Person of Interest Season 4

[The Nth Doctor]

I love it when the show does episodes like these where the focus shifts away from the leads for most of the episode. Good to see Control again. She has some tough shoes to fill in with Sarah Shahi gone, but I think Camryn Manheim is up to the challenge.

I knew I recognized Grice from somewhere -- turns out he was Captain Boomerang in Arrow and The Flash. And the White House chief of staff that Samaritan's child envoy approached was an obnoxious and obstructionist government official in the first season of Fringe. And of course there was the return of the senator played by John Doman, who's now playing Carmine Falcone in Gotham. So this episode was full of familiar faces.

Don't forget the wonderful Michael Potts who played Brother Mouzone on The Wire and most recently appeared on True Detective.

 

[Christopher]

^Not familiar with Potts.

And you left a rather crucial letter out of "shifts" in your first line...

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I knew I recognized Grice from somewhere -- turns out he was Captain Boomerang in Arrow and The Flash.

Nick Tarabay also played one of the Klingons in Star Trek Into Darkness.

Arrow has been like a second home for the actors from the Starz series Spartacus. Tarabay's character frequently tormented Cynthia Addai-Robinson's/Amanda Waller's (who also had a cameo in STID) character on the show. And Robinson's character was the lover of Manu Bennett's/Slade Wilson's/Deathroke's character on Spartacus (Bennett was also Azog the Orc in the Hobbit films). Katrina Law/Nyssa al Ghul was a regular on the show as well.

It's good to see them all working regularly.


This episode was pretty good, but it didn't quite live up to the previous two installments, albeit they set an extremely high bar. We'll call this the Return of the Jedi of the "trilogy."

 

[Claudia]

I liked this episode.

But that kid didn't work in the White House scenario for me. He worked with Root, but not in this case. It seemed a bit ridiculous having him threaten the Chief of Staff (even if everything he threatened him with came true).

And I would have wished for Control, who already realized that she was anything but in control, hadn't needed Harold to spell it out for her.

And I'm not quite sure about the timeline of this episode. Last week Reese and Root were both shot - and this week they both go on a rampage? Granted, Reese didn't look so good, but I thought it would be more of a case of "shot again this week" (as the blood wasn't where he was shot in the back last week).

So, now we have Control doubting her mission, we have a CoS who's a bit frightened, and an agent who might be willing to listen. I'm looking forward to seeing in which direction this show will go next.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

^Not familiar with Potts.

He played Samaritan's liaison to Control.

And you really should check out both The Wire and True Detective.

And you left a rather crucial letter out of "shifts" in your first line...

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Christopher]

But that kid didn't work in the White House scenario for me. He worked with Root, but not in this case. It seemed a bit ridiculous having him threaten the Chief of Staff (even if everything he threatened him with came true).

I agree. I wonder why Samaritan didn't use a different person to speak through. Maybe there's something special about the kid.

And I would have wished for Control, who already realized that she was anything but in control, hadn't needed Harold to spell it out for her.

Control is a fanatic. She thinks it's perfectly justified to trample human rights and due process, to appoint herself judge, jury, and executioner, to tear down the essence of America in the name of defending America. She believes in her methods with a blind patriotic fervor, and so she's not going to be easily convinced that her methods have gone horribly wrong. She's already crossed so many moral lines that realizing she's made a deal with the devil isn't likely to shock her that much. She wouldn't turn against that devil unless she decided that the deal was no longer serving her interests.

And I'm not quite sure about the timeline of this episode. Last week Reese and Root were both shot - and this week they both go on a rampage? Granted, Reese didn't look so good, but I thought it would be more of a case of "shot again this week" (as the blood wasn't where he was shot in the back last week).

Oh, that's an excellent point. It looked to me like Reese should've been in the hospital for quite some time. And all the news reports about the "Flash Crash" implied that only a day or so had passed since the previous episode.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

But that kid didn't work in the White House scenario for me. He worked with Root, but not in this case. It seemed a bit ridiculous having him threaten the Chief of Staff (even if everything he threatened him with came true).

I agree. I wonder why Samaritan didn't use a different person to speak through. Maybe there's something special about the kid.

Yeah, that part bothered me at first too, because having a kid wander around the White House unattended means Samaritan's constantly going to have to coerce numerous people with power or easy access to power to do its bidding just to get the kid in the door, which seems inefficient and risking discovery (although Samaritan seems less and less concerned about the latter each day given its recent actions).

Which makes me think perhaps the kid is a child of a Cabinet member, senior White House aide, or a member of Congress in the line of succession and that's the reason Samaritan chose him in the first place; to influence his parent(s) who are in a place (or soon to be) to wield great power either directly or behind-the-scenes. He can't be the President's or VP's child, or the Chief of Staff would know him by sight, but the child of a senior official would work. I'm sure that will come up in a big reveal in a future episode.

