PERSON OF INTEREST: QSO & Reassortment

5.07 QSO

It’s getting more and more complicated to figure out what is a simulation with Shaw anymore

Karen: I bet it’s worse for Shaw. ☺

Rueben: This time, to me, seemed different from the other simulations. When she shot that doctor, I worried that it was somehow real. I can’t imagine what it must have done to Shaw.

Root’s latest cover identities

Karen: Seeing her in a tutu was priceless. When she was the conspiracy theorist/radio producer, she really leaned into it.

Rueben: Those different identities were quite trippy, especially seeing Root in Colonial attire. It would’ve also been interesting to see her in action as the actual ballerina, not just her walking around in the outfit.

Cay: I loved the juxtaposition between NYPD, prima ballerina, and butter churning. Definitely right up there with the bear and bride! The fun thing about Root is you can believe that she can pull it all off.

Root offering herself up to Samaritan – how could that end well? Her judgement seems a bit in question right now

Karen: Well, to be fair, they’re all pretty desperate. And Root especially now that she knows The Machine is holding back and losing the simulation.

Rueben: In Root’s mind she has sound judgment because she WANTS Shaw back and she’ll do anything and everything to make that possible. It probably wouldn’t have ended well, but Root is being Root, don’t you think?

Cay: Of course she wants Shaw back, but turning herself in just gives Greer/Samaritan TWO of Team Machine to torture. And there’s the whole problem of The Machine communicating directly with Root.

Fusco’s had it

Karen: SO. HAVE. I. Why didn’t Finch just take him to the Subway Station? He’s already been hurt plenty. What are they keeping him safe from at this point? Let him in!

Rueben: Can you really blame him? They’ve been keeping him on the outside looking in for too long and expect so much assistance from him too. He deserves to know what’s really going on.

Cay: I completely agree. We have ended up talking about this pretty much after every episode this season but enough is enough. It’s going to be more and more frustrating for the viewers the longer that they drag this on!

Listening to “static” on the radio won’t be the same

Karen: Okay, Yeah, it was static, but the part they were listening to wasn’t actually the static. But I get what they meant. It was actually more like a signal that they hadn’t dialed completely in to. I hate when the show makes me feel like I need to nitpick. I’d like to know what the mention was.

Cay: The radio is pretty much always on in my house and car and the signal is often iffy at home. That said, in the grand scheme of things about POI that make me paranoid, this is probably lower down as there are LOTS of things! I liked the idea, though and watching Root integrate herself into the show. The show and host appealed to the X-Files lover in me and it’s yet another way for the show to remind us that maybe some of those conspiracy theories are more than just theories.

Rueben: If I listened to the radio all that much anymore, I’d probably think about this a bit more; but since I don’t… Regardless, it does make you wonder a little, doesn’t it?

Overall thoughts

Karen: It was good, but it was more of a set-up for the next couple of episodes I think. It’s unsettling how CBS is burning through this season – the tension isn’t the same, so set-up/execution pacing is off a bit. Still a very good episode, and the conspiracy theory angle was a nice mini-mirror to the whole series.

Rueben: I agree with Karen on the mini-mirror to the whole series. It really did that for sure. I enjoyed seeing more about Root and how The Machine changes her identity. It was great seeing her in action again.

Cay: Good point about how these episodes play without time in between to really reflect on them. POI is such a complex show, I think it really benefits from a week in between episodes (and the opportunity to talk it through with other fans!). I did enjoy this episode, regardless.

Memorable Lines: 

Can’t a girl ask her cop friend to look up a creepy guy without getting the third degree? – Root

I don’t mind [being called crazy] because I’m always right – Root, to Max.

5.08 Reassortment

Samaritan’s new flunkie, Jeff Blackwell,  has second thoughts

Karen: And so he should. Everyone in league with Samaritan should. But does this mean he might be the linchpin we need to turn the tide?

Rueben: I think Jeff is between a rock and a hard place at this point. Samaritan has him by the balls! But, depending on what happens with The Machine maybe there will be a way to have him be the very thing that helps bring Samaritan down. I have no idea how that would happen, but it would be great to see.

Cay: I kind of expected that he’d be dead before the end of the episode, but he’s obviously quite valuable to Samaritan. Seeing as they’ve taken so much care to introduce him, it seems like he’s got to be central to the endgame of the show.

