Mr. Robot airs “silent” episode

Warning: Be sure you have seen “405 Method Not Allowed.”

“We don’t have to talk….”

In the latest episode of Mr. Robot “Method Not Allowed,” hardly any dialogue was spoken.

EW chatted with creator Sam Esmail about adopting a bold approach for the episode.

EW: Where did the idea for this one come from?
Sam Esmail: We start from a story perspective and we knew that at a certain point Elliott and Darlene were going to have to pull off this elaborate physical hack on a server farm. As we started to go down their story line we realized it was going to be integral for them to stay as quiet and nimble as possible. And then we were playing around with Dom’s story line, and she’s so isolated and alone, and she was actually pretty quiet in episode four and we continued along that same path for episode five. And then I think it was only when we started looking at Price, who is also sort of isolated and going on his own journey by himself, that we realized a theme was emerging. And given the fact that it was also our first episode where we’re officially on Christmas Day, we thought that there was something really melancholy and isolating about each of these story lines, and that’s when we started to realize that this could be an episode where there is essentially no dialogue, except for the two lines at the top and at the end. Usually when we think about creative choices like that they really come from that place of story and character, and we thought that did add an extra layer of melancholy to the dawn of Christmas.

EW: The score always plays such a huge role on Mr. Robot, but, obviously, it was even more crucial here. What were those conversations like with your sound team?
Sam Esmail: My sound design team all got a huge head start about this episode, I think before I’d even written that. And that was a conversation that just kept growing as I started writing and as we started filming. Those were enjoyable conversations, because those were conversations that we were going back and forth and it would inform the story and then the story would inform their choices and their decisions. We were always giddy talking about it because of how creative we can get with our choices, and a lot of times [composer] Mac [Quayle] and our design team work in concert together, and so the music is on par with the sound effects and even the notes are in the same key as some of our sound effects. That’s how sort of married they are together, because I always love when you’re just kind of immersed in this visceral experience.

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