Summary: Samaritan barely survives the virus and plans to upload itself to a satellite so that it can recover and return. Finch and Reese head out to kill the remaining part of Samaritan, hidden away on a single server. Finch discovers that they have just 18 minutes to stop Samaritan being uploaded to the satellite and that somebody needs to sacrifice their life. Finch locks Reese away and attempts to give up his life. However, The Machien frees Reese who then freely makes the sacrifice himself after The Machine leads Finch to the wrong building. Reese dies, but Samaritan is stopped. Shaw and Fusco protect The Machine from Samaritan's men. Shaw meets Jeff who she identifies as Root's killer. Jeff escapes an wounds Fusco. Fusco survives and Shaw hunts down Jeff to kill him. Finch goes off the grid and is presumed dead, but he has reunited with Grace. The Machine successfully uploaded itself to the satellite and returns in time. Shaw and Fusco presumably continue to work for it.
The Good: This was a terrific way to end the show, and this episode capitalized on the many emotions of a TV show coming to a close. The opening scene started things out brilliantly, reminding me of the season-opening monologue back in "B.S.O.D." before following it up with flashforwards that strongly hinted at Finch dying to stop Samaritan. I was invested from that moment and I found myself desperate to figure out if Finch would make it out alive. Finch and Reese's story was the best part of this episode. Their friendship has been wonderful throughout the series and it fittingly got the spotlight in this episode. Every moment between the two of them in this episode was wonderful, and the acting from both Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel certainly lived up to the moments. Jim Caviezel has come along way from the boring, charisma-vacuum he was in season 1, partly because the writers worked around his limitations and mostly from him actually improving as an actor during the show's run. His work in this episode was great and I really bought into the idea of him wanting to save Finch. I particularly enjoyed that Reese actually raised his voice when Finch left him caged, which marks one of the only times I've actually heard Reese panic in such a way. It's a brilliant way to show us how important Finch is to Reese. Reese's sacrifice was a highlight of the series. The moment was so emotional, and I think that having Amy Acker be a stand-in for The Machine was perfect, and it gave The Machine's powerful dialogue about death much more of an impact when we got to see Amy Acker acting out The Machine's slight emotional reaction to the events that were unfolding. I really enjoyed Reese's heroic final stand, and also Finch's distress when he realized that he had been tricked by the two that he trusted more than anyone else because they wanted to save his life. Shaw and Fusco's story was also quite good. I enjoyed that the underground base got to have a presence in the final episode, and Shaw bringing life to the subway train was a really cool moment. Better yet was Shaw coming face to face with Root's killer. The Shaw from the beginning of the series wouldn't hesitate to kill him, but it shows real character that Shaw actually let him live before ultimately killing him when she realized that everyone she cared about (minus Fusco) were likely dead. Another great moment for Shaw came when The Machine told her of Root's final words. I can totally buy that Root would have some final words prepared for The Machine in case she died, and the words had a very profound impact on Shaw, even making her shed a tear which I thought was very good storytelling. Sarah Shahi has been a gem, and her outstanding work on this show has often gone unnoticed. The epilogue part of the episode was really nice. It did its job as a fond farewell to all of the characters while also showing us the fates of Fusco, Shaw and Finch. Each character managed to find their peace in the end, and I found myself cheering when Finch and Grace reunited and when Shaw was contacted by The Machine to continue to save people. Shaw has finally come full circle and has gone from a ruthless killer following orders to a good person making her own decision to save lives. The Bad: Unfortunately, I found a lot of this finale to have been rushed. So much happened in this episode and I think everything would have landed even better than it did if there had been time for every moment to sink in. This episode had the impossible task of compressing the climax of the whole show and the epilogue into just 45 minutes, which was always going to be unsatisfying. I wish that this episode had been given an extra 15 minutes so that there could have been more set-up in the first half of the episode so that we weren't just rushing from exposition to exposition to set up Reese's big sacrifice. One of the biggest casualties of the rushed nature of this episode was Reese and Fusco losing their jobs. This should have been a massive moment for the show because it leaves both Reese and Fusco vulnerable for Samaritan. Yet it feels horribly out of place in this finale because both characters' arcs are resolved at the end of an episode where they are faced with a major change to deal with. It means that the big moment of them being arrested, which should be a very climactic moment, means absolutely nothing to the story as a whole. Hell, I was able to cut that entire scene out of my summary of the episode without any problems. This episode had a bunch of outstanding moments, but there was very little time to go from moment to moment. The episode didn't get the chance to breathe and really soak in the emotion and weight of each moment. We never see anybody mourn Reese. We never see Samaritan directly react to being shut off. We never see what happens to the world during the period when The Machine was inactive. There are many such instances of things like this throughout the episode, and I feel that I have to blame the cancellation of the show for this. Had this season been given 20+ episodes, all of this could have certainly been explored. I was confused why Jeff was left alive. It didn't make any sense why he wouldn't have at least been knocked out or left for the police. Furthermore, Jeff almost killing Fusco went nowhere. Another example of the rushed nature of this episode. There should have been more drama in wondering if Fusco was going to make it out of the series alive. This is just a nitpick but how did Finch not notice that his briefcase was empty? Surely there would be a weight difference. The Unknown: Will Fusco and Shaw continue to work for The Machine? Will The Machine reach out to the government for the relevant numbers or will it just create its own crew of elite assassins? How did the world change after Samaritan and The Machine were taken out? Best Moment: The entire sequence of Reese's sacrifice was some of the best television thsi show has produced. The Machine's lengthy monologue about death and its meaning set up the atmosphere perfectly as Reese went out like a hero, the way he always should have. There was so much emotion to this and it was a fitting way to end Reese's character. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: I thought this was an awesome finale even if it was rushed. There was more than enough emotion to this and I found myself to be satisfied overall. I just wish that there could have been more time given to this story because there was so much potential for some even better stories to be told here. This season was a brilliant way to end the show. There was a healthy mix of POI cases, drama between The Machine and Samaritan, strong character conclusions and emotional moments. This season had everything to be a strong conclusion to the series. The only problem I had was that it was too short. It feels like there was supposed to be much more to the story that was being told, and a number of storylines and episode felt like they were rushed just so we could end the story in a meagre 13 episodes. The series itself was one extremely fun ride. I'm very glad that I watched this show, and I give my thanks to Ben who recommended it to me. The show started off very poorly and it made a pretty bad first impression. But after that, it became one of a very small number of shows that actually corrected its problems and became a much better show as it went on. There's nothing more satisfying than watching a show live up to its full potential, and that's exactly what this show did. There were plenty of standout episodes that I've already watched several times, and I'm already itching to rewatch the best episodes of the show. Sure there are plenty of POI case episodes that I likely won't watch again, but there are always poor episodes in procedural TV shows. In the end, the good certainly outweighed the bad and the show ended with a bang. Score: 76
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Summary: Finch smuggles the virus closer towards Samaritan with The Machine's help. Finch infiltrates the NSA and plugs in the virus, but before he can activate the password, he is captured by Samaritan men. Reese and Shaw are guided by The Machine where they steal a modem and activate it. Finch is met by Greer and they argue about the existence of both AIs. It's revealed that the virus will kill The Machine too. During the argument, Finch accidentally reveals that The Machine doesn't know the password. Greer activates poison gas to try to kill himself and Finch. Greer dies but Finch escapes when The Machine contacts him via the modem Reese and Shaw set up. Finch goes to save Reese and Shaw and they escape. Finch activates the virus. Fusco is captured by Agent LeRoux. Fusco is able to turn the tables on LeRoux.
The Good: Finch's mission is a lot of fun to watch. It's satisfying to see him finally working at full force with The Machine to infiltrate the NSA. There are lots of clever moments showing The Machine's capabilities, and it made me buy into the idea of Finch actually succeeding in uploading the virus. That added to the tension, and the scenes in the latter half of the episode were a lot of fun because I was unsure if the virus would actually get installed or not. The subject of the virus led to the return of the phenomenal philosophical talks between Finch and Greer which was excellent. I thought the revelation that the virus will kill The Machine as well as Samaritan added to the stakes and the discussion both, and it also led to some wonderful exploration of the relationship between Finch and The Machine. I liked that Greer put Finch in a position where he was forced to reveal his feelings about why he was willing to sacrifice The Machine to take out Samaritan, and the emphasis on human will in this episode worked as an overall theme. What furthered the exploration into the theme of free will were those simulations that The Machine showed Finch of what would become of everyone had they not been involved with The Machine. These tied in with Finch's idea of free will and where each of the characters would end up whether there was an AI around or not. The resulting world being a mixture of good and bad was perfect, and it really highlighted how the world will simply go on no matter what happens. It added extra weight to Finch's big decision at the end of the episode, because at that point he knew that the world wouldn't necessarily be a better place without The Machine, yet he decided to pull the plug anyways. The ending itself is huge. Samaritan has already started to glitch out and it's only a matter of time until both AIs are dead. It's an exciting cliffhanger that promises a huge episode up next to close out the show. This episode was a perfect set-up episode in this regard. The Bad: Greer's death was wholly unsatisfying. It made sense to have him die believing in Samaritan continuing his legacy, but I felt that his death was so unnecessary and ultimately meaningless, almost as if the writers couldn't come up with a logical way to kill him. The fact that he died in the chamber but Finch somehow survived made little sense to me and it felt like too convenient of a way to write Greer out of the story. Furthermore, the motivation behind him killing himself made no sense. Surely he needs to stay alive to ensure that people listen to Samaritan and to ensure that there is a human in charge of everyone else. An AI can't exactly interact with the human world, there needs to be a man in charge to do that for it. Why was it so simple for Finch to get to Samaritan? Surely there should have been a much better defense system in place in case Finch got through. After dealing with Samaritan as a villain for 2 full seasons, it shouldn't have been this easy to get to it. The Unknown: Did Fusco kill LeRoux? Can The Machine or Samaritan somehow survive the virus? Can the virus be removed somehow? What will be everyone's fate? If The Machine is destroyed, what purpose would all of the characters have? What will be their ending? Best Moment: Finch and Greer's lengthy debate about if the world would be better off without a godly AI in charge. These two had me glued to my seat. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a great set-up episode that got me really excited for the series finale. There was one major misstep with Greer's anticlimactic death, but other than that this was great. Score: 68 Summary: Reese, Fusco, and Shaw briefly mourn Root but they have to move on as the next POI is the president. Reese attends a gala where the president is going to be and encounters Logan. Shaw is there too and together they prevent a placed bomb from killing anyone. A warning appears stating that the president will die tomorrow because of illegal government surveillance. Shaw captures a suspect and she interrogates him. She releases him and follows him to his group. Fusco is her back-up. They discover a group of normal people who want to make a change. Together, everyone saves the president from the threat on his life. Logan is revealed to be part of a group consisting of himself, Joey and Harper who now work for The Machine to save lives. They secure a safe exit for Reese, Fusco and Shaw and give Reese a lead on Finch. Meanwhile, Finch is on the run and makes it to a Samaritan facility where he installs a virus. He escapes with the help of The Machine.
The Good: This episode felt like the definitive, final number-of-the-week case. There was some extra effort put in, making this case feel more important and enjoyable than usual, and the four main characters each got to have their moments to shine throughout the episode. Furthermore, having the team save the president felt like a great final mission, and having it be a total success gave the number-of-the-week cases a feel-good ending despite teasing us more than usual that something might go wrong. I really liked the reveal of Logan, Joey and Harper being another team hired by The Machine. It makes perfect sense since there are obviously other places outside New York where crime takes place. Of course there have to be multiple teams to stop crime elsewhere in America. It's an interesting way to have the show address a plot hole that has existed since the very beginning of the show. Additionally, it serves as a passing of the torch as it seems like the original crew have been replaced and their legacy lives on through the lives of the people they have saved that decided to do good. It's a really uplifting story and it provides a beautiful conclusion for the POI cases regardless of what happens in the final two episodes. The most interesting parts of this episode were the small character moments. Shaw was a stand-out as we got to see her mourning Root by falling further into her emotionless shell than usual. The scene where she tortured Charlie was borderline uncomfortable and it nicely demonstrated Shaw falling back into brutality to avoid facing her emotions. I do wonder if she was subconsciously reminiscing of her first meeting with Root where she got tortured, which is a nice touch. Finch's side story was a lot of fun too. There were some good moments where he got to reveal how he is dealing with Root's death which felt very organic since having to listen to her voice constantly would force him to face these emotions. Additionally, watching The Machine operate at full potential is as joyful as ever, and I really enjoyed the sequence where Finch escaped from the Samaritan location using many of The Machine's loopholes. Technically this episode isn't entirely accurate as a summation of POI cases because majority of the usual tropes and cliches weren't used in this episode. Though that definitely isn't a bad thing, and I'm glad that the show avoided falling into its biggest pitfalls in this episode. Hell we even got a scene where Reese and Shaw intentionally let a captive go instead of them randomly becoming sloppy and letting him escape. I liked that a lot. The Bad: This episode wasn't perfect. The villains were boring and I never really felt any fear for the life of the president or the main characters. The attempt to escalate the stakes by having the president be a number didn't really work at all because of this episode's placement. The last episode was the most intense episode of the entire show, so no matter what the next episode was always going to feel like a step down. I also wasn't a fan of Reese and Shaw escaping so easily, even if they did have Joey's help. They took shots at the president, surely the secret service would have locked down the whole building. Logan having a lead on Finch which popped out of nowhere was a bit too convenient for my liking. The writers didn't even try to hide how convenient it was. The Unknown: Are there more teams working for The Machine? Will we ever see more teams? Will these three help out Team Machine in the next two episodes? The tone of their conversation with Reese didn't really seem to suggest that though. Were Logan, Joey and Harper originally supposed to have more significant roles in the story? I wonder how much was lost when the show got cancelled. I am happy with them showing up as brief cameos, but I do feel like there is potential for more story. Where was that virus from? Was it the one that Finch obtained earlier in the season? Or is it a new one? I'm not entirely sure. Best Moment: Probably the final conversation between Reese and Fusco, and Logan, Joey and Harper. It felt like a passing of the torch moment. Character of the Episode: Shaw. Conclusion: This was a fun episode with a sense of finality. It neatly celebrated the show's run and made me feel the emotion of the show reaching its end. Even though the story was nothing special, I appreciated this episode. Score: 65 Summary: Finch goes to the place he and Grace had their first date but that gives away his cover. Elias smuggles Finch back to the hotel where he met Reese and hides him there. Reese, Root and Shaw give the attack to Samaritan but they still send men to get Finch. Elias tries to get Finch out to escape but he is killed and Finch is taken. Root and Shaw arrive to free Finch and Root drives him away while Shaw stays behind to fight. Samaritan's men give chase but Root kills them. Jeff is guided to a sniper spot where he shoots at the car and ends up hitting Root. The police stop the car and Finch is arrested. Root succumbs to her wounds. While being interrogated, Finch decrees that he will kill Samaritan for what it has done. The Machine, using Root's voice, contacts Finch and breaks him out of the prison. Reese and Shaw go to the prison to find Finch but discover that he has escaped while Fusco goes to the hospital where he learns of Root's fate.
