The Great Review Begins (Part 1: The Recap)
With Team Machine (relatively) victorious in the battle against Samaritan, Person of Interest concluded on a stunning high. I've done lengthy individual episode roundups, and I can't promise this or parts 2 and 3 will be significantly shorter, but it's time to look at season 5 as a whole and see what it did well and what didn't work as great as intended. We'll start by recapping what we know about the 13 episodes.
Episode 1: "B.S.O.D. (Blue Screen of Death)" 9/10
In the same way that Orange Is The New Black's fourth season premiere opened moments after the third season had concluded, Person of Interest's final season premiere picked up where its fourth season finale, "YHWH", left off. Team Machine had compressed the Machine's core code into RAM chips and locked them in an indestructible briefcase powered by piezoelectric batteries, but were surrounded by Samaritan agents. While Fusco dealt with the IAB fallout of Dominic's murder and Elias's supposed murder (by Samaritan's hand), Reese and Finch found their way back to the Subway together, but Root, in some style, fought off her pursuers once - and then again when her Russian hacker contact betrayed her - only for them all to reach safety and for the episode to conclude with the cliffhanger of the Machine, in whatever form it may be, booting up.
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| Screenshot of Root shooting at her Samaritan pursuers in "B.S.O.D." |
The one issue I had with "B.S.O.D." came with Root's original escape from Samaritan. I find it ironic to suggest that the premiere included one of the season's most unrealistic scenes, given that the finale has the most sci-fi moment in the entire series (more on that later), but it was beyond disbelief that it could be acceptably written for Root to be cornered inside a car taking fire from two Samaritan agents with machine guns - and not get shot once. But that was the only niggle. So why the 9/10 rating?
Well, I rated the premiere a 9 because it was so good I simply couldn't give it any less, but that one niggle forbade it receiving a 9.5 (and 10s are mythical). The episode was well-paced and high in intensity, with great action scenes interspersed with emotional turmoil over the Machine's revival and some impressive flashbacks. Every character's plot advanced organically and everything that needed to be done was squeezed into 43 and a half minutes without feeling condensed. Little nuggets of trivia such as how 300 PlayStation consoles can be used to power a supercomputer were the icing on the cake.
Episode 2: "SNAFU" 9/10
"SNAFU" continues from the "B.S.O.D." cliffhanger: will the Machine return as it once was or it is a changed entity? And indeed, it returns as an open system, something Harold Finch never wanted. However, while he endeavours to fix the Machine's glitches, he decides to leave it an open system.
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| Laurie Granger, the hitwoman |
On the subject of those glitches, it's hard to decide which is the bigger one: that the Machine is unshackled from time and unable to contextualise human behaviour, leading to it spitting out 30 numbers; or that it decides the Team Machine team are threats to it, locks Finch and Root out and sends a hitwoman to kill Reese. Fusco and Reese deal with the numbers while Finch uses the files of previous POIs to realign the Machine.
Interestingly, this glitch allows for the most glaring Team Machine oversight of the season - but it's one we all might have made in that situation. With 26 numbers left to investigate, Reese makes the decision that Jeff Blackwell isn't in any danger (or about to create any for somebody else), and leaves, only for a second cliffhanger in as many episodes to reveal that he is being recruited by Samaritan.
Another 9/10 episode. For all CBS's pressing that season 5 should contain strong links to the original premise of saving POIs, these two introductory episodes couldn't have been excluded. And because they both got 43 minutes and weren't juggling three or four plots, the writing was focused, concise and organic. Season 5 was off to a flyer.
Episode 3: "Truth Be Told" 6/10
In a Reese-centric episode, flashbacks of a mission he and Kara went on years ago are interspersed with Reese's efforts to keep the latest POI, Alex Duncan, out of the clutches of his old boss in the CIA, Terence Beale. It becomes clear that Duncan has a connection to the plot of the flashbacks, and eventually Reese realises that he and Kara killed Duncan's brother for treason. Duncan is now trying to unearth what happened to his brother, but that information is of course confidential and Beale wants to stop it from leaking. In the end, Reese lies to Duncan and says his brother was a hero, which Beale naturally affirms, and Reese and Beale part ways on pleasant terms, although they remain adversaries. Reese also decides he cannot continue his relationship with psychiatrist, Dr Iris Campbell.
