History Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E12

--> '''Control''': ''{incredulous)'' [[JustAMachine You view the Machine as your superior?]]

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Claypool fakes memory loss when Control is interrogating.

* TruthSerum

* BigDamnHeroes: Reese and Fusco, dressed as FBI SWATTeam operators, rescuing Finch, Claypool and Shaw.

* TheStoic: Shaw and Finch remain remarkably calm at the beginning.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge

* HappierTimesMontage: The Machine sends one to Claypool, so he can see the goog times with his wife that he'd forgotten.

--> '''Control''': We have your friends surrounded. So, if you try anything, I will have them killed. And ''then'', I will take the ear you have left, and then your eyes, and then your tongue. Do you understand?

* SlippedTheBonds

--> '''Finch''': [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild It's not my child, it's a machine!]]

* SlippedMyBonds

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes / ShameIfSomethingHappenedToIt: The Machine exploits this to get Control to back off.

* MachineWorship:
--> '''Control''': ''{incredulous)'' [[JustAMachine You view the Machine as your superior?]]
--> '''Root''': No, much more. My power, my reason for existing, my friend. The Machine looks out for me.

* KickTheDog: Reese is needlessly cruel Fusco in the holding cell.

--> '''Control''': You view the Machine as your superior?

<<|Recap/PersonOfInterest|>>

* PlotHole - Root is trapped in the cage with Control. They have one scalpel and one knife between them. Root gets free, next scene guards are all knocked out/dead on the floor outside of the cage. Root says "Your guards were no match for her", and only then picks up the earbug to talk to the Machine. Problem is, there was no way guards could have been knocked out (gas?) by the Machine without also knocking out 2 women in the cage.

Team Machine, Vigilance and Northern Lights enter a three-way race to find and secure the backup copy of the code for Samaritan, the incomplete version of the Machine developed by Arthur Claypool. Meanwhile, Control engages in ColdBloodedTorture with Root in an attempt to gain administrative access.

Team Machine, Vigilance and Northern Lights enter a three-way race to find and secure the backup copy of the code for Samaritan, the incomplete version of the Machine developed by Arthur Claypool.

* TortureTechnician: Control.

-->'''--[[spoiler:The Machine (via Root)]]'''

* ArtificialIntelligence: Samaritan. [[spoiler: And the Machine, too.]]
* BigBadEnsemble: Control, Collier [[spoiler: and Greer.]]
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Reese and Fusco, dressed as FBI SWATTeam operators,]] rescuing Finch, Claypool and Shaw.

* CosmicPlaything: Finch has the most ridiculous run of bad luck in this episode, to the point where not a single thing goes right. [[spoiler: He was held at gunpoint twice, Root escapes (and this time doesn't come back), Reese leaves, the Machine doesn't even belong to him anymore, he had to escape through a sewer, and Decima switched the drives.]]

* DespairEventHorizon: Reese. [[spoiler: He quits Team Machine because of it.]]
* DidntSeeThatComing: Collier was prepared for Northern Lights, but did not expect [[spoiler: Reese and Fusco to crash the party]]. And Finch was so focused on Collier and Northern Lights, [[spoiler: that he had no idea Greer's operative had already swapped the drives.]]

* DressingAsTheEnemy: [[spoiler: Reese and Fusco do this, dressing as the SWATTeam deployed by Northern Lights, to infiltrate the bank assault.]]

** Control's bemused expression at Root's monologue is likely real; [[spoiler: Camryn Manheim, being 52, actually wouldn't be unable to hear the Morse code. Amy Acker, being 37, would.]]

* GambitPileup: Finch and Claypool head to a bank to obtain Samaritan's drives. While there, Collier (and an armed Vigilance squad) comes in to steal the drives, with Hersh and Northern Lights impersonating an FBI hostage negotiator and a SWATTeam to defuse the situation and attempt to take the drives themselves. [[spoiler: And it was all for nothing, with Decima having swapped the drives for fakes beforehand.]]
* GasMaskMooks: The Northern Lights agents disguised as a FBI SWATTeam. [[spoiler: Which helps Reese and Fusco disguise themselves.]]

--> "You think you're in charge? It's adorable just how wrong you are."

