Person of Interest - A House Divided

Things heat up heading into next week's season finale as Vigilance finally makes its move and the history of Peter Collier (Leslie Odom, Jr.) and his distrust of the system is revealed. Following Finch's (Michael Emerson) capture by Greer (John Nolan) and Decima, Root (Amy Acker) leads the team to try and prevent an imminent attack which The Machine can't quite predict. Given five numbers, Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) set out to watch their newest set of numbers who include Greer (John Nolan) and Control (Camryn Manheim). Meanwhile, Root puts her hacker team to work on a special project not realizing just how badly Vigilance's attack of blacking out the city and leaving the group cut-off from the blinded Machine will screw up all her plans.

Although the flashbacks involving Collier and the U.S. Government's wrongful rendition of his brother (Marc Damon Johnson) end before we see him join and/or found the anti-government organization known as Vigilance, we certainly see the seeds planted here. With only part of the puzzle, Root positions the various members of the team to reveal the rest of the threat although she discovers the method of Vigilance's attack far too late to do anything about it (but too late to still perform her part of the plan). The return of Control and Shaw's itchy trigger finger and exasperation as she realizes she's going to have to step in and try to save her old boss' life are well-handled, particularly now that Finch's safety is now intertwined with that of both Greer and Control.

As Greer remarks in the dark, war makes for unusual enemies and that's certainly the case to close the episode as Shaw and Reese have no other choice but to work alongside Hersh (Boris McGiver) in hopes of finding and rescuing their missing friends who Vigilance has just exposed to the world in the group's attempt to administer their own brand of justice. Together the unlikely threesome will have to find a way to save Finch, Greer, Control, and members of the U.S. Government who are all put on trial, as Root finds Samaritan and prepares for her own suicide mission heading into next week's season finale.