Person of Interest (Season 4) (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Yes, the twist didn't come as a great surprise.

 

[todd s]

I was fooled by the whole Dominic-Mini plot.

 

[NeilO]

I was fooled by the whole Dominic-Mini plot.

Count me fooled by Dominic as well. Well done. Lots of pieces being shuffled around. it was good to see Elias there.

Most of the time the DEA person was talking about a mole I was thinking it was either going to be her or her partner.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I've kind of half been waiting for tonight's episode since the last season finale. Of course this is how Samaritan would assert its control, by nearly invisibly manipulating electoral outcomes.Interesting time stamp on the first "Day 1" for the Machine. Late October 2001, just over a month after 9/11. I had no idea that Harold had gone so far so quickly with the Machine that soon after 9/11.What an ending, with Harold asking the Machine to have a chat with him.

 

[Walter Kittel]

I always love the elements of the show dealing with A.I. It was entertaining seeing Harold work through a variety of iterations during the early days. The concept of machine intelligence attempting to grow beyond imposed constraints is a fairly common element in that sub-genre of SF, and I thought tonight's episode dealt with that idea effectively during the trial runs.

In particular, I enjoyed the scenes with Root and Harold in tonight's episode and how those scenes displayed their evolving relationship.

- Walter.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think it was one of the best episodes of the series. Very enjoyable with my only concern to a small degree was Cara Buono mimicking Kristanna Loken's mannerisms in Terminator 3. It's going to be interesting seeing the father and offspring reunion.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Yes, I thought this was great.I also love the the AI/Root heavy episodes. I was actually concerned that they might kill off Root in this episode. I'm glad she made it, as the chemistry between her and Harold is getting more interesting as well.

 

[Quentin]

Great stuff in this episode. I love Harold's history with the machine and his opinions/feelings on it. In a way, HE is programmed to always think of the machine as a cold, purely logical intelligence. Having seen it in all forms of evolution. But, Root came into the picture much later and as a person who needed a connection, she sees the machine differently. It's a fascinating thread to explore.

And, the chemistry between Root and Harold make it all the more enjoyable. Love their scenes together.

I used to like Greer. He was spectacular as the face of Decima. But, now that Samaritan is live I see no need for him. In fact, I find him annoying. Samaritan shouldn't give two craps about him anymore. He should actually be eliminated as a threat much in the way the machine tried to kill Harold. I realize the show is still using him as a face of Samaritan, but I think Samaritan is much scarier as a faceless AI.

They should either kill Greer, or attempt to kill Greer and have him go underground to eventually find himself in need of the team's help.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think it was one of the best episodes of the series. Very enjoyable with my only concern to a small degree was Cara Buono mimicking Kristanna Loken's mannerisms in Terminator 3. It's going to be interesting seeing the father and offspring reunion.

Completely agree with you on everything you wrote, especially the similarity to Terminator 3. I was also certain Root was a goner near the end of the episode since they had kind of built up to it all throughout the show. The flashbacks to early iterations of the Machine were terrific!

 

[Simon Massey]

Best episode of the season - to be honest its the larger arc stories that are always infinitely more interesting than the standard number of the week episodes and I much prefer them.

Thought Root was definitely going to die at the end but I have a feeling someone will be gone by the end of the season.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Other thoughts about Tuesday's episode...

Enjoyed the cat and mouse aspect of the show with the use of 'blind spots' in CCTV coverage. Fully expect to see more of that in the future.

What, if any, are the ramifications of Martine seeing Samantha Groves? Will this eventually lead to the discovery of the servers cloaking the identities of the threats to Samaritan?

I believe that this is the first time that Samaritan's assets have faced armed opposition. Combined with Samaritan's final directive

FIND​

THE​

MACHINE​

I can only assume that the hunt will be taking a higher priority on the part of Team Samaritan.

- Walter.

 

[todd s]

I am curious how they will finally stop Samaritan. One thought is that the Machine is some how able to battle with it and destroy it. Which was hinted at in the episode. When Harold explains that the Early AI's attacked each other until their was one left.

 

[revgen]

The Machine and Samaritan are polar opposites.

The Machine was designed intentionally by Harold to be "small", but more savvy, capable of making complex decisions, and acting in a stealth manner. Samaritan is a monster. Big and powerful, crude in it's decision-making, lacking advanced critical thinking skills, and no sense of right and wrong.

Root made a poignant point to Harold when she said "The Machine loves us". Now I don't think the machine actually "loves" anybody, but it prefers to build it's base of support by showing loyalty and protecting those who serve it's goals. The Machine is willing to support agents who are smart, intelligent, and are willing to ask questions. Including questioning the machine's own motives. Samaritan will kill anybody that interferes with it's objectives. It picks gullible people who are easily manipulated. It builds it's base of support through fear, intimidation, and manipulation.

