Finch definitely the King- very important but little personal power. Root definitely the Queen, able to move anywhere. Beyond that, it's not that founded on logic—I've thought Reese and Shaw were Knights and never thought about Carter and Fusco.

I missed it entirely till I saw a pic of it afterward. Reese's dialogue about it being auspicious didn't make sense till then but things were moving so fast, I just let it go.

yes, with respect to Greer, it appears that's how others interpreted it as well.

It's his second appearance. The first was in Control-Alt-Delete. He and Camryn Mannheim threw down in a glorious scenery chewing standoff.

and of course she directed the Mayhem Twins to Edward Snowden's modem in the bowels of the NSA. Best Easter Egg ever.

So like the young child that it was, without the knowledge of its limitations

Those GIFs were floating around 5 minutes after the ep ended, bless the tumblr elves.

right there with ya buddy

And with this week's heartbreaking tragedy still fresh, it's impossible not to recall that what birthed the original argument was 9/11, and what motivated the government to switch to Samaritan was an extremist threat staged and nurtured by Decima/Greer.

I love the idea that the "ultimate" machine will be somewhat of a shared creation of Finch and Root's, with Finch coming to see that the Machine's decision to augment itself w/Root as the analog interface and to "redeem" her was a sound choice. It reiterates the larger Found Family theme in the show.

And Shaw in a suit, Mr. Peabody glasses, mucho mascara, with a bun. Sorry Peck, but your death was worth it just to meet Compact Hot Butch Assassin.

but Samaritan Root was hot. Very similar vibe to AA's Kelly Peyton.

Chekhov's nuke, still to be played.

Isn't it obvious that it's Bear?

Let the mystery be.

Thanks for that fill-in. I never noticed the title on the cut-out engagement ring book and I don't remember the plot or most of the characters in S&S but it was obviously emphasized in the all-too-brief scene of Shaw in Root's room. It was in fact, the only thing emphasized, thus meaning something. I just didn't know…

The Brother Mouzon character (I don't know the actor's name or the POI character, so he's Brother Mouzone to me) seems to be Greer's right hand tech guy. Lambert was important but didn't have a specialty, other than louche douchiness

(for the 75th time) I wish they'd had more than 13 episodes so we might have had a sense of Greer being more than a talking head, seen him slip from nihilism to just pure bugshit nuts.

Do we assume he/Sami have no idea the Machine has augmented itself w/the Root upgrade? Last night, thinking about that, I flashed back on his conversation w/Root after she followed him w/Bear in the subway and he told her that he knew everyone else thought she was crazy but he didn't.

I haven't watched it again yet. First time through, it seemed very rushed, with too much time given to Greer/Finch monologuing.