Person of Interest: Panopticon Rewatch
March 26, 2025 6:27 PM - Season 4, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Forced to take on new identities created by Root, the team tries to adapt to their new lives. However, some find it hard to ignore the Machine’s numbers, which puts them all at risk of being detected by Samaritan.
In Budapest, at a bar, a man strikes up a conversation with a woman, telling her about how he lost his job as a journalist when he was poking around into an international stealth operation to close down every company looking into artificial intelligence. He thinks there is a huge conspiracy. The woman confirms he's right, then shoots him dead.
Back in New York, Senator Garrison meets with Greer and discuss that Samaritan has been successful stopping potential terrorist attacks. Garrison wonders where the information being collected by Samaritan is going, since Decima Technologies has been closed. When Garrison leaves, Greer asks Samaritan (via a Smartphone-looking device) if it's time to kill Garrison, Samaritan responds, "Not Yet." Samaritan then says it's still looking into the location of Finch and Reese.
Ever since Team Machine has been forced underground,(“Deus Ex Machina” s3 e23) Shaw has working as a perfume salesperson at at mall department store. Root stops by and tells her the Machine put here there in order to keep her off Samaritan's radar. She suggests she use an online dating app she gave her to try and find a "match."
Reese has been working as an NYPD detective in narcotics, often acting as a perp to perform drugs busts.
Finch is a part-time professor. A department head tells him he's read Finch's dissertation and has made a few typo corrections.
Reese and Fusco run into each other at the scene of a homicide related to a heroin bust Reese recently made. The man had wire strippers.
Reese and Shaw are both summoned to a self-help seminar of some kind. After a few minutes they leave, head into the hall and hear a pay phone ringing. It's a new assignment.
Reese meets with Finch in the park, while the Samaritan graphics show that something is changing his threat level in Samaritan from "Threat" to "Non-Threat." He tells Finch they're getting numbers and need to get back to work. Reese shows him the file of an electronics shop owner named Ali Hasan from the Bronx. Finch thinks it's too dangerous to intervene as the world has change, they don't have the resources or a safe haven.
Pursuing the number, Reese watches Hasan from the street and sees that he's been working providing communications for a drug gang named The Brotherhood, run by a man named Dominic. He's told by a man named Link that he has 24 hours to finish an operation.
Reese walks into the store and shows his badge. He shows Hasan a picture of the earlier homicide, showing him the wire strippers, which Hasan happens to sell in his store. Hasan doesn't accept his offer of help.
Reese and Fusco watch as Hasan meets with Link, giving him a new phone with a battery pack. Link says he's going to go several blocks away to test the network. When Link leaves, Reese (who has paired with Hasan's phone) sees he's sending a detonation signal via text. Reese sprints after Link's car and gets the phone out of there just in time as the car speeds off.
Reese questions Hasan at the station. He says he knows the Brotherhood is threatening him and would like to help. Hasan says the last time he went to the police they were of no help. The police can't help him, so he is protecting himself. Hasan panics when he's told Link wasn't killed. They take him to his store and find Ben, his son, is missing. The phone rings with Link, saying if he doesn't have the network up by midnight Ben will be killed. Reese promises Hasan he'll get Ben back. He calls Shaw for help. She reminds him that if they get involved, "they'll find you."
Reese goes into Brotherhood hangout with guns blazing. He cracks some skull and is told by one of the men that Link is bringing in "The Whale." Just then Shaw sneaks up behind Reese and knocks him out with a bar.
Root drops by Finch's office at the university and tells him Reese and Shaw have gotten involved again. She thinks he needs to get involved. Root explains the Machine has a plan and reminds him that every life matters and all of the numbers add up to something.
Reese wakes up in Shaw's car. She tells him that he can't do those things anymore.
Finch shows up at Hasan's business to help him figure out the wireless network he's setting up for the Brotherhood. Finch tells Reese they need to "play by the rules." Hasan shows Reese that he set up his network using existing TV antennas.
Reese meets with Elias and tells him about his issue with the Brotherhood and Ben. He tells Reese that "The Whale" is actually a shipment of heroin. HR used to handle The Whale, but now it appears to have been taken over by Dominic. Reese then says he'd like to hire Elias.
Finch helps fix Hasan's network. He calls Link and tells him the news. Link tells him he'll get Ben when he's finished with The Whale and hangs up. Finch then calls Reese. Using the network he's able to send Reese to Link and The Whale's location.
Link reveals that his plan is to kill both Ben and Hasan after they take care of The Whale.
