What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 2, Episode 15 and 16 “Booked Solid” and “Relevance” (B+/A-)

This is the final show for which I’ll be tackling two episodes at a time, as I’m now caught up on everything. These two were a formidable pair, however, since the first was an especially strong installment of this show featuring some excellent field work from Reese and Finch together, and the second was something wholly different and awesome. Mia Maestro of “Alias” fame was Mira the maid, and though she was initially resistant to Reese’s offers of help, she ultimately proved to be a useful number who was cooperative enough and even managed to survive an attempt on her life while she was in police custody. It was thrilling to see Reese engage in hand-to-hand combat with a newly released Hirsch, though the second episode had much more exciting material related to that. Carter not getting the FBI job because of Cal was bad, and it’s a shame that the one good thing she had going in her life turned out not to be that. Seeing Root as Special Council’s secretary at the end of the episode was great, and it led right into a completely gripping hour. Not even showing Reese until midway through the episode was a magnificent decision, and instead we got to see just how the numbers work for those instances the government didn’t deem irrelevant. Sarah Shahi was perhaps the best instance of casting this show has found since it cast Amy Acker as Root, and I sure hope she comes back, though she truly is not a nice or remotely trusting person. She’s even more impressive than Reese when it comes to getting out of a bind, as well as preparing for her loss of consciousness. Ebon Moss-Bachrach was also terrific as Cole, and it was great to see Paul Sparks, minus Mickey Doyle’s signature squeaky voice from “Boardwalk Empire,” as Wilson. It’s wonderful to see recurring characters like Zoey and Leon pop up again too, and I’m glad to see that this show has developed a truly admirable mythology.