The previously filmed season finale of Mr. Robot contains a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s tragic events in Virginia. Out of respect to the victims, their families and colleagues, and our viewers, we are postponing tonight’s episode. Our thoughts go out to all those affected during this difficult time.
And now we know why: because of a scene in which an exec for the show’s Microsoft-/Apple-esque tech company E Corp shoots himself on live television. Before Wednesday, it merely would have merely been unsettling (and reminiscent of R. Budd Dwyer’s on-air suicide in 1987). If it ran last week as planned, just hours after Parker and Ward’s deaths, it very well could have come off as distasteful, if not outrageous. Postponing the finale was clearly the smart, considerate thing to do.