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Person of Interest: Synecdoche

“So, where to, Harry?”

This was fun but I’m not sure I like that it was fun.

When Carter died, we didn’t just get an episode worth’s of grieving, there was a damn arc. When Shaw disappeared, her presence was really felt. Maybe it’s because Root was never really as constant a member of the team as the other two. There have been plenty of episodes without Root and, but for the top of the episode, this might have just been another one of them.

Yes, Shaw is grieving in her own way and Finch had to come to terms with the Machine’s choice of voice but I felt like Root deserved more. I understand as we come to the end of the series, time isn’t something we have a lot of but even if they’d just moderated the zany tone of this episode I would have felt better about it.

As for the Machine’s newest assets…I mean, it was totally out of left field or right field or whatever the expression is. How did they find out about the Machine? We saw Harper be recruited by Thornhill but not discover its true identity. And the Machine couldn’t have told them as its voice is an extremely recent addition. Whatever. I don’t really care. It was awesome.

It almost reminded me of “Relevance,” the way we watched numbers get saved from their perspective, not their saviors. Of course, it was not as clear here what was happening. I didn’t put it together until Harper showed up and I never would have guessed they were fully cognizant of their boss’s identity. And how sweet is it that the Machine’s JV was a mirror image of the varsity squad? An eccentric billionaire with tech expertise, a former soldier who needed a mission, and a (formerly?) amoral sassy con woman. All they need is a Fusco and a Bear.

Their mission was to protect Original Flavor Team Machine from the various threats they encountered as they protected “Relevant-One,” aka the president, who Samaritan has decided counts as an irrelevant number now. In season one, a memorable scene showed news footage of actual, real-life President Barack Obama but apparently President Obama was defeated in 2012 by a generic looking older white man. Which…why? I mean I can guess why they didn’t call “Relevant-One” Obama but why not at least have him bear a passing resemblance? Genuine question. The early seasons of the show were partially driven by verisimilitude. The world of Finch, Reese, and the Machine could easily by ours. But now that it’s moved into more of a sci-fi direction with two dueling AIs, it is not really something that could be happening in our world behind the scenes. Are they seeking to further separate the PoI-verse from our world? If so, why?

Harold and the Machine’s conversations had the same charisma as his early conversations with Root: that is, very little. It’s weird having Root’s voice playing someone else. Writing this review, I kept referring to the Machine as “Root.” When Amy Acker switched from playing Fred Burkle to Illyria on Angel, she turned blue. Her voice changed, she spoke differently. The Machine itself says it’s indistinguishable from Root, which, in one way, is fitting. But the continued presence of Amy Acker on the show does make Root’s death feel less real and less sad.

Bits and Pieces

In case you missed it: Logan Pierce was the person of interest from season two’s “One Percent,” Joey Durban was in the series’ third episode “Mission Creep” and Harper was introduced last season in “Blunt” and has appeared occasionally since.

Synecdoche is defined as “a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa.” The thing most striking about the title, to me, is that “all hands on deck” is the example of this particular figure of speech I always remember and this week it was certainly an “all hands on deck” situation.

Quotes

Machine: “What is love if not being seen?”

Reese: “Even considered joining [the Secret Service] back in the day.”
Fusco: “Oh yeah, what stopped you?”
Reese: “They work around the clock, no choice in who they protect, and the threats never stop coming.”
Fusco: “Oh, you really dodged a bullet there.”

Shaw: “If Samaritan wants to take down the entire world, I’m sure as hell not going to make it easy for it. That’s what Root would have wanted.”

The Machine: “Aw, Harry, you sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

Pierce: “Damn things don’t stop coming. Right, John?”

three out of four JV squads
---
sunbunny, person of interest, and Bear the Dog fangirl

6 comments:

  1. JV?

    I liked this. For the first time in months, it seemed like Team Machine actually won. They kept losing to Samaritan, and their victories were always with a grain of salt, to say the least. But having a new team, ready to pick a new fight? That's awesome.

    On the other hand, I'm a little worried about the new team. They don't have old team's protection from Samaritan's all-seeing eye, do they?

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  2. I wasn't as engaged in the POTUS plot, but it was worth it when they gave us that second team of characters that had been saved before. What fun. I think it gave us a little break from the total despair team Machine has been feeling lately.

    Migmit, I think "JV" refers to "junior varsity." :)

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  3. I thought the unnamed POTUS looked an awful lot like Joe Biden, which leads me to surmise that Samaritan removed POI-verse Obama from office by low-key means. I'm imagining Gabriel walking into the oval office with Mike the chief of staff to deliver the pink slip.

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  4. Baby M - Interesting thought. He certainly wasn't Mitt Romney, not with that bald spot.

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  5. I liked how the episode could be taken as a jab towards CBS and their constant insistance to do the same show just ina a different city. At least Person of Interest: Washington would be something I'd watch. :)

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  6. Seems like most fans didn't like it, but it was just what I needed. Enough with the overt grief, that shit's getting a little too real for me... Now, that shot of sad Shaw in that park ride being spun around by two nice kids, that was perfect LOL. She's the perfect TV character, of course her grief would be muted. It was a good day for the good guys finally, inappropriately timed or not, and I loved seeing an auxiliary Team Machine although that made me more nervous yet for the fate of the rest of the original.

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