'Person Of Interest' Season 4 Recap: Will Jim Caviezel's Reese, Michael Emerson's Finch Meet Death In "If-Then-Else?"

Season 4 of Person of Interest delivers the second part of its epic and action-packed trilogy on CBS. With Shaw (Sarah Shahi) far away from the team, Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) are about to meet their deaths when Samaritan goes head-to-head with The Machine in 'If-Then-Else.'

With the stocks plummeting, Finch, Reese, Root (Amy Acker), and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) have to somehow break into Greer's hideout and stop the virus. Shaw needs to get to her number, who has the passcode through the locked door. Unfortunately, Finch and his team are stuck in the middle of a deadly shootout.

The Machine slows time down and tries to calibrate a scenario that could save them. Somehow the team has pass through the locked doors, set up their computer, and escape from Martine's operatives. Adding to the problem, Shaw somehow has to save her number before the subway bomber detonates the explosives on his chest. 

In 2003, Finch taught the Machine how to play chess. The Machine can predict different simulations, thousands at a time, to come up with the best outcome. The Machine fails and learns while losing at chess to Finch.

In the first simulation, Root and Finch end up taking the lead. Fusco and Reese suddenly get caught by Martine's operatives. Finch warns Root and takes the bullet for her. Root holds Finch tightly as he dies in her arms. Shaw ends up getting arrested after she shoots the bomber.

In the second simulation, Fusco and Reese end up taking the lead. Though Fusco tries to hurry up with the code, the Samaritan's operatives have already arrives. After saving Fusco, Reese ends up dying, taking everyone of the operatives with him as he drops the grenade

After Shaw ends up getting arrested for shooting the bomber, Root has a final talk with her. The two discuss there's maybe a chance of the two in a relationship, but they will never know for sure. Root ends up dying in a hail of gunfire afterwards. 

In 2003, Finch reveals he doesn't like chess because it means sacrificing pawns for the sake of kings. If you start thinking of life as chess, then you deserve to lose. Back in the present, the Machine attempts to come up with another simulation while time is running out.  

In the third simulation, Fusco ends up kissing Root. Hurrying up the outcome, the team manages to work together and save the financial district from Samaritan's virus. Shaw talks to the bomber, reminding him that he is never alone in his pain. This is the scenario the Machine gives Root to follow because no one is sacrificed and no one dies.  

Everything is going according to plan until Reese is shot in the back after saving Finch. Though Root is bleeding, the group is saved when Shaw miraculously shows up. The elevators won't work until someone presses the override button, which leads to Shaw and Root kissing.

The group is holding Root back as Shaw shoots her way to hit the override button. The elevator starts working as Shaw ends up getting shot at by Martine. The Machine cannot calibrate an outcome that can save Shaw. 

Martine has a gun pointed to Shaw's head in Person of Interest. Readers, what did you think of If-Then-Else?