jeremy Egner of The New York Times wrote, "While the actions and decisions that led to these encounters made sense from a character standpoint, only a few of them were very satisfying.
In short, it's a lot of material, and writers Kyle Bradstreet and Courtney Looney deserve credit for keeping it all coherent, but just because the episode successfully delivers information doesn't mean the method of delivery is sound.
"[9] Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "'Stage 3' works well emotionally and thematically but one of its biggest missteps is logical.
How is Elliot so easily able to Trojan Horse onto the Dark Army's networks with a USB drive when accessing the FBI's servers is nearly impossible?
But it ends up not being fair to the characters involved as Elliot is able to enact his part of the plan easily and flawlessly while Darlene spectacularly fucks up with the FBI.
"[10] Caralynn Lippo of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Largely predictable and a bit of a drag, I wasn't too fond of 'Stage 3.'