POI watchalong, 3x11 and 3x12
Jul. 2nd, 2014 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitAs always, my episodes summaries are posted both here and on LJ, but my comments will be on LJ only. Anyone's welcome to join the discussion, but my co-watcher ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
halotolerant hasn't seen S3 before, so please no spoilers past these episodes.
3x11, "Lethe," by Erik Mountain
We open with the team in disarray. Reese left without a word as soon as he was recovered enough, and Finch, depressed, is refusing to acknowledge the machine's calls with new numbers, even though Shaw is fretting at having nothing to do.
Finally, after Root pushes him, Finch begins working on a new number, Arthur Claypool, a computer scientist who is in the hospital for treatment of a terminal brain tumor that is causing him erratic memory loss (he sometimes forgets where he is and doesn't recognize his wife, Diane). Claypool is under Secret Service protection; it turns out he worked for the NSA and there are fears that he might reveal secrets. Vigilance targets him, first trying to interrogate him and then trying to kidnap him, but Shaw is able to get Arthur and Diane out of the hospital.
Arthur, it turns out, was at MIT with Finch and immediately recognizes him. Finch gets him to talk about a program called Samaritan that he worked on; it was an attempt to create an AI to evaluate potential threats, just like the machine, but it was shut down by Congress in 2005 even though Arthur was close to making it operational.
Arthur suddenly becomes lucid enough to explain that the woman calling herself Diane is not actually his wife, who died two years earlier. She turns out to be Control, and brings in backup including Hersh. She says that Arthur kept some or all of Samaritan's drives, and demands to know their location; since she's unexpectedly got hold of Finch as well, she also asks where the machine is, and says that whoever gives her the information first will get to live.
Meanwhile, Reese has fled to Colorado, where he's holed up in a bar his father used to frequent, drinking heavily. Fusco has been following him, and eventually gets so fed up with Reese that he challenges him to a fight. The two are brawling behind the bar when a police car pulls up.
Interspersed through the episode are flashbacks to Harold's childhood in Iowa, where he became interested in computers in part because he wanted to build an artificial memory for his father, who had dementia.
3x12, "Aletheia," by Lucas O'Connor
Control is about to have Shaw killed and Arthur tortured when Root arrives with her two guns. Shaw, Finch, and Arthur escape but Root is wounded and captured by Hersh. Arthur reveals that he did make back-ups of Samaritan's drives, which are in a safe deposit box associated with a fake identity Finch created on a dare while at MIT.
They go to the bank to retrieve them, but while they're in the vault, Vigilance arrives and takes over the bank, and shortly after a SWAT team, led by Hersh, also arrives. Harold locks himself, Arthur, and the bank manager in the vault, leaving Shaw to hold off both Vigilance and the SWAT team and find an escape route. Arthur remembers that actually he had managed to make Samaritan operational the day before it was shut down, so the program on the drives will be usable.
Meanwhile, Control is torturing Root to obtain her "administrative access" to the machine, and Fusco, in jail with Reese in Colorado, tries to persuade him to come home. Reese refuses, and then Fusco reveals that he hasn't heard from Finch, who is probably in danger.
Finch persuades Arthur to destroy the drives by telling him that Samaritan could be abused. Vigilance blows open the vault, but Shaw has already rigged up a second explosion to open up access to a sewer line they can escape through. However, all three are captured by Vigilance on their way through the bank. They're rescued by SWAT team members who turn out to be Reese and Fusco, and make their escape through the sewer.
While this is happening, the machine re-establishes communication with Root via high-frequency signals sent on Control's phone, and Root overpowers Control and the guards and escapes. Later, from somewhere that looks like Japan or Hong Kong, she calls to let Finch know that Samaritan's drives weren't destroyed--the bank manager was actually an impostor who switched the drives before Finch etc. arrived. We see her turn over the drives to the head of Decima, who kills her. The machine, via Root, shows Arthur images of his past to comfort him.
Reese returns to the library but tells Finch that he's leaving, because he blames the machine for Carter's death. Finch practically begs him to stay but he leaves anyway.
