Person of Interest: Razgovor
January 18, 2025 7:04 AM - Season 3, Episode 5 - Subscribe

When Shaw is tasked to stay close to a 10-year-old identified by The Machine, she grudgingly develops respect for the young girl's skills in surveillance and realizes it could be the very reason why her number has come up. Meanwhile, Carter's mission to bring HR to justice risks exposure.


A medical transport truck is forced off the road by two armed men who steal the human liver being transported to a local hospital for transplant. The gunman tells the driver that the liver is for his boss, but just then his partner is shot in the knee. Shaw, dressed as a medical transport worker emerges from behind the van with her gun drawn. The would-be thief tries to use the driver as a human shield but Shaw shoots him several times in the chest right through the fabric of the stunned driver's coat.

She returns the liver to the driver who tries to thank her for saving her life before she curtly cuts him off. Finch, monitoring the situation, tries to invite Shaw to discuss her manners over a cup of tea but she demurs, saying he is paying for her ability to save lives, not for her etiquette skills.

Peter Yogorov meets with Terney and Simmons on a covered road to discuss a joint operation they are planning. Unknown to them, Carter is surveilling them and taking pictures. Simmons indicates that their boss will be involved in the project. When Carter returns to her car, she finds Reese waiting for her with a beer. He takes away her camera and lets her know that he has known about her "side project" for a while, and that she has enough by now to take down half of HR. She vows that there will be no deals and that she is determined to identify and take down the head of HR. Reese offers her his help but she declines.

Back at the Library, Reese asks Finch about their latest number, but Finch says it's unlike any number they have received before. Shaw recognizes it as a green card number for an immigrant who Finch identifies as Genrika Zhirova, and he gives them her address in the Bronx.

Shaw knocks on the woman's door pretending to be an Immigration and Custom's agent. A scruffy young man opens the door and yells for Genrika, leaving Shaw standing in the open doorway. As the man plays video games, a young girl comes out of her room, and says she's Genrika, but goes by Gen, before telling Shaw her past history. The little girl tells Shaw she is practicing for her future career in international espionage. She questions Shaw about why she is there and tests her by asking about a Custom's agent who does not exist. In Russian, she tells the man to pay the rent and leaves for school, leaving Shaw slightly befuddled.

Shaw and Reese trail the little girl as she walks to school. While Finch admonishes Shaw that she could have gotten more from the little girl using tact, the girl surprises them all by using counter-surveillance skills to detect Shaw following her. Finch switches to a private communications channel to tell Reese that they need to speak to Shaw about her conduct, but they are both surprised when Shaw interrupts them, having overheard them on a bug she planted at the Library. Reese takes over the tail while Shaw goes to recon her building.

The girl turns a corner just as a car full of armed thugs pull up and try to grab her. Reese intervenes and the girl runs away with two men in pursuit. She makes it to a doorway just as Shaw emerges and shoots at the men, who scurry for cover. Shaw hustles the girl into the building for safety.

Firefighters are at the scene of a car accident. One of the firefighters realizes the driver is dead as others battle the flames. He then hears the voice of a young girl call out "Hello?" As the firefighter talks to the girl, he realizes that the dead driver is her father. He asks her name and she says "Sameen."

Shaw runs through the basement with Gen. Reese contacts her to meet up with her while Shaw asks Gen if she knows why the men would be after her. The little girl says it's probably because she is a spy and pokes Shaw in the shoulder to check to see if she is human or a robot.

n her patrol car, Carter speaks to Finch about the neighborhood the little girl lives in. Mike Laskey is on the phone as well, speaking with someone who tells him to keep an eye on Carter. Carter notices that Laskey has a new gun, and when she learns he bought it at a gun show in New Jersey, she takes it from him as it is not legal in New York.

At the building, the men chasing the girl are contacted by a man asking if they have found her yet. Genrika interrogates Shaw about her work wondering why they are interested in her. " As the gunmen close in on them, Shaw tells Finch she is going to engage them but he stops her saying her priority is to keep the girl safe. They try to leave but are noticed and chased and the girl leads her to a secret room where she has installed several tape recorders that she has been using to record conversations of illegal activities taking place in the building. Gen tells Shaw where the tapes are hidden, and she reports it to Finch.

The gunmen locate the entrance to the secret room, but before they can enter, Reese engages them in a gunfight. The leader of the group calls for help and requests they bring masks with them. In the secret room, Gen flinches at the sound of each fired round and she tells Shaw that her grandfather was in the KGB, showing Shaw an Order of Lenin Medal that he gave her.

Shaw suggests selling it since it is probably quite valuable, leading to the little girl asking what is wrong with Shaw and why is she "like this"? Shaw explains that she doesn't have what made Gen flinch at the gun shots. She doesn't experience emotions, except for anger. Gen asks if something happened to her in her past that made her this way. Shaw responds that she's been this way as long as she can remember.

