Ricky Church reviews the fifth episode of Person of Interest season 5…
Person of Interest’s ‘ShotSeeker’ returned to a regular case-of-the-week story but, as with many of the series’ episodes throughout the third and fourth seasons, even this filler episode was tied to the ongoing arc of the show. And after Shaw’s semi-return in ‘6,471’ we got yet another longstanding character come back in the final moments.
Reese’s investigation was an interesting one as he and Garvin, a software developer, uncovered a possible murder cover-up. Garvin’s project itself was a unique addition; a program developed to distinguish gunshots from other acoustics such as car backfires or fireworks is a program that is extremely plausible, helping viewers get behind its existence. As Samaritan’s role in this case became clear (a twist that I did see coming early on), I thought its interest was in the ShotSeeker itself, not in a seemingly harmless document about a free food program. Why exactly Samaritan felt so threatened by this program was left unresolved, but right now it seems there is more to it than meets the eye.
Finch and Root went back and forth between Reese’s investigation and probing Samaritan for any weakness. It was a little odd at times to see them bounce between plots, but then again it wouldn’t exactly be exciting to see the pair of them sitting at a computer watching the number of simulations against The Machine rise. It did, at least, lead to two interesting developments: the first being Root meeting Jeff Blackwell, the down on his luck ex-con who was recruited by Samaritan back in ‘SNAFU’, and Finch slowly coming around to the idea that The Machine had to have offensive capabilities.
Finch’s arc with his creation has been one of the driving forces of the show, but lately he seems to be blind to the limitations it has. He did place those limitations in to ensure no one could ever exploit it, but with Samaritan operating at untold levels its time he got a reality check that he needs to step up and trust The Machine with a bit more independent power. However, Finch even gave serious consideration to letting Gavin die in order to learn why exactly Samaritan was so afraid of this document, an action that would never have crossed his mind when the series began. This is somewhat ironic as he’s so afraid of The Machine lacking humanity, yet Finch is possibly losing pieces of his as he grows more desperate.
As I said at the top, we also had the reveal that Elias is still alive and recuperating in Finch’s safehouse. It was a surprise to see him since his story had some amount of closure at the end of Season 4, but Enrico Colantoni has done such a great job playing Elias over the years that it’s a no-brainer to keep him around. Elias has also been such a compelling and charismatic villain, but I’m wondering if he’s now posed to be an ally to the POI team for the rest of the season. While it wasn’t fully stated, Elias heavily implied he knows everything about Samaritan. It will be very interesting to see how his role in the battle between AIs develops. Along with that, Fusco has finally had enough time being in the dark and is determined to discover the truth, whether Finch and Reese tell him or not. Despite this being a somewhat filler episode, and that Samaritan’s involvement was a bit predictable, ‘ShotSeeker’ still delivered an enjoyable case which set up a lot of pieces for the final episodes this season. We’ll just have to see where they go now.
Ricky Church
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published May 19, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
