I’m going to keep this short and sweet this week. Of course this will probably mean it will be pretty long. As always there are spoilers, and in this case at the end there will be spoilers for next week’s episode as well so if you try to avoid that kind of thing just don’t read the last paragraph.

This week’s episode involved a POI named Sulomian Khan (I’m confident I spelled his name wrong). He is a CEO of a popular virus scan company who wakes up to his life being destroyed via hacking. Everything is revealed from his email to embezzlement of company funds, which he denies of course. Private photos of his wife, whom he is separated from, surface pushing her further away from him than before. In the end this hacking manages to destroy everything he ever worked for.

Of course he’s not going to take it lying down and is going to discover who’s doing this to him and why. Of course, we the audience had already figured out by this point that it wasn’t who but rather what, and that this guy wouldn’t live past the end of the episode. It’s too bad; I like the actor who played Khan a lot.

Let’s pause here though and reflect on the very beginning of this episode in which John is trying to get Harold to use a gun. First off, I think Harold knows how to fire a weapon, I just think he’d rather not. We learn that John is very concerned about Harold’s safety and not being able to protect himself while John is around. Obviously Harold’s ability to be kidnapped has really started to concern John. Of course Harold will have none of it and says to John that if he ever gets to a place where he needs to fend for himself without John then all is pretty much lost. John isn’t going to give up so easily though as we will find through out the episode.

Just a small note on this scene, John fired a rather large gun, which who doesn’t love seeing, and Harold walked right in front of that gun which John was holding still pointed forward. I don’t know about you, but I found that to be stupid. Of course we know the guns aren’t real and the writers probably didn’t think anything of it, they just shot the scene and went at it. But no rational person who dislikes firearms would walk in front of a just fired firearm. Heck no person in general should ever walk in front of someone holding up a live firearm. You walk around the back of them. It’s just safer that way.

In the meantime, we find that Root is on yet another mission and this one seems to be to steal something in a case. She gasses a whole restaurant and slips out undetected, although seriously don’t you think that incident would have made the news so it’s a bit showy if you ask me.

Back with the POI Khan (whose name I love for ‘Star Trek’ reasons only), he’s not willing to go down without a fight so he’s going to stop the board from taking the company away from him. Since he’s such a private guy and a bit on the paranoid side I imagine, John can’t hijack his phone. So in order to get some inside ears to the board meeting he calls on Zoe Morgan, who apparently this company has used in the past.

Khan (every time I hear this name I picture Kirk screaming KHAAAANNN!) arrives just as they’ve voted to oust him and begins pleading for his company. We find that he’s kind of a jerk and writes nasty emails (hello Sony), that he’s Bipolar and has been funneling money from the company via “projects” for his personal use. Of course, he doesn’t deny that he’s a jerk sometimes but he does deny the stealing of money. He explains he’s developing a chip that can do a lot biologically and that it will take the company to the next level. Now we know why Samaritan wants his company. Of course John and Harold still haven’t managed to figure this out.

All Khan’s efforts, though, are irrelevant in the end, as the board has already voted, and what’s done is done. Of course, this give suspicion to one of the board members doing the hacking, and Harold does confirm most of it was done from the inside. We find out later that Samaritan can quite literally do anything it wants.

Even though Khan has lost everything, he’s not going down without figuring out who did this to him. So John has to continue watching him to make sure he doesn’t do anything rash. Zoe is with him and explains that this attack is targeted to Khan and only Khan since other incidents within the company that she had covered up were not revealed. Then they move on to talk about Iris and Reese’s new found romance. Obviously Zoe is jealous, and John knows it. She states that she isn’t jealous just concerned, but not for John, rather for Iris. It’s interesting because everything has implied that this relationship will not end well. Honestly, I think Iris won’t survive it in the end, but it’s not really ever been a focus on John who will suffer, but rather that Iris is going to play dearly for this relationship. And although I do believe Zoe is very jealous, she has been right in some aspects. His chosen profession does not allow for a real relationship. I’m not sure what he thinks is going to come of this relationship or how it will work in general. I guess he’s hopeful for some normalcy in his life sometimes.

Back with Root we find that there is a tracking device on her and she’s having a hard time figuring out where and knows the people she stole it from are coming to get her. She then has a little fight with the Machine where it’s confirmed it’s not speaking as much to her as it used to. Why? Maybe it’s still hiding or maybe it’s angry just as Harold is over Root’s actions with Elizabeth? Either way she figures out the only way to disable the tracker is to electrify it and that’s what she does. Of course by the time she does this it’s too late, the guys tracking her have found her. They bust in and there is a shoot out, of course with Root winning as always and she goes on her merry way.

Khan isn’t taking this hacking incident lying down and is on a mission. Luckily his assistant seems to not care about all the mean stuff he’s said about her and is still helping him. She’s acquired a gun for him and some items he had requested. He goes to meet with his business partner in a bar. He seems to want to convince this guy that someone is out to get him, or rather something. See Khan has figured it out, it has to be a AI, it can’t be a normal person. The attacks are too good. Of course his business partner thinks he’s insane and tells him so, then leaves, but not before Khan swipes his key card to the office.

