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Episode 222: God Mode[]
2013[]
As the Machine reboots, Finch splits its
incoming debugging call to two payphones in the New York Public Library. Root takes one call and Reese takes the other, and it talks to them separately. The Machine says "3 o'clock" to Root, and she says that she understands. She then grabs Finch and leaves.
Down on the main floor, the Machine tells Reese "4 o'clock". After a few seconds, he suddenly turns and shoots a Decima mercenary, much to both his and Shaw's surprise. The Machine gives him more times, each time directing Reese to a different man, which he takes down. Shaw urges Reese to move somewhere else, but the Machine tells him to stay where he is.
As Root leaves with Finch in tow, she tells the Machine to use sound cues rather than audio prompts. It emits different tones, indicating which direction to fire, allowing her to shoot two Decima men through a door.
Reese continues to pick off opponents, following the Machine's clock positioning directions until he accidentally tears out the payphone receiver's cord. The Machine then calls Reese on his cell phone, telling him it's time to move, and he leaves with Shaw.
As they take the elevator out, Root asks how Reese is keeping up with them. Finch says that he doesn't know, but Root says she wasn't talking to him.
As they follow the tracker planted on Finch, Reese explains what the Machine is to Shaw. They find Finch's glasses outside and realize that he no longer has the GPS locator that Reese was using to track him. Reese asks a surveillance camera for Finch's whereabouts but gets no response. He asks for a car instead and the Machine directs them down the street.
At the station, IAB interrogates Carter about the shooting. She insists that the suspect had a gun but they don't believe her and leave her alone for a brief break before they return to questioning her.
As Reese explains how Root wants to set the Machine free, the Machine sends him a non-relevant phone number. He says that it has nothing to do with Finch just as a man pulls over in a car, leaves the engine running, and goes inside. As Reese and Shaw steal the car, the Machine says that the non-relevant person's danger status is imminent. Reese reluctantly agrees to help and they drive off. Two Brotherhood members
inside a storage unit are preparing to kill a prisoner when Reese and Shaw arrive and take down his captors. The police have already found the stolen car when Reese and Shaw get back, and Reese asks the Machine for a new car. It sends them to another unit and they find a sleek yellow Ferrari waiting for them. Shaw gives Reese her gun and takes the wheel.
Hersh and his men trace Special Counsel's locator to a hotel room and find him tied to a chair. When Special Counsel complains that they took too long, Hersh tells him that Control ordered them to focus on the Decima situation. They know that Special Counsel's executive assistant was actually Root and they plan to bring her in. Special Counsel tells his men to destroy their cell phones and avoid all cameras.
The next morning, Root and Finch go to a park and she receives a data feed on everyone around them from the Machine. After Finch nearly gets hit by a bicyclist, she tells it to provide Finch with glasses and it gives her directions to a man with the same prescription. After Root steals the glasses from the man's backpack, she tells Finch that they're going to find the Machine.
Detective Terney visits Carter in the interrogation room and suggests that she contact her union rep. Carter tells him that she recognized one of HR's people at the crime scene and figures that he took the gun. When she says that she sent Fusco to talk to the man, Terney reveals his true colors and threatens to kill Fusco, as well as Carter's son, if she doesn't keep quiet. As Terney leaves to take a call, Carter clones his phone and listens in. Terney tells his boss that he has Carter under control, and plans to kill Elias's right-hand man and then dispose of Elias himself that night during a prison transfer.
The Machine instructs Reese to go back to the Library to find out where it is currently located. Reese figures that the Machine sent him there because it's programmed so that it cannot explicitly reveal its location to anyone. When Shaw wonders about the virus that Greer claimed Finch created, Reese is confident that Finch had his reasons for it. The Machine sends a book code and Reese and Shaw find it on the shelves. It contains a photo of Nathan and Finch, and there's a safe hidden behind the shelf. Inside it are photos of the first non-relevants that Nathan tried to help, including Jessica. Shaw realizes that Jessica meant something to him, and Reese tells her that Jessica isn't alive. There's also a map showing three possible locations that Finch and Nathan determined might house the Machine. Each of them is a federal nuclear storage site, and Shaw points out that Root tortured her for information concerning Daniel Aquino, a nuclear engineer that Control had her murder two years earlier. Reese deduces that Aquino must have had something to do with the Machine's storage facility, and Shaw tells him that Root wanted to know the name of the man who hired Aquino: Lawrence Szilard.
