Epilogue for

Death of Innocence Series

This story was written to fit into the time gap after The Crossing/The Devil's Share and 4C, when Reese returns (involuntarily, at first) to the Work of the Team. He thinks he's on his way to Istanbul, then, but it doesn't quite work out that way. The Machine had other ideas, and for the first time, acts on its own to intervene.

I happen to like that idea. Finch has provided a rich history of acceptable norms for behavior by his own actions, and the Machine has absorbed these norms since it first became 'conscious' years before. I believe the Machine would continue to follow those norms as it began to act more and more independently over time, had the series continued along a different arc.

So, it's been important for me to allow those boundaries to be honored between these episodes of the original TV show. I constructed this series to fit neatly into the space provided by the series, so that, indeed, Reese would still be available to board that plane and rescue that young man. It's only because of the richness of the characters and the premise of the original show, as well as the outstanding abilities of the cast to bring it all to life that we could even hope to keep breathing life into them, so long after it ended.

I suppose that there's a little more of the story that could still be explored. Where did Reese go after he left Finch in the Library Office, before he actually boarded the plane to Istanbul?

Fun to contemplate...

Thanks for reading and allowing these wonderful characters to keep going. We loved them too much to let them go like that...

Take care,

Doc0517