Person of Interest’s most recent episode, ‘Karma’, was a little bit of a let-down after some of the higher quality procedural episodes that we’ve seen from the show. The highlights of this episode went to Michael Emerson and his portrayal of Finch in the flashbacks, with that storyline being far and away the most interesting plot point, despite us already knowing the outcome of it.
The number-of-the-week plot showed a lot of promise to begin with. The sequence at the bank where Dr. Edwards framed Clyde Barton was highly enjoyable and I liked the twist that Edwards had no intention of robbing the bank. The show has built up quite a reputation for making things more complex than they first seem, and this was good example of it working well.
This frustrated me because Person of Interest prides itself on being one of the smartest shows on television, and that usually culminates in interesting and surprising twists. ‘Karma’ attempted to be cunning in its main plot, but unfortunately failed. Whether or not it was some obvious writing of a symptom of so many high quality, intelligent episodes that I’ve become far more analytical and anticipatory of big twists I do not know. What I do know is that the main plot of ‘Karma’ is one of the weaker of the season, and I hope their next number-of-the-week story is much better than this.
That isn’t to say, however, that it was all bad. It did bring about some enjoyable moments, such as Reese’s quip that Finch should hire Edwards and take a week off and Fusco’s admittance to Dr. Campbell that he “keep(s) having this dream” – both of which were among the few lighter moments of the episode. Additionally, we got to see Finch in therapy, and even if he was talking about a fake event, the grief he expressed in that scene was real, and it was nice to see it illustrated that Finch is still distraught over Nathan’s death five years ago. Finch wasn’t the only one at therapy though, as we got to see another of Reese’s sessions with Dr. Campbell. It always intrigues me to see him opening up about his feelings because for a lot of the show’s run, Reese has remained a very quiet character who would rather express his grief and anger by shooting people in the knee than opening his mouth. This is definitely an effect of his cover job as a police officer – he is beginning to adjust to the real world and approach certain things the way regular people do. I don’t expect his cover job to last much longer, but I hope that this is one of the things he doesn’t let go of because I think it’s a big thing for his character’s development.
As aforementioned, Finch’s flashbacks were by far the most interesting plot of the episode. Though we knew that Finch wouldn’t kill Corwin (his killing of her in 2010 would make it very difficult for Root to kill her in 2012), his descent into almost becoming a killer was fascinating to watch. From what we have learned about Finch up to this point (and even afterwards), condoning murder is not something he will do. So, to see him prepared to commit it himself is a huge development for his character.What surprised me about the events of 2010 was that the opening flashback showed him ignoring the Machine bringing up his number. I would have expected this to be the wake-up call that he needed to prevent him from killing Corwin, but instead he paid no attention to his AI. Even when it called him (for what I believe is the first time), his response was “I haven’t given you a voice, so you have nothing to say.” Finch so nearly went to that dark place, and I’m so glad that he didn’t. Also, I loved the way that the security camera was looking almost directly down on Finch as if to show the Machine looking down on him for being about to break the moral code he himself taught it. That was something that the show didn’t need to do, but doing it really enhanced the impact of the scene.
Odds and ends:
- Though I didn’t like the main plot of the episode, I do have to credit the show for once again questioning morals by not giving us a definitive answer on whether Morris killed Edwards’ wife and having Fusco vigorously support the idea of letting Edwards stop Morris by any means necessary. Person of Interest portrays the concept of such dilemmas so well and this was another good example.
- Why did Angela (Edwards’ first patient after Finch) still (presumably) have Barton on Facebook if he injured her like that? Or was she stalking his Facebook page?
- Reese randomly standing up in the middle of Dr. Edwards’ speech should have been far more conspicuous than the show made it out to be.
- “Remind me to never illegally purchase a firearm.”
So, what did you all think of ‘Karma’? Let me know in the comments below! You can also check out the promo for the next episode, ‘Skip’, below.
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