Reese has Elias's right-hand man, Scarface, take out one of the Brotherhood's SUVs with a truck. This gives Reese gives probable cause to check out the house where Link is processing the heroin. Reese then makes his way through the house, but finds that Link and Ben went out the back. He catches Link just before he can escape and is able to get Ben to safety as police arrive.
A Homeland Security agent named Watkins arrives at the house. It's the female assassin from the opening scene. She doesn't buy the story she's told about the situation being related to gangs.
Finch meets with Reese and hands him a suitcase. Inside is Ali's network, which Finch thinks they can use to communicate without Samaritan listening. Reese hands Finch one of the phones.
Root drops by Shaw's job and convinces her to accept one of the online dating requests she's been getting on her cell phone.
Reese has been promoted to homicide, and is Fusco's partner, to be sitting at Carter's old desk.
Finch looks through the corrections that were made on thesis. He jots down the letters, which send him to a book in the library. The book has to do with 20th century engineering and has a diagram of the city which shows a chasm under the city.
Shaw meets up with the men called Romeo. It's an operation looking for someone to help them do some "real work." She's interested.
Finch goes down into the space beneath the city. He stares around in amazement.
Person of Interest
A panopticon is an architectural form developed for prisons, as conceptualized by philosopher, economist and theoretical jurist, Jeremy Bentham in 1791. It is designed such that one guard can keep all (pan-) under observation (-opticon), without the guard being observed. Panopticon is said to derive from the mythical Greek giant with a hundred eyes, Panoptes - the hundred eyes made him an effective watchman. The term panopticon identifies a society or an area where all the citizens are under pervasive, ever-present surveillance by unobserved, but untiring entities: a surveillance state. The French philosopher Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish refers to the "panopticon" as an experimental laboratory of power in which behaviour could be modified, and as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance.
The events in this episode are from Samaritan's point of view.
As part of its monitoring of Senator Garrison, Samaritan notes the following transgressions, leading Samaritan to classify him as a possible threat: 81 counts of misconduct, 661 counts of receiving a bribe, 21 counts of conspiracy to subvert the Constitution, and 124 events of alcohol abuse.
With the title card, the show morphs its graphics from the Machine's point of view (MPOV) to Samaritan's point of view (SPOV). In SPOV, the graphics include a circular motif, in keeping with the panopticon model of surveillance. We also see the graphic interface used on Greer's telephone, which include the iconic red triangle.
The season picks up several weeks after the events of the finale, with New York now an "Orwellian surveillance state," according to Greg Plageman. We see the team as they meet up for the first time, and the first time they receive the calendar alerts from the Machine.
The crime scene with Reese and Fusco shot on the roof was the first scene of the season. It was an extremely hot day, making production uncomfortable for all concerned.
The stuntman Reese throws into the trunk of the car wore a protective back plate to avoid injury from the trunk lid hitting his back during the multiple takes.
During one take of the scene under the bridge, an NYPD police helicopter began circling near the bridge. The director rolled cameras, but they were unable to use the footage.
The ending music was also used in the episode promos.
Jim Caviezel and Navid Negahban (Ali Hasan) both appeared in the 2008 film "The Stoning of Soraya M."
Reese sits at Carter's old desk after being promoted to Homicide.
Both Scarface and Link, the second-in-command in their respective gangs, have a scar on one cheek: Scarface on his right, and Link on his left.
Reese again got disappointed by two shooters for holding their gun sideways.
The first scene and last scenes we see with just Reese in them involve three key elements: The police arrive then Reese flashes his NYPD badge at a cop that has his weapon drawn and aimed at Reese.
Harold's new alias "Professor Whistler" is another bird name. Whistler is also the last name of Hugh Whistler, an English ornithologist.
VHF (very high frequency) is a broadcast standard covering radio waves from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. It was traditionally used for analog FM radio and television stations. Television and radio signals are frequency modulated (FM), and travel short distances over line of site. VHF was the standard for 12 low-numbered television stations (cf. KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles) until the U.S. conversion to digital television; FM radio (87.5–108 MHz) continues to be broadcast in this way. VHF broadcasting is also used for a range of applications from emergency broadcast, air traffic control and military systems among others, to cordless telephones, amateur and marine radio, but does not carry digital television signals well. Because VHF signal travel line-of sight, they require placement of antennas at a height, thus the antennas atop most residential structures, such as was seen in the episode.
