4.12: Control-Alt-Delete

[Dave]

I admit last week probably wasn't quite as bad as I made out, but I certainly prefer these deepening-the-conspiracy episodes. No indication given on the 'is-she-isn't-she' front though. Are they going to keep that hanging until the end of the Season? Can they really?

And quite a change of pace this week, with Team Machine not even being seen until about halfway in. That was very unexpected, but what we expect now from POI. Old characters return, great plot twists again (Nautilus), and the kind of character development that POI is good at. No two dimensional cardboard cut-out characters here.

Samaritan speaking through the child still doesn't work well; even less well here as an adult avatar wouldn't have to work nearly so hard to get to see the President (if that is really what the goal is.)

So, has Control now become an ally of Team Machine? Did that new paint on the wall convince her when she had seemed blind to everything else?

 

[J-Sun]

I agree with all your positives but this one didn't work for me precisely as you say: by telling the story from outside our protagonists' points of view and not immediately connecting the dots with Control, I just had no initial interest in what they were showing. I was like, "Shaw, Shaw, Shaw, where and how is Shaw, people?!?" I think the episode's structure would be fine in general - they do it very rarely but have done a couple of episodes from unusual points of view before - but it doesn't work when I'm only interested in one thing and that's being slighted. It also really bugs me that they didn't solve this within this episode - like you say, now I'm wondering how long they're going to leave it hanging. You may well be right.

Re: the kid, yeah, they have to fix that. It'd be easy to do - Samaritan can just pick another avatar. Simple. Because it's really kind of ruinous on a per scene basis. (I mean, a good episode can still function even with the kid but it does nothing but hurt and ruins whatever scene he's in.)

And I was kind of surprised at Control - I thought she would have had to have been in rock-solid denial just to preserve her own identity. Her version of "sanity". Because, as she was saying to the other guy, he probably couldn't handle killing 850+ folks but she can because she believes it's an overall virtue. If she admits she's killing innocent people at the behest of a bunch of psychos, she becomes the one who can't sleep at night or live with herself. But she apparently did decide to credit Harold enough to try to verify and, while it's weak, she should have enough evidence to realize something's wrong. I don't think this does - or should - make her an "ally" but it may make her a neutral whose goals might sometimes coincide.

Anyway - once they started connecting the dots, the dramatic aspects with Control's capture and the hunt for the "terrorists" and the backtracking to try to get answers about Shaw were all good.

 

[REBerg]

Fusco: (to a nogoodnik he had just rendered unconscious) Another thing. The Red Wings suck.
Finch: You realize that he's not from Detroit.
Fusco: Still had to be said.

Nothing like a little humorous dialogue to lighten up a heavy episode.

 

[markpud]

Loved this one, although yes I was happy when halfway through the Team came back into the fore.

When I saw the title was "Control-Alt-Delete" it really didn't occur to me that it was anything other than a PC reference, rather than focussing on Control herself.

Does Control seems a little old to have a young child? Career focussed women can certainly have children later in life so it's not outside the realms of possibility but seemed a little off.

Is this really the first time Samaritan has blocked Control's operations? That Sam agent guy seemed far too smug for someone who had been working so closely with senior Govt officials at the Pentagon without them ever being suspicious before?!

Were the 4 guys really innocent stooges framed by Samaritan? Or deliberately targeted because they'd programmed some key code for it and needed erasing? The timing of this terrorism plot with real life events gave it extra resonance..

When Control was tied up and Reese/Root played bad cop/bad cop, with Finch's good cop. Great scenes. "Did you think we weren't expecting them" (your backup agents). Reese came pretty close to being taken down by Shaw's former partner (the guy from Spartacus) until they realised she was a mutual friend...

Overall it was interesting that they glossed over last week's fairly conclusive kill shot with the "find Shaw" storyline, although Control saw through them and their denial of the possibility of Shaw's death. And Fusco's cover is apparently not blown despite Samaritan agents seeing him with Reese/Finch.

I was pretty happy with the way they handled Control's exposure to the "truth" from both the side of Samaritan keeping her in the dark over the laptop, and Finch's revelations about Samaritan's motives and how much else she doesn't know. It wouldn't have rung true if she was quick to flip sides, but the fact she checked out the Stock Exchange means she put some value in what Finch said. But where will she go from here?

How creepy is it to get a text from your AI overlord saying "Stop it. Now"!!

 

[J-Sun]

There's a lot of good points, especially the idea of Control being prepped for suspicion by Smug Jerk's attitude which was then reinforced by Harold. Bizarre bit of myopia on my part that I forgot point A by the time I got to point B. That helps make Control's behavior more plausible though I still maintain that she should probably be much more maniacally self-confident/in-denial than she seems to be. You probably don't take pride in killing 850+ people unless you're more than a little sure you're on the Right Side.