The fallout of Carter’s death is the center of this episode and a strange combination of the team falling apart and coming together. The opening montage to Johnny Cash’s cover of the song “Hurt” was an amazing way to show how each person was dealing with the grief or not.
***SPOILERS BELOW****
Finch gets a new number and its Simmons, though not surprising the question is which one of the Team Machine members is going to be the perpetrator and take out Carter’s killer. Finch is at a loss on how to deal with his fragmented team and his own sorrow, which leads to one of the best things about this episode. The flashbacks this week were for each of the main characters as they talk to some type of psychologist/therapist. The most intriguing was Finch as he tries to work through the death of his best friend Nathan Ingrim. Finch is still in a wheelchair so it hasn’t been that long since the explosion, but guilt and the nature of grief is on his mind. He is a very private person so his emotions must be overwhelming for him to resort to using a therapist. Finch wants to understand the “nature” of grief from an evolutionary standpoint. It seems that he wants to conquer it by breaking it down like he would an equation. Therapist diagnosis of survivor’s guilt is partially correct but Finch has a point that part of the blame for Nathan’s death is his own. Those emotions, however, lead him directly to forming Team Machine and working the numbers.
Shaw was up next with a glimpse into why she is a rogue spy instead of a practicing doctor. Apparently, during her internship, one of the doctors noticed Shaw wasn’t like everybody else. Who wants a brilliant doctor who doesn’t care if you live or die? Her bedside manner is atrocious and she is an equally brilliant killer, so maybe she ended up in the correct field. Reese’s flashback seemed perfunctory and gave us nothing new about his background except that his father died when he was young. The title of the episode came from Fusco’s flashback where we did not necessarily learn anything new about Fusco, but we learned what “the devil’s share” meant. Basically, what goes around comes around and bad guys gets theirs in the end with a little help.
Aside from the flashbacks, there was Reese blazing a swath of dead and extremely injured bad guys on his way to kill Simmons. His own gun shot wounds are bleeding profusely as he makes very intelligent leaps that lead him to Quinn. Strangely, other than the opening and security footage, Reese himself is not really in the episode until the end. His failing health is what draws the rest of the fractured team into working together to save him instead of killing the target. Finch convinces Shaw to help Reese, and strangely, Root who wants to help so Finch can focus on the machine instead of his “pet” enforcer. Out of everything that was going on, Finch appeared more fearful of Root than anything else. He is tempted and jealous of her relationship with the Machine that he knows he can have if just asks for it. Its reminiscent of the One ring in “Lord of Rings.” If he takes that power, he is afraid of what he will become, hence the safeguards to prevent anyone, including himself, from gaining control of it. Enter Root. However, to save Reese he needs her. Their evolving relationship is fascinating and twisted. One to watch.
Emotionally, there were two stand out moments. After Reese dispatched a dozen U.S. Marshalls and intimidated Quinn, Finch tries to remind him of their mission; to save lives and not take them. Carter would never approve of the path Reese is taking, but his grief prevents him from altering course. Poignantly, it’s the gun jamming from all the blood that saves Reese’s soul and not Finch, but the look on Reese’s face was amazing. It’s like he wants Finch to somehow make it all better.
Fusco looks like he might be the next in line to seek vengeance for Carter when he finally tracks down Simmons. After a somewhat unbelievable fight (not sure its realistic that Fusco with a broken hand can beat down Simmons), Fusco resists the urge to kill Simmons because of the lessons Carter taught him and the belief she had in him. Fusco had a rousing speech that gave his character a bit more dignity overall.
In the end, Shaw and Finch take care of a recovering Reese, Root voluntarily returns to her cage, and Elias kills Simmons. That last part sticks a bit. If anyone was going to kill Simmons it should have been Reese or don’t kill him at all.
What did you think of the resolution? How far out of control will Reese spiral before he falls back into the fold?
