Summary: Finch goes to the place he and Grace had their first date but that gives away his cover. Elias smuggles Finch back to the hotel where he met Reese and hides him there. Reese, Root and Shaw give the attack to Samaritan but they still send men to get Finch. Elias tries to get Finch out to escape but he is killed and Finch is taken. Root and Shaw arrive to free Finch and Root drives him away while Shaw stays behind to fight. Samaritan's men give chase but Root kills them. Jeff is guided to a sniper spot where he shoots at the car and ends up hitting Root. The police stop the car and Finch is arrested. Root succumbs to her wounds. While being interrogated, Finch decrees that he will kill Samaritan for what it has done. The Machine, using Root's voice, contacts Finch and breaks him out of the prison. Reese and Shaw go to the prison to find Finch but discover that he has escaped while Fusco goes to the hospital where he learns of Root's fate.
The Good: What a crazy episode! The most impressive part about this episode was its pacing. This episode was packed with huge, impactful moments that flowed from one to each other at a breathless and rapid pace, and yet the episode still gave each moment the perfect amount of time for it to really stick and leave an impact on us. I'm not sure that I've ever seen an episode paced this well before. The fantastic pacing aided the palpable tension that was felt throughout the episode. With Finch as the POI this week, the episode immediately felt important, and with only 4 episodes left until the show's conclusion, it felt like everyone was in danger. Because of that sense of danger, the frantic pace and the importance of the episode, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It really felt like this episode would have some huge consequences, as the constant hinting of Finch saying he doesn't want to lose any friends made it really seem like there was going to be a major loss in this episode. And then the deaths hit in the middle portion of the episode and they were both outstanding moments. I'll start with Elias who got a perfect farewell in his final scenes. I thought that Elias' "death" in "YHWH" was seriously underwhelming and I didn't feel anything from it. This was handled so much better. In these last two episode we finally got to see Elias shine as a character as he joined Team Machine full-time. I think Elias was severely underutilized in the first 4 seasons, so it feels refreshing for him to get the spotlight he deserves. His final scenes were all brilliant as the show really celebrated his character and the way that he inspired loyalty in the criminal underground with so many allies hidden away in that hotel complex. Additionally, the return to the hotel complex was perfect. It's where we first got to know Elias and it's also where we get to say goodbye to him as well. His actual death was excellently done. It was such a sudden moment, but I think that really helped accentuate the shock and fear of his death as well as the impact that his death had on Finch who was standing right there. The scene was paced perfectly too, his death came as a sudden gut-punch but the scene kept going, giving us frequent shots of Elias' motionless body to allow the moment to really sink in for us and allow the heavy emotion of his loss to really settle in. After that, the suspense throughout the rest of the episode practically killed me. Elias was gone only halfway through the episode and his death entirely got me to believe that anybody else could die in the back half of the episode. The tension in the episode was immediately elevated by this change. Following Elias, we had to say farewell to Root as well. Root's death was handled similarly to Elias' where she wasn't given any grand, dramatic farewell. She simply took a fatal wound protecting her friend and died later in the episode. The slow reveal of her death was really well done and it came off as a confirmation of our worst fears which added to the bleak tone of the episode. Furthermore, I like the idea of Root dying to save Finch as it nicely rounded off the redemption arc her character went through in heartbreaking fashion. The episode did a nice job of celebrating Root as a character while also touching on her key relationships. We got some final scenes between her and Finch as they continued to discuss the state of The Machine and what needs to be done, but this time there was less conflict than before. It was simply a case of Root letting Finch know that she has faith in him, which does make me wonder if The Machine had actually informed her that she was going to die. Additionally, we got some ridiculous over-the-top action scene from Root as she blew up that car which I think is a fair way to give her one last hurrah, even if it did have some drawbacks to it (see: The Bad). We also got a lovely scene between Root and Shaw during the shootout as they got to embrace each other in the heat of battle. The moment was lovely, and I applaud the writers for deciding to make Root and Shaw's defining couple-moment to be them killing people together, which is certainly the more logical way for them to bond rather than holding hands like they did earlier in the episode. That showed that the writers understood what made this relationship work. As a final way to honour Root, the episode adds in a wonderfully powerful final touch of getting The Machine to pick Root's voice to use. I thought the ending of the episode was phenomenal. Finch's speech to Samaritan at the end was probably the show's single greatest moment (see: Best Moment) as we got to see the "pot boil over" as Elias had referenced a couple episodes ago. After witnessing two of his friends die, Finch is in no mood to sit around in some cell. He has finally been pushed past his limit and Michael Emerson does a fantastic job of portraying Finch's disappointment in how he got punished so badly while trying to be the morally correct one. Finch's sadness and regret is easy to see and the way he channels that and turns it into desire for vengeance is completely understandable and a very logical step for the character to take. In the end, this whole episode built up to this moment and I'm very excited to see what Finch does next. Lastly, I really liked the way that Finch ended up getting his cover blown. Having him visit the place where he and Grace had their first date felt like a genuinely human moment. Before embarking on the final war with Samaritan, Finch allowed himself one moment to appreciate his life, and that one moment caused all of the mayhem in this episode which resulted in him losing 2 very close friends. The Bad: A few odd things didn't work for me. The show has been extremely inconsistent with how covers are blown. I thought for sure that Reese's cover was blown multiple times in previous episodes, but for some reason he can just keep using his detective Riley alias. So when Finch's cover gets blown for something so small and trivial, it doesn't make sense to me at all, and it makes less sense how Samaritan can so easily keep track of him when it was so easy for Team Machine to lose Samaritan in earlier episodes. Root destroying that car in such a cartoonish way didn't really fit the episode. I've grown to enjoy the show's cheesy action scenes since they are very clearly done in a way to sort of mock the trope, but I thought the addition of a parody action scene in one of the most intense episodes of the series was a poor idea. The sudden and convenient removal of the minigun threat, coupled with the ridiculous idea of Root shooting at it with pinpoint accuracy while driving a car really didn't work for me at all and it made the main characters seem invincible in an episode which had made a point of removing all plot armour from every character. Add in the laughably bad explosion at the end of the scene, and it really took me out of the episode for a couple of minutes. Having Elias come back to life only to die a few episodes later was odd and it didn't make his return feel very important. I presume this only happened because of the cancellation so I can forgive it. Plus, the writers used his character perfectly after his return so I can say that it definitely wasn't a waste of time. I'm not sure if I missed anything, but how can Finch talk to The Machine directly through cameras? Isn't Samaritan listening too? The Unknown: What is Finch going to do next? Does he have any plan to attack Samaritan? Where will he go to be safe? How are Root, Shaw and Fusco going to find him? Best Moment: Finch's speech was an outstanding moment. Michael Emerson is fantastic every time I see him, and I think this was his best work in this show. Every line was delivered with the perfect amount of anger, regret and sadness and I think that made it so much easier to really understand Finch's emotions throughout this scene. This was the perfect way to mark Finch's transformation from a weak, kind-hearted guy into a vengeful monster. Character of the Episode: Finch for sure. Conclusion: This was an incredible episode. So much was accomplished in this episode without anything feeling rushed which really impressed me. Two major deaths, a shocking but believable character transformation, and epic cliffhanger and an outstanding pace. This episode had it all, and because of that, I think this was the best episode of the show so far and I don't think it will be topped. Score: 87
1 Comment
Joe Y
1/5/2021 12:21:19 pm
Good catch. The secret identity thing bugged me too. It could have been cleared up with about one line of dialogue, too.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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