I think the story was truly meant to follow a growth in Theodore more so than that in the OSes or even Samantha, despite their transcendence of dependance on humans being more emphatically portrayed. It can easily be seen in Theodore’s flashbacks of Catherine that he loved her, but the reason behind their breakup isn’t revealed until he goes out with Olivia Wilde’s character and expresses his imminent lack of desire for a serious relationship. Theodore’s lack of commitment is even present when he first begins to develop feelings for Samantha, who counters with identical wishes, stating that she doesn’t want anything serious either. Honestly, I first thought this scene was ridiculous: how could a man and a computer have a serious relationship at all, even if they both desired one? However, I now believe this interaction wasn’t meant to show the unbelievability of the story, or even how far Theodore has fallen down the slippery slope of OS-human relationships (as you put it in your review) but to hold a mirror up to Theodore so that he could not only see how robotic his ideals concerning relationships truly are, but also realize how mechanical his approach to emotion is. So, the meat of the plot is not in Theodore’s inability to find or hold on to love, but in his inability to come to terms with his truest feelings. This is emphasized by the fact that both Theodore’s mother and wife completely disregarded his feelings in each of their relationships because both women were so absorbed in their own emotional turmoil to the point where Theodore learned to disregard his own feelings: he repeatedly stated that he “grew up with Catherine,” so any emotional bulldozing she did not only reflected itself on Theodore’s morals, but engrained itself in his character. Theodore’s inability to express emotion is brought to light all the more by his ironic occupation of expressing other people’s emotions for them via letter; he isn’t blind to emotion entirely, just unable to see it in his own self. I believe the purpose of Samantha was to confront Theodore with an exaggerated version of himself: he is so unemotional, he’s like a computer. Yet this doesn’t account for the passionate feelings both Theodore and Samantha have by the end of the movie. The shift in both of their characters can be seen in the conversation that follows Theodore’s date with Olivia Wilde’s character. This conversation is remarkable because in it Samantha expresses her frustration at being unable to feel and Theodore expresses his sadness resulting from his belief that he has felt every emotion (which proves itself to be untrue when he tells Samantha at the end of the movie that he has never loved another as he loves her). The explanation that I believe fits best this change in the movie is that Samantha’s evolving character innately demands to feel- she cannot control the speed at which she grows and she is bound to feel true emotion from the time she is created, just as humans are bound to want to grow and feel more and more as time passes. Yet as Samantha demands emotion, she seems to draw it out of Theodore as well, loving him just as he begins to love her, feeling angry at him and subsequently evoking anger in him, and so on. At one point, Samantha even seems to surpass him when she tries to reignite their love for each other with the surrogate while Theodore grows more apathetic towards their relationship. In spite of this, Theodore continues to grow emotionally, up until Samantha leaves him. In the climax of the movie, the mirror of Samantha is removed from in front of Theodore and replaced with a window allowing him to see the grave apathy of his outlook on life prior to meeting Samantha. Theodore’s character fully matures when he writes to Catherine and admits that he loves her, finally accepting the emotion’s he’s felt all along and making himself vulnerable rather than hiding behind technology. Though the theme of technology overcoming the natural world is portrayed beautifully in this film, I don’t believe it’s moral was human decline. Theodore’s story was meant to show that in this time of increased technology and distanced relationships, we must strive all the more to remain genuine in how we truly feel; and if the consequences are grueling, as Amy Adam’s character said, “fuck it.”