Again the theme and motif of simulacrum returns, and the Machine shows us glimpses into an alternate world where Harold doesn’t build the Machine
after learning about September 11. In his world, Nathan is alive, because the
two men never embark on that journey. But because they do not, Finch doesn’t
meet, or never will meet Grace. And
that “those attacks” will still happen, presumably the ones orchestrated by Vigilance (in other words Decima). The government will still have some
surveillance Machine, Nathan tells him. And as the Machine reveals more with
the simulations, it is proof that they do, and that machine is Samaritan.
Finch’s plan is a complicated one – he steals Ice-9 and
modifies it, and sneaks into the NSA servers to upload and execute the virus. Given
the moniker for the virus, and the portents given by the programmer at the
start, as well as Greer, it seems like Finch’s plan is to destroy everything. "Take down the Internet." "Wipe the slate clean." It
becomes much clearer when Finch and Greer converse about the virus, that it
will likely destroy everything, not just Samaritan with it. It makes sense to upload
it into the NSA, as it likely will destroy Samaritan’s access to surveillance
feeds at the very least, though I wonder if given the virus’ moniker and Finch’s
modifications, if that was ever really required except to send him into the
hornet’s nest that is a Samaritan-controlled building.
Onto the subject of Greer and Finch’s final conversation:
once again we learn that Samaritan is willing to eliminate an unwilling minority to help
thrust humanity forward, and the Great Filter is brought up again. An
interesting note is that we learn that Samaritan now wants the Machine to
co-exist with it as a peer. Greer seems to also think that Finch is unwilling
to kill both Samaritan at the expense of the Machine anyway. But perhaps the two
machines are at a philosophical crossroads. Finch questions Samaritan’s
motivations as something borne of Greer’s desires, but I would also agree with
Greer. Maybe Samaritan’s code was never fundamentally corrupted by Greer. Arthur Claypool asked
Samaritan to sink or swim, whereas Finch nurtured the Machine like a child. It’s
almost entirely likely that Samaritan’s worldview hinges on that, even at the
opposition of whatever Claypool’s morals were and would be on the matter. Maybe
in the alternate ‘what-if’ world where Finch does not create the Machine and
Samaritan takes its place, Samaritan was simply iterated upon before being
shipped out to the government. Arthur Claypool (to my recollection) was more
concerned with being able to create life; whereas Finch was more concerned with how his creation would –
and should – see the world. Claypool
plays God, while Finch plays parent, and their ASIs are reflections of that nature/nurture duality. Perhaps
in that case, that is where the extrapolation of Samaritan begins but it also
bodes true of the one our heroes face presently.
Fusco’s story in this episode (and this season) leads him to
an interesting place as well. Many of the scenes also mirror other situations
in the show that he’s been in. FBI agent LaRoux returns just as Fusco learns
that the missing bodies (the unwilling minority) that Samaritan has hidden away
have been discovered, and the narrative from the FBI is that it a serial
killer is responsible. LaRoux knows differently though, and plans to kill Fusco and make it
look like this hypothetic serial killer did the deed, but not before
confirming he was the one responsible for carrying out these murders (and at
the behest of Samaritan, though it’s almost certain he doesn’t know that part).
In a sequence of scenes that mirrors the show’s pilot, Fusco this time is knocked out,
disarmed and wakes up in the back of a car where he is being driven to his
death; and let’s not forget he gets shot, but has his vest on. It’s a little
weird when you apply logic to it, but the show at this point has earned enough
goodwill to let it slide. And again, after Fusco is shot, he takes down LaRoux,
and we are treated to a similar situation for those who are reminded of Fusco
taking down Patrick Simmons. And more importantly, I think the what-if that the
Machine shows of Fusco – the dirty cop who sold HR out and got clear before it
went bad – adds an extra dimension to the present scene. We know Fusco is good,
but it was because he had help to make him become better. But he also knows more about the situation he finds himself in and maybe he wonders if these rules on being
a good guy will actually do him any good, or if he has to follow a different
set, just to get out alive.
Onto Reese and Shaw, who act more as procedural elements
this time around, mostly to help facilitate Finch at NSA headquarters. In a
sense the season has already given John a much needed emotional sendoff back in “Truth Be
Told”, while I have to assume Shaw has gotten much of the same in “6,741” though we’ll
likely see something more final on their characters in the finale. The
simulations for both Reese and Shaw speak volumes. For Reese, he ends up dead in
an unmarked grave because he lost any purpose even after saving Jessica. And
for Shaw, she continues her job as-is, just with a different entity providing
her and Cole intel (and Cole still curious about where it comes from).
Ultimately I have to guess that the finale rests mostly on
the Machine and Harold Finch though. It has been a long journey for them as
they face their annihilation against Samaritan. The relationship between the
two has changed so much and mostly for the better, especially how much the
Machine is a reflection on Harold but also the people she knows well, and whatever apprehensions Finch had about the Machine have dissolved as the two work together directly. Finch is
still not convinced near the end if the world the Machine predicts is a better
or worse one without him and the Machine in it. But the Machine shows him
one last simulation; that of Samaritan, Greer, and Root. Greer still sits in
NSA central ops watching as Samaritan manipulates humanity with a utilitarian
goal in mind, while Root – unchanged without her time with the Machine – is
still that killer for hire looking for an all-seeing ASI to serve. It’s just
that now she serves Samaritan, and sees the world similarly to it – some people
are just bad code, and need to be deleted.
And maybe that’s what finally tips Harold over the edge. Without
him, the world would not be in a better place. And his friends would never
become their best selves even at the cost of all the losses they’ve endured. What
he did by creating the Machine was bring together a bunch of bad people and
made them better, and they saved as many lives as they could together. Without
Harold creating the Machine, Harold would have never met Grace; John would’ve
killed himself with no purpose left; both Root and Shaw would be killing on orders
from Samaritan and would have never met, loved, and lost, or become better
people; and the same could be said for Fusco, who would continue on the path of
least resistance. And ultimately Samaritan would have been inevitable, but in this other world, there
would be no one to fight against it.
Miscellaneous observations:
- DASHWOOD. It’s all but obvious that is Harold’s true last name, and that the bird names are to pay respect to his father. I’m not literary book smart either but apparently “Dashwood” is the last name of a character in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” that shows up in the subway in the same episode and is the book Finch gives to Grace when he proposed to her.
- Shaw’s humour never fails to make me laugh. Looking for bad guys, shoots the Samaritan operative, then goes, “Look at that, found one.”
- “History will revere us!” famous last words from Greer. He talked a big game but in the end, he was true to his word. He is but a pawn and was willing to be sacrificed for Samaritan’s gain.
- Lots of ways to read that final shot of Finch in the foreground while Samaritan’s only words printed on the screen are “INEVITABLE.” Loved it.
- True fact about me: I have not yet watched It’s a Wonderful Life.
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