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| Keith David as Terence Beale, Reese's old CIA handler |
Elsewhere, Root, using one of her rotating identities, enlists Finch to help her steal a device infected with Samaritan malware, which she then uploads to an airgapped computer in the Subway to study.
I still maintain that this is season 5's weakest episode, hence the 6/10 rating (and that was bumped up from my original 5/10 but still remains the lowest score I'll give to any of the 13 episodes); while Finch and Root's sideplot was imperative for the upcoming crusade and provided intrigue and comic relief, the actual POI storyline fell a bit flat. We're long past the stage where any Reese flashbacks actually gave us any plot-relative character building so, given the laundry list of recurring characters that could have returned, seeing Kara again out of all of them was novel but ultimately pointless. As was Iris. Also - no Fusco. 'Nuff said.
Episode 4: "6,741" 7/10
After nine months of captivity, Shaw finally escapes Samaritan's clutches and makes her way back to her friends by pretending to plan someone's murder so they receive a number. It quickly becomes clear that Shaw is mentally unstable from a chip implanted in her brain, and she spirals fast: she switches from distant to loving in a flash when she has sex with Root, insults Reese, sets out on a kamikaze mission to kidnap Greer, shoots Greer, shoots Reese and then shoots herself. And then she wakes up in the Samaritan facility, revealing to the audience that this was all a nefarious simulation (number 6741) intended to get her to lead Samaritan's operatives back to the Machine.
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| Operator: "Customer Service, how can we help you today?" Shaw: "Oh yeah, hi. I'm calling from the City Square Pharmacy on 24th Street. There's a homicide in progress. I'm about to kill Bobby Jackson." |
I think a lot of people saw this simulation revelation coming a mile off, because there were comments bemoaning the predicted concept before the episode even aired. It was disappointing then (although it did show that the writers' creative juices wouldn't be stopped even for a shortened season, and that's praise-worthy) that it came to pass, but the episode's biggest problem was the most deliberate plot device: because it was a simulation, it was thoroughly disjointed. And although it was justified by the fact that it was all a simulation, that didn't make up for it.
The episode felt constricted, squashed into the 43 minutes because there was too much to fit in and, while the twists kept getting bigger, they became simultaneously more outlandish and ridiculous, to the point where ages before the simulation reveal we knew none of this was real. However, for some of the poignant moments (Finch apologising to Shaw for giving up on her; Shaw's admission to Root before killing herself that Root is her mental safe place), the satisfaction for #Shoot fans of seeing them get it on, and that hilarious scene where Shaw threatens to kill the store assistant right in front of him, it got a 7.
Episode 5: "ShotSeeker" 8/10
Contrastingly, "ShotSeeker" was a fabulous episode. Today's POI is Ethan Garvin, who resuscitated a dying gunshot sound identification system named ShotSeeker, whose investigation into a missing person, Krupa Naik, sets up two great storylines. Firstly, it fuels Fusco's determination to find out what's going on with the less-homicides-more-suicides-and-missing-persons ploy that Samaritan is quietly implementing; and secondly, it sees the return of Elias's old accountant, Bruce Moran. Bruce wants to know who killed Elias, but Reese, even when kidnapped by Bruce's goons, refuses to tell him; Finch and Root discover files that Garvin was looking for, which Samaritan wanted to bury, and disseminate the information while Fusco protects him. The information now released, Samaritan drops its murderous interest in Garvin. In one of the final scenes, Elias is shown to have survived The Correction, and is recuperating in Team Machine's safehouse.
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| Ethan Garvin, POI in "ShotSeeker" |
The one problem - a similar system had been referenced in an episode of season 4, only it was called ShotSpotter. A minuscule niggle, especially in the grand scheme of things, but still a niggle for me. In the plot, Garvin reinvented ShotSeeker, so even a line like "We used to have ShotSpotter, but Garvin fixed the kinks and we renamed the new version ShotSeeker" would have sufficed to clear that up.
But this was rightly an 8/10. It wasn't anything explosive, but Garvin was the best POI of the two so far (and ends up being one of the best of the lot). Everything advances properly: Fusco's investigation, Bruce returns at just the right moment to lead us to Elias, and Finch begins to realise that pitting an airgapped Machine code against that of Samaritan in controlled simulations is showing the Machine to be a particularly unlikely victor. I liked Bruce in the one episode of season 4 he first appeared in, so to have him back was superb, and for him to help move Fusco along was doubly gladdening. The pace and flow of "ShotSeeker" were both excellent, and that was magnified when compared to the "6,741". A solid episode.
