Line #100 Recap/PersonOfInterestS05E04


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2	%% Zero-context and low-context examples are not allowed. All such examples have been commented out. Please do not re-add these examples unless you can provide meaningful context for them.
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6	'''Season 5, Episode 4'''
7	!6,741
8
9	->''Do you remember the first time you realized there was something greater than yourself? Some people never experience this state of grace. Not everyone is meant to, but you merely have to ask, and we can show you the face of a god, or we can wipe your slate clean. Which one will it be, Sameen? The choice is yours.''
10	-->-- '''Lambert'''
11
12	Shaw escapes her captors, who have been experimenting on her ever since [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E11 her capture]], attempting to convert her into an asset. She reunites with Team Machine, but seems a bit ''too'' eager to strike back at Samaritan. Her paranoia and reckless behavior lead the team, and Shaw herself, to question whether or not she can be trusted, or if months of psychological torture at Samaritan's hands have already left their mark...
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14	----
15	!!Tropes present in this episode include:
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17	%%* AbandonedPlayground
18	* BatmanGambit:
19	** Shaw openly threatens to kill a hapless corner store employee, knowing that it'll get Team Machine's attention as well as Samaritan's.
20	--->'''Shaw:''' Looks like your number's up.
21	** Greer knew that Shaw would hunt him down, under the assumption that he would have a way to shut down Samaritan. He implanted a USB drive under his skin, which supposedly contained Samaritan's kill-switch but was actually a trap. Team Machine takes the bait.
22	%%* BatterUp: Shaw finds the sporting goods section handy.
23	* BattleDiscretionShot: Reese taking care of the Samaritan agents in the church. Justified when we find that it's all taking place in Shaw's head anyway.
24	* BilingualBonus: Shaw converses with a cab driver in Farsi.
25	%%* BloodyHandprint: Preceded by bloody hands.
26	* BloodyHorror: [[invoked]] The episode is full of NauseaFuel. Implants being put in and cut out, self-induced ''brain surgery'', operation on a subway car, you name it.
27	%%* BoundAndGagged: Lambert and the store worker.
28	%%* TheBusCameBack: Shaw's back!
29	%%* BookEnds
30	%%* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Shaw.
31	* BreakTheBadass: What the Samaritan team has been trying to do to Shaw.
32	* BulletproofHumanShield: Shaw uses first the nurse against Lambert's fire, then Lambert himself.
33	* CallBack:
34	** Root mentions [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E13 having seen Samaritan's "brain accessories" before]].
35	** Root and Shaw reminisce about [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E16 how they first met]], specifically Root's attempted torture by iron.
36	** Lambert asks Shaw about [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E16 Michael Cole]] and [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E05 Joseph Kent]].
37	** Reese is [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E20 once again]] shot InTheBack by a colleague.
38	** An ASI runs through thousands of simulations as in "If-Then-Else". As before, Shaw is still a WildCard.
39	* ClickHello: Reese and Root encountering Finch in the church.
40	* ColdBloodedTorture: Of a psychological variety, rather than physical. Greer doesn't even blink when he orders that the doctors reset the simulation.
41	* ConvenientEscapeBoat: There's a high-speed boat moored off-shore where Shaw escapes. Justified as it's a fake escape.
42	* ConvenientlyPlacedSharpThing: Shaw holds onto a shard of mirror, and uses it to cut her straps.
43	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind
44	* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Root mentions that she's wanted to tear Samaritan apart and "turn it into an Atari", but decides that's too nice. "Maybe a Casio."
45	* DarkerAndEdgier: One of, if not ''the'' darkest and most {{paranoia\|Fuel}}-inducing episode of the series.
46	* DecapitatedArmy: Shaw urges Team Machine to kill Greer for this reason. However when Greer is snatched, he points out that his life is irrelevant to Samaritan. But Shaw is actually targeting Samaritan itself, so the trope still applies.
47	* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Root holding a dead Shaw.
48	* DownerEnding: Within the simulation, Reese and Shaw are dead, and Samaritan's operatives are closing in on the Machine's location. Outside of the simulation, Shaw is still captive and Team Machine still has no clue as to her whereabouts.
