5x13 return 0

I'm not sure what to say. I don't know how I expected this show to end. On one hand, I'm okay with this ending, and I think it was a good way to conclude the show. On the other, I feel completely empty inside. It's strange to think that we're not getting another episode next week.

I was sure that John would be the one to die. It made the most sense. He had a good death, fighting until the very end. Still, I cried my eyes out when it happened.

I'm glad that Shaw is alive, and that she has Bear by her side. I loved how she smiled in the last scene. She totally heard Root's voice on the phone.

Finch is finally reunited with Grace!

So The Machine was talking to a version of herself all along. I'd kind of suspected that.

This was a great episode, and the last few minutes of it were bittersweet but also hopeful. The Machine's final monologue was epic. You know how sometimes you hear something so profound and powerful, something that speaks to you so deeply that you have to fight the urge to get it tattooed on your body? That's what I felt like when I heard that monologue. Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the way they tied it all up.

Now, it's time for me to say goodbye.

I discovered Person of Interest quite late - just a few months before season 5 started. I wasn't hooked right away, but I stuck with the show because I'd read stellar reviews online. It took me almost an entire season to really get into it.

And then Root showed up, kidnapped Finch, stole my heart in about 0.2 seconds, and I was officially obsessed. It took me only 10 days to binge-watch seasons 2-4 (after all, who needs school? Who needs sleep?). This show was a wild ride, and I'm grateful that I got to experience it.

Thank you, Person of Interest.

Thank you for giving us compelling storylines, jaw-dropping plot twists and intense action scenes.

Thank you for exploring fascinating themes, such as AI and the true meaning of humanity.

Thank you for gorgeous cinematography, spectacular score and special effects that blockbuster movies could be jealous of.

Thank you for phenomenal characters, fantastic relationships, consistent characterization and incredible character development.

Thank you for starting my obsession with Amy Acker, which resulted in me binge-watching 19 episodes of Angel in one day (no, I do not possess amazing impulse control).

Thank you for making me laugh, making me cry, making me think, making me lose sleep over you.

Is there something about this show that I'm not happy with? Absolutely. I wish CBS hadn't acted like dicks and had given us a full season instead of measly 13 episodes. I wish Root hadn't died, and a part of me will always be bitter about it. I wish Shaw and Root had had more time. I wish they had paced the final season better (Root and Shaw are reunited after 10 months and over 7,000 simulations, Root dies in the following episode, and then we get a case of the week as if nothing happened? That's just bullshit right there), but I also know that the showrunners tried to do the best they could with a reduced number of episodes. And overall, they succeeded, making Person of Interest one of very few TV shows that were just as, if not more, exquisite in their last season as they were in their first.

Goodbye, Person of Interest. You will always be one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I don't think I'll ever get to watch something as engaging, thrilling, smart, thought-provoking, heartbreaking and powerful as you again.

At first, I couldn't quite put into words how I felt about this episode (but as you can see, once I started, I couldn't stop).

Though it had less action than previous episodes, it was gripping, though it didn't have a sense of foreboding because a) the big bad would expectedly not win, and b) I felt like the fear of possible defeat was stronger in the penultimate episode.

Yet this was so emotional. John, of all people, brought me close to tears. I kind of knew that he was talking to the Machine too at the Reserve, but his final conversation with Finch was heartbreaking. He was so ready to lay down his life for the man who'd given him a purpose.

Root truly did become the Machine's conduit, in a way. It felt for so long, because we weren't really hearing the Machine, like she just worshipped it like a god, but hearing the Machine's POV now, it almost seemed like they had an almost symbiotic experience and learned from and with each other, and the 'love' was mutual. Their scenes actually felt like Harold was talking to both of them.

I don't quite know if the 'meaning of life' lesson that the Machine got was a bit predictable or if it's just I'd seen it quoted before somewhere (now that I think about it maybe it felt familiar because it was a callback to Root's dying speeches to Shaw and Finch), but I do appreciate it because in the end, I feel like Finch still didn't truly believe or trust in his creation until they had that talk. I was even kind of hoping for Finch to call the Machine his child or something, but I guess that would have been kind of sudden for him still despite recent events, so in the end, the affirmation Finch gave her ("Yes, we did") was still pretty satisfying.

Other standouts: that shot of Root and John on the rooftop got to me, too. Damn. And Shaw's farewell to Root/the Machine and her avenging Root (I am officially obsessed with Sarah Shahi). Poor Fusco but glad he made it 'til the end. And Bear!

My god I wish this show hadn't gotten cancelled and given a shorter final season. I read that the showrunners wouldn't have rushed this otherwise. Though I was getting sick of Samaritan amassing so much power, just getting more powerful every day, I am curious how they could have handled it better if they had more episodes.
-If they could have even explored a post-Samaritan POI.
-With the constant implications that the Machine was no match for Samaritan and the frequent back and forth between Root and Finch about making the Machine an open system and arming her, I wonder if this was something they were planning on tackling further someday and..
-- if this would have paved the way for the Machine to be able to defeat Samaritan without the ICE-9,
-- and if they would someday have struggled with the Machine turning into a Samaritan-like ASI if they did as Root wanted (and thus if an extended POI would have ultimately ended with no ASI/the Machine's destruction like I'd initially thought, or wouldthe Machine really have proven to be a good/better ASI)...

So many possibilities.

This was a ride. I'm 5 years late but I'm SO glad I gave this show a go, I definitely did not know what I was missing. I'm not sure how to move on from this now!