Mars477

Root has a direct uplink to the Machine. Reese and Shaw do not: they're just given the identity of a person and need to work from here, by design. Root's in-the-nick-of-time-ness is a function of the Machine's tapping into surveillance feeds and basic geometry, nothing more. Plus, it's possible that it was Reese's intervention that prompted the bombing at that point in time anyways.

Zoe would have died at that high school reunion. She's certainly not as badass as Reese or Shaw are. Her weapons are words, not guns. Plus I doubt she'd know how to mix a flashbang grenade out of high school chemistry materials. And Paige Turco is too busy slumming it on a CW show.

Uh, yeah, I'm Mars477 from TWOP. Loved this episode. The Number plot was good, even with a very busy B plot. Plus it helps to have Nestor Carbonell, although sadly he didn't he didn't have any scenes with Finch (and to forstall any guyliner comments, apparently his eyes are just naturally like that). Reese and Shaw were pretty fun together, and I think I can watch Reese get slapped by women scorned for an hour (not least because imagining Jim Caviezel play a total cad is hilarious). It helps that the Number plot was fairly simple. Some of the weaker episodes this season also have had more ambitious Number plots (Reasonable Doubt, Provenance) where the execution fell apart. Reese got all of the action bits this time. Slightly infatuated Shaw is also pretty funny, because watching it was just so bizarre. Which is good execution by Shahi, considering her previous roles as more conventional love interests. And I think this can dispel the fear floating around that Reese and Shaw are going to be ill-advisedly thrown together (because, well, it's CBS). When faced with sharing a motel room with only one bed, they both elect to take the floor. Fusco in a bathrobe... no thanks. Still, I liked watching Fusco and Finch work together. At this point though, I think they need to start expanding Vigilance's bench beyond just Collier. While its good that they've finally managed to score A victory, it's getting more and more improbably that Peter Collier manages to escape unscathed time and time again while his goons get mowed down around him. And just like that, NORTHERN LIGHTS is exposed and is now defunct. Damn, I didn't think they'd take one of the players out play so close to the endgame, and the one that could most closely be called (somewhat) friendly as well. And it looks like Root is going to be a lot busier. There's no episode next week? Looks like the next one will be on April 15th (don't forget to do your taxes!) or the 22nd. Damn. The Machine "escaped", physically, from it's NORTHERN LIGHTS masters at the end of last season. Now NORTHERN LIGHTS (the government) is shut down, and the Machine assigned its responsibilities (interdicting and eliminating terrorist threats to US interests) to Root (the Analogue Interface/Machine's Meat Puppet) who earlier in the season fulfilled Tertiary Operations (apparently, building a cadre of highly skilled people to serve the Machine's direct needs).