In the twentieth episode of the first season of Person of Interest, if this show escalates any further, I am certain that I will be the next number spit out by the Machine. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.Â
I am the kind of consumer of fiction who is willing to wait. I love letting a story unfold slowly, and y’all, I am obsessed with a good slow burn. I love the reward that comes from paying attention and investing in a narrative. It’s why I enjoyed shows like Rubicon or The Wire, which took their time before ruining me forever. I say all this so that I can chuck it out the window because I DID NOT HAVE TO WAIT WITH PERSON OF INTEREST. The pilot was incredible, and the pacing of the season arc is so fast. We’re getting to plot lines that I thought wouldn’t be resolved until later seasons, and everything is happening all the time to everyone.
WHAT DO I EVEN SAY ABOUT THIS SHOW ANYMORE
Fusco
Please, please let him find out about Carter and vice versa! First of all, I just want to see the looks on their faces once they realize what’s been going on. But I’m also interested in the development that will come out of such a moment because I can already see Fusco moving in a specific direction. After being tapped to spy on HR for Finch and Reese, he was forced to go back to being dirty. Granted, it was with a purpose, and Fusco was able to help the team keep tabs on the organization. But I got the sense that he liked being a good person, even if he was just pretending to be corrupt. Here, however, I felt like he took a very direct stand against the kind of pervasive corruption that was personified by Lynch. Y’all, he killed Lynch, which was an incredible reference to Reese saving Fusco from that one HR cop long ago. RIGHT??? So not only does Fusco return the favor, but it felt like a huge moment for his character: The people of HR are dangerous, and they do not deserve understanding. LYNCH DESERVED TO BE SHOT IN THE BACK.
Help me.
The Con
Well, it’s not like it’s surprising to learn that the CIA also had eyes on the Machine. THERE IS NO WAY THAT’S A COINCIDENCE. And it makes a chilling kind of sense, doesn’t it? The CIA didn’t want anyone to have the Machine if they couldn’t have it, so why not just take it out and everyone else who knew it existed? It’s such a cool subplot because it parallels the events of the main case. Both stories deal with collateral damage. Who is disposable and why? I fell for the con, too, believing that Stanton had been marked as disposable without realizing that Snow had set up both of these agents to take one another out. It never mattered who completed their mission first because that airstrike was going to wipe it all away.
So yeah, I was absolutely not ready for this show to reveal that Stanton survived the airstrike. I ASSUMED SHE WAS DEAD THIS WHOLE TIME BECAUSE WHY ELSE WOULD I THINK OTHERWISE??? Oh my god, is she trying to find John???
The Last Job
There’s a moment at the end of “Matsaya Nyaya” where Finch reflects on the messy implications of this specific case. Who was the victim? Who was the perpetrator? Did Reese and Finch actually accomplish anything good? The very nature of the Machine and the numbers it provides is without context, and that goes for moral context, too. The Machine correctly predicted that a number of deaths would be connected to Tommy Clay. It knew he was planning on robbing his own truck, but it also most likely figured out that Tommy’s partner, Ashley, was deadset on taking him out when this was all over.
So what did Reese and Finch actually accomplish? An innocent driver was killed, but was it so terrible that Tommy was killed by the woman he was having an affair with, especially after he’d wrought such violence on others? Fusco killed Lynch, but I don’t think anyone was prepared for that twist. (CERTAINLY NOT ME.) But this episode is an exploration of how morally complicated this whole job is. It’s not always clear-cut or obvious who the victim is, and it’s not something the Machine could provide either. It’s why that conversation Stanton and Reese have in China is so important. Technology has evolved to meet an unnerving number of needs within the intelligence community, but in the end, they still need people to interpret the information. Without it, it’s all cold. Lifeless. Without meaning. Sure, it absolutely complicates matters, but I don’t see that as a bad thing.
The video for “Matsaya Nyaya” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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