49	* DrivenToSuicide: Shaw cannot bring herself to kill Root, turning the gun on herself to escape Samaritan's control. It's implied that every iteration of the simulation has ended this way.
50	* EvilGloating: Greer when he reveals his BatmanGambit to Shaw.
51	* ExactWords: Shaw promises to Lambert that the first thing she'll do after getting out of her straps is to make him bleed. She later does exactly that by shooting him in the elevator.
52	%%* ExhaustedEyeBags: Shaw sports those.
53	%%* EyeAwaken
54	%%* {{Fanservice}}: [[WillTheyOrWontThey Root and Shaw?]]
55	* FightingFromTheInside: {{Subverted\|Trope}}. Shaw fights herself enough to [[DrivenToSuicide drive herself into suicide]] rather than killing Root. Except that it was just a simulation, and Shaw remains helplessly captured in reality with perpetual MindRape committed on her.
56	* FinaleTitleDrop: At the end of the episode. It was simulation #6,741 all along.
57	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
58	** The episode focuses ''entirely'' on Shaw. Key plot points, such as Finch plugging in the USB drive and seemingly about to be assaulted by Samaritan operatives is left off-screen. The subway HQ is never featured, and Reese also leaves to fight Samaritan operatives on the surface, a battle we never get to see. It's because it's all a simulation on Shaw conducted by Samaritan. Also, since the episode began, there were tons of tips about it being a simulation and not reality.
59	** Shaw tells Lambert that the first thing she'll do when she escapes is "make you bleed." It takes her a few episodes, but [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS05E08 she eventually does it for real]].
60	* GoryDiscretionShot: When Root cuts away the chip from Shaw.
61	* HappyPlace: Shaw mentions that her ISA training instructed agents under torture to "take their mind somewhere else. Some place safe."
62	-->'''Root:''' Where did you go?\
63	'''Shaw:''' Nowhere. The training was bull. There was no safe place. No escape.
64	** However, at the end of the episode, she confesses to Root that there ''was'' a place she went to:
65	--->'''Shaw:''' ...here. With you. [[OneTrueLove You were my safe place.]]
66	* HeroicSuicide: Shaw kills herself to stop Samaritan from using her as a pawn (more specifically because she can't bring herself to kill Root, even after shooting John). Fortunately, it's all a simulation, so she's still alive. Unfortunately, that means she's still in Samaritan's custody, and they can just try again.
67	* HopeSpot: Shaw is reunited with Team Machine who get the brainwashing chip out of Shaw's head...only she's still feeling the effect as the chip is just a placebo.
68	* HypocriticalHumor: Shaw gets up Team Machine for not trusting her, which she found out because she planted a bug on them.
69	* IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: Root to Shaw after she goes all ManchurianAgent. Shaw wins the fight, but only by killing herself.
70	* InTheBack: Shaw shoots Reese when he turns his back on her.
71	* IronicEcho: "Dead or alive?" First Lambert to Shaw, asking about figures from her past. Later Shaw to Lambert, about whether he'd survive being force-fed BZD.
72	-->'''Shaw''': Alive! Well what do you know. [[IronicEcho Now that's what I call being a team player.]]
73	* LotusEaterMachine: Samaritan has been letting her "escape" over and over, in the hopes that she'll either lead them to the Machine's location, or go full ManchurianAgent and kill her friends.
74	* ManchurianAgent: Greer reveals that they broke her months ago, and that his BatmanGambit was actually ''her'' idea. She overcomes her programming long enough to kill Greer and [[DrivenToSuicide herself]], but still kills Reese in between.
75	* ModestyBedsheet: Though averted with ToplessnessFromTheBack at one stage.
76	* MindProbe: Samaritan knows Shaw is TooKinkyToTorture, so it instead has these plugged on Shaw and runs simulations in an attempt to pry out the location of the Machine from her.
77	* MindRape: Happens perpetually to Shaw.
78	* MissingTime: Shaw keeps having blackouts, waking up with bloody hands or holding explosives and a pistol.
79	* OhCrap: Lambert's face is priceless when Shaw shows him the BZD she's about to make him drink.
80	* OneWomanArmy: Shaw's escape from the Samaritan-run facility.
81	* PityTheKidnapper: Lambert mentions that Shaw has killed six men during her incarceration.
