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Person of Interest: Bad Code

“I’m going to get to Oregon.”

Well, that certainly didn’t take long.

Despite, my previous assertion that Finch and Root would be together until sweeps, Reese has managed to save his buddy a bit early. Personally, I think the way this was accomplished makes for the best of both worlds. Our team is back together, but Root thankfully remains at large. She makes for far too interesting a villain to get rid of this early.

We got a lot of background on her this week. She’s always been a computer genius, apparently. She was not a victim of some dark childhood trauma, and she killed her first man when she was just sixteen. In her defense, he wasn’t exactly a good guy. Root (or Sam Groves) was truly attached to her friend Hanna. When she called Reese to thank him for finding her, she seemed genuine. I liked that. It’s much more interesting than making her a run-of-the-mill sociopath.

She also got more stuff to do this week. While she was also given her mandatory monologue about human behavior, she also got to torture Denton Weeks. I loved the poetic justice touch that he was one of the people who signed off on enhanced interrogation techniques.

What kind of man was Weeks? I suppose it hardly matters now, but why he did want to kill Finch? To protect the Machine’s secrets from Root or for a more sinister reason? He was the man who attempted to hack into the thing, after all, and I do not buy his claim that he only did that to test the security of the Machine.

Our last shots of the show were of Root tracking down the others who know about the Machine. Originally, eight people knew about the Machine. Denton Weeks, Alicia Corwin, and Nathan Ingram are dead. Out of the five people remaining, Finch is obviously not going to help Root. Four to go, then.

Bits and Pieces:

Bear is back! And apparently, he’s here to stay. Who didn’t love Fusco attempting to speak Dutch to get Bear off his desk?

There were two different kinds of breathmints in Alicia’s purse. Altoid Smalls and Tic-Tacs. I seriously doubt this is at all important, but it bothered me.

Does anyone else think they missed a huge opportunity by not having Reese kick down the door when Root was going on about what a great partner she is?

The little blonde girl looks nothing like Amy Acker, but I’ll let it go because it made for a decent misdirect.

Why are pretty women always drugging Finch?

Quotes:

“Death by dysentery, again.”
It’s how I always died.

“Hey, Wall Street, you lost?”

“Please kill me now. At least I won’t have to listen to you anymore.”
Love when Finch is tough.

“Why is there a crossbow on the bed?”
You’d think that, after having known Reese a while, Carter would just stop asking questions.

“Hey it worked! How do you say that in Dutch?”
I don’t know, but in dog it’s ‘Woof woof, woof woof.’

Four out of four Oregon trail oxen
---
sunbunny, Person of Interest and Bear the Dog fangirl

11 comments:

  1. This show continues to impress, I remember reading a review last year that called it a superhero show done right, and I could not agree more. The show is beginning to look more and more like batman with Finch being a combination of Alfred, Bruce Wayne and Oracle and Reese being a diluted version of the Dark Knight (Batman is massively intelligent). This Episode, like any batman comic or show, creates a Super Villain, one that shows their head from time to time to cause chaos and push the heroes to the limit. Root seems to fit the mould of Finch's arch enemy much as Elias is Reese's. The ending just cements this theory as the Supervillain is never fully Vanquished, just derailed to regroup once more. If they play it right, this show can get some stories from the comic books, to create arcs for each season and it will run for 10 seasons. To finish off with the Batman analogy Carter is like Montoya, Fusco is like Bullock; Zoe is like Catwoman and Elias like Black Mask. All that's left is to get Commissioner Gordon (Maybe the Judge in Season 1) and Nightwing/Robin

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  2. Another strong episode, PoI's sophomore season is off to a good start. They did a pretty decent job hiding Root's actual identity, though the twist didn't completely shock me.

    I was a little surprised at how easily Carter just packed up and traveled to Texas with Reese. I dunno about the NYPD, but I have to provide some advance notice when I take time off from work. :) Plus, she's got a son at home. What did she tell him about why she was out of town?

    Once again, as interesting a character as I think Root is, and as much as I'm in love with Amy Acker, the scenes with Root and Harold were still kinda "meh" for me. The stuff with Reese and the local thugs was of course a hoot. As were the scenes with Fusco and Bear. SO glad the dog is still around. Having him live with Finch should be fun. But I think my favorite moment of the episode came toward the end, that moment with Fusco & Carter sharing their pleasure at getting Finch back, and heading out for a drink. The new dynamic between these two should be fun to watch.

    So now we've got Root out there, trying to take the machine away from everyone and "set it free", and we've got the government folks trying to keep it secure(and I'm sure they'd love to be able to crack Finch's protections and fully control it at last). And of course there's still the possibility that Elias could resurface. Plenty of enemies to work with. I wonder which of our friends will show up? I'm sure we'll see Zoe again, but I wouldn't mind seeing other past clients make appearances(like the young lady lawyer, or the stock trader, or the judge).

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  3. Qushett: Not sure who Elias is but he's not screwed up enough to be Black Mask. Ti steal from another work I think of him as Keyser Soze when he first appeared and later, the Kingpin (albeit more svelte by in his style yes). And Root is definitely the Joker.

    I disagree that Root wasn't traumatized. Her best, probably only friend was kidnapped and murdered (I'm guessing raped as well) and when she went to an authority figure she trusted she turned visciously on her.

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  4. tricksterson: Elias is the mob boss, the one who is trying to become the don of new york. The reason why I didnt equete root to joker is tht Joker is evil Encanate the man is one scrweloose from being the devil himself

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  5. A huge smile for you First Edition lovers out there. Bad, bad Bear !!! Chew the shoes instead. "He has expensive taste." Indeed.

    Another powerful, strong episode. And I definitely want to see more Root. At least, A. Acker's face wasn't covered in scars just like in Dollhouse.

    Glad you noted this one: "“Why is there a crossbow on the bed?” But Reese's response was just as good : "Long story. But we're friends now."

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  6. There were a few things about this episode that I found odd and that pulled me out of it. For instance, why did Root go through all that hanging nonsense when she just had to inject Weeks with sodium pentathol?

    I did like the humor in it and Bear is quickly becoming my favorite character on the show.

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  7. ChrisB, it's been a while since I've seen this episode or the last one you left a comment on, but I think the answer to both of your questions is that Root takes pleasure in pain.

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  8. Thanks, Josie. That's what I was coming up with as well, but was afraid that I was missing something as that aspect of her personality seems to have been covered.

    Maybe I'm just being persnickety.

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  9. I don't think you're being persnickety.

    Again, it's been a year since I saw these episodes, but I think in addition to Root being a sadist, she likes to think of herself as a purist. Torture is so classic and old-school compared to truth serum.

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  10. I don't think the word persnickety is used enough.

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  11. According to Merriam Webster, the word has only been around since 1915. It feels like it should be older. I imagine a young Queen Victoria kvetching about persnickety dressmakers.

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