Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S01E07 – Witness

In the seventh episode of the first season of Person of Interest, I fell for this without a single look back. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.

I had a review prepared in my head. It’s something I do whenever I’m watching something because… well, it’s nice to have an idea what I’m going to address out of all the possible interpretations of a work of fiction. And like some of the great plot twists I’ve been dealt over the years, this episode has two vastly different interpretations. There are my thoughts on “Witness” prior to the scene on that ferry, and then there’s my interpretation after finding the truth about everything I’d seen.

See, I was ready to talk about kindness. About how Reese and Finch were undeniably helping people who were, in turn, helping this part of New York be better. About how that scene in that one student’s apartment was a sign that if people just try to be good, it’s a hell of a lot better than resigning one’s self to cynicism and nihilism.

And then it turned out to be Elias on the goddamn boat and I am a fucking mess.

So, I’m sure I missed others, but the clues were there. “Charlie” mentioned foster parents; that student pretty much described Elias when he summarized The Count of Monte Cristo. How many other hints were there? The fact that D’Agostino said something to the “witness”? The fact that Charlie was pursued in the first place? Oh god, no one knew what he looked like, OH MY GOD I FELL FOR THIS SO HARD.

It utterly changes what “Witness” is about. This isn’t about altruism or standing up to your bullies or anything of the sort. At the heart of this plot twist is an uncomfortable reality: The Machine spits out numbers with no context. It’s easy to assume that the person named by that number is either a victim or a perpetrator, that there’s a binary to reality, that all Reese and Finch have to do is determine which of these two groups a number belongs in.

But Elias destroys that. The Machine gave Reese a number of someone who would, with a high probability, die in the immediate future. He was going to be the victim of a violent crime, and it would be soon. Yet the Machine cannot provide context; it cannot tell them that he’s a wanted criminal, that he’s acting out a decades-long plan for revenge, that he has murdered others, and that he’s gonna murder a whole lot of people in order to reclaim Brighton Beach from the Five Families. And now, both Reese and Finch have to live with that guilt. They made a horrible mistake, and they saved someone who may cause untold harm to others. But there’s nothing else they can do aside from doing the best with limited information, right? Finch no longer has access to any of the actual information that The Machine uses to come to its conclusions, so everything is biased because it’s interpreted by humans.

So what’s the solution? There really isn’t one; this is always going to be a problem! Everyone fucked this up, y’all. Even Detective Carter and Fusco came at this the wrong way, believing that Charlie was merely a witness and not a major player in all of this. That doesn’t make this situation any better, of course, and now, Elias is set to unleash hell upon Brighton Beach. I WASN’T READY. NO ONE WAS READY.

I can’t believe this show fucked me up so quickly into its run.

The video for “Witness” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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