Episode 6: "A More Perfect Union" 8/10
The Machine's unpredictability continues when it gives the number of a marriage licence, and that works perfectly as a plot device since (as that means both the victim and perp could be anyone at the wedding) it allows for the POI's identity to be a reveal as well as the would-be killer. Reese enters the wedding as stripper security and Finch as the Irish uncle of the groom, who is marrying the daughter of a horse-racing magnate suspected of doping his horses to make them perform better when ill. Among the other suspects for both would-be killer and POI are the bride's sister, the groom's ex-girlfriend and the family photographer. The day is saved by Reese and the arrival of Root on horseback, and they spend the rest of the episode lamenting their abnormal lives and discussing the Machine's impending battle with Samaritan.
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| The Machine issues the number of a marriage licence |
Meanwhile, Shaw is taken on different simulations by Samaritan, this time as it attempts to show her how it can do more to stop bad things from happening by getting to them earlier than the Machine can; and Fusco continues to investigate the missing persons, eventually finding their bodies (including Bruce Moran's) in a tunnel scheduled for demolition - a demolition Fusco gets caught in.
I watched "A More Perfect Union" as it aired and hated it, but I was biased because I had expected an all-out Samaritan war across 13 episodes and the POIs weren't doing it for me. But when it came time to rewatch, I realised I was actually extremely excited to see it - so I must have enjoyed it subconsciously! And now I did consciously. Guessing both the POI and killer made this episode standout, but there were also some humorous punchlines, plenty of Fusco, excellent discussions about Samaritan, Shaw's simulations about Samaritan's uses, Reese's discomfort at being hit on by drunk women and did I mention Root on horseback? Again, it would have needed something spectacular to rise above an 8, but it was too good to be given anything lower.
Episode 7: "QSO" 8/10
Root reaches breaking point and demands the Machine give her a way to contact Shaw, so it sends her undercover as a producer for the host of a late-night conspiracy theory radio show. The host, Max Greene, has discovered a code posing as interference in the radio waves, but Root understands their true purpose: it's how Samaritan passes messages to its agents. While protecting Max, Root reverse-engineers the code to contact Shaw who, after being put through another simulation in which she shoots dead an innocent geneticist (only to realise it wasn't a simulation at all), is on the brink of committing suicide. Max refuses to leave, but airing his opinions leads to Samaritan eliminating him. Meanwhile, Fusco, hospitalised after being caught in the tunnel demolition, tells Finch he's done working with them if they won't read him in.
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| Conspiracy radio show host, Max Greene |
The best POI of the season. The premise of using a conspiracy theorist as a POI was great on its own and perfectly positioned amid the Samaritan arc, but the way it was utilised to further Root's search for Shaw elevated this episode further. But, ultimately, it was Max's decision to stay and complete his radio show - regardless of his fate - that made this episode great. Fusco left the team, Root found a way to contact Shaw and Shaw was stopped from committing suicide, but it was Max's choice to exert his free will to stay despite the danger that was the most poignant moment - and caused a riveting argument between Finch and Root over her and Reese's decision not to force Max to run. You just knew Max would never keep quiet about what he had witnessed, and you just knew that when he broke his promise and opened up on air Samaritan would have him killed. And perhaps that irony was beautiful: a conspiracy theorist killed by a real conspiracy. Top draw and a deserved 8/10.
Episode 8: "Reassortment" 7.5/10
The latest number, James Koh, a businessman, detours to a hospital for a checkup after his flight is redirected to New York. He is given treatment for flu, but it transpires the antibiotic he was actually given was a strain of live human flu virus which created a contagious superflu that put the hospital on lockdown. Reese and Finch try to locate the perpetrator and while they do Jeff Blackwell, blackmailed into taking out two staff members, escapes after also infecting Fusco who (in spite of distancing himself from the team) turns up after discovering Blackwell drove the truck to the demolition site Fusco was caught in. Root robs the CDC for a cure for the virus, and Shaw kills Lambert to make her final escape.
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| James Koh, with Reese following him in the background |
I liked this episode, but only more than "Truth Be Told". There was little wrong with it - I enjoy seeing Blackwell, Fusco's determination to learn the truth is a captivating plot, the mind games Lambert played with Shaw before his death were exceptional and the reveal that Samaritan engineered a virus just so everyone in the city would have to get vaccinated and it could collect their DNA was incredible - but for some reason I just didn't enjoy it as much.
