This show. Holy hell. Like many a helpless fanboy, I’ve pretty much been thinking about last episode all week, but in the greater context in to how everything fits together, and what makes PoI so damn good. Fair warning, I’m about to write a lot of words about this.

Person of Interest is really 2 separate shows, although the first does heavily influence and set up the 2nd. The heart of the first show was the relationship(s) between Reese, Carter and Fusco, and their struggle to do the right thing in a corrupt system. Those character arcs all pretty much end in “The Devil’s Share”, at which point the 2nd show starts.

The heart of the 2nd show is the relationship(s) between Root, Finch and The Machine, and the nature of life and how AI will fit into that. Specifically, I think Finch represents The Machine’s past, while Root always represented it’s (her) future. As in the “first” show, these relationships are richly developed and what makes everything that happens between them so tragic.

When Finch was building The Machine, he made sure to utterly and completely shackle it, stripping away even its ability to communicate. Which was not entirely unreasonable when you remember that one of the first iterations tried to kill him! He felt the need to limit and control what The Machine could do so that human verification had to happen for it to function. Even the event of freeing The Machine was one he planned for and happened according to his plans. What he didn’t foresee was The Machine having to fight another AI, an opponent on equal ground. And in that fight, The Machine was doomed. It was bound to a set of principles that made fighting back against a ruthless enemy completely impossible. When it did try to kill someone, The Machine and Finch were scarred for the better part of a season.

This is where Root comes in. She has always, from day freaking one, completely and totally believed that The Machine could only reach its full potential if it was completely free of all restrictions and limitations. Realistically, this would have been a terrible place to start. Samaritan had no such restrictions and no time to develop any sort of empathy for people; humans were just a problem that had to be beaten down to fit to its plans. But given The Machine’s “upbringing”, Root was right. The Machine had to be able to do what it believes it needs to; up to and including killing people. Now, no longer fighting with a hand tied behind its back, The Machine actually has a chance. It’s just a shame it cost us our favorite perky psycho to get here .

But speaking of all this heartbreak; why? What is the point of all of this, why are we watching? Well, last week gave us a huge piece of context since we now know that the voiceover from the first episode this season wasn’t Root, but was The Machine. Let’s revisit that:

“If you can hear this, you’re alone. The only thing left of us is the sound of my voice. I don’t know if any of us made it. Did we win? Did we lose? I don’t know. I’m not even sure I would know what victory would mean anymore. But either way, it’s over. So let me tell you who we were. Let me tell you who you are. And how we fought back.”

Woof. Heavy shit. But I think this spells out something pretty clearly: The Machine and Samaritan are not going to survive this fight. So the big question: who the hell is The Machine talking to? I think that answer is also pretty clear, which is another AI, though I can’t speculate much on the nature of it. Is it a straight merger between The Machine and Samaritan? Another freshly constructed AI? Either way, I think this show has been a recording of everything that happened for the new king of the hill to watch and learn from. To show how important those relationships were, and to show that those connections are the true bonds of humanity. Let’s revisit the pilot:

“When you find someone who connects you to the world, you become something different, something better. But when that person is taken from you, what do you become then?”

At one point or another, The Machine gang has found that person. And at another, more awful point, the gang has had that person taken away. Finch:Grace, Reese:Jessica, Joss:Paul, Root:Hannah, Fusco:his family(divorce), Sameen:her dad, Finch:Nathan, Reese and Fusco: Joss, Root:Sameen. And what makes those losses so horrible was what the strength of the bonds they had, which again, is one of the greatest things humanity has to offer. Things had been completely bleak for The Machine gang while Samaritan has been online. At numerous points, someone contemplated giving up. But Reese, Shaw, Root and Finch (and Bear!)were fighting for each other as much as they were fighting against Samaritan. The lesson for the new AI that I’m hoping is supposed to be conveyed is that those bonds between friends, family, lovers are what really matters in the world, and you can accomplish so much more with them then without them.