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
4 Comments
Ben
7/5/2019 08:04:23 am
I really loved this finale, mostly because of the Greer and Control storyline and the ending scene between Finch and the Machine. Perfect music. My expectations were never very high for Dominic's storyline so I didn’t feel much disappointment. I accepted it for what it was pretty early on. I also didn’t feel cheated by the subtlety of the Correction. In fact, I loved Greer's speech about true power being invisible and thought it felt in keeping with Samaritan. I think this episode drives home just how ruthless Greer is willing to be in his quest to create a more just and logical world. Overall, this episode felt very similar to the last season finale (it was the same twist with Greer actually being one step ahead), but I didn’t mind because the dialogue was epic. I agree that it really felt like a game changer. Last season was better, I agree, with more standout episode, but I thought this season was more consistent overall.
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Aaronic
7/5/2019 04:53:13 pm
A shame to hear that the show was cancelled. I definitely could see the show continuing for a few more seasons, but I am glad that there was a proper conclusion to the story. I look forward to seeing how the show handles a shorter-length season to conclude the story.
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Joe Y
8/14/2020 11:31:37 am
Again, I'll tackle your complaints one by one.
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Joe Y
8/14/2020 04:20:47 pm
"Panopticon"-77 [+27]
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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