Person of Interest: 6,741

May 16, 2016 8:38 PM - Season 5, Episode 4

Sameen Shaw escapes her captors, but the team is unsure of her mental state when she begins to act paranoid and reckless.
posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

In which Shaw/Root shippers heads explode.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:39 PM on May 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

I kept hoping this was all another Machine if/then exercise.

And the wall of dead lesbians gets another member, in exactly the usual way it always does.

OR WAS IT?!?!

I guess it's all a Samaritan simulation? But she's still thwarting them somehow.

Go girl. Over and over and over and over again....
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:57 PM on May 16, 2016

Some of the best television I've seen all year, and I watch entirely too much of it. Figured something strange was going on throughout the episode, but wasn't as on it as some people, apparently. But then again, I'd been out swimming laps, then sanding down an end table. (Liked a recent reference to "The Parallax View" by Fusco, and this time a bit of a tip of the hat to "The Manchurian Candidate." The writers will get to all the good political conspiracy thrillers eventually.)
posted by raysmj at 10:02 PM on May 16, 2016

That was fun. I knew something was going on but I wasn't sure what. I considered the possibility that she was really free but most of what we were seeing was a simulation while the machine tried to determine how she was being used by Samaritan, but what was actually going on didn't occur to me. I am going to miss this show.
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 10:59 PM on May 16, 2016

I've always hated the "it was only a dream" trope ... But this one was a gut punch.

Of course, CBS spoiled it a bit about 3/4 through with a promo for the next episode, so we knew John wasn't really dead. I'm kind of dreading it because they appear ready to kill someone off ... And based on past experience, they will, although not necessarily who the teaser implies.

I hate to lose my favorite show, but so far they're going out in a blaze of glory.
posted by pmurray63 at 1:56 AM on May 17, 2016

AV club review.
IGN review and interview with producers.
Sepinwall review.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:15 AM on May 17, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wasn't exactly sure what the end result was going to be, but I knew something was up when they stormed Samaritan HQ so handily. I hope we get more Shaw soon, I was sad she ever left. My only quibble (and it's a minor one) is with things that were not witnessed by Shaw that were still shown to the audience. Since it turned out to be a simulation for her the only reason you'd have people talking about her while she's passed out in another room is for the tv audience.

Oddly, this is the 3rd tv show I've seen in the last year or so that broke out the "have a character undergo a terrible scenario over and over again at great personal cost" story line. I guess spoiler alert: Doctor Who had an episode about it recently and the anime Madoka Magica has it as basically the entire series.
posted by Green With You at 8:44 AM on May 17, 2016

There was a (great) episode of The Librarians with basically the same theme. It was a considerably more lighthearted take, however.
posted by stet at 5:51 PM on May 20, 2016

I thought this was a simulation from the point she saw the boat. Then when Creepy Dude revealed the usb was a trap, I thought "Maybe this IS real." It's a testament to Shaw's strength that even after over 6,000 simulations she'd still kill herself to protect Root and the Machine and the only change is that it took her an hour more to kill Creepy Dude. This is why I like this show. They can take a hackneyed trope and make me enjoy it.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:13 PM on July 19, 2018