Summary: Chandler tries to find a way to give Joey some money to help him out now that he's alone. Monica and Rachel argue while packing Rachel's things. Ross makes a fake Ben to get out of helping Rachel pack.
The Good: Ross was really funny here and the fake Ben story is genuinely great for a C-story with perfect laughs. The two main stories have their moments. Fromt he Joey story, I liked the idea of the Cups game and how Joey blew his money playing Ross in Cups. Additionally, the overly dramatic foosball scene was probably the best self-conscious parody scene the show has ever done. Phoebe has some good lines too. The Bad: This had all of the potential to be great but it falls well short of that. Rachel and Monica are absolutely awful to each other and they say some seriously offensive stuff to each other, stuff that shouldn't just be glossed over. Rachel's comments about Chandler are particularly insensitive and could easily be enough to ruin their friendship. The show is sacrificing any sense of reality in favour of having characters insult each other because the writers think it's funny. It's not. The emotion really wasn't capitalized as well as it should have been aside from one or two moments near the end of the episode. For such an important episode, this didn't hit me as much as it should have. It's a result of the decline in writing this season, and I pray that the writers get back on their A-game after this. Best Moment: Monica calling Ross about Ben's head falling off was a hilarious moment. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This was really disappointing since I was expecting a really big effort for the last night before such a big change. In the end, weak writing has hurt another episode this season, and it's a shame since the last few episodes were great. Score: 53
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Summary: Shaw escapes from Martine with Root's help but she is forced to lay low and out of sight of camera. Reese contacts Elias and saves him, accompanying him from then. Elias' men have been turned by the Brotherhood so they have to hide in a safe house. The Brotherhood arrive and capture Scarface. Reese escapes with Elias but Elias chooses to go back to trade himself for Scarface. The Brotherhood isolate Elias and want his money, locked in a safe next to Scarface. Elias eventually gives a code to Dominic but the code detonates the safe, killing Scarface and crippling Link. Elias is saved by Reese. Elias looks for vengeance for Scarface.
The Good: Elias is probably my favourite recurring character on the show, so it's no surprise that an episode focused around him would be really great. He was the absolute star of this episode, and Enrico Colantoni gave a terrific performance. What was most surprising was how well this episode humanized Elias. He has been a shady character for a while now, along with his mysterious henchman Scarface. But here he comes off as just another man. He's vulnerable, he shows emotions, mourns his friends and shows an actual respect for human life. It's a surprising turn for the show to explore these aspects of his character, and I'm pleased to say that it was a resounding success. Elias' relationship with Scarface (he is called Anthony in this episode, but I'll stick with Scarface for old times' sake) is pretty heavily explored in this episode. Even though we don't see any flashbacks, we take a bit of a dive into Elias' past through some subtle and brief lines of dialogue, and it really helps paint a picture of what his relationship with Scarface (and even Moran) was like. Couple that with some excellent acting, and Scarface's death becomes more emotional than I expected. Elias showed so much compassion throughout the episode, so when it came time for him to make that fateful decision, I was invested in his conflict. And Enrico Colantoni was so, so good when Elias chose to give Dominic the code. It brought some real emotion into the scene. The Brotherhood really improved as villains in this episode. Not because they became more interesting, but because they made things personal with a character we care about. Elias has a drive to get revenge on the Brotherhood, and I will absolutely be rooting him on. While the Brotherhood don't interest me as characters, the show has successfully made me despise them, which turns them into fairly good old-school villains. Furthermore, we had some really good dialogue between Dominic and Elias. I'm craving for more of it. Elias' interactions with Reese were as fun as ever. Over time, the two of them (and Finch too) have developed a believable bond, and I bought into Reese's desperate attempts to save Elias. Finch also brings up a great point about how valuable Elias is, so there is never a point where I think that sacrificing Elias would be the smart thing to do. As a result, I was really immersed in the episode since Elias was not only somebody that Reese and Finch wanted to survive, but he was also a character that I wanted to survive. The episode also did a lovely job of building tension. Reese and Elias were quickly stripped of all of their resources throughout the episode, until we were left with them with only each other inside of the building. It gave a sense of impending doom and made me genuinely concerned about how both of them could possibly make it out alive. The scenes with Shaw and Root were pretty good. The opening shootout was exciting, and I thought it was shot really well (pun not intended). I also loved the clever nature of Root's escape with the moving truck. Satisfyingly, even that escape wasn't enough to fool Samaritan since the truck was tracked down in the end, and that had severe consequences for the characters when Fusco was compromised. The scenes after this were strong too. The show is spending time building up Root and Shaw's relationship, which I like. The Bad: Root and Shaw's relationship isn't developed in the best way. While Root was very subtle in the past about her feelings for Shaw, she is much more open now and I'm not entirely sure why. I think that there needs to be much more subtlety in Root's dialogue than what we are actually getting. The money that the Brotherhood required was a very convenient MacGuffin. It really had no value to the show whatsoever, and I didn't really care if Dominic would have obtained it or not. The Unknown: What does Elias plan to do for revenge? Will he be able to reform alliances? What will the Brotherhood do about him? What can Shaw do now? Will she just help Finch? If she so much as leaves, she will be tracked down, so I can't imagine this situation persisting for much longer. Perhaps her story will develop as soon as next episode, seeing how it's the mid-season finale. Best Moment: Elias and Scarface speaking over the phone was surprisingly powerful and it humanized Elias to show a new side of him we have only gotten tiny hints as before. Character of the Episode: Elias. Conclusion: This was an awesome episode with a devoted focus. The story was a lot of fun and there was also a surprising amount of emotion by the episode's end. Score: 75 Summary: The next POI is a girl named Silva. Reese thinks she is planning to kill someone but Finch discovers she is an undercover cop who has discovered a mole from the Brotherhood trying to work in the police. The Brotherhood try to kill her but Reese saves her. Reese and Finch realize that Mini is Dominic. Martine investigates on Shaw and tracks down Katya and Romeo. Her investigation leads to her finding Shaw and they face off. Finch gets the next POI and it's Elias.
The Good: This was a fine story and I had a good time watching it. Moments like Shaw and Fusco on the stakeout and Reese having to deal with Dr. Campbell are both examples of some fun bits of this episode. I also liked the scenes with Dominic who is showing more and more personality with each passing episode. The strongest storyline came from Martine. It was fascinating to watch her search for Shaw and I thought that the two scenes with Katya and Romeo were very fun. Both showed different aspects of her character. The scene with Katya showed the calm, assertive and manipulative aspects of her character, whereas the scene with Romeo shows her smart, violent and cunning she is. These two scenes were perfect at building up a new villain character and I find myself really excited to see what goes down between her and Shaw in the next episode. The ending of this episode was pretty awesome. This isn't a show which uses cliffhangers very much, but when it does, they are quite good. I can't wait to tune in for the next episode to find out what happens with Martine and Shaw, or what is going to happen to Elias now that his number has popped up. The Bad: The story is rather generic though and it doesn't hit any memorable emotional beats. It's very by-the-numbers with some of the usual strange moments. For example, Reese blowing up a grenade int he swimming pool for a convenient escape (which we aren't even shown) was pretty stupid. I also didn't care much for Finch conveniently figuring out the connection between Mini and Dominic. I didn't like that Reese brought up Carter and who he was before to Silva. We saw him go through something similar in the last couple of episodes, so it's redundant to see it again. Plus it makes Reese spilling his guts feel less special if he does it all the time. The Unknown: What will Martine do with Shaw? Can Shaw get away? Will she be able to get any help? Who is threatening Elias? Presumably the Brotherhood. What could they be planning for him? Best Moment: The scene with Martine and Katya was great. Martine was the perfect mixture of kind and cold which made he seem like a genuinely scary and intimidating person. Cara Buono played her to perfection. Character of the Episode: Martine. Conclusion: This episode was your usual effort, bolstered up a bit by the great Martine storyline. I presume that next episode is going to be a big one. Score: 58 Summary: Shaw quits her job as a thief. The next POI is a thief named Tomas. Shaw infiltrates the group and helps them out with a heist. They steal a virus and Tomas' crew turns on him, stealing the virus. Reese finds them later on, dead. Shaw and Tomas work to recover the virus. Finch and Root infiltrate a building and burn files that Samaritan was going to use to give personalized tablets to all children in schools. Shaw is able to escape with the virus but she is recognized by Grice, a government operative sent to destroy the virus. Grice lets her go but Samaritan notices and works to uncover Shaw's identity.
The Good: The start of the episode is decent fun with Shaw infiltrating the gang and both Root and Finch doing work investigating Wilkins. There were decent moments throughout and some fun lines of dialogue. I especially liked Root dropping in on Shaw while she was talking with Tomas and offering her comments. The episode really took off with the dual missions going on in the second half. The main story with Shaw and Tomas was fairly enjoyable. The villain of the episode was terrible (so bad I forgot his name), but thankfully he had limited screentime and was overshadowed by a number of other factors. The arrival of Grice and Brooks added some immediate stakes to the story and made the episode more about Shaw trying to stay hidden from Samaritan, instead of focusing the conflict on the villain. The villain was just an extra obstacle to overcome, which was a good call and added to the drama. The other mission with Root and Finch was just as great with the main threat once again being Samaritan. A pattern of this season is that it's always at its strongest when Samaritan is the primary threat, for obvious reasons. Furthermore, I thought the cinematography was outstanding for this heist and there were a number of excellent details added in. I particularly liked how we were frequently taken to the Samaritan overlay so we can actually see Samaritan's "thought process" as it watched Root infiltrating the building. There were a few good character moments too. I liked the crew having to briefly debate going through with Shaw's operation due to the big risk it poses them. I liked that this dilemma occurred very quickly. We have seen conflicts like this very frequently in the show, and to have the characters make their decisions quickly shows that they have learned and mature from their prior experiences. Furthermore, I think it's great that their decision to push through with the mission led to some consequences with Shaw potentially having her cover blown. I also liked the scene at the end with Root and Shaw. The show is definitely leading to them hooking up, and like I said in a previous episode, I'm fine with this. The Bad: The dialogue and comedy in the episode is a bit hit or miss. The Shaw and Tomas relationship is pretty dull and their chemistry sucks. It wasn't very interesting to watch. I was surprised that Shaw's stint with Romeo was over so suddenly and quickly. It makes me question why that story was introduced to begin with. Furthermore, I thought it was odd that Shaw quit so suddenly. She enjoyed thieving because it was so much better than her other job. Why quit thieving so suddenly if her new cover job will inevitably be something much more dull? The Unknown: Will Shaw's cover be blown after this? Or will Samaritan still be unable to identify her? What will happen to Grice now? Is Samaritan aware that he didn't do his job? Will he be punished for it? Best Moment: There wasn't any scene that stood out, so I'll give it to the final moment with Shaw being examined. It suggests that there will be a huge change in the stakes going into the midseason finale. Character of the Episode: Shaw. Conclusion: This was a solid episode which was fun to watch, and also set up the main story in a nice way. Score: 64 Summary: The next POI is a man named Walter. Shaw and Reese investigate and discover him snooping around a case involving a man who committed suicide named Abel. Walter is pretending to be a detective and gets involved in a dangerous situation. Reese learns that Abel was killed and was involved in smuggling in dangerous weapons. Walter has Abel's phone and the men want it because it will reveal the location of some missing weapons. Elias is also linked to the case so Reese inquires more information. Together, they take out the dangerous man who is known as the Armorer. Walter is safe. Elias realizes that the Brotherhood was behind everything so he meets with Dominic. Finch uploads a malware on the computer of Beth Bridges, who Samaritan is interested in.
