Reese interferes with HR's first attempt on Turing's life, and I still maintain few things are more gratifying than watching Reese kneecapping someone. The pair then go to a hotel to hunker down, and that brings us up to the present. Attempting to answer Dr. Turing's obvious questions about who this dude is who just shot a couple cops and is on the run from the FBI, Reese says, "Let's just say we both help people cope with their problems. I'm just a little more...hands on."
HR tracks them to the hotel, thanks to one of HR's plants in the FBI control room. Agent Donnelly also spots one of HR's detectives trying to change a monitor channel and calls in the feds. Finch has an escape route for Reese, but there are FBI dudes all over the hotel. Carter starts texting info to Reese so that he can escape, but sees Fusco on the phone at the same time Simmons cuts the camera feed to the hotel lobby, logically concluding he's in cahoots. This potentially tragic mix-up could've been avoided if Reese ever bothered to tell them they were both working for the same team.
Meanwhile, Zoe tracks down Turing's former attorney client "Hans," who's actually a con artist blackmailed into threatening the doctor, but something doesn't feel right, so she decides to check out Turing's home.
Left with no other choice -- the FBI have Reese and Turing cornered and HR is about to blow up the entire floor of the hotel they're on -- Finch kills communications in lower Manhattan (except for his cell phone, natch), and Reese and Turing make it out. Carter also confronts Fusco, and the two finally (FINALLY) realize they're on the same team. They're surprisingly okay with this discovery, for now. Reese is still on the run, after all.
Reese gets Turing to Finch's pickup point, but HR's tracked them down. He holds them off while Turing flees, but Alicia finds Finch first (awesomely appropriate alliteration). She wants to shut down The Machine (or "God," as she refers to it), partially because she blames it for Ingram's death (I knew she had the hots for him), and partially because of the "hubris" involved in creating it in the first place. Before she can explain further, she's shot in the head by...Turing. Oh, doctor!
And why is that? Cut to Zoe, who's accessed Turing's computer only to find all files and network access wiped, with just a single word repeated: "root." She's back, and surprise surprise, she wants access to The Machine.
Carter and Fusco rescue Reese from the shootout, but not before Simmons IDs them. We also get a nice Reese Moment during the ensuing car chase when he blows up the explosives in the crooked cop's trunk. Not since the salad days of T.J. Hooker have we seen so many exploding cars on prime-time TV. Me likey.
In the end, Fusco and Carter (anonymously) put the FBI on to HR, mostly (Simmons is still in the wind, which isn't good for Fusco). Finch has been spirited away by Root, and Reese, at a loss, addresses the Machine directly through a street surveillance camera. The last shot, of Reese answering a ringing pay phone, kicks off even more questions: Is the Machine self-aware? Will it start a nuclear war? Can we look forward to cameos from Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton in season two? Or is Root already in the system? Where did Zoe go? Honestly, after what happened to Alicia, I'm just glad they didn't kill her off, too.
"Firewall" was a satisfying end to what's been a solid season, especially by network TV standards. I had my doubts, especially given CBS's track record with procedurals, but I'll definitely be back for season two. See you then.
