Recap / Person Of Interest S 04 E 15

Season 4, Episode 15

Q&A

The thing about fighting someone, the questions are simple: either you're beating them, or they're beating you. But it's the harder fights, the ones outside the ring, that actually mean something. Everything else is wasted time.

—Reese

The latest number is of an employee of a search engine company, who happens to find a problem with their search algorithm: it's returning results to people suffering from depression which encourage suicide. Meanwhile, Harold receives a coded plea for help from Claire Mahoney, and must determine her true loyalties.

---

• Action Girl/Hypercompetent Sidekick: Anna, this week's number, moonlights as an underground MMA fighter, frees herself from her captors with only minor help from Reese, and assists him in capturing this week's perpetrator.
• Arc Words: several characters make references to chess
• Big Damn Heroes: Root shows up just in time to save Finch from being taken away by Samaritan operatives.
• Bland-Name Product: Val for Siri and Google Now, and "Fetch and Retrieve" for Google.
• The Bus Came Back: Claire.
• Call-Back/Freeze-Frame Bonus: the pistol Root uses to shoot Claire is a Heckler & Koch USP Compact, Sameen Shaw's preferred firearm.
• The Cast Showoff: Kevin Chapman does boxing as a hobby and puts his skills to use in this episode.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: The Dark Secret of the episode's perpetrator is him making this an Enforced Trope for many other people. Look down on Evil, Inc. for an explanation.
• Continuity Nod
  • The Number works for the company that runs the "Fetch and Retrieve" search engine, and she has a personal page on FriendCzar.
  • When VAL pulls up the Fetch and Retrieve stock history, there is a dip in the graph from when Samaritan crashed the stock market.
  • Greer's caution about Finch's laptop recalls the one involved in the Ordos incident, and possibly another Samaritan-related laptop on which he had malicious software installed.
  • Once again, Samaritan shows an interest in educating children.
  • Not the first time a collaborator of Samaritan starts to wonder if she's on the right side.
  • Once again, we have a situation where one of the protagonists performs an effective Shut Up, Hannibal! against one of the antagonists, sowing doubt in their commitment to their cause, similar to what happened with Anthony Marconi and Link in "The Devil You Know".
• Conviction by Contradiction: Invoked by Finch, to see if Claire is actually The Mole.
• The Dead Have Names: Used in Claire's backstory.
• Deer in the Headlights: Claire's expression as Root guns down her team, levels a H&K USP Compact in her direction and fires.
• Evil, Inc.: At the end of the episode, Decima/Samaritan is in negotiations to purchase Fetch and Retrieve. The episode exposed the company as being well on its way to becoming this on its own, with the VAL program being set (unknown to the other employees but the Corrupt Corporate Executive V.P.) to recognize certain search patterns that predicted the user having things like suicidal depression or a gambling habit and then provide search results that reinforced staying on this psychological state-gambling sites or anti-depression med ads, all of them run by Fetch And Retrieve stockholders.
• I Never Told You My Name: How Harold realizes that Claire is still truly working for Samaritan.
• Kick the Dog: Claire thought that the shot was supposed to miss. Greer in the same breath says that she's a unique and priceless asset, but had she died, her death would've been for a good cause.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Apparently, in addition to computer science and engineering, Finch also learned basic surgery at MIT. Possibly justified in that he has seen a lot of gunshot wounds, including being shot himself.
• Oh, Crap!: A glorious one when Root comes in, kills all the Decima/Samaritan assets threatening Harold and then plugs Claire in the back with a suppressed pistol.
• Properly Paranoid
  • Finch suspects that Claire's "defection" may be a trap. Turns out he's right.
  • Decima neutralizes a tracking device on Finch's laptop moments before it would have pinpointed their location.
• She's Back: Root's back to working with the Machine.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Claire for Root and Anna for Shaw, at least until Claire is revealed as The Mole.
• Spare a Messenger: Subverted
  Root: Give your boss a message for me. Hi! (shoots her in the shoulder)
• Tragic Keepsake: One of Root's new sidearms, and the one which she makes a point of shooting Claire with is a Heckler and Koch USP Compact, a gesture which speaks volumes (see Call-Back / Freeze-Frame Bonus above for more details)
• Villain with Good Publicity: And Claire believes the PR, to the point of being a Horrible Judge of Character. Thankfully, this might have started to change at the end.
• We Can Rule Together: Claire pleads with Harold to join Samaritan.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: Played with. Samaritan very nearly came away with Finch, and did take his laptop, but Root came to his rescue. On the other side, Claire claims to give Finch part of Samaritan's source code, but since she's a plant, it probably wasn't real.