The Good: What a crazy episode! The most impressive part about this episode was its pacing. This episode was packed with huge, impactful moments that flowed from one to each other at a breathless and rapid pace, and yet the episode still gave each moment the perfect amount of time for it to really stick and leave an impact on us. I'm not sure that I've ever seen an episode paced this well before. The fantastic pacing aided the palpable tension that was felt throughout the episode. With Finch as the POI this week, the episode immediately felt important, and with only 4 episodes left until the show's conclusion, it felt like everyone was in danger. Because of that sense of danger, the frantic pace and the importance of the episode, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It really felt like this episode would have some huge consequences, as the constant hinting of Finch saying he doesn't want to lose any friends made it really seem like there was going to be a major loss in this episode. And then the deaths hit in the middle portion of the episode and they were both outstanding moments. I'll start with Elias who got a perfect farewell in his final scenes. I thought that Elias' "death" in "YHWH" was seriously underwhelming and I didn't feel anything from it. This was handled so much better. In these last two episode we finally got to see Elias shine as a character as he joined Team Machine full-time. I think Elias was severely underutilized in the first 4 seasons, so it feels refreshing for him to get the spotlight he deserves. His final scenes were all brilliant as the show really celebrated his character and the way that he inspired loyalty in the criminal underground with so many allies hidden away in that hotel complex. Additionally, the return to the hotel complex was perfect. It's where we first got to know Elias and it's also where we get to say goodbye to him as well. His actual death was excellently done. It was such a sudden moment, but I think that really helped accentuate the shock and fear of his death as well as the impact that his death had on Finch who was standing right there. The scene was paced perfectly too, his death came as a sudden gut-punch but the scene kept going, giving us frequent shots of Elias' motionless body to allow the moment to really sink in for us and allow the heavy emotion of his loss to really settle in. After that, the suspense throughout the rest of the episode practically killed me. Elias was gone only halfway through the episode and his death entirely got me to believe that anybody else could die in the back half of the episode. The tension in the episode was immediately elevated by this change. Following Elias, we had to say farewell to Root as well. Root's death was handled similarly to Elias' where she wasn't given any grand, dramatic farewell. She simply took a fatal wound protecting her friend and died later in the episode. The slow reveal of her death was really well done and it came off as a confirmation of our worst fears which added to the bleak tone of the episode. Furthermore, I like the idea of Root dying to save Finch as it nicely rounded off the redemption arc her character went through in heartbreaking fashion. The episode did a nice job of celebrating Root as a character while also touching on her key relationships. We got some final scenes between her and Finch as they continued to discuss the state of The Machine and what needs to be done, but this time there was less conflict than before. It was simply a case of Root letting Finch know that she has faith in him, which does make me wonder if The Machine had actually informed her that she was going to die. Additionally, we got some ridiculous over-the-top action scene from Root as she blew up that car which I think is a fair way to give her one last hurrah, even if it did have some drawbacks to it (see: The Bad). We also got a lovely scene between Root and Shaw during the shootout as they got to embrace each other in the heat of battle. The moment was lovely, and I applaud the writers for deciding to make Root and Shaw's defining couple-moment to be them killing people together, which is certainly the more logical way for them to bond rather than holding hands like they did earlier in the episode. That showed that the writers understood what made this relationship work. As a final way to honour Root, the episode adds in a wonderfully powerful final touch of getting The Machine to pick Root's voice to use. I thought the ending of the episode was phenomenal. Finch's speech to Samaritan at the end was probably the show's single greatest moment (see: Best Moment) as we got to see the "pot boil over" as Elias had referenced a couple episodes ago. After witnessing two of his friends die, Finch is in no mood to sit around in some cell. He has finally been pushed past his limit and Michael Emerson does a fantastic job of portraying Finch's disappointment in how he got punished so badly while trying to be the morally correct one. Finch's sadness and regret is easy to see and the way he channels that and turns it into desire for vengeance is completely understandable and a very logical step for the character to take. In the end, this whole episode built up to this moment and I'm very excited to see what Finch does next. Lastly, I really liked the way that Finch ended up getting his cover blown. Having him visit the place where he and Grace had their first date felt like a genuinely human moment. Before embarking on the final war with Samaritan, Finch allowed himself one moment to appreciate his life, and that one moment caused all of the mayhem in this episode which resulted in him losing 2 very close friends. The Bad: A few odd things didn't work for me. The show has been extremely inconsistent with how covers are blown. I thought for sure that Reese's cover was blown multiple times in previous episodes, but for some reason he can just keep using his detective Riley alias. So when Finch's cover gets blown for something so small and trivial, it doesn't make sense to me at all, and it makes less sense how Samaritan can so easily keep track of him when it was so easy for Team Machine to lose Samaritan in earlier episodes. Root destroying that car in such a cartoonish way didn't really fit the episode. I've grown to enjoy the show's cheesy action scenes since they are very clearly done in a way to sort of mock the trope, but I thought the addition of a parody action scene in one of the most intense episodes of the series was a poor idea. The sudden and convenient removal of the minigun threat, coupled with the ridiculous idea of Root shooting at it with pinpoint accuracy while driving a car really didn't work for me at all and it made the main characters seem invincible in an episode which had made a point of removing all plot armour from every character. Add in the laughably bad explosion at the end of the scene, and it really took me out of the episode for a couple of minutes. Having Elias come back to life only to die a few episodes later was odd and it didn't make his return feel very important. I presume this only happened because of the cancellation so I can forgive it. Plus, the writers used his character perfectly after his return so I can say that it definitely wasn't a waste of time. I'm not sure if I missed anything, but how can Finch talk to The Machine directly through cameras? Isn't Samaritan listening too? The Unknown: What is Finch going to do next? Does he have any plan to attack Samaritan? Where will he go to be safe? How are Root, Shaw and Fusco going to find him? Best Moment: Finch's speech was an outstanding moment. Michael Emerson is fantastic every time I see him, and I think this was his best work in this show. Every line was delivered with the perfect amount of anger, regret and sadness and I think that made it so much easier to really understand Finch's emotions throughout this scene. This was the perfect way to mark Finch's transformation from a weak, kind-hearted guy into a vengeful monster. Character of the Episode: Finch for sure. Conclusion: This was an incredible episode. So much was accomplished in this episode without anything feeling rushed which really impressed me. Two major deaths, a shocking but believable character transformation, and epic cliffhanger and an outstanding pace. This episode had it all, and because of that, I think this was the best episode of the show so far and I don't think it will be topped. Score: 87 Summary: Reese captures the next POI, Easton, and discovers that he is being blackmailed by The Voice. The Voice ends up trapping Reese and Fusco in the precinct and they discover that he is trying to kill somebody in the facility. They learn that this person is Amir, who knows the identity of The Voice. Finch and Elias investigate together and find The Voice's base, learning that The Voice is actually in the precinct. The Voice is actually Easton who kills Amir and escapes. But Finch and Elias find him and Elias kills him. Meanwhile, Shaw returns and encounters Root who brings her back to the crew. Reese finally tells Fusco about The Machine.
The Good: The return of The Voice is fun, and it's nice to see one of the forgotten characters from early in the show get some pay-off by the end of the series. The story surrounding The Voice is very strong and it made for some very good drama. After the lockdown happened, the tension was there throughout the episode, and before that, the episode was dominated by mystery and intrigue. It's a nice build-up to the climax with escalating stakes and there ended up being some really good moments to set up the big twist at the end. I really enjoyed Elias' involvement in this episode. He is so much fun and I really wish he was given a central role like this in more episodes. His interactions with Finch are fun, his mob boss persona allows for him to solve some problems that are very different from the problems that our main characters solve, and his ruthless nature makes him unpredictable and fresh as part of the team. The few scenes we got between Shaw and Root were very good. I liked the continuity from "6,741" with Shaw referencing her simulations where she couldn't bear to kill Root. I love the idea of Root choosing to kill herself in response to convince Shaw to stop, showing that Samaritan wasn't able to properly convey all of Root's emotions in the simulation. It seems that not all of humanity can be predicted by AIs. The ending of the episode was nice and seems to set up for the show's endgame. The five main characters are finally back together again, and all of them are aware of the stakes of the war they are about to enter. The ending suggests that the real battle is going to begin now, and I can't wait. The Bad: Unfortunately, this episode didn't work at all as a part of the overall story. The individual story with The Voice was fine and I had fun with it, but the big developments that happened here all fell flat for me. There were many things that I was disappointed by in this episode. One was Shaw's escape from South Africa being skipped entirely. How did she get from there to Mexico? Did Samaritan not give chase? How did she evade all of the cameras? How did she survive? It would have been ideal to see more of her efforts to return to the crew. I suppose I have the cancellation of the show to blame for the rushed nature of Shaw's return. Speaking of rushed, I was extremely disappointed by Shaw's reunion with everyone. There was hardly any reaction and I was really confused by the lack of emotion. It badly detracted from my emotional reaction to Shaw's return, and it made the moment feel almost useless. It's a far cry from the reunion scenes from "Lost" which were emotional and memorable every single time. Additionally, it's poor to have Shaw's return be the C-story in an episode instead of it being the primary focus. It downplays the importance of the moment. Fusco learning about The Machine was similarly rushed. There is very little focus on Reese and Finch choosing to bring Fusco in, which is poor because there was so much time dedicated to explaining why they couldn't bring Fusco in. Why did they change their minds? The answer is that I don't know, and that shouldn't be how I feel after characters make a crucial decision. Additionally, Reese actually telling Fusco about The Machine is skipped entirely which is a terrible move from the writers. After building to this big moment for 5 seasons, it feels cheap to just skip it. I also didn't like the Easton twist. It felt too convenient and easy of an twist without enough foreshadowing. Furthermore, it made The Voice into as bland and generic of a villain as possible. He monologued, conveniently escaped and failed to be particularly threatening. I thought Root's scene when she was watching Stone was really bad. She didn't have anyone to talk to so she just randomly spilled out all of her thoughts for us to hear. The scene was rushed too and wasn't allowed the time to visually show us what had happened. Instead, Root simply tells us what happened. A more skillfully crafted scene could have gotten the same point across without any dialogue, and it also would have been a little longer to have some time to breathe. The Unknown: Is Shaw actually normal? Will we see any side effects from her time with Samaritan? What did Fusco think about The Machine? Best Moment: The final few shots of the crew standing together was nice. Character of the Episode: Elias. Conclusion: This episode had its fun moments but I was disappointed overall by the overarching story which usually doesn't happen in this show. Most of the developments were rushed and that ruined some moments that I was really looking forward to. I hope this is just a bump in the road for the show's climax. Score: 49 Summary: The next POI is James Ko who has gone to a hospital. He has the flu but then he suddenly dies, leading Reese to believe that there is a virus outbreak. Finch eventually discovers that the outbreak is caused by Samaritan in an attempt to kill a doctor and a nurse who know too much. Meanwhile, Fusco goes to Elias and tells him of Moran's death. In exchange, Elias helps Fusco and leads him to Jeff. Samaritan sends Jeff to kill the doctor and nurse and he manages to infect one of the two with the virus but Reese chases him off. Fusco arrives to help and he is also infected. Root is able to get an antidote for everyone infected, including Fusco. Fusco asks for anew partner and moves to a different position. Finch confronts Elias for his actions but Elias warns him that he needs to include everybody in the war. Shaw escapes from confinement and kills Lambert.
