2-4-1 POI

A One-Time-Only Offer

CBS had an offer on today for Person of Interest episodes - two in one night - which was an improvement on their current two-in-two-nights package. So that means more work for me to review and the same amount of space, so, just like the POI writers, let's not waste any!

QSO

QSO was the title of the first of tonight's two episodes, and there are three strands of plot to look at: the POI, Fusco and Shaw. We'll start, however, with the show's focus.

FOCUS

The Person of Interest cast (L-R)
Michael Emerson (Harold Finch); Amy Acker (Samantha "Root"
Groves); Jim Caviezel (John Reese); Sarah Shahi (Sameen Shaw);
Kevin Chapman (Detective Lionel Fusco)

This is a particularly Root-centric episode, and it finally shows the Machine's methodology in how it decides the different identities she takes on. It starts off with her, dressed as an NYPD traffic warden, apologising to Fusco for landing him in the hospital (time constraints again, I guess, mean we don't get to see his rescue), then her identity morphs and she takes on the guise of a ballerina to protect a Russian man from murder, and then she becomes ... well, I don't even know. She dresses up in 19th/20th century clothes and visits a haunted house where a paranormal documentary is being filmed, stealing an EMF transmitter which becomes important later on with the POI.

THE POI

Reese and Root with the latest POI,
conspiracy theorist Max Greene.

The POI, Max Greene, is a conspiracy theorist who runs a radio talk show aptly named, "Mysterious Transmissions", and Root gets a job there as his producer to protect him. Max is promptly set up by Samaritan, whose coded messages to operatives keeps causing interference that Max has cottoned on to, though he is still unsure of the code's origin. Root protects him as best she can, enlisting help from Reese, before realising she can reverse-engineer the code to send Shaw a message.

In the end, they do everything they can to protect Max but he refuses to leave and go into hiding. Given that his whole life is conspiracy, he cannot simply run from one that is trying to kill him - and so when Team Machine respect his choice and leave, he is quickly eliminated.

The POI was a very interesting storyline, but it has to be pointed out that the POI was in danger because of Samaritan, and as I said previously those are the top draw POIs these days.

SHAW

Elsewhere, Shaw is still under Samaritan's thumb. This time there is no sign of Greer, but Lambert takes her on another simulation to kill a geneticist, Ayumi Kagawa, who is trying to rebirth an extinct animal species. Shaw, bored of the simulations, kills her simply to get it over with. Only it wasn't a simulation at all - she has genuinely killed the geneticist. Shaw struggles to come to terms with this and what she knows to be reality, and considers killing herself before Root's message comes through to her. Team Machine are out there. Shaw, hope renewed, gives herself back up to Samaritan, knowing her friends are coming for her. It's a good storyline and was timed well by the writers - after two clever simulations, we are now actually seeing what is happening to Shaw in reality. This hasn't been the top storyline they've ever done, but (in spite of having wasted an ENTIRE episode on the first simulation instead of a sideplot), it's been very well-written.

FUSCO

Fusco is in hospital having been rescued from Samaritan's demolition job. But he's reached breaking point. He cannot be convinced to drop his investigation and, when he leaves hospital, he turns in to Finch the mesh-network phone with which Team Machine communicate with him, and refuses to work with them until they tell him what's going on.

This remains the most interesting plot of season 5 so far, and I'm glad that we will soon be seeing Fusco looped in to the Samaritan conspiracy. After 4 and a half seasons in the dark, he deserves it.

Final thoughts on QSO

QSO was a step up in quality from previous POIs, and had engaging sideplots which are all starting to come to a head. It's been a slow season so far, building to a sudden explosion of necessity that it is soon to reach. But QSO moves all the storylines forward fantastically.

(SIDE NOTE: I wrote this roundup of QSO before I watched the next episode, so at the time of writing the roundup you've just read, I had not seen Reassortment to write the roundup you'll read below. I'm now going to make breakfast and strap in for today's second episode!)