As in the last episode, there are also some flashbacks to Harold's youth. He has to put his father into a nursing home, then his project to create a helper for his father leads him to break into ARPAnet and he has to flee after it's discovered.
halotolerant hasn't seen S3 before, so please no spoilers past these episodes.3x11, "Lethe," by Erik Mountain
We open with the team in disarray. Reese left without a word as soon as he was recovered enough, and Finch, depressed, is refusing to acknowledge the machine's calls with new numbers, even though Shaw is fretting at having nothing to do.
Finally, after Root pushes him, Finch begins working on a new number, Arthur Claypool, a computer scientist who is in the hospital for treatment of a terminal brain tumor that is causing him erratic memory loss (he sometimes forgets where he is and doesn't recognize his wife, Diane). Claypool is under Secret Service protection; it turns out he worked for the NSA and there are fears that he might reveal secrets. Vigilance targets him, first trying to interrogate him and then trying to kidnap him, but Shaw is able to get Arthur and Diane out of the hospital.
Arthur, it turns out, was at MIT with Finch and immediately recognizes him. Finch gets him to talk about a program called Samaritan that he worked on; it was an attempt to create an AI to evaluate potential threats, just like the machine, but it was shut down by Congress in 2005 even though Arthur was close to making it operational.
Arthur suddenly becomes lucid enough to explain that the woman calling herself Diane is not actually his wife, who died two years earlier. She turns out to be Control, and brings in backup including Hersh. She says that Arthur kept some or all of Samaritan's drives, and demands to know their location; since she's unexpectedly got hold of Finch as well, she also asks where the machine is, and says that whoever gives her the information first will get to live.
Meanwhile, Reese has fled to Colorado, where he's holed up in a bar his father used to frequent, drinking heavily. Fusco has been following him, and eventually gets so fed up with Reese that he challenges him to a fight. The two are brawling behind the bar when a police car pulls up.
Interspersed through the episode are flashbacks to Harold's childhood in Iowa, where he became interested in computers in part because he wanted to build an artificial memory for his father, who had dementia.
3x12, "Aletheia," by Lucas O'Connor
Control is about to have Shaw killed and Arthur tortured when Root arrives with her two guns. Shaw, Finch, and Arthur escape but Root is wounded and captured by Hersh. Arthur reveals that he did make back-ups of Samaritan's drives, which are in a safe deposit box associated with a fake identity Finch created on a dare while at MIT.
They go to the bank to retrieve them, but while they're in the vault, Vigilance arrives and takes over the bank, and shortly after a SWAT team, led by Hersh, also arrives. Harold locks himself, Arthur, and the bank manager in the vault, leaving Shaw to hold off both Vigilance and the SWAT team and find an escape route. Arthur remembers that actually he had managed to make Samaritan operational the day before it was shut down, so the program on the drives will be usable.
Meanwhile, Control is torturing Root to obtain her "administrative access" to the machine, and Fusco, in jail with Reese in Colorado, tries to persuade him to come home. Reese refuses, and then Fusco reveals that he hasn't heard from Finch, who is probably in danger.
Finch persuades Arthur to destroy the drives by telling him that Samaritan could be abused. Vigilance blows open the vault, but Shaw has already rigged up a second explosion to open up access to a sewer line they can escape through. However, all three are captured by Vigilance on their way through the bank. They're rescued by SWAT team members who turn out to be Reese and Fusco, and make their escape through the sewer.
While this is happening, the machine re-establishes communication with Root via high-frequency signals sent on Control's phone, and Root overpowers Control and the guards and escapes. Later, from somewhere that looks like Japan or Hong Kong, she calls to let Finch know that Samaritan's drives weren't destroyed--the bank manager was actually an impostor who switched the drives before Finch etc. arrived. We see her turn over the drives to the head of Decima, who kills her. The machine, via Root, shows Arthur images of his past to comfort him.
Reese returns to the library but tells Finch that he's leaving, because he blames the machine for Carter's death. Finch practically begs him to stay but he leaves anyway.
As in the last episode, there are also some flashbacks to Harold's youth. He has to put his father into a nursing home, then his project to create a helper for his father leads him to break into ARPAnet and he has to flee after it's discovered.
