Person of Interest: Is Finch Finally Ready to Let the Machine Run Free?

There was a trio of major events that happened to Team Machine in "Sotto Voce," two huge neon-lit ideas for fans of the series, and one subtle but incredibly important development for Harold Finch (Michael Emerson).

Let's start with that one, which may not have been as crowd-pleasing as the other two (we'll get to them later), but has monumental ramifications for the final four episodes of the series and answers the big question looming over Finch's relationship with the Machine.

The number of the week (or, with the final season burn-off, biweekly number) belonged to a man named Terry Easton (Neal Huff), who, through the magic of television twists, would later be revealed in super-cool fashion to be The Voice, the mysterious villain behind Season 3's 911-operator-in-distress "Last Call."

Death and killing is part of Finch's business, sure, but Finch has always stayed firmly in the camp of "human life is valuable," avoiding unnecessary casualties at all costs, even when it could help them win the war.

The simulations he's run with closed versions of the Machine and Samaritan -- literally millions of them, with thousands more added each minute -- have all ended in Samaritan victories.

Root and Shaw (Sarah Shahi), television's most electric couple, same-sex or otherwise, finally reunited IRL and outside of a computer simulation that ended up with someone's brains getting splattered all over the place.

Finch, Reese, Fusco, Root, and Shaw -- back together while The National's "Fake Empire" played was an incredible turning point for this final season, and one that didn't leave me bummed that the series was almost over, but rather excited for what's to come in its final four hours.