Ricky Church reviews the fourth episode of Person of Interest season five…
It was an event we were all waiting for: Sarah Shahi’s return as Sameen Shaw in Person of Interest finally happened. Shahi, who left last year due to pregnancy and maternity leave, filled a small void that had been left in her absence, but her return wasn’t quite what was expected as Samaritan played literal mind games with her. That being said, even though her return wasn’t as many expected it to be, many of the story beats were rather expected, especially in the second half of the episode.
Shahi’s performance was an immediate reminder as to why she’s cultivated such a large fan base. Right off the bat, Shahi brought Shaw’s wit and sarcasm to the forefront, not only displaying her deadly skills (still incredibly deadly even when she’s not at full health) but also bringing some humour into the storyline. Her nonchalance at wiping blood on the poor store clerk’s shirt and ‘threatening’ him may have been my favourite part of the episode on the humour side.
The emotional beats of the story didn’t disappoint either as Shaw and Root reunited. These two characters have been through a lot in their lives and have forced themselves to be emotionally disconnected for so long that it was satisfying they both admitted their feelings for each other, verbally and physically. Even if it wasn’t actually real, it was real in Shaw’s mind as she earnestly confessed that thinking about Root was her “safe place” and kept her from breaking.
The overall story, however, was a bit predictable. I guessed sometime after Shaw met back up with Root, Finch and Reese that these events were either a dream or hallucination of some kind so the twist at the end wasn’t that shocking. Maybe I expected it because so many shows throughout the years have done a ‘what-if’ type episode where everything goes horribly wrong, but it became clear early on where Person of Interest was going with this. Particular beats seemed off as well, such as Root’s forwardness with her attraction or Reese’s relative calmness to Finch’s imminent danger, but they just didn’t feel right for the story. That may have been intentional, though, so viewers could see how stressed and unsure Shaw was as she questioned what was real and who to trust. Either way, certain story beats felt familiar and didn’t subvert the typical ‘what-if’ tropes enough to make it stand out.
Despite ‘6,741’ having predictable story beats, it was still great to see Shaw and how Samaritan hoped to use her. Hopefully she will actually find herself out of this never-ending VR simulation sooner than later, but we also know whenever she does, she will be exacting swift revenge on Greer and Samaritan’s other lackeys.
Ricky Church
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Originally published May 17, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
