Person of Interest, season 3, disc 5
Apr. 19th, 2017 06:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI was offline for all fannish intents and purposes for a few days, but I did spend that time working my way through Person of Interest episodes. Here are my thoughts.
Spoilers for 3.17 / to 3.20 Aftermath.
I thought these four episodes were similar in quality, in that they all had good stuff in them, moved the bigger story along, sometimes breathlessly, but also had problems, possibly because they were cramming too much into each episode.
3.17 /
Not for the first time, they changed the titles, which I like, preparing us for following Root, whose Machine-directed missions are getting tricksier, especially when she’s told she to work out with a man who is a NOTW for Team Machine. Oh, and Vigilance (the anti-Government, pro-privacy ones) and Decima (the company that acquired Samartian and, FINALLY, a name) are after him. Add a tragic past connection to Root (yes, Root, it was a Learning Moment) and that he’s a link in the chain to switching Samaritan on, (very, very bad according to Root and the Machine(, and you’ve got high stakes in a slightly different spin on things.
I liked the use of graphics to bring the Machine more into things.
Emerson and Acker bring epic emotional heft to their scenes. Also, I realised ‘I wasn’t talking to you’ is kind of Root’s catchphrase.
Shaw was left to fend for herself against Vigilance, which of course she managed. And there was that whole operating on Root again squickiness thtough which I had to cover my eyes.
3.18 Allegiance
There were a lot of holes you could pick in this one, like Team Machine’s assumption that the NOTW was a terrorist. But then Reese had the chutzpah to come up with an entertainingly crazy plan to break in and out of the UN and deal with French Foreign Legion types and save the day.
Meanwhile the man from Decima tried to make Root an offer to get her to question her loyalty to the Machine, who’d been smart enough to adapt and use Bear.
We did learn some stuff about Shaw’s mother and background, and after a lot of fun was poked at him, Lionel showed he was a soft touch.
3.19 Most Likely To...
I am irked that there doesn’t seem to be any Shaw/hot NOTW fic after this episode (I have totally checked imdb to see if the actor returned).
There were too many strands in this ep, and I think some of them would have been better served if it had been a two-parter. Starting with the team failing to save a NOTW because of Vigilance was impactful. Messrs Finch and Fusco went to Washington to investigate the dead NOTW’s connection to Northern Lights (aka the Machine’s government day job), while Reese and Shaw were also sent out of town to investigate a new NOTW...at his high school reunion. Cue amusement at Shaw’s discomfort, Reese paying for his cover’s past misdeeds, the hot NOTW (who was in The Dark Knight to my GLEE) being into Shaw while the rest of his classmates assumed he’d killed his high school girlfriend. Well, of those there who were former classmates. We had an amusing Shaw and Reese share a bed trope aversion.
And Vigilance kept turning up everywhere. Fortunately, Root also turned up in Washington to call Harold ‘Harry’ and save his and Fusco’s life. Big finish, as Root got a totally new mission of saving Relevant Numbers.
3.20 Aftermath
I was a little surprised/disappointed that we didn’t follow Root and Shaw as they went after a ‘relevant’ number (or numbers) but stuck with Finch and Reese in Washington. The NOTW was a real politician, and the boys wondered whether it was Vigilance or Decima or someone else that wanted him dead. Meanwhile we and the Machine knew that Decima was positioning Samaritan as Northern Lights’s replacement (!?!?) Fortunately (or not for her, because she eventually got shot) Shaw was released to help the boys.
Now, I was a bit exhausted when I watched this ep, but even as John came to the conclusion that the Machine wanted them to kill the NOTW to slow down giving Samaritan access to the Government’s data and Finch was Not Having It, I didn’t get why it was a binary choice between killing or releasing him, even as the net closed in on them. Why not release the financial proof that he was in Decima’s pay and discredit him, thus destroying his position of power? So, the big emotional and ethical sticky point didn’t land for me, even though it was interesting to see how the past few months have affected Shaw’s moral compass. In that she has one now.
