Season 3 of Person Of Interest is up there with some of my favorite TV seasons of all time. It's pretty much a perfect season, flooded with so many amazing episodes, stunning twists, and a massive change in genre that works incredibly well.
Person Of Interest's third season is divided up into two halves, just like the series itself. The first ten episodes are a grounded crime drama focusing more on the big final battle with HR, while the last thirteen episodes go full sci-fi as it focuses on the conflict with Decima Industries and their own AI Samaritan. The oddest thing is it's really hard for me to decide which half I like better, so I'll talk about both:
The HR arc (episodes 1-10): The first half of the season mostly focuses on Carter's fight with the corrupt group of police officers known as HR. It all culminates in a trilogy in the middle of the season that reveals Carter spent most of the season orchestrating a plan to take down HR, which is easily one of the best stretches of episodes in television history. Meanwhile, Shaw and Root are slowly adjusting to the team throughout this part of the season, resulting in Team Machine being at its most close-knit, which is a lot of fun to watch. As a whole, this HR arc is more small-scale and grounded while still serving as an excellent ending to the grounded crime drama portion of the series. For the second half of the season, things are going to be much more different.
The Samaritan arc (episodes 11-23): With HR down, the series shifts focus to the looming conflict with Decima, who are revealed to be working on their own AI called Samaritan. It works as a really cool parallel with the HR arc not just because of the genre shift but because of how it contrasts Carter's manipulation of HR with Decima's manipulation of Team Machine to get Samaritan up and running. As this half of the season progresses, things slowly begin to get out of control for the team culminating in the phenomenal season finale where Samaritan's activation forces the team into hiding. But it's not all dark, as this half of the season also packs in some fun experimental episodes like a flashback episode, a Reese-centric episode on a plane, and a light comedic outing at a high school reunion.
There are so many amazing episodes in both of these arcs to the point where I just don't know what to exclude:
Razgovor: Having slowly inserted herself into the team these last few episodes, Shaw gets an entire focus episode here and it's really good. The main Person Of Interest is a spy-wannabe kid who Shaw grows attached to throughout the episode, and she's actually really funny and entertaining for a kid. Shaw gets some flashbacks to her father's death and how her lack of emotional response to it led her to realize there's something wrong with her, which was an incredibly sad moment. And that's not even it, since we have Carter continuing to move on HR and Shaw being kidnapped by none other than Root.
Endgame: Kickstarting the phenomenal HR trilogy is the weakest episode of the three, yet still one of the best episodes in the season (that's how good this arc is!). Carter's full plan is revealed here as she turns HR and the Russian Mafia against each other, reveals a safe deposit box full of incriminating evidence, discovers the head of HR, and records a confession that he killed Beecher. All of her background work throughout this first half of the season gets its payoff here and it's oh, so satisfying.
The Crossing: Continuing the HR trilogy, The Crossing is a far more intense and grim episode as Reese and Carter are on the run to turn in Quinn, while Fusco is being tortured by HR for info. It's relentless and action-packed, but it also lets these three characters (especially Fusco) show just how determined they are. By the end of the episode, HR is actually taken down, but it's not that easy since Carter is shot and killed by one of its members. It's a devastating and shocking ending, but at least Carter went out on a high note.
The Devil's Share: Ending the HR trilogy, The Devil's Share is far more somber and less action-packed, starting with a devastating montage showing how the members of the cast are coping with Carter's death. Reese, Fusco, and Shaw spend the episode considering crossing the line and killing the man who shot Carter, but having Elias, the literal mob boss, do it was probably the best route here. We also get Finch actually recruit Root to help out for once, kickstarting her slow acclimation into the team.
Lethe/Aletheia: While this isn't necessarily a two-parter, I like to group these episodes together because they do share a lot of the same storylines, and especially because they introduce Samaritan as the major villain for the rest of the series. But that's not even it, since Reese leaves the team out of grief, Control makes her debut as she tortures Root in a genuinely uncomfortable sequence, and Hersh and his men seemingly blow up. There's a lot here, I'd argue these to be the most important episodes of the whole show, as they also kickstart the trend of Decima always getting the better of everyone.
Most Likely To: The first forty-minutes of this episode are pretty great on their own right, a light-hearted standalone where Reese and Shaw sneak into a high school reunion to protect a POI. It's comedic, cute, and lends us a bit more insight on their disturbed pasts. However, the last five minutes are insane as the Northern Lights project is revealed to the press and promptly shut down, a massive status quo that changes the premise of the show itself.
Beta: Beta is a heartbreaking episode that has Decima use Finch's former fiancée Grace to get to Finch. It's a tough episode to watch, with an incredibly personal conflict that leaves Finch dangerously close to revealing to Grace that he's alive. The bridge scene at the end is especially tense, and while Grace is saved, Finch is captured and comes face to face with Greer for the first time.
Deus Ex Machina: What an amazing season finale this was, tense from start to finish. It leads you to believe that it's an action-packed episode where the team tries to save Finch from Vigilance's attempt at revealing The Machine to the world, only to discover that Vigilance was an invention by Decima and that this was all an elaborate plan to get Samaritan up and running, and it works. By the end of the episode, the team is forced to split up and form new identities, and worst of all, the iconic library is destroyed. This finale pretty much demonstrates what I love so much about this season, its willingness to drastically change the status quo nearly every episode left me absolutely hooked from start to finish.
Overall, Season 3 should feel like it's disjointed but it just isn't. It's a phenomenal and consistently strong season packed with amazing episodes and twists, somehow managing to pull off a genre shift pretty much flawlessly. It's an excellent microcosm of what I love so much about the series and is easily the peak of Person Of Interest.
5/5 Stars
