Before the break, we left off with Samaritan wreaking havoc on the city. Numbers are coming in left from right, and with Shaw's cover blown, Reese and Fusco are off to save them alone. Samaritan is causing the stocks to go down and everyone is going crazy. Unable to sit quietly, Shaw leaves the safe haven in hopes of helping out the team.
After talking with Samaritan, Root shows up at Wall Street and meets up with Finch. Samaritan is dropping the stocks and everyone is going crazy. Root has a solution, a machine that can hack into the system and stop Samaritan from influencing the stocks, the hard part is getting into the server room to install it.
They meet up with Reese and Fusco and get ready to go to the server room, However Greer is prepared and has Samaritan operatives stationed around the building to intercept. Root talks to Shaw, and sends he into the subway, away from Samaritan surveillance, to get the code from a stock market server room tech.
Root later figures out that the whole thing is a trap, and the team get cornered in a room while Samaritan operatives are shooting at them.
We are taken back to 2003, where Finch is playing chess with the machine. The machine is trying to figure out different strategies to win, finding that there are many options.
In present time, the machine kicks in and gives Root a plan. Root and Finch will head to the Server room while Reese and Fusco secure their escape route.
Reese and Fusco get cornered by Martine and other Samaritan operatives. Root and Finch reach the server room but Shaw could not get the code because a man on the subway is wearing a bomb vest and in order to stop him from killing everyone, Shaw shoots him and gets arrested. So Root has to shoot her way in. While there, another group of operatives show up and kill Finch. The machine discards the simulation and we're taken back to the beginning again where it tries to find another option.
We're taken back again to 2003 and the chess game. Finch tells the machine about having to save it's queen and sacrifice others in order to win.
In present time, the machine sends root a new plan, where Reese and Fusco go to the server room instead and Root and Finch go to secure their exit route. So far, that plan is going well. Reese too has to shoot his way in after Shaw still ends up getting arrested. Fusco is trying to fix the system when Samaritan operatives show up and Reese has to sacrifice his life by blowing everyone up.
Root calls Shaw and they speak about being together in the future. After hearing what she wanted to hear, we see that Martine and other operatives are behind Root, and kill her.
Tossing out that simulation, The machine tries again, but is running out of time.
Back in 2003, Finch talks to the machine about difficult decisions, and that no ones life is more valuable than the others, and that if there isn't an equal chance of survival then what's the point.
So in the present, the machine comes up with a new plan where everyone sticks together and goes to the server room first, then secure their exit route.
Fusco manages to get Shaw to talk the bomber out of it, and she is then able to get the code. They make their way into the server room where finch successfully stops Samaritans influence on the stock market. On their way out, they get into a gunfight, with each of them only having a 2% survival rate.
Running out of time, the machine has no choice but to choose this option. So in real time, everything goes as predicted, but on their way to the elevator, they are blocked by Martine and Samaritan operatives.
In the gunfight, Reese and Root get shot, and as Root speaks to Shaw about their future, she shows up and manages to help fight off the operatives. They make it to the elevator only to find that it has been shut down. Shaw kisses Root and heads over to the manual override button, sacrificing herself to make sure the others are safe.
The team get away, with Martine holding a gun to Shaw's head, shooting her.
Next Week, it turns out Shaw may still be alive, and the team stop at nothing to get her back!
image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com