The Good: This was an interesting episode. This show has been really good at slightly changing up its formula with new methods of storytelling from time to time. Last season, the show frequently introduced multiple storylines which were completely separate before uniting them by the end of the episode. This season has found a new pattern of starting off episodes with an unimportant feeling which will follow with an increase in stakes and importance as the episode goes on. This episode follows that new pattern, and as a result, I liked it. The episode had a good sense of levity to it as well. There were a number of great lines of dialogue which made me smile, and some of the jokes were great enough to make me laugh. Walter in particular became a fun, quirky character by the end of the episode and I enjoyed seeing his antics throughout the episode. In particular, I thought the superhero joke was really well done, and I laughed at how the show made Shaw and Fusco's entrance so overly epic. The ensuing interactions between Reese/Fusco/Shaw and Walter were very fun, and I really liked things like Walter pointing out Reese's discount Batman voice and wondering why he and Shaw aren't dating. The plot became really excellent by the end of the episode. I predicted that the Brotherhood would be involved with this plot, but I don't think it took away from the episode. Rather it kept my interest because I wanted to see if I was correct, and that made Dominic's arrival near the end of the episode much more satisfying. I've been critical of the Brotherhood so far, but if any show can make a great story out of something that feels lackluster, it's "Person of Interest". Just look at the outstanding conclusion to the HR story. I'm hoping that the Brotherhood storyline will go somewhere worthwhile, and with this new feud brewing with Elias, I have faith in the writers. Speaking of Elias, his role in this episode is wonderful. I'm like a broken record by this point, but I'll say it again: Elias' involvement in the episode made me much more interested in the story. The character of Elias is so good because what he will do next is so unpredictable. He is more or less one of the heroes, yet he still has this mysterious darkness surrounding him which makes me believe that he could turn on Reese and Finch in the blink of an eye. His scenes are so interesting as a result. The highlight for me was his scene with Dominic which had some really terrific dialogue. I liked that Reese actually got shot in this episode. Little things like this can add a lot of drama to the story since it makes Reese feel less invincible. There were some obvious parallels to "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" with the character of Walter who was a super cool detective in his head. I thought that was a neat little nod. The Bad: The first 15 minutes or so were ridiculously bland. I suppose that's bound to happen with the new format that season 4 is testing, but I just wasn't entertained in the opening parts of the episode. The pacing was slow, the stakes were non-existent and I was struggling to care. Furthermore, I felt that the episode just didn't click in its first half. The dialogue felt very obtrusive and poor in the first half of the episode, and a lot of the writing felt convenient and dull. Even the acting felt off at times. It's quite odd that the first half of this episode was so poor, especially considering how strong the back half of this episode was. The Finch and Bridges story wasn't very interesting to me until the end (see: The Unknown). Their early scenes together dragged like crazy and were totally... boring. I understand the writers were trying to build up the story, but surely there was a more interesting way to do this. The only people who could possibly be entertained by Finch's discussions with Bridges are fellow professors and scientists. I couldn't care less about what they were talking about, so I was just drop-dead bored during their scenes, and I'm sure that many others will feel this way. Their scenes should have been written much better. It's a bit odd to see Reese getting back into shootouts one episode after he had to visit a therapist over this problem. Did the police just choose to let him do his thing anyways? What happened to the threat of him losing his job? The Unknown: What was that malware that Finch uploaded to Bridges' laptop? Is he preparing for an attack on Samaritan? Or something else? Why is Samaritan interested in Bridges anyways? What is Elias planning to do? How will it conflict with the Brotherhood's goals? I'm very interested to see where this goes. Best Moment: Elias and Dominic vaguely threatening each other in a great meeting. Character of the Episode: Elias. Conclusion: This episode was a story of two halves. The first half was weak, boring, and badly written. But the second half was intense, epic and funny. In the end this is a middling episode, but still fairly good. Score: 62 Summary: Rachel forces Ross to get a divorce. Joey pretends that he is the owner of a parked Porsche. Phoebe enlists Chandler and Monica to help her babysit her triplets.
The Good: This was another strong, funny episode. Ross and Rachel arguing never gets old and they entertained me thoroughly. The episode goes the extra mile and also throws in a great scene where they make up at the end which was both sweet and funny. It felt very real and I loved it. The story worked on nearly every level. Add in a fun cameo from the judge and it's the best we have gotten this season. The other two stories are fine too and they have their moments. The Bad: Unfortunately, the side stories just aren't that interesting overall. The Porsche story is fairly dull and the Phoebe/Monica/Chandler story isn't as funny as I was hoping (though some moments are excellent). Best Moment: The opening scene when Ross confesses that he and Rachel are still married. There were tons of great laughs. Character of the Episode: Rachel. Conclusion: This was another really funny episode, led by an awesome main storyline while the other stories added some extra comedy too. This season is recovering from a weak start. Score: 71 Summary: Reese continues to get in shoot-outs and is put in therapy to keep him in check, with his job in danger. Finch encourages him to do the time and keep his job. The next number is Simon, a man who predicts election results. He is wrong for the first time and is convicned the election was rigged. It was, by Samaritan. Simon gets himself in danger by investigating and he is stalked by Martine, a Samaritan operative. Root, Shaw and Finch try to save Simon without letting Samaritan track them or him. Martine finds Simon and Root engages in a shootout with her. Simon is saved and gives up his investigation, ensuring his safety. Root dons a new identity afterwards but Samaritan is actively hunting for the Machine now.
The Good: Reese's story here was really strong. It was refreshing to see him deal with a personal conflict, forcing him to hold back on his naturally heroic behaviour to ensure he remains safe and keeps his job. It was enjoyable to watch Reese deal with this conflict and his therapy sessions were quite good. The show has excelled at having characters go through a catharsis by indirectly speaking about an emotional moment in their life. This episode, we see Reese go through this catharsis as he talks about Carter's death to the therapist in an excellent scene. The main POI story was very good too. Samaritan's involvement once more increased my investment significantly and the main story from then on was an absolute blast. The cat and mouse game between Simon and Samaritan was awesome to watch and there were creative ways that the show used suspense to keep my interest. The idea of hiding from surveillance is a ton of fun and I loved seeing Root/Finch/Shaw attempt to hide Simon from the cameras without giving themselves away. It was very creative and there was evidently lots of thought put into these sequences, due to how detailed and logical they are. The final shootout between Martine and Root was excellent, a very clever piece of action which carried the atmosphere of two gods doing battle. It was a hell of a spectacle, and was the first of (hopefully) many Machine vs Samaritan battles. What I liked most about the structure of this episode was how different it felt. Going into season 4, I had expected a big change in the storytelling, as I mentioned a few episodes ago. This episode finally showed the change I was expecting. Samaritan's presence is constantly felt and it is a huge threat the entire episode. In response, the crew can't use all of their normal techniques and have to change things up, which is really fun to watch. What was really great about this was how the characters remained in focus throughout these epic action sequences. Root and Finch both had a wonderful episode as their relationship got some extra focus to it with some brilliant conversations regarding the Machine. Finch's fear of his creation is a wonderful development and really adds to the swinging emotions he has had in the past 10ish episodes. It's not that he is no longer interested in saving lives; he is just afraid of the consequences of listening to the Machine now that it's free. This also nicely tied into the excellent flashbacks (great to see Ingram again by the way), which showed us the struggle of making an AI that can be both useful and trusted. The flashbacks also seem to ominously suggest the route that Samaritan may take with Greer in the near future. Root is similarly excellent as we get the terrific reveal that she actually hasn't gotten any input from the Machine. She is just as alone as the others and just pretends that all is fine. I thought Root's character got a great examination as she gets to release the emotions she hides underneath her charismatic personality. Her potential farewell to Finch near the ending of the episode was poignant and it neatly highlighted the relationship she has built with both Finch and Shaw. Greer's deal with Dawson is quite interesting. Now Decima has a face to do their bidding, giving them even more control over USA. The Bad: Some aspects of the story didn't work very well. The great reveal that Root isn't in contact in the Machine was diminished since she got contacted a few minutes later. The impact of the Machine returning to her was lessened because we had very little time to comprehend that Root is just as alone as the others now. The philosophical conversation about AI between Finch and Root was excellent. But surely this should have been discussed in an earlier scene between them, even during season 2. It feels like something like this should have been addressed much earlier, especially when the Machine was actually being set free. Simon's story had odd moments. It felt weird that nobody would address his claims that the election was rigged. Additionally, it made no sense that Simon would simply let go of his investigation after Finch talked to him. I feel like anyone would only be more convinced that a higher power is going after him if all of this crazy stuff is happening to him. I can't buy into him simply forgetting about it. Nor can I buy into Samaritan deeming Simon as a non-threat. Surely a machine as logical as Samaritan wouldn't want to leave any loose ends like Simon. The Unknown: Why did Samaritan feel the need to kill Perez before appointing Dawson? Is there a specific reason he was picked other than he is easy for Decima to manipulate? Did Root just admit that she loves Shaw? I had suspected it for a little while and I think the show just confirmed it. If so, I like this development. What are Greer's goals exactly? Or rather, what are Samaritan's goals? What are they both planning to do next, now that they have a government representative? Will the Machine respond to Finch and set up a talk between them? Best Moment: Both of the big Finch/Root scenes were awesome. The second one where Finch admits that Root is a friend was the one that stood out most for me. Character of the Episode: Root, though Finch is a close second. Conclusion: This was an excellent episode which got me into the season with strong storytelling and exciting drama. Episodes like this are more like what I was expecting with season 4. I would love to get more of this. Score: 72 Summary: Joey loses his health insurance when he doesn't work enough during the last year and he gets a hernia. Ross gets an opportunity to teach a lecture but gets nervous and starts using an accent. Phoebe is told by her psychic that she will die in the next week.
The Good: This was good fun with good jokes and some clever plot lines. The return of Estelle is really fun (as ever) and she gets some good lines in. Joey's scenes are really funny as he struggles with his hernia and there are quite a few funny lines and visual gags. Ross' story is a blast too, as stupid as it is. Monica and Rachel have good fun in the role and Ross' random accent is stupid, yet very funny. The final scene where Rachel invades on Ross is excellent and works as a perfect punchline. The Bad: Phoebe's plot is pointless and isn't very funny. As mentioned above, parts of this episode were very dumb and simplistic, but the episode made up for it by being funny. Best Moment: Ross asking his class to give him another chance only for Rachel to come in and verbally assault him was hilarious. David Schwimmer's face and his relapse into his accent were both perfect and made me laugh. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This episode had great jokes and memorable stories. While the stupidity of the jokes is still there, this was funny enough to successfully work around it and end up as a great episode. Score: 70 Summary: Dany takes control of King's Landing and plans to conquer the world. Tyrion quits as Hand and is apprehended. Jon talks with Tyrion who encourages him to kill Dany. Jon eventually kills Dany. Drogon goes into a rage and urns down the iron throne. Drogon leaves with Dany's body. Jon is taken as a prisoner. The lords of the realm and Tyrion meet to appoint a new king. Tyrion suggests Bran and the others all agree. Bran takes over as king and creates a new small council. Tyrion is taken as Hand. Bran sentences Jon to the Night's Watch. Sansa is allowed independence in the North. Arya sails west on a new adventure.