REASSORTMENT

In the second of today's double header, Reese and Finch go undercover in a hospital where a deadly superflu breaks out. But we'll begin with where the episode starts: Shaw.

SHAW'S ESCAPE

Finally, Sameen Shaw is away from Samaritan. Given new hope by Root's message in the previous episode, Shaw executes her long-awaited escape plan. She knocks out the nurse, disables the keycard scanner from inside and escapes through a hole she has created and hidden behind a basin affixed to the wall (yeah, cos in reality that wouldn't be discovered instantly).

Samaritan operative Jeremy Lambert in If-Then-Else

Shaw emerges in a prison cell - in Johannesburg, South Africa, breaks out of the cell and makes a run for it. Of course, it isn't that easy, however, and Lambert catches up to her as she tries to flee the prison. He cheerfully explains this is all just another simulation and her ceaseless escape attempts are pointless. To vent her frustration, she shoots him dead.

Good night, Lambert, because this isn't all a simulation. This time Shaw really has escaped, and, although Lambert's words had me worried, I was sure this was for once real because the Machine kept switching from shots in Johannesburg to its team in New York - and it could only do that if it was seeing those events happen. So Shaw is now free of Samaritan, but how will she evade it as she travels back to New York?

THE POI

Today's POI was Daniel Ko, a businessman who ends up in the hospital with the flu. He is given an injection to help, only it transpires that what he was unknowingly injected with human flu virus, which merged with the flu he was already suffering from to create a contagious superflu. So in essence, Ko was the perpetrator, albeit in the style of the victim.

The outbreak is discovered to have been engineered by Samaritan, who are targeting three members of the hospital staff that keep asking questions about the new medication distribution system Samaritan has implemented. However, it is actually only targeting two people - a nurse and a doctor -as the third, an administrator, is a Samaritan plant to destroy the antivirals that could prevent the outbreak from killing innocent civilians.

Samaritan operative Jeff Blackwell, who is discovering more and more he cannot handle the missions Samaritan are tasking him with, is sent into the quarantined hospital as an insurance policy to kill the nurse and doctor, and he makes a good fist of it. He ends up in fights with Fusco (who he stabs with the needle) and Reese, but escapes and meets with his handler Mona, who reveals that Samaritan is collecting data about the genetic makeup of all humans, in order to wipe out diseases across the world. Blackwell wants out, however, and his conundrum will provide an interesting storyline in the coming episodes.

FUSCO

Having split from Team Machine, Fusco goes one step further in this episode. He hunts the driver of the truck who delivered the explosives to the building whose demolition he was caught in the middle of - by speaking to Elias. Elias gives him a lead, but also warns Fusco to be careful.

Fusco speaks to Elias's contact and is given photos of drivers working for that truck company. He immediately recognises Jeff Blackwell, and follows his trail all the way to the hospital, where Blackwell stabs him with an infected syringe and escapes.

After the Machine synthesises a cure - and has Root pretend to be a CDC inspector to deliver it to the hospital - everyone is saved, including Fusco. Later on at the precinct, Reese tries to warn Fusco off again, but Fusco has decided he wants a new partner, even going so far as to throw away the bobblehead camera Finch and Reese gave him early in season 1.

These arguments - Fusco being refused information about Samaritan and Root and Finch's debates over the Machine's capabilities - were interesting at first but are growing quickly tiresome now. They are being dragged out too long: a decision needs to be made now so that both of these plots can move forward.

Final thoughts

QSO and Reassortment do a good job of moving the plots forward in some ways, and just extending them in others. Shaw has finally escaped the Samaritan facility but isn't free yet and has to get back to New York from South Africa, while Fusco continues to be kept in the dark and Finch won't budge about the Machine, and Reese continues to just intertwine all the storylines.

After eight episodes - and with only five remaining - this final season of Person of Interest needs to hot up quickly or it risks its final season falling horribly flat.

But I have faith it will do, because the storylines are all in place for a fantastic ending to this incredible show. Bring on next week's episodes!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Sam