Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Ingram is planning to reveal the Machien to the public. Finch goes to meet him, but Hersh has Ingram killed in a bombing. Finch fakes his death to keep Grace safe. God mode powers allow Reese and Root to have direct contact with the Machine and it helps them kill the Decima people. Root escapes and destroys the tracker in Finch's glasses when the Machine identifies it. Reese and Shaw go hunting to find Finch and rapidly take care of some POI cases on the way. Hersh frees Special Counsel and searches for Root. Root meets with a man named Lawrence who is the only man left who knows where the Machine is. However, he is killed by Hersh and his men who also try to kill Root. Reese arrives to save them but Root and Finch escape. Both crews discover where the Machine actually is and they head there. Root gets there first but is surprised to see the Machine is gone. Finch reveals that he already set the Machine free and it is now gone. Reese and Shaw arrive and get Finch back, while Root is shot in the shoulder. Special Counsel arrives and is surprised that the Machine is gone. After a message from Control, Hersh kills Special Counsel. The Machine independently contacts Control, Finch and Root.
The Good: This was a wonderful and fun finale. There was constant suspense, a rapid pace, exciting action and some great plot twists. This worked very well as a finale and left me both satisfied and itching to see more. The episode starts off perfectly. There is no patient start following the end of the last episode as everything opens with a bang. Root and Reese take no time to start experimenting with the Machine and we get a tremendous action scene as Root and Reese basically gain wallhacks due to the influence of the Machine. It's unique, creative and fresh, making the action present in this episode much more engaging than what we usually get. The god mode powers are really creative too. I loved seeing things like Root "customizing" her wallhacks, Reese using the Machine to find a car they can steal, and Root getting new prescription glasses for Finch. It's a ton of fun and is very enjoyable to watch. Speaking of fun, the POI cases in this episode were simply wonderful. They were so short and sudden, and both made me laugh out loud, especially the wedding one ("congratulations"). Some of the comedy in this show can be damn good. I also enjoyed Reese explaining to Shaw that they have to save everyone because they are the good guys. It was a funny line and also another nice nod to "Lost" fans. Reese and Shaw were a ton of fun together, and I'm all for seeing them partner up more frequently. They played off each other well, created good comedy, and they work as a proper badass duo. I love the crazy action hero stuff that Shaw brings to the table just as much as I enjoy Reese's reactions to her. Their quest to recover Finch was engaging and it was easy to root for them. Their chase for Root was fun and I enjoyed how everyone came together with Lawrence. Having Hersh and his crew nearby trying to kill Root created some tension and I found myself unsure where the story was heading. Eventually Root did get away and that led to the great twist that Finch has set the Machine free (more on that later). It was a great twist, and provides a dramatic change to the way the show works going into season 3. We also got another great coming together scene that was packed with tension. The fate of Special Counsel was a fantastic moment. It appears that he wasn't only manipulated by Root but by the Machine as well, which impersonated his voice and secretly moved itself. Now as punishment, the person above him, this mysterious Control, has sentenced him to die. It's perfect justice to see him killed by his former allies after he has sentenced so many people, like Ingram, to die the way he did. His final words of "fair enough" are perfect and present him as more of a character than anything he got before. Even though he is dying, he still firmly believes that they are doing the right thing. The ending scene was a fantastic conclusion. We were left unsure whether the Machine would ever contact anyone again, but suddenly the phone rings next to Finch and Reese. But not only them, it also contacts Control and Root. This is such a big moment because this is the Machine choosing to contact these 3 groups, and the possibility of what this could mean (see: The Unknown) is fascinating. What kept this episode together were the outstanding flashbacks. Ingram's eventual fate is so tragic and it's heartbreaking to see Finch lose his best friend just as he started to come around to his ideals. What's even worse is when Finch is forced to leave Grace behind and fully commit to the Machine (see: Best Moment). Overall, these flashbacks were constructed wonderfully. Both Ingram and Finch's characters made sense and we ended up getting an excellent story arc showing what led to Finch ultimately making the decision that the Machine has to be set free. The reveal is strengthened when you realize that it explains why Finch sold the laptop, and that it also concludes the long-running arc surrounding Finch's backstory. I also really appreciated the way that Hersh's odd flashbacks tied into Finch's in a very sensible way. It was a great way to reveal who was responsible for Ingram's death. The Bad: Carter's story is a total flop and it really weighs the episode down. The episode starts off poorly with Terney inexplicably giving Carter a generic villain monologue. Why was he so frustrated with her about everything? Would he really get so angry to reveal everything to Carter because she suspects HR? Plus, the main leverage he had was that Carter trusted him, so why ruin that? He threatens to kill Carter, saying he doesn't want to do it, but that makes no sense since Terney had attempted to kill her in the last episode, plus now that she knows about him, she can't possibly be left alive. HR killed Beecher, so why not Carter? Carter saving Elias didn't work for me. The storyline came out of nowhere and I couldn't think of any reason that Carter would want to risk her life to save Elias. Furthermore, would the police really just let her go and save Elias when she is under investigation for murdering an innocent? What's worse is that the story isn't resolved. I was intrigued by the possibility of a Carter/Elias conversation, but we never get it. Their story just ends in really weak fashion. So no Fusco in this episode, huh. That's disappointing. There were a few small gripes about the main story. While the POI bits were funny, they felt too easy, especially considering how tough POI stories have been in the past. The big exposition scene about Lawrence didn't work for me. The show really rushed Reese and Shaw coming to the conclusion and they lost organic dialogue as a result. As a final nitpick, why didn't Root ask Special Counsel where the Machine was? Obviously he knew its location. The Unknown: Who is Control and what will her role be? What is the Machine doing now? Where is it? Why did it contact each of the 3 groups? We know that a number arrived to Control. Is it contacting Root and Finch for different reasons? Will Root get god mode again? Perhaps she will get numbers too? How about Reese and Finch? Will they get god mode or numbers? Or something else entirely? Best Moment: Finch having to hide from grace to prevent her from being in danger was absolutely heartbreaking. The fact that Finch has to go through this mere moments after Ingram's death is awful and it is easily one of the most powerful scenes in the show so far. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a great season finale. Even though the Carter story failed, the rest of the episode was awesome with plenty of fantastic moments, gripping twists and an explosive climactic feeling that resonated through the episode. This was a fun end to the season as the show continues to get better and better. Season 2 was a certain improvement over season 1. It had some weaker episodes for sure, but as a whole, there was much more good than bad. The commitment to long-term stories helped out a lot and gave the season a lot more momentum than the first season ever had. Things like the Donnelly and Stanton storyline were extremely fun and provided some memorable moments in the middle of the story. Add in the bookend Root storylines and we have a much more complete story going on this season when compared to the first. The POI storylines were written much better too (for the most part). As a whole, the stories were funnier, paced better, written better and they were often connected to some larger multi-episode storyline in the same episode. But the season was still far from perfect. The episodes are too inconsistent in quality, the dialogue can be hit or miss, some storylines fall flat and other stories are impossible to invest in. The show still has a long way to go, but now it is starting to show its full potential, and I hope that in season 3, we can see the best of what this show can do on a more consistent basis. Score: 74
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Summary: Flashbacks show Finch discovering that Ingram was helping the irrelevant cases illegally. Finch shuts it down just as Ingram's number comes up. After 10 days without a number, Finch looks into what is happening with the Machine and notices a countdown. The Machine gives a number for Ernest Thornhill and after some investigation, Reese and Finch realize Thornhill doesn't exist but that Decima Technologies are targeting him. Finch deduces that Thornhill was created by the Machine. Reese makes contact with Shaw while Root contacts Finch and they have a meeting to trade information. Root threatens Grace so Finch has to work with her, while Reese works with Shaw. Finch reveals that the Machine will reboot at the end of the countdown and a call will come to a certain payphone. Whoever answers will become the new admin and Decima Technologies are now guarding every payphone in the city. Root gets Finch to help her and Finch is forced to give her admin access. However, he does some last minute programming and sends a call to Reese who is nearby, also giving him admin access. Meanwhile, HR try to kill Carter but they fail to so they instead frame her for killing a defenseless civilian.