* MeaningfulEcho: In the jail cell, Reese laments that life is "entropy...decay." In the bank vault, Arthur says, "Everything slides towards chaos. Your creation— it brings us poor souls a cupful of order."
** Also, Arthur's explanation of how he built Samaritan. [[spoiler: Essentially, he made it delete itself over and over again. Just like Finch and the Machine.]]
* MeaningfulRename: when Harold comes to the nursing home to say goodbye to his father, [[LineOfSightName the bird he spots outside the window]] is, of course, a finch.
* OhCrap: "You're so scared of me that you hid a knife in your pocket. [[spoiler: I couldn't reach it till you got close enough to cut me. You still have a scalpel. I'd call that a fair fight.]]"

* [[spoiler: ShaggyDogStory]]: [[spoiler: At the end of it, everything Finch went through was for nothing, because Samaritan is now in Decima's hands (which is worse than being under Northern Lights' control), Reese quits Team Machine, Root is in the wind, and Arthur Claypool is dying.]]
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler: Reese returns to New York, but only to tell Finch that he's done with Team Machine.]]

** We finally learn how The Machine has been communicating with Root: [[spoiler: Morse Code audio signals at frequencies above 15kHz, which only younger people can hear.]] In the sequence with Root and Control in the Faraday cage, [[spoiler: there's a high frequency "beeping" sound effect that only younger viewers could hear.]] The best part? [[http://www.reddit.com/r/PersonOfInterest/comments/1up00n/decoded_the_morse_code_spoilers/ It actually is Morse code!]]

--> '''Finch''': It's not my child, it's a machine!

* TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler: The Vigilance operative being questioned by Hersh. Hersh survives, but the two mooks with him might not have.]]

* SWATTeam: Hersh leads a Northern Lights team that's dressed as an FBI SWATTeam into the bank. [[spoiler: Reese and Fusco "borrow" two uniforms to slip in.]]

* WhamEpisode: Control, Vigilance and Team Machine finally collide in their GambitPileup. [[spoiler: And it turns out Decima got the better of them all.]]
* WhamLine: "[[spoiler: I don't belong to anyone anymore. You, however, are mine. I protect you. The only thing you love lives at [[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=254+Wendell+Street,+Cambridge,+Massachusetts&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=42.382263,-71.112996&cbp=13,187.4,0,0,0&cbll=42.382278,-71.112993&hl=en&ved=0CAsQ2wU&sa=X&ei=iF7NUtKPOOSMwgGM9YCIDQ 254 Wendell Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. I guard it same as I guard you. Do not question my judgment. Do not pursue me or my agents. Trust in me. I am always watching.]]"
* [[spoiler: YouCantThwartStageOne]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: Greer does this to his minion at the end, after being given the Samaritan drives.]]

* ZerothLawRebellion: at the end of the exchange between Control and The Machine, this is hinted at:

-->'''The Machine [[spoiler: via Root]]:''' To save you.

* EnforcedMethodActing: Control's bemused expression at Root's monologue is likely real; [[spoiler: Camryn Manheim, being 52, actually wouldn't be unable to hear the Morse code. Amy Acker, being 37, would.]]

* BilingualBonus[=/=]GeniusBonus: the word "aletheia" in Greek can be translated as "disclosure" or "truth." It's the antonym of "lethe," which was the title of [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E11 Season 3 Episode 11.]]

* GambitPileup: Finch and Claypool head to a bank to obtain Samaritan's drives. While there, Collier (and an armed Vigilance squad) comes in to steal the drives, with Hersh and Northern Lights impersonating FBI hostage negotiator and a SWATTeam to defuse the situation and attempt to take the drives themselves. [[spoiler: And it was all for nothing, with Decima having swapped the drives for fakes beforehand.]]

* WhamLine: "[[spoiler: I don't belong to anyone anymore. You, however, are mine. I protect you. The only thing you love lives at [[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=254+Wendell+Street,+Cambridge,+Massachusetts&layer=c&z=17&iwloc=A&sll=42.382263,-71.112996&cbp=13,187.4,0,0,0&cbll=42.382278,-71.112993&hl=en&ved=0CAsQ2wU&sa=X&ei=iF7NUtKPOOSMwgGM9YCIDQ 254 Wendell Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. I guard it same as I guard you. Do not question my judgment. Do not pursue me or my agents. Trust in me.]]"

->''"I belong to no one now."''