The Good: Shaw's escape ended up being pretty satisfying. She got to say some of her typical badass lines as she knocks out everybody in her way. I thought the hidden tunnel was a nice nod to "The Shawshank Redemption" and it was a sensible way for Shaw to be able to keep track of reality. Since her tunnel was still there, she firmly believed that she was in reality. Her murder of Lambert was really satisfying, as was her turning Lambert's words around on him by telling him to wait until he wakes up. Fusco and Elias had a brilliant side story. Both of them had been sidelined by Finch, Reese and Root and they ended up following their own agendas as a result. The team's concern for both Elias and Finch and their insistence to keep them in the dark has resulted in some unexpected actions being taken against them. This leads up to a pair of surprisingly emotional conversations at the end of the episode as both Elias and Fusco own up to their actions and force both Finch and Reese to face with the potential consequences with keeping them in the dark. I'm interested to see if these conversations are able to sway Reese and Finch's standings on keeping Elias and Fusco in the dark. The POI story was pretty fun and I enjoyed it overall. The Samaritan involvement was predictable but it worked and created a ton of drama during the episode's climax when things started to be revealed at a rapid pace. It was fairly exciting and it neatly paid off of the patient set-up throughout the first half of the episode. The Bad: How did Shaw dig that hole without anybody noticing? We needed to see Shaw setting up her escape and I think that having her escape be given as a surprise really detracted from the effectiveness of her plan. Furthermore, why weren't more men hunting her down? She was only encountered by Lambert which was really poor. Surely Samaritan would send more men to ensure that its valuable subject doesn't actually break free. This episode took a long time to get going. The virus outbreak wasn't a very exciting story and things were pretty dull as the virus was built up. Additionally, the early scenes with Jeff were a snooze since I'm not that invested in his character. Too much of this episode had a slow burn build up without very much to keep me engaged. After getting used to the break-neck pace that this show usually has, this change in pace feels pretty jarring. I thought the hospital could have done a much better job containing the virus. Little things like not distributing masks among everyone and not isolating those who were showing symptoms of the virus really irked me. Also, it's ridiculous that Fusco and Jeff could get into the quarantined area so easily. The Unknown: Who are Sam's friends? Is Sam going to be a threat? Or was he just a fun side character? Also, was Shaw's escape actually a simulation? The directing suggests it was actually real but could that be another red herring? After being tricked twice, I'm cautious of what I'm watching. What does Elias mean when he says Finch is the darkest out of everyone? Is he right about this? Will we see Finch lose it in a later episode? Perhaps he will snap if Reese dies. I'm very intrigued by this idea and I really hope that the show can competently build Finch to a snapping point if this is the direction the story is heading. Best Moment: Finch and Elias' conversation was really good. There was some nice conflict exploration as Elias attempts to convince Finch to use all of his assets as the story seems to heading towards Finch bringing Elias and Fusco into the fold while also letting The Machine run without any restrictions. Character of the Episode: Elias. Conclusion: This episode was a slow starter, but a lot of good conflict ended up being explored by the episode's end. In the end this is a good episode with some ups and some downs, but it's an overall good time. Score: 65 Summary: Fusco recovers from his injuries but he is still kept in the dark by everyone. He decides to quit helping Finch if he isn't told what is going on. Root goes undercover as a radio host when she presses The Machine to give her a way to help Shaw. While undercover, Root discovers that the POI, Max, has discovered a secret communication system that Samaritan has been using. Max is now a target since he wants to make this information public. Root hijacks it briefly and sends a message to Shaw who is now struggling to differentiate between simulation and reality. Samaritan speaks with Root who attempts to make a deal with it but Reese cuts off the communication, not wanting Root to give herself up for Shaw. Max makes his own choice to reveal the communication system anyways and The Machine, Reese and Root let him do so despite Finch's horror. Max is killed by a Samaritan agent.
The Good: This was a really strong episode. The focus around Shaw made the story feel important and there were definite stakes involved with Root attempting to find a way to contact her. This element made the POI story much more interesting, and I thought that the Root and Reese pairing worked really well for this episode too. These background details provided the perfect canvas for a good episode. And the actual POI story was pretty clever and refreshingly different. Having the fate of Max center around The Machine's understanding of free will was perfect and it gave us a surprisingly dark twist to end the episode when Root and Reese leave Max to get killed by Samaritan anyways since he chose to take a risk knowing that he would likely die. Episodes centered around Root are always a lot of fun. The opening scenes of the episode with Root constantly on the run with The Machine reforging her identity over and over was very informative on how the system works, plus it gave us some fun action and comedy with all of the crazy stunts that Root pulled. Shaw's storyline was also quite good. I think that Shaw being unable to figure out if she is in the real world or not is entirely plausible seeing how frequently she has been in a simulation. It also makes Greer's test from a few episodes back more logical, since it seems likely that he was testing to see if Shaw could determine if she was in a simulation or not. It's become clear that Shaw's time being experimented on has changed her drastically and it remains to be seen if she can even fully recover from the mental torture she has been put through. I thought Fusco had a very nice rant with Finch once again as he got pushed past his breaking point. After nearly dying for a his friends, it's understandable that Fusco would call it quits when they still refuse to tell him the truth. I really like that the show finally acknowledged that Samaritan can hear just about any conversation. This was a feature that was established right when Samaritan went fully online but it was hardly addressed at all until now. I do wish that it happened earlier since it is really annoying that we have been given a season and a half of Reese, Root and Finch casually talking about Samaritan loudly and in public, and this contradicts that in a big way. But, I think that the addition of Samaritan being able to hear does add to the tension by a lot and I sincerely hope that the show keeps this additional drama for its final 6 episodes. The Bad: Fusco quitting reminds me of when Carter quit. It's inevitable that he is going to come back so I don't think that there is much drama in that regard. The show has to be careful with what is done with Fusco in the next couple of episodes. Max was a bit dull and he felt way too one-note to be particularly interesting. I also thought that he took the huge change in his life remarkably well, and I think there should have been much more for him to do as he reacts to the reveals around him. I was confused by the need to protect Reese's cover. I thought that his cover was blown long ago. How did it just come back? He didn't change his identity like Root did so why is keeping him consistent with detective Riley such a big deal? Surely Samaritan can openly detect him now that it has learned that John Riley is also John Reese. The Unknown: How will Elias react to Moran's death? Will he go against Samaritan or continue to play it safe? Will Shaw be escaping soon? How? Will she be the same as before? How long will it take her to recover? What will be her role in the story? When is Fusco going to learn the truth? I think it's inevitable that he learns of Samaritan soon. Best Moment: Root sending the message to Shaw and saving her from suicide was a powerful moment. I also really liked the callback to "If-Then-Else", though I did have to look up the meaning of "four alarm fire". Sometimes the hints can be so subtle that I miss them, but I definitely think it's a good thing in this case. It makes sense that Shaw would still remember some of the last words that Root said to her. Character of the Episode: Root. Conclusion: This episode was well thought out and it told a fresh, new story. I enjoyed this. Score: 66 Summary: The next POI case directs Reese and Finch to a wedding. Root joins them and they soon resolve the case. The photographer Maggie is being targeted after she took a picture of something she shouldn't have but Reese and Root save her. Fusco continues investigating Samaritan and hears of a plan to demolish a tunnel. Fusco investigates the tunnel and discovers all of the missing people, including Moran and Krupa. He is caught in the tunnel when the demolition happens. Greer lets Shaw out into the world in an attempt to get her to switch over to team Samaritan. However it's all a simulation again but Shaw seems more convinced in favour of Samaritan's cause.
The Good: I thought the POI story was nothing special but it was easy enough to watch. There was a lot of humour, some fun character moments and some decent examples of drama. I particularly liked the dance scene with Finch and Root which led to some good continuation of their conflict over what to do with The Machine. Also Finch's hilarious Irish accent and singing was a guilty pleasure of this episode. Just dumb fun. Greer and Shaw's story was really strong. It was great seeing Greer attempt a different approach to break Shaw and I thought his idea of showing the benefits of Samaritan made sense. It put Shaw on the spot and forced her to consider abandoning her friends and joining the righteous cause. The simulation twist somehow got me again and it also made Greer look more competent as he wouldn't dare risk taking Shaw out into the world without keeping her restrained. Fusco's investigation appears to have put him in a world of trouble. He discovered all of the missing peoples in a great scene and it became evident that Fusco is beginning to suspect a major threat is responsible for everything he has been involved in. Then, Fusco appears to have tragically been caught in the demolition of the tunnel and it remains to be seen what his fate is. I don't believe he is dead but he may have ended up in the hands of Samaritan. The Bad: The POI story is mostly dull with forgettable characters, predictable twists and very little of note happening during the story. After so many previous episodes connected with an overarching story, it's very disappointing to get an episode that doesn't do this and it ends up being notably weaker than the other episodes as a result. It may not be as poorly written as some of the show's worst episodes, but it is still a very dull episode. The episode had a very hokey feel to it and most of the episode relied on comedy to make up for the lack of tension. Unfortunately, the execution isn't great and we are left with a hollow, tension-free episode which is not what I want to be watching in the final stretch of the show. With so many big threats in the show, I want the stories to be focused on them and I don't care much for bland POI cases when the story is in the endgame. I'm fine with character development and scenes to reflect on how far the characters have come, but the episode should be centered around these aspects rather than some meaningless POI case. The Unknown: What is Fusco's fate? Will Samaritan have control of him now? Or can he find his way out? Will Shaw actually betray Team Machine? Her resolve doesn't seem quite as strong as it was before. Still, I don't quite see her selling out just yet. Best Moment: Fusco calling Finch after finding proof of a large powerplay being put in motion only for him to be punished for delving too deep. Character of the Episode: Fusco again. He's been great this season. Conclusion: This was a disappointing episode that did next to nothing for the story at all. I hope that this episode is just a single weak link and that the show can get back on track for its remaining 7 episodes. Score: 52 Summary: The next POI is Ethan who works for something called ShotSeeker which detects gunshots around New York City. Ethan investigates the apartment of Krupa who mysteriously went missing. Ethan believes that there were gunshots fired there but ShotSeeker ignored them. ShotSeeker is being used by Samaritan so Ethan is being targeted by Samaritan. Fusco and Reese work to help him but Reese is kidnapped by Moran who wants to know who killed Elias. Root and Finch acquire a hard drive and use it to make Samaritan stop targeting Ethan. Reese and Finch are forced to reveal that Elias is actually still alive since Fusco pulled him out of the car and saved his life. Fusco is aware that Finch is keeping him in the dark and investigates Krupa on his own, putting him on Samaritan's radar.
The Good: I liked a lot of this episode. Ethan's story is pretty solid and it becomes interesting the moment we see the familiar face of Jeff tailing him from across the street in a van. It immediately becomes clear that Samaritan is responsible for this case, though I had guessed this beforehand anyways. Either way it works, because knowing Samaritan is involved always increases my interest in the case. Moran's return is a welcome side plot and it gives some consequences to The Correction since there is some logical follow-up on what happened to Elias. But what is more surprising is the reveal that Elias is still alive and seemingly has a role to play in the story now. I feel like an idiot for not guessing that he was extracted by Fusco, but I really like this development and it seems that Elias will be getting a better conclusion this season. It appears that he is now aware of Samaritan and could be a valuable asset in the upcoming war. The Finch and Root storyline was pretty fun as ever. I like the idea of Finch training The Machine by pitting it against Samaritan. It continues the story of Finch being hesitant to arm The Machine, and I think that this storyline is building up to Finch being forced to make a big decision regarding The Machine. Root seems to be all for it, but Finch is the only one who is afraid of what The Machine may do with its power. There was another great scene with these two where Root got to convince Finch to sacrifice an advantage over Samaritan to save a life. It's surprising to see Root be the one conveying this message, but it really goes to show how she has changed as a person from spending so much time with the morally correct Finch. Fusco's story of becoming more aware continues as he investigates more into Samaritan. So far this has been one of the best storylines of the season, and I'm really excited to see what will come from Fusco being targeted by Samaritan. Furthermore, Fusco had some great scenes where he mouths off to Finch and Reese for keeping him in the dark. Fusco isn't an idiot and I like that he is confident enough to express his observations and do some investigating on his own. He has come a long way from the man he was in season 1. The Bad: This episode had way too much going on. There were multiple side plots to accompany the main story and that meant that very little had a chance to really stand out and hit me emotionally. The main storyline in particular suffers for this as I never really cared for Ethan, or Mary, or Krupa. Furthermore, I thought the plot was way too convoluted considering the short amount of time it was given and I found myself having a fairly hard time following along with the many dumps of exposition. It felt more excessive than the amount of exposition I'm used to getting from this show, which is really saying something. Simplifying this story a little bit could have gone a long way to making it more enjoyable. I was really disappointed with the lack of emotion during Elias' return. I was expecting to see something more from this scene: gratitude from Elias perhaps, or any other emotion. Instead it was solely played for surprise which robbed it of being as good of a moment as it could have been. Additionally, I was annoyed that Elias had apparently learned about Samaritan offscreen. This is an important development that could have a lot of emotional resonance for Elias, so I think we deserved to see him learn about Samaritan. The Unknown: What is Jeff's role in the story? He was given some time here to be more of a character so I think it's fair to assume that he will do something in the story. What will Fusco discover in his investigation? Will Samaritan send men after him? Could Fusco be the POI in an upcoming episode? Why did Samaritan target and kill Krupa? Best Moment: Fusco venting at Finch over the phone because he knows that Finch is withholding information was great. Little character moments like these were missing throughout most of the episode and that prevented it from being great. Character of the Episode: Fusco. Conclusion: This was a good episode and it had a lot to like, but I felt like it could have been executed better to have more emotion. Score: 61 Summary: Greer places a chip inside of Shaw's head. Shaw eventually stages an escape and successfully gets out but she is fragmented mentally from the chip. She orchestrates a trap to get the attention of Finch, and reunites with the crew. They remove the chip from her head and Root and Shaw have sex. However, the crew doesn't trust Shaw, frustrating her, plus her mind is still fragmented despite the chip being removed. Shaw calls Samaritan and they hastily form a plan. The team captures Greer and get the Samaritan kill switch from him. But it's a trap and Samaritan locates Finch's base and The Machine. Shaw kills Greer when he reveals that the whole thing was a set-up and Shaw is theirs. Shaw and Reese go to save Finch. Shaw's mind fragments again and she kills Reese. Shaw meets up with Root and can't bring herself to kill her. Shaw kills herself. However, this is all revealed to have occurred in a simulation as Samaritan attempts to break Shaw and get her to give away the location of The Machine.
