Person of Interest S4E12 - Control-Alt-Delete

In the latest episode of Person of Interest the focus shifts to Control, while the Team Machine is trying to find clues of Shaw.
This episode is a bit of a let-down after the previous episodes, though it is far from bad. We finally get to see how the deal with Decima and Greer affects the US Government, which, I admit, I had completely forgotten about.

Obviously, this episode is about Control realising that she is not in control anymore, but it is also about Control opening her eyes. Samaritan is dictating what information she is given, and by the end of the episode I hope she is beginning to realise that Samaritan is also manipulating the information it is giving. For her, this is a difficult truth to accept. She has spend years trusting the Machine, knowing that it is never wrong, so her assumption about the Samaritan probably was that it works the same way. She might not trust it blindly, since she does ask for some evidence to show that these guys are terrorists. But she does not realise that the Samaritan has its own agenda and that it is using her people to clean up after its operations.

Also, I have to ask, what is the point of showing Control that she has no control over anything. It is just going to piss her off and she is not really someone you should piss off. Especially since the end of the episode suggests that Control is starting to see that Harold was right and this may even lead to Samaritan acquiring a new enemy and the Team Machine a new ally. It will be very interesting to see how this will develop. 

While having a kid speak for Samaritan had great symbolism in 'The Cold War', it really does not work here. I don't like the evil child trope at all and here it is just boring. Also, what did Samaritan expect?? That the kid is going to walk up to important people, ask to see the president and it will be granted? Like these people would actually realise that they are speaking with an AI... That has to be the worst plan ever. Not that pissing off Control is a great plan either...

Meanwhile Team Machine is looking for Shaw. Harold is sure that she is dead and is trying to keep everyone else's hopes down, but Root and John are not so convinced. I am holding on to my head canon that Shaw shot Martine and the rest of Samaritan's agents took Shaw as a prisoner. And I'm sticking to this until the show proves me wrong.