Person of Interest Review: 6,741 (Season 5 Episode 4)
Person of Interest is at its best when subverting common and over-used media tropes, and that is no more apparent than on Season 5 Episode 4, “6,741.”
We’re all familiar with tropes, but most prevalent in the Winter/Spring 2016 television has undoubtedly been the worrying perpetuation of the “bury your gays” trope. LGBT characters from shows like The 100, The Walking Dead and Empire (to just name a few) have been killed off in what seems to be droves, prompting international backlash from fans and critics alike.
It’s the tiresome overuse of tropes like “bury your gays” that exhausts audiences.
But once in a very long while, a show comes along to breathe new life into an otherwise rightfully jaded audience. And within those shows, a few episodes stand out that serve to highlight that triumph.
“6,741” is one of those episodes.
This episode not only once and for all affirms that Person of Interest took the “bury your gays” trope and turned it on its head with the survival of Shaw, but also played an interesting game with the “it was all a dream” trope.
Eagle-eyed viewers will be able to spot the twist of the story quickly–nothing quite feels real, from the under-reactions of Team Machine at the return of Shaw, to the odd scene transitions, to the camera angles that make the audience feel slightly off balance with the almost carbonization of characters like Greer.
Everything in this episode, as we find out, was a simulation by Samaritan.
Shaw awakens and breaks out of her prison in every single iteration of the program, and then follows a familiar path: she tends to her wounds, alerts the team to her presence, has an intense and emotionally passionate love scene with Root, lures Samaritan to her location when she suspects her friends think she isn’t well, and then slowly turns on each of her friends, always culminating in her own suicide to stop the simulation from progressing any further.
ROOT: Because somewhere in your sociopathic heart, you know we belong together.
Shaw has lived and died this routine 6,741 times. And every single time, she avoids exposing her team and the machine’s location.
Sameen Shaw is incredibly strong, to the point that it’s taken Greer nine months to buy himself a single extra hour more of life from Shaw in the simulations.
Sarah Shahi is a revelation. She plays Shaw with deliberate and hard-edged dedication, and constantly pushes the boundaries of the show’s previous standards to elevate Shaw to new and groundbreaking heights.
Not only do we get to see Shaw speaking Farsi, but we get Shaw kicking ass, Shaw vulnerable, Shaw stubborn, and Shaw in love. There is nothing this episode doesn’t do to show off how endlessly layered and complex Sameen Shaw is, and in turn allows Shahi to shine with her incredibly diverse acting range.
I would be remiss in discussing this episode if I didn’t bring up the emotional heart of it: Shaw and her safe place.
It’s so rare in television to see one woman declare herself so purely to another, but on Person of Interest, we get that affirmation all the time: Root spent most of last season making sure every last person she came across knew she would stop at nothing to get Shaw back, and here, we have Shaw’s side of that emotional coin in her statement to Root that she is the person Shaw holds on to when Samaritan is inside her mind.
SHAW: Do you know where we are? What they did to me? The torture? I told you I couldn’t escape it. But when things got to be too bad, there was one place I would go to in my mind. You. It was you. You were my safe place.
Even though it wasn’t real, it’s clear that Shaw cares as much as she can for Root while still operating with a personality disorder, and the way she shows that is one that Root herself will undoubtedly understand when the two are reunited for real.
Person of Interest has certainly used its fair share of tropes, and sometimes stumbled with them (as was the case with Carter’s exit). But when it comes to Shaw, it just keeps getting it right.
This show doesn’t bury its gays, it lets them jump on tables and have crazy sex with each other while also fighting a massive AI war. It’s the dream.
The only question now is: when is Shaw really coming back, and how will her return to Team Machine really affect them? I can’t wait to find out.
What did you think of this episode of Person of Interest? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Reviewer Rating:
User Rating:
Person of Interest airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS.
Brittany Rae
Brittany is a writer and avid TV blogger hailing the infamous year of 1989. She trained at Vancouver Film School in screenwriting for television and film, and has gone on to become a graphic designer and blogger in her free time. When she’s not watching the Food Network, she’s trying to consume every bit of sci-fi television she can get her hands on (current favorites include The 100, Person of Interest, and Doctor Who). She’s always up for female-led dramas and, of course, a literal interpretation of the phrase “Netflix and chill."