Khan breaks into his company to check the output numbers on the server. John follows him in. Of course the police are called and John can’t legitimately be there so he has to hide while the police cart Khan away.

After this scene we get to see our favorite Samaritan villains again. Now they’re watching the compute feed and although John did in fact wear a mask during all of this, it seems he managed, not sure how, to avoid all the cameras. There is not one mention of a guy helping out Khan during all of this, and frankly I find it odd.

Anyhow it seems Martine is itching to kill someone, so Root it is. I don’t like the black hair. Not sure what that is all about. So Martine is sent off to kill Root.

Back with Khan we learn that he’s been fast tracked to Rikers and has bypassed almost everything that would keep you out of prison for a least a few hours. He’s put in a holding cell and immediately one of the guys in there, who happens to apparently still have his phone on him (not sure why) gets a text to kill Khan. So he tries but, of course, John is there to save the day. Khan and John escape but only get so far before Samaritan manages to wreck their van. Don’t worry; Root is there to save the day.

The team has taken Khan to the safe house and Harold is not too pleased about this happening. Also he is obviously still a bit angry with Root but frankly it’s time to get over it. John wants to go ahead and tell him about what’s happening but Harold thinks that’s dangerous. Khan though is full of questions and unwilling to be sidelined while the team takes care of things, so when they find out where the hack originated from they all set off to see what it is.

They arrive at a wooded area in the middle of nowhere and finally the Machine decides it’s going to speak to Root again. Of course, I imagine it’s just protecting Harold in the end and not forgiving Root for what she did, just yet. They take out two cameras that the Machine alerts them too and then head down into this weird looking bunker thing. They find one guy, monitoring a scan.

Harold immediately recognizes what it’s searching for:  the Machine. Of course, Khan is not as up to speed and is wondering what the heck is happening. But they need to leave and quickly. Once again John tries to recruit Harold into actually having a gun, but nope, no go on that.

They emerge from the bunker to find Martine and some Samaritan goons ready for a fight. Root is still obviously very angry about Shaw and has decided she’s going to kick Martine’s ass leaving John to not only protect himself but also protect Harold and Khan.

I’m going to take a minute here to discuss the unlikely ability for Root to overpower Martine in hand-to-hand combat. If we’re in a gunfight I could think, yeah she could do it, but hand to hand? Hardly. Martine is trained for this kind of thing and although Root is very good at what she does, I don’t think she’s had any real formal combat training. It’s just unlikely she would overpower someone like Martine. But she does and yes frankly I was a bit annoyed that John didn’t just kill the bitch (excuse my language). I get it, they’re better than that, but really, this person is trying to kill you, if you have the upper hand, take it.

While Root is kicking Martine’s ass, John is doing his best to make sure Harold, Khan and he don’t die. As if to prove a point to Harold several times Harold is almost shot but John is there just in time.

While all this shooting is going on, Khan is still grilling Harold about what’s happening and of course Harold isn’t forthcoming so Khan books it out of there because it’s futile to try to get info from Harold. Obviously this leads to Khan being caught by Samaritan. We do find out during that scene that the scan Samaritan was doing showed nothing, that the Machine apparently isn’t on any known grid. At least that’s what I took from it. So where is the Machine? If it isn’t using the normal grid, what is it using, and how? Maybe the Machine is a lot better than Samaritan or even Harold has given it credit?

In the end, Harold explains what Samaritan was doing and of course he wasn’t able to know himself if the Machine was found or not. We also see what the point of stealing the case was, the case itself; it’s bullet proof after all. I wonder what they will be transporting in it?

I enjoyed this show. I thought it was very interesting the Khan storyline even if it was pretty obvious what was happening. I really enjoyed John with a gun. That’s just great stuff right there. I’m hoping some of this will result in Harold taking the plunge into using a gun because honestly I think Harold using a gun would so be great. It’s badass when John does it; it’s like triple badass if Harold would. He needs to step up though and seriously start protecting himself.

Next week’s episode is a flashback kind of episode where John takes on a case that Carter left behind. Great. I liked Carter, I really did, but what I didn’t like was all the whining and bitching that came with her death and people’s inability to move on past it. One of two things has happened: The show ‘Empire’ (which Taraji P. Henson who played Carter stars in) got huge so they figured they’d piggy back on its popularity for one episode, or they caved a bit to the Carter fans who have been begging for some flashbacks since she died.

I do wonder if Henson actually filmed new scenes or if these are flashbacks that were from previous episodes that were cut? Apparently on Twitter she had some secret project in NY she was doing and people are assuming it was this.

I think what would be interesting and maybe help in the end, is if Henson she did in fact film new scenes within the last few months, rather than the series showing unused footage that was already filmed years ago. This would show that there is no bad blood between anyone, that there was an understanding that Henson wouldn’t be on the show forever, and she that understood that and was okay with it. So maybe something good will come of it. I just hope it doesn’t result in more bitching and moaning about how great the show was with Carter and how much it sucks now. I can’t stand fans like that.

And just like that, my keeping it short has resulted in one of my longer articles. So much for that.