TV Review: PERSON OF INTEREST - Bad Code 2.2 - The ROOT of The Problem

Well correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is the first ever episode of Person of Interest where we have not had a weekly SSN delivered by the machine, not that it mattered in the case of "Bad Code" because there was so much other stuff going on that small detail like that really didn't matter at all. As promised "Bad Code" took Reese and Carter on a road trip to Texas whilst Fusco was left at home dog sitting and digging up leads on the Alicia Corwin investigation, so, not much fun for him but plenty to be had by us as Fusco looking after a dog and attempting to speak Dutch was hilarious, whilst story lines were being developed into dodgy government officials and the story of Root has now been fully explained. I loved the way we had our story recap again this week with the CCTV footage being used before whizzing us back to 1991 to hear of a girl named Hanna Frey, could this be the weekly POI? No.

What was brilliant to see this week is Carter and Reese working together, side by side as apposed to Reese just delivering messages over the phone, the pair made a great team and its something I would definitely like to see more of as the season rolls on. The mission of "finding Finch" took them to Texas where 20 years earlier a girl by the name of Hanna had disappeared without a trace, believing her to be the now infamous Root, Reese had Carter on the case with local police whilst he decided that there was a quicker way to get answers, walk into a bar dressed in a suit and kick a little ass, effective and always seems to work.

I enjoyed the backing story to Root's character as we got to see the reason she seeks revenge, turns out Root is actually Sam, a friend of the murdered Hanna who left home following Hanna's disappearance, she then went on to rob some gangsters of $100k only to put the transfer name on the account as Trent the name of the man who kidnapped her friend Hanna. Turns out Root has actually been a bit of a computer whizz all her life, she completed that Oregon Trail game pretty quick, not that I have even heard of that game but it kind of reminded me of my old Acorn Electron, pretty retro huh! With everything Root has been through its no wonder she turned out the way she did, doing the right thing as a youngster and telling people what she saw the night Hanna went missing done her no favours at all, giving her the belief that all humans are instilled with "Bad Code", problem is back in the present day, kidnapped Finch does not believe that, his belief in humanity is completely different.

After all was said and done in this episode I'm still a little at a loss of what exactly Root wants with the machine, I don't think she is a bad person per-se but what does she want with a machine which detects acts of crime early? Finch of course uses it (although he probably shouldn't be, I'll explain later) for good and sees Mr Reese as the "Good Code" which the machine instills, preventing minor crimes before they happen, helping good people stay safe, what reason other than that would Root want the machine? Does she just want to destroy it and all of its creators? Or is she planning on becoming a one woman band John Reese, no offence Root but I don't think your all that kick ass, clever yes, but kick ass, No.

Away from the story of Root and Finch is the seemingly bigger plot bubbling away in the background as it did during the first season, the White House lawyer Denton Weeks who Root also kidnapped this week, plus all of the officials who have made base for themselves in New York City to find a lead on the Alicia Corwin case, the head of this group would seem to be one of the few people in the world who knows about the existence of the machine and he needs to sever all ties on the Alicia Corwin case so no one else can find out what it leads to. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they develop the story here, although Root is probably going to be the underlying antagonist of the season it would seem that these guys are going to be the more immediate threat to Finch and Reese, this season Elias and HR.

What I found quite interesting about Denton Weeks was his question to Finch, right before he attempted to shoot him he asked can the machine be got to? Finch answered the question like a politician, he didn't really answer it, he simply said that the machine could not be controlled remotely, so I guess that yeah it can be got to as long as you know where it is. I'm going to presume that the machine and its servers are not in the old library which Finch uses as his office and that maybe they are in that town mentioned in the first season which has no Internet or telephone access. That begs a question though, if the machine can not be controlled remotely how does Finch use it? He always said there were no back doors built into the system, and not to mention Root has already hacked it once that we know of.

"Bad Code" was a real step away from the usual procedural of Person of Interest but that didn't detract from my enjoyment at all, I thought this was a solid episode where a a lot of answers were given whilst new ones were also posed. It's nice to see Reese and Finch back together again, although I think Finch's rescue could have been a bit more dramatic. I think next week will be back to Person of Interest as we know it with Reese following a lead dealt by the machine whilst the backing story of the machine and government officials simmers away nicely in the background.

Side Notes;

Don't know why I haven't noticed this before, but although a little on the crazy side, how HOT is Root (Amy Acker), also from Texas in real life incidentally.

Finch has a new roommate thanks to his lavish gift of an apartment to Reese at the end of the first season the dog will have to live with him, time to get the Dutch dictionary out Finch!

Yeah it's worth mentioning again, Amy Acker!!!!