This episode made me wonder if the White House had any kind of on-site day care or children allowed in working areas. President Obama has made some recent efforts to allow his staff to bring their children to work, since working in the White House is notoriously grueling on family life, so it turns out it's actually plausible to have children there:

To support working parents, the Obamas distributed laptops to aides with families — before those without children — so they could work from home. They invited the children of some advisers to a White House screening of the film “Madagascar” and a Take Your Kids to Work Day hosted by the first lady. They have created some flexible work schedules and encourage their aides to take their children to work when child care arrangements fall through, as well as to swim in the White House pool or play outside.

“Part of the reason that we built the swing set out there was to say, you know, on weekends or after school, bring the kids here, set them loose, because, you know, we want to make sure that you’re staying in contact with your family,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on “NBC Nightly News.” “That, ultimately, I think, makes people work better.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/us/politics/04parents.html?_r=0

 

[RAMA]

Great episode, this series never lets me down, unlike some other genre shows that are hit or miss. The important themes raised are many and it still manages to be entertaining.

It feels good that I've been talking about this show as great sci-fi and recently ive seen both professionals and fans come out and say good things about it.

RAMA

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, that part bothered me at first too, because having a kid wander around the White House unattended means Samaritan's constantly going to have to coerce numerous people with power or easy access to power to do its bidding just to get the kid in the door, which seems inefficient and risking discovery (although Samaritan seems less and less concerned about the latter each day given its recent actions).

On the other hand, this kid has the same kind of "god mode" access to Samaritan that Root has to the Machine, so Sammy would be able to see all the security staff's movements and tell the kid how to dodge them.

 

[JD]

I thought they made a reference to why Samaritan picked the kid somewhere during his scene with Root.

As for this episode, I really enjoyed it. This was my first time seeing Control, and she seems like a good character. I kind of wondered from the beginning if Samaritan was lying about the guys being terrorists, so I wasn't too shocked by that. Although I was shocked she still killed the last guy.
I do agree that it was a little weird that the Samaritan interface kid was just wondering around the White House like that, but it wasn't to big of an issue for me.

 

[1001001]

Finally caught up with the last two episodes this morning.

Man, this show is firing on all cylinders. It has really evolved into an epic sci-fi series.

When the elevator doors closed as they looked at Shaw on the ground...I actually teared up a little.

Control was a True Believer, that's why she killed the kid in Toronto. Now the doubt creeps in after her tour, will she be an ally in the future?

 

[Christopher]

Control was a True Believer, that's why she killed the kid in Toronto. Now the doubt creeps in after her tour, will she be an ally in the future?

That's what I thought at first, but as I said, I suspect she just pretended to go along as protective camouflage, aware that if she openly defied Samaritan, she'd be killed too. So in her mind, she had to sacrifice an innocent life for the sake of the greater good.

 

[1001001]

Control was a True Believer, that's why she killed the kid in Toronto. Now the doubt creeps in after her tour, will she be an ally in the future?

That's what I thought at first, but as I said, I suspect she just pretended to go along as protective camouflage, aware that if she openly defied Samaritan, she'd be killed too. So in her mind, she had to sacrifice an innocent life for the sake of the greater good.

That's certainly a plausible scenario.

 

[theenglish]

Control is a fanatic. She thinks it's perfectly justified to trample human rights and due process, to appoint herself judge, jury, and executioner, to tear down the essence of America in the name of defending America. She believes in her methods with a blind patriotic fervor, and so she's not going to be easily convinced that her methods have gone horribly wrong. She's already crossed so many moral lines that realizing she's made a deal with the devil isn't likely to shock her that much. She wouldn't turn against that devil unless she decided that the deal was no longer serving her interests.

And there are a number of high profile real-life examples to demonstrate that that is a fairly realistic portrayal of someone in her position.

 

[Aragorn]

It's back!

 

[auntiehill]

Yay! Can't wait.

 

[auntiehill]

That was a great episode--very creepy how Samaritan was screwing with an entire town.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

No kidding. I guessed early on what was happening in Maple but that didn't lessen the creepy impact.

Nice side B-plot with Silva. Again, I hope we see her again.

I didn't expect to see Shaw again at the end. Hell of a tease.

 

[Christopher]

Nice side B-plot with Silva. Again, I hope we see her again.

You mean the woman who partnered with Fusco? I was wondering if she was meant to be the new Shaw (or maybe the new Carter). Or at least a candidate for the gig.

 

[auntiehill]

Fusco looked a little different to me; I think he's dropped a few pounds.