The concept of Samaritan collecting DNA was clearly - much like it trying to control the global food market - going to be an arc in the planned full 5th and 6th seasons but never got the time for a focus, however it was a good thing they were added because they allowed for the stakes to rise just before the crescendo. Blackwell's handler, Mona, makes her second of two appearances in this season, but I loved her character and it's a shame she couldn't return.
Solid, just less so than the others for me, hence the point five drop from the last episode.
Episode 9: "Sotto Voce" 7/10
"The Voice", an enemy from years back, returns, orchestrating the emptying of the police precinct using multiple bomb threats so he can break out a group of Los Templarios gang members and eliminate a serial killer he hired to murder his previous employees. Aaaaaaand breathe.
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| Terry Easton, a.k.a. "The Voice" |
Yeah, so lots of Reese and Fusco trapped in the precinct, which is always good. Finch works with Elias to find out who supplied The Voice with his bombs and the Machine sends Root after a Samaritan operative, whose death at Shaw's hands finally reunites the team.
Amir, the serial killer, was a gripping villain, a smooth-acting criminal who dropped his Indian accent when he was rumbled as the bad guy. But our POI, Terry Easton, was revealed to be The Voice. He might have got away had there been more time to reuse him, but instead his character received a farewell at the hands of an Elias car bomb. And then, at the end, Reese finally tells Fusco about Samaritan and the Machine.
I don't know what it was about "Sotto Voce" but I just didn't enjoy it. After "Last Call" where The Voice was introduced this didn't live up to the character hype, and it was too easy to guess that Easton was The Voice. At least it had the most perfect ending, with Fusco learning of the Machine and Samaritan and the team reuniting under the Brooklyn Bridge, where Reese had met Finch in the pilot. Stunning ending to an average episode.
Episode 10: "The Day The World Went Away" (100th episode) 9.5/10
When Finch returns to the place he took Grace on their first date, his number is generated by the Machine. The team take temporary refuge at the safehouse, but split into three groups: Reese and Fusco look into the Samaritan agents, Elias takes Finch to the high-rise apartment building where he was introduced, and #Shoot stay to defend against the next wave of agents.
A truce is called between warring gangs at the high-rise, so that normal activity is considered abnormal by Samaritan and Elias is killed trying to get Finch out. However, Root and Shaw intercept the vehicle and rescue Finch, only for Root to be shot by Blackwell and for Finch to end up in FBI custody on treason charges. The Machine, having taken the voice of the recently deceased Root, breaks Finch out of the prison by opening the cells to 600 prisoners, leaving Reese and Shaw to wonder if Finch isn't the perpetrator after all.
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| Root performing some sublime no-look driving skills while fending off Samaritan pursuers. |
Every episode of this series has tried to be big, bold or different in some way and that has given season 5 a very fresh feel, but by the airing of "The Day The World Went Away" no episode had been bigger than this. Finch's number was up, and everyone was prepared to die for him, which two characters - our beloved Root and calculating frenemy Carl Elias - did. The writers foreshadowed Root's demise with all her "we never really die" speeches, but I actually hadn't foreseen this prior to the episode: my vote was for Elias to get the chop, since his potential use in the final stages was minimal. I was laughed at for that by some POI fans on Facebook - hindsight's a bitch, guys!
Furiously paced throughout, the team lurched from one danger-filled reaction to the next until Finch was arrested by police, whereupon we got the single best soliloquy I've seen. Finch, under questioning from the FBI agent, makes a chilling speech forewarning Samaritan he will kill it once he decides how far he will allow himself to go to achieve that goal, and if Michael Emerson doesn't win an Emmy for his performance the world is messed up.
Hard-hitting at every turn, this episode will be remembered as one of the greatest Person of Interest episodes on TV, and if you ask me has enough in it to warrant consideration as one of the best TV episodes ever.
9.5/10 because 10/10 is mythical.
