{"id":6697,"date":"2018-01-01T13:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T21:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6697"},"modified":"2017-12-24T12:03:39","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T20:03:39","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s05e09-sotto-voce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s05e09-sotto-voce\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S05E09 – Sotto Voce"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the fifth season of Person of Interest<\/i>, a perpetrator from the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past torments more people; Root experiences a reunion. 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

Holy shit, WHAT AN EPISODE. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sotto Voce\u00e2\u20ac\u009d balances multiple plots, themes, and character studies, and it does so BREATHLESSLY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s everything! It is all things at once!<\/p>\n

Fusco<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to celebrate here, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna start with something that has been four and a half seasons in the works: Lionel Fusco finally knows the truth. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not before the show commits to the decision the writers made to have Fusco reject John. He sticks with it, despite that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncomfortable, despite that John clearly needs help. I appreciated this because it felt earned<\/i>; after years of being treated different, Fusco pushed back! He took his own cases, he supported himself, and he refused to be used.<\/p>\n

And while his case eventually did<\/i> have something to do with the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pursuit of The Voice, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the reason that John decides to finally induct him into the truth. Time and time again, Fusco has demonstrated just how loyal and dedicated he is. Despite everything that had happened between him and John, he still cared about the job; he still cared about doing the right thing; HE STILL THREW HIMSELF IN FRONT OF A BULLET MEANT FOR JOHN. I just???? FUSCO IS SO PURE.<\/p>\n

But I do love how John frames it: in a world so terribly complicated and untrustworthy, perhaps trusting other people is the best weapon they have.<\/p>\n

YES.<\/p>\n

The Voice<\/b><\/p>\n

I admit to COMPLETELY FORGETTING that this plot was left unresolved from ages ago, but y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I was ready. I WAS SO READY TO LEARN THE TRUTH. And goddamn, this was incredibly satisfying. In many respects, it was just as haunting and frustrating as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Call\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was. The Voice is the moral opposite of the Person of Interest<\/i> team, someone capable of surveilling and manipulating people for pure evil. He does that here, all in the name of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cleanliness,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which is his way of making sure that all loose ends are taken care of. It makes the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Last Call\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a threat, one that comes to fruition here: The Voice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire is to ultimately get rid of the only people who have ever gotten close to finding out who he is. (And they stopped one of his cons, too!)<\/p>\n

Of course, I also fell for the bait here, believing that Terry Easton was one of The Voice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s victims. I had no reason to doubt that, you know??? And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why this man is just so horrifying to me. The lengths that he was willing to go to control the situation!!! Hiring an actress to pretend to be Easton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife, all so that he could be in the police precinct in case his plan didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. Why? To murder the only person who actually<\/i> identified him.<\/p>\n

Neal Huff is a treasure to watch in this episode, and I credit the writers with creating a character that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so devious and terrifying that I actually believed that he might get away with his crimes. He had that<\/i> much power and control over everything that\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a unifying theme across \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sotto Voce\u00e2\u20ac\u009d: anticipating unknown variables. In all three plots, a character provides a variable that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t planned for, and it undeniably alters what ultimately happens. Fusco stops John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death\/injury from the hands of the Templario gang. Root is the variable that breaks Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doubts and programming. (I WILL YELL ABOUT THIS SOON.) And when it comes to confronting the Voice, Elias is the variable that The Voice never considered. The fact that Elias was believed to be dead worked in Harold\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favor, and, like Elias states at the end of the episode, I figured that Harold knew<\/i> that Elias would do what he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. (Killing The Voice, I mean.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the reasons why he agreed to let Elias leave the safe house! It was a means of exploring these other options without having to do them himself.<\/p>\n

Broken<\/b><\/p>\n

I was not emotionally prepared for the Shaw\/Root reunion in this episode. I figured the opening scene\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhere Shaw gets some sweet revenge on some exploitative coyotes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwas all we were going to get in terms of an update on her progress after escaping. Shaw and Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reunion, amidst Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt to take out as many of Samaritan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agents as possible, is rushed, frantic, and uncomfortable, and for a good reason: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too<\/i> close to all the simulations that Shaw was forced to live out thousands of times. How many times has Shaw killed herself in those simulations in order to refuse to kill Root?<\/p>\n

So yeah, I was real<\/i> worried that Shaw was going to do exactly what she did in all the simulations in order to protect the team. But there was a variable that Samaritan couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have ever planned for: Root. Human behavior. All of the people in Samaritan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simulations were designed to break Shaw, but Root, in the real world, was not<\/i>. So when Root turns the gun on herself, she creates a pathway that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t end in Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death. And for the moment, she breaks through that programming, and IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BEAUTIFUL, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO GLAD THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE NOT DEAD, LOOK AT THE WAY ROOT TOUCHES SHAW\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S FACE, I LOVE THESE TWO FOREVER.<\/p>\n

What a great episode.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sotto Voce\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":"