The Good: It shouldn't come as a surprise that an episode that dedicates its entire runtime to Shaw is excellent. Like most shows, "Person of Interest" has been at its best when focusing on a single story ("Terra Incognita", "Relevance", and to an extent "Prisoner's Dilemma"). Shaw's story here is terrific and Sarah Shahi did a wonderful job with the role. We get to catch up with a beaten up and mentally unstable Shaw who has escaped Samaritan. The story is immediately engrossing with high stakes, high interest and the feeling that we are watching something out of the ordinary. I've consistently praised episodes of this show for these same reasons, so what is it that makes this episode so exceptional? I think the answer lies in Shaw herself. Along with an interesting plot, this episode shows us something unique from Shaw as she battles herself throughout the episode. Her random seizures were pretty terrifying, and her confusion and fear when she acts abnormally are quite scary. These moments build tension wonderfully and they give us a nice look at Shaw's character when she is faced with doing things that she wouldn't want to do like killing Greer, Reese and then Root. We learn more about her devotion and dedication from this episode, and it's genuinely heartening to see her fighting so hard to not give in to Samaritan even after going through this simulation almost 7,000 times. When given this exposition, it's very easy to understand why Shaw seems so tired and mentally drained throughout the episode. I imagine that after every simulation Shaw loses more and more of her fighting spirit. It's damn impressive that she has lasted this long and it says a lot about her character and the bond she has formed with the team. The exploration of Shaw's paranoia in the episode is pretty interesting, and it leads to some very good moments. I really liked the scenes of her trying to avoid Samaritan, such as the bits inside the taxi. I also thought her plans were very good. I particularly liked how she was able to draw Root and Reese to her as it was both clever and fitting with her badass personality. Better yet are the subtle parts of the episode where we see Shaw losing her mind, trapped and helpless while still trying to maintain her tough exterior. Her actions are strange, and even unhinged at times and that not only makes the episode more exciting and dramatic, but it also raises concerns about Shaw's character and how Samaritan may have changed her. Then we get to the wonderful ending twist. It may not have been the most surprising twist (I predicted it when Shaw killed Reese), but it was still very effective as a storytelling tool. A TV show doesn't need high stakes and constant plot movement to be effective. It just needs to tell a story. Even though the twist results in every scene of this episode accomplishing practically nothing for the plot, there is a concise story being told here, one that is powerful and affecting and I think that's what really matters. The twist doesn't kill the episode, rather it corrects some of the plot-related issues I had with the episode by making it clear that this is an episode that cares more about character instead of plot. Reflecting on the episode is so rewarding since many of the problems I had end up being hints/foreshadowing for the twist reveal. For example, at I thought this episode had weird dialogue for some characters, a very rushed plot and a lack of detail about what was happening. These actually ended up being very deliberate hints. The weird dialogue seems to stem from the fact that this is Samaritan and Shaw's interpretations of the characters rather than the actual people. The rushed plot comes from the fact that all of this is happening in Shaw's head. Of course every plan she comes up with will work smoothly, regardless of its flaws, because the execution of the plan is taking place in her head. I also loved the subtle hint of this since the trick Shaw uses to bring Root and Reese to her is actually the exact same thing she did to capture Greer. Shaw has never been particularly clever so it makes sense that she has to resort to the same trick twice. Root and Shaw's big scene also fits as subtle foreshadowing. Their scene is so awkward and overly-dramatic, coming off as more of a fantasy than an actual moment. Yet that is the point since we eventually realize this is all in Shaw's head. It's not a case of Shaw doing something out of character so that the show can force a sex scene, it's instead Shaw indulging the feelings that she holds in the back of her head. Plus it allows the writers to go with the hilariously dramatic plate-breaking throughout that scene which was pretty funny. As a side note, it's funny to think that the Samaritan agents have seen Root and Shaw have sex thousands of times by now. The best parts of the episode were Shaw's triad of kills. The first, the killing of Greer, was a pretty spectacular moment. The two of them had a wonderful conversation that escalated the drama hugely when it was revealed that Greer had orchestrated everything. It was a perfect Greer moment, the likes of which we haven't seen in a very long time. Furthermore, it gave us the surprising twist where Shaw has an outburst and murders Greer. This moment works so well because it is unexpected and it nicely sets up the idea of Shaw being used, but more fascinatingly, it plants that very idea into Shaw's head. Next up was Shaw suddenly killing Reese, which pays off of the idea of being a double agent being placed in Shaw's head. You can evidently see Shaw's fear throughout the entire sequence between her and Reese, and the cold-blooded killing is shockingly effective, even considering the fact that this moment was where I realized that everything was likely a simulation. Somehow the episode still got better though as Shaw's next test was killing Root. This scene between Root and Shaw was extremely sad and powerful, showing Shaw's willpower while also confirming that Shaw does care about Root, and by extension the team, more than herself. The Bad: I wish the episode had spent more time on the reunions between Shaw and the rest of the crew. I understand why they were cut short now, since they weren't actually real, but I still think that there should have been more of a reaction from Finch, Root and Reese when Shaw suddenly returned. as it stands, Shaw's return ended up being an awkward part of the episode that didn't have the same emotional resonance as the rest of the episode. The Unknown: Will Shaw break before she is rescued and reveal The Machine's location? Also, did Shaw actually break before this, or did Greer get all of his information from this simulation? Were all of Shaw's memories int he simulation genuine or were those planted in her mind as well? Is ther actually a chip in her brain? Did her memory of the playground actually exist? How about her memories of being tortured? Best Moment: Shaw admitting that Root was her safe place to go to when she was being tortured is really powerful and Sarah Shahi killed it. Character of the Episode: Shaw of course. Conclusion: This was outstanding by every definition of the word. This was a unique experience that managed to remain very interesting, suspenseful and emotional throughout. I think this is the best episode of the show so far. Score: 85 Summary: Flashbacks show Reese and Stanton being sent by Beale to kill Brent Tomlinson, a traitor to the country. Reese does so in cold manner. In the present, Brent's brother Alex is looking to find what happened to him and comes up as a POI. He is targeted by Beale and arrested but Reese springs him loose. Reese helps Alex get to his answer and eventually realizes that Brent was his brother. BEale captures both of them and Alex gets closure when Reese lies to him, saying that Brent died a hero. Beale goes with the lie. Reese breaks Alex out and gets Beale to stop chasing him. Afterwards, Reese breaks up with Iris, certain that he needs to focus on the war against Samaritan.
The Good: The return to Reese's past was a pleasant surprise and it made for a pretty interesting central story. Even if it wasn't one of the show's best, I was interested by the story that was being told and we got some really good stuff about Reese in this episode. I enjoyed the flashback story a lot. It was wonderful to see Stanton again (presumably for a final time), and I thought that the flashbacks had a sort of retro feel to them as the story felt very similar to the kind of storylines we were frequently getting from Reese and Stanton back in seasons 1-3. It was very fun, and I appreciated seeing the colder side of Reese once again. The flashbacks tied nicely into the main POI case too. I love the idea of Reese being forced to come face to face with one of the people he hurt from his old life, and I think the way that he handled Alex's desires demonstrated how Reese has matured over the course of the show. It's nice to see Reese considering things empathetically now, just like Finch would, as he lies straight to Alex to give him the closure he needed instead of giving him the truth, which in this case would only have made things worse. I also get the sense that Reese's kindness to Alex is one of the reasons that Beale let him go unscathed. It reminds me of the moment in "Dead Reckoning" when I thought that Snow allowed Reese to survive because he realized that Reese had become a good man. Unfortunately, while Reese's morals changed his personality and insecurities did not. With the upcoming war against Samaritan coming up, Reese has to become a soldier once again and he ends up making the same decision he did with Jessica all those years ago. Reese breaks it off with Iris at the end of the episode in a nice scene, neatly following up on the development we saw in "Terra Incognita". Reese is still the same man and he is once again prioritizing his duty of saving the world over his own personal life. The Bad: For once, I was left a little underwhelmed by the side story with Root and Finch. It served as an easy way to upgrade The Machine's capabilities and there were fun moments, but the story felt unusually bland without anything of interest to it. The show has done more interesting things with these two characters on countless occasions, so this felt like a disappointment. The return to the POI format after the exciting start to the season was a little jarring as expected. The main story was very bland for roughly 75% of its runtime, and it's only when the flashbacks and present story become connected that something of interest happens. Even then, the plot was only saved by the interesting stuff surrounding Reese. And as good as Reese's character examination was, it wasn't anything new that we couldn't have already guessed about him. Because of that, this episode was a step down from the last two episodes, and it doesn't even hold a candle to the excellence of "Terra Incognita". I thought that the episode's attempts to build tension by threatening to have the CIA come after Reese didn't really work that well. We already know that Reese is able to hide from Samaritan, which is aware of his presence, so I can't buy into the CIA as a huge threat. Furthermore, I never really bought into the idea of Beale turning on Reese, so the tension was missing throughout the episode. The Unknown: Will Reese get back with Iris after everything is over? Will he even be alive once everything is over? Will Root's big risk pay off? Could there be positive and negative effects from her installing Samaritan's malware into The Machine? Best Moment: Reese choosing to lie to Alex. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: This was another great Reese episode, though the episode wasn't too interesting overall and it relied solely on the character examination it did. Still, I thought it was a good time. Score: 64 Summary: The Machine is glitching out with several bugs and Finch is struggling to fix them all. The Machine sends out 30 numbers and Reese and Fusco investigate them. However, majority of these cases aren't even cases and The Machine is not applying context and appears to be unstuck in time. The Machine eventually labels Reese, Finch and Root as threats and refuses to cooperate with them, also refusing to allow them to reboot it. The Machine sends an assassin to kill Reese, disguised as a POI. Root's cochlear implant is used to cause her pain when The Machine is angry so Finch knocks her out so she can't be used as leverage. Finch speaks with The Machine and manages to figure out the issue, winning it over again. Reese is able to defeat the assassin. One of the 30 POIs deemed irrelevant by Finch turned out to be a genuine POI as he is recruited by Samaritan.
The Good: I really liked the concept behind this episode. There wasn't a proper POI case in this episode and instead the whole episode focused on the team trying to bring The Machine back to life. It made for a very unique story that was different from anything that the show has done before. I liked the story of Finch attempting to fix tons of bugs. He is rebuilding The Machine so it makes perfect sense that there would be loads of complications. Additionally, it led to that hysterical scene where The Machine was imprinting the wrong faces over the dialogue it was hearing, leading to some pretty funny line deliveries from the main cast which I really enjoyed. It reminded me of the terrific simulation gag from "If-Then-Else". The bugs had a surprisingly big effect on The Machine, as a simple bug of The Machine being unable to understand the concept of time caused it to turn on the team and determine that they were all bad people. It was surprising to see the team pitted against The Machine for an episode, and it made for a really unique story as they were essentially forced to befriend a hostile AI. Root and Finch did very well in this story as they managed a mix of disappointment, fear and desperation when they realized that The Machine was actively working against them. The final confrontation with Finch trying to convince The Machine that they were its friends was built up really nicely and it felt like a monumental moment. The scene was played out similarly to all of those wonderful flashbacks we saw of Finch teaching The Machine about humanity, only this time it was infused with much more tension and emotion. The last scene we spend with the team was wonderful television. We rarely get to see the four of them just relaxing due to the show's constant fast pace, so this felt different and refreshing. It felt like a classic "calm before the storm" moment, and it allowed me to reflect on the bonds between the team. The final twist of Jeff actually being a threat and joining Samaritan's cause was interesting. It's staged as a really big deal so I imagine that Jeff will become a major character. It's interesting that Reese was the one that let him go, deeming that he was irrelevant. Perhaps he will come to regret that decision in a future episode. The Bad: Reese and Fusco's side stories aren't very interesting. I thought that far too much time was spent on Reese vs Laurie, which consisted of some pretty bland action. The Unknown: Why did Finch see Grace? Evidently The Machine did not do it. Was it really in Finch's head? Is he missing the times he spent with her? What will become of Samaritan recruiting Jeff? What will Jeff's role be? Will Finch really keep The Machine on an open system? How much more useful will it be for the team? Best Moment: Finch speaking to The Machine and convincing it to trust him was impressively emotional. Character of the Episode: The Machine. Conclusion: This was a really fun episode carried by an outstanding main story that was creative and filled with more emotion than I had anticipated. The side stories weren't anything special, but it was fine because the main story had so much going for it. Score: 71 Summary: Flashbacks show Finch making the fateful decision to wipe The Machine's memories every 24 hours. In the present, Reese, Root and Finch struggle to get back to the subway base as they are being hunted by Samaritan agents. Finch and Reese meet up but Root is still missing. Finch observes that the case can't take any damage or data will be lost, and he also realizes that The Machine's battery life is draining. Reese and Finch finally make it back and Finch works to restore The Machine. Root escapes countless predicaments and is eventually saved by Reese. Together, they bring 300 PS3s back to Finch so The Machine can be uploaded onto them. The operation is risky but ultimately successful. Meanwhile, Fusco is under scrutiny for murdering Dominic and Elias despite his claims that he witnessed a sniper killing both of them. Reese advises him to keep his mouth shut about the sniper and Fusco complies. Fusco is hailed as a hero but continues to investigate the sniper. Samaritan notes Fusco's actions.