Episode 11: "Synecdoche" 9/10
"Synecdoche" was an emotional comedown after the 100th episode shockers, but in no way does that mean the POI took the proverbial foot off the pedal. After barely mourning Root, and with Harold having parted ways, Reese, Shaw and Fusco travel to D.C. to deal with their latest irrelevant number: the President. Along the way, huge questions are asked about how it's possible Samaritan can make the government consider the President "irrelevant" to national security while, with the background help of three previous irrelevant numbers of their own (Logan Pierce, Joey Durban and Harper Rose), Team Machine prevent a drone strike initiated by privacy terrorists from killing POTUS in his motorcade.
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| A Machine view of the White House. POTUS is inside. |
Meanwhile, Finch breaks into a government facility in Texas (guided by the Root-Machine with which he has a series of discussions about action and consequence), and steals Ice-9, a computer virus deadly enough to cripple the entire Internet.
I am surprised that POTUS as a POI didn't come up earlier on in the show, as it would definitely have made a great surprise midway through one of the first 3 seasons, but I realise watching it that POTUS's introduction coming at this point in the show was critical for what it told us about Samaritan's ever-growing influence. And not only that, but it also provided us with a key reveal in that the Machine has been recruiting assets (namely ones who were former POIs) to work as a substitute Team Machine in other US states.
9/10 for intrigue, amazingly deep discussions between Finch and Root-Machine, and a great reveal which, while the writers didn't select the most interesting POIs to return, was certainly a smooth and clever move. Especially if you're James Carpinello (Joey Durban). Amy Acker's Root might have been killed off the week before, but they still decided to do a Bring Your Spouse To Work Day directly after.
"What? You think New York had the market cornered in murder?" No Harper, there was also an episode on a plane, and it wasn't in NY airspace at the time. So shut your face.
Episode 12: ".exe" 9.5/10
The penultimate episode sees Reese and Shaw catch up to Finch after he infiltrates Fort Meade, an NSA base, in order to upload the Ice-9 virus he stole to the Internet. It needs a voice password to upload, but Finch is kidnapped and brought to Greer before he can give it. Samaritan locks Greer and Finch in a room and removes the oxygen, but Reese and Shaw manage to open a pathway for the Machine to enter the airgapped building and release Finch just before he suffocates. Finch throughout harbours reservations over killing his creation, and the Machine helps him make a decision by showing him alternate timelines for all of Team Machine, and in the end the Ice-9 virus goes live.
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| A screenshot of the Ice-9 virus being uploaded to the NSA servers |
In New York, Fusco is revisited by Agent LeRoux, who reveals he killed all the people found in the demolition site and attempts to murder Fusco. However, Fusco flips the tables and LeRoux's fate is left ambiguous.
When I say ".exe" was brilliant, that's an understatement. Amid the action-packed rescues, the ideological conversations between Finch and the Root-Machine and the cliffhanger ending, it was Greer's creepy (but ever steadfast) belief in Samaritan creating more fabulously written scenes over morality and humanity that stole the show in the present. But amid all of that, the flash-parallels were even better: seeing what would have become of everyone if Finch and Ingram hadn't built the Machine was incredible. Some people took the insertion of Carter's future without the physical return of Carter herself (we saw only her name tag on a lieutenant's desk) as an oversight, but I think the scene worked better without her.
A 9 easy, it got the extra point five for those stunning flash-parallels.
Episode 13: "Return 0" 10/10
I retract my earlier assertion that 10/10s are mythical. All the action took place in the previous few episodes, so all we were left with in "Return 0" was the heavy emotional stuff as Person of Interest concludes its five-season run in an indescribably beautiful 44 minutes.
The only thing left to do for Team Machine after deploying Ice-9 was to destroy a copy of Samaritan's core code locked in an airgapped Federal Reserve gold vault, and protect the Machine in the Subway from the last wave of agents looking to kill it. But once Finch and Reese reach the vault, a copy of Samaritan's code frees itself and uploads itself to a passing satellite to be beamed back down once Ice-9 is done, the antenna then set to be blown up with a cruise missile to prevent anything following it.
And that's really all the plot there is. But that was all there needed to be. The actual story was just so simple that the emotional stuff could take over. While the Machine dies, and tries to remember what it learnt about life, everybody else ends up in perilous situations. Finch and Shaw both get shot (though Shaw's wound is passed over), Fusco gets stabbed twice and Reese makes the ultimate sacrifice by sending Finch to the wrong rooftop and uploading the Machine code to the satellite himself. In the end, Reese is killed by the cruise missile, Finch visits Grace in Paris, Fusco returns to police work and Shaw becomes the Machine's primary asset.