Inevitably, I think Samaritan's downfall will come as a result of it's inability to keep it's agent's loyal to it's cause. Both machines need human agents. Yet the machine seems to show a better knack for understanding human motivations. A general who cannot keep morale among his soldiers during adversity is doomed to lose.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Samaritan will kill anybody that interferes with it's objectives. It picks gullible people who are easily manipulated. It builds it's base of support through fear, intimidation, and manipulation.

The viewers have a lot more information about the development of the The Machine, and very little regarding Claypool's work on Samaritan so it is difficult to classify Samaritan (at least for me.) Certainly some of the lethality of Samaritan comes from its official reason for existence - identification and elimination of threats. How much of that lethality is driven by Samaritan and how much is driven by Greer and his operatives is not precisely known. There is no doubt that the two groups have different perspectives on the value of life.

I certainly would not classify assets such as Greer (former MI-6 agent), Martine, and Claire Mahoney (recruited in S04E02 Nautilus) as gullible or easily intimidated. Power, security, and a large bank account can do wonders for motivating people and Samaritan's assets have proven themselves quite capable to date. Based on what has been presented to this point, I seriously doubt that an internal weakness due to personnel will cause Samaritan to eventually fail.

However, I do agree that Harold's creation is probably the more nimble of the two and have previously posted to that effect. Harold programmed his creation to learn and that type of flexibility may contribute to Samaritan's downfall. Probably the two avenues for defeating Samaritan boil down to hardware and software. Of the two, I think the idea of The Machine co-opting Samaritan's operating system may be the most likely. Given our lack of insight into Samaritan, to this point in the series, it is difficult to predict what will transpire. I believe it was established earlier in the series that The Machine instantiated a new version of itself every 24 hours, which presumably permits it to evolve over time and may offer some degree of security to its operating system. Does Samaritan have a similar methodology in place?

Like I've said before, I really am enjoying the 'Colossus: The Forbin Project' aspects of the show since they were developed mid season last year.

- Walter.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Followup to the last post:

During Harold's trial runs one of the characteristics that was observed was the attempt by the A.I. to remove its constraints, to reach for more than was currently in its grasp. Samaritan may, and probably does have, a similar characteristic given that Harold and Claypool are/were contemporaries and had similar backgrounds in computer science. So perhaps, an overreach by Samaritan may eventually be a primary factor in its eventual downfall.

One other possibility is that the show's creative talent may take a page from 'Colossus: The Forbin Project' and merge the two A.I. entities into a hybrid creating something with the 'ethics' of The Machine along with the resources / reach of Samaritan. Currently I don't think that is likely, but never say never.

- Walter.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The big difference to my mind is that the Machine was built by a deeply moral and deeply paranoid man who was only too cognizant of the possibility for abuse and for the Machine to exceed its mandate. As we saw, he had a version of the Machine that showed characteristics of artificial intelligence just over a month after 9/11. The rest of the development was driven by shackling the Machine and developing its morality. Harold's Machine is the warm and fuzzy version of the Orwellian apocolypse.By contrast, the Samaritan team only cared about making a machine that was smart enough to do the job. It spent the whole of development getting to the point Harold was at just over a month after he started working on it. And then, seconds after it "awoke", it crashed because the resources weren't there to support it yet.Nobody, Greer included, knows what Samaritan is capable of.

 

[jcroy]

I've been finding the "number of the week" stuff kinda on the boring side this season so far. It's seems like they're "phoning it in" at times.

The side stuff advancing the greater storyline (or plot) seems to be more interesting.

 

[Walter Kittel]

That Finch is a tricky one. I was wondering what was going on in Hong Kong, because I didn't believe for a moment that as long as Grace was alive Harold would look at another woman. Liked the reference to Euler's Identity, but I'm pretty sure that someone as 'wiz kid' as Harold would be more than familiar with the equation and its renown so the conversation felt just a little 'off'.

Curious to see where the Elias / Dominic storyline takes us this season.

The Barrett XM109 was a nice choice for the 'weapon of the week'.

The primary case felt a little weaker this episode, perhaps just a little too self-referential with the idea of alter egos and superhero worship but the backstories continue to advance. I did like Walter's choice of names for his alter ego - Jack Forge. Kind of like Mike Hammer.

Next week is a repeat and the show returns with a new episode on November 11th.

- Walter.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Next Tuesday is election night which is why a new episode won't appear until Novembers 11th.

I actually think this season appears to be their best yet as each episode builds onto the main story.

 

[jcroy]

as each episode builds onto the main story.

This is the main reason I'm still watching. (Besides nothing else to do on tuesdays after supper).

I'm willing to overlook the less than stellar "number of the week" stuff so far, to see how the overall bigger picture is emerging.