History Recap / PersonOfInterestS02E22

* KickTheSonOfABitch: After having to suffer some smug gloating, Carter gets even with Terney by cracking the butt of her Glock over his head when she rescues Elias.

* WhamEpisode: The Machine is fully self-aware and is now controlling itself, Special Counsel was executed by his own henchman and a new BigBad has taken his place, the cause of Nathan's death and the reason for Harold's injuries are finally revealed, The Machine is calling Root now too, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Carter saved Elias' life]].

* MeaningfulName: A nuclear engineer named "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_O._Lawrence Lawrence]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd Szilard]]."

* NotSoDifferent:
** On meeting Finch, Special Counsel describes him as the [[TheChessmaster "invisible but powerful"]] figure [[TheManBehindTheMan operating behind Nathan Ingram]], basically the same role that Control plays for Special Counsel.
** Carter has now taken on Reese's MysteriousProtector vigilante role by saving Elias.

* FamousLastWords: Nathan's last words to Finch before the ferry bomb goes off are, "Time for us to face the music."

** It's CharacterGrowth for both characters, but most telling for Finch. In the first season, Finch insisted on saving everyone (including mob bosses), and not killing ''anyone'' unless it couldn't be helped. Then he's kidnapped by a madwoman who threatens innocents, physically harms him without warning, drugs him into compliance, and even tortures a man in front of him (and then murders the guy to boot). In the wake of this trauma, Finch had been showing occasional lapses in conscience, such as telling Reese they shouldn't be protecting a trained killer (the Finch/Reese debate is backwards from Season One), and using Root's pet term "bad code." But in this episode, the same woman who just threatened his beloved fiancee, and who so shook his worldview that, despite his protests, he'd internalized part of her abhorrent beliefs -- that's the same woman he insists on saving here.

* SpecialEditionTitle: There are no opening credits as such, just The Machine rebooting.

** Lampshaded by Special Counsel when he reprimands Shaw for her 'treason' in joining Team Machine, while facing the disappearance of the Machine itself.

** Finch told Reese that New York shutting down its libraries is "the decline of westerner civilization". Turned out Finch told Nathan the same thing.

** All the engineers who designed the Hanford site have fatal accidents, and the last is shot by a Northern Lights sniper to stop him revealing the location.

** Reese and Shaw are both [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Snarkers]], so they engage in a fair amount of this.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Special Counsel, having ordered the execution of countless others who've stuffed up or knew too much, accepts his KarmicDeath with a subdued, "[[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner Fair enough]]."

-->'''Root:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext Come on, Harold. Time to meet God]].\\

* HeroStoleMyBike: A RunningGag; Shaw/Reese and Finch/Root help themselves at gunpoint to cars and even a helicopter and private jet.

* IfICantHaveYou: Attempted by a man at his ex-girlfriend's wedding. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Then Reese and Shaw pull up on the curb, shoot the homicidal ex, congratulate the couple, and leave.]]

* MeaningfulName: a nuclear engineer named "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_O._Lawrence Lawrence]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le%C3%B3_Szil%C3%A1rd Szilard]]."

* NoKillLikeOverkill: The government stages a suicide bombing on a ferry full of civilians in order to silence Nathan.
* TakeUpMySword: Finch took up Nathan's crusade to save those on the Irrelevant List after his death, and hoped that Reese would do the same if he was killed. Carter takes up Reese's vigilante protector role, saving Elias despite his kidnapping her son in "Flesh and Blood".

* TheTriple: Everyone worries that the Machine will stop sending the numbers, but the Machine sends them to Northern Lights, Team Machine...and communicates directly with Root.

* TheVoice[=/=][[TheManBehindTheMan The Woman Behind The Man]]: The mysterious Control who gives Special Counsel his orders.

* WholePlotReference: Root's experience with gaining, and then losing, full administrative access to The Machine is similar to the protagonist's arc in ''FlowersForAlgernon,'' -- [[{{Foreshadowing}} the book Hanna Frey recommended to her in the flashbacks in "Bad Code."]]

* YouKnowTooMuch:
** Hersh finds out about an impending suicide bombing, then ''shoots the translator!''
** All the engineers who designed the Hanford site have fatal accidents, and the last is shot by a Northern Lights sniper to stop him revealing the location.
** On the orders of his unseen boss, Hersh kills the Northern Lights personnel who know the Machine was moved, including Special Counsel.

* HiddenInPlainSight: The Machine isn't buried in a salt mine somewhere, it is (or was) hidden in a nuclear waste facility built solely for that purpose, to provide a location with power, personnel and high security that no-one's going to go casually nosing around in.

