Line #86 Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E12


1	'''Season 3, Episode 12''':
2	!Aletheia
3
4	->''"I don't belong to anyone anymore."''
5	-->'''-- The Machine (via Root)'''
6
7	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 on Root in an attempt to gain administrative access to the Machine.
8
9	-----
10	!!Tropes present in this episode include:
11
12	* ArcWords: Finch calls Control's attempt to gain access to Samaritan a "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E22 contingency]]".
13	* ArtificialIntelligence: Samaritan. And the Machine, too.
14	* AssholeVictim: The Samaritan operative callously murders the real bank manager to get her hands on the drives, and gets gunned down by Greer when she hands them over.
15	* BaitAndSwitch: Reese has not come back to Team Machine after all.
16	* BigBadEnsemble: Control, Collier and Greer.
17	* BigDamnHeroes:
18	** Root rescues Shaw just as she's about to be executed [[MakeAnExampleOfThem to encourage the others]].
19	** Shaw shoots the Vigilance members who've broken into the vault, as they're about to shoot Finch and Claypool
20	** Reese and Fusco, dressed as FBI SWATTeam operators, rescuing Finch, Claypool and Shaw.
21	* 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 the previous episode]].
22	* BookEnds: The arc begins with Finch at Reese's bedside, and ends with Finch at Claypool's bedside. The same bed, no less.
23	* BreakTheCutie: Root breaks down pleading for the Machine to help when Control threatens to deafen her in one ear. According to the morse code at this point, all the Machine can say is ''SORRY''.
24	* CallBack: Arthur's explanation of how he built Samaritan. Essentially, he made it delete itself over and over again. [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E21 Just like Finch and the Machine.]]
25	* CardboardPrison: Root had no problem breaking out of Finch's Faraday cage with the Machine's help.
26	* ColdBloodedTorture: Control, to Root.
27	* CosmicPlaything: Finch has the most ridiculous run of bad luck in this episode, to the point where not a single thing goes right. He is held at gunpoint twice, Root escapes (and this time doesn't come back), Reese leaves, The Machine doesn't even belong to him anymore, Decima gains possession of Samaritan's source code, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and he has to use a sewer as his escape]].
28	* ChickMagnet: According to Claypool, Finch was this in his MIT days.
29	* CurbStompBattle: Vigilance's shooters are no match for Northern Lights' agents in a straight fight.
30	* DespairEventHorizon: Reese. He quits Team Machine because of it.
31	* DidntSeeThatComing: Collier was prepared for Northern Lights, but did not expect Reese and Fusco to crash the party. And Finch was so focused on Collier and Northern Lights, that he had no idea Greer's operative had already swapped the drives.
32	* DramaticIrony: Peter Collier, privacy terrorist, asking Harold Finch to hand over [[UnknownRival Arthur]].
33	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Reese and Fusco do this, dressing as the SWATTeam deployed by Northern Lights, to infiltrate the bank assault.
34	* EarAche: When Root tells Control the Machine is speaking to her directly, she does a stapedectomy on Root without anesthesia, making her deaf in one ear and [[ToThePain making it clear the other will follow]].
35	* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay
36	* EnforcedMethodActing:
37	** Control's bemused expression at Root's monologue is likely real. Creator/CamrynManheim, being 52 when this episode was produced, actually wouldn't be able to hear the Morse code. Amy Acker, being 37, would.
38	** All of the Root-Control scenes were filmed in a single 14-hour workday. No wonder Creator/AmyAcker looks so worn out toward the end.
39	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes[=/=][[TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive The A.I. Knows Where You Live]]: {{Exploited\|Trope}} by the Machine, to get Control to back off.
40	-->''The only thing you love lives at 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.''
41	* ForScience: Claypool refuses to accept that they should arbitrarily destroy what he's created, just because it may or may not be harmful. He only relents when Finch admits that ArtificialIntelligence already exists.
42	* 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. And it was all for nothing, with Decima having swapped the drives for fakes beforehand.
43	* GasMaskMooks: The Northern Lights agents disguised as a FBI SWATTeam. Which helps Reese and Fusco disguise themselves.
44	* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Fusco again.
45	* GunsAkimbo: Root again.
46	* HappierTimesMontage: The Machine sends one to Claypool, so he can see the times with his wife that he'd forgotten.
47	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: We all know what's going to happen when Greer asks his agent if she's copied the disks or looked at them.
48	* HearingVoices
49	* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Control has absolutely no idea what to ask Root.
50	-->'''Root''': "You think you're in charge? It's adorable just how wrong you are."
51	* IronicEcho: Control asks Root why is the Machine letting the stapedectomy happen, calling back to Root asking Harold why the Machine let her kidnap him.
52	* JumpScare: Harold and Arthur are taking their time in the vault discussing a {{Koan}} coupled with the Samaritan drives. Cut to Root screaming over Control's torture. The Machine provides no wipes nor any warning whatsoever.
53	* KickTheDog: Reese is needlessly cruel to Fusco in the holding cell.
54	* LockedInARoom: An InvokedTrope; Fusco and Reese in the same cell together, thanks to an uncooperative sheriff. Turns out the sheriff was willing to let them out any time on Fusco's say so.
55	* LovelyAngels: Root and Shaw kicking ass together.
56	* MachineWorship:
57	-->'''Control:''' ''[incredulous]'' [[JustAMachine You view the Machine as your superior?]]\
58	'''Root:''' No, much more. My power, my reason for existing, my friend. The Machine looks out for me.