The Good: This was a fast-paced and entertaining set-up episode with a lot going on. The various factors of Root, Shaw and Decima Technologies come together in a wonderful way and sets up what should be an epic finale. The episode is interesting from its first few seconds. Like in "Relevance", the intro is completely changed and it ends up feeling both creative, and more cinematic. The concept of a Machine crash was portrayed so beautifully that I was left unsure if the show was causing the slowdown or if my TV was lagging terrible. This effect was continued throughout the episode as the usual clips taken from the perspective of a surveillance camera were choppy and slow. The episode is nicely organized into two halves. The first is the investigation on Ernest Thornhill and the second half is the splitting of Reese and Finch's storylines along with the return of Root and Shaw. The first half provided some excellent set-up. The Thornhill mystery was really engaging, as was the way that clues were slowly revealed about the nature of his character being a ghost created by the Machine. It was a compelling mystery with some fun moments, like Reese and Finch infiltrating Thornhill's workplace. The rest of the episode had a lot of momentum built up from the first half and was able to engage in some exhilarating set-up. Root capturing Special Counsel, Decima Technologies getting involved again and Shaw returning set the story fully into motion. Reese and Shaw's half of the story was really fun as we got a better idea of what their dynamic would be like in the future. Plus, we got a great scene with the return of John Nolan's character as he interacts with Reese, suggesting that he may be coming after Finch soon. The other story featured Root and Finch and we got more of the fantastic conversations (see: Best Moment) that made the first two episodes of the season so engaging. I enjoyed Root blackmailing Finch by threatening Grace, and that put all the cards in Root's hand. Finch was along for the ride with her yet again, and now Reese has to find him once more. It's a nice way to bookend this season with Reese needing to save Finch from Root in both the season premiere and the season finale. The final stretch of the episode delivered the kind of adrenaline rush you would expect from the season's climax. The countdown to the virus shutting down the Machine was a fantastic idea. It provides a great way to get everybody gathered together at the same place at the same time. Furthermore, we get a great and surprising explanation about what happens when the clock runs out. The Machine won't die like I was expecting, but rather it will give its power to the first person who answers a specific payphone. This is a wonderful reason for everyone to gather, and it successfully makes us understand why Root and Decima Technologies cannot be allowed to win, putting us firmly on Reese and Finch's side. The conclusion to this episode is wonderful with both Reese and Root gaining access to god mode, an exciting ending which promises a dramatic, action-packed season finale. Lastly, we got some more flashbacks in this episode. While they weren't too notable, they had some pretty good storytelling. Finch has discovered what Ingram was doing and surprisingly he is firmly against it. It appears that Finch still has to grow in the past and whatever it is that results in Ingram's death will likely lead to him changing his mind. The Bad: Special Counsel was bested pretty easily and then totally vanished from the episode. That's a bit disappointing. Carter's story got very little time, so it was almost impossible to care about. The main story was so much more interesting than her story. Hopefully the finale resolves this storyline in an enjoyable way. Also, did Fusco just get written out of the season's endgame? If he did, that's really poor since he deserves much more than this as a main character. The Unknown: What was the important information that Root needed from Special Counsel? Was it about the payphones? Thornhill? Something else? So Finch apparently hasn't told Grace his real name. Is Harold Finch his real name? I'm not so sure. Finch was suddenly called by a payphone at one point. Was that supposed to be Carter's number? Why didn't Finch allow the Machine to protect itself? Root suggests that Finch just didn't think about it, but I highly doubt that. Furthermore, why did he sell the laptop with a virus on it if the Machine couldn't protect itself? Did he try to destroy the Machine in the past? Ingram is the next non-relevant case in the past. Is he going to die soon? If so, how? Best Moment: Root and Finch once again had a great discussion about the Machine. The conversation does a fantastic job of fleshing out Root. She seems genuinely disgusted that Finch didn't allow the Machine to defend itself and survive. We also get the great reveal that Finch has forced the Machine to erase all data every night, having it constantly restart. This makes a lot of sense, and as expected, it also disgusts Root who seems more determined than ever to let the Machine be free. Character of the Episode: Root. Conclusion: This was a very fun episode to set up the season finale. I feel like the episode would be even better when watched together with the finale, almost like one of the multi-part finales from "Lost". The purpose for this episode was to give us some big reveals and get us excited for the season finale, and it succeeded in both. Score: 69 Summary: Flashbacks show Fusco being drawn into being a dirty cop by Stills. Reese gets a new number but finds he is too late and the POI, Nelson has been poisoned and will die. Reese decides to help him get vengeance on the man who killed him and they kill the man responsible with poison. Fusco is being investigated for being a dirty cop and he is forced to tell Carter what he has done. Carter takes a while to come around, but she eventually helps Fusco by hiding Stills' body so that the evidence doesn't turn up.
The Good: The opening scene was pretty grisly and nicely set the tone for the episode. Fusco's gone through some rough things in his past and now it's finally catching up to him. It's great to see him face some consequences and Kevin Chapman put in one of his best performances here. The POI story was really rough (see: The Bad), but it had a clever premise. It's refreshing to see the POI actually die for once and it did a good job of setting up the ending now that we are aware of a virus attacking the Machine. The ending was pretty exciting as it looks like the Machine may have actually just shut down. The Bad: The POI story was lame. Nelson was a very uninteresting character and I didn't find myself invested in his revenge story. He didn't come off as a character who was looking for vengeance and that prevented me from wanting to see him pay back the man who killed him. Speaking of the man who killed him, the show really seemed to like referring to Nelson as a dead man because they mentioned it over and over to the point that it was really annoying me. It seems that this storyline existed more for these clever lines of dialogue rather than an actual story. The POI storyline all feels too easy as well. Reese continually suggests that they may be too late which feels so awkward since he has never mentioned something like this in the past. It feels forced to promote the idea that the Machine is giving numbers late. Furthermore, Reese simply knowing that Nelson would die was way too simple (he could easily recover, also Reese could just go help him). The final revenge kill was way too easy. The villain goes into a tedious monologue just so Nelson could pull out the rug from underneath him and let him know he's going to die. It's wholly unsatisfying and doesn't end the story in a good way. Fusco's story doesn't work the way it should. I didn't like the flashbacks very much. They seem to suggest that Fusco was always a good guy and he only got roped in with the bad people because Stills was his friend and he was simply loyal. This completely destroys the redemptive arc he went through in season 1 where a heartless thug made a turnaround and became a good cop. I was very displeased that Fusco wasn't presented as an outright dirty cop in these flashbacks in an attempt to earn more sympathy. Carter's reaction to Fusco being dirty wasn't good either. She has already dealt with the fact that bad people can turn things around when she started working with Reese. To have her go through the exact same arc here is repetitive and it doesn't really have much of an impact. Furthermore, Carter being so shocked at Fusco's past is ridiculous. Fusco already suggested a really dark past, so surely Carter could have easily imagined something worse just by thinking about it for a few seconds. The fact that Carter is able to get to Stills' body before the police is idiotic. There's no way she should be able to pull that off. The Unknown: Did the Machine fully shut down at the end? How will Finch recover it? What will happen when the numbers stop coming? What will Reese and Finch do? What will Decima do when the Machine shuts down? Best Moment: Probably the opening scene. Very little stood out. Character of the Episode: Fusco. Conclusion: This was a big disappointment. Fusco's story is so easy to tell, and it's beyond me how the show messed it up, especially after putting out a few really great episodes this season. Hopefully this is just a fluke and we will get back to good stuff int he final two episodes of the season. Score: 50 Summary: The next POI is a girl named Monica who works for a big company, Rylatech. Finch goes undercover as a worker to investigate. Reese looks into Shaw and runs into her. Shaw leaves him and later runs into Finch, inquiring on information for Root. She takes the information Finch has and leaves. Finch and Reese realize that Monica has been set up and is fired. They discover that China has been using the company to gain intel on USA. However, the case becomes public and suddenly all of the enemies vanish. Decima Technologies were actually the ones behind Rylatech and used China as a scapegoat. Carter asks Fusco to look in on Beecher. After Beecher inquires with Elias about how Quinn knew Szymanski was guilty, Fusco realizes he is innocent. Quinn realizes Beecher is a problem and has him killed.
The Good: This episode felt important. There were several big developments regarding HR/Elias, Shaw and Decima Technologies and all of the storylines were fairly interesting. It gave the episode a sense of importance to aid a rather dull POI story (see: The Bad). The scenes with Shaw were excellent as expected. I am invested in her character after "Relevance", so I was ecstatic to see her again. Her scenes with Reese and Finch were both very good and her apparent motivation to go after Root is pretty exciting, and adds yet another important background story to build up for the end of the season. The HR storyline was much better in this episode. The more time we spend with them, the more dangerous they are going to seem, and the more of a threat they become. Having Quinn be responsible for the death of Beecher is a really smart move. Now Carter has a personal reason to shut down HR, which makes their storyline resonate more emotionally and helps make up for the shallow depth of Quinn's character. I also enjoyed the scenes with Elias since it reminds us that he will come in conflict with HR soon since they are both opposing forces now. I was very pleased by the return of Decima Technologies at the end. Apparently they were secretly surveilling all of USA using Rylatech, which is a huge development. This company is dangerous, powerful, smart and a threat to the Machine, if John Nolan's character means what I think he means. Furthermore, he has a red box around him which means he is a threat. The POI storyline had some really fun moments. I loved Finch trying to cook up some clever plan to get the hard drive only for Reese to just pickpocket it. A great moment of comedy in the episode. I was also pleased by the episode's use of Bear. There was some nice comedy surrounding him, and he was used in a really clever way for the plot. The Bad: Monica's story was really dull. It was hard to care about her character and the plot completely overshadowed any of the attempts at character development in this story. There just wasn't much substance to the story being told. They attempted to get more with the conversation between Martin and Monica at the end. Unfortunately, the scene was inorganic and forced with generic dialogue. It ended up being an unoriginal villainous monologue scene and it didn't do anything for me. The Unknown: Why did Martin kill himself? What was the agreement with him and the Decima Technologies guy? Why did they have this agreement? Was it a failsafe for Decima to ensure they aren't discovered? It seems so since the guy called immediately after Rylatech was in danger of being compromised. Also, Decima Technologies are targeting the Machine aren't they? The virus that Stanton uploaded was created by them, which is pretty big evidence, but also we see a red box around the Decima guy, signifying a threat. I presume the larger operation he mentioned is referring to the Machine. Best Moment: Shaw and Finch stole the show once again. Great scene between them with an interesting dynamic. Character of the Episode: There wasn't a particular stand out this week so I'll give it to Shaw again for having a big presence. Conclusion: This was a strong episode. The POI story wasn't great, but outside of that there was some really exciting set-up and pay-off for a lot of different storylines. Score: 65 Summary: Reese saves Leon yet again. The next POI, Lou, is a gambler at a casino. Reese and Finch tail him and discover that he is getting dead drops from a pharmacy and he is being used to launder drug money into the casino. Finch gets to converse with Lou and learns about his past and connects with him. Reese discovers that Lou is skimming some of the money for himself from the casino people. Finch tries to get Lou out of the city but he refuses to leave. Finch and Reese help him steal $20 million from the casino through gambling.
