PERSON OF INTEREST: .EXE Roundtable

Person of Interest season 5, episode 12: .EXE

It’s so hard to believe that there is only one new episode of POI left after this one! We’ll be going through withdrawal, big-time – there really isn’t another show on TV today that will be able to fill that POI-sized hole. And if this whole season is any indication, we think this series will have a finale to be proud of, rather than one that disappoints. That said, with Jonathan Nolan and Denise Thé sharing a writing credit for the finale, I think we’re going to need a lot of wine and tissues!

The-world-without-the-Machine-simulations

Cay: I really thought that the point was the Machine trying to convince Finch NOT to unleash the virus but we find out with the last simulation that Samaritan would have still come about, and Root would have continued on her unfortunate course. Then Greer assumes that Finch didn’t tell the Machine the password and I assumed that he had, only to find out he hadn’t, but she knew it, and presumably would have used it had she not been able to save him. While it was a complicated device, it was true to the show, so it worked.

Karen: Oh, how I loved this. I don’t care that it’s implausible as to how it got the simulations passed to Harold – I mean, who cares when this is the outcome, right? Seeing the simulations as we have several other times in the past (If-Then-Else, and more recently, 6,741) is truly one of my favorite things. The illusions to a chess game between Harold and Greer were also a direct corrolation to those between The Machine and Samaritan – albiet one played behind the scenes without much interaction. BRILLIANT storytelling.

Rueben: It was quite an elaborate way to tell the story as it could have been versus how it is actually was; it almost made my head spin. The alternate trajectory for Reese, of course, ended very unhappily while Shaw and Root both continued on their original paths. I think I prefer how things actually played out much better despite the loss of Root.

Cay: It worked out well for Carter and Nathan as well (at least in the fact that they both survived and seemed well), but Fusco not so much, so a mixed bag indeed, but I agree, pending next week’s promised “blood bath”, I prefer how it worked out.

The bodies finally coming to light

Karen: I was fraught with worry over Fusco in this episode. Every time they’d cut to him, I’d get pulled back over to his storyline and my stomach would tense up. LeRoux being the actual killer shocked Fusco in that deadpan way of his, and we’ll see if he can carry that stillness anger over into the finale. I’m guessing the bad guy bites it… but that’s just me. Note to LeRoux – check for Kevlar.

Rueben: I was worried too, but I guess we shouldn’t have been, right? Thank God for Kevlar! That being said I wondered about that LeRoux guy as soon as they showed him in the episode and especially after he found Fusco’s not-so-well-hidden bulletin board with the pictures of the victims. I just have to wonder, though, since they didn’t show the outcome, what did Fusco actually do with him?

Cay: When Fusco got shot, all I could think is “well, there they go killing off another main character”. I never expected he would survive. I’m not sure that there is anything Fusco CAN do with LeRoux other than kill him – there is nowhere to stash him and as Fusco said, he’s very unlikely not to try again to kill him.

Greer is in the middle of the NSA

Karen: Okay, I figured there’d be some of his peeps there, and probably some of Samaritan’s equipment – mostly because he’d want to spread out – but Greer himself? BONUS! No wonder his number came up. Harold must’ve been kinda happy to be in the right place at the right time. Or not… I’m never sure what he’s thinking. 😉

Rueben: I kinda figured that Finch was inside that Faraday Cage for more than just the goal of taking down Samaritan. I had a feeling that Greer had to be there for it’s one thing to take down Samaritan, but it was his ultimate goal to take down Greer only to have him basically sacrifice himself for Samaritan. It was almost anti-climatic that Finch couldn’t take his adversary down himself.

Cay: I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that he got himself that ingrained into the government, but scary none-the-less. Kind of reminds me of Mars Attacks when the President says “I want the people to know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad.” after the aliens blow up Congress. Only in this case, with the President “irrelevant” and Samaritan owning the Congress as well as intelligence, not sure that the free world has anything going for it but Team Machine.

Samaritan wants the Machine as a companion

Cay: Ok, this was just a little bit weird. My mind went right to some computer love-making, I have to admit. The whole idea seems a bit too…human…for Samaritan.

Karen: bow chica wow wow? Yeah, weird it is. It had to be Greer projecting, right? Because… *headtilt*

Rueben: I was a bit non-plussed about that whole thing. Did Samaritan honestly think that the Machine would work side-by-side with Samaritan; that they’d create an even superior AI from their “union?”

Cay: [Insert really cheesy computer pick-up line here, or better yet, in the comments!]

Greer is finally dead

Cay: Not with a bang, but a whimper. I really wanted Samaritan to turn on him or the team to kill him, but sacrificing himself thinking he was taking Finch with him seems really anti-climatic, although I guess it’s true to his character – he always believed in his mission with Samaritan to the extreme.

Karen: A tad unsatisfying for sure, but if he’s truly out for the count, I’m good with it. It’s fitting for his character, and I’m smiling a bit thinking that he’ll never know that Finch escaped the same fate.

Rueben: It really was an empty feeling for sure seeing him give himself up for Samaritan, thinking that Finch would die with him. After all that build up, it was a letdown.

Favorite line or scenes or other thoughts:

Cay: The Machine driving Finch in a Tesla Model S was definitely up there – I think I had a nerdgasm (I’m kind of obsessed with Teslas!). I also loved the scene where Finch realizes the Machine knew the password all along, and that he starts referring to it as “she” in this episode.

Karen: Can we just mention here that Finch used “Dashwood” as his red-button password, and Shaw was reading Sense and Sensibility earlier? Also, Edward Snowden’s wireless modem? CLASSIC!

Rueben: I have to agree with Karen that Finch using “Dashwood” as the password was unexpected. I had almost expected him to use a word related to his lost love Grace. Also, I didn’t know what type of car Finch was being driven in, but seeing him in the backseat as The Machine drove him was quite something.

Memorable Quotes:

You’re going to take down the internet – Barnett
Been there. Done that. I’m onto bigger game – Finch

Just remember what happened to that fat German kid in Willy Wonka – Reese

We were just looking for some bad guys. <gunshots> Look at that – found one! – Shaw

Shaw and the Big Lug found a way in – The Machine

Watch the SERIES finale of Person of Interest on Tuesday, June 21st, at 10/9c on CBS!