I'd like to apologise for the incredible length of time that it took me to get these posted.
In regards to the season, I felt that after ‘Terra Incognita’, I wasn’t too frustrated with the show putting the handbrake on the serialised arcs in the antepenultimate episode. That being said, though ‘Asylum’ was an absolutely superb episode, boy did it have a lot to do. To those who tried to tell me after 'Terra Incognita' that the show was leaving itself too much to do - you were right.
Episodes that develop the Machine as either human or simply more than Finch designed are generally successes in my book, and this was no exception. After Harold’s claim in ‘Prophets’ that the team don’t matter to the Machine and that it would simply discard them were they to die (“we are only numbers to it”), to see it tell he and Root that they aren’t interchangeable was truly amazing. Yet, at the same time, it was tragic.
The Machine gave itself up in order to save its creator and analog interface, while Samaritan (nor Greer, for that matter) cared in the slightest when Martine had her neck snapped. That alone showed Samaritan exactly what the difference was between the two AIs - the Machine cares about people; Samaritan doesn’t. It’s something we’ve all known since the malevolent AI’s introduction but to see it portrayed in such a hard-hitting manner was outstanding.
“YOU ARE WRONG, HAROLD. YOU ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE. I FAILED TO SAVE SAMEEN. I WILL NOT FAIL TO SAVE YOU NOW.” It’s a true testament to the quality of the show’s writers that an AI can receive enough development so that this one scene can make me emotional. The Machine has long been a character in its own right, but this solidified it as more than just a supercomputer - it is, to some extent, human.
Elias returned! Finally, after what felt like an absolute eternity, my favourite Person of Interest villain returned. And what a return it was. As a huge fan of Anthony/Scarface, I’ve been longing for Elias to exact his revenge on Dominic for being effectively responsible for Anthony’s death, and I don’t think they could have given it to us in any more a satisfying way. I was laughing alongside Elias after Dominic shot and killed Link because it was blindingly obvious that Elias had planned the whole thing, but that didn’t make it any less superb.
Even though Dominic had no real reason to suspect Elias of trickery, he still should have done. “Always expect the unexpected”, I believe the saying goes. The biggest issue for Dominic is that based on some information given to him by his rival, he, without hesitation, shot and killed his right-hand man and friend, Link. If he’s prepared to trust a criminal (who has deceived him in the past) more than his own men, Dominic will never rule New York.
Reese and Fusco managed to get dragged into the gang war, and neither they, nor Elias, ended ‘Asylum’ in very good shape. Reese certainly seemed in a much better mood than in previous episodes, which, given the circumstances, is pretty surprising. I’m rather quite glad that ‘Terra Incognita’ appears to have moved Reese past his phase of complete sadness and despair, because it was getting a tad bit uninteresting and not really going anywhere. As for Fusco, well… he was still his humorous self, even in the face of potential death. Never change, Lionel.
Camryn Manheim has a Golden Globe and an Emmy, and it’s not at all hard to see why. She elevates every single Control scene to incredible heights and I can’t imagine Person of Interest picking a better actress for the role. But even she was outshone by Erin Dilly, who played ‘school teacher’ Shelly. It was quite clear that Control wasn’t incorrect in assuming Shelly’s involvement, but the way that she revealed her role was quite incredible. “You have no idea what’s coming for you, bitch.” That was preceded by some great scenes of her begging for sympathy and followed by Amazing. Truly amazing.
Odds and ends:
- I know the entirety of the internet seems to be thoroughly enjoying Root breaking Martine’s neck, but it was definitely my least favourite scene of the episode. It was pretty badass from Root, but it made no sense. At what point did she get out of the restraints? Why did no one have any sort of reaction? And it was so anticlimactic. They could have killed Martine in a much better way in ‘Search and Destroy’.
- The entire sequence with Root admitting Finch to the asylum was simply wonderful. “Who exactly is after you?” “The Brotherhood, the federal government. An artificial super intelligence, obviously.” “What's your name, sir?” “I go by many names. All derived from species of birds.” “I'd mark him as a John Doe. He basically lives in the subway.” The best thing about that exchange is that everything referenced is true.
- “These gentlemen stole your spaceman.”
- I’ve wondered for a while now whether Greer is concerned for his life working for Samaritan. Apparently, he isn’t. “How arrogant of you to think that any of us are anything but irrelevant?”
- “I have a lower back thing.” Before Root pulls out two guns and starts firing.
- What kind of Samaritan agent keeps the date of a presumed mass murder in their diary?
- So, Shaw turned up briefly on screen. Not sure quite how I feel about that. Though I doubt she’ll make another appearance until Shahi is ready to come back (which will be in season 5), having her turn and join Samaritan is certainly an interesting plot point.
- I adore the ‘Listening with a Million Ears’ track from the season 1 soundtrack, and that final montage featuring a variation of the track was simply magnificent.
Person of Interest routinely does spectacular episodes, and the show has built up a reputation for terrific finales, but man, ‘YHWH’ was truly something. The quality and intensity of the storytelling, the acting, all of it culminated in an amazing finale.
