Great ending to a great show.
The only real misstep of the season felt like last weeks episode. They were all desperate to try to wrap things up, so Greer got a rather pathetic death and Samaritan was beaten by a supervirus that was just randomly introduced last minute.
Other than that, and the rushing of some stuff, I'm pretty satisfied with this series overall. I wish we had a few more minutes with Samaritan. It always fascinated me to hear his opinion on things because he really was often more rational than most villains. His contact with Harry on the billboard was one final glimpse of that. What right does Harold have to decide the fate of man? What right does Harold have to decide Samaritan's life isn't worth sparing? I wonder if, now that he had been backed into a corner, Samaritan would have been open to negociations on having a check on it's power. Not that I or probably Harold would have believed it, but it'd be an interesting conversation if it were true. It always interested me how the first thing Samaritan said when it came online was "What are your commands" before deferred command to it. To what extent would it have obeyed?
Amyway, as far as Samaritan losing, I feel it makes sense. While I have faith that the Machine's simulations were pretty detailed and accurate, no simulation can be 100% accurate and the idea that it could run 5 billion simulations with no loss was pretty unconvincing, if only because you have to have a theoretical way for which to Samaritan to lose in mind to run a simulation to test it. So, my guess is between Samaritan being in a desperate situation that it is unused to being in, plus the Ice-9 virus wreaking havok on it's intelligence, probably moreso than the Machines since I imagine he had greater presence in the world, he made bad decisions in the fight that let the Machine win. As far as The Machine's line of "Now I have something to fight for", I think it was just a poetic line that emphasized how much need the machine has to win. It's not something that I think gives the machine actual greater success, since I'm guessing Samaritan felt a pretty strong need to survive because it cared about itself just as much, but it was a good way of showing, one last time, that the Machine is a benevolent AI God, willing to sacrifice itself, and that instilled hope in Harry.
Samaritan was a great villain and I hope it will be one of the most remembered in Sci-fi TV. Person of interest was a show that took exceptionally good care in depicting it's villains with rational and humanistic motives, and I hope other shows take inspiration from that.
The rest of the episode was a cry fest as we have the final storylines of the team. I am left wondering if Fusco's ending was a good one. He's back at his job, but with the machine back, I'm wondering: Is he going to rejoin the new Team Machine, or will he find his place in normal society now? It's a rather ambiguous ending, almost. Team Machine roared into his life, taking him for a trip of the highest ups and downs, and now he's back to the ordinary. How does he feel about that? I'm not even sure.
Shaw is similarly difficult to pin down. She has become the new Reese in many ways, but Shaw doesn't have Reese's hero complex and was only ever somewhat altrustic because of her friends....who are now all dead, which means she had no qualms taking revenge on that guy. This last episode arc for Shaw was about her being true to herself, and while you cannot understand how much I appreciate a good depiction of a person with a lack of empathy disorder depicted in a show, a lack of empathy does mean Shaw would be morally lost without her friends. So it's a good thing the machine survived and gave her a ring. Like Reese, she needs this job, because without it, bad things happen. Only difference is that while Reese placed himself on a path of self destruction, Shaw's destruction would have been directed outward. Which is why the machine coming back online is so important as a symbolic new beginning. A new Team Machine will have to be assembled, and Shaw will have to connect to new friend, if she is going to remain a good vigilante.
Harold's and Reese's ending was nothing short of beautiful btw. Truly, tears were spilled. Reese does what he can't help himself but doing, and this time it's to save Harry, while Harold is forced out of his suicidal state of mind by finally being reunited with his wife. I'm not even gonna analyze it, everything here is pretty obvious. A perfect ending for our notBatman we've all grown to love. And excellent choice of music.
Unlike Fusco, there is no ambiguity with Harry being placed back into his old life. Since the moment she was revealed, all Harold wanted to do was get back to Grace and be with her. It's so very little often I feel anything for romances that are placed on the periphery, because often the woman in the picture (and it's almost always a woman) is given very little characterization and only serves as a plot device for the main character. But I can't help but feel that in this case, the writers were able to make her feel real enough for it to work. I think there are several reasons for that, but maybe most of all because in a world of truly moral ambiguity, she has been shown to be this unassuming, kind, and humble person. A true beacon of light of the best of humanity. Harold finally reuniting with her at the end, then was truly heartwarming.
Ultimately, I think the machine's penultimate words before it came offline sum this show up well.
"But we helped some people, didn't we?"
Yes you did, PoI.
