Are you watching the paranoia-inducing television show “Mr. Robot” on USA Network? Universal Cable Productions green-lighted season 2 before the first episode aired. For a good reason, too; the show is not brainless fodder but thought-provoking.

Now season 2 is underway, and it’s as gripping as a train wreck in real-time. The activity that fuels the Mr. Robot storyline is human exploitation and the struggle to retain control over oneself.

There’s a scene in Mr. Robot’s episode 3 where Ray (Craig Anderson) attempts to bring Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) into his confidence. In that exchange, Ray’s interest suggests Elliot is the kind of person he wants to use.

Couple that scene with an earlier one, in which we see Ray consoling a badly beaten man (a computer programmer and former worker) while his family cowers in the background. Those two scenes show people exploiting the vulnerable for their own gain.

“What you care about controls you.”

It appears, however, that the programmer is no longer helpful to Ray. He doesn’t have the necessary skill set to get Ray’s Bitcoin business back up and running. At the scene’s end, we see Ray talking to a man who appears to be the company’s muscle. He tells the man, paraphrasing here, that there’s no way to beat the skills into him.

From this moment, we’re led to believe Ray needs new talent, and that talent may lie in Elliot. Ray has stalked Elliot since the first episode of this season. After finding one of Elliott’s journals, Ray may have learned how to exploit Elliot’s talent.

Aside: Elliot is a computer hacker extraordinaire and knows how to erase his own digital footprints, but he leaves a physical paper trail? Oh, the irony.

There’s no indication in the series thus far that Ray knows Elliot is skilled at computer hacking. Nor does he know Elliott is a victim of his own mind. None of this activity appears to happen on screen, anyway. The only indication we get that Ray may know a little bit about Elliot is at the end of episode two. Whatever information Ray has gleaned, he intends to use it for his benefit.

Ray here seems to represent society’s encapsulated impulse to exploit.

Unlike four-legged animals, who exploit vulnerabilities in their prey to eat, two-legged animals use each other for far more nefarious reasons.

One of the flaws (faulty laws) in human behavior is our desire to exploit human vulnerabilities to control others’ wills. It is more than just a brain defect in some that cause humans to turn another into their lab assistant, Igor, to create a Frankenstein to do bidding.

This cultivation of vulnerabilities for later exploitation begins at birth. Moreover, it has been a way of life for five millennia.

Our F-Society, built on consumption, creates individuals who want to break it soon after they leave the womb. By the time they are adults, they depend on everything outside themselves. They never mature beyond the mentality of rebellious teenagers. They know something is wrong, but they are powerless to fix it.

It is not hard to figure out why these individuals are powerless. As a society, we’ve taught them through our traditions to give up their power to something outside themselves. Then they become like a drained battery, unable to re-energize themselves. Depleted, they search for anything outside themselves to give them a jumpstart. They look for energy in food, narcotics, alcohol, games, entertainers, athletes, televangelists, television, theater, music, so-called leaders, and anything that’ll give them a quick hit.

Instead of getting recharged, however, they energize what they seek to get high. What we pay attention to expands, and what we neglect shrinks. This natural law has real-life implications. For example, when someone compliments you, you get heated, maybe blush a bit; that heat transfer causes expansion. The slang term is “gas up” or “puff up,” meaning they are animating what is outside them.

They’ve been carefully taught to give their power to institutions, traditions, and people. Then there’s nothing left inside to reboot their own internal operating system. No one taught them how to turn their attention inward, i.e., “get high on your own supply.”

This human design flaw is not innate; it stems from a virus transmitted through an external operant conditioning system of rewards and punishments. The system is flawed, but it requires only the subject’s belief in it. Despite the number of disciples and the time spent working under this system, we do have the power to override it and return to our original programming.

Enter Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday), the outlier.

Beaten and broken by life’s challenges beyond her control, Angela seems to be developing into more than a survivor. Instead, she’s embarking on the nontraditional remedy of “similia similibus curentur,” Latin.

“Let similar things take care of similar things.”

Angela’s mother died from cancer, allegedly caused by chemical exposure due to E Corp’s negligence. Her boyfriend cheated on her, then downloaded malware on his computer, exposing them to blackmail. Angela suffered a devastating blow to her professional credibility at her former workplace. Her father is drowning in debt. Angela now works as the company’s ‘mouthpiece’ (PR Manager), the same business that may be responsible for her mother’s death. All of this put her on the path of ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em; then when you’re strong enough, destroy ’em.’

The latter remains to be seen.

The only way Angela can function at her optimum level is by reprogramming herself to regain her power and control. That makes her response to these events feel like a direct attempt to reclaim herself.

Whether it will work in the long term is anyone’s guess. Still, this malware removal doesn’t rely on hope, supernatural deliverance, positive thinking, or any type of opiate. Angela’s undertaking is simply Angela remembering who she is at her core and

“Everything we need in life, we already have. We were born with it.”

Sure, she’s using a motivational recording to reinforce what she already knows. The tape keeps her attention on Angela. Overriding a virus that spreads through media messages of “look at me, look at me” and is saved daily will require many repetitive steps to remove it.

Angela Moss isn’t the main character of Mr. Robot; she exists in our periphery. When you shift your focus from the center, you’ll see Angela may have a lot to teach us about reclaiming our personal power.