Suddenly, gas begins entering the room, and Shaw recognizes it as R-22 from the A/C system. As they flee from the gas through a small tunnel, they encounter gas-masked gunmen at both ends. Shaw is shot in the shoulder, and one of the men scurries away with Gen. Shaw tries to go after her but is suddenly struck unconscious.

The firefighter continues talking to Sameen who is still trapped in the wreck. Sameen reveals her father was military. The firefighter tells her that they will call her mother to come for her. Sameen is removed from the wreck, and the firefighter carries her to an ambulance while she calmly looks around.

A voice is heard saying that they have the girl and that it's time to take out the trash. A sedan brakes to a halt and the driver opens the trunk, when suddenly, Shaw springs out with a tire iron and knocks him out. She takes his gun and uses his phone to contact Finch while treating her gunshot wound with duct tape from the trunk.

Finch informs her that they are using Bear to track Gen. She wants to help, but Finch sends her the name and address of a doctor and instructs her to have him treat her wound. Shaw finds a bag of drugs in the driver's pocket and realizes it might be a clue.

Carter sends Laskey out for lunch so she can track Terney while he makes a payment to a truck driver. She calls Laskey to say she will not be coming back, and he leaves his place in line in response.

Back at the apartment, Shaw interrogates Gen's cousin, using the drugs she found as incentive for answers. At the Library, Finch goes through the tapes they found and finds that the voices on one of them are of Yogorov and Simmons. At the same time, Reese, tracking the kidnappers' cell, turns the corner and meets Carter there. They have both been tracking their quarries to the same spot and realize that their cases are connected.
Just then, Terney pulls up and they watch him hand a bag of money to the kidnapper. Reese walks up to the kidnapper and knocks him out. At their drug lab, Simmons removes a bag from Gen's head and asks her about the location of the tapes.

Wrapping her in a blanket, the firefighter reassures Sameen that her mother is coming for her. She asks after her father. The firefighter confesses the car accident was severe, and her father is hurt. Sameen then questions why the firefighter isn't helping him. He confesses to her that he can't help her father, that he is beyond help. After taking a moment, Sameen says she's hungry and wants something to eat. The firefighter looks away, disturbed by her response.

Finch calls Shaw to chastise her for not going to the doctor, but Shaw throws the phone to the ground and continues on her way. Reese and Carter contact Finch to let him know that they have determined that the girl was located through the fingerprints she was required to give when she immigrated.

Finch has also discovered that the deal in question is for a new designer drug made from chemicals that were seen with Terney during Carter's prior surveillance, which they intend to use to replace the other drugs being offered in the city. Reese interrogates the kidnapper by making him hold nitroglycerin. He tells them all about the plans between the Russian mob and HR. Finch plays a tape that confirms the deal, and Reese and Carter leave him to discuss trading the tapes for the girl and bringing in the DEA.

An ambulance pulls up to Peter Yogorov's building and the EMTs are refused entry. Shaw enters the back and takes drugs and equipment from the ambulance. When Yogorov asks his men about the ambulance, he hears their bodies drop before they can answer. He spins around to find Shaw holding two syringes. She knocks him out and he wakes up tied to a chair. Shaw forcefully transfuses Yogorov for his blood and has him call Simmons so that she can tell Gen she will be coming for her. As Finch speaks with Reese about being unable to copy all the tapes in time, Shaw interrupts them, telling him she will be needing the tapes to trade for the girl unless Finch has another plan.

Laskey monitors a call between Carter and Reese discussing the trade for the tapes and reports it to Simmons. He exits the car and tells Carter he needs to speak with her and she agrees to meet him at a bar. Meanwhile, Simmons sets up an ambush for Reese, but is surprised to find that his team has been neutralized. Reese confronts Simmons and they both realize they have double-crossed the other. They begin to fight each other savagely until a police car shows up and Reese vanishes.

Meanwhile, at the drug lab, Shaw arrives and begins taking out the guards having gone with Finch's better plan: follow the GPS trail from Terney's phone since he'd most likely been to the lab before. After taking out the guards, Shaw rescues Gen and asks what Finch knows about chemistry. Realizing what Shaw means Finch tells her "enough" with a devious smile on his face. Moments later, the entire drug lab building blows up.

At the bar, Laskey confronts Carter about her recent dealings with the man in the suit. He is shocked when Carter reveals that she has known since her first day with him that he is with HR and that they have used him to get to Simmons and Gen. Laskey tells her that he has permission to kill her, but Carter replies that he is afraid of her.

She reveals that she knows the bar owner is also a crooked cop and that she is going to arrest them both. The owner tries to pull a shotgun from under the bar but Carter shoots him dead. Laskey tries to pull out his gun but is too late, and Carter holds him at gunpoint. He points out that she shot the owner, but she shows him that she did it with the gun he had bought in New Jersey that she had confiscated. She announces that he now works for her.

