The sophomore episode of USA Network's cyberpunk thriller–drama television series "Robot" aired July, 1 and it featured computer prodigy Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) who waas torn between accepting a job from Evil Corp and joining the fsociety.

"eps.1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg" picked off with Elliot being offered a job as the head of the Cyber Security Decision by Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom). Tyler told the hacker that when he officially became the company's Chief Technology Officer, the two of them would be handling their cyber security from within. This meant that AllSafe would go under, as Evil Corp was their biggest client. Elliot declined the offer, and he was given a card to call just in case.

The next day at work, his boss Gideon Goddard (Michel Gill) showed him a video sent by fsociety, demanding that their leader Terry Colby be released. Because of this, he decided to severe all ties from the group, according to Movie News Guide.

Darlene (Carly Chaiken) realized that Elliot was being followed. She helped him escape and brought him to Coney Island. There, he learned that fsociety named Colby as their leader to steer attention away from them. Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) then told him to hack into a gas pipeline using his AllSafe security clearance. This would cause the pipeline to burst, and the ensuing explosion would destroy Steel Mountain, the backup data center of Evil Corp. Elliot refused at first, but Mr. Robot was bent on convincing him.

At Shayla's (Frances Shaw), his dealer of withdrawal medication, he found the gangster Fernando Vera (Elliot Vera) high on drugs, who said he did something bad to her. Elliot rushed to help Shyla, and she told him that Fernando was the only one who could supply his withdrawal medications. He still reported the gangster to the police, though, which later led to his arrest.

When Elliot met with his therapist Krista Gordon (Gloria Reuben), she told him that he was falling back into his old habits. The episode ended with a cliffhanger, with Mr. Robot shoving Elliot off the railing and onto the beach where they were talking about the latter's father.

Gizmodo provided a preview of the next installment. When viewers realized Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) was being spied on through her laptop webcam, the website said it was a new, Chinese-speaking hacker.

"It seemed there was another hacker group that's bound to rope in Elliot—or who Elliot wants to destroy to keep Angela safe," the preview read.