In the eighth episode of the fifth season of Person of Interest, SAMARITAN IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST, WE ALL KNEW THIS, BUT STILL. THE WORST. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.Â
Trigger Warning: For consent, nonconsensual medical procedures.
Good fucking GOD, this is a nightmare, and I KNEW IT, but that didn’t make this any easier to watch, y’all. Every time that Greer ever justifies Samaritan in a future episode, I’m just going to think of this. It hurts. There is so much suffering here, so much injustice, so much terror all around, and I can’t fucking possibly imagine anyone seeing all of this and thinking that Samaritan makes the world better.
James Ko died, and he died solely because he could best spread a contagion. As far as we know, it’s not like he was a horrible person, and it’s not like that would have justified his death regardless. Samaritan saw him as part of a calculation, one that would take out Dr. Mason and the nurse, as well as usher in a new wave of paranoia. It was also a means to test Jeff Blackwell as a possible asset, and LITERALLY NONE OF THESE THINGS JUSTIFY SUCH HEINOUS ACTS. We don’t even know how many people died due to the flu outbreak, but for Samaritan, they’re just numbers in a global equation, one meant to bring order and stability through chaos and violence.
Of course, this irony is always lost on the perpetrators. (Except Jeff, but I’ll get to him in a bit.)
Instead, everything is kept at a distance. It’s our characters—especially John and Harold—who must deal with this outbreak alongside all the innocent people who are forced to suffer for the greater good. This is clearly a disastrous situation, and the writers/production team ramp up the unbearable tension, first by having Ko die, and then isolating everyone within a CDC quarantine. Predictably, the people within the quarantine start to turn on one another, but this doesn’t actually last as long as I thought it would. The focus shifts from the building paranoia to external forces, and it’s a brilliant change. We get to watch Root work with an open system in the machine to find a solution, but we’re also on edge because of the converging storylines that belong to Jeff and Fusco. That segue was so horrifying, y’all. IT WAS ALL CONNECTED. NO THANK YOU.
And there’s a tiny part of me that does feel a bit bad for Jeff, given that he’s manipulated and extorted so ruthlessly by Samaritan. (Through Mona, that is.) Jeff’s role as an asset is so gradual, and it’s not until the last couple assignments that they started to test his willingness to do “bad†things. I believe that’s intentional! Samaritan granted him security and success, something he otherwise would not have gotten as an ex-con, and then, Samaritan exploited that, further threatening to take away everything it had “granted†Jeff. It’s a horrible, shitty situation to live with…
…YET HE INJECTED THAT NURSE WITH A MYSTERIOUS VILE DURING A QUARANTINE. Bad??? 100% bad, no question about it??? HE STABBED FUSCO IN THE NECK, OH MY FUCKING GOD. And now he knows the truth: that the outbreak was meant to inspire public panic, so that when the government asked for mandatory genetic marker testing, people would willingly give up their DNA.
To Samaritan.
THERE’S GONNA BE ANOTHER CORRECTION, ISN’T THERE. IT’S GONNA HAPPEN AND I AM SCARED.
And what about Fusco? He’s so, so, SO close to the truth, and in his quest to find out what is actually going on, he nearly dies. Does that stop him? HELL NO, IT’S FUSCO. I’m reminded of how much he went through in the latter half of last season, y’all. Not just that, but after years of being forced into a sidekick role, he is PISSED. I can’t say I feel sorry for John or Harold either. Fusco has repeatedly shown himself to be worthy of respect and worthy of at least being given a choice about whether or not he wants to involve himself in the full process. If he’s not told the truth, he’s gonna find out on his own. Is that really going to be the ideal scenario here?
AND THEN THERE IS SHAW. We’re at a point where even the audience has trouble distinguishing between a simulation and reality. Even here, I just assumed the worst: none of this mattered. Shaw wasn’t truly escaping, and she hadn’t actually found a means to get out of her cell. Even after Lambert confronted her and she shot him (YES), I still had my doubts. How was I to know the truth? Should I invest in something that will most likely end with the reveal that it wasn’t real?
YET THIS IS. That radio broadcast proves it!!! That could not have been part of Shaw’s memory because it happened in real time. So… oh my god. Lambert is dead. She escaped. SHE’S IN SOUTH AFRICA??? Oh my god, what the hell was Samaritan doing at that prison??? HOW IS SHE GOING TO GET TO NEW YORK???
How is this show going to be over for me next week. HOW.
The video for “Reassortment†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.