The Good: The episode started off on the right foot. The opening scenes did a brilliant job of establishing a melancholy and desolate atmosphere, creating a near-perfect tone for Dany's new world that she so violently created. Tyrion and Jon walking through the death on the streets was powerful and nicely set up both characters to oppose Dany later. There were a number of great scenes early in the episode. I thought Dany's break the wheel speech was fantastic and nicely showed us how fractured her mind and goals had become (even if the process to get here wasn't very good at all). Tyrion resigning from his position was a good moment too. Tyrion actually had the best scene of the episode prior to this when he finds the dead bodies of his siblings. It was a sad and tragic end for the Lannisters with Tyrion facing the death of his family. Tyrion and Jon's conversation was quite good too. It was lengthy and I think it was the closest we have gotten to the classic conversations of seasons 1-4 in a long while. Both characters' motives were clear and they had some very good lines. Tyrion finally did something smart for the first time in many seasons, while Jon has finally been given a proper conflict to deal with in this season. There were some good references to the past as well which the show has done well in the last 2 seasons, if a bit too often. Brienne's story ended up being the only one I was actually satisfied with. Her character's arc this season was the only one that felt earned and emotional with great (though not perfect) closure on her character. Having her finish off Jaime's account in The White Book was a great, and fittingly somber conclusion for her relationship with Jaime. Jon actually interacted with Ghost! Yay! The Bad: This ending was underwhelming in a lot of ways and I don't think it captured the essence of the show very much at all. D&D decided to take inspiration from "The Lord of the Rings" for this ending with its many layers and its epic length. I liked it for "Lord of the Rings" because it nicely closed out the characters while offering a very emotional farewell. Yet it failed horribly here because the path to these final scenes was so poor. The scenes dragged on and were more confusing and rushed than anything else. Somehow after years and years of investment, I felt nothing at the end of what used to be one of my favourite TV shows. How has it come to this? Well I believe I've explained why the show isn't as good as it used to be in my more recent reviews (mostly because of writing) and that is a big reason as to why this finale flopped. My immersion and investment had slowly been chipped away since season 5. The writing of the show had hit such a low that I was falling out of love with the story and its characters. Now after this episode, I think I finally hit that moment where I stopped caring after the many stupidities I had to watch in this episode. The fond farewells did nothing for me and I found myself just eager to get this disappointment over with. Rather than relishing my final moments in this world, I just wanted it to be over. And unlike TV shows like "Lost" or "Breaking Bad" which left me feeling sad at its conclusion due to the need to say goodbye to these characters, "Game of Thrones" just left me feeling sad that the show wasn't better than it was. The first half of this episode should have been outstanding and emotional. Dany has gone evil and has killed a ton of people. Now our heroes need to come to terms with themselves and murder her. It's a great story idea yet it doesn't work. Why? Once more it fails because of the writing. The way the show got to this position was so contrived that I found it actually difficult to buy into the story being told. It kept my immersion minimal so I wasn't into the emotions that Jon and Tyrion were feeling as they conspired against Dany. That, coupled with a ridiculously rushed pacing, caused my emotional investment to be low and that prevented the episode from impacting me the way that it should have. Even the Jon/Tyrion scene had issues with it that I immediately noticed. Jon says he won't defend what Dany did, and yet he immediately starts defending her. Why? I can't buy into him still standing beside Dany after this happened. Their romance isn't strong enough of a storyline for this to work. I was upset by Tyrion adding some depth to his decision to kill Varys after the fact. Wouldn't that have been such a great story to watch develop for a few episodes? Instead the show is so rushed that nothing interesting happened when it could have been great. These big problems made me reflect on how disappointing the show has been these past few seasons, rather than reflect on how great the show was. This occurred many more times throughout the episode. Then we get to Jon killing Dany, and it was... disappointing. The scene was so generic with Jon kissing and killing Dany in such a dull and predictable way. It felt so easy and shockingly anticlimactic. I feel like I should have felt so much more here, but with the lame writing and rushed nature of Jon and Dany's relationship, the scene fell flat for me with little emotion. Drogon burning the iron throne and not killing Jon afterwards felt odd and I was left with more questions than answers. It was yet another case of the writers wanting to go for spectacle rather than actual substance. So with Dany dead, you would expect absolute chaos to result. I was much more excited to see what happened following her death than anything else in the episode. But the writers made the boneheaded mistake of ignoring the fallout and doing a lazy timeskip. Well what happened? How did the public react? Did the Dothraki go crazy and kill more? Did Jon's men rise up? Did Dany's death cause riots? What happened to everyone after she died? Did King's Landing get rebuilt? Were there enough people to do this? These questions were all skipped over because the writers were too lazy. It's unbelievable. Continuing on the writers' laziness, I thought it was remarkable that we didn't get proper follow-up on the events of last episode. Nobody tries to make sure that Cersei is actually dead. We don't see if any survivors were found and what was done with them. We don't see what everyone thinks about Dany. We don't even get a scene where people confront Dany for killing everyone after the surrender. Hell, Jon doesn't even bring this up when he talks with her! These are important details, and the lack of these details completely killed my immersion. I was too distracted to care about what was happening in the show. Then we get to the god-awful scene where the lords of Westeros gather to select a new king. First of all, how did this get organized? What was everyone told? Why did they all gather? Was nobody busy? Did nobody care to bring any of their own men with them? Who sent the messages? Whose side are they on? Are there any threats to be worried about? How many men do each of them have? The "Game of Thrones" of old would never have glossed over these details. I've said before how the world of Westeros feels so empty now, and this is one of the reasons why. None of the details are explored. The scene itself is horribly written. It's implied that Grey Worm has power over the city. So did he invite everyone here? They are all meeting in the dragonpit after all. There is literally not a single line of dialogue addressing how this was all organized. Grey Worm is so hostile and seems to want to resolve things himself. So why didn't he care to participate in this discussion? Was Tyrion his representative? No way that's right. Why was Tyrion even allowed to attend anyways? None of these details were touched on and it adds to how poorly the scene is written. There is so much more too that I hated. Edmure is openly humiliated again in an unnecessary scene. I hate that the writers chose to give time to this scene rather than focusing on the details of the world. The comedy in this scene was weak and not needed. I did get a kick out of Yara laughing at Sam for suggesting a vote from the people. Did she forget that the ironborn select their next king in the same way? The decision to make Bran the king was so, so, so stupid. Why would everyone listen to Tyrion, the prisoner, anyways? And why does Tyrion think Bran is a good choice? They have hardly ever talked! Furthermore, Bran's reactions are so bad. Bran has made it clear he doesn't want anymore, yet in this scene he implies that he only came down to King's Landing because he wanted to be king. What awful, awful writing. Plus, why does literally everyone vote for him? Do the others not have their own interests? Plus, half of them have no idea who the hell Bran even is, so why would they vote for him?! It's so dumb. Then Sansa asks for independence, which makes sense. But why didn't anybody else try for independence. How about Yara, who was promised independence back in "The Winds of Winter"? Does she not want it anymore? Or Dorne, who were never ruled by the king to being with? So much for unbowed, unbent, unbroken. Hell, the prince of Dorne didn't say a single word, so clearly he doesn't matter. Also, why is Gendry the official lord of the Stormlands now? Did it only take Dany's word at Winterfell to make it official? Did the people of the Stormlands just accept him without any kind of fight? It's all so unrealistic. The more I think about it, the more holes I am able to poke into the logic of this scene. It's simply pathetic. I hated how the episode treated Jon after he killed Dany. He had little to no focus on his character after this. Nobody vouched for him to be a king even though he is a Targaryen. Why, I will never know. What's worse is that when you look back at it, Jon's lineage had zero impact on the story. All it did was make Dany mad. That's literally it. Such a big twist with limitless possibilities can't possibly have no ramifications whatsoever. That's just poor storytelling. Furthermore, the decision on what to do with him should surely have been given more time. It's a genuine conflict for Bran. But alas, the writers don't care about Bran and Jon's simply banished in one scene. Why is he banished anyways? The only people who want him dead just went away to Naath. So can't they just free him now? Plus, why is the Night's Watch even a thing now? What are they defending against? The White Walkers are dead and the wildlings are allies now. Are they hunting for grumpkins and snarks? Also, what about that gaping hole in The Wall? Is anyone going to be able to fix that? I have several other quibbles. The small council scene was pathetic and just served to remind me of how good the small council scenes were earlier in the series. The patheticness of this scene was just painful for me to experience and it made me crave for the old "Game of Thrones" more than anything. How could it have come to this? Arya's extended screentime in the last episode was quite pointless. She did nothing whatsoever. Hell, she didn't even have a story arc this season even though she killed the Night King. She was painfully bland. The same can be said for many of the characters this season. They were misused and/or given nothing to do. The best examples are Jon, Dany, Jaime, Cersei and Davos, though many other characters had downright bad storylines this season. I'm honing in on Arya specifically because she had so much time on screen. Yet she did next to nothing the entire time. How hard is it to give her a character arc instead of just making her an unkillable assassin? Furthermore, that convenient horse from last episode didn't even get any pay-off. It wasn't symbolism, it was just a way to make Arya survive King's Landing. And damn it, it doesn't even appear in this episode! The presence of winter has been so inconsistent. The scenes flash from summer to winter sporadically and it fails to establish a consistent setting. After hyping up that winter will be coming from the first episode, it hardly even came at all. Even the writers don't know if it's winter or not. Had Jaime or Cersei stood a few feet away from where they were, they would have lived. That's just poor storytelling. The Unknown: Did King's Landing get rebuilt? Or is it still rubble? How many survivors were there? Is Bran actually ruling anything? Why does Bran need a master of whisperers when he knows everything? That's kind of pointless, and besides, who would even be up to the task? Who will be Bran's kingsguard? Will he have any? You would think that the cripple king would need guards more than anyone else. Where has Drogon gone with Dany's body? Valyria? Did Jon join up with the wildlings rather than the Night's Watch? That's a neat development. What ever happened with the Lord of Light? Does he no logner exist? Why did he bring Jon back to life anyways? I find it tough to believe it was just to kill Ramsay and Dany. Best Moment: Tyrion crying over his dead siblings. Character of the Episode: Brienne for having the best character conclusion. Conclusion: This was so disappointing, and I don't think disappointing is a strong enough word to describe what happened here. The finale is enjoyable enough at parts but the writing is so lazy it's absurd. D&D really phoned it in this season and it shows. This is an absolute trainwreck and will go down as one of the worst finales ever. The more I think about this episode, the more painful it gets. At this point I'm not even mad anymore, just in pain. How did such a great story end this way? Season 8 ended up as a pretty looking, well-acted disaster. Outside of episode 2, no storytelling stood out whatsoever and it was nearly impossible to care about anything that happened in the show. The characters were all handled badly, many questions were left unanswered and the ending proved to be absolutely awful. At this point I really don't want to talk about this season any more than I already have. I've written thousands of words on it, and that will be enough to give you an idea of how weak this was. In retrospect, every episode I rated this season was rated too high and should have been much lower, particularly the battle episodes which are fun on the first watch, but disappointingly stale on rewatch. Even "The Bells" feels so much worse after watching how meaningless it all was following this episode. It's amazing how much stink a bad ending will leave on the rest of the show. "Game of Thrones" didn't deserve to go out this way, and I've already rejected this as a canonical ending. I'll just have to wait until GRRM releases the final two books to get the ending we deserve. Score: 35 Summary: The next POIs are two kids, Malcolm and Tracie who Finch connects to the Brotherhood. Their mother was arrested for a gun charge and they stole some money from the Brotherhood to help free her. As Reese protects the kids with the help of DEA agent Lennox, Shaw captures Mini, a member of the Brotherhood and tries to use him to find their boss Dominic. Lennox is found to be a Brotherhood mole so Reese has to escape. Malcolm tries to sacrifice himself but Reese saves him by giving himself to them. Shaw frees Mini in exchange for Reese. Mini is revealed to be Dominic and he kills a captured Lennox.
