Person of Interest (TV Series) 4C (2014) User Reviews

Cinema Quality -- and Jim Caviezel owns this one!

[A_Different_Drummer · 10/10 · 21 February 2015]

One of the reasons I decided to become a "prolific" reviewer for the IMDb (aside from the once-a-year thank you notes from the founder, each with no return address) was that I was gob-smacked at how primetime TV had suddenly became (on average) BETTER THAN THEATRICAL RELEASES.

Way back when dinosaurs walked, I was a professional critic (as in, people actually paid me) and I never thought I would see the day when TV quality surpassed big-screen productions.

I was wrong, I admit it, and it is episodes like this that underscore the point.

This episode is so tight it squeaks, barely has one false note or one missed edit or one line of dialog lacking zing, and more suspense than a dozen recent big-name movie releases I could mention.

(CASE IN POINT -- a recent Hollywood release about an ex-Air Marshall on a plane where he knows there is a killer on board, but not who, does not even come close to capturing viewer attention to the degree this episode does.)

Two other notes:

* Jim Caviezel has been kept in reserve for the last few episodes. But unleash him, and his charisma, unshaven or not, still hits the bullseye each time. He owns this episode. And he is re-defining cool.

* in an earlier review I applauded JJ and Nolan for re-thinking "on the fly" a series which was already a hit. This episode shows enormous skill and craft, and continues the notion of taking POI up a notch.

Boy is this great TV

Free will

[bi-azh · 10/10 · 23 February 2020]

Mr. Reese, I understand your frustration with the opacity of the Machine, but there's a reason I chose to make it that way. The Machine only gives us numbers, because I would always rather that a human element remain in determining something so critical as someone's fate. We have free will. And with that comes great responsibility and sometimes great loss. I miss her dearly, too.

• Finch

But the machine has already moved on to a higher level, which is an astonishing thing. It moves around Finch and acts on its own decision. Not only has it given the relevant number (the sphinx) to the ISA who has set an operative on the flight to take out Owen. It seems to have reconsidered its action by not trusting this operative to also save the passengers. So it acts on it's own by directing Reese on this flight (so much for free will!) in trusting his ability to save everybody. The episodes name 4c sounds like foresee, that is exactly what the machine does. Finch still believes in his rules and accepts John's resignation as his decision of free will, the machine doesn't. In the episodes Lethe and Aletheia he blames the machine by not giving him enough help to save Carter. But obviously he is also angry at Finch. That becomes clear in his angry speech to Owen: You computer guys - you built something you can't control and when it backfires you won't accept responsibility. Have you really made anything better? Owen can feel that this is not about him.

Helping people:

The episode is obviously about bringing Reese back to the team. He is walking without purpose, falling into bad habits by feeling depressed and drinking too much. When he is asked about baggage his answers is no baggage which is a nice wordplay because it is quite clear from the look of his face and his clearly NOT wearing a suit that we know: This guy has a lot of baggage! The line of thought was started with Fusco's discussion with Simmons before fighting him and continued in the prison cell with John one episode later. John: What was it exactly we are doing? Fusco: Helping people! This is now lost on John, but he is still the good guy who gives up his seat, helps the old lady with her baggage and has his way of dealing with the dushbag who knows better when to shut off his phone. Holly is also in the business of helping people but in an ordinary job. Like John she is frustrated with humanity: What has happened to people just helping other people? She asks John who has no answer for her at this moment. But the machine has figured him out long ago. This is the guy who says in his last words that saving one person at a time is anticlimactic and finds solace in his purpose to save his best friend and the world. So now he needs something better than just saving the nerd who brought it all to himself like Leon before. But saving 130 passengers might do the job.

Shaw:

Shaw now has to take John's place as investigator and general badass. That scene at the travel agency was obviously only planted there to give her the speech about feeding the tie. Much more subtle is the scene in the restaurant with her old buddy Hersh. Such a great job of the actor of the terminator Hersh whose tongue is set loose by the drug. He knows it and cannot help it, so he is answering with clenched teeth, and that last question about Shaw's new employers - so heartwarming coming from this stonecold killer!