Can Harold control Elias or will he become a liability

Karen: Elias has always been a wild card. It wouldn’t be out of the scope of possibility for him to get in the way. He really should stay under the radar – a supposed dead man has more power than a man who comes back to life.

Rueben: I’m not sure. He really is a wild card like Karen said. Given what Elias said to Harold – that line about not wanting to be around when Harold’s kettle bursts (or whatever he said), that’s a bit telling about what could potentially happen. I also think that Elias is smart enough to not jeopardize himself by leaving the safe house. Self-preservation, ya know?!

Cay: Presumably he was saved for a reason important to the plotting of the rest of the season. I have a feeling he, like Fusco, is going to stumble into Samaritan with wide-ranging implications. He’s just not the type to continue to lay low – the last time he was thought dead, he was still running his empire, now he’s laying around reading novels. That won’t last.

Samaritan’s latest plot to collect everyone’s DNA

Cay: Holy moly, can you say eugenics? This is starting to sound like every conspiracy theory on the internet (or The X-files – second reference of the night!) . This idea builds nicely on the “recalibration” or whatever it was called at the end of last season when Samaritan took out Control, Dominic, and presumably Elias. Figure out who the “problems” are and eliminate them. While previously that was based on actions, now it can be based on genetic potential!

Karen: Reminded me a little of “M.I.A.” and our sleepy little town of Maple. Is Samaritan working another angle, now organic instead of robotic? I dunno, maybe I’m off, but Samaritan is working so many sides of the fence…

Rueben: That just freaked me out as I’m the last person who wants to follow “what everyone else is doing” and watching those people standing in line for the DNA to be collected, that just unsettled me greatly. It’s like lining up lambs for the slaughter without all the blood and guts. Very unnerving.

Is Shaw finally free of the simulations? Was her escape set up? Can the team trust her if she is?

Cay: Oy, the mind games this season. She’d better be free of the simulation cause it was making MY head hurt…Assuming she is, I’m at a loss after only one viewing to decide whether she escaped on her own or was allowed to. In either case, I hope Team Machine has the sense to keep her at arm’s length when she finally returns to them.

Karen: Right? Will they have some way for us to know for sure that she’s out in the real world? I hope so, because right now I’m confounded. 6,741 was amazing, but I’m ready to know what’s real and what’s not.

Rueben: I really want to hope that that wasn’t a simulation; it felt too real this time. I, too, hope that there will be a way for us to tell that it isn’t a simulation sooner rather than later. It’s a lot to keep track of: what’s real and what’s not.

Overall thoughts

Cay: I can easily suspend my disbelief about warring artificial intelligence and how Reese and Root seem to be bulletproof, but medical stuff always gets me on TV. While the idea was interesting, I found the outbreak scenario completely implausible – it happened too quickly, was resolved too easily. And had there really been an epidemic of a lethal flu strain, security would have been good enough to prevent both Jeff and Root from getting in – there probably would have been National Guard not to mention CDC and local law enforcement. I tried not to let these implausibilities ruin the episode for me.

Karen: In my podcasts (where we discuss superhero TV) we joke about the appearance of “Handwave” the superhero, who shows up to save the day in impossible situations. He was all over this episode. He only shows when we want to dismiss the nits, so it’s a good thing – if we want to pick at them, we just grumble a lot. I got over my disbelief and enjoyed the episode, but I agree, Cay, the resolution seemed too convenient and quick to be real-worldish. That hospital would have been locked-down TIGHT.

These two episodes were pretty weak comparatively, because I’ve been really loving this season. A LOT. They weren’t awful, just not as good as the ones that came before. I’m really frustrated about Fusco, and the story should be moving forward more quickly since we have a finite amount of time ahead of us.

Rueben: I’ve really been enjoying Fusco’s journey so far, as he’s just not gonna take it anymore. Some of the episodes haven’t been that edge-of-your seat, but they haven’t been bad. I do find myself hoping for a good ending, but in a world with warring artificial intelligence, can there be such a thing?

Memorable Lines:

Underneath all of that intellect, you’re the darkest of all of us. It’s always the quiet ones we need to be afraid of.  I just hope I’m not around that day the pot finally boils over – Elias
You are mistaken – Finch

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