The Good: This was a really fun episode with a number of good callbacks and funny moments. Leon remains a really fun character. The opening scene was absolutely hilarious, and I got a kick out of Leon no longer fearing death since he knows he has guardian angels in Reese and Finch. Leon's brief roles int he rest of the episode were fun and he had some good lines. The central story is pretty good. The early parts of the story are very fun because I never really had any clue what the plot was going to be until the episode revealed it. It was an enjoyable mystery and there were some really good moments as it was being revealed. The best was the conversation between Finch and Lou, which did a great job of revealing Lou's character to us while continuing the mystery of what is going on at the casino. Lou's character was fairly enjoyable too. His backstory was pretty well done and it tied in nicely with Finch's. What I liked most was that the story with Lou has perhaps got Finch wondering if there is a way for him to go back with Grace. This is an important development and I think it will lead to a story where Finch may be forced to choose either the Machine or Grace. I also enjoyed the final scene with Finch and Lou. I was extremely pleased with the return of the watch and I thought they established the relationship nicely. I don't really have much to say about this episode. It was a fairly standard episode, but I was never bored. It was just a nice, fun episode. The Bad: We have seen so little of Fusco recently. With the HR story re-emerging, I would have liked to see more of him, but he was hardly involved in this episode. I hope the show doesn't shove him into the background after so much work was done making him into a good character. The HR plot isn't as interesting as I want it to be. Quinn hasn't had enough character to be an important threat. The final two minutes of this episode are the best he has gotten, but it still isn't anything special. I would much rather focus Shaw, Root, Decima Technologies and Special Counsel over HR. Szymanski's return is underwhelming too since he is brought back just to die. The drama in this episode isn't too special. The action left a lot to be desired and the climactic Russian roulette scene was really dumb. The casino manager was professional enough to track down Finch and capture him, yet he leaves their fate to Russian roulette for some reason, and Reese is able to escape easily. That also raises the point of why Reese didn't just break out immediately. The scene was just poorly done. The Unknown: What will come of Finch starting to think of Grace again? Could he reveal himself to her soon? Could Grace find herself in danger somehow? Why did HR go through with the whole thing with Szymanski? Was it an attempt to become important again? What does killing him accomplish? Is their goal to ally with Yogorov? Elias? What is their plan? Best Moment: The final conversation with Lou and Finch. You can see some regret and desire coming into the face of Finch as he remembers Grace and the life he could have had. Great acting from Michael Emerson. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a good episode. There was a nice underlying story with Finch, and the rest of the episode was good fun which more than made up for a lack of tension. Score: 62 Summary: The Machine hasn't given a number in a few days and Finch suspects Stanton's virus is the cause. A bunch of numbers suddenly are given and Finch suspects they are connected. Reese goes to investigate the area where one of the POIs just went missing but gets stuck there due to a storm. He runs into an FBI agent, Fahey who is also investigating. A bunch of people are trapped and Finch arrives to help Reese, aware that the killer is likely among them and is using the missing POIs identity as a cover. Fahey turns out to be the killer and he threatens to kill Finch but Carter arrives with Beecher to save Finch.
The Good: This episode took a while to get going, but when it did, it was decent fun. The whole "trapped with the killer" gimmick is usually fun and it gave this episode a little bit of drama. I liked the Fahey twist. The moment the character was introduced, I immediately expected the big twist for him to be a villain. But throughout the episode, I was impressively led to believe I was wrong until the twist actually hit and it did surprise me. It was pretty nicely done. The episode's best moments came from its raw cheesiness. Declan's cheesy evil nature was entertaining in a dumb way, as was the hilariously dramatic thunder reveal early on. I also loved the sudden and overly-dramatic body armour reveal, which came mere moments before Beecher killed Declan. The Bad: The expositional onslaught to start the episode sucked. The dialogue was downright terrible and horribly unimaginative, with Finch spouting things that were necessary for the plot in a dull and completely unrealistic way. It immediately took me out of the episode, and the fact that the episode ended with an equally poor scene wasn't good. The episode as a whole was really dull for the first half. It had poor and generic dialogue all the way through with limited comedy and a complete lack of momentum and drama. The closest they got was the storm which did an awful job of generating tension, even though it was clearly framed to. Declan's character was just too ridiculous for me to buy into him. He is so cool and collected for most of the episode, so when he turns into a comical bad guy, it's absurd and comes on way too abruptly. His conversation with Finch fails to replicate the success of any of the other electric conversations we have seen in the show. The main issue with the conversation is how inconsistent it is with the characters. Declan is stupid for a big evil since he refuses to kill Finch and falls victim to the curse of the monologue. Finch came off poorly too as he seemingly tries to throw his life away by provoking the clearly mentally unstable serial killer. Then, the climact scene gets executed really poorly. Declan blatantly turns his back to the door, making it obvious that somebody is going to shoot him from behind. Also, Beecher entering the scene from a different door to kill Declan was really convenient, wasn't it. The Unknown: Is Beecher a genuinely good man, or is he genuinely bad? What will become of Carter through her relationship with him? Best Moment: The cheesy thunder reveal was fun. Character of the Episode: Carter. Conclusion: This was a disappointing and flat episode. Coming off of "Relevance", I knew the show wouldn't be able to hit that quality again in this episode, but this was much worse than I was expecting. Hopefully this is just a bump in the road before we get to the season's climax. Score: 48 Summary: Shaw is a government operative who works with technician Michael Cole and kills people that correspond to numbers supplied by the government. Cole delves into the source of this information and tells Shaw his suspicions, but he is killed soon after by their boss Wilson who works for Special Counsel. Shaw escapes and wants vengeance for Cole. She tracks down Cole's contact Veronica but finds Root waiting for her. Root tries to get information out of Shaw but the government people arrive and she flees. Reese saves Shaw and introduces her to Finch. Finch wants to recruit her but Shaw refuses to go after Special Counsel. After a conversation with Special Counsel, Shaw kills Wilson and Special Counsel lets her leave. However Hersh tries to kill her through an overdose. Carter and Fusco reach the scene of the crime, and with Leon's help they fake Shaw's death. Reese and Finch contact her and Finch gives her his contact information. Shaw leaves.
The Good: What's most fascinating about this episode is how it came absolutely out of nowhere. With "Prisoner's Dilemma" and "Dead Reckoning", I started the episode anticipating what was going to happen. That was not the case here. When I started to watch this one, I was ready for the usual person of the week episode. But what I got instead was a terrific change in pace as a new character gets introduced to us in a story that completely broke the format of every prior episode of the show. Just like "Lost", this show appears to excel when it breaks the format and this was no exception. The moment the episode starts, I could tell that we were in for something special. The normal intro got completely cut off which took me off guard and all of a sudden we weren't with Reese and Finch, but with Shaw and Cole. It's a jarring change of pace and intrigued me instantly (I really enjoyed these "tunnel vision" episodes in "The Leftovers", so I had some expectations that this would deliver). Immediately it's clear that these two are basically another Reese and Finch, getting orders from an outside source. The only difference is that these two aren't aware of what the source is and serve as a simple hit squad. But it's becoming aware that costs Cole his life. He starts floating ideas to Shaw about what this research squad is. Of course, we are aware that the research squad must be the Machine. I've always wondered how the government used the Machine's data, and now we get to see what they are doing. Cole is just casually chatting about what research could be, but we understand that him becoming aware may put him in danger. And it does, and he dies, nearly taking Shaw down with him. This leads to a great action sequence which was directed excellently as Shaw never comes off as an invincible hero, but rather a capable badass. Plus we got an amazing moment as Reese pops up out of nowhere to help Shaw who just shoots him down without hesitation. That was a lovely moment of characterization that let us know who Shaw is. Due to scenes like this, and a few other moments of characterization regarding her dealings with the drug dealer she kidnaps, she has our support now in a revenge quest to learn what got Cole killed. Shaw's mission leads us to three distinct confrontations, and I enjoyed all of them. The first one was my personal favourite (see: Best Moment), as Shaw comes in contact with Root. The two of them have a great conversation which had me on the edge of my seat, waiting for the shoe to drop and for Root to try to turn the tables. When she does, the scene takes an epic turn and is carried by Root's captivating charisma as she threatens to torture Shaw. Unfortunately, Root exits the episode shortly after, but the little bit we got with her ended up being both informative (see: The Unknown) and exciting. Then we get to the second confrontation, Shaw meeting with Reese and Finch. I got a good laugh out of Reese dryly trying to convince Shaw not to shoot him and I was looking forward to Shaw's meeting with Finch. Their scene worked so well because it served as a cool-down in an episode which was so densely packed with drama and action. Yet the cool-down was just as gripping as everything else. The information Finch gives to Shaw may not mean much to her, but we understand the subtext and that makes the scene much more enjoyable. It's also interesting that this is one of only a few scenes where Reese and Finch are present. This episode could have been done from their perspective, but it would have lost something had that happened. This was much more effective. The final confrontation was with Special Counsel. He has been firmly in the background for so long that I found it difficult to care about him, so this confrontation interested me the least. But, it didn't fail because this was the most personal confrontation for Shaw. Her revenge quest climaxed here with her refusing to care about whatever it is that Special Counsel was up to, instead taking cold, sweet revenge by murdering Wilson. The fact that Special Counsel calmly let her go after that, only to kill her when she didn't expect it was a nice bit of character development for him and it ended up being a great ending for the scene. The episode's conclusion was really fun. I was overjoyed to see Leon back (he really should be used more often), and having him, along with Carter and Fusco, assist Finch and Reese in faking Shaw's death to save her life was great. It appears that Reese and Finch want her as a new member of the crew, and I definitely support that decision. From what we have seen from her so far, Shaw is a great new recurring character and I hope to see her in a few more episodes this season. The Bad: It seems that the show is heading towards a government conspiracy plot. It's a pretty generic drama plot so I'm not as interested as I should be in this storyline. There has been a lot of strong build-up so hopefully it won't be a generic storyline and it will have some memorable moments. Special Counsel can use more characterization too. He isn't really doing the job as a big villain for me. I'm much more interested in seeing more of the British representative from "Dead Reckoning". Shaw removing the bullet seemed a bit too easy to be realistic. Just a nitpick though and nothing immersion-breaking. The Unknown: I'm assuming Special Counsel was the one who put the hit out on Cole and Shaw. But could it have been somebody else? With this show, I'm starting to constantly keep an eye out for new players being introduced. Project Northern Lights has to be the Machine right? I assume so. Where is this research facility that was built? Presumably that is where the Machine is actually located. I couldn't help but notice the boxes on the Machine again. Apparently Shaw's box is blue. What does that mean? Does that mean she works for the Machine like Reese and Finch but isn't aware of it? So Root is searching for the location of the Machine, according to what she was saying to Shaw. All she needs is Aquino's contact to get what she needs. Is she going to make contact with Shaw again to get this information? Or will she stay undercover with Special Counsel until another opportunity arises? Are there any others that are aware of Aquino's contact? Best Moment: Shaw arrives to visit Veronica, and to my delight Root answers the door. I was stunned and pleased by this twist (it's a very Root thing for her to just be Veronica). The tension was palpable from that moment on and the ensuing scene was one of "Person of Interest"'s most gripping moments yet. Character of the Episode: Shaw. Conclusion: An episode that came out of nowhere and delivered in a big way. Shaw's story was fantastic and refreshing, providing us another standout episode. This show is really clicking now and I'm more excited than I thought I would be for the rest of the season. The more I watch this one, the better it gets and the higher my score becomes. Score: 80 Summary: The next POI is a maid working in a hotel. Reese and Finch infiltrate the hotel and learn that there is a hit squad trying to kill her. Reese protects her and he also enlists Fusco's help. Special Counsel gets reports of gunshots from the hotel and sends Hersh to silence Reese. Hersh finds Reese and they fight. Reese gets an opportunity to kill Hersh but he lets him live. Carter gets another opportunity to join the FBI but is rejected when it is revealed that the FBI is doing many investigations on Beecher.
