History Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E23

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'''Samaritan:''' [[AC:WHAT ARE YOUR COMMANDS?]]\\

'''Samaritan:''' [[AC:[[AIIsACrapshoot CALCULATING RESPONSE...]]]]

* TakeMeInstead

* YouAreTooLate: And Root/Machine has known this all along.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Greer has Lambert blow away Collier after revealing to him that he wasted four years of his life becoming a terrorist and unwittingly helped pave the way for the sort of evil he despised.
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-->[[AC:CALCULATING RESPONSE...]]

* TrashTheSet: Happens when the library's location is compromised by Samaritan. Even TheBigBoard is smashed, complete with a DoubleTake.

* TrashTheSet: Happens when the library's location is compromised by Samaritan. Even TheBigBoard is smashed.

-->'''Greer:''' Good morning.
-->'''Samaritan:''' WHAT ARE YOUR COMMANDS?
-->'''Greer:''' I assure you, it's quite the other way around. The question is, what, my dear Samaritan, are your commands for us?
-->'''Samaritan:''' [[AIIsACrapshoot CALCULATING RESPONSE...]]

-->'''Hersh:''' ''(cutting wire)'' [[TemptingFate I can do it...]]

--> '''Finch''': Thank you for protecting me, although I am baffled as to why.
--> '''Control''': The same reason I've done everything, Harold. For my country. And you can't help me if you're dead.

-->"I believe you love your country. I believe that when you started, people thought what you were doing made a lot of sense. But it's gone too far, and it has to stop."

--> '''Greer''': I'm glad that you've lived long enough to see the dawn of the new world you created, Harold. But the time has come for your god, and mine, to do battle. And, regrettably, our paths diverge here.

-->'''[[AC:Calculating Response...]]'''

* IronicEcho: Collier was convinces to join Vigilance after being told "Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered". Greer tells him the same thing, revealing that it was he in fact who created Vigilance.

* ChekhovsGun; The seven servers Root stole are used to hardwire seven gaps in Samaritan's surveillance -- the false identities of Root, Shaw, Reese, Finch, and the three hackers Root was using.

* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Root brushes some mud off Shaw's cheek.

After the events of [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E22 the previous episode]], things are looking bleak for Team Machine -- they're literally and figuratively "in the dark," caught in the middle of a blacked-out New York City, separated from one another, and almost entirely cut off from the Machine's guidance. Finch is in the hands of Vigilance, who are looking for a scapegoat to publicly punish for Northern Lights's surveillance project (an act of treason in their eyes). Root, who remains in touch with the Machine directly, attempts to infiltrate a Decima facility (along with Shaw, who arrives later to cover her back) as part of a last-ditch effort to thwart the threat Samaritan poses to the Team. Fusco is busy attempting to contain rioting and looting as part of the NYPD. This leaves Reese alone in his efforts to rescue Finch from Vigilance's clutches, once again forcing him to team up with a former enemy in order to effectively cover as much ground as possible.

* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: While before a Vigilante FiringSquad, Finch urges Collier to stick to their agreement that he will spare the others in exchange for his confession. We see Collier hesitate...and then Decima performs a VillainousRescue, so we never know what his decision would have been.

* AsideGlance: In-universe, Finch looks at the camera at the trial just before dumping all the information about the Machine.
* AlasPoorVillain: Granted his methods were rather extreme, but Collier thought he was doing what was best for the people of the US, must have been harsh to find out he did all that for nothing.

** Though this is actually the opposite of its meaning in Hamlet. Hamlet was being bitingly sarcastic as he was of the opinion that HumansAreBastards at the time. Greer plays it at face value.

** [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E19 Rylatech]] appears in one of the camera feeds after the flashback of his Collier joins Vigilance ends.

-->"I tried to quit, but some jackass told me I needed a purpose."

* DeusEstMachina

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Hersh and Reese use hockey masks to get someone from Vigilance to think they're on his side. Shaw and Root do the MuggedForDisguise version.

