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Person of Interest: Truth Be Told

“Who the hell was that guy?”
“A ghost, from the past.”

I want to slap John Reese.

How many times have we been here, Reese? How many times? Answer: many times. We’ve done this many times. You think you have to be alone to be strong, to be safe, to be the man you have to be, to fill the role the world needs you to, then someone (usually Carter or Finch) reminds you and your gorgeous, dumb head that loving people isn’t a weakness, that being connected to the world is a positive thing. And now, you’ve done it again. You idiot.

Okay, now that that’s off my chest, let’s talk about the entire episode and not the part that had me pulling my hair out. I wasn’t sure there’d be time for any poi of the week episodes this season, what with the truncated season and all. I like that they returned to the format, even if it’s just for one or two episodes. It feels like we’re coming full circle, somehow.

The number this week is one Alex Duncan, a guy looking for answers as to who killed his brother. The answer, coincidentally enough, is Reese. Yeah so maybe this is one of Person of Interest’s famous coincidences or maybe what with all the Machine drama last week, the Machine sent Reese this number on purpose. Maybe it knew the connection. In either case, I’m willing to overlook the contrived nature Reese and Alex were brought into each other’s lives, because the episode was so good otherwise.

At first I was really iffy on the flashbacks. Introducing a new character this late in the game felt like a retcon, and it still does, a bit. But it was Keith David, so again, I make allowances . Furthermore, I wasn’t sure at all that the flashback was relevant to the case or explored Reese’s character in any more depth than we’ve already seen, which really put me off caring about what was going on. I actually figured out the case from the flashbacks was connected to current events only a minute before the show revealed it. I love it when a show keeps me on my toes.

And then there was the poignant ending that Reese lied to Alex so he could think of his brother as a hero, when, really, he was a traitor. A lot of times I feel like cases of the week on this show end too sweetly with too many happily ever afters. This week was interesting because it was almost a subversion of that trope. Alex thinks his brother’s a hero, so he’s happy, but the actual truth of the matter was much uglier.

Although, speaking of too easy endings, the threat that was Beale turned out to be pretty toothless, yes? I mean, it's not like they have the time to set up a big ‘oops the CIA knows Reese is alive and are after him’ story. Still, they probably shouldn’t have hinted that Beale seeing Reese was disastrous only to write it off twenty minutes later.

Root and Finch's adventure this week had them taking a few (but not many) steps towards defeating Samaritan. It was cute, it was nice, it was ultimately inconsequential, but there was something about this episode that just felt…comfortable, like an old college sweatshirt.

Bits and Pieces

The new saga sell combines MPOV and SPOV.

The blue flashbacks were back, possibly because the Machine is back online.

I could probably listen to Keith David talk forever.

Why did Amy Acker look so cute in that baseball cap?

Quotes

Root: “Sadly, all my identities can’t be bears or brides.”

three and a half out of four baseball caps for pure nostalgia

sunbunny, person of interest and Bear the Dog fangirl

4 comments:

  1. "Why did Amy Acker look so cute in that baseball cap?"

    Because it's Amy Acker, duh :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I liked this episode, and while we have been here with Reese many times, I was kind of glad Iris is gone. I like the actress, but the romance between them never quite worked for me. I hated how it started (doctor/patient), and how Iris was just there to be the love interest after that. Female characters are usually so good on POI, so it just felt unnecessary seeing as they never had the time or opportunity to flesh her out more.

    The flashbacks were a little redundant, but it was fun to see Kara again, although like you said, we tread very familiar ground. Yes, we know the CIA made every effort to make sure Reese had no substantial emotional connections, past or present. At least he's got his Team Machine family.

    The Harold and Root stuff was fun, and I appreciate that, because this season is going to get intense and probably dark soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, the Harold and Root stuff was fun and it was a well-constructed episode, but I've realized that I don't care much for episodes centered around Reese and his past.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This did feel like a bit of a nostalgia trip, but that also made me even more grateful for the Root/Harold chemistry.

    ReplyDelete

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