The Good: The hotel setting felt really refreshing. It was unique and gave this episode a different vibe. I was pleased to see the hotel setting used well with elevator scenes, lobby scenes and both Reese and Finch taking on hotel jobs. "Person of Interest" does a really good job of surprising me with its twists in most episodes. This episode was one of those. There are so many red herrings placed in the episode (Tug, Bud, Derek, Harris), that it's impossible to figure out where the threat is coming from until it is revealed. The hit squad reveal was surprising and it worked to increase the danger of the episode since a hit squad is way more threatening than any of the other potential threats. Hersh's story is fun too. I enjoy his character as a rogue who does criminal things without hesitating even for a second. The scenes where he casually stole a police car and abruptly left the hospital were very good. He is intimidating and is a good rival for Reese, since their characters are both similar but Reese has some humanity while Hersh doesn't appear to have any. The fight scene with Reese and Hersh was one of the show's best and it had an excellent ending (see: Best Moment). There were a few other things I enjoyed. Getting continuation of Carter joining the FBI was nice and we got a good reason for her not being accepted. Zoe returned once again for another fun cameo. Reese punching Derek was one of the most satisfying moments of the series, and Reese's interactions with him were very funny. The ending reveal was excellent. I'm excited to learn more about what Root is up to (see: The Unknown). The Bad: This episode had some of the show's worst and most predictable tendencies. Mira is left out of sight for one scene and immediately runs away in typical fashion. Reese is again unable to save the life of a victim who is connected to the episode's POI (Harris). That brings me to a big issue I have with these side characters dying. Why doesn't the Machine give their numbers as well? They are in danger too, so why are they being neglected? Furthermore, why don't Reese or Finch show any frustration about this? It has happened so many times, so you would expect an annoyed reaction from them that they can't save everyone's lives and can only save the life of one specific individual. It's a missed opportunity not to bring this up since I think it's a concept that could be explored in some detail. Like in "Bad Code", we get a character telling their entire life story in a really awkward way. Mira telling everything to Reese feels so sudden and phony, and I think the scene could have been written much better. It detracts from the emotion if my immersion is broken right at the beginning of the scene. It's a bit disappointing that the FBI story didn't really go anywhere and only served to set up Beecher. I would have liked to see where it could have gone and I was pretty excited by it since I thought Carter would be accepted. The Unknown: What are these Beecher investigations for? Do they connect to his presence in HR? Or is it something else? What will Carter do with this information? Will she help Beecher? Or will she get caught by trying to help him and punished? What is Root doing with Special Counsel? Is she trying to get more information on the Machine? I'm pretty sure that Special Counsel knows about the Machine. Apparently she has been there for a while now. Does she have an overall goal? What is it? Best Moment: Reese and Hersh have a tense fight. They both grab knives and Reese stabs Hersh. This was great because in most fight scenes like these, weapons don't end up making contact so this was a nice way to buck the trend. Then we get a great moment as Reese lets Hersh survive and leave. It's a remarkable display of humanity from Reese who recognizes that Hersh is just like him: a man who just does his job. Because of this, Reese lets him live, and I'm sure that this scene will be crucial for what Hersh does next. Character of the Episode: Hersh. Conclusion: This was another harmless and fun episode. While this one had some troubling writing issues, it was another solid story with good moments. Score: 60 Summary: The next POI is a man named Logan who owns a billion dollar company. He is also a total slob and is very unpredictable. Reese is forced to reveal himself to protect him since Logan continually puts himself in tedious situations that make it impossible to follow him. Logan is able to deduce who Reese is and is curious to learn more. Eventually it's revealed that Logan's lawyer is trying to kill him so Reese disposes of the lawyer and leaves. Logan's name comes up again and his business partner is trying to kill him since Logan jumped ship to another business. Reese deduces what is happening and saves Logan again.
The Good: Logan is a really fun character. While he really stretches believability (see: The Bad), he is also really fun in a way that POIs usually aren't. Logan is such a cartoon character that he is a total joy to watch. The unpredictable nature of his character and his funny obnoxious personality make the episode more enjoyable to watch. Jimmi Simpson delivers a surprisingly convincing performance, and he continues his track record of impressing me in every show I see him in. The episode itself isn't particularly important and is a definite cool down after the last few episodes. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. It would be hard to follow up the relentless pace and suspense, so the show was in need of some cooling down to build towards the next big storyline. The main story was pretty fun too. It stands out because of Logan's intelligence. it was interesting to see a conventional POI story only with the POI being aware of who Reese and Finch are. It added an interesting new dynamic and had its fair share of fun, surprising moments. The watch at the ending was a fun little twist and did a nice job of adding some extra depth to Logan. It certainly sets up a return from him later on. I enjoyed the flashbacks too. Finally, we get to see more of what happened with Finch and Ingram after the Machine was given to the government. It seems that Ingram was the original Reese and he may have been the one to come up with the idea of saving the other people instead of Finch. Perhaps Finch only continued it to respect Ingram after his death. Either way, it seems that something significant will happen that leads to Ingram's death and I'm excited to see what it is. The Bad: Logan is so much of a dirtbag that it's hard to believe. I've never seen anyone so vile in the real world, so it's stretching it for Logan to have such an excessive personality. The Justin twist wasn't very good. The second he was introduced, I figured he would be involved with a twist later on, especially seeing how his relationship with Logan wasn't very good. As far as the show's twists go, this was one of the weakest ones for sure. The Unknown: Was Ingram the first Reese? What led to his death? Was it government-related or did he die while trying to save lives like Reese does? Will we see Logan again? After re-watching some episodes, I couldn't help but notice the boxes that the Machine assigns to people. I noticed that Reese and Finch are yellow. Does that just mean they are servants of the Machine? Does it mean they are aware of its existence? Or something else? I've also noticed that red boxes seem to mean dangers. Best Moment: The reveal of the nature of the watch gift was a fun moment. Character of the Episode: Logan. Conclusion: This was a pretty fun episode and a good way to cool down. Score: 61 Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Stanton survived the blast and was hospitalized. She is met by a mysterious man who offers her revenge. Carter escapes the scene of Donnelly's death and notices Reese is gone. Fusco gets involved and learns what happened. Finch tries to locate Reese to save him. Reese awakens wearing a bomb vest with Stanton and Snow. Stanton tasks him with obtaining a specific hard drive from a secret laboratory. Reese deduces that Stanton is trying to get a cyber weapon and secretly deletes the drive data to Snow's chagrin. Stanton reveals she actually wanted to upload something to the laboratory instead. She triggers the bomb vests and Snow and Reese are both on borrowed time. Finch arrives and manages to defuse Reese's bomb. Stanton gets a call from the man and receives a name to get revenge. Snow shows up in her car and the bomb blows up, killing both of them. The name is revealed to be Finch.
