shura

If I didn't know better (and maybe I don't?), I'd say Finch has a thing for and was hitting on Root. Sneaking a peek at her while she was changing, "you seem so lonely, how long has it been... since you heard from the Machine?" (way to hold a pause, Harold!)... Just saying ;). Shooting the reception desk lady was stupid. What purpose did it serve exactly?

It is? That connection was completely lost on me. Red's speech went kind of like "You know why I'm here" (to Beck) - "Where is it?" (to Pepper) - "Oh, you didn't tell him?!" (to Pepper), as if all of this related to one and the same single subject. If his visit was all about the mystery girl and the key that Pepper didn't seem to resist giving up, why did he have to wait for Beck to show up? Especially since Dembe apparently found the plague cure without Beck's help. Or was that key needed to get the cure? I'm thoroughly confused. I thought it was deliberate. His whole attempt to console Lizzie was too awkward for Aram's mentioning Red's request to be just a slip-up. "I think you made the right decision. I've seen you in action, you don't crack under pressure. You are not even scared of Red like I was the other day when he asked me to... Oops, never mind..." My favorite Harold's contribution was "Get to the morgue and bring me the autopsy results, we need to know what killed her." Well, sir, there was this taxi...

Sure, but to the passer-by the question sounded as "My Swedish friend, please use your smartphone and look up the capital of your own country. And the city on the other end of this here bridge." I was wondering - purely academically, not intending to criticize anybody - if it's even necessary to spell "capital" correctly to be able to look it up. No worries, we don't need to know anything! Google will think and know things for us. It even knows how to bend a nail.

Oh, I should hope the locals didn't have to look up the capitals on their phones! Did they? Maybe they get there on time but then start falling down and rolling on the ground in celebration. What was that about? Is it safe (legal?) to drive using only one arm? And speaking of arms, funny how Brook was the only person who was holding the cake all the way to the restaurant. Everybody else seemed to think it was simply natural to just put it down and enjoy the bike ride.

I actually thought they said "worrier gene", not warrior. As in "you stress the gene carrier out a bit, he or she starts worrying a lot, and boom! - casualties." The gene didn't exactly make all those losers warriors. Or Red and Naomi have been sent from the future (I am not entirely convinced that "Naomi" is not a cyborg) where Liz is a John Connor kind of figure, and their job is is to make sure she becomes that. What? At least this explains stuff.

Yes, I thought he seemed too smart to explain that he was called Mini because he was big. Nicely done, show.

Then there would be TWO dogs not being walked and otherwise neglected. It would break poor Peewee's heart. I only remember her recognizing the personality test (which gave us the gem "this is a modified MMPI-2, but it's severely modified"). Did she do anything else, profiling-wise? Speaking of Lizzie's skills, why did she have to kick the poor student who was playing a video game, not bothering anyone, when she and Ressler came searching for Creel's last patient. That's what I got from it, too. Come to think of it though, if Lizzie was curious about her DNA test, what was stopping her from having it done on her own? What exactly is Red's problem with Solvang?

Dre was indignant that he had to drive all the way to Azusa to get the grass for Junior's project that wasn't even for extra credit. I think there was something else, too.

Not a problem, that particular facility can stay. Why not cripple Samaritan by blowing up a few of the other server farms if the Machine can locate them? Which it appears it can since the Machine knew about the facility in New Jersey. I say keep stockpiling those rocket launchers, blunt force is the way to go.

It most certainly would help, wouldn't it? I wonder if the Machine should be able to figure out Samaritan's physical location. I forgot, does Samaritan know about the Machine? If it does, it should probably make sure that its servers are housed somewhere at a very remote location with no cameras for miles around and no satellites trained on it. And that people servicing it never leave the site and get resupplied in a different way every time.

I'm not sure it's all that kind, actually. "Our relationship is a function of the relationship of the characters in the show. So it works pretty well for both of us" reads to me as "I only talk to her when the script makes me, and I think it's best because otherwise I would have said to her things we'd both regret." I hope it's not what he meant, it is pretty insulting and he didn't have to say it, he could have just gone with "it's all good, we make it work." Even if she is, in fact, that irritating, and Spader is now requesting less screen time with her to minimize even the "relationship of the characters in the show." Hey, wait a minute, maybe that's what the dog is doing now, too...

Never in my life have I expected to read a detailed play-by-play of someone peeing her pants and a discussion on proper techniques to do that. Good job, TAR.

My mind went there, too, with Lizzie's dream about Red. If that was intentional on the writers' part, that is, if that is where Lizzie's subconscious is, then I say we have finally got some complexity right there. Not sure I want to watch that though. I liked that Aram asked the obvious question whether it is, in fact, possible to reuse a transplant after "repossessing" it. I had a little problem with the answer that it's not the point and that the doctor just wanted to instill fear into those still paying the fee. There is no reason to be gruesome like that to instill fear, simply killing the guy could suffice, I would think. Besides, since this "business model" only makes sense if his other patients know about it, what is there to prevent these criminals from simply getting rid of the doctor after they got their hearts and lungs? Lizzie and Ressler found him and barged in easily enough. I didn't see Almost Human, was this handled with more sense there? Pee Wee Herman was really unsettling and weird.