The Good: I really liked this season premiere. The pacing was perfect and it set up the story really nicely for a (hopefully) explosive and exciting final season. From the first moment, the tension and stakes were established. It almost reminded me of the first scene of season 5 of "Breaking Bad" with how we got a brief glimpse of the ending that raises more questions than it does answers (see: The Unknown). The eerie showing of a destroyed subway base while Root vaguely speaks in the background raises many questions and lets us know that something big is happening this season, increasing my investment. Then the episode throws us into the chaos. The feeling of the characters trying to survive at all costs in Samaritan's world is exactly what I had expected to get back in season 4. There was a huge sense of urgency as the characters felt trapped with nearly no safe places to go. What's most impressive is how this urgency didn't fizzle out as the episode went on. Somehow the chaos continued throughout the entire hour, and the suspense was almost always there. Some of the scenes that did this best included Root being listed as a criminal as she hides in the subway, Finch desperately trying to prevent The Machine from decompressing and Finch losing the Samaritan agents on the bus. I liked the ending of the episode with The Machine being uploaded to a supercomputer consisting of 300 PS3s. It's a bit funny (I'll never look at my PS3 the same way again), and it also nicely demonstrates how little the team has to work with. Samaritan in on a supercomputer and has an entire building manned with hundreds of agents while The Machine is located on a PS3 in an underground hole. Fusco's story was really great in this episode, and I'm always pleased when Kevin Chapman gets something good to work with. I really liked that there were direct consequences to Fusco watching Dominic and Elias die. He was investigated, and now it seems that Fusco's awareness of The Correction is going to lead into him being targeted by Samaritan. It's a classic case of a character going too far to satisfy their curiosity and it looks like Fusco may be put in an incredible amount of danger because of this. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes up as a number in a later episode. The flashback story was surprisingly powerful and it provided the main source of emotion for an episode which was mostly created with suspense in mind. The flashbacks nicely allowed us to take a breather as the quick pace was reduced and we got to see Finch grappling with the tough decision of whether to strip away The Machine's memory or not. I loved how this conflict went deeper than it initially appeared when Finch first brought up the fact that The Machine's memories reset in season 1 or 2 (I can't remember at this time). The concept of stripping away The Machine's memories reminds Finch too much of what happened to his father, so doing the same thing to his own creation was tough. I was able to really sympathize with him and Michael Emerson did an outstanding job selling Finch's unease, sadness and fear when he made up his mind. With the season shortened, it looks like production will be better than ever. Perhaps it's only for this episode since it's a premiere, but I noticed a large uptick in budget. The world was focused on much more than usual with scenes taking place all across New York, I think there were more Samaritan POV scenes than usual, and the new transitions into the flashbacks were gorgeous. Lastly, the music choice was impeccable (as usual), and added to the tension. All of these improvements added to the cinematic feel of the episode. As a side note, I really laughed when somebody was using the vending machine that Finch and Reese use to access their base. Reese knocking him out right when we think he may help the guy get his candy so he will leave was consistent to his character and it made for a great laugh. The Bad: Some of Root's scenes were far too over-the-top and felt like they came right out of any other ordinary action drama. The spray of bullets all somehow missing Root while she casually walks with no cover, Root's incredible accuracy (which has consistently been a problem in the episodes where she doesn't have The Machine's help), and Root's ability to win fights she probably shouldn't have really detracted from the episode. The tension was strong at first, but it gradually got stripped away when it became clear that Root could still win any fight she needed to even without The Machine. Speaking of a lack of tension, the one aspect of the episode that failed to acquire the tension it was looking for came when The Machine was lit on fire and it looked like it was dead. I never believed that The Machine would die, so the episode trying really hard to get me to believe it didn't really work. While it was cool to see Finch program The Machine into the PS3s, I never had any doubt that it would work so the attempts to make us think it wouldn't work fell completely flat. Also, Reese managed to get that liquid nitrogen pretty fast. Did he teleport to get to it? Also did nobody care that Reese just stole a canister of liquid nitrogen in broad daylight with hundreds of people around? The Unknown: So what's going to happen to the team in the future? Apparently something big is happening and Root doesn't know who lived or died. With the way she was talking about herself as a voice, it seemed like she had left a recording and that could explain how she doesn't know who lived or died. Also, who ended up winning, Samaritan or The Machine? How did the subway base get destroyed? Best Moment: Finch deleting The Machine's memories was a wonderful scene. All of The Machine's dialogue was perfect for the moment, and it was written extremely well to be able to get Finch to confront all of his doubts and emotions before going through with the act. Michael Emerson was so good in this scene, as he has been the entire show. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a really tense premiere that kicked off the season in excellent fashion. I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here. Score: 69 Summary: Root and Finch attempt to hunt down the location of The Machine. The Machine helps them out and they rush to the given location. Harper lets Fusco go but is found as a traitor and is captured. Reese is given a message by The Machine that allows him to escape from the Brotherhood. Fusco returns with backup and arrests both Dominic and Elias. Reese joins up with Finch and Root who discover that The Machine is in Brooklyn, having uploaded itself to the electric grid. Samaritan is using power outages to attempt to kill The Machine. Samaritan forces arrive and attack the group while Finch desperately uploads The Machine to a laptop to preserve it. He is ultimately successful and plans to rebuild it. Reese, Root and Finch escape through a gunfight. Meanwhile, Control tries to prevent The Correction from happening. Control confronts Greer directly with threats but he is unfazed. Control is eventually apprehended and it is revealed that The Correction was a test and Control failed it. The Correction involves Samaritan killing 100 people who were deemed as problems and needed to be killed. Elias and Dominic are killed as part of The Correction. Control is taken away and presumably killed.
The Good: I enjoyed most of this episode and it felt like another gamechanging finale. The Machine is officially shut down (for now), and the team are now on their own going into the final season of the show. I thought the ending sequence with The Machine was really well done. It was tense with high stakes, and it felt like one of the most important moments of the show. I really loved seeing The Machine actually communicate directly to Finch, giving us a better idea of the bond that a creator would hold with his own creation. It was subtly beautiful, aided by Michael Emerson's awesome acting and a good choice in music. The build-up to this final confrontation was solid too. The emotional moments on the way were my favourite parts. I enjoyed Finch reuniting with Caleb during a quick pit stop. I also thought that Reese's goodbye to Iris was pretty touching. These moments added a lot to the characters' journeys to save The Machine. I really liked the discovery that The Machine had actually connected itself to the electric grid to preserve itself. It made sense, and the reveal worked very well especially with the Thornhill boxes being established earlier in the episode. Control's story was pretty good. She has always been bold and she did a number of interesting things this episode to try to stop The Correction. I enjoyed the return of Garrison, and I thought Control offering to stop Samaritan and reinstate The Machine made sense, as did Garrison's refusal of her offer. The ensuing scene with Greer was even better as Control's entire belief system crashed as she faced the ultimate punishment for doubting Samaritan. I love this idea for a story. Normally the hero trying to recruit the villain ends up with the villain paying the price for not listening to hero. I don't think I've ever seen the villain get punished for actually listening to the hero. It's a great way to reinvent a classic trope, and it provided a dark and unexpected conclusion to Control's story. The Bad: Unfortunately I was disappointed by much of this episode. The Brotherhood vs Elias story was a total disappointment and I don't feel like it justified the time we spent heating up this story. Our big pay-off ended up being in the last episode as not much of note happened here. The problem is that I felt like we were building up to something big here and it just didn't happen. Instead Elias and Dominic both die relatively dull and sudden deaths that left very little emotional impact, and failed to satisfyingly resolve either character's story. The Brotherhood were extremely incompetent too. The fact that Reese could escape so easily, even with THe Machine's assistance, was really dumb and totally ruined their threat. I guess it doesn't matter though since we likely won't see them ever again. Furthermore, the fact that Harper was allowed to walk around even though she was evidently not trusted was ridiculous. Surely Dominic would know better than to let her be until she does something really damaging. Additionally, I can't believe that Dominic didn't immediately switch locations when Fusco left. He just stayed in the same building like a sitting duck for when Fusco inevitably brings back-up. Also why the hell did Harper save Fusco anyways? Surely she should have left the moment she intervened. But why did she care enough to do this anyways? Her plan makes no sense, and her motives make even less sense. Harper actually seems to have gotten worse and worse as a character as the show went on. I liked the idea of The Machine turning all of the lights green. But Root and Finch went through the efforts of stealing a cop car. Why wouldn't they just turn the siren on and use that to get through the traffic? It was an easy solution. The Correction ended up being a bit of a disappointment. It ended up only really impacting Control, rather than being the huge event that it had been hyped up to be. Sometimes raising expectations too high can really hurt when the pay-off isn't anything special. Furthermore, using The Correction to conclude the Brotherhood story fails to create any emotional resonance, so it feels cheap and lazy rather than earned. The ending scene is odd and feels incomplete. I appreciate the idea but it feels like there are better spots to The Unknown: What is Control's fate? Is she dead? Or is she being hidden away somewhere like Shaw? Best Moment: The Machine thanking Finch and mentioning the possibility of its death was genuinely touching. Character of the Episode: The Machine. Conclusion: This episode worked as an exciting finale but a lot of the pay-off was disappointing for me. I had expected more from this episode and I found that it didn't quite deliver the quality and emotion I was expecting, even if there was a fun pace and some big moments. In the end this season was quite consistent and I enjoyed it a lot. The Samaritan storyline was consistently excellent and I There was a bit of a weak stretch throughout the middle of the season, but outside of that this was consistently good television with a few great episodes sprinkled throughout. I do think I prefer season 3 over season 4 for a few reasons. Season 3 regularly had terrific episodes throughout its run but this season arguably only had a few stand-out episodes. I also feel that I overrated "The Cold War" significantly since the episode wasn't quite as impressive as I recalled. Another factor that hurt this season was the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood were nowhere near as compelling as Vigilance and their overall impact on the story is so minimal that I feel like they didn't really need to be included as villains at all. I also feel that expectations hurt this season a bit. I was expecting a lot of change going into this season and that didn't really get explored to its full potential. In conclusion, this season was fun but it didn't impact me the way that season 3 did. Still, I think this was a very good season of television and I am looking forward to seeing how the story wraps up in season 5. Score: 66 Summary: The next POI is a man named Khan whose antivirus business is being targeted by somebody. Khan is fired and Finch and Reese have to protect him. Khan is paranoid that he is being attacked by an AI. The team realize that he is being targeted by Samaritan. Root comes by to help after obtaining a mysterious briefcase. The group eventually discover from a Samaritan hideout that Samaritan is trying to locate the Machine. A group of Samaritan agents including Martine attack the group. Khan joins them for answers. Root has an opportunity to kill Martine but Reese stops her. Khan meets Greer who reveals Samaritan and kills Khan.
