User Reviews

This episode is so good - i watched it twice. First half of this episode reminded me of "Human Target" 1st season finale: both finales feature Amy Acker playing damsel in distress(in both cases, her character was target of contract killer). So the first half of the episode seemed like a copy of "Human Target" finale. But then, second half smartly enough turned everything upside down in one great twist ending. It appears that Caroline Turing(Amy Acker) is an assumed identity of The Root(Hacker/Killer/Blackmailer) from an earlier episode called "Root Cause". The Root put a hit on herself in order to lure Finch out and probably get access to The Machine. Now that she's kidnapped Finch, it's up to Reese to find him and to work with The Machine alone! Personally, i like Amy Acker as villain - great return to her earlier villain roles(e.g. Kelly Peyton on "Alias") I'm looking forward to the Season 2. And I hope that Amy Acker will stick around for longer than just a few episodes.

The stress you have when john and root are escaping the building is priceless. Root's plan was dope. And the last scene tells us that it's gonna be a great show!

Everyone loves this episode, right? (Except perhaps the Shaw-fans) What is not to love here because this episode combines everything that makes PoI a great TV-show. Nolan and Plageman wrote the script and their handwriting is obvious. Who else could combine four storylines in such a smooth way into one hell-of-a-ride episode with a very emotional cliffhanger at the end? Perhaps it is a matter of personal preferance, but I like this episode better than the end-episodes of s. 2 or s. 3. It is only one episode and not a double one like the others and therefore much more coherent and contained. The action is reduced to two places (FBI-room and hotel) which adds to the drama aspect. Plus we get finally to see Root and her introduction couldn't be more topnotch with a plot-twist that the actress handles in an adorable way. Being a frightened, very pretty and female looking number-of-the-week until nearly to the end and then just by opening her hair (and killing someone) turns everything around and becomes a really "scary chick" (Fusco's words). In rewatching you might detect some flaws in her innocent appearance f.e. when the killers advance front and back in the street scene, the camera catches the look on her face and she is not frightened at all! Then the expert way she handled the elevator cables and her analysing Reese in the beginning - of course she couldn't read this only from being with him for a short time in a room. Reese is so nice towards Root, trying to protect her in the most desperate situation ("when they are moving in just stay behind me"), no need for her to be so rude towards him in most all of the following episodes! I admire this episode very much, even Nolan himself picked it at an occasion as his favourite episode. The tension is rising until we find Reese and Root trapped in an elevator with the FBI coming down and HR below installing an explosive trap. Only the genius of Finch can find a way out and Reese acknowledges it right away. (One thing that astonishes me always are those pillars in the parking level of a supposedly very good hotel - they look like they could crumble every minute because they are so rotten. Wouldn't be possible here in my country - I think.) And there are Carter and Fusco - this bathroom scene is just adorable and highly fulfilling. Of course they don't hesitate to rush to Reese' rescue only to end up in a car with him and he is not sorry at all ("trust is a complicated thing - f.e. I am sitting in a police car with one cop who tried to shoot me and another who spend six month trying to lock me up"). The look on their faces when he blows up the car of the bad guys is just gold! But his badass manner ("We shall all go and grab a drink together" straightening of jacket) will be punished soon when he finds out about Finch being gone. This last scene when he walks into the empty library is really sad - and we get all this in the course of barely 10 minutes. In the pedia-of-interest there is described how this episode mirrors the pilot episode in many ways and of course it ends in the same way - Reese looking up on the security cam - but then the phone rings. No way someone who watched all 23 ep. until this point wouldn't want to go on right into season 2.

If you are getting tired of this show at the end of the first season, maybe this isn't the show for you. But, if you are even remotely entertained, watch the entire show! By the end of the show you will almost assuredly want to go back and rewatching the entire series to see all the hints and clues during the procedural episodes that directly led, or tangentially hinted, at aaaallllll the stuff that will start popping into the show come season 3.

I have never before or since seen a show that completely changes the show's DNA, without changing the show at all, and somehow making the rest of the show better, and retroactively making the earlier parts of the show better.... Amazing.

Started watching the whole series again and it's so amazing things that you don't notice, like ms Turing has a yellow box around her as she walks in the street with John, a dead giveaway that she knows about the machine and not just a victim needed to be saved.

I started watching "Person of Interest" based on a number of different factors: my respect for JJ Abrams & Jonathan Nolan's work being paramount, but also the incredible word-of-mouth I had received from people about how great the show is. Plus, one would be hard-pressed to find a television program that is better reviewed on this site (I've never seen so many five-star ratings!). Thus, with all those factors converging, I thought for sure that this would be my "new show" after Fringe just recently departed the airwaves. Unfortunately, I discovered that this show just wasn't for me, for a couple of reasons.

For a basic plot summary, "Person of Interest" focuses on the team of Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) and John Reese (Jim Caviezel). Finch is a master technological mind who has created a "Machine" that crunches a huge amount of data and spits out a social security number at given intervals. This person is in danger of being killed in some form, which is where Reese comes in, as he is the investigator who uses Finch's gadgets and his own cocksure street smarts to make sure the "person of interest" remains alive. The Finch/Reese team are continuously pursued by NYPD Detective Carter (Taraji Henson) while at the same time being aided by corrupt cop Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman).

There are indeed many positives about this show. It is very well-produced (of great quality) and the acting from Emerson especially shines. Many people also will be intrigued by the surveillance technology used by the main characters throughout each episode. If you are "into" gritty spy fare, this will be the show for you.

However, here is why I couldn't quite embrace this show like other JJ works such as "LOST" or "Fringe"...

-At heart, "POI" is a cop drama. It pulls from other dramatic venues, of course, but when you get right down to it this is a gritty police procedural. If you (like me) prefer more fantasy or over-the-top drama in your television viewing, then you might not get sucked into this one.

-"POI" is also a show with a very grounded base. Each episode is based on the "number of the week" and, while providing some character backstory, doesn't shift too far from that premise from week to week. If you are looking for a show with complex, over-arching mysteries, this one doesn't fit that exact bill.

-Finally, while praised for his role as Reese, I found the acting of Caviezel to be only so-so. For whatever reason, I never viewed him as anything more than the "enforcer" and wish the humanity of his character would have appealed to me more.

I know that I am the outlier here and the "Helpful Votes" button on this review will probably severely reflect this fact soon enough, but those are my feelings about this show. One caveat is that I did not make it all the way through the season (about 10 episodes). Maybe I didn't stick with the program long enough for the big payoff? If so, just let me know and maybe I'll pick it up again. For me, though, after 10 episodes it began to feel more like I "had to" watch the next episode instead of "wanting to" watch the next episode, and that is when I usually know it is time for me to move on.