TV Review: Person of Interest - "Nautilus"

Person of Interest - "Nautilus" (4x01) CBS, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.

"Person of Interest" returns with the second number of the new season, Claire Mahoney (Quinn Shephard), a young college student taking part in some kind of high-level mathematical game, one which has inspired her to carry a gun.

Like last week, Harold is reluctant to get involved and risk their collective covers, the only things keeping them safe from Samaritan. Also like last week, John could care less, and pursues this latest number after tricking Harold into helping.

But as they delve deeper into the game, there are more questions than answers, including who is the mastermind behind it all.

While "Panopticon" set the new ground rules after the show's seismic upheaval in the season three finale, this is the first episode to get to play fully within them. John has settled into his new alias as a cop, partnered with Fusco. Harold seems to have his college professor role down as well, ignoring his students and doing whatever he wants with his time. And Shaw, having given up her prized position as a perfume saleswoman, is now a dedicated wheel woman for a group of bank robbers.

Meanwhile, Root is mysterious as always, playing games within games for the Machine, which is in turn trying to claw its way back into the fight against Samaritan.



I said it last week, but it bares repeating. Few shows have been so willing to let characters and stories evolve as much as "Person of Interest" has. We're no longer dealing with corrupt cops or overzealous government operatives. We're not even dealing with massive military-industrial corporations with their own armies or vigilante hacker gangs. Our heroes are now facing a nearly all-powerful artificial intelligence, which is running the show (pun not intended).

Suffice it to say, this is going to be an exciting season.

BEYOND HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

I was wondering if the mastermind was Samaritan for a little while before Harold discovered the truth. This is really frightening. As Harold says at the end, they're fighting for the entire world now. The stakes have never been higher.

Which also poses an interesting quandary for the show's writers. When, and if, our heroes defeat Samaritan, where do they go next? Is this going to be a multi-season conflict, something that many shows find terribly hard to pull off well? If not, it seems like in the villain department, they can only go down. But "Person of Interest" rarely fails to surprise, especially when it comes to those underestimating it.

I do have to say I'm glad Harold' reticence is over. That being said, it was a natural extension of his problem with the Machine asking them to kill the senator. At the end of the season, he was defeated, more so than at any other time since Nathan's death. It make sense that it would not be a simply thing to overcome. But overcome he has, and I'm intrigued to see where they go next, especially with their own Batcave.

This was an episode where once again the good guys essentially lost, making them 1-2 over the past three episodes. It was almost as if Harold was battling Samaritan for Claire's soul, which in a way he was. I doubt this will be the last time we see Claire, but I fear for her in the interim. We've already seen the military branch of Samaritans growing human army, but now we've seen another side, akin to Root's hacker friends.

"Person of Interest" continues to be my favorite network show, and season four looks to be continuing the trend.