The Good: This was another really strong episode. I enjoyed the main story a lot and Khan was a really good POI character. He was played by Aasif Mandvi who gave one of the more memorable performances for a POI character, helped by the fact that he was given some god material to work with as his paranoia about being attacked by an AI lands him into dangerous situation after dangerous situation. It's a really strong story, and the fact that it involved Samaritan made it even better. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Khan in the prison. I love that the episode actually took its time during this sequence, allowing us to experience the horror alongside Khan as Samaritan closed in on him for the kill. I especially enjoyed the lengthy shot as Khan looked around at his prison establishment, and eventually everyone started receiving texts and began to look at him with murderous intent. The scene perfectly captured the fear and terror that living in a world where an AI is trying to kill you would consist of. It's something that I wish was explored more in-depth this season, but I'm glad to be getting it now rather than never. Khan's death scene was ruthless and surprising. Often times, characters fates would be left open-ended but Khan's was not. We get to see him coldly executed, and it is stunning, horrific stuff, consistent with the content that has been given to us in this episode. Once Samaritan targeted Khan, there really was no saving him. Samaritan was outstanding in this episode. Early in the season I expected Samaritan to pose a greater threat and be more aggressive in accomplishing its goals and that didn't exactly happen. But here I got exactly what I expected and wanted from Samaritan. Things like the texts it sent the prisoners, shutting off cameras and activating traps on the road make it clear that this is Samaritan's world now. I also really liked how Samaritan overheard Khan questioning its existence through a cell phone that happened to be nearby. This was excellent stuff that made Samaritan feel like a threat. And it appears that Samaritan could very well locate the Machine soon. This is a huge development and it really feels like the final battle is coming up soon, hopefully in the season 4 finale. This episode had all of the details right, not just the Samaritan details. I loved the continuity with Finch and Reese referencing Maple from back in "M.I.A.", as well as the existence of yet another secret Samaritan hideout. I was pleased to see Root's connection with the Machine being used in a creative way as she located security cameras for the team to destroy. Lastly, the sequence where Root gasses everyone was signature Root and it made for a good laugh. The Bad: Why wasn't Samaritan this threatening before? We see it listening in on Khan's conversation through a phone, but is this seriously the only time that this would have happened in the span of season 4? Is there really no other time where Reese/Finch/Root/Shaw were discussing Samaritan in the public when Samaritan could have been listening? It breaks my immersion when I realize that the characters have such large plot armour when necessary. Furthermore, Reese not being identified, escaping the cops and surviving that deadly car crash were very convenient and continued to hurt the sense that somebody could be in real danger this episode. I didn't like Root's fight with Martine very much. Root really shouldn't be able to overpower a trained agent so easily, and the whole fight felt rushed with not enough emotion in there. This should be a seminal moment for Root as she gets to avenge Shaw, but it isn't given enough time to be emotional. Furthermore, shouldn't Root have really asked her where Shaw was? If anybody knew if Shaw was alive or not, it would be her. Lastly, Reese getting Root to lay off of Martine for no apparent reason was a bit convenient. The Unknown: Where is the Machine located? Will Samaritan find it? What was with that egg in the briefcase? Why did the Machine want the briefcase? Why is it important? Best Moment: I will go with Khan in the prison. A very good piece of television. Character of the Episode: Khan. Conclusion: This was another really strong POI case, only this one was mixed in directly with the Samaritan story, making it even better. I really enjoyed this, though everything was a bit too convenient to score a 70. Score: 69 Summary: The next POI is a woman named Francesca who is trying to kill Ray, a man who stole from her boss. Reese gets involved in the case and so does Harper. Harper helps both parties come to a conclusion without any death. Reese deduces that she is getting texts from the Machine. Meanwhile, Finch continues the plot against Samaritan he set in motion back in Hong Kong. He meets with Beth with intention to attack Samaritan with a Trojan horse. However Beth's number pops up so Finch and Root work together to solve the case. It turns out that Root was the threat to Beth since she doesn't want Finch to take an unnecessary risk and die. Root plans to kill Beth and Finch disagrees with this. Finch tries to kill himself but Root is able to stop him from doing so. Finch's set-up with the Trojan horse is destroyed by Root, upsetting him.
The Good: Finch and Root had the strongest story here. Their conflict was one of the best character conflicts we have seen in the series and it led to a number of memorable, poignant moments. Both characters were thoroughly understandable and I found myself sympathizing with both. We are well aware of Finch's morality after 4 seasons, so it's easy to understand why he would be concerned for Beth's well-being, especially since they are friends now. His attempt to stop Samaritan is also very easy to understand since it would be ideal for the world to be rid of Samaritan for good. Root is also very sympathetic as we can easily understand why she wouldn't want to lose any more of her very limited supply of friends. In the end both characters simply had different priorities and that resulted in them clashing several times throughout the episode in some of the episode's best moments. The Root twist itself was superb. I was caught completely off guard by it yet there were still so many moments of obvious foreshadowing earlier in the episode. It changed the dynamic of the episode drastically and made me more engaged than before. The story ended in heartbreaking manner too. After both Finch and Root bared their hearts to each other when trying to win the conflict, they ended up alienating each other a little. Root's disgust and disappointment when Finch tried to kill himself felt very real, while Finch's anger towards Root at the end of the episode made perfect sense. It's heartbreaking to see these two characters who have such a close bond be broken up, even if it is only temporarily. The rest of the episode was fine. The POI story dominated the episode and it certainly had its moments. Frankie felt like a much more entertaining and logical version of Harper, and her interactions with Reese were fun for the most part. The action scenes were creative too and I particularly liked the handcuffed fight. The climax was also set up nicely and I appreciate that the story built up to a single moment that resolved the many stories that were at play. It was well written and fairly satisfying to watch. The Bad: Harper continues to be grating. The interest I had in her back in "Blunt" is practically ll gone now as she returned pretty much exclusively with all of her worst character traits. I found it hard to believe that Harper would work as a convenient solution to everyone's problems at the end of the episode, and it felt like the show trying too hard to make us like her character by making her strong. It's made worse by the fact that Frankie is also in this episode, and I like her character much more. Iris' story is very generic and unfortunately her romance with Reese did nothing for me. I really enjoyed their therapy scenes, but I find myself to be a little indifferent to them being in a loving relationship. The show has done so well developing Reese as this closed off character, so whenever he opens up a bit for a romance it just feels strange. There were some logistical issues I had with the Finch/Root storyline. It's hard to believe that Root wouldn't just knock Finch out and forcibly take him to the hospital. Furthermore, I'm confident that she has a cell phone so why not make the 911 call from there? Also, I found it a little hard to believe that Root wouldn't allow Finch to plant the Trojan horse. Even the Machine wanted it to happen, so evidently Root should understand that Finch likely isn't in too much danger if this is the case. I can buy into her wanting to keep him alive, but I feel like Root should have only gone to such drastic measures for something much more dangerous. Lastly, Finch recovered a bit quick for a guy who just drank a neurotoxin. The Unknown: Harper getting texts from the Machine is a very interesting development. I wonder, who else could be getting texts like these? Will Root and Finch reconcile later? I really hope so. Best Moment: As much as I loved Root revealing that she can't stand losing another one of her friends, I'm going to have to give it to the final scene of the episode. The sight of Root and Finch at odds with each other is very powerful, and it provides a perfect conclusion to one of the show's best character conflicts. Character of the Episode: It's a real toss-up between Root and Finch. I'm going with Root. Conclusion: This was one half of a brilliant episode and one half of an average episode. It doesn't quite get a 70 because the POI story wasn't the best, but the Root/Finch story was still top tier stuff. With the season winding down, I'm looking forward to what "Person of Interest" has in store for us in its climax. Score: 69 Summary: Flashbacks show that Finch attempted to kill Alicia Corwin as revenge for Ingram's death but ultimately chooses to spare her. The next POI is a man named Edwards who has been framing people he thinks are responsible for crimes. Morris, the man convicted for killing his wife, comes after him. Reese and Finch try to talk Edwards out of getting revenge but Edwards threatens Morris with a gun anyways. Edwards reveals he plans to kill himself and frame Morris for the murder but Finch and Reese talk him out of it.
The Good: This episode was all about revenge. Every character and every story in the episode ended up revolving around the act and consequence of getting revenge, giving this episode a dedicated focus and theme. Edwards is a very interesting POI character. His drive for revenge is pretty basic (a man killed his wife so he wants to put him away), but it fits amidst more complex and interesting stories from Reese and Finch (more on that later). The part of his character I found most interesting was his style of vigilante justice where he would frame bad people for crimes they didn't commit to bring about justice. Not only is this a creative and interesting idea because of the morality of the whole thing, but it also brings about good drama when we are watching Edwards go about his business, unsure of what he is planning. Finch's story in this episode was the most fascinating to me. Michael Emerson was given a lot to do in this episode, and we got a great reminder of just how good of an actor he is. He played Finch's moral conflict in the flashbacks really well, especially when he had to make the decision to blow up Alicia or not. Honestly there was enough conflict here to fill an entire episode with Finch's decision coming at the climax. I enjoyed seeing Finch hinting at his desire for vengeance for Ingram (it even ties nicely back into the therapy scene in "The Devil's Share" which is a phenomenal piece of continuity), and I also liked The Machine attempting to stop Finch from doing this crime by constantly ringing the phone and even popping Finch up as the next POI. Reese had a very subtle tie-in with revenge in this episode. His scenes with Iris were fine at the beginning, but the last one was really great. Reese got to open up a little more once again and seemed to hint that the revenge he got for Jessica back in "Many Happy Returns" didn't end up fixing anything. He was left just as broken as he was before, which is very sad. I'm surprised I'm saying this, but I really like that this episode had no tie-ins with Samaritan or the Brotherhood. It was its own personalized story and it worked really well because of it. The Bad: Unfortunately the timing of this episode is poor. With six episodes left in the season, we should be getting episodes that ramp up the tension and develop the long-running storylines. I feel like if this episode came at an earlier point in the season, it would fit much nicer in the chronology of the show. This episode was really missing Shaw and Root. While the storytelling was really strong, the team dynamic feels lessened with the lack of banter that comes from Shaw and Root. That makes it less enjoyable to watch the team in action, especially since we have already seen more than enough episodes of Reese and Finch doing cases on their own. Going back to just the two of them does feel like a step back. This episode does suffer from a lot of the usual POI case problems. Edwards is very bland as a character and there isn't much depth to him. The same goes for Morris. This episode completely hinges on the revenge theme, and underneath that there is very little of substance to actually uncover. Alicia's dialogue while in the car was a bit too corny for my liking. It seemed a little too on-the-nose that she would say these lines that are so full of exposition and dramatic weight. Some more organic dialogue would have helped. The Unknown: So was Morris actually the killer or not? The episode left it open-ended, which I liked. It feels more consistent with the revenge theme that sometimes you won't get anybody to blame for the terrible things that happen to you. Best Moment: I really enjoyed the Finch/Alicia scene. Finch's moral conflict was easy to understand, and Michael Emerson portrayed Finch's conflicting emotions so well. The phone ringing int he background was a wonderful touch too, making us feel a little bit of the pressure that Finch must have felt when making his decision. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was the best POI case I can recall in a long time. The revenge theme added a lot and made this into a better episode than what I was expecting. Score: 64 Summary: Harper is the next POI. She stole money from the Brotherhood who are out to kill her. They capture Trey, Harper's boyfriend. Reese and Fusco protect her and try to broker a deal with Dominic but their attempts fail. Reese saves Trey while the Brotherhood and the cartel come to blows. The cops arrive to arrest them for unregistered weapons. The cartel are arrested but the Brotherhood are not since Harper warned them ahead of time. The Brotherhood make peace with Harper. Finch attempts to follow Root who is trying to get an app for the Machine. She meets with Caleb from "2PiR".
The Good: Harper's character is an interesting one. She is much better than Anna from the previous episode and has lots of more charisma and unpredictability. Though I have my problems with her (see: The Bad), she is a lot more interesting to follow as a main POI character, and I liked that she had a connection with both the main group and the Brotherhood. Dominic had a good episode. Winston Duke's performance felt more complete than in previous episodes, and that made the character a lot more interesting to me. I especially enjoyed the diner scene with Reese (see: Best Moment). This latest episodes of season have frequently been reintroducing characters that have been absent for a while (Ex. Claire, Zoe). This episode continues that trend by giving us the surprise return of Caleb from "2PiR", a return that I'm more than happy with. It feels like the show is giving us all of these returns so that we can have a large group of characters going up against Samaritan. The Bad: This episode felt rather stagnant. The POI story took a long while to get going and it didn't develop into as much drama as we usually get. Plus the episode was really lacking a sense of urgency or reason for me to care about what was happening. Trey's capture did nothing for me and he ended up being a really useless character. Furthermore, did we need an entire B-story of Finch attempting to follow Root to set up the ending reveal with Caleb? I feel like the same feeling could have been accomplished with 5 minutes of screentime shaved off. It's not like "Person of Interest" to stretch out a plot line that doesn't have much story behind it. This show usually does the opposite and condenses a complex story into just 45 minutes. The Brotherhood have been really disappointing as villains. Unlike Vigilance who always seemed like they would have an interesting involvement with the Machine, the Brotherhood don't seem to have any actual bearing on the main Samaritan story, so they come off as unimportant side villains that we are spending far too much time with. I enjoy them for their personal connection to Elias, and I want to see them cross paths with him, not with Reese, Fusco and Finch. I think that having the Brotherhood appear in an episode without any tie-ins with Elias was a very poor decision, and it did nothing to further the story that I became invested in back in "The Devil You Know". Harper is a pretty annoying character at times and the actress playing her doesn't do a particularly great job. The biggest issue I have with her is how non-innocent she is. I struggle to believe that Finch and Reese would care so much about the well-being of a con artist who has done some pretty bad things to criminals. Worse yet, they seem to believe that her behaviour is almost justified which feels at odds with the morals they usually display, particularly Finch. Dominic calling out Reese for siding with Elias, a pretty bad man by all rights made perfect sense and I don't think that Reese was able to give a sensible answer to Dominic's inquiry. Surely this moment should have been a bigger deal than it was. It would have been nice for either Reese or Finch to maybe consider a peace offering with the Brotherhood that closely matches what they have with Elias, especially earlier in the story. Dominic seems like a reasonable guy, and he only seems to attack those who have purposefully and knowingly wronged him. Why not work with him? Elias certainly did much worse than Dominic back in season 1. The Unknown: What will this mysterious app do? Is Caleb going to be used to create the app or maybe for another larger purpose? Will we see more returning characters soon? How about Leon who hasn't appeared in nearly 2 seasons now? Best Moment: Reese and Dominic's meeting was pretty good. It was shot like one of those old school movie scenes where the protagonist and antagonist have a tense stand-off in a diner. The writers clearly put much more effort into that scene over anything else in the episode. Character of the Episode: Dominic. Conclusion: This episode was a mixed bag. There were some interesting aspects, but as a whole this felt lacking. Score: 54 Summary: Finch is contacted by Claire who is in over her head and is trying to be killed. Claire is shot so Finch takes her back to a safe place. Reese works alone on the next POI case with Fusco's help. He is trying to save a girl named Anna, a worker at a software company who is being targeted for investigating a suspicious suicide case. Claire tells Finch what happened when she was taken and Finch tries to save her. However, Claire is working as a double agent and captures Finch with intentions of getting him to join Samaritan. Finch refuses and is saved by Reese. Claire escapes.