The Good: The involvement of the Brotherhood helped make this episode feel more important than the average episode. After being mentioned in the season premiere, this episode is the one that cemented them as a major force, and I suspect that they will be the main villain of this season, akin to Vigilance from last season. The Brotherhood had its moments for sure. Link is pretty enjoyable to watch, and I thought the introduction to Dominic was well done. The final scene where he coldly executed Lennox was solid, and I thought that the twist reveal worked pretty well. The Lennox twist was set up well too. It nicely capitalized on the fact that Reese had been making friends as a detective (like his captain in the last episode) to make me not suspect her to be a bad guy. The twist did surprise me and nicely changed the dynamic of the episode. Elias has been fun this season, and I loved his conversations with Finch on how the world has changed. I would be excited if Elias is brought into the fold as a major character once again, and I like the idea of him becoming aware that something has happened to the world. The Bad: Unfortunately this episode was disappointingly weak. Vigilance was introduced in perfect manner and they were immediately both threatening and interesting. The Brotherhood has not accomplished this after this episode. I don't know anything about their goals or motives, so I'm finding it tough to be invested in them as villains. They are intimidating, but not much else and I don't know the characters very well yet. Dominic didn't deliver as a villain for me. He was completely owned by Shaw throughout the episode and was helpless against her throughout. It made him look weak and because of that, I don't view him as much of a threat. His vague lines of dialogue with Shaw weren't interesting at all to me and felt ridiculously boring. Dominic doesn't appear to have any of the depth that Collier had, and I hope that this can be rectified in future episodes. I found the behaviour of the Brotherhood to be confusing as well. I wasn't sure why they would actually consider recruiting Malcolm and Tracie, especially when they mocked the idea earlier in the episode. It left me feeling quite confused. What was also confusing was how the Brotherhood killed Lennox at the end. Why did they do that? What did she do? Perhaps I missed a crucial line of dialogue, but I was left pretty confused and underwhelmed by the pay-off of the Lennox twist.. The main story wasn't very engaging and I found it tough to care. The kid actors who played Malcolm and Tracie were not good at all and I found it difficult to invest in their story because of how fake the acting felt. The dialogue that was written for them was actually even worse and it took me out of the episode. The Unknown: What are the Brotherhood's motives? How will they stay involved in the series? Do the members of the Brotherhood know who Dominic is or do they think that Mini is just another member of the group? Will Malcolm return as a member of the Brotherhood? What will Finch tell Elias? Could he become a more significant member of the crew? Best Moment: Finch and Elias at the end was quite good. Character of the Episode: Elias. Conclusion: This episode made effort to be more than just an average episode. But unfortunately the story was boring and the recurring villains uninteresting. This should have been better than it was. Score: 52 Summary: Reese gets in trouble with his captain for shooting people in public so he works on earning her trust. Fusco is put on the next case and investigates a wingman, Cooper who is involved with something. Shaw assists him. Cooper was friends with a man named Mickey who did something illegal and doesn't trust Cooper to stay silent about it. Mickey attacks Cooper and kidnaps him and Fusco. Shaw bails them out and Mickey is beaten. Meanwhile Finch goes with Root on another mission. The Machine allows Finch to gain enough money to support his operation.
The Good: I liked some of the conflicts in this episode. Reese not mixing in right with the police made sense and I was pleased that the show slowed down to focus on this story. Seeing Reese charm his superior was fun and it offered the odd good moment. It worked as a C-story for the episode. Fusco taking center stage was a pleasure as always and I enjoyed his relationship with Cooper. The story was fine (if unspectacular) and it was easy enough to follow and enjoy. Root and Finch had some great scenes. Root is still a lot of fun as expected, and seeing her take Finch a little out of his comfort zone was a blast. I loved Finch's terrorist impression as a joke, and I thought the writers did well to also include Finch's morality and his grudge against the Machine throughout the story. It was an effective way to win Finch's trust back. I also like the idea behind having episodic stories of the Machine arming Finch and co. with the required resources the battle Samaritan. It's a good way to help bring them back up to their former strength. I also like that the show touched on the fact that Finch doesn't have unlimited money like he did before. The Bad: The POI case was ordinary, and as usual it was pretty underwhelming as a result. The story didn't have much to go for it so it wasn't as engaging. The opening scene was very poor. Would Reese really be dumb enough to bust out his weapon in public like that? It felt unrealistic and it was out of character for Reese to care so little about the public. What's worse is how everyone just clapped when Reese revealed he was a cop. Would everyone really do that? The moment was so weird and didn't flow well at all. I also didn't like the sudden way that Fusco revealed he was a cop. Would he really need to go full cop against some upset guy? Just try to calm him down first! It's especially bad because Fusco was purposefully trying to hide his identity and this stupid move nearly ruined his mission. It's an example of weak writing where the writers require Fusco to reveal he is a cop so they manufacture a stupid situation where he shows his badge. The Unknown: What other resources will the Machine give to the group? How about the missile? Does the Machine have something in mind with the missile? Could it be used to destroy part of Samaritan? Best Moment: Probably Finch choosing to not hand over the missile to the mob. It was the best character moment of the episode. Character of the Episode: Fusco. Conclusion: This was your average "Person of Interest" episode. It didn't add much to the overall story but it was a decent watch. I expect to get great episodes later in the season so a few lesser episodes are no problem. Score: 59 Summary: Reese sets Finch up on a new POI case following a girl named Claire. Claire is playing a sort of mysterious game investigating some Nautilus signs. Others are playing the game too. Finch is noticed by Claire who thinks he is playing too. Finch discovers that the military is after Claire for stealing some documents. He also discovers that the game is run by Samaritan as a recruitment process. Finch confronts Claire and tries to get her to stop but Claire is determined to continue. Claire finishes the game but is confronted by the military. Samaritan kills them and allies itself with Claire. Finch completes a new base in the New York underground.
The Good: This episode was better than the last. I thought there was a better focus on staying hidden from Samaritan in this episode as opposed to the last. Scenes like Reese indirectly setting Finch up on a mission were perfect in fitting with this theme and I thought it was a suitably intelligent move from these two. The concept of the episode was really engaging. I thought the nautilus game was a very interesting concept (it reminded me of "Black Mirror" in a way), which provided the episode with stakes, mystery and an engaging plot. I was consistently intrigued watching Finch and Reese attempt to discover the nature of the game that Claire was involved in. But I got fully engaged when the staked were increased later in the episode. The Samaritan reveal was so good because it makes the episode feel that much more important, and even adds the extra layer of enjoyment when you realize that we may be seeing the birth of a new villain in Claire. Claire was a more interesting POI character than what we usually get. She had a sad backstory, good motive and genuine dedication which was admirable to see. Having her stand her ground against Finch who tried his best to help her stay away from Samaritan was a load of fun, and their dialogue was well written for the most part. Furthermore, I'm interested to see if Finch's will to help save this young girl is actually what causes him to be discovered by Samaritan if Claire is able to somehow inform Samaritan that she met Harold Finch. Finch's arc in this episode was also quite good. We are shown early on that he is still skeptical about doing POI missions again. The events of "Death Benefit" and "Deus Ex Machina" still haunt him. This episode nicely shows Finch slowly regaining his personality as he just can't help himself from saving innocent people, especially those who he can understand and relate with, like Claire. I thought the final scene was really strong as the formation of a new base nicely ties with the return of Finch's desire to save innocents. The side scenes in the episode are fun too. Shaw's new job was hardly shown, but what we got was good. Root's involvement was tons of fun as per usual. The Bad: Nothing that I would call bad. This was a solid episode from beginning to end. The thing that prevents this from being special is the fact that it took so long for me to get fully invested in the episode. I understand that the structure of the episode is intentionally made to be that way and I don't have a problem with it. It's just that I believe that episodes which get me emotionally engaged in the first few minutes ("Prisoner's Dilemma", "Relevance", "Endgame" and many others) are much better. The Unknown: Who shot the military men at the end? Was it Samaritan's men? Or does Samaritan somehow have the ability to control weapons? Also, did that switch do anything in particular? What will come of Claire joining up with Samaritan? Will she be able to reveal that she encountered Finch? What does it mean when Samaritan labeled her as an "asset"? Best Moment: I really liked Finch trying his hardest to save Claire on the rooftop. It was a powerful scene that shed a lot of light on Claire's character while also showing Finch's desire to save people surface once more. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a really strong episode that got the show back on track after one weaker episode. The central story of this episode was really good and it nicely nudges the plot along by setting up some importnt plot lines. Score: 68 Summary: Varys attempts to have Dany poisoned but Tyrion discovers his treason. Dany executes Varys. Jaime is captured in Dany's camp. Tyrion meets with him and ultimately frees him. Arya and The Hound infiltrate King's Landing. Jaime isn't able to get into the Red Keep and has to sneak around. Dany's army arrives outside. Dany arrives on Drogon and burns all of the scorpions as well as the Iron Fleet. Dany destroys the Golden Company and lets her army inside. The Lannister troops surrender but Dany burns them all anyways. The battle continues and Dany slaughters thousands of innocents in the city. The Hound has a final send-off with Arya who chooses to try to escape. The Hound finds Cersei, Qyburn and Gregor. Gregor kills Qyburn so Cersei leaves quietly. The Hound fights his brother. They both die in a fire. Jaime finds Cersei alone. They share a moment together and both of them die in the ruin of King's Landing.
The Good: Like the last episode, this was really strong on the surface, even outstanding at times. The massacre in King's Landing seems to be the ending GRRM had in mind, and it works really well. On paper, everything we see here is powerful and dramatic, and it seems like an ideal final act for the show. I like the idea of Dany going mad. The execution leaves a lot to be desired (see: The Bad), but the idea of having her slaughter all of these innocents after spending so much time freeing innocents in Essos is a tragic conclusion for her character. It's vicious and frightening, and makes me feel uncomfortable for rooting for Dany all this time if this is what she was going to do as a queen. Similarly, I like the idea of Jaime dying with Cersei in the end. Sometimes, characters aren't able to fulfill their redemption, and leaving Cersei behind ended up being too much for Jaime to bear. Having him throw his life away to be with her one last time is a heartbreaking end for a character who was so close to becoming a good man. The final scene between the two of them was well acted and well written, and could have been the episode's finest moment had the build-up been better. I thought the best scene of the episode came early in the episode. It was Tyrion and Jaime's final moments together. They have always had great conversations and they got to add one last one before the series ends. There was genuine emotion here as well with both Lannisters expecting to lose their lives, and Tyrion thanking Jaime for being a good brother to him. Varys' death early on in the episode was good. I like that the show has kept his character consistent as he chose to act against Dany and did so in the deceitful manner he is best known for. His plot to poison Dany using one of his little birds was clever and it made sense that the discovery of this plot would result in his death. Most of this episode centered on the big battle, and it was splendid to watch. The action was good, the editing was great, and the cinematography was even better. The episode looked fantastic and could pass for a movie due to the epic scale, brilliant effects and lovely make-up. The scenes were shot really nicely too, with the despairing tone presented nicely. I loved the way that the editing framed Dany deciding to burn everyone. The bells ringing in her head, mixed with some terrific acting added to the moment, and Cersei's horrified face when Dany took flight once again was an outstanding pay-off. But then the episode became so somber as we see tons and tons of innocents burning, and dying, and running for their lives. It's a horrible scene to behold and it really drives home one of the series' biggest themes: war is awful. Since season 1, we had all rooted for Dany to come in with dragons and burn the evil in Westeros. Well, here our wishes were granted, and in a classic "Game of Thrones" twist, we find ourselves horrified seeing exactly what we had been craving for 7 and a half seasons. The scenes with The Hound and Arya were strong. I enjoyed their final send-off. Cleganebowl was epic, brutal and spectacular in all the right ways, while Arya's escape was horrific, intense and violent. Centering the battle around these two characters ended up being a really good idea and gave the final parts of the episode the necessary focus to succeed in hitting our emotions. I thought that showing Arya's struggle so in-depth was a smart idea. She has never been pressed quite like this, and the ending with her leaving King's Landing on a white horse symbolizing death seems to suggest that she is going to do something about the horrors she had to experience. The Hound's scenes with The Mountain were simpler but still effective. Qyburn's sudden death was delectably ironic and set up the intensity of this fight from the get-go. I loved the callback to The Mountain crushing Oberyn too. The fight itself was very consistent with the revenge speech The Hound gave Arya. The Hound's whole life has been destroyed by revenge, and here he is at his most pathetic state: fighting a ghost of his brother who isn't even alive. It's a pretty depressing place for his character to be, but at least he gets a more positive send-off as he sends himself and The Mountain down to a fiery end, the perfect result of their relationship. The Bad: But like the last episode, the writing let this down. I'll start with the most egregious fault of this episode: Dany slaughtering all of the innocents. Now, I don't have a problem with this being the final act of the story. Having Dany go mad and kill everyone is a strong idea and would have a lot of emotion to it. But it isn't earned. Dany has always gone out of her way to save innocents, only punishing those who deserve to be punished. Hell, it's what she does in this episode when she kills Varys. Yet for some reason, it's framed that she is going mad because of this. Why? Because she executes people? Every ruler executes people, so why is this bad? I'm sure Tywin Lannister would do the same thing and he was a great leader. Hell, even Jon executed people! Are we just going to forget that he ordered the death of a young boy? Does that