Line #30 Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E06


1	'''Season 3, Episode 6''':
2	!Mors praematura
3
4	->'''Shaw''': The Machine gives missions to Harold and the government. Relevant, irrelevant. Why would it give one to you?\
5	'''Root''': Because now there's a third category. Besides, my relationship with the Machine is a little... ''different''.
6
7	Root has kidnapped Shaw, and quickly talks her into helping with an unspecified mission. While Reese tries to track down Root and figure out what's going on, Finch is working on their latest number, an estate investigator who is looking into the death of his foster brother - and aroused the ire of his brother's enemies in the process.
8
9	-----
10	!!Tropes present in this episode include:
11	* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Root places dark glasses on Shaw before she uses the thermal lance. "Safety first."
12	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "For what? The tasing, the drugging...or this?
13	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: "How can you be so certain, Ms. Groves, that the Machine does not wish you to be precisely where you are?"
14	* BigDamnHeroes: Reese turns up just in time to save Finch and Sloan from burning to death.
15	* BlackSite: We get our first view of one, and it isn't pleasant. The inmates are moved every 72 hours and [[UnPerson have been officially killed so they don't exist]], so they can be interrogated indefinitely.
16	* BoobyTrap / FieryCoverup: The lockup is rigged with gasoline sprayers and an igniter, burning the evidence and anyone else who comes poking around.
17	* TheBookCipher: Reese and Sloan have to search Greenfield's apartment for the book.
18	* BottomlessMagazines: Averted with Root's full-auto Glock.
19	* CallBack:
20	** The parallels between Laskey's arc and Fusco's in season one continue. See KickTheDog entry below.
21	** The [=PoI's=] brother is on the outs with Vigilance because he objected to killing Wayne Kruger, the [=PoI=] in "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E02 Nothing to Hide.]]"
22	** As in "Liberty", Root does not respond well to being cut off from the Machine. Finch however is less easily intimidated than Dr. Carmichael.
23	* CasualKink: On finding taser confetti in her bedroom, Reese seriously considers the possibility that Shaw might have tased herself for kicks.
24	* TheChessmaster: The Machine manipulates both Team Machine and Vigilance into breaking free a hacker who might be useful to it/her in the future. It might also have arranged for the morally ambiguous yet potentially useful Root to be imprisoned by people who have the means to do so but who won't kill her.
25	* ConvenientlyCellmates: Greenfield is placed in the cell next to Root.
26	* ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing: Root breaks off a piece of the wire mesh of her cell and uses it to cut her zipties.
27	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind
28	-->'''Vigilance mook:''' What are you smiling at?
29	-->'''Root:''' I wasn't smiling at you. (mooks get shot in the back by Shaw)
30	* CrazyPrepared:
31	** Having the Machine as MissionControl makes it easy for Root to be this. She makes sure there's a conveniently hidden gun in a specific location; the same location where Peter Collier and a Vigilance hit squad are planning to take out a target the Machine wants saved.
32	** InUniverse with Sloan, who has all kinds of breaking-and-entering tools for his job. Finch asks if he has anything that can detect fluids. He does, using a UV lamp to SeeTheInvisible.
33	** Vigilance have a system for destroying evidence and snoopers wired into their message drop site.
34	* DeclarationOfProtection: Reese doesn't like Finch taking on the investigatory role for this week's number.
35	* DeepCoverAgent: Turns out Laskey is a member of the Russian mob, infiltrated into the NYPD with the help of HR.
36	* DemotedToExtra: Carter and the HR storyline begins to take a back burner to the AI conspiracy despite being just about as plot-relevant. Carter (who has two scenes) does not interact with anyone in this episode but Laskey. Fusco very briefly appears. One might even think the scenes involving Carter and the scenes involving the rest of the team were completely different shows.
37	* DispenseWithThePleasantries:
38	-->'''Root:''' We're on a bit of a clock here, so let's dispense with the temper tantrum.
39	* DoYouTrustMe: Shaw obviously doesn't trust Root, who instead asks does she trust the Machine, whom Shaw has worked for for years under the guise of 'Research'.
40	* DramaticAmmoDepletion: Root may have brought enough firepower to effectively take on the Vigilance hit squad but she didn't bring any spare magazines which becomes quite problematic when the hit squad corners her after she runs out of ammo for her Glock 18.
41	* EmptyFridgeEmptyLife: Shaw's fridge is full of guns, ammo and some milk.
42	* EvenEvilHasStandards:
43	** The foster brother of the POI decided to run away from Vigilance when Peter Collier proposed to kill Wayne Kruger.
44	** Laskey is not pleased when Simmons orders him to bury the body of a childhood friend who's been murdered by HR and decides to help Carter destroy them.
45	** Vigilance uses nonlethal weaponry to take down the CIA truck.
46	* FakingTheDead: Subverted; the CIA fakes Greenfield's death not to protect him, but so they can interrogate him at length in a BlackSite.
47	* GenderSeparatedEnsembleEpisode: Reese and Finch help the irrelevant number while Root and Shaw do the Machine's errands.
48	* GratuitousLatin: the title is Latin for "premature death."
49	* GunpointBanter: Reese and Collier, justified because Reese is trying to take Collier alive, while Collier has Sloan as a HumanShield.
50	* HandyCuffs: Root is flexicuff tied with the other BlackSite prisoners with her hands in front, so she's able to cut through her bonds.
