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
1 Comment
Joe Y
8/14/2020 11:25:16 am
If Sotto Voce hinged itself on the Easton twist, it would've failed. Hard. Thankfully, it's got so much more than that when it comes to character. There's the cabbie acknowledging Fusco's skill. There's Root and Shaw's scene in the park clearly showing how much the two women love each other. There's Finch and Elias teaming up, with Elias quietly promising to pay his debt to Finch. Which happens in the very next episode. There's Reese finally bringing Elias into the fold. And then there's the chill-inducing final shot of the main 5 characters united under the Queensboro bridge together, ready to face the apocalypse together. Brilliant.
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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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