Finch and Root race to save The Machine, which has been located by Samaritan, while Reese and Fusco are caught in the middle of the final showdown between rival crime bosses Elias and Dominic.
The fourth season of Person of Interest has been much more ambitious than its previous three years, as it presented a further heightened dystopian story that featured two warring artificial intelligence systems. The battle between the Machine and Samaritan has been simmering all season long. What started out as a cold war with the various protagonists thrusted into hiding eventually turned deadly and only intensified as the season went along. The team faced major loss and things continued to look more dire and bleaker than they did before. In this war, Samaritan was winning as the team was faced with a reality that could change in the bleak of an eye. "YHWH" serves as a grand climax of this yearlong battle, with Samaritan effectively going for the kill shot in many ways. It leaves the team as devastated as they've even been and the audience is fully along for the ride in a breathtaking and exciting final hour to the season.Obviously, a big deal has been made about this war between the two AIs. That meant that some amount of resolution had to be delivered in this finale. And yet, the show still found a way to turn in the unexpected direction. Heading into the episode, things were looking dire for the Machine as Samaritan learned its location in exchange for freeing Harold and Root. The two of them are desperate to save the Machine out of fear of what the world would become under Samaritan's influence. After several retrievals of information and materials, the team was eventually trapped in an electrical substation in Brooklyn. The Machine had been hiding in the country's electrical grid system. So the team was forced to download a portion of the Machine's DNA into a makeshift server created with a briefcase, some memory cards and several bags of ice. It's a thrilling sequence.
And yet, the most painful and emotional part of the finale comes when the Machine opts to talk to its creator Harold whilst the download and shootout is happening around them. The entire team has been forced into extreme measures in order to ensure a possibility of being able to fight again in the future. The Machine went up against Samaritan and lost. That is devastating and forces the Machine to wonder if it even deserves to keep living. It failed its job of protecting people from violent crimes. Harold understands that the world that they now live in isn't a world that he was able to program into the Machine. It's a world that he never could have imagined when he and Nathan were first tinkering with the idea for an AI. But it is a reality now. Samaritan has shown its power and control. It is daunting and has backed the team into a corner. They are forced to rely on whatever the Machine says but that only further puts them in harm's way. Maybe the Machine should just give up. It tried its best but that still wasn't good enough. It's heartbreaking for Harold to hear. He needs the Machine to keep fighting as it is the only hope of keeping the world the way that it is.
With Samaritan in control, the world will change. And yet, it won't be because of some elaborate spectacle. It has the knowledge and understanding of how the world operates. It knows that the most successful version of power is the kind that is rarely seen. Its presence is deeply felt by the characters on the show. Samaritan has the ability to drastically alter the view of the entire world. It believes it can do so by simply eliminating the targets who pose the highest threat of destroying that peace and structure. Greer perfectly notes that its a surgical operation. Samaritan will always be controlling the strings of human existence without civilization being aware that it is even happening. That's the most scary prospect delivered by this finale. A god is out there controlling every single action and reaction and it effectively takes control out of ordinary life. Control wants to protect the country from a mass casualty event. And yet, even she is unprepared for what Samaritan truly has planned for the world. She enters that confrontation with Greer so confident that she has everything figured out. Only to be proven so devastatingly wrong.
Similarly, the conflict between Elias and Dominic has been brewing all season long. Both characters have been causing headaches for John and Fusco in trying to run the city's criminal elements. John and Fusco start the episode beaten down and at the mercy of Dominic. They escape that situation thanks to the Machine. John is able to go and fight alongside Harold and Root. He helped ensure that the Machine could live on to another day. Fusco was tasked with transporting the two crime bosses to lockup. And that's when the chaos breaks out. First with a truck ambushing the transport vehicle to save Elias, only for both him and Dominic to get shot by one of Samaritan's snippers. It's an act Samaritan fully believes will help the city become a better and safer place. Those two characters created a lot of trouble throughout this season. And yet, their demises are brutal and distressing. That's how Samaritan is programmed to handle its problems. It eliminates the threats to its agenda. It's a simplicity that makes it a smoother operating system. It also makes it stand in contrast with the Machine which allowed Elias to continue running his operation for years now. The Machine saw the moral complexity of the world. That only existed because of the way Harold programmed and taught it.
And now, the Machine is being pushed out of this war by its opponent. Samaritan has won and all the Machine can do now is survive. It's DNA survives the rough transition and makes it to the briefcase. Once again, John is spectacularly able to take on a vast army of enemy operatives and win. The finale ends with John and Root guns blazing taking on Samaritan's operatives while Harold bravely holds and protects his creation. It's an act of violence and desperation. This is the only move left. The stakes have never been higher and will continue to be tense in future episodes. The Machine helped the team survive so many things this season when they were thrown into hiding. It couldn't always communicate in the ways that it typically could. But the Machine was always very protective of John, Harold, Fusco and Root. And now, they have to do the same for it. The Machine is offline and they will have to protect and rebuild it in the hopes that it can return stronger and ready to go on the offensive with Samaritan. It's a formidable task. But once again, it's the only act left for the team to take.
Some more thoughts:
- "YHWH" was written by Dan Dietz & Greg Plageman and directed by Chris Fisher.
- So Dominic discovered that Harper was the person working against him in his crew, tied her to a chair, and then she disappeared after John's big shootout confrontation with them. What happened to her?
- It was odd to see that John had enough time to break away from the big action to go to the precinct to warn Iris to get out of the city. He also says he'll tell her the full truth if he survives. Well, so far he's still alive...
- Control sure did drop her guard and her gun quickly when she learned just how wrong she had been about Samaritan's grand plan, didn't she? Couldn't she have still shot Greer?
- Unlike the rest of the problems to society though, Control was captured and not killed. That means she could very likely return in the future.
- Person of Interest still hasn't been renewed for a fifth season. I would say things are optimistic. And yet, I'm also not sure how much longer the show has left either. CBS certainly could do better in the Tuesday night time slot, but it also has worse things to worry about on its schedule. Whatever the case, this finale is fantastic and sets up a fifth season I really want to see.
