Person of Interest - M.I.A. - Review: "Goodbye, Harold"

Unfortunately Bradley couldn't write this weeks review since he's extremely busy, he should be back next week though with a review of "Guilty".

Person of Interest - M.I.A. - Review

After last episode "Control-Alt-Delete" was heavily focused on Control we learnt a lot more about her back story, and she developed a lot more, as her being such a crucial character she wasn't developed nearly as enough as someone such as Greer. Having it focused on Control did take the spotlight away from team machine and the fallout from Shaw's death a little, but the agony, and there need to find Shaw blended in nicely with everything else that was happening. This episode continues on with that with Root and Reese on the road tracking down there one, rather thin lead.

"I want to hold out hope, but hope is painful" - Finch

Hope is a strange thing, but it was the only thing Root and Reese had this episode, hope that they somehow, even with the chance so little, that they would find Shaw. Whilst team machine didn't locate Shaw we did get a definitive answer as to whether Shaw was alive. Greer has her, he must have stopped Martine shooting her at the stock exchange, but what he plans to do with her is left unknown, and for us to merely speculate.

Whilst it was good news for us, the same can't be said for team machine. After a long and tiresome journey to a little town called Maple, Root and Reese return without any concrete evidence that Shaw may still be alive. Finch, unlike the others isn't holding his breath, and we saw him this episode lose hope as one dead end came to another. Michael Emerson again, like most weeks gave the best performance. The writers always seem to give Finch the best lines, and Emerson brings the emotion and character to life with each scene. I have always said this, and will stick by this, without Finch there is no Person of Interest.

Speaking of Maple, there were some interesting things happening in the town. Samaritan aspiring to teach itself about human nature, and the ways in which people work was captivating. I applaud the writers for coming up with a innovative and creative idea of teaching Samaritan about how humans operate, it was fascinating to see how everything played out in the city. Since the machine had Harold teaching it daily it will be very interesting to see how Samaritan will continue to teach itself as it doesn't have it's version of "Harold" helping it. We got a little taste of what it has been doing to learn, but since it will continue to teach itself it will be intriguing to see what happens next regarding it, now that Samaritan has decided to discontinue with learning in the town of Maple.

Since Shaw has been missing we have seen the softer side of Root come out, she is heartbroken, and Amy Acker continues to give a wonderful emotional response to Root's suffering, of not knowing. Root has no options left after the Maple lead turned out to be nothing more than a simple lead. She asks the machine for help. The machine's response was "Stop". As much as I want to see Root reunited with Shaw I was glad that the machine didn't hand them a lead, as I don't think Root could handle any more bad news or potential leads turning out to be nothing more than dead ends. It wouldn't be good for her sanity, as she was already starting to lose it a bit, with her letting her emotions crowd her judgement, which is never a good thing.

Root will never stop looking for Shaw, I don't think she will ever be satisfied with the conclusion she was given by the machine. The machine telling her to "Stop" means nothing to her. She will continue to search for her until she has physical proof Shaw is dead. To be honest it will probably give her more of an incentive to keep looking than to stop. Amy Acker in the last scene when she was begging the machine to help was wonderful. It was a powerful moment when her "god" decided not to help her. Amy did a fantastic job at portraying the emotional response that came with her seeing what the machine had told her and her saying goodbye to Harold was extremely desolate. She was done.

"Goodbye, Harold" - Root

Now that Root has gone her own separate way from team machine, at least for a little while, what does this mean for her character? I can't see her working the numbers alone, I think the task of the POI cases will fall into the hands of Finch and Reese for old time’s sake, and Root will be absent for a little while. Having Root absent for a while will allow Reese and Finch, and potentially Fusco a little more screetime, and maybe we might see a bit of development from one of them, if we are lucky.

The show has been so heavily focused on Samaritan recently that the brotherhood storyline has been side-lined, which isn't unusual for the writers to do. They typically focus on one big story arc at a time before rotating back to the other storyline they have on-going, like with H.R and Elias back in Season 2. I am hoping over the course of the next couple of episodes we will see a bit more of the brotherhood storyline develop, and hopefully we can learn a little more about Dominick, as currently I find him to be a one stop villain than anything else. Someone who just shows up once in a while. He isn't developed nearly as enough as he should be.

Elsewhere in the episode, Finch tasked Fusco with the latest POI. Fusco got assistance from Dani Silva who had also been tracking the perpetrator Mason Bauer for a while now. Even though my mind was focused on what was happening with Reese and Root in their search for Shaw, the parts with Fusco kept me engaged as it was a very intense case where Mason turned out to be even more dangerous than first anticipated. I enjoyed seeing Fusco heavily featured this episode as he hasn't had a huge amount of screen time ever since Carter died back in season 3. His scenes with Dani reminded me of Shaw and him, and If Shaw doesn't return to the team for whatever reason I could see Dani being a nice replacement. She by no means would be the next Shaw, but close enough.

Summary
This episode despite not being as intense or thrilling as the recent trilogy was still a really good episode. I am glad we got a definitive answer on Shaw's fate, as it puts our minds at rest. The scenes with Root and Reese were engaging even though they didn't get the results they were looking for, and I am extremely excited to learn more, and see more about how Samaritan is teaching itself. This episode like so many others was fantastic. Despite the episode not keeping the high level of intensity we saw in the previous episodes it still manages to keep the quality at a high level. This is another reason why Person of Interest remains one of the best TV shows on television.

As always, thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of "M.I.A"

About the Author - Robert Fruin

Robert is a sixth form student from the United Kingdom, who is currently studying IT, Media and Business Studies. Robert is a huge fan of the ended ABC series LOST, he has seen it many times over and has even visited some of the filming locations for it. Robert mainly watches drama series such as Game Of Thrones and Person of Interest, but has a soft spot for the comedy The Middle. Some other shows he watches are The Walking Dead, Arrow and The 100. Some other interests include cycling, photography and kayaking. Robert will be reviewing Z Nation,The Librarians, Sons Of Anarchy, Intruders, The Fosters and Aquarius. Feel free to connect with him on any of these social media sites.

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