{"id":6570,"date":"2017-10-04T08:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T15:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6570"},"modified":"2017-09-26T07:46:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T14:46:29","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s02e16-relevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/10\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s02e16-relevance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S02E16 – Relevance"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixteenth episode of the second season of Person of Interest<\/i>, THIS EPISODE RUINED ME. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

What an accomplishment, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still reeling from the brilliance of this episode, which manages two feats of storytelling effortlessly. This is one of the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best scripts so far, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made even better by Sarah Shahi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show-stopping performance.<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know where to start. The acting? The story? Actually, let me begin here: I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen a character like Sam Shaw given to a non-white actress. I recall that Shahi is Iranian, yes? Regardless, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to men<\/i> getting to be careless, badass assassins, and whenever there are<\/i> a few women thrown into the mix, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re usually white. Characters like Reese (in a general sense) are a dime a dozen. But ones like Shaw<\/i>? It felt refreshing, new, invigorating.<\/p>\n

But just having<\/i> a character like this is only part of the issue. What sort of story does this character get? For the first time in Person of Interest<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s run, we get an episode that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s from the perspective of the person whose Number was given by the Machine. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a stunning choice, but also a risky one. I kept waiting for the inevitable moment in which the point of view would shift over to Reese and Finch, but halfway through \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Relevance,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happened, and I was so thrilled with that! For the first time, Reese and Finch were in the background. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to ask the audience to immerse themselves in the life of two brand new characters, but I was hooked<\/i>.<\/p>\n

It also helped that the script for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Relevance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d introduced us to Shaw and Michael Cole pulled back the curtain on the Machine and Special Counsel at the same time. We learned SO MUCH about how the US government utilizes the Machine, and I was not surprised to learn that everything was shadowed in secrecy. It has<\/i> to be; even the government recognizes that the more people who know of the Machine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s existence, the higher the chance that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be exposed. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an elaborate system in place, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given ambiguous names. The enforces who get the target are Operatives; the head of the department is Control; and the department that comes up with the numbers is Research. As was the case with Reese\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time in the CIA, he was expected to follow orders; that was the whole reason he came to feel burnt by his role. And just like Reese and Kara Stanton, he was expendable. His years of service, dedication, and loyalty meant nothing once they needed to get rid of him. Shaw is faced with the same scenario, though the context is different. Her partner, Cole, got too close to discovering that the Research department of ISA wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t real, that people were not providing these numbers.<\/p>\n

Again, while I recognize that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the most politically radical show imaginable, I was still shocked that this show is so open<\/i> about criticizing the notion of just following orders. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Shaw and Cole did, and it turns out they were instrumental in executing someone for<\/i> their own government, all because he knew too much about the Machine. In the end, Cole is shot to death, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Relevance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d tracks the chaotic means by which Shaw survives. IT IS A LOT. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s incredibly entertaining, but it also gives us insight into what I hope is a longer examination of her character. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 she has to come back, right??? Her entire world fell apart, she realized that she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust a single person in her life, and then these people<\/i> helped her, telling her that she has no idea what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gotten herself into, and please. PLEASE BRING BACK SHAW, SHE IS ON THE BRINK OF SOMETHING HUGE.<\/p>\n

Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even talked about Root. ROOT. She is integral to Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, too, since she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the second person to suggest to her (rather openly, I should say) that the people she worked for lied to her. Obviously, Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story advanced, too. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing she won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t return as Miss May? Or\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit, she could<\/i>, given that only Veronica saw her face. Actually, scratch that, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too big of a risk, and Root is the kind of character who will just keep moving as needed. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, the evil glee<\/i> that Amy Acker gives us in this episode is 100% TOO MUCH NOW AND FOREVER. I just????<\/p>\n

This show keeps escalating and surprising me, over and over again. What a great episode!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Relevance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"