Following the bombing attempt, Reese recognizes that Ali has specialized military training, and identifies him as a member of Egypt's Unit 777. Unit 777 is a counter-terrorism and special operations unit, founded by Anwar Sadat's government in the late 1970s as part of Sadat's efforts to gain peace with Israel. The unit acts principally on threats occurring on Egyptian soil, but has been dispatched to international incidents as well. They train with units including the U.S. Army Delta Force and U.S. Navy SEALS.
The Machine places typographical errors in Finch's dissertation that lead him to the tunnels of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Company, the first operating subway system in New York, now part of the New York subway system. The IRT began service in 1904 as a private company, and operated until 1940, when it was purchased by the City of New York. Its lines are identifiable as the numbered lines on the modern New York subway system.
Ali is able to build a mesh network by linking a series of routers, and broadcasting the signal across disused VHF television antennas. A mesh network is a routing technique where phone calls and messages travel by hopping from router to router within the network area. These small routers behave similarly to a home wireless router where one node is physically wired to an Internet connection, which is transmitted to other nodes in its vicinity. The network can be expanded simply by adding more nodes. All telecommunications, such as cell phones, are sent via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Mesh networking is known for its simplicity, reliability and ease of use. In their commentary for the episode, writers Erik Mountain and Greg Plageman noted that this method of communication was used by protesters during the Arab Spring, notably in Egypt and Tunisia.
In Budapest, at a bar, a man strikes up a conversation with a woman, telling her about how he lost his job as a journalist when he was poking around into an international stealth operation to close down every company looking into artificial intelligence. He thinks there is a huge conspiracy. The woman confirms he's right, then shoots him dead.
Back in New York, Senator Garrison meets with Greer and discuss that Samaritan has been successful stopping potential terrorist attacks. Garrison wonders where the information being collected by Samaritan is going, since Decima Technologies has been closed. When Garrison leaves, Greer asks Samaritan (via a Smartphone-looking device) if it's time to kill Garrison, Samaritan responds, "Not Yet." Samaritan then says it's still looking into the location of Finch and Reese.
Ever since Team Machine has been forced underground,(“Deus Ex Machina” s3 e23) Shaw has working as a perfume salesperson at at mall department store. Root stops by and tells her the Machine put here there in order to keep her off Samaritan's radar. She suggests she use an online dating app she gave her to try and find a "match."
Reese has been working as an NYPD detective in narcotics, often acting as a perp to perform drugs busts.
Finch is a part-time professor. A department head tells him he's read Finch's dissertation and has made a few typo corrections.
Reese and Fusco run into each other at the scene of a homicide related to a heroin bust Reese recently made. The man had wire strippers.
Reese and Shaw are both summoned to a self-help seminar of some kind. After a few minutes they leave, head into the hall and hear a pay phone ringing. It's a new assignment.
Reese meets with Finch in the park, while the Samaritan graphics show that something is changing his threat level in Samaritan from "Threat" to "Non-Threat." He tells Finch they're getting numbers and need to get back to work. Reese shows him the file of an electronics shop owner named Ali Hasan from the Bronx. Finch thinks it's too dangerous to intervene as the world has change, they don't have the resources or a safe haven.
Pursuing the number, Reese watches Hasan from the street and sees that he's been working providing communications for a drug gang named The Brotherhood, run by a man named Dominic. He's told by a man named Link that he has 24 hours to finish an operation.
Reese walks into the store and shows his badge. He shows Hasan a picture of the earlier homicide, showing him the wire strippers, which Hasan happens to sell in his store. Hasan doesn't accept his offer of help.
Reese and Fusco watch as Hasan meets with Link, giving him a new phone with a battery pack. Link says he's going to go several blocks away to test the network. When Link leaves, Reese (who has paired with Hasan's phone) sees he's sending a detonation signal via text. Reese sprints after Link's car and gets the phone out of there just in time as the car speeds off.
Reese questions Hasan at the station. He says he knows the Brotherhood is threatening him and would like to help. Hasan says the last time he went to the police they were of no help. The police can't help him, so he is protecting himself. Hasan panics when he's told Link wasn't killed. They take him to his store and find Ben, his son, is missing. The phone rings with Link, saying if he doesn't have the network up by midnight Ben will be killed. Reese promises Hasan he'll get Ben back. He calls Shaw for help. She reminds him that if they get involved, "they'll find you."
Reese goes into Brotherhood hangout with guns blazing. He cracks some skull and is told by one of the men that Link is bringing in "The Whale." Just then Shaw sneaks up behind Reese and knocks him out with a bar.