make him mad too? The portrayal of Dany going mad is too inconsistent. Furthermore, I'm not sure why everyone thinks that Dany grieving her friends is equal to her being mad. After all, I'm sure Jon would have the same reaction and desire for vengeance over Cersei. I'm unsure why everyone thinks Jon would be so much better than her. And why hasn't their been more discussion on a marriage? It was casually dismissed last episode and never brought up since. The actual moment where Dany went mad is absolutely ridiculous. The show treated going mad like flipping a switch. That doesn't happen. There needs to be build-up and troubling signs that lead to going mad. The writers failed to do this for Dany. There were no signs that led to her committing mass genocide. Plus, she had no motivation to do so. I could understand her going straight to Cersei and murdering her in the Red Keep, but also the innocents in the city? There is literally nothing that leads me to believe that Dany would do this, especially since we spent so much time in Essos getting to know that Dany loves the innocents. It's a sudden turn that doesn't feel earned in the slightest. I thought that Varys' death was disappointing as well. His dialogue this season hasn't been good. I've noticed that the show has failed to produce any good new lines for Varys in the past few seasons. He just recycles lines from previous seasons with no creative input being put in for his character. And then he just dies. His death didn't feel anywhere near as significant as it should have been. The show rushed to the moment and failed to examine any repercussions from his death. Killing Varys came off more like the writers checking a character death off the list instead of an actual plot point. Furthermore, I was disappointed that Dany didn't even refer to a prior conversation she had with Varys about betrayal. It should have been brought up and that could have been a good moment. But I guess the writers thought it wouldn't make Dany seem mad so they avoided it. It just goes to show how forced Dany's madness has been int he past few episodes. The battle scenes had issues too. After being the single most useful weapon ever created, the scorpions became absolutely useless in this episode. The inconsistency is ridiculous and gives the universe zero consistency. Also, Euron's fleet was taken out ridiculously easily. All of those boats had scorpions, so how did Dany dodge all of them? The scorpions have magically become completely inaccurate. Then we get to the Golden Company who were a complete waste of time. Why was there so much build-up to these losers who all died in seconds? The biggest fault for me was the size of Dany's army. There should have been far fewer men in her army because so many of them died fighting the Night King. Plus, how the hell does Dany still have more Dothraki? Didn't they all die in that initial charge back in "The Long Night"? Euron's fight with Jaime was a waste of time. Euron was the most pointless villain ever who did very little of note, and his death was suitably lame and disappointing. Then we have Jaime just taking two significant stab wounds and just walking away from it easily. It was like the direct sequel to when Arya got stabbed and just shrugged it off back in "No One". Jaime returning to Cersei felt like character regression. The issue is that the show spent so much time working on his redemption arc, and then spontaneously undid all of the hard work without reason. There was no logical reason for Jaime to decide to return to Cersei and it really hurt his character arc. This was nearly as poor as Dany choosing to kill everyone. The Unknown: So will we never know about the voice Varys heard when he was castrated? I'm glad to see that the show provided a terrific pay-off for all of the time spent building up magic. That was sarcasm. Is Jon going to kill Dany next episode? One terrible ruler replaces another. Who did Varys send those letters to? Will we see reinforcements coming to ally behind Jon? Perhaps Edmure will return? Or Yara? Dany going crazy spells bad things for Tyrion. When Dany finds out that Tyrion let Jaime go, I think it could be likely that she attempts to have him executed. I really hope for Tyrion's sake that he can somehow get out of that situation. The wildfire explosions were intriguing. Were those simply leftover bits of wildfire from Aerys? Or had Cersei placed them there? Best Moment: Tyrion and Jaime's scene was poignant. Character of the Episode: Tyrion. Conclusion: This was a great spectacle as expected and the story that was being told is a very good one. If this is GRRM's ending, it's hard to imagine anybody being disappointed with the route the story went. What is disappointing is how we got to this climax. Had there been better set-up to the massacre we witnessed here, this would have been one of the show's best episodes ever. Instead, this is merely good. Score: 65 Summary: A mysterious Samaritan operative kills a man who began to suspect Samaritan's existence. Reese, Finch and Shaw get on with their new lives. Reese is a detective, Finch is a teacher and Shaw sells perfume. Root and the Machine keep in contact through subtle means and they give numbers to Reese and Shaw. Reese is kept in check by Shaw as they try to save Ali, a store owner being threatened by a gang. Finch initially doesn't want to risk doing the numbers, but after a conversation with Root, he helps out. Ali is saved by Reese with Finch's help. Using Ali's work, Finch is able to create a communication network hidden from Samaritan. The Machine guides Finch to a new base that's off the grid.
The Good: The episode started on a really cool note. The Samaritan officer killing the man who had started to become aware was really chilling. I thought it was an effective way to show how Samaritan protects itself, and how its awareness is a big benefit to the government. The woman who was sent by Samaritan seems like a big threat, and introducing her early in the season is a good decision, giving the season some momentum right off the bat. It gets more interesting when she arrives later in the episode, suspecting the presence of somebody who is aware of Samaritan. This premiere had a good focus to it. The premise of introducing us to the new lives that each of the characters' are leading is pretty good, and it's interesting to watch. Finch being a teacher makes perfect sense, especially after "2PiR", Reese being a detective is smart and also allows him to keep in touch with Fusco, while Shaw being a perfume saleswoman is hilarious. I can't help but feel that Root gave her that job specifically to mess with her. The focus on these new lives also led to Finch having a very strong story in this episode. Finch is still refusing to work with the Machine, continuing his story from last season. He is stubborn and it leads to some really good scenes where the others try to convince him to help. Both of the conversations with Reese and Root were very strong. Reese and Finch's scene once more highlighted their excellent relationship with callbacks to what they have done for each other. Root's scene was more powerful because it showed us something new with Root playing up her relationship with Finch, but also hitting Finch in personal areas to ensure that he will return. There were a few other moments I enjoyed. Elias' return was great and his interactions with Reese were as fun as ever. The overly dramatic "we are the store" emotional moment near the end of the episode was unintentionally hilarious to me (or maybe it was intentional) and I enjoyed it more than I should have. Jamie Hector was the bad guy! Great casting choice, though I do wish he had a larger role. The Bad: As usual, the POI story was dull and didn't do much for me. It was hard to care about anything that went on involving Ali. Overall, I found myself to be pretty disappointed by how familiar this episode was. After "Deus Ex Machina", the show really needed to make some major changes to put over how dangerous Machine work has become for the main crew. Instead, everything was the same. The force pairing still worked undetected. They could still communicate without issue. They didn't have to be careful enough to avoid crime. It was more or less the same, with some lines of dialogue telling them to be careful. I feel like this was a missed opportunity to make a big change and freshen up the show a bit. I thought the show was very inconsistent with the rules it laid out too. Finch had said that they couldn't even communicate on phones without blowing their cover. Hence the importance of the hidden network that Finch discovers at the end of the episode. I can buy the hidden network reveal because it's likely that The Machine provided Ali's number so they could get this network. But the big issue is the fact that we see characters communicating via cell phone throughout the episode anyways! The show didn't even try to stick to the rules it established which was really disappointing. Would it hurt to have the characters go to safe zones to discuss Samaritan? Surely Samaritan would detect people using its name, so wouldn't the word Samaritan be taboo? But instead many of the conversations are unfiltered and loud, made worse by the fact that they are happening in public places. Would it be too much to ask for a little bit of change? It really diminishes the Samaritan threat if its presence is ignored and the characters seem unconcerned with protecting themselves from it. The Unknown: Who is the mysterious woman? Does she work for the government or is she somehow independent? Does she suspect Reese? Will she investigate further? Will Finch turn that area he found at the end of the episode into a new base? What is Root's job? She is the only one we didn't learn mush about. What is Romeo recruiting Shaw for? He seems like a criminal, so is Shaw about to become a robber? That could be a fun development. Best Moment: Root trying to entice Finch to join the crew again was great. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: This episode felt too familiar. I'm okay with the season starting off slowly, but I was disappointed by the lack of change after that epic season 3 finale. Score: 50 Summary: Rachel needs a place to go so Ross invites her to move in with him. Monica and Chandler get into a fight over what to do with Rachel's empty room. Joey searches for a new roommate.
The Good: There are some really good parts to this episode. Ross's interventions with Chandler and Monica are really funny and David Schwimmer does a great job again. Ross really carries this episode because his other scenes are funny too, and his interactions with Phoebe are still a lot of fun. Joey is good in the C-story and he gets the odd laugh in. I like that this episode builds its comedy from the fallout of Monica and Chandler's decision to move in together. The Bad: Overacting has really plagued this season. These characters don't feel real in this episode. The dialogue is cheesy, the actors are trying too hard to be funny and the stories really don't have much to them. The characters behave poorly in this episode. Ross and Phoebe are both selfish. It's hard to buy Ross trying to split up Monica and Chandler for selfish reasons, and worse is Phoebe harassing Ross about loving Rachel instead of helping him. Monica and Chandler come off an thoroughly unlikable in their argument. The writing is far weaker than the Ross/Rachel arguments from earlier seasons. Best Moment: Ross trying to get Monica and Chandler back together for his own gain was really funny. Character of the Episode: Ross. Conclusion: This was fine comedy, but the actors are too busy overacting to actually have a good episode. This season has been very disappointing so far. Score: 55 Summary: Andrea arranges a meeting between Rick and the Governor so they can work things out. They discuss things and subtly threaten each other. Daryl and Martinez interact outside the room. At the prison, Merle wants to show up to kill the Governor bur Glenn refuses to do it. The Governor offers a peace with Rick if he gives him Michonne. Rick says he will think on it and the two parties part. The Governor has no intention of letting Rick survive but pretends all is fine with Andrea. Rick is aware of the Governor's intentions and refuses to give him Michonne.
The Good: The episode opened up nicely. The silent sequence of Rick and Daryl searching around some mystery location was interesting and tense. I was never quite sure what they were looking for and that made me invested in the scene. The Governor walking out of the shadows at the end was nice and his mannerisms were fun. The interactions between Rick and The Governor were good for the most part. The odd line is really good and I like that they have been allowed to build a more personal rivalry. It helps that David Morrisey and Andrew Lincoln are both excellent in this episode, adding to the chemistry of the scenes. Furthermore, I thought that The Governor's request of Michonne made sense with his character, and even better was him deciding to kill Rick anyways after he gets Michonne. It was consistent with what he has done this season. Rick not buying into The Governor's deal was also a good development and it made sense. The interactions between Daryl/Martinez/Hershel/Milton were all good fun. They worked as nice little character bonding moments to showcase the four characters. Daryl and Martinez sharing a cigarette as the two main henchmen worked as an emotional scene. The Bad: The episode is fine on paper but it does nothing for me on screen. The scenes between Rick and The Governor try to be Tarantino-esque but they fail. The issue is that the scenes lack suspense and the whole gun-under-the-table dynamic doesn't work at all. This is because it's blatantly obvious that Rick and The Governor aren't going to die in this scene. They will both survive and the show does nothing to make you think otherwise. The dialogue is usually what really makes these scenes stand out, but it's so ordinary here. There ends up being no drama and very little of actual substance happening. The show is capable of pulling off scenes like this (look at "Nebraska" from season 2), but this wasn't done well enough. The bigger issue is that there is literally nothing else going on in this episode. As a whole, this episode is useless to the actual story. Nothing is accomplished. The two factions start the episode at war, and then they end it off at war. Nothing changes. The episode is pointless. I'm willing to accept a bottle episode without any plot progression, but it must include the appropriate emotions and character significance to work. A few scenes of characters talking/arguing does not accomplish this. The slow pacing doesn't help either. This episode drags a lot and there isn't anything of interest that actually gripped me or had me sucked into what I was watching after the opening sequence. Slow pacing isn't always bad, but there must be some emotion that is being examined with this pace. Hell look at "Clear", that episode didn't have plot progression and was also a slower episode, but it was terrific. This one is the total opposite. I liked that Rick got a new conflict about whether to give up Michonne to survive or not. Unfortunately it leads nowhere and became a complete waste. Instead of seeing Rick grapple with this decision, he jumps to the obvious decision that it's meaningless to do so since the Governor will kill them all anyways. Because of this, it seems pointless to bring up the Michonne conflict if it isn't going to be explored in any way. And that's a shame because it had potential to be an interesting conflict. Glenn and Maggie having sex was odd. The scene was shot strangely and I was annoyed by them just abandoning their job. If everyone dies because the Woodbury people attack, it's all their fault for deciding to have sex for some reason. The Unknown: It's obvious that the deal won't go through, but I'll ask the question anyways. Will Rick sacrifice Michonne for his people? Best Moment: Daryl and Martinez having a smoke was nice. Character of the Episode: The Governor. Conclusion: This was poor. It was slow, dull, meaningless and devoid of tension. This was probably the most forgettable episode of the show so far. Score: 47 Summary: A funeral is held for those who died. Jon is hailed by his men and Dany si notably worried about this. She begs Jon not to reveal his heritage. Jon tells Sansa and Arya anyways. Sansa tells Tyrion who tells Varys. Varys, concerned about Dany's deteriorating mental state, plots to turn on her. Dany marches against Cersei and sends some of her army in a small fleet with the two dragons. They encounter Euron who kills Rhaegal and sinks the fleet. Missandei is captured. Dany meets with Cersei outside King's Landing and tries to negotiate a surrender. Cersei refuses and kills Missandei.
