{"id":6674,"date":"2017-12-06T13:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6674"},"modified":"2017-11-27T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T19:14:09","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s04e14-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2017\/12\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s04e14-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S04E14 – Guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of Person of Interest<\/i>, the Machine confuses the team until they realize they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re right where they need to be. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For brief mention of suicide.<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh god, even when this show is taking a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153break\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from its main narrative, IT IS STILL A HIGH-STAKES ADVENTURE. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually surprised it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taken the show this long to do an episode focusing on a jury. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so ripe for entertainment and intrigue, and oh lord, was this ever<\/i> a combination of those two things. I admit that I suspected Samaritan the entire time, so I was pleasantly surprised when this ended up being an independent case. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean this episode held any less meaning, though, and in a sense, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guilty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d strips the action down to something we might have seen in the first season. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re back down to John and Harold for the moment, though this episode hints that there might be more in the future.<\/p>\n

Which I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to. I loved the nebulous nature of this number because it was so easy to read the target as either completely evil or innocent. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most likely why she was chosen, too! She was unassuming enough not to seem like someone willing to throw a trial or turn a jury. She was also vulnerable<\/i>, and that part makes me the most angry. SHE WAS SUCH A PURE SOUL, HOW DARE YOU USE THAT AGAINST HER TO SEND AN INNOCENT MAN TO PRISON. Yet that tension\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot knowing if she was a victim or a perpetrator\u00e2\u20ac\u201dpushed this episode along, right up until another wrench was thrown in the plan. Like the characters, I assumed she was trying to get the defendant off, so I was messed up by the reveal that she wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t working for the defense. OH GODS, THE PANIC ON HAROLD\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FACE WHEN HE REALIZED THAT THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122D GOTTEN EVERYTHING WRONG.<\/p>\n

But I also love that this comes after \u00e2\u20ac\u0153M.I.A.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a fascinating parallel between Emma and the Mayor of Maple. Here, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a character being issued orders by a faceless being, threatening her to get her to do what they want. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just like the Mayor, right? Well, not quite, and I think the distinction the show makes between these two people is important. The obvious issue here is time<\/i>. Emma was being manipulated for only a few days, and she was still kept at arms length from the affects of her actions. The fixer had taken a shot at her neighbor, but what else had happened? Nothing. She saw no evidence otherwise that what she was doing was terrible, and truly, she was still in a haze of fear from the messages she was getting, all of which targeted the people around<\/i> her. Miss Thompson knew without a doubt that she was harming people, and she still tried to resist any accountability.<\/p>\n

Emma, however, does no such thing. Once Harold\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is threatens, she starts<\/i> to take action to undo what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d participated in. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heartbreaking, of course, to watch her climb up on her balcony, ready to end her life. She was forced into this nightmare because a company didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to hold itself<\/i> accountable. And yet here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this woman, who has the tiniest fraction of wealth and power compared to Infinince, willing to do more than they would. It is so fucked up, but that imbalance is so vital to the conflict. This company tried to use Emma to destroy someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life after they destroyed countless lives of their own, all so they could make billions of dollars off a faulty product. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly<\/i> the sort of case that Harold and John take on all the time, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why this episode felt \u00e2\u20ac\u0153classic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to me.<\/p>\n

But these characters can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go back to that world. I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very<\/i> imminent that Fusco will finally be initiated into the team full-time. He made it quite clear in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guilty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tired of being left out and that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aware he would be risking his life to be in the known. Thus, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guilty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d feels like a transition of sorts. Perhaps we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see Fusco learning the truth soon. And perhaps John really will<\/i> pursue a relationship with Iris. See, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been wondering if his decision to open up to her was just so that he would have an outlet that hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been there before. But that final scene between the two of them suggests pretty heavily that John is looking for something specific in her. WHICH MEANS??? Oh god, I like her a lot but YOU CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T LIKE ANYONE ON THIS SHOW, I SWEAR. Are they going to be allowed to find any happiness or comfort amidst this drama?<\/p>\n

LOL probably not. (Help me.)<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guilty\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":"