* SkewedPriorities: Lampshaded by Special Counsel when he reprimands Shaw for her 'treason' in joining Team Machine, while facing the disappearance of the Machine itself.

* AGodAmI: Root quickly forgets her no killing agreement with Finch, luxuriating in the GodMode.

@@[--[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E21 [!]:./action.SYSTEM.REBOOT]]\\

SEEKING ADMIN...]]--]@@

-->[[AC:Can you hear me?]]\\
"...[[TheStinger Absolutely]]."

->''"You wanted to set The Machine free. I already have."''
-->'''--Finch'''

Decima is foiled for now. Reese and Root have 24 hour unlimited access to the Machine and they and the ISA are racing to find it. Carter is about to be framed for Elias' murder.

* AndYourLittleDogToo: Tierny threatens to kill Fusco and Carter's son if she doesn't stop her investigation into HR.

--> '''Nathan''': You've never trusted anyone. Not me, not The Machine. Have you even told your fiancee your real name yet?
--> ''(cue dissonance chord)''
--> '''Harold''': *{{gasp}}* ''(beat)'' I'm waiting for the right moment.

* BeneathTheMask: Tierny finally drops the pretense of being Carter's friend and threatens her directly.

-->'''The Machine:''' Can you hear me?
-->'''Root:''' Absolutely.

-->'''Reese:''' What's this for?
-->'''Shaw:''' To help you feel less inadequate [[CallingShotgun while I drive this thing]].

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Elias:
--> "I'm true to what I am. Like my friend Mr. Yogorov here--I killed his father, so now he kills me. Fair is fair. ''(to Tierney)'' But you, you're [[DirtyCop an oath-breaker, a worm.]]"

--> '''Root''': [[ItMakesSenseInContext Come on, Harold. Time to meet God]].
--> '''Harold''': Please don't set your hopes too high, Ms. Groves.

** Teirney. Revealing to Carter that he was HR and [[MamaBear threatening to murder her son was the catalyst]] for her to begin planning to systematically destroy his life and those of his fellow HR cops in Season 3.

* TheOathBreaker: Elias calls Tierney one.

* TheTriple: Everyone worries that the Machine will stop sending the numbers, but the Machine sends them to Northern Lights, Team Machine... and communicates directly with Root.

* TheVoice / [[TheManBehindTheMan The Woman Behind The Man]]: The mysterious Control who gives Special Counsel his orders.

* WouldntHitAGirl: Subverted; Tierny says he doesn't like the idea of killing a woman, but he can always hurt Fusco or Carter's son.

* YouKnowTooMuch

** On the orders of his unseen boss, Hersh kills the Northern Lights personnel who know the Machine was moved, including Special Counsel.

* WouldNotHurtAGirl: Subverted; Tierny says he doesn't like the idea of killing a woman, but he can always hurt Fusco or Carter's son.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Now that the Machine has been [[AIIsACrapshoot freed of all constraints]], the series starts to [[DeusExMachina involve much higher stakes]].

** On meeting Finch, Special Counsel describes him as the [[TheChessmaster "invisible but powerful"]] figure [[TheManBehindTheMan operating behind Nathan Ingram]].

* SaveTheVillain: Carter saving Elias. Also, in a more minor (but equally important) example, Finch insists that the group takes Root with them when they evacuate the government base, because he knows that she'll be killed when Northern Lights arrives to clean the mess up.

* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Root starts to do this by showing Szilard video footage of his daughter, but Finch intervenes. Turns out Szilard is only too willing to help Root anyway.

* WasntThatFun: Shaw has a big grin while they're racing about the city saving Irrelevant Numbers, enjoying the sheer madness of it all.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Now that the Machine has been [[AIIsACrapshoot freed of all constraints]], the series starts to [[DeusExMachina involve much higher stakes.

* FriendshipMoment: Reese makes it clear he doesn't hold Finch responsible for Jessica's death and Ordos.

* MilhollandRelationshipMoment: Reese takes the news that Finch both received Jessica's number before she was murdered and was the man responsible for the mission that prevented him from saving her remarkably well. It helps that her death took place at a time when neither of the them could do anything about it.

** Terney. Revealing to Carter that he was HR and [[MamaBear threatening to murder her son was the catalyst]] for her to begin planning to systematically destroy his life and those of his fellow HR cops in Season 3.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Now that the Machine has been [[AIIsACrapshoot freed of all constraints]], the series starts to [[DeuxExMachina involve much higher stakes.

* WouldHurtAGirl: Tierny says he doesn't like the idea of killing a woman, but he can always hurt Fusco or Carter's son.