The Good: The episode started off on the right track with the funeral sequence. It was a sweet farewell to all of the characters who died, and all of the main characters portrayed their sadness nicely. It was clear how badly they were affected by the battle against the dead. I also enjoyed the celebrations afterwards. After all, why wouldn't everyone celebrate surviving certain death? Tormund was a joy to watch and he made me laugh quite a bit. Dany was very good in this episode and Emilia Clarke did a really good job. She portrayed Dany's sadness and anger really well. The few shots of Dany quietly listening as Jon's men all praised him was wonderful. Her sadness, loneliness and jealousy was portrayed so well, and it made her feel a little more relatable as she gets next to no love or glory for pretty much saving the entire world. I get the sense that the show is definitely going the Mad Queen route with Dany, and I like that because it's a good story to tell that opens the door for more interesting conflict in these last few episodes. I enjoyed the episode throughout. There were some other nice moments throughout the episode, even if they didn't stand out too much. Jaime and Brienne getting together was awesome since they have the best and most complex relationship in the show. Arya and The Hound had nice scenes together one again, as did Arya and Gendry. Gendry becoming lord of Storm's End was a nice moment for him too. I also liked Jon's emotional farewells with Tormund, Ghost, Sam and Gilly. I wonder if they all just got written out of the show with these scenes. I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing Tormund and Ghost again, but Sam and Gilly may still return. Tyrion and Varys had some fascinating conversation scenes as usual and I was intrigued by their discussions about Dany. The death of Missandei was good. It gives Dany even more reason to absolutely destroy Cersei at whatever cost and makes us support Dany even more. This should allow for some interesting emotions to be explored during the battle next episode. I expect myself to be conflicted on whether or not to support Dany's vengeance at the cost of so many innocents. The Bad: Unfortunately, the fun nature of this episode was completely ruined by some garbage writing. There is so much here that I took issue with, and it detracted from my experience by a lot. After getting used to the tight writing of seasons 1-4, it's disappointing that the past few seasons have such sloppy writing at times. Where to begin? I'll start with Gendry. Dany hasn't started ruling yet, but she still decides to tackle the issue of the next lord of Storm's End. Why is this a problem? Well, because Dorne and the Reach don't have any successors that we are aware of and Dany doesn't spare a single thought for them. So why did she make Gendry a lord now? Because the writers wanted that Gendry/Arya scene to happen. The writers fingerprints are all over this moment. It's not a huge problem, but in an episode filled with other bigger issues that I'm about to delve into, it's just another disappointing example of the writers thoughtlessness. One final thing about Gendry is that his bastard surname was given as Rivers, even though it should be Waters since he was born in King's Landing. Another sloppy moment. Another small moment that pissed me off was Sansa talking with The Hound. She addresses how without Ramsay and Littlefinger, she wouldn't be the person she is now. What? Do the writers seriously fail to understand her character that badly? So what they are saying is that Sansa shouldn't be credited for her own development and it's the manipulator and rapist in her life that should be thanked instead. What a slap in the face to the character of Sansa. I'm annoyed that everyone is still angry at Dany for some unknown reason. Honestly, why is Sansa still so hateful towards her? It makes no sense and feels so forced. Dany sacrificed so many men and literally saved the North by using her men in the battle. Yet she gets no credit whatsoever, and Sansa even has the gall to suggest that Dany was useless since Arya was the one who killed the Night King. Why should I like this character who is a total prick for no apparent reason? Furthermore, Sansa and Arya claiming that they can only trust family is nonsensical. Are they the Lannisters now? I mean come on, they literally just trusted Theon, a Greyjoy, to protect Bran and mourned his death. How the hell are they too shortsighted to realize that and only trust their family? They will never make any good alliances if this is the case, and the two of them come off as needlessly selfish with a childlike perspective on ruling. What's worse is Jon, who continues to be the biggest idiot in the Seven Kingdoms. Sansa and arya make it clear that they don't trust Dany and believe Jon is doing the wrong thing. Jon should be worried about trusting them since they could easily go against his own plans. So what does he do? He tells them a secret that could completely ruin Dany and expects them to keep the secret. I mean, what the hell Jon? Especially after the shady conversation they just had, how the hell is Jon stupid enough to think that telling them is a good idea? Jon is a terrible leader that makes crap decisions. Honestly, I would rather have Sansa rule the Seven Kingdoms over both Jon and Dany. Then we have that Bronn scene which was god awful. I mean, what the hell was the point of this story? We got no interesting conflict whatsoever from Bronn and the whole story seems like a waste of time since it went absolutely nowhere and was rushed as hell. Plus, why the hell did Bronn go North anyways? I expected him to stay in King's Landing, but instead he goes to Winterfell which could possibly have been swarming with wights had the Night King won. Is Bronn suicidal? Anyways, my prediction from "Winterfell" came true as Bronn could not be trusted with the job Cersei gave him since he caved to Tyrion and Jaime's side instantly. Lastly, the existence of the scene is absurd. How did Bronn get into Winterfell so easily? How did he reload the crossbow so quickly? How did he manage to find the exact room in a massive castle where both Tyrion and Jaime just happen to be sitting alone? Why did Bronn just leave immediately to go back to King's Landing? That's a long, long hike, surely he would want to rest for a bit. That's another big complaint I have about both this episode and the last few seasons as a whole. The world of Westeros feels so much more compact in these last two seasons and it fails to have that expansive fantasy feeling that the first 4 seasons had. When was the last time we saw just a normal person walking down the street? It's just main characters, and main characters everywhere. The world doesn't feel lived in anymore. Additionally, I hate that there are no houses outside King's Landing. It's just a wall and then nothing outside at all. When you combine this lack of world-building with the decreased scope of the show, the world just isn't engaging anymore. Jaime choosing to leave Winterfell was really poor. Did he never realize that Cersei might die in battle before that one moment? Come on, Jaime isn't that shortsighted. His decision to leave is perplexing, mainly because I don't understand why he didn't leave earlier. I can't see why he chose to stay in Winterfell instead of marching to King's Landing. It's just contrived so that we can get the scene where Brienne begs him to stay. That scene is bad too. Brienne openly cries, which is so out of character for her, and the scene is so generic and tropic with the girl crying when the guy leaves. The strategies in this episode were abysmal. Splitting up her already depleted forces is nonsensical. I have no idea why Dany decided that a fleet would be necessary anyways. She has no chance against Euron's fleet, so why would she put her useful men on boats that could easily be sunk by Euron. Furthermore, she makes the same mistake yet again by not scouting ahead to see if there are any threats nearby. She knows Euron is lurking in the waters, yet she makes no attempt to ensure safe passage. It's such bad strategy and shows that she learned nothing from when her last fleet got sunk by Euron. The actual encounter was absolutely ridiculous. How on Earth did Dany not see Euron's army from above? Did she just not bother looking down? Rhaegal's death was extremely dumb. If you can kill a dragon so easily with scorpions, then why are they a threat to begin with? Furthermore, Euron being able to shoot Rhaegal with pinpoint accuracy was absurd. Scorpions aren't that easy to aim, especially with moving targets. Also, what about reloading? Scorpions take a really long time to reload and that is there main weakness. But they are just on rapid fire mode in this episode, and they become the most overpowered weapons in the show, even stronger than dragons. Plus, how did they build so many scorpions so quickly? They only had one in season 7, yet they have like 100s in this season. Is it really that easy to make scorpions? Why didn't they just make more before in season 7 then? Back to Euron, how the hell did he know that Dany would be making a fleet? He isn't Varys, he doesn't know everything. Also, convenient rock to hide an entire fleet behind is convenient. Plus, the accuracy of the scorpions is so inconsistent. They shoot Rhaegal so easily and yet when Dany is flying a much bigger target straight towards the fleet, they miss like 20 shots in a row. Just like the Night King, Euron is only accurate when the plot wants him to be. Terrible writing. Euron himself is a big problem. I really liked his character last season when he was no more than a fun supporting character. But now he is one of the main villains of the show. This one-dimensional, uninteresting dirtbag is one of the main two villains of the series as a whole. Would it kill the writers to make him more interesting? Plus there is literally a much, much, much better villain written out right in front of these guys. I don't like bringing up the books in my TV reviews but I feel the need to about Euron. Book Euron is charismatic, scary, intimidating and mysterious with a crucial connection to the magical aspects of the show. He is a much better villain that is already ready-made for the show. Instead, the showrunners apparently decided that this 1D goofy villain is a much better candidate for one of the biggest villains of the show than book Euron. The climactic scene isn't good either. Apparently Euron captured Missandei which doesn't make sense. He doesn't know who Missandei is, and why would he make the effort to go capture this one person when he was focused on just sinking the fleet in the previous scene. The actual confrontation is ridiculous. Dany is right in front of Cersei with like 12 men and a dragon that appears to be in range of the scorpions. Cersei wants to win the war, right. So just kill them all! It's not hard, just kill them! Cersei comes off as a total idiot for not killing any of them, not even Tyrion who literally made himself a target for no apparent reason. About that point, why the hell does Tyrion believe that Cersei will surrender. Remember when Jorah said Tyrion is smart because he learns from his mistakes? Well here is Tyrion once again being fooled by Cersei, proving that he is as dumb as Jon when the writing is as incompetent as this. Lastly, the show totally dropped the ball on the connection between the Starks and their direwolves. Did Jon seriously send Ghost away like that after so many years of loyalty? And without petting him? This is how to make everyone watching the show despise Jon, by having him throw away a loyal servant with little to no kindness or affection and for no reason. The Unknown: What does Bran mean when he says he lives in the past mostly? Will this go somewhere? I remember the 3EC saying to Bran that spending too much time in the past is dangerous. Are Tormund, Ghost, Gilly and Jon just gone now? Will Dany kill all of the innocents to get back at Cersei for killing Missandei and Rhaegal? She seems ont he verge of going insane. Will Varys turn on Dany? Will he try to kill her? Best Moment: Probably the opening bit for its emotional resonance. Character of the Episode: Dany. Conclusion: This was a fun episode on the surface. But when you go even a little bit deeper, this episode is very poor with very few redeeming qualities. Good writing is essential for TV shows. If there are too many plot holes and inconsistencies within characters, my immersion in the world is ruined, and I believe that good immersion is one of the two essential qualities of good television (emotion being the other). This episode had awful immersion and that hurts it a lot. This episode was a disappointment. Score: 46 Summary: In flashbacks, Collier is chosen for Vigilance and is pushed to do big things to make a difference by the mysterious texts. In the present, Collier begins his trial of all of the government people. Rivera is killed immediately after Collier judges him guilty. Collier threatens to kill Control next when she refuses to answer his questions. Finch intervenes and reveals that he built the Machine to the public. Reese and Hersh get to the courthouse area and start fighting Vigilance members. Hersh discovers a massive bomb. Shaw joins Root to help her in her mission. Decima men attack Collier and defeat his men, kidnapping him. Greer reveals that he orchestrated Vigilance and planned for this to happen. He has planted a bomb and will blame Vigilance for it. The bomb goes off and Hersh dies trying to stop it. Greer kills Collier. Reese frees Finch but Greer gets away. Root sets up the servers in Samaritan but she is unable to shut it down because there are 100 other facilities. She has set up 7 new identities for herself, Shaw, Finch, Reese and the 3 hackers so they can hide from Samaritan. Greer calls Garrison who agrees that Samaritan must be activated. Samaritan is finally activated at the end as Root, Reese, Shaw and Finch all part ways to stay alive.