Goof points to:

• fighting with anything else but a gun in short succession: knife, corkscrew, fork, thermos, plastic bag, pen, guitar, sissors, hairspray, golfcub
• to the passengers that never notice anything
• to the guy with the phone and the aggravating kid
• to Reese knocking people out and covering them with blankets
• to Reese pushing drinks on everyone: himself, Owen, Holly and even the kid (Titus!) (he has lost his scalpel or maybe never had one)
• to the knocked out guys who stay so for hours
• to the three kinds of assassins coming for the little dude
• to the little nerdy dude who takes Fusco's place in name calling. When Fusco called John Mr. Tall-dark-and deranged, Owen calls him right at the beginning Mr. dark and stormy, the ASI-guy is the walking steroid, John is Mr. blanket-coverup and so on
• to John, the ex-international spy, who is just crap at lying: International Homeland Security Agency
• to Finch landing the plane with a game-controller
• to Finch inviting John to an art exihibition
• to another incredible suit of Finch

The Sphinx

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 2 March 2024]

Reese, using the alias John Wiley, will fly to Istanbul, Turkey, but his flight is overbooked, and the company attendant changes his flight to Rome in the First Class. Then the flight attendant Holly asks him whether he may switch the seat to let a couple in honeymoon together. Reese has no objection and soon he finds a Federal Marshal unconscious in the toilet. Reese calls Finch and asks he is manipulating his flight to send him to another assignment, but he says that he is not. Reese tells the other Marshal where his partner is, and he is rude with Reese and faints immediately after. Out of the blue, a man comes from the rear of the airplane and injects a needle in the tight of the man in custody. Reese knock the man out and sees his tattoo in the arm with the word Lanceros. Reese sits where the Marshal was and asks Finch who Owen Matthews is since the cartel is trying to kill him. Then Reese protects him from two Mossad agents. Finch tells Reese that several countries are looking for a man named The Sphinx, who created a software in the darknet to sell drugs for a lower price. Soon Reese learns that Owen has developed the software and many agencies are trying to kill him, since they use drug money for supporting their secret activities. Meanwhile, Finch asks Shaw to visit her former colleagues from ISA to know why Owen is relevant for the national security.

"4C" is an entertaining episode of "Person of Interest", with Reese working with Finch again. The plot is funny, with the flight assistant Holly helping Reese to control the situation. Finch is the great hero of the show, landing the huge airplane in the airport using video-game accessories. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "4C"

How can the show continue to be this good?

[ErReads · 8 July 2020]

Seriously. One episode after another I finish it and say "man that was great." This one was funny, massively entertaining, felt like a movie, and ended on a slightly emotional and fulfilling note. 10/10

Just when John Wanted Out, Machine Needs Him!

[ShelbyTMItchell · 15 January 2014]

John under a new alias of course, is trying to leave the past and leave the crime fighting for a quieter life. As the planes he tries to go on get delayed.

This is of course due to the machine. As it is not Finch doing it. But of course, deep down, Finch needs the brawn in John like Finch is the brains of the operation.

After Owen, the guy in question is accompanied by two US marshals to testify against a person named the Spinx as one marshal passes out at the bathroom and another marshal after telling Reese to mind his own business without even looking at what happened to his partner, he also passes out.

It is up to John to take control of the situation as well as try to have Harold, a pilot himself, take control while John takes out the bad guys.

Owen may look like a mild mannered guy. But he really is not all that he seems to be. After Harold and John are forced to figure this out.

Lack of Fusco and even Root makes up for this episode as there was Shaw and of course, Bear the dog who really has all but disappeared this year.

John looks like he needs the work and mission, and Carter's spirit is still with the team in fighting in her name.

The Hebrew spoken by the Ex Mossad agent is incorrect

[hennzter · 25 July 2019]

I am quite disappointed that not only they didn't use actual Israelis for the 2 Mossad agents, rich there are many of in the film industry, but that they didn't even get the Hebrew correct - I had to replay the scene a couple of times toy even realize what they're saying - accent is horrible and the lady speaks incorrectly - in her sentence she refers to get as a Male and to the guy as Female...