Rubbra wrote:
ElijahKatherineFan89 wrote:
Did anyone understand how the government could make a mistake with Collier's brother as a potential terrorist? I thought that the Machine was never wrong and since it was a flashback to 2010 the Machine had been operational for 5 years.
The Machine never was, and never will be, the sole source of intelligence and surreptitious photographs of suspects.
That's right. The Machine just notices irregularities and people that stand out, but it doesn't interpret them. It may have produced the cousins number as a potential perpetrator, and while investigating him, the FBI also checked people around him - which unfortunately also meant Collier's brother. I think it's that one thing most people are afraid of regarding surveillance, namely the false interpretation of facts. The Machine is never wrong and it would probably have sent the brother's number (a victim eventually) to Nathan Ingram (who was getting the numbers at that time).
About the blackout, I remember the POI writers mentioned special effects during post production. Need to check their tweets again.