Person of Interest Episode 3x21 "Beta" April 29, 2014

PERSON OF INTEREST
Air Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Time Slot: 10:01 PM-11:00 PM EST on CBS
Episode Title: (#321) "Beta"

FINCH'S GREATEST FEARS ARE REALIZED AS DECIMA THREATENS THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE IN ORDER TO LURE HIM OUT OF HIDING

"Beta" - As Decima uses Samaritan's feeds to hunt Reese and Shaw, Greer exploits Finch's greatest weakness in an attempt to lure him out of hiding: his love for his former fiancée, Grace Hendricks, on PERSON OF INTEREST, Tuesday, April 29 (10:01-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on CBS.

SERIES REGULARS:

Jim Caviezel (John Reese)
Michael Emerson (Harold Finch)
Kevin Chapman (Detective Lionel Fusco)
Sarah Shahi (Sameen Shaw)
Amy Acker (Root)

RECURRING CAST:

Carrie Preston (Grace Hendricks)
John Nolan (Greer)
John Doman (Garrison)

GUEST CAST:

John Herrera (Bodega Owner)
Rayniel Rufino (Bodega Gunman)
John Horton (Priest)
Daniel K. Kim (Virgil)
Matt Walton (Maybank)
Joey Sorge (Uniform)
David Michael Garry (Dock Worker)
Robert Manning, Jr. (Zachary)
Tyler Bunch (Homeless Guy)
Kristoffer Cusick (Terry)
Ross Ruben (Umarov)

WRITTEN BY: Dan Dietz and Sean Hennen

DIRECTED BY: Fred Toye

Source: Person of Interest on CBS | TheFutonCritic

Here are the promo pics for ep 3x21:

another 1 week hiatus ! they never learn do they??

T5000 wrote:

another 1 week hiatus ! they never learn do they??

Yeah, that's quite annoying. Especially a multi-layered and rather complicated story with flashbacks is hurt by those breaks.
BTW, you said more than once recently, that you don't like "complicated" story arcs (e.g. Continuum). But you don't have a problem with that with PoI.
What's the decisive difference then?

PS: I recommended PoI to a friend. He's totally thrilled now and already has watched S1 in a few weeks. Now he's looking forward to S2, which he also can watch all in a row. I kind of envy him to be able to watch PoI without any breaks at his own pace. Must be awesome especially with a show like PoI.

tscc1000 wrote:

T5000 wrote:

another 1 week hiatus ! they never learn do they??

Yeah, that's quite annoying. Especially a multi-layered and rather complicated story with flashbacks is hurt by those breaks.
BTW, you said more than once recently, that you don't like "complicated" story arcs (e.g. Continuum). But you don't have a problem with that with PoI.
What's the decisive difference then?

PS: I recommended PoI to a friend. He's totally thrilled now and already has watched S1 in a few weeks. Now he's looking forward to S2, which he also can watch all in a row. I kind of envy him to be able to watch PoI without any breaks at his own pace. Must be awesome especially with a show like PoI.

It is great to watch shows after the whole season has aired , that is really the best way to do it.
I did that with 2 seasons of justified, 1 of orphan black, 1 of banshee, 2 of walking dead, and many others.
Cable shows are easier to watch week by week, but the networks, I am thinking that is not working for me, I would rather wait.

Now your question, POI is not complicated , it is rather simple and is some areas it is elaborate, meaning a lot to keep track of at times, but even that is fairly simple.
They get numbers they help or save people
Decima has taken hrs and controls place as the bad guys, the other group is - are semi bad guys .
Root is the machines handyman, soldier, voice.
Samaritan ... dont know yet.
But no rocket science. like in first few of cont.
Cont story in S-3 is just not as interesting as past seasons, and far less than POI.

If both SE and me found this one confusing ( just the first 2-3) and not very interesting, then maybe they could have done a better job with it??

Person of Interest - Episode 3.21 - Beta - Sneak Peek



Shaw is the hell of a cool girl ... can't wait for the next episode ...  

Samaritan cannot think yet, !!
They got harold!
They sent his girl to italy with a new id , but that wont help LOL they have cameras there too so
facial recognition!!
The decima guy is quite ruthless or cold, I wonder what he wants with harold?

T5000 wrote:

Samaritan  cannot think yet, !!
They got harold!
They sent  his girl to italy with a new id , but that wont help LOL they have cameras there too so
facial recognition!!
The decima guy is quite ruthless or cold, I wonder what he wants with harold?

Great ep as usual!
And yeah, Greer slowly turns into some kind of monster. His calm behaviour and his tone of voice makes it even worse.
For me it's obvious, why he wants to get his hands on Harold. Harold after all is the creator of the Machine, so I think Greer sees the genius behind Harold and hopes to make him somehow (by again threatening Grace?) working for him. Maybe to get control over the Machine or improve and adapt Samaritan for Decima's use.
Samaritan yet isn't fully operational, because it needs more advanced server hardware, those Root found on that ship. Good that Root was able to steal at least some of them, maybe she can upgrade the Machine now?
But I'm not sure, that the Machine's or Samaritan's surveillance capabilities outside the U.S. are as perfect as in the States. It quite depends on the amount of installed surveillance equipment (cameras etc.), and not all countries in the world are that "enhanced" like the U.S. So maybe Grace at least is a bit safer than in New York. Btw, did we ever see surveillance footage provided by the Machine from outside the U.S. after all? On a quick thought I for one can't remember at all ...
Also interesting, that so far Samaritan depends on the Government's surveillance feeds. And after that show beta test for the Senator (the actual main task was to detect Harold anyways), who was just fobbed off with one single terrorist (only one of several detected), Samaritan had to shut down again. So Team Machine has left some time, until the Senator finally takes the bait and makes the deal with Decima as the "new Machine".
Oh, and did I already say, how much I enjoy Shaw's and Root's performance ...   
Well, I think the final two episodes will blow us away ...  

