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Notes for season 4 episode 22, “YHWH“ 01:00 “Utilities are yet to determine what is behind these power surges. Speculation ranges from aging infrastructure to Chinese hackers” Ah, the story of the last twenty years: We can’t tell the difference between the consequences of our own political decisions, or someone actively trying to harm us.…

Notes for season 4 episode 21, “Asylum” 00:01 “We are being watched”, the show reminds us. In theory, the effectiveness of the Panopticon is not in the observing, but the constant reminder of the potential of being observed. 01:59 We presume that ISA have the capacity, independent of Samaritan, to hack into moving vehicles and…

Notes for season 4 episode 20, “Terra Incognita“ 0:45 Flashback-Carter brings the Anthora cups. 11:10 In 2008 Carter picks up a jade puzzle ball at the crime scene, estimates its pawn value at “twenty grand”, and wonders why a violent home-invader didn’t take it. Puzzle balls are a series of balls, nested inside each other,…

Notes for season 4 episode 19, “Search and Destroy“ 04:04 Finch claims that “86% of networked devices” are using Castellum anti-virus. I’d be surprised if 86% of desktop/laptop devices have full file-scanning anti-virus running, let alone “networked devices” as a whole. The release of Microsoft Security Essentials (and later Windows Defender) as free products means…

Notes for season 4 episode 18, “Skip“ 03:18 You can tell from the two Thunderbolt/DisplayPort ports that Finch is using a year-appropriate MacBook Pro. 08:27 Oh, Harper Rose is back. I guess this episode is auditioning two Shaw replacements. 15:50 “I bluejacked it first.” So apparently Bluejacking, years into the show, is a well enough…

Notes for season 4 episode 17, “Karma“ 02:10 2010 Finch uses a voice modulator to make a threatening phone call to Alicia Corwin. 02:58 Finch is using a surprisingly chunky laptop for 2010. 03:45 Shane Edwards is played by Patrick Kennedy, who’s one of those posh “military man in a period drama” actors but, unlike…

Notes for season 4 episode 16, “Blunt“ 02:14 There’s a pro-privacy “Stop Big Data” protest on campus. 03:14 Reference made to “Far Cry 4”, released in November 2014, three months before this episode aired. 09:31 The cash in the duffel bag had been swapped out for New York telephone directories. Definitely a move you’d see…

Notes for season 4 episode 15, “Q&A“ 01:10 Fetch and Retrieve is the in-universe version of Google (first seen being used in season 1). We see the CTO and CEO in the office. You’d assume it was a Silicon Valley company – but it appears to be headquartered in New York. 03:00 The CEO shows…

Notes for season 4 episode 14, “Guilty“ 06:10 “You’re sane… or close enough” jokes the psychologist in the context of approving a police officer to fire weapons. 07:56 “5K” is clearly intended to be read as “5G”. The episode is set in late 2015, a few years after the introduction of 4G networks. 5G started…

Notes for season 4 episode 13, “MIA“ 01:06 Finch mentions that when communicating beyond the bounds of the “Five Boroughs” mesh-net they have to speak with discretion – which suggests they’re talking in the clear, rather than using an app with an encryption layer? 03:30 Anthora coffee cup in shot. 04:11 Dani Silva returns, in…