It seemed like the Machine's antics didn't bother Finch too much as long as it was confined to the lab, even when it tried to kill him and he had to hammer it to death. Back to the drawing board…

Yeah, I think this is a soft retcon. Well worth it for the interesting new possibilities, though.

They really are losing the fight. In this episode they managed to save one person, but two or three more mostly innocent people died. (And one guy was probably jailed for a murder he was pushed into.) And on top of that, Samaritan got 58 of its chosen candidates elected.

But do they always vote electronically in the primary? Samaritan's greatest enemies are a pencil and a piece of paper.

This is a really good point. If James Bond sleeps with Romanova in "From Russia With Love" it's just sexy times, even though we know he's manipulating her.

In Agent 33's case, they wanted the use of her skills. And as we saw here, the impersonator doesn't have any special knowledge. So if they brainwashed someone in a special position (the guy who holds the President's nuclear football, say) they'd gain access to everything that person knew.

I wouldn't say he's petulant. Finch has been scared the last few episodes because the Machine he built asked him to kill a man. The congressman was an extreme case where killing one guy would potentially save hundreds of lives (or more), but still. He originally built a surveillance device to save lives, and now it's…

I think they were just glad he wasn't some kind of spree killer.

Yeah, this exactly. Samaritan probably blows their cover a thousand times a day, and every time he does the physical hack to his machinery makes him reclassify them as irrelevant. But if his human assets figure out that Team Machine is still very exposed and living in New York, they might also realize the only way…

You're correct in that nothing Carrie did was officially "wrong." She did her job, and trusted the intelligence that was given her. And the drone strike itself wouldn't have been perceived as a failure by the government if the survivor's cell phone video hadn't been released to the public.

Sonia is certainly right on the money about Carrie being the bad guy, though. The show hammers that point home by having her repeat the same rationalization that Bachman made about the dead civilians: they shouldn't have been there in the first place. In fact, Carrie could have been Bachman if she'd gone to Islamabad…

I'd like to make a couple of comments right away, before reading the thread, so I apologize in advance if I'm repeating things that are already being talked about.

Except Hunter asked Coulson if May's the type to hold a grudge. An ex husband would probably know about that already…

It (He?) absolutely wanted Claire to give up on life and just accept that she was about to die - before salvation arrived from out of thin air. It's like how cults make their new members sell their possessions and cut all ties with the outside world. The intensity of the game compelled Claire to give up everything she…

Decima may no longer exist as a corporate entity, but Samaritan probably kept at least some of the staff on as assets. Maybe they think they're still working for Greer.

It could have been game over for the whole team.

…that all important decisions have to be made by humans

Actually Claypool developed Samaritan to identify threats, which is very different from protecting everyone. If he'd had more time to work, Claypool may have taken his invention along a path similar to the one Finch took, but he was shut down before he could do more than fulfill the bare objectives of his government…

Did he just leave those guys tied up in the dark? Maybe there's a handcuff key hidden in the room somewhere and they have to find it.

Yeah, poor Rebecca didn't kill Pauline. Without a surgeon to stop the bleeding there was nothing anyone could do except help her feel better.