Firefighter talks to his fellow fighters at the scene about Sameen as she still sits wrapped in a blanket. He claims she understands what happened, but that there is something wrong with her.

Shaw escorts Gen to a fancy private school that Finch has arranged for her since she is now his ward. Gen gives her the medal her grandfather gave her and asks her not to sell it. Shaw tries to express herself but can't. Gen tells her that she does have feelings, but says that it is as if the volume is turned down. Gen begins to walk away but Shaw grabs her and hugs her. Finch and Bear appear, and Shaw asks Finch if she's fired for disobeying almost all his orders. He responds "To the contrary, I think you finally got the job." Finch then moves on to talking to her about bugging the Library.

That night, with the medal hanging on her bedside lamp, Shaw sleeps peacefully in her loft when something awakens her. Suddenly, Root is there, standing over her with a taser. Root asks her if she missed her before firing the taser and telling her that they are going to have so much fun together. The Machine monitors the audio and displays a graphic indicating that the analog interface is active.

Points of Interest

Razgovor is a Russian word meaning dialogue or conversation.

The episode title is taken from the 1974 film The Conversation starring Gene Hackman and being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In the film, a surveillance specialist finds a routine surveillance job is anything but routine when he discovers he may unwittingly be part of a plot to murder a woman and her lover.

Genrika is based in part on the children's fiction character Harriet Welsch, featured in the novel "Harriet the Spy". In the book, first published in 1964, 11-year-old Harriet is preparing to be a spy by monitoring her classmates and neighbors on her afternoon "spy route" while keeping detailed notes in a notebook. Eventually, her notebook is found by her schoolmates, who are appalled by her observations, landing her in trouble when they retaliate by forming a Spycatcher Club. The novel is set in New York's Upper East Side. The name of the website Finch looks up chemicals on, Welsch Chemicals, is a reference to this.

Genrika's new school is named for Louise Fitzhugh, who wrote "Harriet the Spy" along with A.J. Quinnell, who wrote "Man on Fire." The lead character in "Man on Fire" is John Creasy, a cynical former CIA agent who is hired to rescue a young girl who has been kidnapped, only to find no one with whom he is working can be trusted.

The medal Gen gives Shaw is the Order of Lenin, the highest honor that can be awarded to a Soviet citizen. It is traditionally awarded for outstanding service to the State or to society by a civilian, or for meritorious service in the military. The medal was awarded from 1930 to late 1991, just prior to the fall of the Soviet Union. The Cyrillic letters ЛЕНИН spell out the name Lenin, for Vladimir Illych Lenin, the leader of the October Rebellion (or more commonly, the Bolshevik Revolution), which lead to the deposition of the Russian royal family and establishment of the socialist Russia. Decoration on the medal includes the red Soviet star and the hammer and sickle, symbols of the Soviet era, along with a ribbon in red and gold, the colors of the Soviet flag.

This episode has a similar plot structure to "Wolf and Cub" s1 e14, where Reese protects a boy who has insights into his protector's character.

Finch's cell phone number makes another appearance.
posted by miss-lapin (4 comments total)
 
I liked that Shaw got some backstory and wearing close to sensible footwear. However, blood transfusions don't really work that way.

Carter being badass, "You don't work for HR anymore, son."
posted by porpoise at 5:43 PM on January 18 [2 favorites]


Genrika is based in part on the children's fiction character Harriet Welsch, featured in the novel "Harriet the Spy".

OOOOOOOH; yeah, I guess so. No tomato sandwiches though.

I also felt she had more than a smidge of Newt about her: her hidden nest in the ventilation system, her and Shaw forming a pseudo-maternal bond, her being taken and then rescued and the facility she was held in being blown up.

Finch taking on Gen as his ward was a little Batman/Robin note.
Although... spoilersWe never see Gen again and I do wonder what happened to her later, when Finch & co were forced underground and without access to Finch's wealth. A rare dropped thread.

Carter being badass

Oh hell yeah. Carter rocks.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:20 PM on January 21 [2 favorites]


The Shaw backstory didn't really work for me, despite the great child actor they cast as little Sameen; was she traumatized by the accident, or was she non-emotionally-responsive after the accident accident because that's the way she already was?

The ending though, that landed hard for me: "It's not that you don't have feelings. It's just like... the volume is turned way down."
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:59 AM on January 22


It's because of the accident she realized she was different from other people so she was already like that when the accident occured. She tells Gen that she figured out she was different when she was about Gen's age so while the accident itself wasn't traumatizing to her, it's when she realized that she was different and that her behavior made others, like the firefighter, uncomfortable. So it's an important moment in her development, just not the way most people would expect. It's also important because this incident will be referenced by Root in the following episode.
posted by miss-lapin at 1:09 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]


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