Spoilers ahoy!!! Be warned. If Monday night's MORE PERFECT UNION felt a little lame, Tuesday's back-to-back episodes more than made up for it. And some aspects of MPU have bearing on this episode.
Fusco just wants out, and not just out of the hospital. He's had enough of Finch (so have I). Enough with the lack of trust and respect. Things take a turn for the worse when the Fuscinator turns his back on the team. Turns in his team phone. (Boo hoo.) He turns away from them all but doesn't abandon his quest to find out who buried the bodies in the tunnel. Root gives him fake ID documents just in case he needs them, warning: "There's a reason John and Harold are presumed dead."
Root just wants to find Shaw, but first she must become a ballerina (kudos to Acker's dancing days) in order to rescue Vasily Mikhaev, the handsome Lithuanian consultant to the Ministry of Culture. His gift of flowers come in handy, especially the vase.
Vasily: "Marry me!" Root: "I've got your number." (His hometown in Lithuania just happens to contain a missile silo.)
Machine then sends an increasingly impatient Root to a historic haunted house, where she literally churns butter, bustling up to the video cam to scold her goddess for being a "wimp" (I think she's confused the machine with its maker). A few Ghostbusters flash around their electro-magnetic pulse readers. Root scoops one up because...Machine said so.
EMP reader in hand, Root applies for a job working with Max, the host of Mysterious Transmissions radio show. (Max is Pete from 30 Rock, played to perfection by Scott Adsit.)
Root has no idea why her goddess directed her to Max but catches on quickly enough, with help from Finch. Those mysterious transmissions are real indeed — coded messages hiding in the ubiquitous AM radio static. The messages can go both ways, sent from Samaritan HQ, transmitted to all her infected hardware, and — more importantly — sent back to Samaritan. Of course Samaritan doesn't want anyone to know her code, so her goons murder Warren, the code breaker, and fake his suicide over the air waves. Creepy! And even creepier? Samaritan on the air waves, talking suicide using Max's voice.
With help from Reese, Root saves Max from several gunmen. They tell him to hide, stay off the grid. But Max heroically (and rashly) decides to risk it all to reveal the mysterious code...and is subsequently poisoned. Root, Reese, and Finch are upset by his death, but Grinch is the most dyspeptic, judgmental, and off-base. He blames his machine. Says it lied by omission and is demonstrating moral attrition. Poor little 'Puter. I'm with Root and her divine goddess on this one. "Max exercised his free will."
Reese looks a bit disgusted and walks out without a word. Is he annoyed with Grinch, too? Or does he blame the machine? "Damn thing's been acting strangely ever since we put it back together."
Meanwhile, Shaw went on a field trip, believing it to be another simulation. Nope. Essentially, Lambert tricked Shaw into killing an innocent scientist. For real (I think). When she learns the truth, Shaw spirals into suicidal defeat. "I'd rather be dead than spend another day as your guinea pig!"
In the nick of time, Root sends Shaw a message through Samaritan's infected printer at the radio station. "Four Alarm Fire" is all she transmits, probably in Morse Code, but it's enough. These three words tell Shaw she's not alone. They were spoken in her last flirty moments with Root in the New York Stock Exchange, just before she was captured (If-Then-Else, 4:11).
"You and I together would be like a four-alarm fire in an oil refinery."
We leave Shaw with a hidden smile as she strips an electric wire of its plastic coating.
And all the while, Baby Machine keeps losing to the Baby Samaritan in Harold's Faraday Cage competition. But I think it's part of the plan. Something is happening in that "cocoon" (Dickinson's poem in Truth Be Told). All will be revealed after a moment of "reflection" when the machine finally emerges, "wiser than a surrogate" (a judge). Fingers crossed.
Fusco just wants out, and not just out of the hospital. He's had enough of Finch (so have I). Enough with the lack of trust and respect. Things take a turn for the worse when the Fuscinator turns his back on the team. Turns in his team phone. (Boo hoo.) He turns away from them all but doesn't abandon his quest to find out who buried the bodies in the tunnel. Root gives him fake ID documents just in case he needs them, warning: "There's a reason John and Harold are presumed dead."
Root just wants to find Shaw, but first she must become a ballerina (kudos to Acker's dancing days) in order to rescue Vasily Mikhaev, the handsome Lithuanian consultant to the Ministry of Culture. His gift of flowers come in handy, especially the vase.
Vasily: "Marry me!" Root: "I've got your number." (His hometown in Lithuania just happens to contain a missile silo.)
Machine then sends an increasingly impatient Root to a historic haunted house, where she literally churns butter, bustling up to the video cam to scold her goddess for being a "wimp" (I think she's confused the machine with its maker). A few Ghostbusters flash around their electro-magnetic pulse readers. Root scoops one up because...Machine said so.
EMP reader in hand, Root applies for a job working with Max, the host of Mysterious Transmissions radio show. (Max is Pete from 30 Rock, played to perfection by Scott Adsit.)
Root has no idea why her goddess directed her to Max but catches on quickly enough, with help from Finch. Those mysterious transmissions are real indeed — coded messages hiding in the ubiquitous AM radio static. The messages can go both ways, sent from Samaritan HQ, transmitted to all her infected hardware, and — more importantly — sent back to Samaritan. Of course Samaritan doesn't want anyone to know her code, so her goons murder Warren, the code breaker, and fake his suicide over the air waves. Creepy! And even creepier? Samaritan on the air waves, talking suicide using Max's voice.
With help from Reese, Root saves Max from several gunmen. They tell him to hide, stay off the grid. But Max heroically (and rashly) decides to risk it all to reveal the mysterious code...and is subsequently poisoned. Root, Reese, and Finch are upset by his death, but Grinch is the most dyspeptic, judgmental, and off-base. He blames his machine. Says it lied by omission and is demonstrating moral attrition. Poor little 'Puter. I'm with Root and her divine goddess on this one. "Max exercised his free will."
Reese looks a bit disgusted and walks out without a word. Is he annoyed with Grinch, too? Or does he blame the machine? "Damn thing's been acting strangely ever since we put it back together."
Meanwhile, Shaw went on a field trip, believing it to be another simulation. Nope. Essentially, Lambert tricked Shaw into killing an innocent scientist. For real (I think). When she learns the truth, Shaw spirals into suicidal defeat. "I'd rather be dead than spend another day as your guinea pig!"
In the nick of time, Root sends Shaw a message through Samaritan's infected printer at the radio station. "Four Alarm Fire" is all she transmits, probably in Morse Code, but it's enough. These three words tell Shaw she's not alone. They were spoken in her last flirty moments with Root in the New York Stock Exchange, just before she was captured (If-Then-Else, 4:11).
"You and I together would be like a four-alarm fire in an oil refinery."
We leave Shaw with a hidden smile as she strips an electric wire of its plastic coating.
And all the while, Baby Machine keeps losing to the Baby Samaritan in Harold's Faraday Cage competition. But I think it's part of the plan. Something is happening in that "cocoon" (Dickinson's poem in Truth Be Told). All will be revealed after a moment of "reflection" when the machine finally emerges, "wiser than a surrogate" (a judge). Fingers crossed.