Root drops by Finch's office at the university and tells him Reese and Shaw have gotten involved again. She thinks he needs to get involved. Root explains the Machine has a plan and reminds him that every life matters and all of the numbers add up to something.
Reese wakes up in Shaw's car. She tells him that he can't do those things anymore.
Finch shows up at Hasan's business to help him figure out the wireless network he's setting up for the Brotherhood. Finch tells Reese they need to "play by the rules." Hasan shows Reese that he set up his network using existing TV antennas.
Reese meets with Elias and tells him about his issue with the Brotherhood and Ben. He tells Reese that "The Whale" is actually a shipment of heroin. HR used to handle The Whale, but now it appears to have been taken over by Dominic. Reese then says he'd like to hire Elias.
Finch helps fix Hasan's network. He calls Link and tells him the news. Link tells him he'll get Ben when he's finished with The Whale and hangs up. Finch then calls Reese. Using the network he's able to send Reese to Link and The Whale's location.
Link reveals that his plan is to kill both Ben and Hasan after they take care of The Whale.
Reese has Elias's right-hand man, Scarface, take out one of the Brotherhood's SUVs with a truck. This gives Reese gives probable cause to check out the house where Link is processing the heroin. Reese then makes his way through the house, but finds that Link and Ben went out the back. He catches Link just before he can escape and is able to get Ben to safety as police arrive.
A Homeland Security agent named Watkins arrives at the house. It's the female assassin from the opening scene. She doesn't buy the story she's told about the situation being related to gangs.
Finch meets with Reese and hands him a suitcase. Inside is Ali's network, which Finch thinks they can use to communicate without Samaritan listening. Reese hands Finch one of the phones.
Root drops by Shaw's job and convinces her to accept one of the online dating requests she's been getting on her cell phone.
Reese has been promoted to homicide, and is Fusco's partner, to be sitting at Carter's old desk.
Finch looks through the corrections that were made on thesis. He jots down the letters, which send him to a book in the library. The book has to do with 20th century engineering and has a diagram of the city which shows a chasm under the city.
Shaw meets up with the men called Romeo. It's an operation looking for someone to help them do some "real work." She's interested.
Finch goes down into the space beneath the city. He stares around in amazement.
Person of Interest
A panopticon is an architectural form developed for prisons, as conceptualized by philosopher, economist and theoretical jurist, Jeremy Bentham in 1791. It is designed such that one guard can keep all (pan-) under observation (-opticon), without the guard being observed. Panopticon is said to derive from the mythical Greek giant with a hundred eyes, Panoptes - the hundred eyes made him an effective watchman. The term panopticon identifies a society or an area where all the citizens are under pervasive, ever-present surveillance by unobserved, but untiring entities: a surveillance state. The French philosopher Michel Foucault in his book Discipline and Punish refers to the "panopticon" as an experimental laboratory of power in which behaviour could be modified, and as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance.
The events in this episode are from Samaritan's point of view.
As part of its monitoring of Senator Garrison, Samaritan notes the following transgressions, leading Samaritan to classify him as a possible threat: 81 counts of misconduct, 661 counts of receiving a bribe, 21 counts of conspiracy to subvert the Constitution, and 124 events of alcohol abuse.
With the title card, the show morphs its graphics from the Machine's point of view (MPOV) to Samaritan's point of view (SPOV). In SPOV, the graphics include a circular motif, in keeping with the panopticon model of surveillance. We also see the graphic interface used on Greer's telephone, which include the iconic red triangle.
The season picks up several weeks after the events of the finale, with New York now an "Orwellian surveillance state," according to Greg Plageman. We see the team as they meet up for the first time, and the first time they receive the calendar alerts from the Machine.
The crime scene with Reese and Fusco shot on the roof was the first scene of the season. It was an extremely hot day, making production uncomfortable for all concerned.
The stuntman Reese throws into the trunk of the car wore a protective back plate to avoid injury from the trunk lid hitting his back during the multiple takes.
During one take of the scene under the bridge, an NYPD police helicopter began circling near the bridge. The director rolled cameras, but they were unable to use the footage.
The ending music was also used in the episode promos.
Jim Caviezel and Navid Negahban (Ali Hasan) both appeared in the 2008 film "The Stoning of Soraya M."
Reese sits at Carter's old desk after being promoted to Homicide.
Both Scarface and Link, the second-in-command in their respective gangs, have a scar on one cheek: Scarface on his right, and Link on his left.