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| Samaritan makes its final attempt to persuade Harold not to destroy it |
The first time I watched this episode I absolutely bawled my eyes out for about 20 minutes. Everyone's story was wrapped up in the most perfect way (even Fusco's) and the final lessons that we learn from the Machine about how precious life is are just stunning.
On a quick sidenote, the biggest sci-fi moment in the show came when Samaritan made one final attempt to dissuade Finch from destroying it, by communicating him via a giant billboard. It was a great moment in the show and, while detached from its grounded nature, was well-earned. As was every ending in this show: Person of Interest tried wherever it could to be poetic and fair to its characters. And it ever was.
SEASON 5 OVERALL RATING: 8.2/10
I gave almost half of season 5 a 9/10 or more, so it's disappointing the season average across all 13 episodes lowers to just over 8. 8/10 is always a solid number to average out to (and indeed three episodes themselves got 8s) but I don't feel it particularly displays just how mindblowing literally 50% of this season was. Obvious low points include the two Reese- and Shaw-centric episodes and the return of "The Voice", but that was all.
So since I'm dissatisfied that mathematically my ratings dipped to a mean of 8.2, I'm going to just deny that completely and tell you to take this season as an overall 8.75/10. Because in truth, that's how good it was.
SEASON 5 OVERALL THOUGHTS
We knew going into Season 5 that it was the final season, so armed with that knowledge the writers tried to show us as much of the future under an evil ASI as it could fit around the episodes they either A) needed to do (such as the first two) or B) were told to do (we all know how CBS forced them to keep the number-of-the-week structure wherever they could). It's clear from the introduction of ideas such as Samaritan trying to control the global food market - and how it engineered a superflu outbreak to collect DNA - that the writers' plan for the intended seasons 5 and 6 was to move Samaritan forward from a New York threat to a worldwide threat. The stakes, already high for our characters, were intended to be even higher - for the world - and they made sure we understood some of those problems.
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| Kara Stanton Mark Snow |
That's not to say that they would have lost their focus on character: I'm sure we would have seen more of our characters' personal woes in the midst of dealing with a burgeoning Samaritan. The clearest example of this was shown in "Truth Be Told", where we met Reese's old CIA handler, Beale. After Kara and Snow died in season 2, the CIA just continued to believe Reese was dead - so there would have been literally no reason whatsoever to reignite this storyline without then exploring the ramifications. I'm also sure that, given more time, Root and Shaw's relationship would have been explored further (maybe even some non-simulation sexytimes); Greer would have been a bigger focus (he only appeared in 3 of 13 season 5 episodes despite being the main human antagonist); Blackwell's development would have been better; and his Samaritan handler, Mona, would have been better utilised too. And it was a shame the show was cancelled just as Fusco was really starting to come into his own and Elias was about to begin working with Team Machine.
All of these things would have been crucial to the full fifth and sixth seasons the producers intended, but it wasn't to be - and that's not to say it wasn't an amazing shortened final season. So now we've thought about how the show would have progressed, let's just think about what it actually did.
Going into the shortened season 5, the writers' made it the main goal of the fifth season to bring down Samaritan. Of course, just like our characters, the writers had to fight their own obstacles which affected the story even before they could write it. As I've briefly mentioned before, CBS still made sure the POI producers knew who was in charge by demanding they not make this final season a complete Samaritan-based arc. That did have an effect.
The main problem was that by the time it came to the final two episodes, the Internet-shattering Ice-9 virus which could be used to bring Samaritan down hadn't been mentioned once. OK, it had been referenced in the middle of season 4 (a computer virus that could potentially destroy the Internet commandeered from men Samaritan framed as terrorists), and the connection is strong but loose. But by season 5, we'd had 11 episodes of Team Machine coming to terms with having to do something about Samaritan, only to get that ace-in-the-hole reappear from nowhere, following no prior reminders of it. I'm certain that in the intended plan, Ice-9 would have appeared more prominent eventually and it would have had plenty of time to develop properly, but the demands of CBS meant there wasn't time to fully reintroduce Ice-9 and fit in everything else, too. Because look at what all they had to fit in:
Elias had to be there for Bruce to help Fusco's investigation - and then die; Blackwell had to appear semi-regularly; Fusco had to have his storyline; Finch and Root needed their continuing debate about the Machine's capabilities (and then Root had to die); they had the newfound and accidental open system to contend with; there needed to be room for at least two or three episodes involving flashbacks (and we got four and a half); there were the POIs they were pressured to include (one of which they knew they wanted to be the President and one who was The Voice); they had all the emotional fallout from everything later on; and they had to fit in Shaw somehow (and devote an entire [wasted] episode to a simulation. [I understand that's not a popular view: "6,741" is an acclaimed episode high on a number of top ten episode lists]). It's amazing that the writers managed to fit all that in and make the writing cohesive, but it's also clear when I list that all so bluntly why some aspects of the writing (Blackwell's development; the sudden reappearance of Ice-9) were not as tight as they could have been.
