Person of Interest: A More Perfect Union Recap

Synopsis for 5×06: Reese and Finch follow the numbers to a wedding, Shaw is still being conditioned by Samaritan, and Fusco got sent off on his own side quest.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Poor Shaw continued to be under Samaritan’s influence as the simulations moved steadily forward. Greer claimed that Team Machine were the true villains, but of course Shaw wasn’t buying it. She held out hope that she would get free.

The next number for Team Machine came in the form of a wedding license, which led Reese and Finch to their two numbers. Reese, thinking he was responding to a disturbance, joined with another “officer” and busted into a bachelorette party. Apparently the other officer was really a stripper, and Finch had orchestrated the whole thing to get Reese an invite to the wedding so that they would be able to keep an eye on their numbers.

Back at the subway, the Machine was found to still be losing to Samaritan in the simulated battles that Finch orchestrated. He continued to keep Root in the dark and explained he was going to go meet Reese at the wedding and leave Root behind.

Finch’s earlier plan worked and Reese got invited to the wedding. They’d be able to try and determine what the threat was from the inside.

Greer took Shaw on a “field trip” in order to show her why the world needed Samaritan. He even brought her the sandwich she liked, as he talked about the men they were both watching. Apparently their actions, in the name of making a deal, would put large numbers of people at risk. Their single choice could hurt thousands, so they had to be stopped. Samaritan would decide who lived and who died, and would gladly kill them off in order to “protect” the majority.

At the wedding, Reese and Finch made note of people who were protesting the bride’s family. Apparently she was the daughter of a very wealthy man who raised champion horses. Reese inquired into the protesters and his date told him they’d always been there, and were essentially harmless. A wrench was thrown into the wedding however when Reese overheard the bride talking to her sister about having seen her soon-to-be-husband making out with a woman who had been his best friend.

It was at that point that Reese met the family photographer who mentioned that she’d been with the family for years and would be protective of them.

Root, back at the subway with Bear, continued to take on numbers while also seeming put off by the fact she’d been left behind. She wasn’t missing too much, though, as Finch had to fight to maintain his cover at the wedding as he impersonated an estranged Irish uncle who apparently was quite the singer (though he managed to talk himself out of having to give a performance).

Root passed off Bear and a new number to Fusco and asked him to investigate it while she took off to join the boys at the wedding. He is anything but amiable about it.

At the wedding ceremony, Finch and Reese took note of gunmen who appeared and then disappeared. The ceremony itself was completed without incident as Reese and Finch went to investigate the gunmen further. It seemed that their married couple weren’t the targets.

Greer continued his field trip with Shaw and kept showing her people whose actions would hurt others. Samaritan could “see” the outcomes and therefore could control the present in order to preserve the future. The only flaw is that Samaritan is eliminating problems before they begin, and it does not leave room for changes of heart or last minute revelations. It makes assumptions and acts on them, when human beings are too complex to be ruled by assumptions.

Fusco tracked down the number that Root had given him and it led him right back to Bruce, who was talking to a gentleman that was somehow tied up in the demolition of tunnels under the city. Fusco approached Bruce, who commented that Fusco was being kept in the dark and Bruce wanted to know who the new player in town was that was “greasing palms” to steer the direction of politics in the city.

At the wedding, Finch got pulled into singing after all and it was absolutely spectacular. Also terrible.

Reese realized that the wedding photographer had been the target, because she had evidence about the mistreatment of horses and the eldest daughter had arranged for her execution. When everything seemed to be going downhill, Root showed up riding a horse and whisked Maggie, the photographer, away while Reese dealt with the rest.

Greer kept laying it on thick with Shaw who still wasn’t buying into what Samaritan was selling.

Team Machine, having saved the photographer, settled in to enjoy the wedding. Root and Finch danced, and she told him she knew he was keeping the Machine’s losses from her. She also proposed that they needed to give the Machine the tools to act, not just react, though Finch seemed less keen on that plan.

Back in the City, Fusco investigated a tunnel that had been at the center of political action. Unfortunately, he found bodies in that tunnel. Bruce’s was among them, along with a number of other missing persons that he’d been looking into it. Samaritan’s plan to blow up the tunnel was underway and Fusco got caught under the debris as it fell.

Shaw, at the end of her field trip, met with Samaritan who continued to try and convince her of its power and that it is the true hero. Had Samaritan not intervened in any number of things, then World War III and the end of humanity itself would have occurred.

Again, she woke up from yet another simulation and was still not convinced by Samaritan’s grand plan.