The Good: Claire's return was excellent and it provided some nice follow-up from "Nautilus". Her presence gave the episode a shot in the arm early on, and all of my investment in this episode came from me wanting to see what would come of Claire running into Finch once again. Her scenes with Finch were quite good and I thought that all of her stories about what happened to her were very well written, and competently acted. It did a great job of building up some sympathy for her, and does a nice job of distracting us (at least for a little while) from the twist that she is a double agent. The twist itself was predictable (see: The Bad), but I don't think it was bad. Claire being a double agent simply had to be the correct way to end off this episode. There is no way that Claire would have escaped alive, and the convenient sniper shot when she talked to Finch was pretty questionable. I thought that Samaritan sending Claire on this mission made perfect sense. Though we didn't see it, I presume that Claire ended up mentioning the mysterious man she spoke with before taking her new job, and I could completely buy into Greer/Samaritan deciding that this man was Finch. Once that was figure out, a plan to use Claire to ensnare Finch is an obvious solution and it works for the story. Samaritan wanting to recruit Finch also makes perfect sense. It adds a little more grey territory to the idea of Samaritan as a ruler. We can clearly see that Samaritan is currently doing really good things for humanity by improving things like education. Additionally, giving Finch the option to live by joining its forces makes Samaritan seem much more peaceful and reasonable than it initially seemed. It makes me wonder if Finch may actually regret not taking a way out and saving the lives of Reese, Root and Fusco by refusing Claire's offer. The Bad: Of course Samaritan's avatar is so cartoonishly evil that it becomes clear that Samaritan isn't actually going to take a peaceful route. I think that's a shame because exploring a genuinely caring AI slowly turn bitter and resentful would be a wonderful story to explore. The POI story in this episode was a total dud. It did nothing to interest me and I didn't care at all about Anna or her struggles. The villains were as bland as they could possibly be and I felt like the episode was just wasting time whenever it cut to whatever Reese or Fusco were doing. Finch choosing to leave Claire for dead is very cold, even for him. I definitely buy into Finch suspecting Claire's story to be false, but for him to react by wanting to kill Claire seems so out of character. This man goes to so many lengths to save lives, so having him nearly indirectly murder a teenage girl was ridiculous. His explanation of it being because he lost Shaw doesn't work either. We know he has lost people in similar circumstances before (Ingram, Carter), yet he never had such an irrational change in his morals. I just can't buy into Finch going so ruthless without a lengthy character arc setting this up. The Unknown: Is Finch's cover blown now? Surely Samaritan can easily find him just like they could with Shaw earlier this season. What is on Finch's laptop? Is there anything that Decima or Samaritan can use? What is Root currently up to? Apparently she is doing missions for the Machine. What missions? Why did the sniper shoot Claire when he wasn't supposed to? It seems really dumb because Claire needs to be alive to get to Finch. Why would Decima risk such an important operation by almost killing Claire? Is there an actual answer to this or is it just a plot hole? Do Decima plan to kill Claire when they are done with her? What's going on with Elias? It has been so long since we have seen the Brotherhood storyline. I hope it gets wrapped up soon since it could quickly become inconsequential considering how high the stakes are with the Samaritan story. Best Moment: I'll go with Claire revealing that Samaritan wants to bring Finch into the fold. It was a nice moral conflict for Finch who evidently considered the option briefly before denying it. Character of the Episode: Claire. Conclusion: The Claire story was rock-solid with some fun moments. However, the POI storyline sucked and I had a few big issues with the Claire story too. In the end this was a decent episode, but one that I feel should have been much better. Score: 57 Summary: Finch is sent to jury duty by the Machine to check on the next POI, Emma. Finch eventually determines that Emma is being forced by an outsider to get the juries to agree on a guilty verdict on an innocent man. Finch stalls the juries while Reese attempts to figure out who is controlling Emma. Reese runs into Zoe who helps out. The jury is temporarily adjourned and Emma is told to kill Finch. Emma attempts to kill herself but Finch stops her. The culprit reveals himself to be Tim, another one of the juries and he tries to kill Finch himself. Reese saves Finch and Tim is arrested. Reese begins to engage in a closer relationship with Iris.
The Good: The storyline is fun to watch. It's nice seeing Finch play the role of a jury as it sees Finch go out of his normal environment. I thought that the actual plot was decently interesting too and it did well to hold my attention. Emma had a little more depth than the usual POI characters so that helped make this episode s little better than what we usually get. It's been a very long time since we have seen Zoe, so her return was a very welcome surprise. I had a blast seeing her interactions with Reese again, and I liked the way that they forwarded Reese's interesting new romantic story in this episode (see: The Unknown). I liked the background story of Reese and Finch wanting to protect Fusco. It made sense and helped show us the more human sides of Finch and Reese. Additionally it gave the great Kevin Chapman some great content to work with as he got to portray Fusco's determination to stay involved with the organization that allowed him to become a good person. I enjoyed Reese's therapy scenes. We learned some good new details about him, and I'm surprised it took this long for all of this information to come out. It makes sense that we wouldn't know though considering Reese's extremely private nature. It nicely demonstrates how in the end this show is just about a bunch of people with serious mental problems working together to save some innocent lives. The Bad: There were some really sloppy moments here. Finch blatantly following Emma felt so odd. They both know each other, so I found it hard to believe that Emma wouldn't see him and get suspicious. Additionally, it felt odd having Finch talk to Reese during the jury meeting. Surely the people sitting next to him would hear this. This is a problem I have had for a while now but I just kept forgetting to mention it. The characters in this show aren't that good at whispering. Tim as a villain was awful. If he was a jury anyways, why did he go through the trouble of making Emma do the work for him? It was inefficient and unnecessary, and ended up making him seem meaningless as a villain. Furthermore, the moment when he introduced himself to Finch and Emma only to have a monologue was very cliché and did nothing for me at all. Did nobody ever think that Chris was being framed for murdering his wife? They only realized when Emma agreed with Finch, which I found hard to believe. Anybody would be open to the possibility that Chris is innocent, so it felt odd that the characters were dumbed down to make this totally unsurprising "twist" happen. The Unknown: Is there something up with Iris? While I'm very happy with Reese finding somebody he likes, I feel like everything won't just be exactly as it seems. Could she be a Samaritan spy? I feel like there is something more with her. Best Moment: Fusco asserting that he knows the risks of his job and doesn't want to be left out. Character of the Episode: Fusco. Conclusion: This was your average episode. There were some things that really pleased me, but some generic tropes reared their head once more. Score: 59 Summary: Reese and Root go hunting for Shaw in the small town of Maple. They capture a Samaritan agent and Root tortures her to get the location where they took Shaw. Reese and Root go there and kill several agents. Unfortunately, Shaw was not there and they were following somebody else's trail. Root is angry and begs The Machine for help, but The Machine tells her to stop. Fusco works a POI case and runs into Silva. They tackle the case together successfully. The POI is Weiss, who is the perpetrator. Silva eventually kills him to save Fusco. Shaw wakes up, hidden away somewhere with Greer.
The Good: The main story of this episode was pretty good. What connected me the most to this episode was seeing Reese and Root's determination to get Shaw back. We have rarely seen the two of them working together, so this feels like a fresh change. Add on the emotion from them fighting to get their friend back, and this story ends up being pretty great. I really enjoyed the scenes at the police station and with Leslie Thompson. The vile police chief Wicker was pretty funny, and I got a laugh out of Root taking care of him, as well as Reese's awkward smiles to the secretary. These scenes are light and fun, yet they fulfill the purpose of showing Root and Reese's darker turn as they do anything and everything to get Shaw back. This is totally at odds with the later scene where Root and Reese have very dark scene as they torture Thompson to get information from her. Root coldly drilling a hole in her hand was horrific, and showcased Root returning to her former monstrous nature now that she is angry and bitter. The final twist of Delia being the one Reese and Root were tracking all along was heartbreaking. After all that effort and hope, it all got crushed in one vicious moment. Root's rage was very sad and Amy Acker did a tremendous job of selling the moment. The following scene of Root begging the Machine for some help was powerful, and ended in yet another heartbreak for Root as the Machine simply tells her to stop searching for Shaw. Fusco and Silva get a decent B-story. It's nice to see Silva again, and it gives Fusco something to do. The Bad: The story of Weiss is pretty dull though, and I wish that there was more depth and importance to what was going on with him. Despite Fusco and Silva's work being fresh, I didn't find myself particularly interested in what they were doing. The Unknown: Where is Shaw right now? What does Greer plan to do with her? Will she become a Samaritan agent? Will Root keep hunting for Shaw? What does she plan to do next to find her? Best Moment: There were some terrific scenes, but my favourite was probably Root begging to the Machine to help her out, only to be rejected. Character of the Episode: Root. Conclusion: This was a solid episode. The A-story was great, and while the B-story was lacking, I was still satisfied by the episode overall. Score: 65 Summary: Control is still working with Samaritan, doing her job. Samaritan tells her to dispatch of four terrorists, and she sends Grice and Brooks. Three are killed, but one of them, Yasin, escapes. Control wants to track him from his laptop but Samaritan refuses access to it. Controls ends Grice and Brooks on a secret mission to access the laptop but it fails, the laptop is destroyed and Yasin escapes. Samaritan instructs Control to stop. Control continues attempting to kill Yasin but she is captured by Reese and Root who are hunting for Shaw. Finch informs Control about what happened at the stock exchange but Control doesn't believe him. Finch gets a hint at Shaw's potential location and the group go to investigate. Grice and the others rescue Control. Control tracks down Yasin who reveals he won the nautilus game and did work for an unknown corporation. His friends died mere hours after their work was complete. Control doesn't believe his story and kills him anyways. Control investigates the stock exchange and notices wet paint on the walls.
The Good: Control's return is really fun and immediately adds momentum to the story. We haven't checked in with her for a long while, so it was a pleasant surprise to start the episode with her. The focus on Control throughout the episode was excellent and made this episode stand out amongst the others. The central focus on a character outside of the main cast reminded me a lot of "Relevance", which is a very good thing. Control's motives in this episode were explored nicely. She has always been a character who fully believed in the job she was doing, akin to Finch, and it's easy to see that in this episode. She is stiffly sticking with her belief that Samaritan is doing its job locating terrorists, and that her job is of utmost importance. While we don't learn anything new in this episode, we do get to see how committed Control is to her duty, made all the more tragic by the fact that the four people she killed in this episode were all total innocents. In the end, her trust is misplaced and it's entirely possible that he blind faith in her job could spell doom for her. This is a compelling story to explore, and I'm looking forwards to see more. And judging by that final scene, Control may have a few doubts about her employers. I think that Control grappling between her faith in her job and the words that Finch said to her has potential to be riveting to watch. The drama in the episode is a bit slow at first, but it really takes off when Control starts working on her own to discover what is inside of that hard drive. I was invested by the mystery of what Samaritan is really up to and what significance the laptop held. I was just as curious as Control was, and that surprisingly helped me connect a little more with Control and relate with her, a character who I wasn't particularly interested in before this episode. I really like the scene between Yasin and Control. There was something powerful about Control coldly killing him in spite of the possibility that she may be wrong about him. The dialogue beforehand was quite strong too, proving that Control does have some doubts about her job. After all she could have just killed Yasin, but she instead decided to listen to what he had to say. The injection of Root, Reese and Finch was excellent. It seamlessly fit into the story of this episode, and the interrogation scenes were really well done. All three characters were able to nicely communicate their current emotions based on their scenes with Control. Reese seems deflated, Root angry and vengeful, while Finch remains calm and realistic. I also appreciated the parallels with Root having Control captured after being captured by her last season. There were a couple other really strong moments in the episode. Reese letting Grice live because of what he did for Shaw was a lovely moment, even if the dialogue leading up to it was bit clunky. I also really liked the callback to the nautilus game, and the reveal that Samaritan is actually offing its own men to keep secrets is really dark. Yet it's a logical move for Samaritan to make and is one of the many reasons why Samaritan won't be as ideal of a leader as Greer expects. Lastly, I loved the final scene with Root, Finch and Reese (see: Best Moment). The Bad: This episode had some pretty big problems which prevent it from being one of my favourites. The biggest is the fact that the main crew's immediate reactions to Shaw's death are glossed over. That makes it hard to relate with what they are doing int his episode because we aren't sure where they all are mentally. While the episode eventually gets there in that scene near the end of the episode, much of the episode is hurt by the fact that I couldn't entirely understand what their thought process was. The biggest thing about this that bothers me is that we don't know why any of them believe that Shaw could be alive. The doors closed, the gun was pointed at Shaw's head and there was a gunshot. I'm not entirely sure why they all believe that she is alive after this, and I would have liked to see them process Shaw's "death" so that I could see how they came up with this idea. I was displeased by the fact that Finch took so long to speak with Control. Where was he when Root and Reese were literally torturing the woman? Why wouldn't he intervene earlier since things like this are clearly against his moral code? Unfortunately, it looks like the charisma vacuum kid actor playing Samaritan's avatar is here to stay. I wish that the show had gone in a different direction when personifying Samaritan, because I'm just not enjoying this kid very much. I feel like Samaritan would be more imposing as a villain if it didn't speak or have a human appearance. The episode took a long while to really get going. Some of the early scenes weren't very interesting, and I didn't start feeling any suspense until about 10-15 minutes into the episode. Compared to "Relevance" which had me engaged from its first moment, this episode doesn't build up its drama very well. The Unknown: Why did Samaritan deny access to the laptop? What was ont hat laptop? What is the code that Yasin said he worked on? Why did Samaritan deem the information so important that it had to cause the deaths of Yasin and his friends? Why does Samaritan want to meet with the president? Does Samaritan have a new plan for the future? Or a deal perhaps? Will the lead on Shaw go anywhere? Best Moment: Reese, Root and Finch talking at the end of the episode was powerful stuff. Having matured since losing Carter, Reese no longer wants to isolate himself but he looks completely defeated after losing Shaw. Root on the other hand tries to remain herself but is bottling up loads of emotion on the inside, which is portrayed wonderfully by Amy Acker. Finch has to most normal reaction, but it's clear that he is hurting in his own way as he mourns Shaw. Seeing the three of them closer than ever in an attempt to get their fallen friend back was heartening and hit me hard emotionally. I really have come to care about this crew of characters after 4 seasons. Character of the Episode: Control. Conclusion: Aside from some big problems regarding the follow-up on Shaw's death, this was another awesome hour of television. Control's story is written fantastically, and what little we did see of the crew reacting to last episode's events was just as good. Score: 73 Summary: The crew notices the financial crash and are forced to directly infiltrate the stock exchange to reverse it. Shaw is sent to get the code to open the door while Reese, Finch, Root and Fusco get into the stock exchange, however they realize it is a trap set by Samaritan. Martine and over 20 Samaritan operatives are down there with them. The four get trapped in a room and The Machine starts running simulations to come up with a strategy to get them out alive. Several simulations are scrapped due to either Root or Finch dying which is undesirable to The Machine. Eventually The Machine sends everyone together to increase odds of survival. They fix the financial crisis and fight to get to the elevator alive, but they are trapped. Shaw arrives in the nick of time to save them and they get to the elevator. They aren't able to leave and Shaw sacrifices herself to get the others to safety.
