Line #38 Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E16


1	'''Season 2, Episode 16''':
2	!Relevance
3	->''"Trust is overrated."''
4	-->-- ''Sameen Shaw''
5
6	When her partner winds up being killed after asking the wrong questions, government operative Sameen Shaw finds herself on the run from the people she works for and sets out to discover the person responsible for targeting both of them.
7
8	This is series creator and Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan's directorial debut.
9
10	-----
11	!!Tropes present in this episode include:
12
13	* FiveFiveFive: Averted. The phone number Finch gives to Shaw, (917) 285-7362, is a working number. Call it and you get Harold Wren's voicemail at Universal Heritage Insurance. You can't leave a message, though, because the voicemail inbox is full.
14	* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Shaw meeting Finch.
15	* ApologeticAttacker: Having trained Shaw, Hersh has the courtesy to apologise for killing her.
16	* AssholeVictim: The drug dealers who smugly believe they've caught Shaw off guard. They're wrong.
17	* AttackHello: Shaw has a tendency to shoot first and asks questions later, as Reese and Leon find out.
18	* BaitAndSwitch: It looks like the Special Counsel will let Shaw live as she does a MenacingStroll out of their accompanied by the requisite ClimacticMusic, then [[YouCanNeverLeave Hersh kills her]]. Then instead of a DownerEnding, Team Machine is able to protect her after all.
19	* BulletProofVest: Reese takes several bullets to the chest while wearing one. Ouch.
20	* ButtMonkey: Leon Tao does a cameo appearance when he's [[YouOweMe roped in to help Team Machine]] in an area that has nothing to do with his hacking skills. He ends up being assaulted by the ungrateful DamselInDistress.
21	* ChairReveal: Special Counsel.
22	* ChekhovsGun: Shaw tells Reese what would be needed to revive someone injected with the poison used by ISA. Team Machine puts that to use in saving her life after Hersh injects her.
23	* ChewBubblegum: Despite his OhCrap moment on realizing Shaw is still alive, Wilson engages in a gunfight with her while casually chewing gum.
24	* ClimacticMusic / SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "Future Starts Slow", by The Kills.
25	* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: This episode introduces blue boxes in the Machine's POV, which designate Indigo operatives who are directly following up on the Relevant list.
26	* CombatPragmatist: Shaw.
27	* ContinuityNod: Shaw works for Intelligence Support Activity, sent to kill the last person who stumbled upon the Machine in "No Good Deed".
28	* ContractOnTheHitman: Shaw and Cole are marked for termination by the Special Counsel after Cole starts asking questions about Research[[note]]The Machine[[/note]].
29	* DangerTakesABackseat: In the introduction, a drone camera POV shows Shaw killing Aquino this way.
30	* ADayInTheLimelight: For the relevant list and the counter-terrorist organisation "Northern Lights" which uses it to eliminate threats to national security.
31	* DeathFakedForYou: Hersh leaves Shaw dying on the street, but Team Machine is on hand to revive her. Finch then points out to Shaw that she's now officially dead, so can hide more effectively.
32	* DemotedToExtra: Every single member of Team Machine. Reese gets three scenes, Harold two, everyone else gets one. The POI is the primary focus character of the entire episode.
33	* DestinationDefenestration: Shaw rides a poor mook out of a second story window.
34	* DistaffCounterpart / SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Like Reese, Shaw leaves government service after being betrayed and losing someone important to her.
35	* DuctTapeForEverything: Including sealing a door so KnockoutGas can't escape.
36	* DyingDeclarationOfLove: Shaw's partner Michael Cole doesn't declare his feelings for her until he's bleeding out on the floor from multiple bullet wounds.
37	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: For [[PortmanteauCoupleName "Shoot"]]. Root tasers Shaw, ties her up and expresses her admiration before cheerfully threatening to torture her. Shaw admits she gets a kick out of this. Looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
38	* FacialHorror: What Shaw does to the mook wearing the gas mask.
39	* FailedASpotCheck: People really should learn to search Shaw when she's unconscious.
40	* FalseDichotomy:
41	** When discussing Shaw's plans after they fail to kill her.
42	-->'''Special Counsel:''' Is Shaw going to look into the Aquino situation or simply come after us for revenge?
43	-->'''Hersh:''' Both, she's a multitasker it's why we hired her.
44	** After Shaw gives Special Counsel the information on Aquino.
45	-->'''Special Counsel:''' You are a good soldier, you didn't want revenge, you wanted to protect the program.
46	-->'''Shaw:''' A good soldier does both. ''[Pulls a gun and shoots Wilson]''
47	* FieryCoverup: After removing the radioactive material the terrorists were using to make a dirty bomb, Shaw blows up their apartment to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident make it look like they accidentally killed themselves]].
48	* FiveFingerDiscount: Shaw needs weapons, treatment for her injury and a place to hide out. So she abducts a drug dealer off the street and forces him to take her to his pad.
49	* FormulaBreakingEpisode: In case the title sequence crashing wasn't a clue, this isn't the typical ''Person of Interest'' episode. It focuses on the other side of this universe, where government agents deal with the Relevant numbers (as opposed to the Irrelevant numbers, which Reese and Finch handle).
50	* GeniusBonus: The gas that only the Russians (and Shaw) are crazy enough to use is likely fentanyl, a knockout gas which may have been used during the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis. In that instance, the gas (naturally) affected both hostages and the Chechen terrorists who had taken them prisoner, and killed more than 100 hostages.
51	* GrenadeTag: Shaw tosses a stun grenade inside a gas mask. See FacialHorror.
52	* HeroOfAnotherStory: Shaw and Cole.
