What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 5, Episode 5 “Shotseeker” (B+)

This show is all about its government oversight storylines and the role technology plays in that. The whole idea of Shotseeker is extremely intriguing and troubling, to think that it’s advanced enough to recognize sounds that appear to be gunshots but faulty enough to misidentify them as something far less serious when the human ear can easily tell otherwise. This week’s number got himself into a sticky situation by being good at his job, and he’s lucky that Fusco was there to act fast and defend him when he nearly fell victim to suicide by cop after being framed for firing gunshots that were never even fired. Fusco gets the most crap of anyone on this show, and it was good to see him rally his colleagues to find the missing Detective Riley and earn the respect of Reese for not backing down when Bruce threatened his kid to get the truth about Elias. The news that Elias is alive shouldn’t be too surprising, but much more disconcerting is the fact that Bruce isn’t going to back down and let go of what he believes should be set right, a precarious position shared by Fusco. The machine losing over and over to Samaritan in Finch’s simulation is not promising, but Root reprogramming their latest number to be deemed only a minimal threat is far more productive and indicative of hope. Jeff is also an interesting new player, since he has no idea who he’s really working for and may now start asking questions after his run-in with Root.