That episode was good, but it had far too many unnecessary and clumsy setpieces.
Fusco's subplot could be removed and nothing would change. As it stands, it's yet another incredibly scene where Fusco narrowly avoids death at gunpoint (and it's arguably the stupidest one in the franchise)
Greer's death was contrived. Killing Finch after getting the information out of him would have been trivial, which leads me to believe he wanted to give Finch (and himself) a grand death to usher in the new world. Fair. What's not fair is the fact that Greer didn't station a single soldier to watch over them after they passed. It just comes across as incredible cheap to me.
Fusco's subplot wasn't needed, but I do think there's a role behind it, and the point isn't necessarily about character death. Back in Devil's Share, Fusco said he won't kill Simmons because he's a changed cop and attributed his positive change to Carter, and as a result he arrests him. 2 seasons later, the problem now is he's at a fork in the road where he can justifiably kill Agent LeRoux as he's a Samaritan asset and will continually target and possibly kill him to fulfill Samaritan's motives. Or, he can keep continuing to be a good guy and risk being killed and losing his family all because he thought letting him go was a good move. Basically, it's trying to see just how far this new Fusco can go before he dirties his hands again.
As for Greer's death, I actually liked the chess metaphor behind it and how it was subverted. He thought he was the queen, and Finch was the pawn to be sacrificed, but in actuality it's the other way around. Turns out Greer's sacrifice was as meaningless as the chess pieces themselves. Moreover, the reason behind killing Finch is much simpler than ushering a new world; he wanted to know if only Finch knew the password. Once Finch revealed his tell, Greer was willing to sacrifice himself to ensure that Ice-9 would never be activated. I don't think it was contrived.