53	* HeroicSacrifice: It's even lampshaded with Cole's last words.
54	* IronicEcho: Shaw notes that the numbers never stop coming.
55	* LackOfEmpathy: "I have what's called [[http://www.psyweb.com/DSM_IV/jsp/Axis_II.jsp an Axis II personality disorder]] . . . That means that [[PreemptiveDeclaration when I kill you and your friends]], I’m not gonna really feel anything."
56	* LickedByTheDog: Bear licks the face of a drugged Shaw, then wakes her up with a bark.
57	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Cole, just before he dies.
58	-->'''Shaw:''' We need to move. Now.
59	-->'''Cole:''' ''[suffering from multiple gunshot wounds]'' Ah, that's gonna be tough.
60	* MenacingStroll: After Shaw plugs Wilson in the chest, she does a particularly awesome one with the SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "Future Starts Slow" kicking in.
61	* MookHorrorShow: That poor government hit team. The drug dealers also get the same treatment when Shaw reveals her suppressed back up gun.
62	* MyCard: Shaw rejects Finch's number the first time, but reluctantly accepts it at the end. She still isn't willing to trust them however, confiscating their phones and making off in their transport.
63	* NecessarilyEvil: The Special Counsel justifies his actions to Shaw this way. Shaw actually agrees with him.
64	* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Shaw spares the life of a cop and a drug dealer who helped her, even though they both saw her face.
65	* NoGuyWantsAnAmazon: Averted with Cole, who clearly has an unrequited attraction to his partner. [[LesYay Root admits to being quite a fan as well.]] Played straight with Leon Tao.
66	* NoKillLikeOverkill: Shaw shoves a flashbang inside a GasmaskMook's mask, then throws him through the window as a crash cushion, then empties a few shots into him as a CoupDeGrace.
67	* OnlyFriend: Cole for Shaw. And killing him is a [[MoralityChain very bad idea]].
68	* PreMortemOneLiner: "A good soldier does both."
69	* PullTheThread: What gets Cole killed.
70	* RevealingCoverUp: Cole's death was entirely unnecessary, as Shaw points out. As a patriot he could have been persuaded to remain silent, while Shaw herself accepts the NecessaryEvil of 'Research'.
71	* RightBehindMe: Shaw turns the corner and finds Wilson calling his hit team, asking if she and Cole and dead yet. Busted!
72	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Ultimately subverted; Shaw doesn't want to kill everyone. She hands over the evidence Cole found to the Special Counsel to show that his death was entirely unnecessary, then kills Wilson, the man who gave the kill order and messed up her own assassination. Special Counsel is impressed.
73	* RoguesGalleryShowcase: Root and the Special Counsel both want the POI for their own reasons.
74	* ShellShockSilence: Shaw after a flash-bang grenade goes off nearby.
75	* SheCleansUpNicely in a LittleBlackDress.
76	* SimilarSquad: Shaw and Cole have a Reese and Finch dynamic, but they're working the Relevant List instead.
77	* SoMuchForStealth: One drawback of using an attractive ActionGirl is that it [[DistractedByTheSexy draws the wrong kind of attention]]. A German cop follows her and [[DamselInDistress willingly intervenes when she's accosted by the two terrorists]]. Shaw is forced to kill them when they panic and draw their weapons. Later when Shaw notices Reese watching her, Cole convinces her ItsProbablyNothing and that Reese was just checking her out.
78	* SpecialEditionTitle: "You are being watched. The government has a secret system,--" Blue Screen of Death
79	* SpiesInAVan: Cole works MissionControl from a white van.
80	* TakingTheBullet: Cole for Shaw.
81	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Wilson sends in three separate tactical teams to take out two operatives - one of whom is a technician. [[SubvertedTrope It isn't enough]], partly due to Reese's intervention.
82	* TooKinkyToTorture: Shaw tells Root that she "kind of enjoys this sort of thing", while Root is threatening to burn her with a hot clothes iron. Root is quite glad to hear that, as she enjoys the torturing.
83	* TortureAlwaysWorks: Averted, which is why the unusual accuracy of Research is so suspicious.
84	-->'''Root:''' Did you honestly think the source of the numbers was Guantanamo? Some sad taxi driver rotting away in a cage somewhere? I mean, you should know torture almost never produces good information. (picks up hot iron) Well... almost never. Sadly, we are on a bit of a clock.
85	* TranquilFury: Shaw, after Cole is shot. Prior to that she's just grumpy.
86	* {{Ungrateful B\|astard}}itch: Shaw, due to being ProperlyParanoid. She shoots Reese on sight, assaults Leon Tao who's trying to revive her, and leaves our heroes stranded in the cemetery at the end of the episode.
87	* VehicleVanish: Inverted with Shaw's first appearance.
88	* WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut: Shaw digs a hollowpoint [[SelfSurgery out of herself]], to the fascination of the drug dealers watching. Earlier she digs out the bullets she put into a terrorist, as IWasNeverHere.
89	* WeWillMeetAgain: Root to Shaw, when her torture session is [[VillainousRescue interrupted by the arrival of an ISA hit team]].
90	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to Veronica Sinclair, last seen BoundAndGagged in the bathroom by Root? We see no indication the ISA squad killed her, so presumably Reese set her free.
91	* WrongGenreSavvy: Shaw initially thinks she's in an espionage drama like "24" instead of a science fiction show believing that the numbers originate from interrogations at Guantanamo. Root finds this extremely amusing and [[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith has a laugh at her expense]].
92	* YouDoNotWantToKnow: Unfortunately Cole does want to know, and it turns into HeKnowsTooMuch.

Context Recap / PersonOfInterestS02E16