But for the most part, season 5 was a well-shaped conclusion to a consistently brilliant show. The consistency of the whole show I will delve into in a future roundup, but for season 5 alone we have to look at its arcs from the episode descriptions above.
The first two episodes were a must: the premiere had to be them continuing to escape from Samaritan following from the fourth season finale with the Machine code compressed, and the second episode had to be them bringing it online and dealing with the glitches. But then, amidst the POIs, season 5 became more about the main 3 storylines: Fusco's missing persons investigation, Root demanding to find Shaw and Shaw's time under Samaritan's thumb. And all of that had to be weighted and completed by the end of episode nine, ready for the explosion of episode 10 (the show's 100th episode).
And it was.
The growth of all three storylines was organic and well-timed. Fusco was disillusioned from Team Machine (who were still keeping him out of the loop) by the end of episode seven, and in that same episode Root finally managed to contact Shaw, allowing for her to escape in the next episode and be found in the episode after, at the same time Fusco was finally brought into the team fully. Yes, Finch and Reese didn't have much to do this season in terms of arcs (Finch at most had his battle with Root to leave the Machine an open system or not, which was a couple of speeches an episode tops) but again, there really wasn't room before the 100th episode when everything finally went to pot.
No roundup of season 5 could be complete without exploring its finale again, but I did a deep analysis of each character's ending in my actual finale roundup (which you can see here), so all I need to do here is just reiterate that the season 5 ending brought together the most perfect outcomes for our characters. Some had to be taken with a pinch of salt (look at Root's death and how it came at just the wrong time in TV-land what with all the uproar over the regularity of LGBT character deaths; and Reese's death), others had to be guessed at (come on, you can't just say Fusco had his job back: he was known associate of the Man in the Suit for God's sake - he wouldn't be let back in the force that easy [or even at all!]); and others were perfect (Finch going to Grace; Shaw becoming the Machine's asset). So yes, Fusco's ending could have been clearer, but in all honesty everybody got where they needed to go. Reese found his redemption in doing his job saving Finch - who then returned to his fiancée - the #Shoot ending that the producers said we would like was not how anyone predicted but was actually very poignant (the Machine taking on Root's voice and signing Shaw up to be its asset) and that transcendence to the Machine's voice was Root in a way fulfilling a dream.
In the end, we may lament that Person of Interest is gone, and that its final season caused us to miss out on a lot of stuff we could barely have dreamed of (I'm sure, given my previous terrible record at predicting what this show will do, my guesswork above would have all turned out incorrect had we got the fifth and sixth seasons proper), but it more than paid its due. Season 5 was an incredible, explosive end to a show that had been the smartest and best-written you're likely to see for a long, long time (if you don't believe me, watch it). On a par with the seasons before it.
Final thoughts
I understand I may not have been as emotional in my descriptions here as I could have been. I've tried to maintain an element of impartiality, but it should be evident that I'm heartbroken the show has ended, and there aren't enough adjectives to describe just how amazing POI really was.
An article I read recently talked about how POI became "essential sci-fi", and that's true, even when at points it rather mirrored reality than delved into science fiction. So if you've read this far I've spoiled everything for you, but I don't care: you still absolutely need to go and watch this show. (If my word isn't good enough, check Rotten Tomatoes. POI overall has a 90% fresh rating, 93% average audience score and the final three seasons all got 100% freshness ratings).
So that's my roundup of POI season 5. I've had to break this and the roundup of the entire POI series into two because of how long this became (as usual, I cannot control my word count), so what you'll get is the POI series roundup next and then the Best and Worst Of after that.
Until then, my roundup of the off-season's fourth week will be posted Monday. Thank you all for reading, see you next time!
Sam
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