{"id":6698,"date":"2018-01-02T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2018-01-02T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6698"},"modified":"2017-12-24T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-24T20:02:00","slug":"mark-watches-person-of-interest-s05e10-the-day-the-world-went-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-watches-person-of-interest-s05e10-the-day-the-world-went-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S05E10 – The Day the World Went Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth episode of the fifth season of Person of Interest<\/i>, it was the day the whole world went away. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For extensive discussion of homophobia (and the Bury Your Gays trope)<\/b><\/p>\n

In a general sense, I feel like there are not enough LGBT or queer characters on television, that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had to fight to be represented in any sense at all, and that every time one of us \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in a television show, it is a net loss for our community. There are simply so few of us that it hits harder. It hurts more. And while Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacrifice in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Day the World Went Away\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (YOU JUST HAD TO DIG IN THE KNIFE DEEPER WITH THAT SONG, DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T YOU) absolutely qualifies under this trope, I can recognize that things are a tad more complicated than just this singular trope.<\/p>\n

Which doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m necessarily going to like that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead, though. Her death brings up a whole bunch of other messy implications, too. It means that we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t truly seen her and Shaw express affection\u00e2\u20ac\u201dphysical or otherwise\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbeyond the kiss in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If.Then.Else.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the face stroking in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sotto Voce,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and the HEARTBREAKING hand-hold in this episode. In a show that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s given us a ton of displays of physicality for its straight characters, the most we got out of the only openly non-straight pairing was limited to a simulation. Granted, I still found that scene to be very<\/i> important toward establishing Shaw\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mindset and her affinity for Root, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s canon, but it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t technically<\/i> happen at all. So these two never get to actually<\/i> have that moment in the real world, especially since they just barely got reunited an episode ago. So there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit of milking the tragedy for the sake of it, you know?<\/p>\n

But aside from this, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m used to this trope being invoked early into a character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arc, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that the use of Bury Your Gays is especially tragic because these characters are often killed before they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re ever used, before they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had time to develop, before they had a chance to be given the same time and attention as the straight characters. It would be very easy to argue that an element of Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death is for the development of Harold, another unfortunate implication that you often see in the use of Bury Your Gays. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to deny that, either, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to diminish the impact this has on me. Yet I also see a full arc in Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story. Of course, that requires ignoring the relationship aspect, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll just be forever bitter about that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very similar to my feelings on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Share.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I can recognize what a monumental, exquisite thing that script is, and yet I hate a core element of it.<\/p>\n

My point is that Root changed over her four-ish seasons, and her role in season five was accepting fate, accepting death, and realizing that she was always a part of the Machine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grand design for survival. I wonder if Root knew that she was most likely going to die, and if the Machine clued her into that so that she could accept that she would live on forever as information within<\/i> the Machine. Her moments of introspection\u00e2\u20ac\u201dspoken aloud to Shaw and Harold\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwere very much like her way of saying goodbye. In that, there is more closure offered than I expected. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more thought given to her character in this regard! Root gets to become something greater than herself. And isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what she always wanted? Didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she want to be part of something, to belong, to fit in?<\/p>\n

Still, it hurts, and while I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of another way to have this same plot unfold without<\/i> Root\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, I am still going to dislike it for entirely personal reasons rather than narrative reasons.<\/p>\n

And for an episode that invokes a trope that is ill-used in the hands of straight writers, I found myself liking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Day the World Went Away.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of those episodes of this show that feels<\/i> special right from the start. That opening monologue that Harold gives to the Machine is merely a sign of things to come, a harbinger for the tense, chaotic escalation that follows. This episode is relentlessly paced, and it has<\/i> to be that way. Harold has<\/i> to pushed to a point where finally, after years of principles and morals and standards about what he and his associates are allowed to do, he discards it all. Michael Emerson is spellbinding throughout this episode as we watch his world torn down around him, as we watch his terror over the waves of Samaritan agents sent to take him out, as we witness his realization that it was his mistake that caused all of this<\/i>.<\/p>\n

And then his resolve changes. That scene in the interrogation room was ELECTRIFYING, one of the absolute best moments in all of Person of Interest<\/i>, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proof that Emerson was born<\/i> to play Harold Finch. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the catch, of course, and the exacting sort of conflict that comes with the trope used here. I love that scene. It needed to happen and is a pivotal part of the Person of Interest<\/i> arc for Harold. I can recognize that, and I also know that it comes at the expense of a non-heterosexual character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life.<\/p>\n

Though I suppose there was an option here, a way to still get the same result. Harold made that decision before<\/i> he knew Root was dead. We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget that he also witnessed Elias\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, too, and that arguably influenced his decision to finally kill Samaritan, no matter what. So did Root have<\/i> to die?<\/p>\n

Well, now she lives on as the voice of The Machine. Harold asked her for help, and he got it. So what exactly is he planning next, now that both he and the Machine are about as unleashed as they could possibly be?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Day the World Went Away\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":"