User Reviews

This episode features a new opening montage, narrated jointly by Greer and Finch, showing their differing views on irrelevant numbers. Finch: "You are being watched. The government has a secret system." Greer contemptuously: "A system you asked for, to keep you safe. You granted it the right to protect you. To index, order, and control the lives of ordinary people." Back and forth, from Finch to Greer. Nicely done.

In the previous episode, Fusco and Finch advised John Reese to make friends, get a life, so as the episode opens, John is meeting Dr. Iris Campbell and her parents (getting serious!) at a restaurant. However, first he must visit the restaurant's pitstop to take down a killer. Oddly enough, he joins the dinner party somewhat scruffy.

A new number comes up. Mr. Reese must protect Alex Duncan, but to do so he must confront his former boss in the CIA, who believes Reese is dead. Finch — a cautious man — advises Reese that it's too risky, but Reese is always going to save the innocent. Many of his associates from the CIA are dead, including Mark Snow and Kara Stanton, but Terence Beale (the talented Keith David) still remembers Reese quite well, since he vetted and hired him. After Finch plays decoy with his famous hat-trick, Beale and Reese collide in a face-off over Alex Duncan. Reese wins, Alex walks free, and Reese and Beale eventually talk. Viewers are not sure how much Beale knows about Samaritan and Control, but he tells John he will keep his identity a secret, because he "likes knowing he's out there, a ghost, still doing what needs to be done." (I would love to see Beale / Keith David again, but that may not happen.)

Meanwhile, La Machine sends a poem to Finch and Root, written in binary code. Machine 2.0 is open to communicate freely, no longer locked down, stifled, or otherwise repressed, so it could just spit out the text, but I suppose viewers need to be kept in suspense, guessing. Creating riddles also adds texture to La Machine's character, further humanizing her. As Finch says, "Clearly, it still has a propensity for riddles." Root ("Apparently she has something fun in store for all of us today!") again dubs the machine female and proceeds to solve the riddle, showing the poem to Finch. It is Cocoon, by Emily Dickinson, on transformation and metamorphosis. Finch, who knows so much about English literature, does nothing with it, but Root decides her savvy goddess is trying to tell them something. (Again, why not just say it? But again, more fun this way.)

Root's new cover identity has her working in delivery service for APS (like UPS). She realizes that the electronics items she delivers are infected with Samaritan germs. With Finch's help, she steals a copy of the creepy code. Finch dissects the malware code and notes that it is very dangerous. Root — without discussing it with Finch — runs the ugly stuff on a closed-system laptop, safeguarded carefully. (If I were Finch, I'd tell her in no uncertain terms to discuss things that could get them all killed, including the Machine). Finch does lecture Root about risk, but Root says her goddess wanted it done, adding, "Our only option is to take risks. Big ones. We have to be willing to do whatever it takes or we've already lost. It's no risk, no reward, Harry." And maybe she is right. Finch seems to ponder her words. I ponder them also. Does the Machine want to tunnel into that virus and form a cocoon in the heart of Samaritan, to eventually emerge above the fray, untouchable?

In the final scene, John breaks up with Iris (or she breaks up with him, reading his intentions). He knows he has dangerous work to do and "miles to go before he sleeps" (another poem referenced in POI). It seems likely that John's talk with CIA chief Terence Beale renewed his sense of purpose. Their conversation perhaps also helped to heal some of the emotional-spiritual wounds incurred during John's years with the CIA, yet he still sees his past as a problem. The things he's done. And "That person doesn't get to have a normal life." (So poignant. Boo-hoo. And yet credible.)

Good episode, despite some quibbles:

Too much wasted time in flashbacks to John and his CIA partner Kara in the Middle East. Sadly, Fusco and Shaw are not included. The two main plot-threads (Beale as potential CIA ally, and Root running Samaritan's malware for La Divine AI) seem fairly negligible, and may go nowhere, but this episode could have vast implications for the future. Or not.