In the sixth episode of the fifth season of Person of Interest<\/i>, Shaw is tested; Team Machine tracks down a possible murder at a wedding; Fusco inches closer to the truth. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The contrast present in the multiple plots\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly between Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story and the wedding murder\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare necessary for Greer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s delusion to be all the more horrifying. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly nothing quite as upsetting as a villain who believes that they are a hero, and here, we get Greer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s misguided attempt to convert Shaw to an operative by showing how Samaritan is saving lives. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important that Greer doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t introduce this simulation as an attempt to demonstrate this. No, instead he says that Shaw believes her friends to be heroes when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually the villains.<\/p>\n
He then proceeds to never once bring this up again, and I kept waiting for him to show the morally grey area that the team sometimes balances within. But he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. All Samaritan does is focus on the crimes stopped, the CEOs who exploit others for profit, the subtle ways in which the world is cruel and unjust. No one doubts that, of course, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the reason that Shaw doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand why all of this is necessary. She learned all of this years ago, and she certainly<\/i> saw examples of injustice working with Team Machine. So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the difference? How is Samaritan not<\/i> the same as the Machine? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an issue of time, or course: Samaritan has a much deeper grasp on the world, and it is able to recognize aberrations quicker, too. It can manipulate days, weeks, months<\/i> in advance, providing operatives with enough time to properly take out the real<\/i> villains.<\/p>\n
I can see why Samaritan would try to appeal to Shaw this way. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good at: being an operative. But what I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see is Shaw accepting that the ends justify the means, at least in this case. Samaritan and Greer have done so many terrible things in the name of this kind of progress, which includes KIDNAPPING SHAW AND TORTURING HER FOR NINE MONTHS STRAIGHT. Kinda hard not<\/i> to view them as villains, right???<\/p>\n
And as this is unfolding, though, we get an intimate view of the case that Team Machine works on, one that highlights that THEY AREN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T VILLAINS AT ALL. They take such great care to solve the mystery of the potential murder at the Turner wedding, and they do so because THEY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T WANT TO RUIN THIS DAY FOR EVERYONE UNLESS THEY HAVE TO. Obviously, this is exploited for a lot of humor\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHarold\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Twisted Sister cover! The fights during the songs! Everyone thinking John is security for stripper cops!\u00e2\u20ac\u201das well as a chance to explore some nicer moments between these characters. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the first episode this season where John, Root, and Harold get to take a breather. (Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to suggest that this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a tense episode. Those scenes with the assassins watching the ceremony were HAIR-RAISING.) But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Harold sings in a terrible<\/i> Irish accent; Root rescues John and the target WHILE ON HORSEBACK. She also bakes a quiche lorraine for her??? Who is Root??? WHO KNEW SHE COULD DO THIS?<\/p>\n
But I love that this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153break\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means that Root gets to admit that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lonely, that she came on this caper specifically because she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be back at the subway HQ by herself. I love that the team decides to keep the perpetrators locked in the wine cellar for the night so that the bride, groom, and their respective families still get to enjoy the wedding night. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sweet gesture, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cool way for the show to give Greer the middle finger. These<\/i> people are the villains???<\/p>\n
At the same time, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A More Perfect Union\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suggest they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re perfect, and the escalation of Fusco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interest in Samaritan is proof of that. If Harold and John had not been so frustratingly vague with Fusco, if they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignored him or treated him as they did, would he have sought out the answer to all those missing persons? Or would he have even noticed the patten in the missing persons? Fusco\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discovery of the truth would have been inevitable, I think, but this<\/i> way is so UPSETTING. Does anyone even know he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s down in that tunnel? Was Finch able to find his location before the demolition went off? ARE THEY GOING TO KEEP LYING TO HIM EVEN AFTER ALL OF THIS?<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A More Perfect Union\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":" In the sixth episode of the fifth season of Person of Interest, Shaw is tested; Team Machine tracks down a possible murder at a wedding; Fusco inches closer to the truth. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person … Continue reading