The Good: It was always going to be hard to follow the prior episode, but this did a damn good job. While the episode isn't as relentlessly intense as "Prisoner's Dilemma", it follows a more basic method of building up to a climax which then delivers as much of a bang (literally) as possible. This ended up being a very smart approach since it ensures that this episode won't be overshadowed by doing a completely different story. And the story was really great. Stanton was excellent in this episode, and while I was saddened to see her go so soon (see: The Bad), her storyline has successfully set up yet another mysterious background character who will most certainly be showing up again. It's good to know that Stanton was just the beginning of a storyline which is even larger in scale than I initially imagined (see: The Unknown). Stanton's story was really good too. Her character works really well in opposition to Reese. Stanton is everything Reese isn't. She is a psychopathic monster and perfectly fits with the description of Reese that Donnelly gave in the previous episode. She comes off as pure, cold evil and Annie Parisse plays the role extremely well. I think Stanton works so much better as a villain than Donnelly due to her connections to Reese, her charismatic personality and the background she is given in this episode to give her some motivation. We learn that Stanton is entirely driven by vengeance towards the people that tried to murder her. It gives her some necessary depth and makes her overall goal in the episode more interesting. I enjoyed the main plot line a lot. Watching Reese and Snow work together to do Stanton's dirty work was fairly enjoyable. There were some fun sequences and I really enjoyed all of the three way conversations between Reese, Stanton and Snow. The tension slowly built up as Reese continued to defy Stanton and I was waiting for the ball to drop by the end of the episode. It all happened at the DoD lab when Reese fully started to go against Stanton after he lost contact with her. The scenes at the DoD were very tense and I liked the action scenes. The brief fight between Snow and Reese was great, as was Stanton's sudden arrival, revealing that she wasn't after a cyber weapon after all. It was an effective twist and raises a lot of great questions (see: The Unknown). The final stretch of the episode was superb. Stanton armed both Reese and Snow and they both turned into time bombs ready to explode. Reese resigning to his fate was sad, especially as he dismissed Carter and Fusco to head to the roof, where Finch was naturally just there. Then we got a lovely sequence as Finch defused the bomb (I caught that subtle nod to "Goldfinger"). The scene wasn't tense since I was fairly sure that Reese wasn't going to die. Instead it was emotional and was all about the risks Finch was willing to take to ensure Reese doesn't die. We have heard over and over how much Finch means to Reese (he gave me a purpose), but we don't often get these long emotional scenes that show how important Reese is to Finch. This scene effectively conveyed those emotions in a big way. On the other side of the episode's climax was Snow and Stanton. I thought their deaths were very well written. Snow was given a great final line, and having him kill Stanton as well as himself was a fitting end to his character. I also enjoyed the detail that Snow chose not to kill Reese. It seems that Reese's insistence on not killing anybody changed Snow's opinion of him. Stanton was too dangerous to keep alive, but Reese had become a decent man. Then, there was that amazing cliffhanger. Honestly, Finch had lost most of the mystery surrounding his character this season. He had become just another member of the crew, and while I still enjoyed him, he wasn't as fascinating to me as he was in season 1. This episode rejuvenated his mystery in a big way. The final reveal that he sold this mysterious laptop and is apparently the target of this mysterious new corporation is really big and I cannot wait to learn more. As a final point, I liked the first few scenes with Carter and Fusco too. Carter making her escape was suitably tense and I really liked that Fusco got involved with the main story through something as simple as finding Carter's missing earring at a crime scene. The Bad: Well that's the third time we have seen the same Ordos flashback. I don't think I need to see that flashback ever again. Having Carter, Fusco and Finch just show up at a building that has a bomb threat was really bad. The cops were blocking people from going up the elevators but apparently nobody was watching the stairs which is dumb. Furthermore, there was a lot of security preventing people from taking the elevator up to the 21st floor. Yet Carter and Fusco can just walk up some random staircase and get all the way up there somehow. And Finch can just teleport to the top of 20 story buildings at will apparently. It was disappointing to lose Stanton so quickly. There was so much build up for her character, and her role as a villain was too good to be used up so quickly. Even though her story did build up another set of bad guys, I feel like more should have been done with her character. With both Snow and Stanton dead now, it feels like Reese's past has just been brushed under the rug. The Unknown: Who is the man who has the laptop now? What are his motives? He had Stanton upload something at the laboratory. What was it? Will it affect the Machine? How does he know Finch? Apparently he works for Decima Technologies. What does the corporation do? Is it a British corporation? Does that mean it ties in with Wesley? What are Finch's ties with Decima? What has he done in the past? What is on the laptop and why did he sell it? Did he program whatever it is that is on the laptop? Best Moment: Finch defusing Reese was fantastic. Character of the Episode: Stanton. Conclusion: This was another great episode. It built up nicely, felt important and had a terrific climax while also opening up several big mysteries for the show to explore. A great hour of television. Score: 71 Summary: Fusco takes care of the nest POI as Finch and Carter work on getting Reese out. Donnelly is determined and does thorough background checks of all four men. Finch fabricates a backstory for Reese while Carter interrogates him. Reese meets with Elias while in prison and gets in an altercation with Byron. Hersh infiltrates the prison with a goal to kill all four suspects. He kills one. After a tense investigation, Donnelly heavily suspects Reese. He isn't able to find anything and so he uses his altercation with Byron as an attempt to discover evidence. It fails. Carter interrogates another man and is able to pinpoint that he is the man in the suit. Reese is released and meets with Carter. However, Donnelly finds them and arrests both of them. He had suspected Carter to be a mole and it was confirmed when she showed some concern for Reese. Finch gets on the case but the Machine gives him another number: Donnelly. Donnelly's car is crashed and Stanton arrives to kill him. She reunites with Reese.
The Good: Well damn. When "Person of Interest" goes all in, it goes all in. This episode was ridiculously tense and had me completely hooked the entire time. I think this is one of the best tension-based drama episodes I have ever seen, up there with some of the best episodes of "Breaking Bad". It's not often when I feel so mentally exhausted that I find myself pausing just for a few moments to collect my thoughts. This episode started off in a brilliant way. The recap at the start was done in such a stylish way and it immediately captured the building tension that this episode thrived in. Furthermore, the fact that this episode was given a moment like this to kick it off makes it feel so much more important than all of the other episodes. Once the episode really gets going is when it shines though. The interrogation scenes between Carter and Reese are incredible. What adds on to these is Donnelly's presence in the background waiting for just one mistake to capitalize on. Every conversation puts me on the edge of my seat and they only get more and more suspenseful as the episode goes on. The climax results in a terrific scene where Carter is taking opposing commands from Donnelly and Finch, unsure of what to do. My mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities of what might happen. And then, just like that, the scene becomes an emotional scene where Reese gets to recount his life and his most tragic decision (see: Best Moment). It takes fantastic directing for the transition to work as well as it does without taking away from the pounding suspense. Donnelly's character is a standout once again. His persistence and capabilities as an antagonist are what make this episode work so well. Donnelly is so careful to dot his i's and cross his t's that it seems increasingly likely that he may discover something about Reese by outdoing Finch. Donnelly's moves were brilliant and I loved that nothing Finch and Carter did was able to outsmart him. His visit to the office was excellent, his relentless and quick background checks were fantastic, and the little things like him not falling for both the fire alarm and Macavoy's false evidence were splendid details. Plus, they genuinely challenged Finch who had to do some spectacular moves to ensure that Donnelly doesn't get ahead of them, such as contacting Macavoy, forging Reese's background and more. And these excellent developments are all thanks to Donnelly. Everything he does is so pleasingly logical and intelligent that it feels downright refreshing. The best villains are the ones who feel like they are an actual threat to the protagonists. But calling Donnelly a pure villain doesn't seem right. He is just a man doing his job, and that is made abundantly clear in this episode. In fact, his position on catching Reese does come off as morally correct and the points he makes about Reese are very true. Calling Reese a monster ties in nicely with the flashbacks and builds a little bit of morally grey stature around his character. The ending is really tragic for Donnelly. He did everything right in catching Reese, but his fatal mistake was letting the case become personal to him. By attacking Reese, he got caught up in something much bigger than he probably suspected, and without any backup to help him, he met his end. The final sequence was astounding as well. After the episode built up so fiercely, I thought that Reese being proven innocent may have been the end of it. With "Eminence Front" playing, I thought that the episode may have a calm ending that ties up loose ends and maybe spent more time on Fusco's story. So when Donnelly returned and arrested both Reese and carter, it completely caught me off guard. I was very pleased by it and it was consistent for the paranoid Donnelly to suspect Carter after everything that went wrong. After that, I knew something had to happen to Donnelly since two of the show's leads obviously weren't going to be jailed forever. But predictable isn't always bad, and the show managed to create drama at the end by accepting this. By having the Machine give Donnelly's number (also, how great was that scene where Finch walked by pay phones which all prominently started ringing), we knew that something was going to happen. The Stanton reveal was fantastic and provides one hell of a cliffhanger. By the look of things, "Person of Interest" is going to keep the momentum going into the next episode and I can't wait to watch what happens next. There were so many other things I loved about this main storyline. I was pleased that Finch and Reese already had an alias planned in the event that Reese gets captured. Finch's preparations were terrific and I was continually pleased that he considered several things that could happen. I really liked his plan to pin the blame on somebody else before Reese gets ratted out. The presence of Byron was some lovely continuity and the test that Donnelly did at the end was a perfect hail Mary. The chaotic feel of the episode was awesome. So many factors kept coming into play as Hersh and Elias also got involved, and it only added to the sense that something crucial to the story was happening on screen. I liked Fusco's story too. It worked to put the POI in the background of an episode for once, making this episode feel refreshingly different and special. Additionally, Fusco's story led to some of the funniest jokes that the show has ever done, a very necessary bit of relief in an episode which was so sensationally tense. Every time the episode cut to Fusco, he was in such an overly dramatic and funny situation. I absolutely loved it. The flashbacks were really good too. It's about time that we got to learn more about Reese and Stanton's dynamic, and it gives us a good idea of what to expect once we catch up with them in the next episode. The Bad: The final flashback was a bit redundant. We saw majority of it back in "Matsya Nyaya", and I don't think we needed to see it again. The Unknown: Who is Special Counsel's contact that sent him the information? Why did he feel the need to send Hersh to kill the four men? Is this the end of the man in the suit investigation? Or will somebody else continue it? Will the FBI be satisfied with Packer as the culprit? What does Stanton want with Reese? Will she treat him the same way she treated Snow? Or does she have something else in mind? What does she want? What will she do with Carter? Will she dispose of Donnelly's body or will she use it as a message to the FBI? Whatever is happening, I suspect it's going to be pretty big. Best Moment: A tense interrogation by Carter turns into a heartfelt moment as Reese fabricates a story for John Warren about how he lost his girl. It's a lovely bit of storytelling that of course mirrors how Reese lost Jessica. It's a really touching moment amidst utter chaos and I love it. Character of the Episode: Donnelly. His presence will be missed, though with Stanton and Root around, I'm sure that the show can fill his shoes nicely. Conclusion: What a stellar episode. I was expecting something big to happen from this storyline, but I never expected something as downright epic as what we got here. This is far and above the best episode of the show so far. It was remarkably tense, used all of its characters in a very efficient way and provided us with the best writing I have seen in the show. This checked all the boxes and showed me a glimpse of just how good this show can be. Score: 82 Summary: Donnelly returns and has found a way to track down the man in the suit. He enlists Carter to the FBI to help him out. The next POI is a girl named Abby who is about to do a robbery. However, Finch believes she is innocent so Reese goes to help her. Reese and Finch end up doing a bank robbery alongside them. Reese is in the action and Finch is outside. They get attacked by some men working for Chapple, the guy whose safe was being robbed. Donnelly is able to track down Reese and arrests him and three other guys in suits who were present at the robbery, unsure of which one is the man in the suit he is tracking.
