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Mr. Robot (2015) is a question mark, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in a mystery—you get the idea. USA Network’s breakout, subversive hit is a massive leap away from the network’s Characters Welcome brand that included shows like White Collar (2009), Psych (2006) and Burn Notice (2007). It is also a fresh and unique voice in a television world nearly (some would say overly) saturated with scripted television. It is no wonder that the hacker drama has been nominated for three Golden Globes, including Best Television Series - Drama.

The basics of the premise are grounded in the familiar. Elliot, played by Rami Malek, a Golden Globe Best Actor nominee, is a socially deficient professional hacker (think Lisbeth Salander in Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) who relates better to code than to his co-workers. He has a day job working in corporate security, and on his own time, in his words, he “hacks” people to better connect with them. Showrunner and creator Sam Esmail has said he wanted to subvert the usual hacker tropes, and Elliot isn’t exactly who you expect him to be. Christian Slater, who plays the titular character and is a Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actor, tells Elliot in “eps1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg” that he has to choose whether his is a “one or a zero,” referring to binary code. “You either do something, or you don’t,” he says. Elliot rejects the statement, countering, “Life’s not that binary.” Elliot’s world, despite the color and flash, is awash in both literal and figurative grey.

Mr. Robot is not a show for passive viewing. To follow and appreciate its subtlety and complexities, a viewer has to actively pay attention, but this is binge-worthy television, for sure. Mr. Robot is the type of show you can lose yourself in, only to realize that you started watching in the morning and now it is dark outside. Picking one episode to watch is complicated math. The pilot, “eps1.0_hellofriend.mov,” is worth a rewatch because of how it so masterfully sets up the core premise and conflicts of the show. For cinephiles, it is also a great choice because Esmail wrote and shot the episode as a tribute to The Third Man (1949), calling the Mr. Robot pilot a “paranoia thriller” filled with “dramatic irony.”

But if you want to watch Esmail’s own favorite episode, go for Season 1, Episode 4, “eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4.” Esmail relishes the dream sequence in the episode: Elliot’s morphine hallucination after facing withdrawal when he tries to go clean. In the episode, Elliot has hit the road with Mr. Robot and fsociety, but he is struggling with his promise to himself (and the viewer listening to his voiceover) to go clean. The hallucination touches on all of the aspects of Elliot’s life, providing insight into his insecurities and deep emotions. Emotions and feelings aren’t things that Elliot trades in very often on the surface, so the morphine dream gives the writers the ability to shine a light into the dark, unseen corners of his emotional life.

Esmail’s feelings are clear, as he explains in the bonus footage after the episode: “We are a show about secrets. We are a show about not telling you things. But, in a dream sequence, we can tell you everything, just not in a literal way…Everything had meaning. Everything was intentional.”

Dream sequences are tough to pull off narratively; the device can be gimmicky and distracting. But Mr. Robot‘s version makes the most of the opportunity that dreaming provides for character revelation in drama.

Watch the episode again and decide for yourself.