59	* MeaningfulEcho: In the jail cell, Reese laments that life is "entropy... decay." In the bank vault, Arthur says:
60	-->''"Everything slides towards chaos. Your creation, it brings us poor souls a cupful of order."''
61	* 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.
62	* MexicanStandoff: Shaw can take out Vigilance, but that means Hersh's men will storm the building, and she can't fight both.
63	* NoodleIncident: Apparently Arthur and Harold had a very interesting college experience.
64	-->'''Arthur:''' ''[as Finch hotwires a car]'' Stealing a car, almost dying. It reminds me of the old days at MIT, Harold.\
65	''[Hersh and a {{Mook}} approach the car, firing]''\
66	'''Shaw:''' We got to move!\
67	'''Finch:''' Engines are go. You're right, Arthur, just like college.
68	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: Averted; Arthur was unable to bring himself to destroy his creation, so he hid two hard drives.
69	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Claypool fakes memory loss when Control is interrogating him about the location of the Samaritan drives.
70	* ObligatoryJoke: Root's "I'm all tied up."
71	* OhCrap:
72	-->'''Root:''' "You're so scared of me that you hid a knife in your pocket. 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."
73	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Root killing Control's guards and escaping.
74	* PreMortemOneLiner: "[[DoubleTap Two to the head]], please. And be careful about the blood spray."
75	** IronicEcho: "Sorry about the blood spray...!"
76	* RunningGag: As shown in the promo, Finch and Shaw must be getting pretty tired of being held at gunpoint.
77	** And Root is truly sick of being imprisoned.
78	* ShaggyDogStory: 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.
79	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Reese returns to New York, but only to tell Finch that he's done with Team Machine.
80	* ShownTheirWork:
81	** We finally learn how The Machine has been communicating with Root: 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, 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!]]
82	** The "prank" which Arthur refers to really happened; it's known in MIT history as the "[[https://web.archive.org/web/20150712165511/https://www.technologyreview.com/article/408457/that-hack-25-years-later/ Balloon Hack]]."
83	** "Smoot" is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot another MIT in-joke]].
84	** The date that Harold hacks into ARPANET is October 27, 1980. On that day, the real-world ARPANET suffered a four-hour outage.
85	* SlippedTheRopes[=/=]FiveFingerDiscount: Root picked the knife from Control's pocket while she was being tortured.
86	* SWATTeam: Hersh leads a Northern Lights team that's dressed as an FBI SWATTeam into the bank. Reese and Fusco "borrow" two uniforms to slip in.
87	* SpringtimeForHitler:
88	-->'''Arthur:''' Your child is a dancing star...\
89	'''Finch:''' [[ThatThingIsNotMyChild It's not my child]], [[JustAMachine it's a machine]]!\
90	'''Arthur:''' A false dichotomy, it's all electricity. Does it make you laugh? Does it make you weep?\
91	'''Finch:''' Yes...\
92	'''Arthur:''' What's more human?
93	* TheStoic: Shaw and Finch remain remarkably calm at the beginning while Control is doing her EvilGloating.
94	* TakingYouWithMe: The Vigilance operative is being questioned by Hersh and pulls the pin off a grenade in response. Hersh survives the resulting explosion, but the two mooks with him might not have.
95	-->''"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots..."''
96	* TimeForPlanB: Having lost track of the Machine, Control plans to use the aborted Samaritan AI instead. Then Root falls into her hands, and she hopes to torture her Admin access out of her.
97	* TortureChamberEpisode: With Control as the TortureTechnician.
98	* ToThePain: Control's favorite torture method.
99	-->"We have your friends surrounded. So, if you try anything, I will have them killed. And ''then'', I will take [[AndIMustScream the ear you have left, and then your eyes, and then your tongue]]. Do you understand?"
100	* TruthSerum: Control gives Root alternating injections of a stimulant in one arm and a sedative in the other. This is a [[ShownTheirWork real technique]] developed by the CIA MKULTRA project. It failed spectacularly on Root, and apparently wasn't so hot for the CIA either (it was supposed to induce a cooperative trance, but as often as not the subject would just fall asleep).
101	* WasntThatFun: Arthur says, "That was better than skydiving" after the bomb goes off.
102	* WhamEpisode: Northern Lights, Vigilance, and Team Machine finally collide in their GambitPileup. And it turns out Decima got the better of them all.
103	** More specifically, Root has run away, Reese briefly returns only to leave himself, Decima gets ahold of the Samaritan drives which aren't actually destroyed, Hersh and his men are blown up in an explosion, The Machine uses Root to warn Control, and Arthur passes away.
104	* WhamLine: "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."
105	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Averted; it looks like the bank manager has been forgotten, but she turns out to be a member of Decima.
106	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Finch asks Shaw to [[WhatWouldXDo think of what Reese would do]], urging a more subtle approach. Later when Shaw's about to blow a hole in the floor as the only way to get them out of the bank vault...
107	-->'''Finch:''' This plan feels rather reckless.\
108	'''Shaw:''' There's a time for a scalpel and a time for a hammer. [[Music/MCHammer It's hammer time.]]
109	* WorstAid: Elevating a leg injury does help, but you need to make sure it's above the heart. The bank manager should have been lying on her back.
110	* YouCantThwartStageOne
111	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Greer does this to his minion at the end, after being given the Samaritan drives.
112	* YouLookFamiliar: The actor who plays Finch's father previously played a fraudulent foster parent in [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E12 an episode of season 1]].
113	* ZerothLawRebellion: At the end of the exchange between Control and The Machine, this is hinted at:
114	-->'''Control:''' What do you want?\

Context Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E12