The Good: Well, a hell of a lot of stuff happened here. This must be the craziest episodes of the show in terms of what happened, the pace at which it happened, and the effect that this one episode will have on the show as a whole. This was an actual game-changer of an episode. From the get-go everything is intense and dramatic. The trial was pretty good and it led to a few really cool moments. The biased nature of the trial was established immediately, and Collier's murder of Rivera established a sense of danger for Finch. It became pretty tense right away and I was curious to see what information would go public. I thought there were good character moments for Control and Finch. Control showed some heart and proved to be a loyal servant of the United States as she refused to give away information and also stuck up for Finch. While Finch had an even better moment when he decides to repay Control's act by saving her life. Finch had to weigh his morals as he had to choose between the secrecy of the Machine or another human life. Finch is ultimately forced to reveal his secret to the public in a pretty good scene, once more choosing to save a life over protecting the Machine. Furthermore, the argument with Collier over the pros and cons of surveillance is a really strong scene. The best stuff of the episode came after the trial. Once things fell apart, Greer took total control of the situation. Last episode I addressed how Vigilance being the true threat was a fantastic twist that turned a side-story into something much more engrossing and important. But that was just another misdirection as we got the shocking reveal that Decima actually orchestrated everything about Vigilance. The reveal felt important, made sense and tied up the many loose ends, even explaining how Vigilance got all of their information in previous episodes. It's a surprisingly good twist and explanation, so good that I'm surprised I didn't see it coming. What makes the twist better is the emotional resonance it has on Collier's overall story. His life ended up being really tragic in the end, and the twist completely stripped away everything he had worked so hard to accomplish in the last 4 years. This trial was his dream and he was clearly enjoying the trial which was the culmination of all of his plans. This was his ultimate victory, even if he died, the world would understand the truth. To take this away by revealing that the broadcast never even happened is heartbreaking, and it's made even worse when Collier realizes that everything he had done for the past 4 years had been for nothing, and only served to further the agendas of his enemies. His entire campaign was meaningless. It's a heartbreaking moment and it's impossible to not feel some sympathy for Collier in this scene. Greer goes the extra mile to cement himself as a despicable villain though. Collier firmly believed he was doing the right thing, never killing innocents. Greer could have killed him while he still believed this. But instead Collier is allowed to live long enough to see Vigilance's name tarnished as just another evil terrorist group as a bomb goes off, taking tons of lives with it. After dedicating the last 4 years of his life for a cause that he believed to be just, Collier got absolutely nothing in return. The most shocking thing about this episode wasn't even the twist. It was the fact that Greer actually won. Vigilance played right into his hands and gave him the exact leverage he needed to activate Samaritan. The threat of Decima has never been greater because Reese, Finch and co. are all living in Greer's world. Or rather, Samaritan's world since Greer lived up to what he had said to Finch in the last episode and is letting Samaritan fully control things. Honestly, I never expected to see Samaritan coming fully online like this. I always assumed it would be a temporary 1-episode story. But that's not the case. The show took a massive leap that I wasn't expecting and permanently changed the landscape of the story by allowing Samaritan to activate. How many other shows would have the guts to pull off a major move like this? Not many, I'll tell you. The ending montage was one of the show's finest moments. The use of music was excellent (who doesn't love Radiohead), and it added to the haunting atmosphere of the entire sequence. Exit Music is a great song to accomplish this, and I recall it being used spectacularly back in an episode of "Black Mirror". Root's monologue may have been a little cheesy, but it definitely had heart to it and some of her lines definitely resonated with me, particularly the ending bit about Pandora's Box. The actual content of the montage was really heartbreaking too. After 3 seasons we have to leave the library, and it is every bit as emotional seeing the library destroyed as you might expect. The writers even throw in a picture of Carter to make it even sadder. Worse than this is seeing all of our heroes going their separate ways, forced to live a normal life. And they aren't doing this to save other lives; they're just saving themselves in a desperate act of survival. It's a painful defeat and it's rough to watch. Really powerful stuff. There are a few other things I loved about this episode. For one, the editing was really good. I've always liked the techno-Machine stuff the show does, and it was done astoundingly well in this episode. The cinematic effects seem to get a lot more creative during these season finales, and I liked the way that the show introduced Samaritan using some slightly different effects. I liked the character interactions as usual. Root and Shaw's side story was good fun and their flirty interactions are always a joy to watch. I also liked Fusco's brief scene. It served as a good way to foreshadow that the broadcast wasn't actually live while also reminding us that Fusco isn't aware of the Machine, which explains why Root didn't need to set him up with a new identity. Lastly, I really liked that Root mentioned that Samaritan couldn't be stopped since McCourt survived. It makes Finch's decision have some very real consequences. The Bad: It felt odd that Collier would be so emotional and aggressive during the trial rather than factual and calm. I understand that he has been waiting for this moment for a while, but surely he would want to provide a fair trial so that the general audience don't think of him as the bad guy. If he wants a revolution, surely he should provide more evidence on camera which would suggest that the government is guilty. Instead he goes for confessions at gunpoint and obviously frightened and biased jurors. It's hardly reliable and it makes me wonder why Collier didn't plan something a little more damning and fair. After all, the government are obviously guilty, so why not put more effort into proving it? Lastly, Collier totally lost that argument with Finch about surveillance. It makes him look really bad. Hersh's death was pretty disappointing. After all the hype surrounding his character in season 2, he did absolutely nothing of note in this season and we hardly got to see anything about his character. Furthermore, his stoic and badass vibe was sacrificed so he could make some dumb jokes like Reese. Reese's jokes are fun and in-character, but Hersh's feel like they were just tacked on to make him more likable before he died. Additionally, his death is practically meaningless since he accomplished nothing by dying. What was the point of his character if this was his pay-off? The Unknown: What are Samaritan's commands going to be? How will Decima enforce them? What happens with Reese and co.? Will they keep getting numbers and doing their job? Will they somehow stay in touch? Will the Machine help them? How do they plan to stop Samaritan? What lies in Control's future? Will she work with Decima then or will she have problems with listening to Samaritan? Best Moment: The ending montage was a stellar scene. One of the biggest scenes the show has ever had. Character of the Episode: Collier again. His tragedy is hard to overlook. Conclusion: This was an outstanding season finale that concluded the season in a near-perfect way. It's astonishing how significantly this one episode changed the entire scope of the series and I have to commend the ambition of the people behind the scenes. And even with such a heavy plot focus, the episode still stayed grounded in emotion, focusing on the effects that these events had on its characters and the emotions they would be feeling. This episode accomplished some really impressive feats and it ends up being one of my favourite episodes of the series. This season was undoubtedly the best of the show. The show strayed away from its usual formula in a vast majority of the episodes and that really helped the show. The serialized drama was always the best aspect of this series. The focus on Decima, Samaritan, HR and Vigilance throughout the season made it that much more gripping and interesting to watch with fewer weak episodes than both of the previous seasons. It's rare to see a show live up to its full potential, but "Person of Interest" is doing that right now. Even though there are still issues with predictability, dialogue and cheesiness at times, this show is being its best self and I'm having a blast watching it. Bring on season 4! Score: 81 Summary: Flashbacks show that Collier's brother was arrested after surveillance found him guilty of terrorism. His brother killed himself and was innocent all along. In the present, Root gets 5 numbers of government officials, including Control. Control discusses bringing Samaritan online and convinces Rivera to go with it. Shaw goes in to watch over Control and protect her. Greer speaks with Finch while hidden away. Power goes out across the city and Vigilance captures Control and the government officials, as well as Greer and Finch. Shaw and Reese ally with Hersh to save Finch and Control. Root is able to discover where Samaritan has been stored away and prepares to go in. Vigilance prepares to broadcast a trial of the US government.
The Good: One of the most remarkably consistent aspects of "Person of Interest" is its villains. Across the last 3 seasons we have gone through tons of villains (Elias, Stanton, Donnelly, Greer, Root, Simmons, Quinn), and pretty much all of them have been great. Somehow the show manages to come up with a fresh balance of charisma, relatableness, motivation and threat from each of these villains to allow them all to stand out and make an impact. It's fascinating to see how many different villains this show is able to produce on a regular basis. And now in this episode, they have done it again with Collier. Prior to this episode, Vigilance wasn't a group I was particularly invested in. All the scenes with them were good, but it always felt like the story was building up to something more, and Vigilance were simply being used as a way to maintain interest in an episode without doing anything too spectacular. As a result, I didn't find myself treating these guys as much of a current threat. I had labelled them as a future threat which would likely shine in one episode before being defeated. Plus, Collier hadn't done much to engage me in his story despite some strong acting and enjoyable lines of dialogue. Here, that all changed. We got an outstanding backstory for his character. We understood what his motives were, but we didn't know enough about him to care. With the heartbreaking tale of what happened to his brother Jesse, I found myself relating to Collier, understanding his pain and even supporting his cause. We have been told many times by people like Finch that we should sympathize with Collier but I hadn't really found myself doing so until now. The climactic twist was quite brilliant. I wasn't expecting the episode to end with Vigilance capturing pretty much every other important villain in the show. It was a big surprise, and immediately pushed Vigilance to the top as the biggest threat to these characters. The entire season, I had been much more worried about the threat Decima posed since they had been built up so much, that I never took Vigilance as seriously as I should have. Because of this, the twist reveal that Vigilance are the biggest threat this season caught me off guard and satisfied me in the way every good plot twist should. I really look forward to seeing what will become of this trial, as it could potentially change the show in a big way. The rest of the episode reminded me of "Zero Day". It was purely set-up for whatever is coming in the season finale and I really enjoyed it for what it was. It was interesting to see Root's plan unfold, and the involvement of the hacker group constantly kept me guessing what she was up to. It was satisfying to watch and the cliffhanger at the end with Root approaching Samaritan is exciting. There were some fun scenes in this set-up too. I liked Shaw having to swallow her hate and attempt to protect Control. The alliance between Reese, Hersh and Shaw was quite fun too. Also, I like that the show gave a reminder about why Decima men kill themselves since I forgot about the line which touched a little on this back in "Trojan Horse". The scenes with Finch and Greer were pretty awesome. The acting and dialogue was great and both characters paralleled each other nicely. I liked their philosophical discussion about creation as it provided some nice thematic exploration (I love it when the show explores the more thematic elements of creating AI), while also giving us some nice insight into Greer and what makes him tick. His speech about the blitz was phenomenal and did a lot to help us understand his motivations and hints at what his goals are with the activation of Samaritan. The Bad: I wouldn't call anything particularly bad here. The episode fell into the usual trappings of a set-up episode which prevents it from scoring too high. The Unknown: What did Root's hacker crew set up? Will they have a role to play in the next episode? What is Root going to do with Samaritan? Will she be able to shut it down? Is this trial the start of Collier's revolution? If he succeeds, how will the piblic react? What will be the consequences for Finch and co.? What was the truth about Jesse's death? Who was it that texted Collier? The government? Best Moment: Collier's emotional outburst at the government woman was a really strong scene, well-acted and powerful. I really felt for Collier and I found myself somewhat rooting for his success for a moment there. Character of the Episode: Collier. Conclusion: This was a great way to set up the season finale. While most of this was just an ordinary set-up episode, it got lifted up by the fascinating developments of Collier and Greer which added some focus and emotion to the episode. Score: 72 Summary: Samaritan is active and can't locate Finch. Greer discovers the next best thing, Grace and tries to get her to find Finch. Reese and co. attempt to protect Grace by hiding her in the police station while avoiding all cameras to stay off the grid. They set a distraction and escape but Decima intercepts Grace and kidnaps her. Root leads Reese and Shaw to find Grace in areas without any surveillance and they find a ship off the shore. Root discovers the ship is filled with generators from Samaritan. The group finds out where Decima's headquarters are and Reese and Shaw head over there while Root stays with the generators. Greer speaks with Grace to learn more about Finch. Reese and Shaw are unable to get to Decima in time and Grace is taken away with Greer. Finch reappears and negotiates a trade for Grace by giving himself to Greer. The trade goes off without a hitch and Grace is given a job in Italy to keep her safe.
