Ricky Church reviews the sixth episode of Person of Interest season 5…
While not much really happened in Person of Interest’s ‘A More Perfect Union’, it definitely served as a calm before the storm, giving both the characters and audience a bit of a breather before the endgame truly begins.
The case-of-the-week wasn’t too interesting, but did bring about several moments of levity throughout the story. From Reese’s ‘stripper bodyguard’ to Finch’s rendition of the Twisted Sisters ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ there was heavy comedy, including the one ridiculous moment of Root swooping in on horseback to help Reese. It was not taken seriously at all, but you could also tell the cast was having fun in their roles, Amy Acker in particular.
The main arc of the series did come back around to Finch as Root suggested they unshackle The Machine to help them fight against Samaritan. Though Finch is still reluctant to the idea, he’s slowly coming around to it, but his true worry over taking such an action has now been revealed; I’ve commented before how Finch’s reluctance could cost them, especially as he should have learnt to trust The Machine a bit more by now, but in actuality it is himself and the team he doesn’t trust with absolute power. I suppose after seeing how the government sought to corrupt The Machine’s power and how Decima has utilized Samaritan, he does have cause to worry about his own ability to use The Machine responsibly if its unshackled at last. It was a small, but very important, character beat in an otherwise filler side-story.
Of course, we dealt with the main arc head-on with Shaw as Samaritan tried to out-right recruit her instead of manipulate her. This storyline called back to some moments last season as Shaw questioned the real damage Samaritan was doing as it was stopping terrorist attacks and other crimes when it wasn’t trying to rule the world. Her day trip with Greer was illuminating and it was hard to argue against some of his points. Shaw has also always been more morally gray than Reese or Finch so it makes sense to see her come around to Samaritan’s way of thinking. In my review for ‘6,741’ I also commented on how the twist that all the events were a virtual simulation didn’t quite stick the landing since it was a bit predictable early on. While the twist in her story was relatively the same, it came as quite a surprise since there was no indication anything was not real, whereas in ‘6,741’ some elements just seemed, by intention or not, off.
It may not have been an eventful episode, but ‘A More Perfect Union’ was a good breather from the more intense story even while gearing up for the battle against Samaritan. We got humour with the POI team, Shaw coming dangerously close to becoming Samaritan’s asset and even Fusco is closer than he’s ever been to discovering the truth about everything. The pieces have all been set and now the real battle can finally begin.
Ricky Church
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published May 24, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