The Good: I think creativity is such an important element in TV shows. Without creativity, TV shows run the risk of feeling familiar, dull, or even boring. Some of the worst episodes of this show suffer from being unoriginal and they desperately require some inspired storytelling to become memorable. My favourite episodes from shows like "Lost", "The Leftovers" and "Friends" are ones that aren't afraid to do something different. How does this all tie in to "If-Then-Else"? Well I have to say, this must be one of the most creative pieces of television I have ever seen. The unique concept of seeing a story from The Machine's point of view was an incredible idea and the execution was nearly flawless. Add in the necessary emotional beats and character development, and we have the best episode of the series so far. This concept was so wonderful to watch and it was executed perfectly. The soundtrack, visual effects, editing and cinematography were on a whole new level compared to what we usually get from the show. There was clearly extra effort put into making this episode and it paid off in a big way. This episode was brilliantly able to bring The Machine to life by giving us a look at how it really works. It was so unique actually getting to spend a lengthy period of time watching how The Machine functions as it attempts to get the crew out of the stock exchange alive. The actual storyline of the episode is quite simple. The main crew has to save the world by infiltrating a location and escaping alive. That's all there is to it, and I think it's brilliant. The simple plot allows for more focus on The Machine in this episode, which I think is more than complex enough to carry this episode. The simple plot has another big strength because it allows the episode to have a very clear focus on life and death. There is no funny business in this episode; the lives of the main characters are in genuine danger and that ramps up the tension by a lot. Then we get to the meat of this episode, the simulations. Most of this episode consists of The Machine running through various escape simulations in an attempt to get the crew out safely. It's so enjoyable to watch this and there are lots of really clever bits of storytelling that aid the story. At first, the simulation reveal is a bit of a surprise. When Finch died, I was shocked and I couldn't believe that a character would die so suddenly. Then the clock suddenly reset and I was pleasantly surprised when I realized what was going on. We were simply watching projections of what was happening, and the tension came from the fact that The Machine had to work quickly and whatever deaths occur in the final strategy would be permanent. The focus on The Machine is seconded by the flashbacks. These flashbacks gave us a good look at what motivates The Machine in making these decisions as it learns about choosing between strategies and making some of the necessary sacrifices. Furthermore, we got some outstanding dialogue from Finch as he goes over the mechanics of chess while teaching The Machine how to function and how to have morals. I really loved the lessons he taught, especially since they were all touched upon in the present. Speaking of the deaths, they actually added a nice amount of emotion to the episode. Character work is so important to TV shows, and it's added in this episode by showing us some theoretical deaths along with the interactions between characters. We get to see things like Reese's brave and badass response to his own death, as well as a better look at Root's character when she is faced with certain death. While it isn't particularly powerful, it's pretty strong stuff, and it is the perfect icing on the cake for the episode. The most emotion hits us at the very end of the episode with Shaw's death. The episode had built up major consequences for a long time, and it seemed certain that somebody was doomed to die. In this case, Shaw was the unlucky one and her death is heartbreaking to watch. After a season and a half of seeing all of these characters working together and developing relationships, it's devastating to see the group torn apart, and losing Shaw has a real weight to it, equal to (if not more than) Carter's death, which was another pivotal moment of the show. Root's screams in particular were hard to watch and Amy Acker really nailed what I would expect Root's reaction would be. The episode nailed the little details, and there was so much to love here. The brief side story with Shaw trying to convince a man to stop his attempt to detonate a bomb was awesome. I loved how Shaw started off aggressive and it led to failure, so the Machine tried various different attempts in order to create a situation where Shaw successfully understands the human heart and is able to talk the man down from suicide. It's a wonderful little detail. I also loved the recurring destruction of the painting throughout all of the simulations. It's a fine little joke for the moment, but it really pays off at the end as The Machine makes a shockingly human call by saving the painting to spare Finch some emotional pain. It was a lovely little moment showing the humanity of The Machine. The simplified simulation was probably the funniest thing I've seen on this show. The self-aware humour was so great, and it had me laughing/smiling for a good while afterwards too. Brilliant. Another standout comedy moment was Fusco randomly kissing Root because "it's a simulation". It was a lovably random moment that injected some personality into The Machine. Apparently The Machine is a Fusco x Root shipper, and I think that's hilarious. The Bad: Shaw suddenly showing up at the end was too convenient and sudden for my liking. I wish it was built up a little more because it was way too much of a deus ex machina. There were a few moments that looks very poor, likely because the rest of the episode had such wonderful effects. The standout was Root and Shaw shooting together. The shot was pretty long so it was very easy to notice that the gun shooting was very fake and none of the shots had any recoil. It looked especially poor. The Unknown: I presume Shaw is dead, but maybe she lived. After all, we didn't actually see her die since the show cut to black before the final gunshot. Best Moment: Shaw's death was very emotional. Character of the Episode: I have to give it to The Machine, who was as much of a character as anyone else in this episode. Conclusion: This was an awesome episode. The budget had been kicked up to level we hadn't seen before on this show, and that helped create the ideal atmosphere for an epic episode. Thankfully the writing was impeccable too and that led to this being a resounding success. High risk yields high reward, and that's exactly what happened here. This was a creative and risky episode to make, but the production crew nailed the execution, making what I believe is the best episode of the series so far. This season has taken off in quality in a big way. Score: 85 Summary: Flashbacks show Greer's past as a spy. In the present, the crew gets back to doing POI missions but notice that Samaritan is taking care of irrelevant numbers for them. Root meets with Lambert who sends a message that Samaritan wants to speak with the Machine. The Machine refuses so Samaritan continues reducing the crime rate. The next day, Samaritan causes total chaos and the crime rate skyrockets. The Machine agrees to a meeting. Root meets with Samaritan's avatar and they reach an impasse. Samaritan decides to go to war. Shaw goes out into the city to help with the increased crime rate.
The Good: This is how you do a set-up episode. For most shows, an episode which sets up a storyline fails to reach greatness, and is often overshadowed by the big climax. But "Person of Interest" has found a way to make set-up episodes hit a new high with expert use of its signature strengths like wonderful little character moments, a frenetic pace and philosophical discussions to name a few. This episode used all of the show's strongest tools to become something really special and feel like a climax of its own even though it is certainly just preparing for something bigger. The set-up was so enthralling to watch here. I absolutely loved the whole cold war that went on throughout the episode with Samaritan literally toying with humanity by proving a point to the Machine. It was the most Samaritan has ever felt like an actual character, and it impressively made me feel the tension and danger that I was expecting from a world living at the mercy of an AI overlord. Samaritan's methods were very cool to watch. I liked seeing it save the POIs on the first day, and cooler than that was how Samaritan completely threw the world into chaos the next day with some simple information leaks and nothing more. The not-so-subtle messages from Samaritan led into the huge climax of the episode where the two main deities of the series interacted one-on-one for the first time ever. There's no denying that this moment was huge for the show, and for the most part (see: The Bad), it delivered the goods. The scene was shot very well and I thought that it had a lovely atmosphere which unsettled me. The content of discussion was great and I loved the idea of two machines having a verbal spat about differing views that were programmed into them. I also really like the idea that both Samaritan and The Machine's motives were clearly stated for us to understand. Knowing what these two gods want to accomplish helps us understand their conflict much better and adds stakes to any Machine vs Samaritan drama that would follow. As for the rest of the episode, it was fantastic. The opening scenes of the episode were really good. It's a very strong use of the show's characters to create a fun intro that gets me excited to see more while also making me laugh. The interactions were strong, and while some things were cheesy, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Somehow this show has found a way to make cheesiness a staple of what it is without it being a bad thing. That's a remarkable feat, and I'm honestly pretty surprised that I enjoy it as much as I do. Had I watched the cheesier parts of this episode before I watched the show, I would have scoffed and dismissed this show as stupid. But the show won me over, and now the stupidly cheesy scenes are a joy to watch, and the episode was practically filled with them (the opening scene, Reese and Fusco, the church scene, etc.). The three-way philosophical discussion in this episode was superb. It reminded me of the ending section of "A House Divided" with the way that Finch, Root and Shaw all gave their opinions on the usefulness of an AI ruling the world. It was really nice to see the characters acknowledging this as a possibility, and all three of them were consistent with their known beliefs and morals when arguing their points. The dialogue on this show is hit or miss, but thankfully the writers always bring their A-game for big scenes like this. The flashbacks were a ton of fun too. I enjoyed the spy-thriller story that was given for Greer and it made for a really fun background story to the episode. Greer was given a nice backstory to let us know why he believes that putting a machine in control is way better than untrustworthy humans. I thoroughly enjoyed these brief scenes and I would love to see more like this, perhaps showing how Greer became the head of Decima. The Bad: Unfortunately the big meeting fell a bit flat because of the acting (and likely the directing too). For a scene with two AIs speaking, the interactions felt far too human for my liking. The kid actor was poor and Amy Acker is horribly out of her natural environment playing a robotic character since she has too much natural charisma for that. The two beings felt too emotional and human, and I feel like there was a much better way to have this conversation take place. Furthermore, I'm not sure that I like Samaritan's motives. Samaritan is a machine that was programmed not to have morals, so it feels very odd that it is naturally so pessimistic towards humans. I would be able to buy into this if I see Samaritan experiencing human nature, and turning against them because of it. But we don't have any scenes of Samaritan forming these beliefs, so its motives feel awkward and out of place. Greer's decreased role this season is a bit disappointing. With Samaritan becoming a fully fleshed out character, and Martine being its prime operator, where does that leave Greer? He hasn't had anything interesting to do since the end of season 3 and I don't find myself as engaged in him as a villain as I was before. He isn't even the brains behind the operation since Samaritan is making all of the decisions now. He just doesn't have anything to do anymore. Hopefully the show can correct this like it did with Elias. The Unknown: What are Samaritan's next plans? How does it plan to attack the Machine? What is the strength that Greer wants Samaritan to unleash? Was it the stock market crash? What will be accomplished from this, other than financial ruin? Did Root make it out of the meeting okay? Will she be fine? How about Shaw? Where has she gone? Will she be able to stay out of sight? Best Moment: The three-way discussion between Finch, Shaw and Root was an outstanding moment. Shaw is much more open about Samaritan ruling than Finch, which makes sense since she is an operative and hasn't really gotten a taste of leadership herself. But Finch, someone who has experienced more about leadership and philosophy than both Root and Shaw persists in his belief that Samaritan is definitely a bad thing for humanity. Character of the Episode: Root. Conclusion: This was an outstanding set-up episode. There was enough story to make this episode stand alone, and the fact that it seemingly sets up bigger things is the icing on the cake. Had the meeting between gods been a little better, I likely would have gone closer to (or maybe even over) an 80 for the craftsmanship and emotion that went into this episode. However, that shouldn't detract from the fact that this is still a seminal episode that does countless things right. The first part to this season was quite strong. Like all of the other seasons, this one is a slow out of the gates and it stumbled badly at a few points. Like all previous seasons, there were quite a few classic POI episodes, and most of those are only able to be good at best. But these last two episodes repaid my continued faith in the show and they suggest some really epic storylines to carry us to the season finale, and I cannot wait to see more. While not as strong as season 3's first half, this half-season was fairly entertaining. Score: 77 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 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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