A tale of two numbers, though it should probably be three or four. Team Machine splits up to deal with the two main threads of the season, gang bosses Elias and Dominic, plus the ever-present A.I., Samaritan. Who will survive to the end of the finale? And just to make it extra special, Control returns to throw a monkey wrench in someone’s plans.
****SPOILERS BELOW****
The story starts off with an old fashioned kidnapping/disappearing. It’s always terrifying when bad guys have a body ready to place in your car before they blow it up. That means you’re probably not going home at the end of this adventure. Of the three plots, Control’s story is the most isolated, yet could be the most fruitful. She grabs a seemingly simple soccer mom, that Control is convinced is the handler of several Samaritan assets. Some torture later, a quick look through the mom’s day planner, and Control discovers something called “The Correction.” Considering it’s a Samaritan operation it could be anything from it fixing a grad student’s paper to reducing the number of humans on the earth to a manageable level.
Reese is still recovering from his gun-shot wound from last week, and is extremely zen about the whole experience. He compliments Fusco, who thinks that’s the sign of the apocalypse, and they go off to investigate a gang war brewing between Elias and Dominic. Simultaneously, Elias and Dominic numbers come up which could mean they are in danger or planning to kill someone. Taking into account the state of the war between the two, it’s probably a bit of both. Reese and Fusco find that it’s hard to protect someone when they don’t want it, and are plotting bloody revenge. Elias still appreciates Reese, but is worried he will interfere in his great plan, which seems like an awful one when everyone else is captured by Dominic.
Dominic has never been an impressive villain and this episode illustrates why. Zipp-tied to a chair, Elias still manages to outmaneuver him at every turn, to the point of getting Dominic to kill his own lieutenant. Elias even warned Dominic that he would know the pain of killing someone close to him. Elias seemed resigned to dying, but needing to get that last bit of revenge first, however Reese and Fusco got dragged into his suicide mission with him. The wild card in this scenario is the return of Harper who seems to be working for Dominic, but is actually working for Thornhill (AKA the Machine). Its not clear how Harper is going to help the guys while they are enjoying fun torture times at Casa el Dominic. Reese giving up Harold is just not happening, so Dominic should move on.
While Reese and Fusco are trying not to get dead, Root and Finch are on a rescue mission to save Shaw. A very dangerous mission that should have the words “also a trap” emblazoned on it. Root plays a game of chicken with the Machine to get Shaw’s location thinking she is teaching it something new. Hate to break it to you Root, but Reese played that same game with the Machine when he was tracking down Finch, the first time Root kidnapped him. The Machine really sucks at this game as will be evident later. Once Root and Finch are pointed to an asylum, Finch goes undercover as a patient with surprising ease. Best line of the evening was uttered by Root saying, “find Lenny. Tell him they stole his spaceman.” The look on Finch’s face is priceless. Lenny turns out to be a hulk who causes a great distraction.
Even knowing they were walking into a trap, the pure magnitude of it shocked Root. She walked Finch and herself into the “belly of the beast” or the heart of Samaritan. It’s really bold of Samaritan to set the trap at its own location. Best part of the trap closing was a conclusion of the Root vs Martine showdown. Martine’s neck snapping was very satisfying.
It all comes down to how well Harold programmed the Machine to see people as relevant. He thinks he failed, but the Machine proves him wrong. When given a choice between it’s own survival and that of its creator (not going to assume the Machine would make this sacrifice for anyone), the Machine chooses Harold. Throughout the entire series the Machine has shown how much it cares about Harold, yet that has always scared him. Now, the fact that the Machine does not consider its assets interchangeable will be the thing that saves them in the end. Samaritan knows the Machine’s location, so is this the end game or is the Machine playing chess with another counter move up its sleeve?
