History Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E20

* BaitAndSwitch: Greer talks of removing obstacles, making it look like he's referring to Congressman [=McCourt=]. Turns out [=McCourt=] is in his pocket the whole time.

* StealthHiBye: Finch pulls one of these at the end of the episode because he knows he's top priority for Decima to hunt down and thinks his friends will have a better chance without him.

** The Machine, who knows that killing [=McCourt=] is the only option they have for stopping Samaritan but takes no action of its own and leaves the final decision to Finch; see IdiotBall below.
* IdiotBall: {{Subverted|Trope}} in hindsight. The Machine has Root blindly following every order, yet does not send her to take out [=McCourt=]. However, given what we learn about the Machine in season 4, this becomes more of a case of HonorBeforeReason: One of the core values Finch drilled into the Machine is that [[AllLovingHero every human life is valuable, period]]. People should be protected, not sacrificed for the greater good, [[AssholeVictim no matter how sleazy they may be]]. So it's not that killing [=McCourt=] did not occur to the Machine; rather, it was essentially asking Finch for permission to do so, spelling out the dilemma and all its details before it and leaving Team Machine to decide whether or not killing him to stop Samaritan would be justified.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Season 2, Greer pledged to "find Harold Finch and make him irrelevant". Now he is in a position to do both with the Samaritan beginning to compromise Finch's cover identities.

* LesYay: Root and Shaw on a motorbike and having drinks together.

* {{Fanservice}}: Root and Shaw [[LesYay on a motorbike together]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Reese asks how many lives have to be at stake for the Machine to order someone's death? Finch has never considered the question.

** In the BatmanColdOpen Team Machine protects a drug dealer who's being set up to be murdered by his partner. After knocking out both parties, they leave them for Fusco as a lengthy prison sentence will stop them from killing each other.
** Subverted with [=McCourt=]. As Finch points out he's just a corrupt, shallow politician, which doesn't justify his assassination.
* TheBadGuyWins: Decima got what it wanted and is now hunting down Team Machine starting with Harold.

* BetterThanSex: [[BigEater Shaw knows a steak joint in St Louis]] where the fillet is better than sex. [[LesYay Roots says it sounds yummy]].
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In "4C", Finch said he wanted a human element kept in the Machine's decision process. So the Machine leaves to Finch the question of whether to kill [=McCourt=].

* BoundAndGagged: [=McCourt=]

* CallBack: To [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E01 the pilot]]. "People want to be protected, they just don't want to know how".
* CorruptPolitician: When Finch pressures [=McCourt=] with the threat of exposing his insider trading to the SEC, he drops his facade and reveals himself as a Decima asset who's been furthering the company's agenda.
** Subverted when Harold tries to bribe him. [=McCourt=] refuses, as he sees himself as just making money on the side while serving his country.

* DespairEventHorizon: The team unknowingly crosses it by not killing the congressman, as it was the team's single last chance of stopping Samaritan from coming online. Reese has figured this out but Harold still was not convinced that the situation was bleak enough.

* EvilCounterpart / TheUnfettered: Samaritan to the Machine. It's even discussed by Team Machine - the Machine is a shield, designed to protect people. Samaritan is a sword; its interface literally says "Enter Target".

* HonorBeforeReason: Finch, who refuses to have the congressman executed.
* IdiotBall: The Machine has Root blindly following every order and somehow doesn't send her to take out [=McCourt=]. However, given what we learn about the Machine in season 4, it seems likely this is more an example of HonorBeforeReason: One of the core values Finch drilled into the Machine is that every human life is valuable, period. People should be protected, not sacrificed for the greater good. So it's not that using Root to kill [=McCourt=] didn't occur to the Machine - it's that it was essentially asking Finch for permission to do so.

* TheKindnapper

* SneakyDeparture: Finch pulls one of these at the end of the episode because he knows he's top priority for Decima to hunt down and thinks his friends will have a better chance without him.

* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: Shaw and Root's misadventures in Alaska and Miami.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Congressman [=McCourt=] embraces this trope. At the beginning of the episode, he presents himself as a noble crusader against overreaching surveillance and someone who buys dinners for the homeless, but then Reese catches him having sex with his assistant, Finch finds he's been doing insider trading and then the man himself reveals he's a asset of Decima Technologies and has actively assisted them.

* IdiotBall: The Machine has Root blindly following every order and somehow doesn't send her to take out [=McCourt=].
** However, given what we learn about the Machine in season 4, it seems likely this is more an example of HonorBeforeReason: [[spoiler:One of the core values Finch drilled into the Machine is that every human life is valuable, period. People should be protected, not sacrificed for the greater good. So it's not that using Root to kill [=McCourt=] didn't occur to the Machine - it's that it was essentially asking Finch for permission to do so.]]

->''"...the mission, our purpose, has always been constant: to save lives. If that’s changed somehow, if we’re in a place now where the Machine is asking us to commit murder? That’s a place I can’t go. I’m afraid this is where I get off.”''
-->'''- Finch'''

->''"You guys have the pancakes? Try the banana chocolate chip... amazing."''
-->'''- Shaw'''

* BeCarefulWhatYouWithFor: In "4C", Finch said he wanted a human element kept in the Machine's decision process. So the Machine leaves to Finch the question of whether to kill [=McCourt=].

* AssholeVictim: In the BatmanColdOpen Team Machine protects a drug dealer who's being set up to be murdered by his partner. After knocking out both parties, they leave them for Fusco as a lengthy prison sentence will stop them from killing each other.

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse for Finch, who acknowledges that their morals have slipped over the years, but Team Machine has always been about saving lives.

-->'''[=McCourt=]''' Boy, this just gets worse.

* ProphecyTwist: [=McCourt=] is the VictimOfTheWeek...and Team Machine is the threat.

* PunkInTheSquad: The leader of the Decima squad.

* EvilCounterpart: Samaritan to the Machine. It's even discussed by Team Machine - the Machine is a shield, designed to protect people. Samaritan is a sword; its interface literally says "Enter Target".

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In Miami, the camera pans out in the bar Shaw and Root are drinking in revealing that they have knocked out a gathering of arms dealers with drugged drinks.

* AnswerCut: In the ColdOpen, Shaw wonders who's handling the relevant numbers if Northern Lights has shut down. Cue Root riding up on a motorcycle.

* WalkInChimeIn: In the ColdOpen, Shaw wonders who's handling the relevant numbers if Northern Lights has shut down. Cue Root riding up on a motorcycle.