Liked that "Det. Stills"(Reese), and Det. Shaw took out the cab driver to save Grace M. Hendricks(plays Lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni on The Good Wife).

Funny at the precinct to have Root give Fusco a list of supplies she needed. He replied, Is that all coco-puffs?" Then later she wanted his phone and an unmarked Police car,Fusco replied,"Better not be calling China!" I believe Fusco will fall for either Root or Shaw. They both like to call him Lionel. My pick would be Shaw, I think that Root is more using him to help HER cause. With all the cameras in the precinct house, is that to protect everyone? Or is it to stop a potential return of HR?
Greer's men had a lot of firepower when they were getting ready to raid the precinct.
When Zackery's Tahoe hit the Crown Vic that the team was in, it didn't seem to have any front end damage when he took off with Grace. Was funny when Zackery's team found the homeless guy in Fusco's car. Looks like Reese and Zackery will have a show down!

I believe Root helped just enough. She had a chance on the ship with all the dead sailors and again with the empty warehouse explosion(hope there were no vagrants in it) to plant Greer evidence. I also thought that at the bridge swap of Harold and Grace(nice to have her blindfold on) that Fusco could have had PD come up behind Zackery's Decima team or even have the team open fire when Grace was in safety and have Harold fall down. I knew she would stumble by Harold, and he helped her, but I figured she would see him. But I bet eventually he will come out to her. She was going to Italy. But what about her parents? Will they be safe? Greer seemed to be treating Finch better then Control treated Root. Greer told Harold,"After all, you've been a very hard man to find!". Must be he needs his knowledge and not just to eliminate him....yet!

I figured that Root would do something with the 7 Computer Servers. That should help beef up The Machine.

So Virgil, John Greer's I,T, after Reese and Shaw snagged him in the warehouse, Reese saying," Somebody call tech support?", Shaw quipped, "Geek Squad captures performance", or something like that. But then Greer Said that Virgil was already dead. Virgil ate a scienide pill.Then the guys that were with Vigilance and ate those pills, maybe they were actually Decima?? Or was some Russian mob or something associated with this???

webruce wrote:

... But then Greer Said that Virgil was already dead. Virgil ate a scienide pill.Then the guys that were with Vigilance and ate those pills, maybe they were actually Decima?? ...

Hm, I thought Greers IT tech guy grabbed Reese's gun and got himself shot. So it was suicide, but not by a scienide pill. Therefore I don't see a connection between Vigilance and Decima. BTW, Collier also was after the Samaritan backup disk, but just didn't succeed.
Maybe if things get out of control because of Samaritan getting fully operational, team Machine even has to join forces with Vigilance? As Harold said ... he sees the cause behind Vigilance, but he just doesn't approve their ruthless methods ... maybe that could be changed? On the other hand, Vigilance is generally against violating privacy, so even Harold's "good" Machine probably couldn't be accepted by them ...

webruce wrote:

... I believe Fusco will fall for either Root or Shaw. They both like to call him Lionel. My pick would be Shaw, I think that Root is more using him to help HER cause. ...

Webruce, you are shipping Fusco and Shaw?   
Well, if any shipping in PoI (which I don't need at all btw), why not Reese and Zoe or Reese and Shaw?   

Hm, I thought Greers IT tech guy grabbed Reese's gun and got himself shot........ he did he grabbed it and forced the firing of it , so it was same thing as biting a cyanide pill.
Who would want a job like that??

Grace at least is a bit safer than in New York.... a little, but it was her picture on the new passport m
which is easy to see where she went and what her new name is.
all airports have cameras.
I wonder if they are going to let the new servers be for the machine 1 or bargain with decima for harold?

Shaw and fusco? yeah I bet fusco would like that idea.

I have to wonder what decima plans or hopes to get from all this?? are they after $ or power, if power
exactly what ??

Roots name was robin groves for awhile wasnt it??
now she is samantha groves.

another thing is why would samaratin think these are all threats? did decima tell it they were ?
Also the decima guy said he did not want to control samaratin lol so he is just going to let it do whatever?

T5000 wrote:

Roots name was robin groves for awhile wasnt it??


Now she is Samantha groves.

No, her real name always was Samantha Groves.
She never was called "Robin Groves".
But when Root was at Stoneridge Hospital as the patient of psychiatrist Dr. Ronald Carmichael, Harold got her there under the alias Robin Farrow.
So I think you just mixed something up here.
(Source: http://personofinterest.wikia.com/wiki/Root)

T5000 wrote:

another thing is why would samaratin think these are all threats? did decima tell it they were ?
Also the decima guy said he did not want to control samaratin lol so he is just going to let it do whatever?

See my answer in the 3x22 thread (I thought it would fit better there).