Summary: Flashbacks show that Collier's brother was arrested after surveillance found him guilty of terrorism. His brother killed himself and was innocent all along. In the present, Root gets 5 numbers of government officials, including Control. Control discusses bringing Samaritan online and convinces Rivera to go with it. Shaw goes in to watch over Control and protect her. Greer speaks with Finch while hidden away. Power goes out across the city and Vigilance captures Control and the government officials, as well as Greer and Finch. Shaw and Reese ally with Hersh to save Finch and Control. Root is able to discover where Samaritan has been stored away and prepares to go in. Vigilance prepares to broadcast a trial of the US government.
The Good: One of the most remarkably consistent aspects of "Person of Interest" is its villains. Across the last 3 seasons we have gone through tons of villains (Elias, Stanton, Donnelly, Greer, Root, Simmons, Quinn), and pretty much all of them have been great. Somehow the show manages to come up with a fresh balance of charisma, relatableness, motivation and threat from each of these villains to allow them all to stand out and make an impact. It's fascinating to see how many different villains this show is able to produce on a regular basis. And now in this episode, they have done it again with Collier. Prior to this episode, Vigilance wasn't a group I was particularly invested in. All the scenes with them were good, but it always felt like the story was building up to something more, and Vigilance were simply being used as a way to maintain interest in an episode without doing anything too spectacular. As a result, I didn't find myself treating these guys as much of a current threat. I had labelled them as a future threat which would likely shine in one episode before being defeated. Plus, Collier hadn't done much to engage me in his story despite some strong acting and enjoyable lines of dialogue. Here, that all changed. We got an outstanding backstory for his character. We understood what his motives were, but we didn't know enough about him to care. With the heartbreaking tale of what happened to his brother Jesse, I found myself relating to Collier, understanding his pain and even supporting his cause. We have been told many times by people like Finch that we should sympathize with Collier but I hadn't really found myself doing so until now. The climactic twist was quite brilliant. I wasn't expecting the episode to end with Vigilance capturing pretty much every other important villain in the show. It was a big surprise, and immediately pushed Vigilance to the top as the biggest threat to these characters. The entire season, I had been much more worried about the threat Decima posed since they had been built up so much, that I never took Vigilance as seriously as I should have. Because of this, the twist reveal that Vigilance are the biggest threat this season caught me off guard and satisfied me in the way every good plot twist should. I really look forward to seeing what will become of this trial, as it could potentially change the show in a big way. The rest of the episode reminded me of "Zero Day". It was purely set-up for whatever is coming in the season finale and I really enjoyed it for what it was. It was interesting to see Root's plan unfold, and the involvement of the hacker group constantly kept me guessing what she was up to. It was satisfying to watch and the cliffhanger at the end with Root approaching Samaritan is exciting. There were some fun scenes in this set-up too. I liked Shaw having to swallow her hate and attempt to protect Control. The alliance between Reese, Hersh and Shaw was quite fun too. Also, I like that the show gave a reminder about why Decima men kill themselves since I forgot about the line which touched a little on this back in "Trojan Horse". The scenes with Finch and Greer were pretty awesome. The acting and dialogue was great and both characters paralleled each other nicely. I liked their philosophical discussion about creation as it provided some nice thematic exploration (I love it when the show explores the more thematic elements of creating AI), while also giving us some nice insight into Greer and what makes him tick. His speech about the blitz was phenomenal and did a lot to help us understand his motivations and hints at what his goals are with the activation of Samaritan. The Bad: I wouldn't call anything particularly bad here. The episode fell into the usual trappings of a set-up episode which prevents it from scoring too high. The Unknown: What did Root's hacker crew set up? Will they have a role to play in the next episode? What is Root going to do with Samaritan? Will she be able to shut it down? Is this trial the start of Collier's revolution? If he succeeds, how will the piblic react? What will be the consequences for Finch and co.? What was the truth about Jesse's death? Who was it that texted Collier? The government? Best Moment: Collier's emotional outburst at the government woman was a really strong scene, well-acted and powerful. I really felt for Collier and I found myself somewhat rooting for his success for a moment there. Character of the Episode: Collier. Conclusion: This was a great way to set up the season finale. While most of this was just an ordinary set-up episode, it got lifted up by the fascinating developments of Collier and Greer which added some focus and emotion to the episode. Score: 72
3 Comments
Ben
5/5/2019 01:31:12 pm
"I want to live under a more just rule. Samaritan will never sleep with its secretary, or embezzle money from its campaign fund. Its decisions will be based on pure logic. Now that's a leader deserving of our vote."
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Joe Y
9/1/2020 06:44:13 pm
The expositional dialogue is a fair complaint. Michael Emerson makes it bearable, but it is fair to criticize nonetheless.
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Aaronic
5/6/2019 07:59:02 am
I agree with everything you have said here. The writers always seem to put in extra effort for the dialogue between the heroes and villains, and that's part of the reason I'm enjoying Greer so much.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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