The most outstanding moment, however, featured little acting and instead simply projections on a laptop screen. Yet, it provoked more emotions than some shows do in their entire runs. It’s a true compliment to the quality of the writing team that a computer - not even a human - can come close to bringing tears to my eyes. It was heartbreaking to see the Machine project what it perceived to be its potential final words onto the screen as a devastated Finch watched on and begged it to keep fighting. We’ve come to appreciate the Machine as a character in its own right, with it displaying a plethora of human qualities (while Root always refers to the AI as female), yet the one thing that’s always been lacking from the persona is emotion (not that I’d expect a computer to display emotion - unless it’s got the physical representation of Arnold Schwarzenegger and says things like “Hasta la vista, baby”). That changed here, and it was glorious to witness. The final scene of the Machine in its current state further exemplified the differences between it and Samaritan. While the Machine would rather ‘die’ than continue to break its moral code or to continue to be crippled, Samaritan, after surviving from just two drives back in ‘Aletheia’, simply kills those it deems a threat to both itself and society, ignoring any and all hints of morals.
The Correction, the event that Control had suspected was a major attack, was in fact a surgical strike against those who were deemed to be problems within society. “The disrupters, the outliers who have problems with authority. And then there’s the disloyal, the grit in the gears.” It was, in fact, a test of loyalty, to see who Samaritan could and could not trust. Not only did the malevolent AI help society, it helped itself by removing almost all of the obstacles in its path. One of those obstacles was indeed Control (along with Grice and Schiffman - both of whom died), who was made to eat her words by an unbelievably smug Greer. “Two men are gonna walk through that door. One will put a black bag over your head and the other will zip tie your wrists. You’ll be thrown into a hole so dark and deep that even your precious Samaritan can’t see inside. And the last thing you’ll hear is my voice saying, ‘this is where you belong’.” Though we didn’t see her in said hole, we did witness Greer’s men doing that exact thing to Control. It was a fitting turnaround that left Control stunned and most certainly regretting her earlier speech. Interestingly, Greer chose not to kill her as Samaritan had her colleagues. Does he have a future use for her? In any event, I doubt this will be the last that we see of Control.
Two more of those taken out by Samaritan were Dominic and Elias, after brief arrest by the NYPD had been halted by one of Elias’ men. The scene brought to an end an arc that was at times slightly messy and contained a villain that was definitely underdeveloped. Dominic’s death wasn’t such a bad thing, but the potential death of Elias wasn’t something I supported. His death does make sense from a story point of view - with next season likely to be entirely serialised, as well as his reign of crime having been pretty much destroyed by Dominic and revenge taken upon his counterpart for the death of Anthony, there isn’t much left for Elias to do. However, Enrico Colantoni is so good and Elias is such a great character to watch, it pains me to entertain the idea of his death. He was never confirmed to be dead, and I’m desperately hoping that he is somehow saved. Aside from the Machine’s emotional goodbye, the stand-out scenes of the episode fell to Reese and Root, both of whom spent a considerable amount of time in God Mode - Reese for the first time since the episode of the same name.
Root, while rushing to and from various locations and acquiring various objects that would help save the Machine, entertained with her typical propensity for ridiculous side missions that, this episode, involved night vision goggles, a compression algorithm and over a dozen bags of ice. Standard fare, really. “Are you out of your mind?” Finch asked Root. “Since when is that relevant?” was the perfect response.
She was outshone, however, by Reese’s experience in God Mode. The last time he found himself with that access, he took out even more enemies than usual and directed Shaw to drive a car off a bridge. This was no less spectacular, as he not only took out most of Dominic’s men single-handedly as well as taking on an entire Samaritan army, most of whom were left wounded on the ground (including one agent who found himself taking a hit from the butt of Reese’s gun in an excellent move from John). This finale did a terrific job of bringing the season to a head - wrapping up Dominic’s storyline, leaving question marks over Control as well as the future of the Machine. The episode’s climax also gave the team some form of hope - with the Machine barely alive, they have a chance to rebuild it - something that’s been lacking of late. 'YHWH' was certainly one of the best episodes of the season.
Odds and ends:
- I honestly couldn’t tell whether or not there was an issue with my screen in the opening “previously” montage. Great effect.
- Love Fusco stealing Shaw’s “That was kinda hot” line from ‘The Devil’s Share’. Also, excellent callback to that episode by showing Elias as Greer mentioned “outliers” (that of course referring to Elias’ speech to Simmons).
- So…. What happened to the ammonium nitrate? Was it ever in the house at all?
- The music that capped off the episode - Pink Floyd’s ‘Welcome to the Machine’ - was absolutely perfect and joins a long line of stunning tracks to have appeared on the show.
- As most of you probably know, season 5 is going to be 13 episodes and premiere in midseason (so roughly January 2016). This probably means that it’ll be the final season of the show. As such, I’ll be doing a rewatch of the series over the next couple of months, and so my season 4 review won’t come until later in the year once I’ve watched it during my rewatch - so apologies for that. I’ll likely do live tweets of my rewatch so if you wanted to tweet or watch along with me, feel free to follow my Twitter handle below.
So, what did you think of the final two of the season? Let me know in the comments below!
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