51	* HomoeroticSubtext: Lots of tension between Shaw and Root, with the two women leaning close and [[HeldGaze staring intently at each other]] whenever Shaw threatens Root's life.
52	-->'''Root:''' The only thing I know for sure is [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I... need... you.]]
53	* HypercompetentSidekick: the POI, Timothy Sloan, is a very good investigator.
54	* IHaveManyNames: Peter Collier says his name is just one of several aliases.
55	* ImprobableAimingSkills: Reese still hits a Vigilance mook despite his ImpairmentShot.
56	* ItsPersonal: Reese makes a point of telling Collier he didn't appreciate being shot InTheBack ([[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E20 again]]).
57	* JustFollowingOrders: Root, or so she keeps saying.
58	* KickTheDog: HR murders a shopkeeper for skimping on his protection money, then makes Laskey, who had known him since childhood and considered him a friend, bury the body.
59	* KonamiCode: it stops the CIA's scrambler radio from acting up.
60	* MacGyvering: Root makes a thermal lance with an oxygen bottle, tinfoil and spaghetti.
61	* OutrunTheFireball: Reese has to help Finch hobble away from the lockup before it erupts in a ball of flame.
62	* PublicSecretMessage / DeadDrop: Vigilance uses the lockups to pass on messages, [[InvisibleWriting written on the wall in infrared paint]].
63	* PunkInTheTrunk: This time it's Simmons, with a dead body. And a shovel.
64	* RhetoricalQuestionBlunder
65	-->'''Greenfield:''' (shouting at CIA guard.) ''I'm an American! I have rights. [[{{Unperson}} Do you even know my name?]]''
66	-->'''Root:''' (from next cell) Jason Greenfield, I presume?
67	-->'''Greenfield:''' How do you know my name?
68	* SadisticChoice: Collier shoots Greenfield in the femoral artery, saying Reese has a choice of getting him medical attention or chasing Collier.
69	* ShellShockSilence: Root after the truck crash, but it segues directly into the ClimacticMusic.
70	* ShockCollar: Finch has placed an anklet on Root that gives her a nasty shock if she goes outside a certain radius.
71	* ShownTheirWork[=/=]TruthInTelevision: there really is a government agency in New York, the Office of the Public Administrator, that is devoted to settling the estates of deceased people who appear to have no family. [[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html This ''New York Times'' article]] tells the story of one such case which is similar to the matter Sloan and Finch are shown investigating in the first act of the episode.
72	* SlidingDownTheSlipperySlope: This episode reveals that Vigilance started out as a WellIntentionedExtremist group that did this sometime shortly before the events of "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E02 Nothing to Hide]]", when they decided to start killing the people they opposed.
73	* TheSnackIsMoreInteresting: Root munches on an apple while watching Shaw slug it out with a CIA mook.
74	* TailorMadePrison: Finch locks Root up in a section of the library base where she'll have no access to any electronic devices, which are her biggest strengths. She also ends up wearing an ankle monitor, and just in case she somehow ends up smuggling a device into her cell, Finch turned the entire thing into a Faraday cage, so no signals would get in anyway.
75	* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Root and Shaw (at first). They prove to be quite the team. Even Fusco says so.
76	* ThemedAliases: Vigilance uses names of Revolutionary War heroes, which enables Finch to work out their book code.
77	* ThereWasADoor: Vigilance drills bolts into the cabin doors of the CIA truck. So Shaw kicks out the window.
78	* ThisIsThePartWhere: Shaw is smart enough to know Root will have a reason why she shouldn't cut her throat.
79	* TrashOfTheTitans: Finch is {{squick}}ed out searching through the effects of a compulsive hoarder.
80	* TrojanPrisoner: Showing extraordinary confidence in the ability of Shaw and the Machine to protect her, Root lets herself be [[BlindfoldedTrip black-hooded]] and dragged off to a CIA BlackSite for interrogation, [[GetIntoJailFree in order to free another prisoner there]].
81	%%* TrustPassword: Several of these, by both CIA and Root.
82	%%* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Reese's deadpan response to Shaw's Refrigerator of Mass Destruction.
83	* WallOfWeapons: Shaw's refrigerator. The only food item stored in there is a jug of milk. Given that Reese sees nothing out of the ordinary in said refrigerator, he might be in the habit of doing the same thing.
84	* WhamLine:
85	** Finch, to Root, after he imprisons her in a Faraday cage: "How can you be so certain, Ms. Groves, that the Machine does not wish you to be precisely where you are?"
86	** Laskey revealing his true name and the reason he's on the police force and on HR's payroll to Carter.
87	** Early in the episode, Shaw asks Root why the Machine would work with her, because it's already got Irrelevant and Relevant people covered. She responds that there's "a third category." At the end, Root says that Jason was "necessary," implying that she might be the one the Machine put in charge of ensuring its own survival and that it has created a third category of "numbers."
88	* TheWarHasJustBegun: Finch says this is only the opening shots of Vigilance's promised revolution.
89	* WorkingTheSameCase: Reese, Finch, Shaw and Root end up running into each other during the climax. While Reese saves the number, Root saves his brother, who had been unlawfully imprisoned by the CIA and [[FromBadToWorse is about to be executed]] by Vigilance.
90	* YouWontLikeMeWhenImAngry

Context Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E06