What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 3, Episode 20 “Death Benefit” (B+)

This show officially entered uncharted territory in this hour, and it’s a very big deal. I’m amazed that this show has been constantly reinventing itself over the course of the past three years, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Who would have thought that Root would be pulling Shaw out to help her save one number while Finch directed Reese to another, and that they would be handling both relevant and irrelevant numbers? More importantly, of course, what happened in this episode suggested something completely game-changing: that the Machine wanted our friends the good guys to kill one of the numbers. It wasn’t initially clear who John Heard’s Senator McCourt was being hunted by, but it did seem that he was an imminent threat to national security, something he confirmed by calling Garrison and promising to help Samaritan come online. This new system is awfully reminiscent of the targeted anti-insurgency capability from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” and its first unfortunate target appears to be Finch, though something tells me he’ll manage to survive. The fact that Reese and Shaw opted not to kill McCourt demonstrates that there’s a line they both won’t cross anymore, while he is sure to be a problem that the world would be better off without. With so many competing organizations trying to launch and prevent the launch of Samaritan, it’s hard to know if McCourt really is the most powerful threat out there right now or if he’s simply going to end up becoming irrelevant.