In the sixth episode of the fourth season of Person of Interest, John and Harold deal with admirers. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.Â
I’m still glad that there can be some humor injected into this show, and through Walter Dang, the writers are able to poke a whole lot of fun at the ridiculous nature of John Reese. Even though I don’t often talk about it, Person of Interest really IS a show in the vigilante tradition. It’s just that there’s so much else going on that it doesn’t feel like the other works in this genre or trope! The science fiction plot is a big part of that, but you still can’t ignore that this is about a team of people who dole out justice in a world where justice is rare.
So it makes sense that there’d be someone just like Walter Dang out there in the world, who is inspired by what the “vigilante†does and decides to take up their own form of vigilantism as well. The show manages to fit this within the perfect time, too, since there really was a period in which The Man in the Suit “disappeared†from New York, and we learn precisely what affect that had on the city. In the absence of John and the rest of the team, Walter decided to take things upon himself and help others out. He… well, he’s not very good at this, and I feel like that’s the greatest understatement imaginable.
Walter provides an endless wave of comedy as John realizes he is pretending to be a cop to help out the sister of one of his co-workers. Walter becomes a parody of a vigilante, even going so far as to speak in the third person about himself. IT IS SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH, Y’ALL. I love how John goes from being utterly horrified by this man to kind of admiring how much he tries? Because at the end of the day, Walter cares, and that’s a thematic motif across Person of Interest. It’s a show about combatting cynicism and fatalism, no matter how bad things get. When Walter heard the tragedy that struck his co-worker’s family, he didn’t give up! Oh, he made a lot of mistakes, got himself wrapped up in a war between two gangs, and nearly died about fifty fucking times, but HE STILL TRIED.
And I admire that.
About those gangs, though. Oh my god, Elias and Brotherhood are gonna go at it, aren’t they? Amidst the Samaritan nightmare, too, which cannot possibly go well, y’all. None of them know about the dystopic monster that’s watching over them, and I’m guessing that some of the people in these two gangs are going to be numbers given to the team by the Machine. How the hell can the team stop an all-out war between two groups that believe that they should run New York City?
THIS ISN’T GOING TO END WELL, I KNOW IT.
The video for “Pretenders†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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