For the first time in its fourth season, Person of Interest delivered an episode totally free of the Samaritan storyline. Instead, ‘Brotherhood’ explored the criminal gang known as the Brotherhood, who seem to be making a name for themselves.
Unfortunately, last week I was short on time during the week, and there wasn’t all that much to discuss about ‘Brotherhood’. So, I decided to deliver a double review this week.
Last week’s instalment wasn’t that as good as this week’s, but it was by no means a bad thing. Person of Interest is such a good show, and this is evident when you look at the fact that even the shows weaker episodes are of a high quality.
I enjoyed the focus on the Brotherhood. After the two Samaritan-heavy opening episodes (and the connected sub-plot in ‘Wingman’), I think the show needed to just take a step back from that arc and focus on its other main plot for the season.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the plot of ‘Brotherhood’. Malcolm, though his intentions were interesting, wasn’t great onscreen. However, as he always is when kids are involved, Reese was fantastic.
I did enjoy the reveal that Mini, whom Shaw had held captive, was in fact Dominic (and it was right in front of us – Dominic). That added a nice twist on things, and it means that going forward, we know now who the adversary is.
The Finch-Elias scenes were very enjoyable. The dynamic between the two is very good, because Elias is one of the few people that may rival Finch on an intellectual level. I liked that Finch is kind of looking out for Elias – not telling him details to keep him safe.
Overall, ‘Brotherhood’, though not the best episode the show has done, was far from the worst and it provided some nice development in the Brotherhood storyline.
‘Prophets’, however, was a superb episode – easily the best of the season – that delivered on all fronts. The Samaritan plot was brought to the forefront once again, and it made for brilliant television.
The stand-outs of the episode was Amy Acker and Michael Emerson, who were absolutely brilliant in their two major scenes together. The first, where we learned that Root hasn’t heard from the Machine in months, was illuminating. You could see the upset on her face, while Emerson was superb in his portrayal of the comforting Finch.
It was, however, the pair’s discussion about understanding the Machine in which both stood out. The two paralleled each other well – Root was desperately trying to make sense of the Machine, to some extent humanise it; Finch was being realistic, and telling her not to centre her life around the Machine. It’s scenes like these that make television worth watching.
We also got to see Nathan again (for the first time since he died in the ‘God Mode’ flashbacks). The flashbacks in this episode were really good. I liked seeing how Finch made several versions of the Machine before the final version, as well as seeing some of the problems he encountered.
It speaks to how Samaritan operates. Finch put the safeguards in place to prevent the Machine from having full power and going on its own devices – as he said, he crippled it. Samaritan has no restrictions and it’s killing people. Finch was right to destroy the troublesome early versions of the Machine.
Reese took a backseat this week, but he was still featured a considerable amount, and he had some great scenes. I particularly loved his discussion with the therapist about Carter. Jim Caviezel plays these emotional moments so well, and it’s a joy to watch.
Samaritan seems to have implanted 58 politicians “across all levels of government”. Quite why, I don’t know. But it cannot be good. Samaritan has also ordered Greer to “find the Machine”, which means the battle really is heating up. I also liked the end scene where Finch tells the camera that “It’s time we had a talk, you and I.”
Odds and ends:
- Is there anything more entertaining than Root and Martine shooting at each other through the floor?
- “We can go to the NSA’s sources – the backdoors. I’ll do Google, you take Yahoo.” Excuse me while I change my search engine to Bing…
- I loved the opening scene. Reese offering to shoot the guy instead of him jumping so that his family get the insurance money.
- “I think this is very good for Ms. Shaw. It’s teaching her valuable people skills.”
- “It seems to have imprinted on me.” “Yeah, like a baby bird. Have fun mommy.”
- While Finch was concerned about governing the Machine in the flashbacks, Greer suggested that humanity needs to be governed. That’s a very interesting, and concerning, comparison.
‘Prophets’ was easily the best episode of the season so far. It had elements to virtually every single plot that were fantastic. This really was Person of Interest at its best, and hopefully it keeps this up for the remainder of the season.
