(no subject)
I liked many, many things about this episode, but the main plot was so FUCKING STUPID AND BAFFLING. I spent the entire ep beating my head against my desk going WHY. Why would Finch send John away right when he needs him the most? I get that he wanted to negotiate with Root at great personal risk and (probably correctly) though John wouldn't let him do that if he knew, but still, why not make up some plausible lie but still send John to protect Grace? Grace is Root's main leverage against Harold. Why give her that?
And WHAT THE HELL is that stupidity with the payphone? Harold's so cautious about the machine, why on Earth would he do something as utterly and insanely unbelievably idiotic as base full-control access on something as random as who answers a PUBLIC GODDAMN PAYPHONE at some random moment in the future, with not even a password protect or ANYTHING?
That said, I really liked:
- John badgering Harold about the numbers like a five-year-old. ARE WE THERE YET? HOW ABOUT NOW, HAROLD?
- Shaw. WHERE'S MY SHAW-CENTRIC SPIN-OFF SHOW? Come on. POI: Relevant, you know you want to give it to me.
- Ruthless younger Harold. He really fucked up by deleting those numbers, and he knows it, and I like that we're still dealing with that and not just sweeping it under the rug.
- Nathan! I know the fandom likes Nathan a lot, but I think this was the first ep that actually managed to make me care about him.
- We finally have an explanation for the fact that they don't even get notice whether someone's victim or perpetrator! It's not that Finch didn't consider it important when he built the backdoor, it's that Finch didn't build the backdoor, Nathan did. And Nathan, the inferior hacker, working against Finch's security, couldn't get to that information.
I'm intrigued by the fact that John bugged Harold's glasses, and fandom's been speculating since that Storm ep that Harold doesn't actually need his glasses. I really want this to become relevant somehow, because I love when subtle foreshadowing like that pays off.
I'm intrigued by the ending! Did Root get admin access, or did John? Or did they BOTH?