Root gets directions to Szilard, who is at the park, and approaches him.
2010
Finch goes back to the library to see Nathan and warn him that he can't try and access the Machine. Nathan tells his friend that he's going to tell a reporter about the Machine, but Finch warns him that the government is killing everyone who has any connection to the Machine and its shipment. Lawrence Szilard, the head of the reassembly project, went missing a month ago, while all of his co-workers have disappeared. If the government learns that Nathan is going public, Finch figures that they'll kill Nathan as well. Nathan says that Finch can't bring himself to trust anyone and wonders if he's given Grace his real name yet. Finch says that he's waiting for the right time, and Nathan asks him to help the non-relevants, but Finch only wants to help his friend. Nathan tell him that he's meeting the reporter at the ferry terminal the next day and invites Finch to join him.
Root shows Szilard a photo of his daughter Christine, hiding in LA, and hints that she could be in danger if he doesn't cooperate with her. To convince him that they know what they're talking about, Finch describes how Szilard first became involved in Northern Lights after being approached by Alicia Corwin. Szilard remarks on her death the previous year, how all of his colleagues on the project have suspiciously died over the past two years, and that he's the last surviving project member as far as he knows.
The Machine gives Reese Szilard's current location, but also sends him a new
number. Shaw drives to a church where a jilted man is preparing to shoot a newlywed couple. Reese kneecaps the man, offers his congratulations to the bewildered couple, and they take off again. Szilard explains that the government gave him the plans specs for a nuclear storage facility and the Army Corps of Engineers to build a structure in plain sight with enough power for 50,000 people. He took a peek at a small part of the Machine as it was being shipped in and was impressed with its elegance, and realizes that Root is in contact with it. The Machine tells Root that multiple threats are closing in and she starts to lead Finch and Szilard away. As Szilard agrees to help Root free the Machine, Hersh's sniper takes him out. Root and Finch escape, with Root shooting two of Hersh's men as they go. Reese and Shaw arrive and find Szilard's corpse, and Shaw stays behind for a second to inspect his briefcase. They go after Root, who
has stolen a truck. When Reese arrives, Finch ignores him and tells Root that he'll take her to the Machine. She drives off while Shaw and Reese can only look on.
2010
Asif finally admits that he was planning on detonating a van filled with explosives as a suicide bomb. Hersh then shoots the translator in the room and then injects Asif with a sedative, knocking him out.
Shaw shows Reese a Portland baggage claim ticket that she found in Szilard's briefcase. One of the three nuclear facilities is near there and they commandeer a car. Meanwhile, Root tracks down a businessman and orders him at gunpoint to take them to his private jet so they can fly to Portland.
As they head for the airport, Reese calls Carter to see what she's doing. She tells him about HR's plan to kill Elias. Reese isn't impressed, but Carter tells him that Elias' lieutenant was shot earlier in the day and that Elias immediately paroled his bodyguards to protect him in the hospital, commenting that at least the crime lord is loyal to his people. Reese tells her to keep her head down and hangs up as the police close in on their stolen car. The Machine gives them to turn off in a few hundred years, but there's no exit. Reese has Shaw do it anyway and they crash through the guard rail and land near a helipad. A medevac team is having lunch nearby and stares in surprise as Shaw and Reese get out of the wrecked car and take their helicopter.
That night, Terney and Peter Yogorov take Elias out into the woods to kill him. Terney figures that it's karma since Elias' father did the same thing to his son when he was a teenager. Disgusted, Elias says that Terney is an oath breaker and that Yogorov at least has a legitimate case for shooting him. Terney puts a bag on Elias' head and prepares to shoot him, but a black-clad figure arrives and shoots Yogorov. After knocking out Terney, the assailant takes Elias to a car and gets him in. When Elias removes the bag, he discovers that his rescuer is Carter. When he asks where they're going, she says that she doesn't know.