The Good: The drama in this episode was really strong. It was really interesting watching a battle between the Machine and Samaritan as both Reese's group and Decima end up using their camera feeds smartly to stay one step ahead of the other. It was really neat to see Root leading Reese and Shaw around corners, while staying out of sight of key cameras. It manufactured tension in a really neat way. The ensuing scenes were all quite good at developing this tension too. I especially enjoyed the confrontation at the police station. There was a nice sense of impending doom with Decima surrounding the station and it was a nice addition. The rest of the episode did a decent job too. There was a nice sense of urgency as the group tried to get Grace back, and the discovery of the ship felt pretty significant, and also haunting as they discovered all of the dead bodies. Grace was used really well in this episode. She is portrayed well as a complete innocent and I enjoyed the challenge that this presented Reese, Shaw and Fusco to keep Grace safe without letting her know the truth about both Finch and Decima. This dynamic felt unique and it was enjoyable to watch the interactions between Grace and Fusco/Root/Reese. The scenes with Greer and Grace were a highlight. Greer was imposing as he interrogated her, but also curious as he didn't seem to want to actually pressure/harm Grace at all. It was interesting and I was curious about why he would do that. I liked that we got the answer at the end of the episode too. Greer simply respects Finch and didn't want to harm Grace as a sign of respect. It's a surprising characteristic for the villain to have, and it makes Greer stand out amongst the many other villains in the show. But rather than Greer, I thought Grace stole the show in this episode. Her outburst at Greer was emotional and outstanding, a scene filled with emotion. The final trade off was a strong moment too. I thought that Finch choosing to give himself away fit with his character very well. The actual trade didn't end up being very tense, but it served as a powerful moment for Finch as he comes closer to Grace than he has in several years. Michael Emerson's acting was terrific and carried the scene to a new level. I liked the return of FBI Root. Another fun moment. The Bad: Can't Samaritan use means other than visual camera feeds to find what it needs? We have seen Samaritan use sound before, so why doesn't it do that now? It seems like a bit of a plot hole. This episode didn't really hit that next level for me. There was emotion and there was drama, but I've seen much better from this show in previous episodes. That puts this one a little bit below some of the other fantastic episodes this season. The Unknown: Why do these Decima people just kill themselves at will? Virgil's suicide at the end reminded me of a similar death back in "Trojan Horse". What does Root plan to do with those generators she took? How much of an impact will her move have? Will Finch be reclaimed soon? What does Greer plan to do with him? Does he need him for a specific purpose? Will we see Grace again now that she is gone to Italy? Best Moment: The trade-off was probably my favourite moment. Such a powerful scene for Finch. Character of the Episode: Grace. Conclusion: This was a fun and intense episode with a lot of powerful moments. However, I feel that it was just missing that spark that the best episodes have. Score: 70 Summary: Root takes Shaw to deal with relevant numbers while Finch and Reese work on the next POI, a congressman named McCourt. Reese poses as a secret service agent to get close to him. Decima is after McCourt and leaks that Reese isn't who he says he is so Reese is forced to kidnap McCourt to keep him safe. After capturing a Decima agent with a returning Shaw's help, Finch and Reese discern that Decima made a deal with McCourt for Samaritan and are actually trying to protect him. Reese wonders if the Machine gave them McCourt's number because they have to kill him, but Finch refuses to do the deed. Eventually the group decides to leave McCourt alive and escape. Samaritan comes online for a 24 hour beta test and Greer begins to hunt down Finch.
The Good: This was a rock solid episode of drama with an outstanding final ten minutes. I'll start at the beginning first, before I get to that though. The episode felt important from the get-go with the focus being on discovering how Decima/Vigilance were involved with congressman McCourt. It was interesting to learn about McCourt, and unlike the mysteries in the usual POI cases, this one feels important due to its connections with Samaritan, which becomes a terrifying threat by the end of the episode. I enjoyed seeing the Finch and Reese dynamics again. With Shaw a part of the team, we don't get one on one interactions between Reese and Finch as often. It felt special to see them tackle a case together and the dialogue between them is as entertaining as ever. The story of the episode was exciting too with Reese becoming a secret service agent to investigate more into McCourt, just like a classic POI episode. But what made it stand out was Decima actually exposing Reese's identity, forcing Reese to actually kidnap the POI. It was a fresh new take on the POI stories with Reese's cover actually being blown. Everything after McCourt was taken was really fun to watch. I loved Finch's reaction to Reese's sudden move, and watching the group go on the run from Decima was very exciting, with lots of fun action and interesting interactions. This led up to a great plot twist when we learn that McCourt is actually Decima's link to activating Samaritan. It was a surprising change and it turned around everyone's comprehension of the mission they were doing. This led into the stellar final ten minutes as Reese brings up the possibility of the Machine actually sending the group on a mission to kill someone, a fascinating idea. This sparked a stellar debate involving Reese, Finch and Shaw as they debate on what to do with McCourt. What's so fantastic about this scene is the amount of character development being showcased in this episode. We get to see Finch fighting to save a man's life like he always does, sticking to his morals. Finch's disgust and disappointment at the Machine putting him in a position like this was wonderful to see and built up a nice conflict for him. I really liked Shaw getting a moment to recognize how much she had transformed by actually siding with Finch to save lives. That left us with Reese who brilliantly brought up Carter's death as a reason to go kill McCourt to save lives. This argument was terrific because all three characters were sticking to motives that made sense and that allowed u to have an emotional connection with what was going on. Furthermore, the idea of the heroes having to cross a line and actually kill somebody in cold blood was a very dark place for the story to go and I really liked it. The ending montage after Reese made his decision was terrific with perfect song choice and brilliant editing. It was a really atmospheric scene that suggested that Reese actually went through with the killing, which was a really dark turn to believe. Tying this in with the activation of Samaritan gave off a vibe of impending doom for the rest of the season and completely changed the stakes of the show. Next episode should be really fun. I enjoyed the scenes with Greer. The deal he made with Garrison was very big and it suggests that Control and the government may soon be tied in with Samaritan rather than the Machine. As ever, Greer's dialogue was great and he was a joy to watch. The Bad: I was disappointed with the cop-out reveal that McCourt survived. I feel that the dark ending would have fit much better with the tone of the episode and would have really opened the door for how far Reese could be willing to go to save the world. I thought the Root and Shaw story was odd. I liked the bar shot revealing everyone being knocked out, but it felt like a very random scene. Furthermore, I was confused by the purpose of Root taking Shaw with her if Shaw was simply going to come back by the end of the episode. The Unknown: Will Decima use Samaritan like Finch said? I feel that they may have a more sinister purpose than selling information to the highest bidder. I definitely want to learn Greer's motivation soon. Will there be consequences for Finch not letting Reese kill McCourt? Will Samaritan pile up on the body count when it gets activated? Did Shaw get shot there at the end? Let's hope she is fine. Best Moment: Everything from the moment Reese brought up the possibility of the Machine trying to get them to kill McCourt was phenomenal. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: This was another terrific episode. The first half of the episode was strong, but not quite great. However, the final ten minutes were outstanding and brought the quality of this episode up by a lot. I can't wait to see what happens next. Score: 75 Summary: The next POI is a government person named Leona. Vigilance kills her so Finch and Fusco go to DC to find more information. Reese and Shaw work on the next POI, an attorney named Matthew. They locate him at a high school reunion and determine that he was involved in a situation before where his senior year girlfriend Claire died in an accident. Matthew is harassed by another man named Doug and others who think he killed her. Shaw connects with him on the case. During the case, Reese and Shaw are attacked by Vigilance who got their location from Root who needed to distract them. It's revealed that Doug was involved in Claire's death and Matthew wants to kill him. Shaw and Reese calm down the situation and kill the attacking Vigilance members. Finch accesses a government file about Leon to learn why Vigilance killed her. Collier suddenly appears and takes the file. The file has information on Northern Lights and he leaks it online. Control is forced to shut down Northern Lights so the Machine routes all relevant numbers to Root.
The Good: It was refreshing to have a number actually die in this episode. It doesn't happen very often but to show the possibility adds on to the realism of the world. The episode certainly opened up on the right note. Vigilance's brutal attack set a tone and made it clear that Vigilance would be a big threat in this one. Their presence hovered over this episode nicely and added to the drama. The side story with Finch and Fusco was really interesting. Not only was it tense and exciting due to the late arrival of Vigilance, but it also gave us some one on one character interactions that we usually don't get from Fusco and Finch. It was a fun side story and nicely set up the exciting, game-changing climax. I thought the B-story carried this episode again, but the main story was far from bad. The actual plot was interesting and there was much more meat to it than most POI cases this season. It had an interesting twist ending which was surprising but also fit nicely into the emotional story they were trying to tell with Matthew (another Lost casting by the way). I thought Shaw was pretty good in the episode as she got to make a proper human connection and show off how much she has grown as a person since joining up with Reese and Finch. The humour in this episode was top-notch and I think it was one of the reasons that this episode was so much fun. This show has always excelled when it doesn't take itself too seriously, and it successfully did that here. There were loads of jokes at the high school reunion and between Shaw and Reese. It was a joy to watch the jokes entangled with the main plot which created a perfect blend of levity and interesting plot development. One of the best parts of the episode which benefited from this blend was the fight between Reese and "Phil". It was a really exciting and well-choreographed action sequence that also had some nice moments of humour with Reese getting offended about being called slow and him getting the win with a can of sloppy joes. The climax of the episode was a total success. The Collier and Finch scene was brilliant and it led to the welcome change in story coming from Northern Lights being leaked. The implications of the leak are massive and it has already drastically changed the course of the story by severing the connection between Control and the Machine. Now Root is even more important than before and I'm sure that Decima and Vigilance will be targeting her sooner or later. The Bad: Control doesn't come off very well after this episode. She needed to regain some credibility as a villain after Root outfoxed her but that really hasn't happened. If anything, she now comes off as weaker than ever since the congressman has complete control over her and completely destroys all of her power. Furthermore, her character doesn't come off very well since she shuts down the project surprisingly quickly. The Unknown: What is Root going to do about all of the relevant numbers? Will she do the cases herself? Will Finch, Reese and Shaw be involved too? What is Vigilance's next move? I'm certain that they aren't finish drawing attention to this great surveillance system. Best Moment: The Collier and Finch scene was really well done. The dialogue was great and it was easy to understand the perspectives from both characters. Plus there were high stakes with Collier getting access to the classified documents. Character of the Episode: Collier for being so successful. Conclusion: This was a really strong episode. It had a fun POI case which I enjoyed much more than the usual and also featured a tremendous climax which has completely changed up the plot of the show in a really big way. Score: 68 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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