PERSON OF INTEREST ROUNDTABLE: The Devil You Know

Person of Interest 4.09: The Devil You Know

I was out of town last week, so we didn’t get a chance to discuss last week’s excellent Point of Origin, so we’ll throw some discussion of both episodes in this week’s roundtable.

1)      Dominic

Cay: Wow, the showrunners weren’t kidding when they told us at the beginning of the season that he would be a force to be reckoned with! He’s so calmly diabolical – renovating the youth center under the guise of keeping kids safe, but using it for recruitment and even being willing to kill people on the premises, for instance. He never seems to get upset about anything, just calmly plans, which makes him particularly dangerous. Winston Duke has really nailed this role.

It’s all the much worse knowing that Shaw had him and then let him go! All of this could have been prevented. I’ve been thinking about whether Samaritan or the Machine are involved in the whole Elias-Dominic war. It seems that the Machine thinks that Elias is important enough to risk Team Machine’s covers for, but I’m still not sure if this is something that Samaritan has somehow put in motion or if it just was going to happen anyway.

Karen: Winston is indeed amazing in this role. I feel like it’s early in the season for the showrunners to start showing us the start of the interweaving storylines, but it kinda makes me excited to see where all of this is going. Dominic wants to figure out who the eff Team Machine is while they’re trying to take out Samaritan – and Vice/Versa, then Elias VS The Brotherhood… It’s all gonna end up coming together, and it won’t be pretty.

When it starts tangling up this early I have to assume there will be:
a. Fallout (significant death)
b. Betrayal (Elias? Root? Samarinator?)
c. A LOT of damage done to Team Machine. Be it Monetarily, Alias-wise, or Angsty; something will go down.

2)      Elias’ fail safe (literally)

Cay: Why do I never see this stuff coming on this show?! I spent pretty much the whole episode thinking this would be the end of Elias (was pretty sure Reese would survive, though). In the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure how much damage it actually did to Dominic’s organization, but the loss of Anthony (Scarface) gives Elias increased motivation to take out Dominic forever. The bond between Elias and Anthony was also great here. Elias’ character is fascinating in his complexity – you want to root for him because he seems kind of like one of us, except for the fact that he’s killed dozens of people and runs a major criminal organization. He’s as likeable as he is dangerous – another great example of how multifaceted and ethically complex pretty much all the characters are on POI.

Karen: Getting to know a bit about Elias/Anthony and their bond was great, and then seeing that play out when Anthony LITERALLY sacrificed himself… crazytown. I echo your comments exactly.

I’ll add these translations of the latin phrases Anthony and Elias uttered in this episode. Anthony says “Morior Invictus,” which means “I die unvanquished.” Elias counters later with “Invictus Maneo,” translating to “I remain unvanquished.”

3)      Shaw’s cover (RIP)

Cay: Well, Samaritan is apparently done with subtlety. Shooting up an entire department store makeup counter is going to make the news. Martine totally gives me a creepy terminator-like vibe that only gets stronger with each episode. The idea that she now commands an army is horrifying. As is the fact that now Team Machine’s safety depends on Shaw laying low. If there are two people who you don’t want to have to keep under wraps, it’s definitely Reese and Shaw. Clearly Shaw is outed and Reese’s cover is getting thinner and thinner as well I would think. Finch and Root would probably do well to drug them both for a few days to gain some time to think.

Karen: Yeah, we didn’t see that coming, right? The makeup counter girl thing wasn’t her bag to begin with, so she can’t be too heartbroken. The girl-on-girl mall shootout was awesome – although a little too out in the open for Finch’s taste I’m sure. Trying to keep Shaw under the radar is going to be interesting. I’m not sure how they’re going to handle it. I’d love to see them inject some humor into her seclusion, but there’s sure to be some hand-wringing. And if she escapes in order to get something done and ends up becoming a statistic (i.e. a number)… well, I’ll just cry in my post-toasties. A LOT.

4)      Things are looking bleaker than bleak

Cay: I’m becoming more and more convinced that we’re not going to make it through the midseason finale without a body count. I really feel like one of the 5 main characters is going to die (again!). It’s a good thing that I’m not a POI writer, because I have no idea where the show can go from here. Samaritan seems unstoppable, their covers are all hanging by a thread (what happens when Greer and Samaritan find those servers?).

Speaking of servers…there were 7 servers – for seven people. What’s going on with Shaw’s little hacker army? If they were important enough to protect, they must be doing something, although we haven’t seen them or heard about them since. Hmmm…

Karen: Yeah, that’s an understatement. I can’t help thinking they’re heading us down the lonely road of grim-reaperdom. We’re almost upon the one-year anniversary of Carter’s untimely demise, and it feels like they’re bound and determined to make it an annual event. Cue spooky dread-inducing music here.

5)      Gunfights

Cay: On the subject of body count, I think this episode may win the award for the largest number of rounds fired in one POI episode. Yet, somehow it seemed like almost nobody actually got hit.

Karen: RIGHT?! It’s like they were all Stormtroopers or something. Although they hit every single eyeliner pencil, not a single extra was harmed in the making of this episode. Great shootout scenes though. There’s always a part of me that kinda wants to see a little bloodshed – just to make the scene a little realistic. Not death, just a nick here or there.

6)      Favorite scenes/lines

Cay: There weren’t a lot of quotes that just jumped out at me this week, maybe because it was just so intense that there wasn’t even room for flashes of humor. Probably the scene that touched me most were the scenes that showed love – Root saving Shaw and trying to keep her (and them) safe, Elias’ relationship with Anthony.

Karen:I loved the latin phrases between Elias and Anthony. Quite touching. And the Mall shootout was epic. Side note: Dominic/Elias = Samaritan/The Machine?

Cay: Good thought! Unlike on most shows, I don’t think we can necessarily count on the good guys winning.

What did you guys think? Tell us in the comments!

Watch Person of Interest on Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS!