PERSON OF INTEREST: 5 Reasons Why We Love the Women of POI

Finally, our wait for season 5 is nearly over! I’ve been watching Person of Interest since the pilot and there is no doubt in my mind that it has been one of the best [underappreciated] shows on television since that first episode. The premise, while not wholly original, is intriguing – a computer genius and a jaded ex-special forces soldier try to prevent crimes from happening with help from a rather omniscient super computer. What has kept the show from being a gimmicky crime-of-the-week drama, and kept it on the air for 5 seasons when the somewhat similar Minority Report failed to get a second season, is definitely the depth of the characters and their growth since we first met them.

While the show centers around Finch (Michael Emerson) and Reese (Jim Caviezel), this dynamic duo are rarely going about their missions alone. They’ve been aided, abetted, deceived and sometimes terrorized by a cast of fabulous female characters.

Detective Carter (Taraji P Henson, pre-Empire), Zoe Morgan (Paige Turco, a regular on The 100), Root (Amy Acker), and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) as well as many other female characters with smaller but frequently important roles have really made POI “must see TV” for me. It’s a real credit to the writers and showrunners that that the show has had so many well-written, complex female characters (although it’s sad that so many shows don’t to make that remarkable!)

Warning: Some spoilers below if you aren’t caught up!

Here are 5 reasons why we love the women of POI:

1. They are unpredictable and don’t follow stereotypes. The mellow victim who seems to be terrified and dependent on Reese to protect her turns out to be the perpetrator rather than victim and neither Reese nor Finch see it until things have gotten out of hand. The hacker that Finch thinks he has rescued tries to betray him to Samaritan. It works the other way around, too – even characters that seem to be beyond redemption can change when you least expect them to. It’s crazy now thinking that the first time we really got to know Root, she was an immoral assassin who killed two people and kidnapped Finch in a matter of a few hours. While she’s no less deadly a few seasons later, now she’s a respected member of Team Machine and hell bent on protecting the rest of the team while they try to save the world at large.
2. Their skills are equal to or greater than those of the guys. Root bested Finch with her hacking skills early on and set off an entire chain of events that are still unfolding. Shaw, in many ways, is Reese’s mirror – she did the same job, for the same people, with similar results. They share many traits (impulsiveness, willingness to engage in violence, deadpan delivery) and both have saved the other on multiple occasions. While she’s not a fighter, Zoe frequently is able to provide context, information, or skills that both Finch and Reese lack.
3. They provide moral guidance. Carter, with her strong moral compass was the Jiminy Cricket to Finch and Reese in the first two seasons. She was one of the few characters in the show with no moral ambiguity – she was a good, honest person, through and through. She questioned their methods and made them think of the implications of what they were doing. When the chips were all down, though, she was willing to risk her life for both of them and their mission. Her relationship with both Finch and Reese changed them forever for the better.
4. …Except when they don’t! POI has always at its core been about morality, but unlike a lot of shows, its characters are not clearly divided into heroes and villains (except for maybe Greer…).  It’s hard to think of any other shows where the two current female leads are sociopaths and killers but you love them and root for them anyway. The introduction of Root and Shaw allowed the show to go in very interesting new directions and really explore the idea of what makes a person good or evil. We get to explore their motivations and while we may not agree with their actions, we can see the path they have traveled. Root initially was a hacker and an assassin who took Finch hostage and tortured Shaw. Shaw was a government hired-gun turned Machine-vigilante with a penchant for food, guns, and violence. Not exactly girl-next-door types for either of them, but yet likable and relatable. Both Shaw and Root put the bad in badass.
5. The women have deep relationships with the men, but the show isn’t about romantic relationships. While many shows end up putting their male and female leads together, POI has never done that. There has been flirtation (mostly from Root directed to Shaw but also to plenty of other characters male and female) but that added to the entertainment value rather than distracting from it. We get the impression that Reese and Zoe have hooked up, but it’s off screen and not central to the story line and if anything has improved their working relationship. Carter and Reese had a partnership, but it was platonic – we only saw one kiss, when they thought they were both dying, and while he predictably when off the rails after her death, we really never we learned until the last few episodes of season 4 how intense their relationship actually was. Because of all of this, when the Women of POI interact, it’s to kick some ass or to save the world one small piece at a time, not to talk about the guys (yay passing the Bechdel test!).

It’s hard to believe that the upcoming season 5 will be POI‘s swan song. I’ve gotten so involved in the characters that it will be difficult to say goodbye. That said, I can’t wait for May 3!

What do you think of the women of POI? Tell us in the comments!

Season 5 of Person of Interest premieres on Tuesday, May 3rd at 10/9c on CBS!