82	* PlayingPossum: Shaw urges Reese to stay down after he's shot, as Samaritan agents are watching them from the end of the alley.
83	* PreClimaxClimax: Shaw initially turns down Root's IntimatePsychotherapy, but quickly decides that as they're unlikely to get out of this situation, they might as well resolve their UnresolvedSexualTension.
84	%%* [[ProfessionalsDoItOnDesks Professional Assassins Do It On Desks]]
85	* ProperlyParanoid
86	** Shaw has the cab going in circles for hours until she's sure she's not being tailed.
87	** Finch is reluctant to bring Shaw near the Machine until they've confirmed she's not turned or being tracked.
88	** Shaw thinks that Greer would have a means of turning Samaritan off, which he'd never trust to someone else.
89	* PutDownYourGunAndStepAway:
90	-->'''Root:''' Whoever's back there, kick over your weapon, and I'll let you [[KneeCapping keep full mobility]].
91	* RedHerring: The audience is led to believe that Shaw would turn into asset 6,741, with Samaritan's asset numbers going in the thousands now, and with Shaw being labeled a potential asset. That or that 6741 would mean 6,741 hours of Shaw being kept under Samaritan's clutches.
92	* RescueSex: Root offers to "repay the favor" of Shaw saving her at the stock exchange. Shaw isn't in the mood, but reconsiders and they have a PreClimaxClimax instead.
93	* ResetButton: The whole episode is revealed to be a simulation, meaning the deaths of Greer, Reese, and Shaw never happened.
94	* RewatchBonus: TheReveal casts much of the episode in a ''very'' different light.
95	* SecondLawOfMetafictionalThermodynamics: It's all happening inside Shaw's head, so why not kill off three major characters?
96	* SeekingSanctuary: Finch notes the {{irony}} that the one place to hide from a machine god is in a church.
97	* SelfSurgery: When Shaw tries to cut out her chip, she experiences MissingTime and wakes up with bloody hands, the chip apparently still in place.
98	* SexyDiscretionShot: Root finally gets to "return the favor" for TheBigDamnKiss from Shaw. The scene quickly pans to [[DestructoNookie their trail of destruction]].
99	* ScarSurvey: When Root starts with this trope, Shaw has to inform her the scars are from her previous work as a government assassin, whereas Samaritan's torture was more psychological.
100	%%* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: Shaw
101	* TitleByNumber: Referring to the number of the simulation that's depicted.
102	* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Shaw realizing Team Machine are going to do field surgery with a buck knife on a moving subway car. And she's the only qualified doctor on the team!
103	%%* TortureChamberEpisode
104	* TreasureChestCavity: Greer hiding the USB drive in his arm.
105	* TrickedIntoEscaping: Played with, but ultimately averted as Shaw never escaped in the first place.
106	* TrickAndFollowPloy: A virtual version, allowing Greer to simply reset and try again when it fails.
107	%%* TrackingChip: Team Machine naturally suspect this.
108	* UnfriendlyFire: Shaw knocks aside Greer's gun, which discharges and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone wounds Root]].
109	* VirtualRealityInterrogation: Samaritan has apparently been performing these on Shaw for ''months''.
110	* WalkInChimeIn: Reese and Root are arguing over whether Shaw can be trusted, when the latter joins their conversation, having been bugging them.
111	%%* WhamEpisode
112	* WhatTheHellHero: Shaw accuses Finch of not looking hard enough for her. Finch admits he didn't do so because he assumed Shaw was dead.
113	* WholePlotReference: to ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "[[Recap/ThePrisonerE2TheChimesOfBigBen The Chimes of Big Ben]]."
114	%%* WhiteShirtOfDeath: Reese when Shaw shoots him.
115	* YankTheDogsChain: Shaw's heartwarming reunion with Root (and [[TeamPet Bear]]) wasn't real, and she won't remember it in the next iteration.
116	%%* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: Shaw realizes she's imprisoned on an island.
117	* YouMustBeCold: Shaw ''is'' cold, so Root gives Shaw her leather jacket. She offers IntimatePsychotherapy as well.
118	* YoureInsane: Greer's expression is this when Shaw is about to cut his arm open. Though he knew it was going to happen...

Context Recap / PersonOfInterestS05E04