The Machine sends Reese and Finch to a wedding to protect a pair of POIs before their nuptials. Also, Fusco becomes angry at being kept in the dark by the team and takes it upon himself to investigate a string of missing person reports.
Origin of the Title[]
The phrase "a more perfect union" is drawn from the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America. The complete preamble reads:
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The preamble sets forth a statement of the vision of the newly formed United States of America that will be embodied in the Constitution.
The use of the word 'union' also reflects the idea that the episode is about a wedding.
As of the begining of the episode, Shaw has been through 7053 of Samaritan's simulations. This episode is also another simulation for Shaw, in which she is taken on a "field trip" by Greer. On the trip she is shown people that The Machine has not targeted, but are still repsonsible for several deaths. At the end of the simulation she meets Samaritan in the form of Gabriel Hayward where he explains that it was all a Simulation.
The number that Finch recieves is a number for a marriage license, so the team sets off to the wedding. The bride, Phoebe Turner, is the daughter of a wealthy race horse owner. The apparent motive behind the potential murder is doping of the horses, with the father believed be the perperator. It turns out that the perpetrator is the bride's sister, and the victim is the wedding photographer, Maggie.
Fusco investigates the missing persons further and hears of a city contract about demolishing an underground tunnel system. When exploring the tunnels he finds the dead bodies of the missing persons, including Bruce Moran.
Shaw gets a simulated field trip outside and she is definitely not in South Africa where she escapes in a later episode. In fact, she is fooled into thinking she is in New York. The bridge is the one in Central Park along park path near Fifth Avenue. The Machine would have seen her there. There is an Italian and American flag out of the window of the lounge.
Quotes[]
"Even I appreciate a fairytale ending Harry.....family politics, overcooked meat, monogamy, what's not to love?" (Root to Finch)
"I'm just trying to picture you at a wedding." "Please. I left a guy at the altar just last year." (Root to Fusco)
"Who's to say that with absolute power, we would be able to control ourselves?" (Finch, to Root)
"Tomorrow, their world crashes. But we can give them tonight." (Reese)
"There is a Great Filter, Sameen. A bottleneck. Some scientists claim humanity has moved beyond it." (Samaritan trying to convince Shaw that the human race has not escaped mutual destruction.)
