For al the incredible things that Person of Interest has done in its four and a third seasons, very little matches up to the innovation displayed in season four’s If-Then-Else. That hour was a demonstration in how to do conceptual storytelling, and yet 6,741, season five’s fourth hour, delivered that in a fashion so magnificent that it’s difficult to look past it having topped its predecessor.
From the beginning, everything felt too easy. Yes, Shaw is a highly trained operative who could break her way out of pretty much anywhere. But for her to do that with minimal fuss, including the swift murder of Lambert - who, while not a major character by any stretch of the imagination, has appeared in numerous episodes, and so dismissing him so readily here came off slightly strange - suggested more was at play. Couple that with the odd jump from Shaw refusing Root’s company to almost instantly having sex with her and it was clear that not all was as it seemed. In fact, nothing was as it seemed as the entire episode, save for a few seconds at the beginning and at the end, were nothing more than thoughts in Shaw’s brain, illustrated through Samaritan’s attempt to control her mind.
Much like If-Then-Else, the major kicker came when a member of the team - last time it was Finch; here, it was Reese - was shot and killed, but this charade had been maintained for a much longer period of time than that did. Interestingly, while I had very little doubt once Reese took that bullet that the entire thing was a simulation, it did leave me temporarily wondering about the potential for the show to not go back on itself, and actually kill Mr. Tall, Dark and Deranged. With this being the final season, and Greg Plageman saying this season would be entirely serialised, killing Reese didn’t seem entirely out of the question, given his lack of insight on the technical side of things. Of course, he’s another body in the war against Samaritan, which counts for a lot given how much actual combat takes place in a war between two supercomputers, so his death was never likely. And yes, it wasn’t until this point that 6,741 was almost certainly a simulation. Killing Greer didn’t indicate that beyond most doubt as Reese’s death did. Sure, it’d be weird for Greer, who has been an antagonist since the second season, to be offed as he was and so early in the season, but when considering that Samaritan controls him, not the other way around (as he has stated many times), his death would be somewhat irrelevant to it, so no more than this was needed.
That wasn’t the case, however, and everything was in fact a simulation, one that ended with Shaw shooting herself in the head. Again, implementing this into the real story wasn’t especially implausible, though when considering the amount of death that had piled up in those five minutes, it was fantasy time. But even after the reveal that this was all in Shaw’s head, her suicide to protect the team fit in nicely, especially after learning that 6,471 simulations have yet to force her to lead Samaritan back to Team Machine. Shaw’s a fighter, loyal to her friends, and if it came to it, would she sacrifice herself to save them? We may yet get to see this play out for real, so we’ll see, but I think that she would.
Really, this hour showed a lot about her character, even though none of it was real. A look at the inner workings of Shaw’s psyche is infinitely more useful than anything she would actually do. The mind wants what it wants, but rarely are those desires outwardly expressed. It is those thoughts being shown that make this episode very real for Shaw, if not at all for us or any of the other characters. Having not seen her for half a season, 6,741 provides an insight into where her head’s at and how she feels about the rest of the team - Root in particular - and how hard she’s fighting not to let Samaritan win. It’s a fascinating concept: When she awakes from whatever they’ve done to her, will she consciously remember any of this? Even if she doesn’t, it’s obvious that she’s experiencing all of this right now, even if it’s just her unconscious mind keeping Samaritan at bay by killing herself each time. Back to the episode at hand, though, because Sarah Shahi. Man, Sarah Shahi. That was one of the most intense and committed performances we’ve seen on this show. Her struggles as the flashes of Samaritan’s torture eroded her mind were immensely compelling and made her fight undeniably more believable. Raw emotion flooded the hour as Shahi turned everything up to eleven, carefully illustrating every single one of Shaw’s struggles. Some truly remarkable work.
It’s rare that a show would be able to get away with covering mere seconds of time across half of an episode, as If-Then-Else did. But for Person of Interest to experiment with that idea again, this time extending it to an entire episode over just a few seconds, is a bold move, and one that paid off in unimaginable ways. I’ve had just over two weeks to contemplate where 6,741 fits into the list of POI’s best episodes, and while I still can’t decide on its actual position, it’s certainly in the top three (the aforementioned If-Then-Else along with The Devil’s Share taking the other two spots). Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman gave it heavy praise back in September, and that was entirely justified. What an episode.
Notes:
- Did Person of Interest hire a consultant from The Following for this episode? There was an awful lot of knife work.
- The review title comes from Shaw, immediately after that very intense and messy sex scene with Root.
- No Fusco and no subway base this week, since Samaritan doesn’t know about either and Shaw’s mind was refusing to give them up. A subtle and clever move.
- "Please don't shoot. I have no wish to make my final confession."
- Early on, Shaw was told that the team had compressed the Machine to its core code, placing this episode sometime after the fourth season finale. But if all of this was designed to get Shaw to break, that would mean that when she was in the front of the truck shown at the end of Asylum, she wasn’t cooperating. So, she sat there willingly, without trying to escape, but still refusing to provide any information? If anyone in the comments wants to take a stab at figuring this one out, since it’s undoubtedly quite simple and I’ve overcomplicated it, please feel free.
- This was the last of the screeners that CBS sent to press, which means the structure of my reviews will now change. Tomorrow night’s episode will get reviewed later in the week; next week sees three episodes air (one on May 23rd, two on May 24th), which I’ll tackle all in one go; two episodes the following week (one on May 30th, one on May 31st) will receive a double review; and the final three air weekly (Tuesday June 7th, 14th and 21st) so I’ll have one per episode for those three; followed by an overall season review by the end of June.
What did everyone think of 6,741? Leave your thoughts in the comments and be sure to vote in our poll below.
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