[January Meme] - “If you could what would you change about the last season of POI”

[grimorie]

“If you could, what would you change about the last season of POI (or another series)?” for aurumcalendula

For season 5, I really think they needed a stronger villain and the team going up against Van Gogh wasn’t personal enough. Somehow Greer was declawed. If Team Machine went up with the Greer from season 3, things would have been a lot more interesting.

If Claire was the one to pull the trigger (I know broadcast TV wouldn’t stand for it) but, imagine if Claire— the one they were setting up as a mirror for Root, was the one who shot Root? Samaritan positioning Claire into becoming its own ‘Root’.

It would have been more personal and maybe even some thematic resonance.

(Although TBH, I wish they hadn’t killed Martine off in season 4 — sure it was cathartic then but can you imagine how much more cathartic it would’ve been if she died in season 5?).

I would seed the virus in a lot earlier, flag it for the viewers.

And then tie in Shaw’s return to the team with the realization Samaritan has truly gone global and their scope of work is even more terrible: Genetic testing, crop manipulations, etc.,

It turns out Shaw learned a lot more about Samaritan’s plans than it intended — Samaritan!Greer is talkative and Shaw used that to its advantage.

I would also extend the season up to at least, 16 to 18 episodes, and then change the AU episode into a true ‘There But For the Grace of God’ episode ala The Wish. Really explore what it’s like if things had gone differently.

I would also re-write the episodes where Harold ran away, I know it’s crucial for the Machine and Harold to bond but man it was so repetitive and didn’t add much to the story: ‘Let’s find Harold, Oh We Can’t Look For Him Yet. Oh Wait, He’s in the NSA, Oh Wait He’s Not — JK, He’ll come back on his own in the finale.’

I wanted them to do the ending as a team, I didn’t want any of the we’re going separate ways! For me, the best Team Machine vs Samaritan thing was in Symbolic Constant by Lithium Doll.

“I’m really … quite comfortable,” Harold lied. “It barely hurts now. And - and I must confess, I’m not entirely sure why you’re making such an effort. Clearly, things are not going as well as we’d hoped, it’s unlikely to matter in the end.”
She scowled, glaring as if he’d offended her.
And he had, he realized, by asking a question she hadn’t been given the tools to answer. He suddenly felt he’d been unspeakably cruel and opened his mouth to retract the question.
“Because I’m an idiot,” she snapped, before he could. “Because you and your ridiculous machine made me an idiot. Trying to make things better. Things will never get better - they’ll never letthem get better.
“And now I’m a dead idiot. And, worse, I’m okay with that, which just proves … I don’t know what it proves. You and Cole...” She was staring down at him, but whatever she was looking at was far away. Her eyes glinted.
“Because you paid me,” she finished, focusing on him again. “I already cashed this month’s check.”
“I see,” he said, oddly breathless now. “Well. I should probably arrange a raise. Or perhaps a small bonus. In the meantime…” He closed his hand over hers, stilling her work. “Find Ms. Gro – find Root. If you can. I’m sure she would appreciate your company.”
The nimble fingers that had been trying to stem the inevitable fell away. A blissful relief. And it wasn’t so bad, he thought. Not so bad really.
“Harold –“
“It has been … my great, great honor to work with you. Goodbye, Sameen.”
From inside her jacket, she drew his glasses. Huffed on one lens and then the other, then carefully as she’d ever cleaned her weapon, wiped the glass with her sleeve. He blinked when she settled them over his eyes; the world that had been blurred with indistinguishable shapes was now only scratched and distorted at the edges.
“It’s been fun,” she said as she hauled herself to her feet. “I’ll see you around, Harold.”

See— that’s what I wanted! For the team to be together, the sense of the tragic as they fell of one by one. I ended up liking the Angel of Death Machine!Root but man, can you imagine such an epic finale like this?

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, Greer was just not a strong villain in S5 and he really had been before: it's a common problem with "man behind the curtain" type but there's no reason why they couldn't have stepped it up. I was hoping for something along the lines of Samaritan having its own legitimate but scary goals and getting away from Greer's control, so they'd have to work together against it. Claire as an acolyte would have been great for that! For example, the flu episode, which had very dodgy science, but let's overlook that and say that Samaritan thought it was an awesome idea to make a small but nasty influenza outbreak to encourage everyone else to get vaccinated. Good computer logic, very effective, only kills off a few hundred people, no big deal! Things that Harold predicted the Machine might do if he didn't lock her down early, but the Machine chose not to do in the end.

[grimorie]

Ye, all of this! I thought s5 would be big and epic, and swing for the fences, and while it did in some episodes (6741 is fantastic), I felt like they lost steam, which is honestly sadder. I did like the quiet Angel of Death Root stuff but I feel they could've done better.

[aurumcalendula]

Claire in place of Van Gogh would’ve been really neat! Same re: Martine (I still wish we would’ve gotten to see Martine’s backstory).

[grimorie]

Definitely! I wanted more Martine backstory, I felt there was an interesting story there and then... went nowhere, I wonder if it's an actor availability thing... Just like the new police captain in s4, who also disappeared!