PERSON OF INTEREST ROUNDTABLE: 6,741 and ShotSeeker

Episode 5.04 6,741

That sex scene!

Cay: At first it seemed like Root was trying way too hard and Shaw wasn’t having any of it, but then all of a sudden Shaw was totally on-board. It seemed a bit off, but now knowing that it was a simulation, that makes some sense. Their pillow talk rang true, though – of course these two would lay there after a night of passion and discuss torture as only two psychopath lovers can.

Karen: I watched this episode twice, the second time with my husband. The second time around, I played my porn music clip (I usually play it on my podcasts as a gag when we talk about steamy scenes) just before the sex scene and I cracked him up. Pretty awesome though. Even if it wasn’t real.

Rueben: I was taken aback by that scene at first because Shaw didn’t seem to want anything to do with Root and then it was full throttle, let’s wreck the safe house to get down and dirty. Once it was revealed that it was all a simulation I had to wonder if she did the same bait and switch each time.

For a while it looked like Greer was dead, but it didn’t feel as good as I thought it would

Karen: Oh, it felt good to me… for a while. Until Shaw shot John too. Then I was just queasy. Putting the moldy cherry on top of the melted sundae was the suicide, and by then I had forgotten about Greer. Why did they have to tease us so… why? Mean.

Cay: Yeah, the fact that Greer was so easy to kidnap should have been my first tip-off and I too got very stressed by how things were playing out – Shaw being played and not realizing that she was being played. At that point I wanted him to stay alive so they could get more information from him.

Rueben: I have to agree that the ease by which they captured Greer was a little too easy (and quite frankly it was a little too easy for Shaw to have gotten off whatever island she was supposedly on too), that it should have been an indication of what was going on. As for how I felt about Greer supposedly being dead at Shaw’s hands, I didn’t actually feel anything except apprehension that it was too good to be true.

So the whole episode was a simulation in Shaw’s mind! At what point did you realize that it wasn’t real?

Cay: Thank goodness, because it was horrible! Reminded me of Peeta in the Hunger Games, being sent back to kill Katniss. While it was a powerful episode, the whole thing was quite stressful to me. Interesting looking at it having seen ShotSeeker – first we see over 6,700 simulations where Shaw kills herself rather than kill Root, and then we see over 10 billion simulations of the Machine losing to Samaritan.

The whole episode had a surreal quality about it, but I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t just intentionally “artsy”. The plot also seemed a bit too convenient, a bit contrived. But, I’ll admit that I really didn’t know it was fake until she killed Reese, and even then it took a few beats for me to go back and forth in my mind about whether Nolan and Plageman (the creator and showrunner) would actually kill Reese off this early in the season.

Karen: I didn’t know for sure until the end, but I had an inkling when she was with Root in the “safe house.” The quick cuts weren’t in keeping with how the show is shot, and something just seemed off. I didn’t know what was off, so I didn’t get tuned in until later.

Rueben: I think in the back of my mind I knew something wasn’t right when Shaw got away from her captors on that boat; and somehow had money to pay for the taxi and the stuff at the pharmacy. It was a real roller coaster ride no matter what, but when she shot Reese, I just kept thinking and hoping that it wasn’t real.

Sarah Shahi gave a powerful performance 

Karen: Amazing. We’ll have to nominate her for ‘Women of the Week’ this week. Amy deserved it last week, and now another one of our ladies. Sarah packed her hour with a ton of hurt and pain, and managed to show strength while looking incredibly fragile.

Cay: My thoughts exactly – the actors, writers, and the show in general deserve much more attention that all have gotten over the past few years. Both Amy and Sarah really brought it this episode – you could feel Shaw’s confusion and pain.

Rueben: I agree that she needs to be one of the “Women of the Week” for sure. Given how long she’s been gone from the show, this was one incredible way to bring her back with full force. She did an amazing job!

Favorite lines/scenes?

Karen: I liked seeing Shaw in the drug store. She sure knows how to get the attention of The Machine, huh?

Cay: Or Samaritan, or both! That poor employee is probably traumatized for life! I guess my favorite scene was in the church because it was cool and because they actually seemed to be one-up on Greer for a short period of time.

Rueben: I’m always bad with remembering lines but I have to admit watching Shaw get the better of Lambert in the elevator before she made her escape was pretty terrific.

Overall thoughts?

Karen: I’m going to repeat this over and over, but this season is hitting on all cylinders. I am so sad it’s ending it’s not funny. These are shaping up to be some of my all-time favorites.

Cay: This episode was not my favorite because it was just too gut-wrenching, but I can’t disagree with you when it comes to the rest of the season so far!

Rueben: The show is really knocking it out of the park so far; and it’s just a shame that it will be coming to an end.

Episode 5.05 ShotSeeker

This week’s POI storyline was relevant to the Samaritan plot, but also pretty interesting. They have a similar, less sophisticated program to ShotSeeker in many cities now.

Karen: So timely. John Oliver just did a piece on the 911 crisis, so seeing a POI where the same thing was central to the plot was kinda cool. My mindset was right there. I highly recommend his show by the way, Last Week Tonight on HBO.

Cay: Totally off-topic to POI, I have a major crush on John Oliver…back to POI, it was cool that the POI worked for the police and was a brilliant guy with nothing but good intentions who stumbled onto something that they weren’t supposed to notice. And once again we see Samaritan interfering in major ways in the city, although the reason for killing (presumably) the scientist still isn’t clear – what is the endgame with that?

