I took it as Greer viewing himself as the queen, while Harold maintained that they were not playing chess.

Just cover for his escape, I think.

It's giving The Machine the same powers as Samaritan—free and autonomous. What happens if it gets the digital version of Alzheimers? The unrooted-in-time Machine could be very dangerous.

While true, it was implied she wasn't at the top of it, either. He offered to save her… but presumably at the cost of people moved down the list.

Last week, someone said that Amy was crouching in the back seat, so the conversation between Root's voice and Harold would have that sense of connection. Reminded me of Her, in which Johannson did all her lines separately in a little white room, to maintain that slightly programmed feel.

Samaritan is the one obsessed with turning Shaw, Harold, et al into its willing disciples; Greer didn't care. Maybe it found Greer an irritating follower, so doglike unthinking in his blind devotion.

With both Root and Harold, questioning one's own beliefs and actions has been a strong theme this season.

Probably not Sense and Sensibility. It's all been very old-school religious—I'm not sure if there's any narrow literary analogy, or just this is how white-hot believers go down generically.

Greer: "I'll die, but I'll die insufferably."
AVClub: "Curse you."

I wanted/expected a moment of horror when Greer realized how trivially his God would kill him. But going out while preaching about how this was definitely the best possible and brilliantest idea also worked.

I'm rewatching Leverage, which recently had a line from Eliot about the distinction between being willing to kill to protect your own rights vs die to protect the rights of others.

Humble requests and a plea for mercy aren't really in its capabilities.

If it isn't, then a lot of gay people are virgins no matter how vigorous their sex life.

I think it was Samaritan who insisted on trying to turn them into assets. When Samaritan was first turned on, Greer claimed it didn't matter whether Harold and his team were alive or dead, they were now irrelevant. Samaritan disagreed.

He gets to go out as a martyr for his God.

The Stridemother.

While we're tangentially on the topic:
• Look up Citizens United and the 5 justices who voted to overturn.
• Look up who appointed them, vs who appointed the 4 who voted to uphold.
• Go vote in November. If you care about getting money out of politics, this branch is where we need movement right now.

Hanging off this not-queer-but post:

I'm guessing no, because his advice re sex with coworkers not possibly having any downsides is regularly head-scratching.

Yup yup yup. Winning with a plurality of the vote doesn't mean your small third party gets to run all, or even most, of everything. It means you have to compromise with like half the country to find some common ground.