Person of Interest – “Sotto Voce”, in which imminent danger is always a good teambuilding exercise

I believe this is the last time the show might be truly happy. Not hopeful mind you, because I still hold out hope that the finale ends on an optimistic note, even if evidence and likely fact will point to the contrary as the weeks continue. The final shot of the episode harkens back to the pilot, where Reese meets Finch in the exact same spot, to start his new job and find his new purpose. And now all our heroes have returned home, ready to face the ever-present danger that awaits them in the coming future. This is it. This is their calm before the storm.

“Sotto Voce” is one of the few episodes that never touches directly on Samaritan, sitting in a shortened season building up to the final conflict. It also does the unthinkable, in bringing back “The Voice” (or as I know him, Two Phones) and tying off his previous appearance from season 3 in a way that helps propel many of the characters moving into the finale. The immediate danger he faces helps pair off Reese and Fusco, and Finch and Elias, who are seemingly at odds in some manner.

For Reese and Fusco, it’s relatively simple. The growing animosity between the two over the course of the season finally bubbled up, but when they find themselves trapped in the police precinct in some dastardly plot-ception of Two Phones to kill a former gun for hire, they end up engaging in a shootout with some gang members. Nothing like a good team building exercise than being outnumbered by violent gang members and having to shoot your way out, right? And the thing that comes out of it is Fusco being keyed into the entire ASI war playing out behind the scenes. Any more entertaining value I hope is mined now that Fusco is clearly playing the new guy to all of this insanity.

With Finch, who has to recruit the help of Elias, it becomes a different matter. Elias has warned Finch that he might be the darkest of them all, and that in order to win this war they’re fighting, he will have to make use of everyone. And here we have Finch, in different situations, wielding Elias like a tool, and by the end of it, a weapon. At first it’s to obtain information to work towards discovering Two Phones’ plan, and then finding his lair; simple information gathering with a liaison who is an expert in the field. But when it comes to the final confrontation with the perpetrator, Finch plays judge and jury, and wields Elias as the hooded executioner. The kind with a love for car bombs. It’ll be interesting to see how much further Finch seems to be heading, and what else about his humanity he might be willing to sacrifice for the greater good.

And while Root and Shaw don’t have much screen time together compared to everyone else tackling Two Phones, there is a moment of elation that couldn’t be matched when they reunited, and arguably, Shaw realizes she’s not in a simulation, because Root proves she’s the real deal, insane enough to promise a suicide pact if Shaw thinks it’s not real and a shot to the head will just be nothing more than an end to another numbered simulation. Samaritan could never quite match the real Root’s utter unhinged side.