The Good: The Donnelly story is pretty strong. I enjoyed seeing Carter's interactions with him as she is forced to go along with his investigation despite working for Reese. Additionally, Donnelly's presence gives the episode more momentum, which was needed for a midseason finale like this. Donnelly's role in this episode reminded me of Snow back in "Number Crunch" last season. This episode was also structured very similarly to the last one where it's an ordinary episode for a while before having an exciting conclusion. The ending was pretty tense since Reese felt exposed for once due to him being right in Donnelly's grasp. The cliffhanger ending with four people getting arrested is very intriguing and it sets up a fresh story where Reese will seemingly be jailed while Finch will be forced to get him out. I thought the main storyline started pretty well. The sequence where Finch had to fake being a criminal was pretty fun and I got some good laughs out of it. The ensuing double confrontation with Abby/Reese and Shane/Finch was fairly entertaining and did a solid job of getting us acquainted with Abby and Shane to prepare for the episode's final act. The Beecher twist with him being a part of HR is a pretty strong twist. It makes HR seem more important by having one of them closely acquainted to Carter and it allows them to be taken more seriously as a threat. The Bad: Finch was out of character in this episode. I found his insistence that Abby was innocent to be awkward and pretty stupid. The explanation he gives about the Machine not giving her number for a serious situation to be unsatisfying since it hadn't been brought up in over 30 episodes. Furthermore, Finch looks dumb for assuming Abby to be innocent based on trivial information, especially after so many cases in previous episodes have seen an apparently innocent person becoming the perpetrator. Finch looks even worse because Root was like this too and him not considering that Abby could be "bad code" shows that he learned nothing from his time with Root, contrary to what the show had been establishing with Finch's character development in recent episodes. Once again, the POI story becomes pretty tame after the mystery is dispersed. Without Donnelly, the final act of the episode would have fallen extremely flat. I was finding it tough to care about the gunfight that was happening and I had no reason to believe that Reese was in any danger from these mercenaries. The only threat was Donnelly, and that made every other factor in the climax of the episode, including Abby and Shane, tough to care about. The nature of the Abby storyline didn't help either. The story was needlessly complex and I found it hard to understand exactly what was happening and for what reason. This story really needed an edit to make it more understandable for the general public (like me). The HR plot hasn't been very interesting so far. Quinn as a bad guy is really lacking since we know next to nothing about him. Every other recurring character is more interesting because we have more of an idea of who they are. We desperately need an episode focused around Quinn so I can start to care about the HR storyline a little more. This episode didn't really work as a midseason finale. A short action sequence at the end of an episode worked for the midseason finale in season 1 since we hadn't seen anything like those final few minutes before. But after the raw intensity of "Firewall", we know that the show can do much more than what was shown here. It ended up making this episode feel disappointing and almost dull. Hopefully the midseason premiere delivers more than this did. The Unknown: What is Simmons up to? Is he eavesdropping because he is planning to turn on HR? Or does he want to take control and become the new head of HR? What will become of Reese now? Will Donnelly be able to identify that he is the man in the suit? How is Finch going to get him out? Will he use Carter? Perhaps Elias? Will somebody else be framed to prove Reese as innocent? Or will they simply do a jailbreak? What happened with Snow and Stanton? I thought we would be seeing them in this midseason finale but strangely we didn't. Perhaps we will see them again in the season finale. And Root too. Best Moment: The ending scene. The show has to move in a different direction now which can only be a good thing. Character of the Episode: Donnelly. His contributions saved this episode. Conclusion: This episode copied the format from "Number Crunch" to deliver an exciting midseason finale but it didn't accomplish what that episode did. Without Donnelly's storyline, this would have been a total dud. Score: 54 Summary: Fermin is a taxi driver who is trying to get his family to New York. He need $40 thousand to do so. He gets involved with shady business with an Estonian mob so Reese and Finch have to save him. They do so successfully and Fermin is reunited with his family. HR wants to get back in Elias' good graces so Fusco is sent on a mission to kill the only remaining mafia don. But it's a trap and Fusco's partner is killed. Elias wants nothing to do with HR. Simmons is angry and gives Carter an anonymous tip about what happened to Davidson.
The Good: Thankfully, the stories this season have been much more creative than the last season. A taxi driver is a creative new POI and it allows for there to be unlimited potential for mystery considering how many people the driver could be involved with. This allowed the first half of the episode to have a fun element of mystery to it. The Bad: Most of this episode was pretty uninspired though. After we find out everything surrounding Fermin, the episode loses all intrigue and ends up being generic and completely uninteresting. I found it hard to care about the story towards the end of the episode and there wasn't anything presented to get me back into it. I also have to add on that having an associate of the POI die has become the norm for this show and is completely predictable now. The moment that Reese and Fermin went to see Aziz, I knew he would be dead when they arrived. One thing that happened in this episode is that it dawned on me why most of these episodes fail to be anywhere near special. I've realized that for most "Person of Interest" episodes, I enjoy the build-up more than I enjoy the pay-off. This episode is a perfect example of this. I was much more engaged in the episode when Fermin was a total blank slate and we had to discover what he was involved in. It was interesting to learn more about him and I was always intrigued to find out where the threat comes from. However, once the mystery is clear, I know that all the climax of the episode entails is an action setpiece which is much weaker than the mystery which propels the first half of these episodes. This episode was weaker than usual because the climactic action scene was quite poor. It underwhelmed and I didn't realize we had seen the climax until after it was over. One of the episode's worst aspects was Fermin himself. The actor playing him did a pretty poor job and did a bad job of getting me to sympathize with him. The performance was flat and not emotive, making him one of the weakest POIs so far. Another issue was the pacing of this episode. It felt ridiculously inconsistent and that took me out of the experience. The beginning of the episode was very slow, and after the episode it feels pointless. The Estonian mob wasn't introduced until the halfway mark of the episode, so nearly everything before that feels needless. As a result of a slow and meandering beginning, the middle of the episode was totally rushed and the climax fell flat. I think the problem with the unsatisfying final two acts of the story came from the pacing issues of the episode. The HR storyline was underwhelming too. The biggest problem was how repetitive it felt. We have seen Fusco trying and failing to escape HR before, so to see him do it again was pretty redundant. His overall story only inched forward from this episode and it didn't even do so in a satisfying manner. The big cliffhanger really didn't feel like a big deal. The show is trying to drive a wedge between Fusco and Carter by making us think that Carter will condemn Fusco for killing Davidson. But this drama is totally meaningless because we know that Reese was there when Fusco killed Davidson and could easily explain the situation away. The Unknown: Apparently the Carter and Beecher date has become a storyline. I initially thought it would be a one-off thing to help with the theme of the last episode, but it seems to be an ongoing storyline. I wonder what the pay-off would be because I expect it won't be as simple as just giving Carter a boyfriend. Best Moment: The taxi ride with Fermin and Finch was a pretty good scene. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was the worst episode in a while. Almost nothing about this worked and this was a pretty big disappointment from the mostly consistent season 2. Score: 49 Summary: Flashbacks show Finch's relationship with Grace. In the present, the next POIs are a married couple. Reese soon discovers that both of them are trying to kill each other. After intervening and getting the two to talk to each other, they make good but they have both assigned hit men against each other. With the help of Carter and Fusco, who had to be pulled away from a date, the hit men are disposed of.
The Good: I really liked the theme of love which was explored throughout the episode. The central story was between two characters whose marriages fell apart, and that was contrasted by the new love between Fusco and his date Rhonda as well as the flashbacks showing the relationship between Finch and Grace. This central focus gave the episode more of a connected feeling and made this story feel more important than it otherwise would have been. Each individual story worked. The story of Daniel and Sabrina was pretty well done. It was nice to get a proper character story showing how these two reorganized their life and rediscovered their happiness. While the story was certainly flawed (see: The Bad), it was deeper than what we usually got. It was nicely acted, fit the episode's theme and provided a decent backdrop to set up the action scene in the episode's climax. Plus, the show got to bring in yet another "Lost" actor with Mark Pellegrino. The idea of a couple that are trying to murder each other is pretty creative and gave this episode something unique to help set it apart from everything else. Furthermore, the reason for their relationship falling apart made sense and everything that happened to get them back together was pleasingly logical, if rushed. The flashbacks were good too. They were more emotional than I was expecting since we got to see exactly what Finch has lost by doing the job he does. It certainly helps that Finch and Grace have wonderful chemistry which perfectly showed how happy Finch was before. This contrasts nicely with present day Finch who has become fairly bitter after his time with Root, as he wonders if it won't be better to let the couple kill each other instead. Fusco's date was a nice source of humour. I especially liked the kidnapping scene which allowed for a couple of laughs. The Bad: Unfortunately the kidnapping scene was absolutely ridiculous. Did Reese seriously kidnap a woman who was screaming loudly in the middle of New York with nobody noticing? That's just poor writing. It was always going to be tough to convey the change in the hearts of Sabrina and Daniel in a single episode. As such, their development comes off as unrealistically rushed and simplistic, a consequence of the show's insistence on single episode story arcs. This episode did practically nothing to advance the overall plot. While it told a fun story, it wasn't as engaging as the show's best episodes. The Unknown: I don't really have anything to put in here. Best Moment: Finch and Grace at the end of the episode was a really sweet moment. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: This was a solid episode. I don't have many gripes and I thought this worked well as a complete story. Score: 61 Summary: The next POI is Leon again so Finch and Reese save him. They take him back to the library to keep him safe as they tackle the next POI, a doctor named Maddy. Maddy is targeted by a man, Wesley, who wants her to kill a patient in surgery. Wesley threatens to kill Maddy's wife Amy so Reese is sent to save her. Finch contacts Maddy during the surgery and keeps her calm. Reese attempts to save Amy but is confronted by Wesley who is interested in him. Leon discovers Wesley's motive. Reese escapes and eventually gets Amy out safely. Wesley has planted a nurse in the surgery room but Finch knocks her out. Amy and Maddy are reunited and the patient survives.
