A More Perfect Union

Person of Interest's 5x06 - "A More Perfect Union"

CBS is burning through Person of Interest at lightning pace, desperate to get it off its network completely. As long as it doesn't go down a FOX-Firefly route and jumble the episode order before refusing to air the final three, I'll be quite happy. So let's talk about the latest: "A More Perfect Union".

Pace

There are three episodes set to air this week, 5x06-5x08. Today's was 5x06 - the other two air tonight - and I want to make this roundup short and sweet today, since I'm busy with a Person of Interest/Castle crossover fiction novella I'm writing, so here we go.

The POI

The Machine doesn't spit out a Social Security Number today, it spits out a marriage licence number. So it's safe to say the bride and groom could both be in immediate danger - or present the danger themselves. The groom is an average Joe, and the bride is the heiress of a $600m+ horse racing fortune. Instantly, it's presumed the father is quite unhappy with the match, and wants to take the groom out.

Reese goes undercover as, of all things, stripper security, and Finch goes undercover as "Uncle Ralph", the uncle of the Irish groom (and it is quite a treat to see Michael Emerson have to speak with a terrible Irish accent, and later sing with it). Root turns up to help later on, disguised as a caterer, at which point they all duly discover the trio of hitmen are not here to murder either the bride or groom, but instead the family photographer. She's accidentally snapped a photo of the bride's sister doping horses to make them perform better, and the sister isn't too pleased at what that could mean to her future. Naturally, Reese and Root save the photographer, Maggie, and the wedding goes ahead without further ado.

CORRECT PREDICTION SIDENOTE - That Root would bring up her debate with Finch that he should arm the Machine against Samaritan, rather than let it remain in its current defenceless state, which she does while sharing a dance at the wedding with Finch. But Finch still isn't quite ready to do that, so expect at least one or two more of these conversations in the future.

Overall, the POI plot was exactly like what each non-Samaritan POI has been since s4 - decent, but not compelling. It's like, given that these POI episodes now pander to those who yearn for the pre-Samaritan days of the weekly number, the writers are putting less effort into them. They are just not as good as the Samaritan arc and it's as simple as that.

Samaritan's Influence

There is nothing about Samaritan affecting the POI storyline, but there are two Samaritan sideplots in this episode. 

SAMARITAN SIDEPLOT ONE - The first is Shaw who, having now resisted over 7000 simulations, is shown by Greer the strengths of the Samaritan system. Where the Machine can only predict crimes a few days before, Samaritan can act upon information before thousands of deaths happen wrongfully at once, ie planes falling out of the sky in two years' time because of a deal being made today to sell and install faulty parts. I have to say, it's quite a compelling argument, although I found it odd that Greer's little outing to explain this to Shaw was yet another simulation.

COMPLICATED SIMULATION DESCRIPTION - In the planes-falling-preemption simulation Greer told Shaw they were going to see something, but if that was a simulation then the original lead-me-to-your-friends simulation was actually inside of the planes-falling-preemption simulation all along.

Eh? Methinks you've mis-written this sideplot, Melissa Scrivner-Love.

Anyway, Shaw remains under Samaritan's thumb, but I'm glad they've stopped going down the lead-me-to-your-friends avenue - at least for now. And with this fresh simulation storyline, the writers have begun to make Samaritan like Elias - good in some ways, but still definitely very bad. The lines are blurring, which is something I'm actually surprised POI has waited until this long to do with Samaritan, given blurred lines between good and bad is basically the entire show's premise. Still, better late than never - even I started to think maybe Samaritan can be a good thing, and that puts me in a very interesting position as a viewer in the run-up to the second half of the season.

SAMARITAN SIDEPLOT TWO - The other Samaritan-influenced sideplot is Fusco's investigation. Root gives him a lead to Howard Carpenter, a man who wants payment for a demolition permit authorised by Bruce Moran - but Moran claims he never authorised it. When Fusco goes to the demolition site, he stumbles upon the bodies of both Moran and Carpenter, the previous POI Krupa Naik and dozens of bodies of other missing persons. He tries to leave, but is then knocked to the ground as the demolition begins. What a thrilling cliffhanger! I'm hooked and thank God there's two episodes tonight!

Final words

This was a mostly average episode, but the Greer/Shaw and Fusco sideplots carry enough weight to give this episode a good review. And the next two episodes look to continue directly on from where today's left off.

In 5x07, the Greer/Shaw nobility sideplot will continue and add to my delightful confusion over Samaritan's true evilness, while in the main POI plot Root goes undercover to protect a conspiracy theorist, and elsewhere Fusco will be trapped in a building being demolished.

In 5x08, Reese and Finch are trapped in a hospital with their POI and a deadly virus; Shaw struggles with Samaritan's wickedness as much as I am, and Blackwell, Samaritan's newest agent, has second thoughts.

BRING.

IT.

ON.

Thanks for reading everybody, see you tomorrow!

Sam