What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 4, Episode 20 “Terra Incognita” (C+)

I’ve always liked this show and found it to be much better than it should have been given the nature of its procedural premise. Yet I do think that it got markedly better as it grew, and the addition of Amy Acker and Sarah Shahi in regular roles definitely improved it even further. I wasn’t fond of Taraji P. Henson’s Carter throughout the first two seasons of the show, and found her to be most compelling in season three right before she died. If I had a choice between Carter returning or Shaw returning, it wouldn’t even be a debate, and as a result this episode didn’t feel highly relevant, especially since a good portion of it was imagined. It did feel strange to see Reese and Carter having such an intimate conversation, and it’s an intriguing introspection on Reese’s part as he’s bleeding out that he falsely remember how close he got to her before realizing that he never let anything get mildly social or emotional. It’s obvious that he wouldn’t die, and so this episode felt a bit like a waste of time, with Root showing up in a wedding dress as a punchline and not much else being accomplished there. The featured case was disturbing to be sure, and the casting of Zachary Booth, who played Patti’s son Michael Hewes on “Damages,” as the lone surviving son of the murdered family was dead on as it pertains to both characters’ coldness and creepiness that make them seem much older than the young men they are.