Review: Person of Interest 4.12- "Control-Alt-Delete"

The conclusion to the Person of Interest trilogy brought the story from a whole new perspective, namely Control’s. Camryn Manheim returns with a view of Samaritan from the Relevant side.

*****Spoilers Below****

Last week’s episode ended with the possible/probably death of Shaw, and the team’s heartbreaking reaction. Well mostly Root’s reaction. This week only deals with what Team Machine is doing in the background for the first 30 minutes. The main focus is on Control, and her not so smooth dealings with Samaritan, plus its annoying minions.

The most interesting thing about Control is her ruthlessness and patriotism. She is a true believer in protecting the country in the most efficient way possible, no matter how much blood has to be spilled. Her dealings with the Senator when he got in her face demanding answers illustrated this premise. The fact that she is keeping count of how many people she has ordered killed points to a person with some sort of morality. Emphasis on “some”, but probably on the small side.

In her pursuit of national security she has to have complete control over information and her teams (hence the name?) Enter Samaritan. It promised better information and control than the Machine. However, Control’s conflict over a “terrorist’s” laptop with a Samaritan lackey gives her a clue that she might be the lackey. Samaritan keeping secrets from her is unacceptable and leads to her going off the grid.

Ordering her team to capture the last “terrorist” alive in order to find out what is on the laptop Samaritan wants destroyed, is the first step in doubting the Program. Notice “terrorist” is in parenthesis since the damning information on these guys is from Samaritan, and, therefore, suspect. It’s also good to see Grice back again working the Relevant side with his robot blonde partner. Grice misses the good old days with the Machine when he got to actually think for himself. Samaritan better keep an eye on this one.

Control follows the bread crumbs from her team, and goes to capture the last “terrorist” on her own. However, Team Machine has other plans for her and capture her in the field. Root and Reese, who have been causing havoc in the background throughout the episode, make an entrance with a grenade laucher. Classy fellas. Root also gets a chance to turn around her fun torture times with Control while they question her about Shaw’s whereabouts. Apparently, Root is all reformed, and only tortures with a taser now.

Fortunately for Control, Finch is the good cop in this scenario and keeps Root on a leash. He is really astonished that Control has no concept of how much damage Samaritan has let loose on the world. Capturing Control was just a ploy for Finch to hack into Samaritan’s phone lines, but it gave an opportunity for all sides to meet. This meeting gave Control a wider view of the Samaritan tainted world and Grice a look at Shaw’s new team. All this could be leading to an alliance between Control and Team Machine. Maybe even Grice joining the team if Shaw is dead/not found soon. They definitely could use more fire power.

When Control tracked down and killed the last guy, it looked like she ignored everything Finch revealed to her. Once she investigated the Stock Exchange basement it became clear that she is biding her time to do her own investigation. Samaritan should not have made an enemy/pawn out of her.