The Good: The return of Leon was a delightful moment and led to some very good comedy early on. I'm always glad to get more of Ken Leung, and it adds yet another recurring character for a show which has built up a really interesting web of characters. Wesley is another fantastic addition. He is a fantastic new villain who I hope we see again in the future. He carried himself very well, leading to a threatening and intimidating presence that was just as memorable as Root and Elias. What stood out most was how capable he was. Everything that Reese and Finch tried had an answer to it which was pretty impressive. It's always refreshing to see capable and dangerous villains challenging the protagonists. Fusco's brief role in the story was fun too. He had good scenes and is a fairly good comic relief character when he doesn't have a story for himself. Carter's side story was excellent. All of this build up for the Snow/Stanton story has been very intriguing and I'm excited for whatever is coming. Snow added some very interesting tidbits by saying that Stanton is planning something big. The Bad: The main story is very generic. I don't really care much about Amy or Maddy and that prevents me from getting as engaged in this episode as I should be. The Liz twist was a very weak story point since it had little significance and was predictable. I didn't like Finch revealing himself during the procedure. Wesley made it clear that he had access to the events happening during the surgery, so surely he would notice Finch's arrival as suspicious. I also didn't like how squeamish Finch was. It was a lame joke and didn't feel quite right with his character. Bear's role in the story is getting tedious again. In this episode he didn't provide comic relief and simply proved to be a meaningless obstacle. Another story based on stocks is pretty repetitive. This must be the third or fourth story that has happened due to a villain wanting a cash-in from stocks. There needs to be more originality than that. The Unknown: Who was the man who had Carter's card? Did Snow kill him? Did Wesley? What does 66 11th mean? Is it actually the address? What is at that location? What is Snow up to now? Why is he going around killing people? What is Stanton planning? Who shot at Carter? Was that Stanton or somebody else? Where has Wesley gone? He mentioned that he and Reese met before. Is that going to become important? Best Moment: Carter and Snow's encounter. It was a tense moment of action with some excellent hype for whatever story is upcoming for Stanton and Snow. Character of the Episode: Wesley. Conclusion: This was your standard "Person of Interest" episode. A fine, inoffensive story with ups and downs. Score: 60 Summary: Flashbacks show how Finch met Grace. In the present, Reese is assigned in a neighbourhood with the next POI Graham. Reese realizes Graham is a happy man with a family but he had a previous life that is coming back to haunt him. Reese gets acquainted with Graham and defends him. Zoe joins up with Reese and pretends to be his wife. Reese saves Graham who decides to turn himself in for his past crimes. He still gets support from his wife afterwards and respect from Reese.
The Good: The flashbacks told a nice story. This episode had the theme of leaving your past behind and settling down. The flashbacks played into this nicely by showing us how Finch was introduced to Grace and how he ended up falling in love with her. The flashbacks were very sweet and also did well to further develop the Machine by showing us how it understands human behaviour. The main storyline was pretty good. I enjoyed Graham's story and I thought it was more complete of a character journey than what we usually get. I thought that his conflict was very easy to understand and the idea of him trying to run away from his regrettable past was understandable. It was nice to get some scenes to get to know the character early on and that allowed me to care a little more about him. What also helped was Reese's attachment to Graham. As Reese grows attached to Graham, so do we and it helps us get more invested in this storyline which doesn't tie in with the overall story at all. Reese's story was pretty good. I appreciated him getting to know another man who was running away from his past. It allowed Reese to see what his life could have been had he settled down with Jessica and that gives this episode a more emotional edge. It was great to see Reese actually interact with Graham after his life was saved, showing that Reese has developed some sort of bond with him. It's a good way to humanize Reese a little more than the witty badass he usually is. The plot was fairly fun too. There were some interesting mystery elements early on which captivated me. I was a fan of the scenes where Reese went undercover as a general civilian. It felt different and fresh. I also liked the Zoe and Reese interactions once again. The Bad: This episode was entirely centered on Reese and focused on the depths of his character as we got to see him in a new role. Unfortunately, this exposed Jim Caviezel who wasn't particularly convincing in his role. Some of the dialogue was delivered weakly too. This has been a problem in previous episodes, but it felt especially apparent here. I would have liked the show to commit more with Reese doing an investigation while pretending to be a normal civilian. Then again, Jim Caviezel probably wouldn't play the role well, so I'm unsure if it would be a good thing. The Unknown: Why was Grace so perfect? Is there any significance to that? Was it the Machine secretly finding an ideal girl for Finch? Best Moment: Reese going back to speak with Graham at the end of the episode. It was a nice bit of character. Character of the Episode: Graham. I think this is the first time I've given this to the POI of the episode not including recurring characters. Conclusion: This was a solid episode that told a good story. While it didn't feel very important, this was an easy watch. Score: 62 Summary: The next POI is a man named Riley who is a killer and part of a gang run by leader George. Reese thinks Riley is the perpetrator but realizes he is the victim since George wants to kill Riley and his girlfriend Annie. Riley kills George's son and escapes with Annie while Reese chases him down. Finch is indifferent towards saving Riley. Bounty hunters go after Riley so Finch contacts Elias to get him to put off the hit on Riley. Annie is kidnapped and taken to George anyways. Reese and Riley save Annie but Riley is killed.
The Good: I liked the concept behind this episode. The idea of the Machine providing a POI who the crew is reluctant to save has been something I was always interested in. I appreciate the show exploring moral dilemma like this. It also led to a great moment with Finch referencing Root, showing that she did get to him a little bit. Elias' return was pretty cool, though a bit pointless (see: The Bad). His interactions with Finch were fun and I liked the idea of him primarily wanting company from Finch over anything else. It nicely humanizes Elias. The overall story is fine. It's your usual episode and not much more than that. I liked George and I thought the actor who played him (I don't know his name, sorry) did a nice job. The Bad: This episode feels too generic and was tough to get invested in. It felt like just another episode without much going on in it. The relationship between Riley and Annie fell flat for me and I struggled to care about what happened to either character. Their limited connection with Reese likely caused this to happen. Having Reese interact with the people he is saving is an effective way to get us to sympathize with them more, causing more investment in the story. That didn't really happen here so it felt like the episode was missing something. Also, the episode felt like it was lacking a sense of urgency, especially for an episode that had high stakes like this one. It never felt like there was a big threat, and that was demonstrated best by the fact that Riley did more damage to Reese than anyone else in the episode. If the good guys are the strongest guys around, why should we think there is an actual danger to worry about? Additionally, this episode didn't have as gripping of a mystery as the previous episode and the set-pieces weren't put together as well. I really disliked the scene where Annie got kidnapped. It was shot really poorly and it came off that Reese was stupid enough to place a threat in the area and do nothing but watch as this threat kidnaps Annie. It was pretty sloppily shown. The return of Elias was a big scene, yet when you look at the overall story, it was entirely unnecessary. Finch spoke to Elias in order to get the bounty hunters to chase George instead of Riley. Yet this scene accomplishes nothing. A bounty hunter still captures Annie in the end and George is never attacked by his own men to show that they were turned against George. This was a pretty big waste of Elias if his contribution to the episode is literally nothing. The Unknown: No real pressing questions. This episode didn't do much for me. Best Moment: Finch referring to Riley as bad code was excellent. Michael Emerson is very skilled and plays Finch's newfound fear of bad humans extremely well. I was able to buy into the fact that Finch would bring this up and it didn't feel forced. Character of the Episode: Finch. Conclusion: A weak episode. This did absolutely nothing to stand out and was the most ordinary thing we have gotten this season. Score: 53 Summary: The next POI is a spoiled girl Sophia. Reese suspects that her father's politics will get her in trouble so he gets himself as her bodyguard. After an attempt on Sophia's life, Reese starts to investigate more into her life and suspects she got herself into personal business. Carter continues to investigate Alicia Corwin and notices somebody tampering with her body. Snow is also there investigating. Stanton is making Snow do work for her. Reese investigates people he suspects and Fusco is left to watch over Sophia. Sophia is taken and it turns out her boyfriend Jack wants her dead. Reese, Carter and Fusco save her life. Jack is arrested.
