In the thirteenth episode of the second season of Person of Interest, this show is an experience. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.Â
Good gods, y’all, I am not even halfway through this show, am I? Somehow, there are two and a half seasons left! I am supposed to make it through those, too! And APPARENTLY THIS ISN’T EVEN THE GOOD STUFF!!!! I am just in awe at how quickly Person of Interest moves through storylines, discarding them after stories have been told as best as they can. That’s part of the reason why I’m so shocked by all the escalating plots. I’m used to shows milking things for all they’re worth. Here, however, we have moved SO FAR from where we were at the beginning of season one, and yet this somehow still feels like the same show. It’s just evolved so quickly!
That’s certainly the case for Kara Stanton’s story. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was back for flashbacks that would flesh out her past with that one mysterious dude, the one who runs that private intelligence group. Indeed, there’s a massive unresolved element to “Dead Reckoning,†but I’ll return to that at the end. Kara wanted revenge, in part for the CIA turning against her. After surviving the missile blast at Ordos, though, she was presented with something else: work for another party for the name of the person who sold the laptop that got her nearly killed in the first place. So whomever that man is, and whatever organization he worked for, he was able to provide Kara with the information that would have allowed her to get the revenge she wanted. At first glance, that seemed pretty simplistic to me. Kara just wanted to get back at Snow and the CIA and that’s it? Nothing more?
Upon examination, though, I think that Kara’s story, while cut short, was still an important foil for Reese. Both of these characters were dealt a similar fate: Snow had ordered them to kill one another, and then Snow ordered a missile attack in order to clean up any mess left behind. Snow never expected that both these agents would survive this, but look at where they ended up. For a while, they were on identical paths. They hid from the public. They both met men who offered them a purpose and gave them direction in life. They both used their skills to help someone else. But the details matter here. Reese tried to better his own life and the life of those around him. Kara, however, worked for an organization that was even more cutthroat and ruthless than the CIA. How many other jobs had she done for that man? How long had he been promising her that name? What the fuck did she set free in the DOD facility? Why is it going to activate in five months???
Anyway, I don’t expect those other questions to be answered for a while, but asking them suggests that there’s more to Kara than the show let on. Even if that’s not the case, her actions tell us plenty: she loved her job without any regrets. Unlike John, she didn’t feel bad about what she had done or what she was currently doing. As long as she completed her job, all was well. And it’s scary to see that joy in her face. She tells John she’s just doing her job with such ease. She means it. And that’s the biggest difference between the two of them: John learned to question his orders. He learned that practicing the kind of dissonance that used to be his life is not actually something to be admired or honored. The people he worked for and worked with were horrible, miserable humans. They did awful things and made the world a worse place…
… which is exactly why John offers to take himself out at the end of this. Y’all, I was not ready for a sequence in which John begs Carter and then Finch to let his explosive vest go off. I WASN’T, OKAY. But in that moment, John was certain that this is how he’d pay for all the things he’d done working for the CIA. It’s a remarkably distressing scene, especially since Taraji P. Henson and Michael Emerson are just so hard to watch when they’re heartbroken. Both of them thought, even for an instant, that they were about to lose their friend.
It’s shit like that scene that makes it easier to push aside the realization that Person of Interest wouldn’t actually kill off John. The emoting makes it all worth it. So… what is this all going to mean for John? I don’t even know how it’s possible that Finch was responsible for that laptop being sold, so I have to assume it’s something to do with the Machine??? Right? Maybe? Gods, this show is ruining me.
The video for â€Dead Reckoning†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now available for pre-order! If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter! DO IT.