I don't know if it is a significant income source for Caltech, but they have TV shows filmed there all the time. Numb3rs was filmed there a few times, too, when my wife was working at Caltech. It may be a very difficult school, but it's an absolutely awesome place to work at, I can tell you that. I myself used to work at a company with close ties to Caltech - it was founded by the "one of our five Nobel laureates, who is currently teaching there." In fact, he got his Nobel prize while I was working there and we all had a great party to celebrate. Ah, nostalgia... Shoot, the first time I read this, I took the word "support" completely the wrong way. Was thinking "Haley looks great, why would she be jealous of Alex's new-found need for support? Oh wait, it's not that kind of support... " Well, to be fair, not every problem has a solution. Even a genius cannot figure out a solution where none exists.

I especially did not get the gun part. It's one thing to get a gun if you believe the prize is something material, something that can be stolen from you. I believe Claire actually accused Finch of wanting to steal it the first time she spotted him and pointed the gun at him, didn't she? But if she is after "meaning" and knows it, does it really make sense to speak about "stealing it"? Oh man, that would be awesome! Samaritan, far from underestimating the Machine, feeds it the numbers without the Machine realizing it? And our heroes actually work for Samaritan while believing they are its enemies? There is a lot of potential in this idea. Also, I am really liking the aesthetics of how Samaritan communicates with humans. The crispness of the font, the colors, even the timing of the words popping up and disappearing - it's perfect. Favorite exchange of the episode: Finch:"John, don't let your frustration with me compromise your judgement." Shaw: "Oh, he is going to let his frustration with you compromise his judgement!"

How true, and how very, very sad. I haven't thought of this until now, but seriously, is there anyone at all who is talking or paying any attention to Lizzie unless they have something to do with Red? I can't think of anyone. Even her dog ignores her because, naturally, the dog doesn't give a crap about Red. You'd think decent writers could write some complexity and layering around that.

So the photographic memory lady was carrying the only copy of all the accounts and transactions and whatnot? No backup? Okay. It's not like a person can get sick with pneumonia and die, or slip in the shower and die, or simply lose this photographic memory. Do scientists really know that it's impossible to lose it? Is it really something that can be known? I thought at first that Red was giving Berlin accounts funded with his, Red's, own money after he lost access to Berlin's due to Lizzie's heroics. That would have had a hint of romantic sacrifice, if you will. It would be stupid for Red go there without a plan. Come to think of it, Red could have simply tricked Berlin. I mean, how would Berlin (or his henchman) know? He shows up at the rendezvous point, gets some numbers that Red claims are accounts and passcodes, punches them in and sees more numbers with dollar signs in front of them. Yeah, that all proves he got his money back. And the nature vs nurture debate continues...

Yes, but the very act of choosing to become (and remain) a firefighter is a bit more heroic than picking most other professions, wouldn't you say? Regarding the Save, I wonder what having it may do to its holders' motivation. At the very least, they now have no need to Lena-and-Kristy the last task of the day, they can quit it any time. If they can figure that the task is the last one before the pit stop, they can even skip it altogether, go sit out their penalty and if they happen to be last team after that (which is not a given), then so what, they use the Save. And if they are still ahead of someone after sitting out the penalty, they don't even need the Save on that leg.

I just can't figure out how this guy gets patients. If I were looking for a new dentist, came in for a visit, say, a cleaning and an exam, and saw the Thing, my thought would probably be "Umm, this is the guy I should trust to do delicate manipulations with my teeth? I don't know about that..." Maybe she is the dentist on the team, and he is there just for tooth extractions?

My question is - how would the Machine get the store manager to go along with Shaw's appointment? The guy comes to work, finds some paperwork saying that Sameen So-and-so is now working for him there - fine, so far so good, maybe he was sick the day his new employee was interviewed, I suppose. But then, when he actually sees her "performance", why does he not fire her on the spot? Or are we to think she has only had the job for a few days? And it wasn't working out (duh!), so the Machine is now sticking her into that criminal enterprise or whatever it is this Romeo person is doing? I don't know what to think of the glance Reese exchanged with Scarface after the latter took care of business. I'm not sure Reese would respectfully acknowledge Scarface like that, just because of who Scarface is, even if Scarface is doing Reese's bidding now. Just look at how long it took Reese to stop treating Fusco like crap.

Oh, he definitely knew, and not because he is such a judge of character or anything. She already came on to him when he visited her the first time. That caused one of her stupid boys to shoot the other, remember? Speaking of the sons, I liked her line about drinking herself to numbness by the time they'd get home. Question - does nobody in Bemiji know that Lester stayed with his brother for some time after his wife and Verne were killed? Does that really square with his story that he was so afraid of Chaz?