'Person of Interest' Gets Perfect Series Finale It Deserved

by Julian Spivey
For five seasons “Person of Interest” has been the most badass drama on network television and it certainly lived up to that in its series finale “return 0,” which aired Tuesday night (June 21) on CBS.
​
I was a little concerned about the series finale of what’s been one of my favorite television shows during its epic five season run when we found out before the final season even was scheduled that it would be its last.

The showrunners and writers of ‘POI’ didn’t let us down as they obviously saw the writing on the wall that the show was more than likely to be canceled and produced an episode that not only ranks as one of the greatest in this great show’s run, but also one of the best series finales I’ve ever seen.

In last week’s penultimate episode Finch (Michael Emerson) was using a devastating virus to stop Samaritan from ruling and ultimately ruining the world, which seemingly worked until we find out in the series finale that Samaritan has a backup ready to be uploaded and the battle isn’t over yet. So, The Machine, Finch, Reese (Jim Caviezel) and the rest of the gang have one more battle against Samaritan to essentially save the world. But, this battle is going to have dire consequences for our beloved heroes.

The writers did a superb job throughout the episode putting Finch, Reese, Shaw (Sarah Shahi) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) all in grave danger – seriously all four suffer battle wounds, mostly serious ones throughout the finale – and leaving the viewers waiting almost until the end of the episode to find out which ones were going to live or die.

If you haven’t seen the finale yet you should probably stop reading this review right now.
Fans already had parts of their hearts ripped away a few episodes back in “The Day the World Went Away” when Root (Amy Acker) was gunned down while saving Finch by a Samaritan sniper. Despite already losing one of our series favorites we kind of had the feeling there would be more death or deaths during the series ender.

We were right.

When this journey began five years ago Finch selected Reese to be his fighter for good because he knew what he was capable of and knew Reese needed a new start to his life. In one of the many emotional moments of the series finale when it looks like Finch is going to save Reese and sacrifice himself for the good of the mission Finch tells Reese he knew he’d be a good employee, but didn’t realize he’d become such a good friend. If your eyes weren’t at least a little misty at this point you may be more of a rock than Reese and Shaw put together.

It seemed like the perfect ending. Finch was going to sacrifice both himself and his Machine for the greater good, but we really should’ve known that Reese was never going to let Finch die. You see Reese and The Machine had made a deal unbeknownst to Finch to send Finch to the wrong rooftop where he believed a satellite dish was going to uplink Samaritan to a Russian satellite. Reese ends up on the right rooftop and his final battle takes place admirably sending him out in heroic and dramatic fashion in a hail of bullets before a cruise missile destroys the rooftop.

It might have been nice for everybody to survive the finale and live happily ever after, but that’s just not “Person of Interest” and we really should’ve known from episode one that this would be how John Reese’s story would end. Evidently as seen through flashbacks throughout the episode it’s a similar fashion as to how Reese’s own father lost his life – as a hero.
I don’t want to go in-depth any more than I already have, but there were some other truly remarkable moments in the ‘POI’ series finale. The moment were Finch and Reese part ways for the last time with Shaw and Fusco and Reese, never an emotional man, puts his hand on Fusco’s shoulder and says something to the effect of “don’t die.” It was great, particularly over the final season, to see exactly how close Reese and Fusco had gotten, especially given the fact that in season one Reese very easily could’ve killed the then dirty cop. Fusco’s growth throughout the series was truly fascinating to watch.

We found out a few episodes back after Root’s death that The Machine had chosen her voice as its own and this plays a big factor in the finale as The Machine speaks to Shaw in Root’s voice and seemingly helps to give her closure and more perfectly Root as The Machine appears to Finch, while hallucinating after being shot. The Machine, which has always truly been a character in and of itself on the series, tells Finch that “everyone dies alone,” before forgetting the end of her story. By the end of the episode when she finally remembers the ending that she overheard as a veteran cop telling a young, jaded one: “Sure, everyone dies alone. But if you mean something to someone, if you help someone, or love someone, if even a single person remembers you, then maybe you never really die at all” it almost serves as the perfect way to send the show out. The show has come to an end, but because of our love for it it will live on forever. It will never really die at all.

---