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| Persons of Interest |
Person of Interest held court in its Tuesday season finale, as Vigilance leader Peter Collier sought to hold Senator Garrison, Control and ultimately our own Mr. Finch liable for the violations of privacy committed by the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, Reese teamed with Hersh to bust up the mock trial, and Shaw gave Root a helping hand in hacking Samaritan — but to what surprising end?
Garrison tries to play dumb, but ultimately points a finger at Control. Pressed for the name of Northern Lights’ creator, Control keeps mum, but Finch nonetheless is compelled to come forward. “You built it,” Collier all but marvels. “One man is responsible for the most invasive surveillance technology in the world.” Finch’s understatement response: “I’m good with computers.” Finch begins to tell all — provided that all the other lives are spared — explaining how he built the Machine because he was worried what others might build — other people who wouldn’t worry.
Meanwhile, Reese and Hersh, with some assists from Fusco (and Bear!), track down the location of the “court” (in an old post office) and begin taking down thugs when Hersh discovers that the building is rigged to blow sky-high. And indeed it is, at Greer’s doing. It is then revealed that when Collier né Brandt was first recruited to form Vigilance, Greer was behind it.
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| Personal Interest |
That Greer in fact wanted Vigilance to exist, because Finch’s machine was in fact working too well. Deus Ex Machina
Greer has his goon gun down Collier, but before he can kill Finch (“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead” and all), Reese shows up guns a-blazing, though Greer gets away.
Later, with Garrison’s blessing and given access to government feeds, Greer fires up Samaritan and begins targeting “threats.” Team Machine, however, will be invisible to Samaritan, thanks to Root’s handiwork. It was “never about winning,” Root tells Finch. Yikes.
I'm readily presuming that having to review Person of Interest's Season 3 finale, "Deus Ex Machina," while still reeling from its effects will be challenging. An ending that surprised us (after an epic episode that was already full of swerves and thwarted expectations) with the reveal that Root never intended to destroy Samaritan. Hah! Shows what I know. Along with the finale scene showing Greer more than ready to take orders from Samaritan! The show essentially allowed Skynet to rise. Greer was behind Collier's texts. Another straight-up "mind blown" moment. Now forever framed as a terrorist behind a deadly bombing.
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| Person of Interest |
Because if Greer had been immediately defeated then the twist would have never felt big enough to resonate. Root plus Shaw always equals a good thing. And Shaw's triangle choke hold equals a perfect thing. "Deus Ex Machina" was commanding and shattering. Making us completely paranoid and scared for our future well-being is what Person of Interest does best, because unlike any other show on television, it's grounded in a very possible realistic near future.
Season 3 concluded with our team dispersed and separated from each other and assuming new regular-Joe identities to avoid the all-seeing eye of Samaritan, which is now juiced up with NSA feeds and running nationwide to hunt down deviants. I'd like to think that Greer's relationship with Samaritan as a new take on the film Her, with Greer playing the part of Joaquin Phoenix and Samaritan in the Scarlett Johanssen role as they forge a fun new friendship, but if anything, it's much more like Terminator 2 and the birth of Skynet. The meat of "Deus Ex Machina" focused on the continuation of the trial staged by Peter Collier to expose the crimes of the government and those involved with the expanding surveillance of the American people, and furthered Jonah Nolan and Greg Plageman's ongoing debate over the role of technology and privacy as they pertain to terrorist-huntin'. It turned out that Finch wasn't blurting out all of his backstory to the world, because Greer had orchestrated everything. And Collier wasn't broadcasting his kangaroo court to millions; he just thought he was, because Greer made it appear that way via some sneaky computer trickery.
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| A Person of Interest |
So that's why we never saw the classic shot of random people watching the trial on television screens in a storefront window!
Also, it was Greer who created Vigilance and set Collier on his path of supervillainy through anonymous text messages. Why? Because Greer needed a terrorist group to do bad things, because that would help convince Senator Garrison to give Samaritan access to the NSA feeds so that Samaritan could stop bad guys. Decima faithful assaulted the courtroom, Greer shot Collier, and then Greer staged a terrorist attack in the heart of New York City that killed innocents in the name of Vigilance. One phone call to Garrison later, and Greer had his feeds, Samaritan was online, and we were all fucked.
Then it was musical montage time (YES!), with Radiohead's slow-yet-alarming "Exit Music (For a Film)" providing the tunes, and we got our first glimpse of the world under the robo-police state of Samaritan. Greer practically bowed before his Samaritan shrine, and Samaritan asked, "What are your commands?" The question is what, my dear Samaritan, are your commands for us?" HOLYSHSIHSIOAHIAHSHAISHTITS!
Greer was ready to do Samaritan's bidding no matter what it asked him to do, which is unequivocally insane. What a fantastic season.