Rueben: Since I prefer to not watch the news, I am usually out of the loop on a lot of what is going on in the world let alone that there are programs like ShotSeeker out there. Mindful neglect on my part, but I found it all quite interesting.

After they seemed to be forging a great partnership a few episodes ago, Finch wasn’t playing very nice with Root this episode and she was clearly resenting it. 

Karen: Hubs and I watched these two episodes together, and my remark about this was that this was his baby – Root was a ‘late adopter’. Finch has every right to do this by himself. She has no call to be jealous. Root needs to pull up her big girl pants and realize that he created The Machine, and he wants to take responsibility for her. She’ll probably have to assert herself at some point in order to make The Machine more proactive, but that time is not now.

Cay: I felt kind of bad for her, because I think she felt like he was going behind her back. I can certainly appreciate that they have very different points of view, but after being so much of a loner for so many years, Root seems to have finally figured out how to have friends and partners and I hate to see her backslide because she gets ticked off at Finch for excluding her.

Rueben: I think that Finch is just really worried about the direction that Root wants to take the Machine and he wants to make sure that as it is rebuilt that it doesn’t turn into Samaritan because it so easily can. I just hope that he doesn’t push Root too far, as her deeper tendencies could resurface.

The idea of pitting baby Samaritan vs baby Machine in their little prison cell nursery is intriguing. Shame the outcome so far hasn’t been so good – 10,000,000,000:0. 

Cay: I’m betting that this initial failure will lead Finch to be more willing to consider Root’s ideas.

Karen: Yeah, as I said just up there ^^ I’m pretty sure he’ll have to compromise and make some concessions in order to ‘win’. That being said, I was holding out hope that we’d see that 0 turn into a 1 right at the end of the episode.

Rueben: I agree that Finch is probably going to have to relent and go with what Root wants to do with the Machine or else they are going to lose to Samaritan and that is going to be a REALLY bad thing.

And this is why they should have told Fusco what is going on sooner! 

Karen: RIGHT?! I’ve been saying this FOR-FRICKIN-EVER now. He needs to know. They can trust him, so why haven’t they brought him in. I got pretty mad when it seemed like they were going to bring Bruce in and keep Fusco out – I was glad they were just showing Bruce that Elias was still alive.

Cay: Yeah, he’s getting to the point where he’s really going to get them or himself in trouble if he doesn’t know. Honestly, I think he does know, he’s just not nearly as ready as Carter was to accept what he sees.

Rueben: I think by now they know they can trust him and even if they are doing it (keeping the truth from him) for his own sake, it’s time to just let the truth out. Because, as Cay said, he is either going to get himself into trouble or all of them.

Elias is alive!

Cay: Ok, I so didn’t see this coming, ever. Admittedly his gunshot seemed less fatal than Dominic’s headshot, but never in a million years did I entertain the possibility that he’s still alive. I do like the potential of having him around, definitely in Team Machine’s debt, though, I always liked the character.

Karen: Yup, I thought he was dead, dead, dead. I LOVE this development. Elias is one of my favorite characters though, so – win/win!

Rueben: I SO did not see that coming and was taken aback by that reveal. For a split second I thought we were back in the simulation; but obviously not. They did a great job in keeping that under wraps, making it a great twist in the story and an intriguing surprise. I just wonder if we’ll see any more of him.

Favorite lines/scenes?

Karen: It’s so hard to pick out something here. Probably the Elias reveal, but the whole episode was outstanding. And Fusco rallying the troops to find Reese – he’s had enough and is ready to go. He’s making a fist – good for him!

Cay: I liked the scenes with Root and Finch where Finch explained what he was doing and she likened it to a Baby Samaritan in a nursery…which just happened to be a giant Faraday cage/prison. I appreciated the irony of it being likened to a nursery and their banter. I also loved how worried Fusco got when Reese was missing and how he took charge.

Rueben: I, too, liked Fusco rallying the troops (as Karen said) in order to find Reese. He really stood out this episode.

Overall thoughts?

Karen: Again, how can this show be going away, yet we still have Dr. Ken. (Did I type that out loud?)

Cay: I think it’s just too smart for many people – it’s not so easy to just jump into, and you have to think about what you are seeing and put pieces together from long ago episodes – the mythology is dense, the topic is quite intellectual – that unfortunately limits POI’s audience and CBS just never knew what to do with it, so they cut their losses. Even these May episodes, after being shuttled around for a year, are performing as well or better than Limitless, which got it’s time slot and Monday night’s episode outperformed Blindspot as well.

Rueben: It’s a shame when a really well plotted show with great writing and acting (and reliable, good ratings) is just overlooked by the networks. That being said, the show did get five seasons and that is a feat in and of itself. I could SO see the show continue for a couple more seasons given how long some shows linger (CSI, Law & Order), but it’s all about the brass at the network not knowing what to do with a show that (for better or worse) is smarter than they are.

Memorable Quotes:

John’s a professional dick —Shaw

You put a baby Samaritan in a nursery – Root

I see you’ve done your homework, professor – Reese
More fun doing it than grading it, Mr. Reese – Finch

Wonderful, now we have to save Mr. Reese from Samaritan and Detective Fusco from himself – Finch

I guess we can take helper monkey off the endangered species list – Root

Your child needs to learn how to push back on the playground —Root

Watch all new episodes of Person of Interest on Monday at 10/9c and this week only Tuesday at 9/8 AND 10/9c on CBS!