** In the previous episode when Greer was talking to Senator Garrison about the sudden kidnappings, the former noted "We don't have much time". At that very moment, who walked in? Collier. A vague hint that Greer had organized his own capture from the beginning.

** Even more so during the trial apart from the others who were stoic, terrified or defiant in the face of a shotgun-wielding Peter Collier, Greer was the only one smirking and jovial, a hint that he knew the trial was staged and he wasn't in danger.

* HeroStoleMyBike: Hersh jacked a biker and gave it to Shaw so she can catch up to Root.

* JustInTime: Reese shoots [[TheDragon Lambert]] milliseconds before he would have executed Finch.

* KangarooCourt: Collier claims that it isn't, citing the defendants have a defense attorney, a jury, and the media has access to it...all of whom were brought in at gunpoint. The judge is also a member of Vigilance, the defense lawyer doesn't get to speak with his "clients" (or at all), the jury isn't given time for deliberation, etc. Plus Collier summarily executes Rivera on the stand, and is going to just execute everyone else when TheCavalry show up.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Control delivers an epic one against Collier invoking her own personal experience on 9/11 when she was nearly killed by the plane which tore through the Pentagon and calls him out on his actions as terrorist:
--> '''Control''': Where were you when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon? Because I was inside it. I carried out the wounded. I covered up bodies. And I have spent every day since putting bullets in the heads of the people responsible, and in anyone else who even ''thinks'' that they can do that to our country again. So if you want to shoot me because I had to tap a few phone calls, read a few e-mails, then you go right ahead. But you better turn that gun on yourself next, Mr. Collier, because you have broken just as many laws, and the only difference is I didn't wrap myself up in the American flag, and try to convince people that I was a hero.

-->'''Greer''': I think it's high time we discuss the true nature of Vigilance.

* UnwittingPawn: Collier

* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: While before a Vigilante FiringSquad, Finch urges Collier to stick to their agreement that he will spare the others in exchange for his confession. We see Collier hesitate...then Decima does a VillainousRescue, so we never know what his decision would have been.

* ShoutOut: to ''ThePrisoner'':

* LaserGuidedKarma
** Finch gets annoyed when Reese arranges a meeting, only to find the Number there instead, despite him pulling the same trick on Joss Carter.
** Fusco enjoys how Reese now has to do lots of paperwork like him.

* TheUnreveal: While before a Vigilante FiringSquad, Finch urges Collier to stick to their agreement that he will spare the others in exchange for his confession. We see Collier hesitate...then Decima does a VillainousRescue, so we never know what his decision would have been.

** As the SWAT team tear up the library, a file spills onto the floor, with photos of past Numbers including Joss Carter.

* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: Alone and trapped on a rooftop with Lambert aiming a Glock 19 at him and getting ready to pull the trigger, he's saved by John getting up there in time to screw up Lambert's aim with a well placed bullet.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Hersh and Reese using hockey masks to get someone from Vigilance to think they're on his side. Shaw and Root do the MuggedForDisguise version.

** As the SWAT team tear up the library, a file of information on past Numbers spill onto the floor, including a photo of Joss Carter.

* HideInPlainSight: It's no longer an option for Team Machine to hide given the massive surveillance abilities Samaritan has, so they need an innocuous identity. Fusco is the only exception; either because his link to Team Machine is unknown, or because his ignorance of the Machine means he's not a threat.

** Reese and Finch walk out of the library moments before a NYPD SWAT team enter.

* WhyDontWeJustShootHim: Shaw wants to blow up Samaritan's server room, but Root explains it's just one of thousands all over the world.

* TrashTheSet: Happens when the library's location is compromised by Samaritan.

* HideInPlainSight: It's no longer an option for Team Machine to hide given the massive surveillance abilities Samaritan has, so they need an innocuous identity.

-->'''Samaritan:''' [[CliffHanger CALCULATING RESPONSE...]]