The Good: After the exciting first two episodes, "Person of Interest" is back to its usual rhythm with case-of-the-week stories. This episode was more solid stuff with a decent story behind it. I enjoyed it well enough and there were a few fun moments. We got another Looney Tunes scene as Reese dominated the 14th Street mafia in hilarious fashion. Fusco got a nice moment as Sophia recognized him as a stud. I don't believe I ever addressed the opening scenes of the show, but I do like them. They give the show more identity by showing us some scenes from the point of view of the Machine. Furthermore, they provide some nice foreshadowing of the episode's story by showing us some key events that will become important later. I especially enjoyed the sequence where Reese made himself Sophia's bodyguard. Reese frequently just becomes a driver/bodyguard/whatever with no explanation given and it has bothered me. It feels so refreshing to see Reese going through the effort of getting the initial bodyguard fired and ensuring that he gets selected as a replacement instead of it just happening. These details help make him human, and seeing his charismatic ways to solve problems are perfect to get us acquainted with how he functions as a character. I really wish we had scenes like this in season 1. Finch had a really strong story in this episode. He is clearly affected by Root kidnapping him and it has made him feel mortal like everyone else, whereas before he always felt safe. Root exposed him and now her shadow is constantly lurking over him, leaving him frightened and more paranoid than ever. I loved the scene where he stepped outside, only to get hit with PTSD which caused him to immediately run back to the library. It's a very good story. The Carter side plot is very strong too. There is a lot of intrigue brought in by Snow's appearance, especially since when we last saw him, he was captured by Stanton. His presence and the added mystery of somebody tampering with Corwin's body, makes for a very interesting subplot. The Bad: This had some flaws as usual. The Jack reveal is very predictable and it didn't get much of a reaction from me. The episode wasn't able to get the tension ti tried to get since I didn't buy into Sophia being in any real danger; I was confident Reese would save her in the end. The villains didn't seem very convincing either. Their attempt to kill Sophia was really poor. Why kill her int he middle of a public club? Let her go outside and kill her then! Also, was Montgomery really going to kill Sophia in his own car at the end? That is a terrible idea in every way. The scenes with Bear seem a bit pointless and are just a random distraction. I understand the idea of using it to show Finch growing softer, but there were a few too many scenes for my liking. The Unknown: What was Alicia Corwin's incision about? It appears that Hersh did it and extracted a chip from her arm, or something like that. Who put the chip inside of her? Why was it there? How did Special Counsel know about it? It's very interesting that yet another outside force has been introduced since nobody we know was responsible for tailing Corwin. Root didn't know she existed until she died, so it isn't Root. Who will Snow be sent after next? Is Stanton searching for the person responsible for ordering her death? Is that person Special Counsel? Best Moment: Reese proving himself to be better than all of the other bodyguards was excellent. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: This was a good episode. It was a small step down from the exciting first two episodes, but that was to be expected I think. The show handled the change of focus from Root nicely by introducing some intriguing new aspects while telling a fine story in this episode. Score: 64 Summary: Reese and Carter go to Texas where they investigate a missing girl Hanna who they suspect is Root. After some more digging, they discover that Hanna is actually dead and her friend Sam is actually Root. Root had engineered the evidence to allow Reese to discover the truth about what happened to Hanna and make it public. Root has captured Weeks and is attempting to get more information on the Machine from him. Finch helps free him but Weeks turns on Finch and extracts information before attempting to kill him. Root kills Weeks after getting the information she wanted and takes Finch to a train station. Reese intercepts them and recovers Finch but Root gets away.
The Good: Root remains a very entertaining presence. These first two episodes were really fun, primarily because Root has been so good. Amy Acker plays the character to perfection and her charisma brought this episode to a new level. All of her scenes with Finch and Weeks were very good and continued to raise the mystique surrounding her character. The conversations with Finch were written really damn well and I liked the exploration of Root's belief of humans being bad code through Weeks. The action scenes in the Root story were pretty fun too. I loved the irony of Finch freeing Weeks only to end up in the same position, only with a different person interrogating him now. The way this tied in with Root's beliefs was great, and I appreciate that Root was capable enough to turn the situation back around and kill Weeks. Root came off very strongly with her villainous antics. I loved little details like her disconnecting the phone line (which also served as a logical way for Finch to leave a hint for Reese) as they make her seem like a more important and formidable force. The main story was fine overall and heated up nicely by the end. I enjoyed the reveal that Root was actually Sam instead of Hanna. It was some effective backstory for her character, though it may not have had the impact it tried to have (see: The Bad). The story did come full circle at the end with the reveal that Root had set up evidence to reveal Hanna's true murderer brought all of the loose ends together in a nice way. The Bad: The investigation with Hanna wasn't as tense as it should have been because it was obvious that she was related to Root in some way. It hampered my engagement in the mystery and made the first half of the episode pretty boring for the Reese/Carter scenes. I also wasn't happy with the flashbacks which were too repetitive and didn't offer any insight into Root's character. I hated that we were reshown the flashback to be reminded who Sam was. Also, the final reveal was hurt by the fact that it didn't do anything for Root's character. It was just surprise for the sake of surprise and offered no deeper emotions. "Lost" did these character-based twists much better. The climactic scene wasn't very satisfying. It was built up so well, but the actual confrontation between Reese and Root lasted mere seconds. It was disappointing that it was resolved so quickly and now we have been robbed of the great Root/Finch interactions. I really hope that Root doesn't become absent now like Elias was in the last season. I had similar problems with Barbara as I did with Jessica's mother in "Many Happy Returns". While I understood the story, her character just felt off to me. The emotions were pretty forced and it was hard to understand some of the things she was doing. The Unknown: So who is Root's contact? Is it anyone from Texas or somebody new? So "Special Counsel" is apparently the man in the government. What is his role in the story? What does losing Weeks mean for him? Who is Hersh? What is Hersh going to do? What does Special Counsel know about Root? Weeks seemed to be aware of her, so do they have some history? Will Root go into the background now? I feel like she will, but I really hope she doesn't. Whatever happened with Stanton? We haven't seen her in so long. Best Moment: Any moment involving Root honestly. My favourite was probably her murder of Weeks. Character of the Episode: Root. Conclusion: These first two episodes have been really fun. I liked this a fair amount, and Root helped make this episode better than it would have been otherwise. Score: 66 Summary: Flashbacks reveal that Finch programmed the Machine as an individual intelligence. Reese tries to get the Machine to locate Finch but it instead continues to provide him with the numbers. Reese's next POI case leads him to Leon a man who is in danger after he stole money from a gang. Reese saves Leon's life while still attempting to locate Root and Finch. Root reveals to Finch that she intends to set the Machine free and threatens him to cooperate by hurting and killing innocents. Fusco is charged with watching Leon but loses him and gets captured. Reese saves them and is able to get himself a military dog. Leon loses his money but his life is saved. Reese discerns that Root is heading to Texas and enlists Carter to go there with him.
The Good: This was a strong start to the season. This episode had constant momentum and felt pleasingly different from everything in season 1. This episode did a terrific job with Root. Amy Acker has been awesome so far and she feels appropriately mysterious and threatening in her conversations with Finch. I'm really interested in learning her backstory, and the little hints of her past (her mysterious motive to free the Machine, her missing poster) were tantalizingly good. I thought her conversations with Finch were really nicely written and her threats to innocent civilians accomplished to goal of making her a ruthless villain as well as a crafty one. I also really liked how she figured out that the Machine exists. It made a lot of sense and was set up nicely in season 1. The central story with Reese was great. His motives to find Finch made the usual POI story more interesting since saving the POI felt like more of an afterthought with the primary focus being on Finch. This was used spectacularly as the episode's POI was made more unlikable, allowing for a more complex range of emotions to be used than usual. Plus, Ken Leung was a perfect casting choice for Leon, this despicable yet entertaining character. What made the overall story so much more fun was the use of humour. The show has embraced its cheesiness and is all the better for it. I absolutely loved the action scenes because of this cheesiness. Titus screamed throwaway "boss" character but not in a bad way. It felt more like a parody and I got some laughs out of his scenes. The best part was certainly the "Looney Tunes" action bit when Reese tamed his dog and attacked the men holding Leon and Fusco captive. The cut to outside the building with the cheesy sound effects, the man flying through the window and Reese walking out unscathed was hilarious and wonderfully self-aware. We got some more details about the Machine as well which I really approved of. The flashbacks were fantastic and explored the idea of the Machine being an AI rather than a system. I loved the final flashback especially as the Machine showed some free will of its own to attempt to save Finch's life. It was a fascinating moment and seems to suggest that Finch specifically programmed the Machine to not go out of its way to help him, instead opting to help the general public. There were a few other fun scenes. Reese's threats to a confused Leon were generally fun and I appreciated their interactions. Fusco attempting to save Leon from the gang was a noble moment for him that continued his character development. The Bad: Wow, did that cop really fall for Leon faking a heart attack? Also how the hell did he let Leon get away? Are cops seriously so stupid? It's a wonder that Elias is still locked up if this is all it took for Leon to escape. I liked the idea of Root sending texts to her contact (see: The Unknown) on other people's phones. However, the scene was portrayed really awkwardly and I didn't understand what had happened until afterwards. The issue was the fact that the phone seemed to already have a conversation with Root's contact beforehand which confused me. The dog was extremely convenient. I know this episode committed to cheesiness, but it still doesn't excuse the ridiculous convenience of this dog just happening to be one of the breed that Reese had worked with before. I wasn't happy with how the gangs were so easily able to find Leon. New York is a big city, it shouldn't be this easy to find people. Also, the gunfights are still a big issue. I find it ridiculous that so many gunfights can happen and no civilians or anyone else seem to react to them, or even notice they are happening. I wasn't happy with the sudden change in the bond between Reese, Fusco and Carter. They were steadily gaining trust in season 1, but now they are apparently suddenly best friends that bicker all the time. This felt too sudden and I feel like the last bits of the relationship development were skipped over. While the embracement of the cheesiness is a good thing, it doesn't overcome the lack of emotional connection in every episode. At heart, this show remains an action show which doesn't consistently provide genuine emotional engagement. While I still enjoy it, it doesn't end up hitting the large highs that other shows like "Lost" were able to reach with the added bonus of emotional engagement in every episode. The Unknown: Did the Machine actually help Reese by the end of the episode or is it some false lead? What does Root mean that she wants to go to the future? Why has she waited her whole life for this? Why does she want to set the Machine free? What are her motives? What does she expect it to do? Who was the person Root is in contact with? Is he in Texas? What is Root's past? Why did she apparently run away? Who is Weeks and the man he is talking to? I'm not particularly interested in a government conspiracy storyline, but maybe this is something more. Is the dog a permanent addition to the crew? I would be fine with it as long as things don't get too cheesy. Best Moment: I loved the Looney Tunes moment. It showcased the change that the show has gone through in a very good way. Character of the Episode: Reese. Conclusion: This was a very strong premier episode. While this won't land as an all time best episode, I liked it and it serves as a good step forward for the show. Score: 67 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
February 2024
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