Reese again got disappointed by two shooters for holding their gun sideways.
The first scene and last scenes we see with just Reese in them involve three key elements: The police arrive then Reese flashes his NYPD badge at a cop that has his weapon drawn and aimed at Reese.
Harold's new alias "Professor Whistler" is another bird name. Whistler is also the last name of Hugh Whistler, an English ornithologist.
VHF (very high frequency) is a broadcast standard covering radio waves from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. It was traditionally used for analog FM radio and television stations. Television and radio signals are frequency modulated (FM), and travel short distances over line of site. VHF was the standard for 12 low-numbered television stations (cf. KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles) until the U.S. conversion to digital television; FM radio (87.5–108 MHz) continues to be broadcast in this way. VHF broadcasting is also used for a range of applications from emergency broadcast, air traffic control and military systems among others, to cordless telephones, amateur and marine radio, but does not carry digital television signals well. Because VHF signal travel line-of sight, they require placement of antennas at a height, thus the antennas atop most residential structures, such as was seen in the episode.
Following the bombing attempt, Reese recognizes that Ali has specialized military training, and identifies him as a member of Egypt's Unit 777. Unit 777 is a counter-terrorism and special operations unit, founded by Anwar Sadat's government in the late 1970s as part of Sadat's efforts to gain peace with Israel. The unit acts principally on threats occurring on Egyptian soil, but has been dispatched to international incidents as well. They train with units including the U.S. Army Delta Force and U.S. Navy SEALS.
The Machine places typographical errors in Finch's dissertation that lead him to the tunnels of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Company, the first operating subway system in New York, now part of the New York subway system. The IRT began service in 1904 as a private company, and operated until 1940, when it was purchased by the City of New York. Its lines are identifiable as the numbered lines on the modern New York subway system.
Ali is able to build a mesh network by linking a series of routers, and broadcasting the signal across disused VHF television antennas. A mesh network is a routing technique where phone calls and messages travel by hopping from router to router within the network area. These small routers behave similarly to a home wireless router where one node is physically wired to an Internet connection, which is transmitted to other nodes in its vicinity. The network can be expanded simply by adding more nodes. All telecommunications, such as cell phones, are sent via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Mesh networking is known for its simplicity, reliability and ease of use. In their commentary for the episode, writers Erik Mountain and Greg Plageman noted that this method of communication was used by protesters during the Arab Spring, notably in Egypt and Tunisia.
Neat, round SPOV v square MPOV. Ooh, Samaritan starts out international, whereas Machine seems to be mainly interested in (restricted to?) NY.
Shaw: "Just promise me John's a barista."
Reese: "Looks like we're back in business." - Reese has such a gleeful look on his face - "We don't need jobs, Harold. We need a purpose." (Jackass.)
Nice echo of Reese committing 100% last episode, and him now being the cheerleader for the operation.
Those rolling bookcases that Finch twirls open - they're a real thing and they are amazing. So much mass can be moved with such precision and the impulse is attenuated without it feeling sluggish. I designed a "grow room" using such shelves and it was glorious.
Oooh, new Lair!
posted by porpoise at 9:16 PM on March 26 [1 favorite]
Shaw: "Just promise me John's a barista."
Reese: "Looks like we're back in business." - Reese has such a gleeful look on his face - "We don't need jobs, Harold. We need a purpose." (Jackass.)
Nice echo of Reese committing 100% last episode, and him now being the cheerleader for the operation.
Those rolling bookcases that Finch twirls open - they're a real thing and they are amazing. So much mass can be moved with such precision and the impulse is attenuated without it feeling sluggish. I designed a "grow room" using such shelves and it was glorious.
Oooh, new Lair!
posted by porpoise at 9:16 PM on March 26 [1 favorite]
Harold's new alias "Professor Whistler" is another bird name. Whistler is also the last name of Hugh Whistler, an English ornithologist.
I also wonder if it's the show making a little sly phone-phreaking reference to the character in Sneakers.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:26 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
I also wonder if it's the show making a little sly phone-phreaking reference to the character in Sneakers.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 2:26 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]
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The jobs the Machine chooses for Reese, Shaw, and Finch are interesting. Reese has often posed as law enforcement, and Finch was a teacher 2πR. The closest analogous role Shaw has played to her current job is when she crashed a woman's book group (Reasonable Doubt s3 e4), but then the Machine reveals she has another job.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:36 PM on March 26 [1 favorite]