At the Portland nuclear facility, Root sets off a containment breach alarm and then walks in with Finch. They go to the primary storage vault, but when Root asks for the code and gets no response, she realizes that her admin access has expired. An engineer comes in to tell them to evacuate, and Root forces him at gunpoint to unlock the vault. She goes in with Finch to meet "God," and he warns her that she might be disappointed. The vault is one huge room with a caretaker sitting at a table and nothing else aside from some masses of leftover wires. Finch tells Root that he already set the Machine free, but she doesn't believe him and prepares to shoot him down. Reese and Shaw arrive and Shaw shoots Root in the shoulder. When Reese asks him if he knew the Machine would be gone, Finch admits that he only hoped it.
2010
September 26
Finch goes to the ferry to meet with Ingram. Meanwhile, Hersh drives the unconscious Asif to the ferry dock and wakes him up, after tying his hands to the steering wheel. When Asif wakes up, he discovers that it's his van, and the bomb is still in the back. Hersh congratulates him on completing his mission and leaves. Nathan spots Finch waiting for him and starts to come over, saying it's time for them to face the music. The van explodes behind them, destroying the ferry.
While Reese bandages Root's wound, Finch explains that he designed the Machine so it could only accept alterations to its programming when attacked. He knew an attempt to attack and take control of the Machine would eventually occur, but because he didn't know where it would come from, he made sure that whoever eventually tried would use his own code as the base, and Reese realizes that his partner hid a virus within a virus. Finch apologizes, explaining that he realized too late that he gave the Machine to the wrong people, and that his only method of protecting it would be using his hidden virus to teach the Machine to protect itself. He kept Reese out of the loop because he hoped that Reese would continue their work if Finch was killed.
The containment breach alarm shuts off and they figure that the government men are on their way. Finch wants to take Root with them because leaving her behind would mean her death. Hersh and another gunman come in and Reese and Shaw prepare to shoot back. Special Counsel enters and admits that he's surprised that Shaw has turned traitor. She ignores his taunt and asks what he wants, and he asks Finch where he moved the Machine because the country is defenseless. Finch says that it moved itself and now controls itself as well, and the U.S. is only less well-defended. It will continue to send numbers if it wants to. The Special Counsel gives his word that Finch can have anything he wants if he'll either get The Machine back or create a new one, but Finch reminds him that the government gave their word to Nathan, and Nathan is now dead. Finch leaves with the others, and Special Counsel asks if Shaw thinks she's choosing the right side. She points out that he lied to her as well and leaves.
2010
September 26
Finch wakes up in an emergency triage center and discovers that he's covered in blood. A nurse warns him that he sustained serious injuries to his back and neck. As she moves off, Finch sees the doctors trying and failing to resuscitate Nathan. Two government men are standing nearby and call to inform their superior that the problem is taken care of. Finch limps toward the door but hides when Grace arrives, desperately looking for him. The medics direct her to a table with personal effects of the dead and Grace goes over and finds Finch's copy of "Sense and Sensibility" in which he had hidden her engagement ring. The government men approach Grace and Finch realizes that he can't approach her without putting her at risk. As Grace breaks into tears, Finch limps off, devastated.
Back at the Library, Finch asks the Machine if it knew. As it starts erasing its information at midnight, Finch is horrified to discover that Nathan was the last non-relevant number that it registered before he shut it down earlier.
The caretaker at the facility tells Special Counsel that he received a call from Special Counsel to move the Machine, and that they transferred it a node at a time so it would remain active throughout the process. He has no idea where the nodes were going. Control calls Special Counsel and he tells her that they'll track down the Machine eventually. She asks to speak with Hersh and Special Counsel hands over the phone. After listening to his superior, Hersh says that he'll seal the room. He shoots and kills the caretaker and then his own men. Special Counsel says "fair enough" and stands calmly as Hersh guns him down.
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Back in New York several days later, Reese and Finch are out walking Bear. They haven't received a number since they went to the facility and Finch admits that he doesn't know if they ever will. He then apologizes to Reese for getting Jessica killed by distributing the virus to free the Machine. He admits that he knew someone might get hurt but didn't consider the personal cost. Reese responds that he had already made his decision when he walked out on Jessica years ago and didn't say what he had to. As they talk, a nearby payphone rings.
Hersh tells Control that Research has reestablished contact with them and delivered a number, and she tells him to form a team.
Meanwhile, Root is being held at a psychiatric facility, wandering the floor. A nearby payphone rings and she answers it. The Machine asks "Can you hear me?" and she says "Absolutely."