Coming after the fairly shaky Season 4, Person Of Interest's fifth season was a massive return to form for the series. In spite of its short length, it delivered a nearly perfect ending to one of my favorite TV shows of all time.
Right from the get-go, Season 5 of Person Of Interest feels a lot more propulsive than Season 4. Its premiere is a fast-paced chase through New York City, its second episode is one of the funniest in the series, and its fourth episode is an insane dream sequence. The middle of the season does have its standalones, but a large portion of Season 5 definitely feels like it's building to something. It definitely helps that Team Machine actually gets some victories this time around, they save The Machine, they reunite with Shaw, and by the end of the series, they officially defeat Decima and win a happy ending. Unlike Season 4, which was nearly entirely losses, Season 5 struck a much better balance without making Decima feel like less of a villain. It perfectly strikes the balance of fun action and character interactions and dark paranoia-fueled drama that I enjoy from the series, with my only complaint being that this season was just too short.
But even though most of this season was already pretty great, the final four episodes of the season were just plain amazing, bringing everyone's character arcs to a climactic and satisfying close. Reese, Root, and Elias all die saving Finch, with The Machine taking on Root's voice (so one could argue that Root gets her wish of becoming The Machine). Finch prevents himself from breaking his "no kill" rule after Root's death and finally reunites with Grace after saving the world. Shaw rejoins the team, gets over Root's death, and takes over for Reese and Finch. Fusco finally learns about the Machine, and Greer dies because of his own ego. I normally wouldn't highlight these character resolutions but this series does it so perfectly. Every single character gets the ending that they deserve here, happy or sad, resulting in one of the best finales in television history.
Once again, there are a lot of great episodes this season, but these are the highlights:
BSOD: Coming after the cliffhanger-heavy Season 4 finale, BSOD starts with Finch and Reese on the run to the subway before The Machine completely powers down. I got serious John Wick vibes from this episode, it's a relentless series of action scenes with Reese and Root having been separated in the post-Correction chaos. And best of all, the characters actually succeed. Though a close call, the team unites and makes it to the subway right on time to rebuild The Machine, resulting in a surprisingly hopeful premiere overall.
SNAFU: Person Of Interest has always been pretty effortlessly funny, but SNAFU is easily the funniest episode in the whole series (with If-Then-Else, Most Likely To, and Identity Crisis close behind). The main premise is that the Machine is rebooting and struggling to recognize faces, meaning that it accidentally thinks Reese, Finch, and Root are threats. As a result, there are a lot of really funny scenes from The Machine's faulty perspective, from the cast members playing each other, to its belief that fictional characters are real-life murderers. It manages to progress the plot while also being a fun time.
The Day The World Went Away: Kickstarting the phenomenal final arc, The Day The World Went Away was one hell of a 100th episode. Similarly to BSOD, it's a relentless chase scene where the team struggles to save Finch, culminating in one of the most ambitious car chases I've seen in a TV show (maybe second to that drone chase in 24). Sadly not everyone makes it out alive, with Elias and Root dying to save Finch. Overall, I think their deaths were great and worked really well for their characters, but also having Root die so soon after reuniting with Shaw did feel a bit on the cheap side. Still a great episode, though.
Synecdoche: Coming after the 100th episode, Synecdoche was a bit less frantically paced, but it was still a fun episode regardless as it tasked the team with their most ambitious mission yet: saving the president. It was also oddly optimistic, revealing that The Machine has backup teams in case Team Machine fails, and marks the point at which the tables really start to turn on Decima. There's also Finch's great subplot where he struggles to deal with Root's death, so he considers actually killing for once.
.exe: This penultimate episode absolutely blew me away by making the decision to kill off Greer before the finale, and it was one hell of a cathartic death too. Finch didn't have to kill since Samaritan did it for him! We also finally have a way to defeat Samaritan once and for all through a virus. I also thought it was neat that The Machine showed a bunch of simulations of a world where it was never created, revealing that even with everything that has happened, the characters would have been even less happy.
Return 0: This series finale ties with Angel's Not Fade Away as my favorite of all time, but for complete opposite reasons. While Not Fade Away emphasized resolving its themes rather than giving its characters a happy ending, Return 0 put a focus on the characters as they fight to destroy Samaritan once and for all. It's simultaneously action-packed and emotional, with an emphasis on the emotional side. There's a lot of great moments here, from Reese's noble sacrifice, to The Machine's goodbyes to everyone before being reset, to Finch reuniting to Grace, to Shaw getting a call from The Machine in the final scene. But the most affecting part for me was The Machine's message for Shaw, the only thing that could make her cry. And the most ironic part is that it made me tear up too, and I'm someone who barely cries when watching TV shows. Who knew?
Overall, Season 5 of Person Of Interest was a nearly perfect final season with an amazing start and an even better finish. It gives each character a satisfying and well-deserved resolution, and perfectly balances the tone and stakes that Season 4 struggled to maintain.
5/5 Stars
My ranking of the Person Of Interest seasons is:
3 > 5 > 2 > 4 > 1
My ranking of the Person Of Interest finales is:
5 > 3 > 4 > 1 > 2
Favorite Episode: If-Then-Else
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