We ended with Decima’s boss using his trial day to find a terrorist in New York to hunt after Harold. I wondered who was looking after Bear right then...
Spoilers for 3.17 / to 3.20 Aftermath.
I thought these four episodes were similar in quality, in that they all had good stuff in them, moved the bigger story along, sometimes breathlessly, but also had problems, possibly because they were cramming too much into each episode.
3.17 /
Not for the first time, they changed the titles, which I like, preparing us for following Root, whose Machine-directed missions are getting tricksier, especially when she’s told she to work out with a man who is a NOTW for Team Machine. Oh, and Vigilance (the anti-Government, pro-privacy ones) and Decima (the company that acquired Samartian and, FINALLY, a name) are after him. Add a tragic past connection to Root (yes, Root, it was a Learning Moment) and that he’s a link in the chain to switching Samaritan on, (very, very bad according to Root and the Machine(, and you’ve got high stakes in a slightly different spin on things.
I liked the use of graphics to bring the Machine more into things.
Emerson and Acker bring epic emotional heft to their scenes. Also, I realised ‘I wasn’t talking to you’ is kind of Root’s catchphrase.
Shaw was left to fend for herself against Vigilance, which of course she managed. And there was that whole operating on Root again squickiness thtough which I had to cover my eyes.
3.18 Allegiance
There were a lot of holes you could pick in this one, like Team Machine’s assumption that the NOTW was a terrorist. But then Reese had the chutzpah to come up with an entertainingly crazy plan to break in and out of the UN and deal with French Foreign Legion types and save the day.
Meanwhile the man from Decima tried to make Root an offer to get her to question her loyalty to the Machine, who’d been smart enough to adapt and use Bear.
We did learn some stuff about Shaw’s mother and background, and after a lot of fun was poked at him, Lionel showed he was a soft touch.
3.19 Most Likely To...
I am irked that there doesn’t seem to be any Shaw/hot NOTW fic after this episode (I have totally checked imdb to see if the actor returned).
There were too many strands in this ep, and I think some of them would have been better served if it had been a two-parter. Starting with the team failing to save a NOTW because of Vigilance was impactful. Messrs Finch and Fusco went to Washington to investigate the dead NOTW’s connection to Northern Lights (aka the Machine’s government day job), while Reese and Shaw were also sent out of town to investigate a new NOTW...at his high school reunion. Cue amusement at Shaw’s discomfort, Reese paying for his cover’s past misdeeds, the hot NOTW (who was in The Dark Knight to my GLEE) being into Shaw while the rest of his classmates assumed he’d killed his high school girlfriend. Well, of those there who were former classmates. We had an amusing Shaw and Reese share a bed trope aversion.
And Vigilance kept turning up everywhere. Fortunately, Root also turned up in Washington to call Harold ‘Harry’ and save his and Fusco’s life. Big finish, as Root got a totally new mission of saving Relevant Numbers.
3.20 Aftermath
I was a little surprised/disappointed that we didn’t follow Root and Shaw as they went after a ‘relevant’ number (or numbers) but stuck with Finch and Reese in Washington. The NOTW was a real politician, and the boys wondered whether it was Vigilance or Decima or someone else that wanted him dead. Meanwhile we and the Machine knew that Decima was positioning Samaritan as Northern Lights’s replacement (!?!?) Fortunately (or not for her, because she eventually got shot) Shaw was released to help the boys.
Now, I was a bit exhausted when I watched this ep, but even as John came to the conclusion that the Machine wanted them to kill the NOTW to slow down giving Samaritan access to the Government’s data and Finch was Not Having It, I didn’t get why it was a binary choice between killing or releasing him, even as the net closed in on them. Why not release the financial proof that he was in Decima’s pay and discredit him, thus destroying his position of power? So, the big emotional and ethical sticky point didn’t land for me, even though it was interesting to see how the past few months have affected Shaw’s moral compass. In that she has one now.
We ended with Decima’s boss using his trial day to find a terrorist in New York to hunt after Harold. I wondered who was looking after Bear right then...
