- Title: Person of Interest – Relevance
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“Set out to correct the world’s wrongs and you’ll almost certainly wind up adding to them.”
The latest number delivered by The Machine turns out to be operative Samantha Shaw (Sarah Shahi) who works for a shadowy government agency to hunt down and stop terrorist threats discovered by The Machine. Sam’s life is compromised when her partner (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) begins questioning where the numbers come from, leading the pair to be set-up by “Control” and marked for death. I’m sad to know that Fairly Legal won’t be coming back for a third season, but I’m happy to see Shahi sink her teeth into a role like this with the promise of more appearances to come.
With her partner dead and Sam shot and on the run from her boss Wilson (Paul Sparks), Reese (Jim Caviezel) offers his help, but it takes more than a little convincing to make her believe Reese and Finch (Michael Emerson) are on her side, although saving her life from some of Wilson’s men, twice (and not getting shot by her the second time), is a good start. Kidnapping a drug dealer for a safe place to lie low and do some emergency surgery leads an injured Sam to leave more dead bodies in her wake before resuming her partner’s investigation to gets answers and revenge. “Relevance” links Wilson with the shadowy Washington insider (Jay O. Sanders) who sends Hersh (Boris McGiver) to New York to handle the situation personally.
Things even get crazier when the episode reveals the source of information out of the Washington insider’s office is Root (Amy Acker) who meets Sam in a New York hotel who tries to use the assassin for her own ends to further Root’s investigation into the money trail which she hopes will lead her to The Machine. After Reese saves her a second time, and she declines Finch’s offer of assistance, Sam sets her sights on the Washington insider, who like Finch only offers her partial answers, but it does give her the opportunity to kill Wilson and walk away on her own terms, at least until Hersh poisons her.
After using Detective Carter (Taraji P. Henson) and Fusco (Kevin Chapman) to take possession of Sam’s “dead” body, who put it under the care of Leon Tao (Ken Leung) who, under the guise of an EMT, resuscitates the assassin and delivers her to Reese and Finch. Not quite as grateful as they had hoped, Sam robs the men of their phones and leaves them stranded in a graveyard. However, this time she does take Finch’s phone number with her. Aside from introducing Shahi as Sam, the episode is memorable for almost completely centered on a character other than Reese of Finch (or even Carter or Fusco). With Sam believed dead by the who were hunting her, the show has created an intriguing new recurring character who should make life all the more interesting for Reese and Finch, and for all of us as well.
Sarah Shahi was stupendous. She should be in every episode or maybe they could do a spinoff with her character? That would be great.