Person of Interest Podcast

Is dealing with the devil ever a good idea? Would you even recognize the devil if you met him face to face? Would there be peace on earth if you could somehow capture Satan himself and confine him to a prison cell? October is the month of ghosts, goblins, witches, and devils, so it seems like the perfect time to look back at two episodes of The Twilight Zone that feature the devil as a main piece of the story. Read More...

A computer program often ends with “Return 0”, meaning without an error. In this episode titled “Return 0”, while our beloved Machine may not have had such a normal exit, a number of the story threads, and certainly the series, had a satisfying ending. Not all rainbows and unicorns, certainly, but then this series has always asked the hard questions, and those questions usually have hard answers.

And while this series has been an action show surrounded by those questions (and this episode was no exception), the relationships, that have grown very organically and changed quite a bit over the years, become the focus of this finale. Both Darrell and Doug agree; this is one of the best series finales they’ve seen.

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In “.EXE”, Finch is ready to kill Samaritan, even if it means also killing his own Machine. He and Greer have it out over who’s vision of the place of AIs in this world is better, bringing up front some of the core questions that this series has asked, and whether one or the other is willing to die themselves (or kill their creation) for that vision. Something to think about.

And in between crises, Harold and the Machine consider what life would have been like for our heroes had the Machine never been built. Better? Worse? Something to think about.

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In the episode “Synecdoche”, our heroes get out of their comfort zone in New York City, and are tasked with protecting the President. But, why are those who protect the irrelevant numbers assigned to one of the most relevant terrorist targets in the world? And can the Machine adequately protect the team in Washington, DC?

Shaw is still not entirely sure she’s not in a simulation still. Perhaps this might convince her that this is reality.

And what of Harold Finch? Where’s he off to, and what does his choice of bird for his alias this time perhaps say about what’s going on inside his head?

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With only 3 episodes left and following hot on the heels of the death of Root, Amy Acker came home to Dallas to mingle with fans at Fan Expo Dallas. Amy spent much of the day signing autographs for the horde of fans waiting to get a personal moment with the actress we all love. Read More...

In “Sotto Voce”, a villain from season 3 returns, and fakes out Team Machine. When even Elias is concerned for your safety, it’s really time to be careful, and beware in whom you trust. And finally, Fusco gets the answers he’s been asking for (and, frankly, deserving for quite some time).

In “The Day The World Went Away”, POI’s 100th episode, Finch finds that he is the “Number of the Week”. But after being captured by Greer, and given a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card courtesy of a Root-voiced Machine, is he about to boil over? The deaths of 2 of of the people who have been working with you can do that to someone, even the (formerly) mild-mannered Harold Finch.

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In this 3-episode Person Of Interest extravaganza, Darrel and Doug (or Doug and Darrell) talk about all the episodes this week. On top of that, the discussion turns to free will when it comes to saving someone. How far should Team Machine go to protect the potential victims? How much should the team tell Fusco or Elias, even if it risks their lives? And how much free will should Finch give to his Artificial Super Intelligence? We’ve got different opinions among the characters.

In “A More Perfect Union”, the ever-creepy Samari-Kid tells Shaw that if they don’t let Samaritan run their lives, only death awaits. In “QSO”, we see how far the reach of Samaritan has gone. Next time you print something, be watchful. And the number of the week accepts the help of Team Machine, only to exercise his free will and try to get the word out about Samaritan, which works out about how you’d expect. And in “Reassortment”, we have the question; how much freedom and information about yourself are you prepared to give up in order to get security?

A very thought-provoking set of episodes, to say the least.

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Two episodes again this week, and each let us know what’s been happening to a character we haven’t seen in a while.

In “6,741”, we find out what’s been happening to Shaw while she was captured by the minions of Samaritan. In an attempt to discover the location of the secret Machine lair, she’s fooled into thinking she’s escaped. But her loyalty to her comrades keeps her from revealing this key piece of information.

In “ShotSeeker”, Samaritan gets a new set of ears to go with it’s many eyes. But we hear once again that, while homicides are down, suicides and missing persons cases are up. Is this an attempt by Samaritan to keep these events off the Machine’s radar, since it only looks for murders? And it appears our heros get involved in one of these missing person cases. Will it lead to an understanding of Samaritan’s endgame? And then, at the very end, an old friend shows up. Nice twist.

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There were 2 POI episodes this week, and we cover them both.

In "SNAFU", we get a little facial recognition problem, as the Machine tries to figure out who's who on the team. Hilarity ensures, but only until our favorite computer thinks the good guys are the bad guys because of all the harm they've caused. Finch realizes that the Machine is seeing all their actions all at once, unaware of the time component, how they've changed, and the context in which they were done. This brings up some questions to us about good, evil and forgiveness. Is doing bad things in the service of a good outcome always acceptable? Do the ends always justify the means, and how has Team Machine changed it's methods over time? The Machine takes matters into it's own ... I/O ports by keeping Harold from rebooting it. Not so hilarious anymore, eh?

In "Truth Be Told", Resse's CIA past comes back to haunt him, as he comes face to face with the latest number; a man who's brother Reese killed. Will this blow his cover? And can he truly lead a normal life while the numbers keep on coming? Meanwhile, Root, who once again has a Machine-supplied cover identity, discovers how Samaritan is getting malware into all that hardware. And we see again another difference between how Finch wants to approach defeating Samaritan, and how Root wants to do it. "No risk, no reward, Harry."

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Team Machine is trying to get our favorite AI back to the subway station lair before it dies with the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). (OK, a computer running Linux does not do the BSOD; that’s a Windows thing, but work with me here.) While Finch and Reese dodge Samaritan goons on their way back, Root does a little catching up with an old employer / hacker / “electronics recycler”. >wink wink< Out of that little reunion comes a supercomputer that could actually hold the decompressed version of what’s left of The Machine. Will it hold?

Meanwhile, Fusco is being hailed as a hero for taking out Elias after the “accident” from last season’s finale. Fusco knows better; that a sniper took him out as part of “The Correction”, but it’s best he lay low and go with it. Otherwise, Samaritan could target him.

And we announced a contest for this last season. You could win any 1 season (your choice) of “Person of Interest” on DVD or Blu-Ray (your choice) by predicting who will die, and in which episode.

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