Attracting near universal praise from critics and audiences alike, this episode will forever go down as one of the best scripted for television series ever. The episode was perfectly original, executed brilliantly (all in the space of 43 minutes), and with an unbelievably shocking ending, what more can a person want?
If Then Else, originally aired on January 6, 2015, on CBS, it has remained since to be my favorite episode of the series and of television since.
Why did I choose this episode to review?
This was the epitome of brilliant directing, producing, writing and acting of the entire series, if there was one episode to be synonymous with what Person Of Interest is, it's this episode.
If you started with Season one, episode one and ended with this episode Season 4 Episode 11, the pay off in terms of entertainment value would be huge.
Originally conceived and created by Jonathan Nolan (yes the brother of Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote and directed the best Batman Trilogy to date of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) it first aired on September 22nd 2011. Now, it seems to me anything that the Nolan brothers have touched creatively over the last 15 years have turned out to be critically acclaimed works, so first going into Person Of Interest in 2011, I was excited.
Watching this episode, made me feel the 78 preceding episodes made the build up all worth my time. (There are 103 episodes in the entire series). Admittedly, each episode is so gorgeously slick that individually they are so much better than most of the movies that come out in cinema.
Setting the backstory slightly and Wikipedia does this as concisely as possible
Person of Interest centers on a mysterious reclusive billionaire computer programmer named Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), who develops a computer system (known as "The Machine") for the U.S. government that is capable of collating all sources of information to predict and identify in advance, people planning terrorist acts. He finds that the Machine also identifies other perpetrators and victims of deadly intentions, but being considered "irrelevant" this information is deleted each night, and he realizes the Machine has developed into a super-intelligent artificial intelligence, leaving him wrestling with the questions of human control and other moral and ethical issues resulting from the situation. His backdoor into the Machine allows him to act covertly on the non-terrorism cases, but to prevent abuse of information he directs the machine to provide no details beyond an identity to be investigated. He recruits John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a presumed-dead former CIA agent, and later others, to investigate and act on the information it provides.
Other key players in this episode are
Kevin Chapman as Detective Lionel Fusco: a corrupt cop whom Reese blackmails into being a source inside the NYPD. Finch later arranges for Fusco to be transferred to Carter's precinct so that he works alongside her. Over time, Fusco becomes increasingly loyal to Finch and Reese, as he stops being a corrupt cop, although he continues to keep a secret regarding the death of a cop involved with HR. Fusco and Carter become aware of their mutual membership on Finch's team in the season 1 finale "Firewall". Fusco is not aware of the Machine's existence. Like Reese and Shaw, Fusco is now identified as a "primary asset".
Amy Acker as Root: a genius hacker obsessed with the Machine. Root has a highly keen interest in both Finch and the Machine. Her real name is Samantha "Sam" Groves. Initially introduced as a morally ambiguous hacker not afraid to kill, she becomes a crucial ally for the team with The Machine adopting her as its "analog interface" and using her as its agent for missions of unknown purposes, as well as an intermediary between itself and individuals with whom it wishes to communicate. Among her numerous false identities, she uses the name of Augusta King, the first programmer in the world.
Sarah Shahi as Sameen Shaw: an ISA assassin who worked for Special Counsel. Shaw unknowingly deals with the "relevant" numbers from the Machine. She later becomes an ally of Reese and Finch. She claims that she has an Axis II personality disorder, making her unable to feel and/or express common human emotions like fear or sadness. The Machine identifies Shaw as one of its "primary assets". During the course of the series, she develops a close relationship with Root.
Also of note to mention is the opening voice-over sequence -
"We are being watched. The government has a secret system — a machine — that spies on you every hour of every day. I designed the Machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people. The government considers these people irrelevant. We don’t. Hunted by the authorities, we work in secret. You'll never find us. But victim or perpetrator, if your number’s up, we’ll find you."
Stunningly of so much relevance today with the many accusations by various intelligence organisations worldwide of monitoring all communications, it is surprising that it was ever actually allowed to air on Televisions in the USA. Initially set up as a Crime drama series in Season 1, it became one of the best science fiction (not to mention relevant science fiction) series on television in the last decade.
The episode Synopsis on IMDB -
Samaritan launches a cyber-attack on the stock exchange, leaving the team with no choice but to embark on a possible suicide mission in a desperate attempt to stop a global economic catastrophe.
Bear with me here, Samaritan is a rival artificial intelligence to the Machine, so this episode was as science fictiony as they come with two artificial intelligence's battling it out for supremacy, normal story of good versus evil etc etc, but this episode? Boy, was this good.
Samaritan's human operatives are protecting the Wall Street servers as the Machine's team of John Reese, Harold Finch, Detective Lionel Fusco and Root tries to stop them.
Unusually, the Machine started a flash back simulation to 2003 at the 7 minute mark, when it's creator was teaching it how to play Chess, as a way to decide on possibilities of what to do next, living up to it's name of the episode If Then Else which is a programming language syntax.
As a side note, the series episodes normally flashes back to relevant situations in the Machine's life to give greater context to the overall storytelling of the episode
It was at the minute 16 mark that the second simulation of the episode started, with another flashback to the chess game in 2003, after the first simulation failed with the primary goal failing and the secondary goal of its assets dying or being captured. The second simulation was another scenario that the Machine tried which again ultimately failed.
Watching each lead character die in each simulation was heart-rending, not knowing where it will all end.
The third simulation was at 28 minutes, and now I will mention that the last player in each simulation was Sameen Shaw, who is tasked with getting a security code to help out the Machine's team in the basement levels of Wall Street. She, in the first two episodes failed to talk down a guy with a suicide bomb vest on the train and shot him, and got arrested by a SWAT team. This time she was successful, as the Machine decides on a different path to guide the team through Samaritan's human minefield. The third simulation, was successful only to the extent of a 2% survival rate for the Machine's human assets.
Finally, the wrap up of the episode at the 36 minute mark, came with the Machine finally selecting an option to guide the team through, and switched to real time.
The mournful, suspenseful music as the final seconds of the episode came to a close was terrific, coupled with the final sacrifice of one of the Machine's assets.
The closing sequence started with an epic kiss and that's all I'm going to say on that.
You have to watch it! Really!
The humor in the episode was second to none, and perfectly matched the overall tone. The soundtrack for the episode was an orgasmic sensation on the ears with each simulation being matched with the appropriate background music.
Episode rating 10/10, five stars, 100%, it deserved the universal praise that it got.
I was disappointed when the series ended on 21st June, 2016, but hey, all good things must come to an end right?
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