5.11 - Synecdoche

[ctg]

The team needs to unravel a conspiracy when the president of the United States becomes the latest POI; Finch considers drastic action to combat Samaritan.

The title is a 'figure of speech' in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in England lost by six wickets (sorry). But it could also mean: 'simultaneous understanding.' Let's find out what is the case.

 

[ctg]

Man, if anything, it's sad to get back to the shock of last episode and seeing r00t getting dug in Jane's Doe grave. She deserves better. She deserved recognition, but so many other hackers, phreaks and other faceless people, who has lived in the shadows, they get lost in the pages of history.

So, it's only deserving that the Machine sticks with her voice and shows that she's capable of showing the respect this weird woman deserves. After all the Machine should be hailed as the greatest of human inventions, instead of being hunted down ruthlessly by Samaratian's operatives.

But the way Shaw handles loss of her beloved is scary. That woman is frightening. Especially as she has more than few screws lose in the bell tower. Greer should be scared, but I doubt that man knows the meaning of that word. Then again, we know nothing about what the Machine is capable doing, now that she has pretty much free hands to whatever she likes.

Finch is never going to stop her. He didn't place back-doors or secret codes to get into the insides. The only way for her stop is Samaritian taking over her operations. I doubt that will happen. And thing about her asking Harold to take off the restrictions is scary.

If that happens, the Machine would be equal with the other Ai. Is that a good thing?

PS. I loved seeing so many older numbers appearing in this episode.

 

[Dave]

But the way Shaw handles loss of her beloved is scary. That woman is frightening. Especially as she has more than few screws lose in the bell tower.

She still thought it was a simulation, or she wasn't 100% certain. Who would be after what she has gone through? I know I wouldn't. Even now, she probably still thinks there is a small possibility, but none of the simulations lasted this long.

PS. I loved seeing so many older numbers appearing in this episode.

I wondered some time ago why the Machine didn't recruit more people as assets. Samaritan has a vast army that "our gang" cannot hope to defeat alone, but even before Samaritan emerged, they were only tackling numbers in New York when the rest of the world must have had similar numbers. It makes sense to recruit old numbers. They owe the Machine and they understand already. The rich guy could easily fund that little group, and the woman was very smart. I wondered where she had gone, and had expected her to reappear. The only problem I have is with leaving it so late in this story to introduce them. Where were they when the Machine itself was in danger at the end of last Season?

If I created a government designed computer virus, then Ice-9 would be a great name for it. Would the government create such a virus? Why create it, if not to use it? It isn't a deterrent if it is secret. How would it test it without releasing it? How do you keep it up to date continuously without testing it? How do you do all that and still keep it a secret? It all seems rather unlikely.

 

[ctg]

Would the government create such a virus?

Yes, they would and they have. The infosec world is a pretty scary place and it's full of paranoia. Trust me I've lived through it better part of my earlier life.

Why create it, if not to use it?

Because there might be situations that you need to pull something out from your hat, and for those times, you cannot be unprepared.

It isn't a deterrent if it is secret.

Not all weapons act like deterrent. And not all tools can be used in all possible jobs. Some of them has to be pretty dedicated.

How would it test it without releasing it? How do you keep it up to date continuously without testing it? How do you do all that and still keep it a secret? It all seems rather unlikely.

This I don't want to comment. Not too much, but just say it's possible, and it happens all the time in the sand-boxed environments.

 

[sinister42]

I love Harold's transformation this season - the moment when he finally snapped last episode in the interrogation room. "I'm going to kill you, but I don't know how many of my own rules I'll have to break to do it." The actor's performance here is really adding a lot of depth to Harold's character, showing what's been underneath the enigmatic and almost pathologically private façade. Will we ever learn his actual name? What's he going to do with the virus?

I know they're wrapping all the storylines up this season, so we won't see for example Netflix pick it up and keep going with it. And they're doing it brilliantly, imho. What I'd love to see is a spinoff with the new team from DC - rich dude and his buddies. Those guys are awesome.

I still don't really understand why the machine suddenly gave our heroes a relevant number - seemed a little bit thin, although I guess the whole scenario was that Samaritan was engineering the assassination, so only the machine's team could stop it.

Still, this show cheats, like a lot, and always has cheated. There have been too many times when I've been like "now how the hell did they get out of THAT one?" "Hey, I'm about to shoot you, but let me stand here JUST LONG ENOUGH for someone to come shoot me in the knees and save you." That happened in this episode when our heroes were trapped in the stairwell. Baddies can't just shoot them, they have to make a speech first. Ah well, such is television.

Anyway. Rambling. This show has blown my mind six ways to Sunday, and I'm sad that it's about to end.

 

[REBerg]

Feelings and action got equal footing in this episode.

I found the Finch and The Machine discussions of love and grief intriguing. The Machine telling Finch that he could not possibly understand the depth of its grief over the death of Root was a real reversal of role expectations. I was happy that Finch accepted Root's voice for that of The Machine.

Dare I hope? Does the revelation of a second Machine Team open a door for a new POI chapter?

Harper Rose, Logan Pierce and Joey Durban are three former "numbers" which I (and possibly others) wanted to see The Machine recruit at the time. How many other teams has The Machine put together to carry on the fight?

I've always been sorry to see a favorite show winding down, but I've never felt more strongly that this one truly deserves to continue. It has so much more potential.