Person of Interest: YHWH Recap

Synopsis for 4×22: Everything comes to a killer conclusion as all of the threads of the season are drawn together into one final battle. Samaritan has made its move against the Machine and their human agents are forced to make the final push against each other. There’s a lot of deaths, a lot of bullets, and some loud weeping.

Rating: ★★★★★

It would be a lie to say I haven’t been struggling with Person of Interest since the second half of the season. Between the spotty airing schedule and my own life stuff, it sort of lost some of its luster. However, the season finale brought it all back together and reminded me why I love this show. The finale picked up right where last week’s episode left off. Samaritan orchestrated power surges all across the country, hoping to flush the Machine out of hiding. While Samaritan worked on its task, its human agents played at war.

Finch got a distress call from the Machine. A string of zeros came in on a hidden phone line in the subway which alerted him to an imminent shut down. The Machine was dying and Root insisted they had to go find her. The Machine, in the midst of the zeros, also produced the code for the briefcase that had been picked up from a previous episode. With that being the only clue, and the Machine opening up the lines of communication, Root and Finch set out to save their AI.

Reese, Fusco, and Elias were still stuck in Dominic’s grasp. Thankfully Fusco was helped out by everyone’s favorite drifter just as one of Dominic’s minions went to put a bullet in his head. Dominic had hoped to use Fusco’s life to convince Reese to give up Finch, but it didn’t work out.

Control, with her eyes opened to the mysterious “Correction,” scrambled to figure out what Samaritan was going to do next. She believed there was going to be a high level attack somewhere in DC, yet Samaritan seemed eager to hide it away. She knew something was wrong when one of her employees showed her a memo about a safe house that had been quarantined that  she had supposedly sent out. Of course Control hadn’t and she knew what she had to do.

Root and Harold busted into a high end apartment and stole some night vision goggles. As they escaped, the elevator locked up and they were at risk of being shot. Root finally looked to the Machine and told it to her straight: either she had to start directly interfering, or their mission would fail. The Machine got them out of that situation and led them straight to our old friend Caleb Phillips.

Unfortunately, when Root broke in to steal the compression algorithm, Caleb caught her in the act. He was about to come down hard when Finch stepped out of the shadows and had a tender moment with Caleb. Without any question, Caleb handed over the algorithm and told Finch that whatever he needed, he could have. He’d saved Caleb’s life and Caleb would pay him back in any way he could. It was a nice circular story, given that at one time the Machine had saved his life and now he was going to save the Machine’s.

Back to Dominic, Reese and Elias were faced with a volatile and vindictive man. He was angry with Elias and demanded that Reese offer him the same deal that he’d given Elias. He wanted the “key to the city.” Reese, naturally, refused, but when Dominic forced him to unlock his mesh network phone, he called Finch and got a new piece of information: John’s name. Dominic was smug at this small victory and demanded Finch show up immediately to talk terms.

Root refused to let Finch go and promised him the Machine would take care of it. She did. Using a fax machine, then Reese’s bluetooth, the Machine began to give him directions and allowed him to take out all of Dominic’s men. As Dominic made a run for it he was headed off by the FBI, NYPD, and Fusco who looked as smug as ever. Both Dominic and Elias were taken into custody. Reese spotted a strangely suspicious man, but did nothing about it.

Control, back in DC, broke into the house that was quarantined with Grice, the agent who had at one point spared Shaw’s life. They found explosive residue and signs that there had been bombs made there. Back in NYC, two electrical guys discussed the significance of the new boxes that were being put up everywhere. One of them was skeptical because they weren’t allowed to look inside, but his manager told him to leave it alone because the last guy who had asked questions disappeared. On the outside of the boxes? Thornhill Utilities.

The Machine has some sort of plan.

After she found the explosives, Control tried to explain the situation to a congressman who didn’t believe her. She cloned his phone and let him walk away even though she had bigger plans.

There was a throwaway scene with Reese and Iris. I swear I’m not bitter. Okay, I’m a little bit bitter about this sloppy relationship. Regardless, they had a tender moment and Reese promised to tell her everything if he got out alive. She was understandably freaked out as he disappeared out of the station.

With the senator’s cloned phone, Control lured Greer into a meeting.

Team Machine reunited somewhere in Brooklyn and made their way into a residential building, which had been hiding an electrical substation. The Machine had led them there and they began to set up shop under her guidance as Samaritan’s agents closed in on their location.

Off in the distance, Elias had one of his friends ram the transport vehicle he was in and whisk him off to safety. Only the situation quickly became dire as Dominic, Fusco, and Elias came to a stand-off.

Finch and Root had to rush to set up whatever it was the Machine was trying to get them to do. Piece by piece they began to realize exactly what had happened. When the Machine had relocated herself, she didn’t do it to one single location. Instead, she put herself into electrical boxes and had them put everywhere, all across the country. She became part of the electrical system. The Machine was everywhere. Now, due to Samaritan’s power surges, the remnant of her processing ability had been forced back into Brooklyn, into that substation.

Control thought she was onto something when Greer mentioned the courts and sent Grice to the Supreme Court to evacuate the building and locate the bombs. The entire time Greer wasn’t bothered in the least, which was a very bad sign.

Finch realized that the Machine wanted them to save a small piece of her, using Caleb’s compression algorithm and some seriously cool state of the art memory cards. All that would be left would be a strain of DNA, but it would be enough to rebuild her. She was going to die regardless, so they had to do their best to at least preserve a part of her even as Samaritan’s men closed in on them.

The next scenes played out beside each other. As Control and Greer had their conversation about the correction, Samaritan took action. Greer scoffed at Control’s accusation of a bomb and replied by saying, “You don’t take over the world with gaudy displays of violence.” Instead, Samaritan had managed to narrow down those who could lead the people of the world astray down to a few hundred. He would take them out, one by one, and the rest of humanity would fall into place.

First Dominic, shot by a sniper during their standoff. Then Elias. One by one, people were killed. Control’s people, and other individuals who were deemed a threat to Samaritan’s authority. Those who defy authority would perish, and in those moments the Machine and Harold had a touching moment. She apologized to him and told him if he believed she had lost her way, then he should kill her.

She also called him father.

Just as everything crashed down, Finch was able to save the Machine. He chose to preserve his creation. With the briefcase in hand and Samaritan’s agents temporary subdued, Team Machine left the building and began their getaway.

What a way to end the season.