Wait, That's My Grenade Launcher?

[rionaleonhart]

More Person of Interest! I'm up to episode 3.09, 'The Crossing'. I've actually got some things to say about plot developments this time, rather than just relentlessly cooing over my murder boyfriend John Reese, so I'll break out a cut.



Oh, it's fun to see Carter go completely off the rails.

'The Crossing': I'm deeply intrigued by the implication that Finch recruited people to help him protect the numbers - and saw them killed as a result - multiple times before Reese.

I'm not especially feeling Reese/Carter, or Reese saying that Carter saved him when I'm pretty sure what saved him was actually this job. At the start of the show, I went 'these guys seem to be the male and female lead, probably a solid chance they'll have a romance,' and then the show made absolutely no effort to establish any romantic tension between them and I concluded 'no, seems like they're just friends.' You can't make their relationship romantic now; you haven't done any work to set it up!

That said, I do like a) that the leadup to the kiss was them showing each other their scars and discussing times they nearly died, and b) Reese's 'are you fucking serious' expression when Finch starts talking into his earpiece immediately after the kiss.

Oh what the fuck! What the fuck what the fuck! What the fuck!!!

During the preceding episode, I did find myself thinking, 'Huh, Carter's getting a really interesting storyline. I'm slightly concerned they might be trying to give her a good send-off.' But she made it to the end of the episode, and I assumed she was fine! I hadn't thought through the fact that the end of the episode wasn't actually the end of the storyline! I was so worried about Fusco during the second half that it distracted me from any risk to Carter!

You see, Reese, this is what happens when you don't just kiss someone in a friends-with-benefits way. You can't attempt romance; it's dangerous.

Poor Carter! Poor Taylor! I wasn't braced for this at all.



This show is an adventure.

Comments

[corvidology]

The kiss was not in the script.

Caviezel just went for it and Henson went along with it and then they decided to keep it.

Yes, I'll cheerfully admit I'm a Finch/Reese shipper but I still think the 'you saved me' (after he'd clearly stated earlier that Finch had) and then that unscripted kiss pushed things out of whack.

[rionaleonhart]

Oh, huh, that's interesting to know! 'It wasn't actually written into the script' definitely helps to explain why that kiss didn't entirely seem to fit the writing of Reese and Carter's relationship throughout the show; the actors were just shippers in the perfect position to cement their ship, I guess. (Although 'You saved me', which also felt at odds with the rest of the show's writing, presumably doesn't have the same excuse.)

[corvidology]

It was particularly dodgy as he didn't discuss it with Henson, he just did it. Ack!

The 'you saved me' bit had the whole fandom going 'we couldn't have possibly remembered that wrong, could we?"

[felis]

(Although 'You saved me', which also felt at odds with the rest of the show's writing, presumably doesn't have the same excuse.)

This. Given the unscripted kiss, Caviezel sure deserved his part of the blame for the WTF of it all, but he wasn't the one who wrote the scene in a way that made him think this would be a good thing to try in the first place, and he also wasn't the one who kept this take instead of the alternate ones. They wrote the out-of-nowhere "you saved me" retcon and then doubled down on it - presumably because they thought they needed to make her death more impactful for Reese this way, which, argh.

So, yeah, "The Crossing" was ... a thing, and there was a lot of anger at the time (not least because people didn't know that Henson had wanted to leave - which still doesn't mean they had to kill her anyway). I don't want to say too much about it, because spoilers, but I will admit that in retrospect, it was a symptom of something that somewhat broke the show for me in the end. I didn't ragequit or anything, there was enough to keep me interested, but I watched it differently afterwards.

[sholio]

I had stopped watching the show before it got to this point - not for any specific noping-out reasons; just because there were a LOT of mid-2010s shows that I watched a season or two of, and liked, but never finished due to being extremely busy at that point in my life - but I did know about this development and was wondering how you were going to react when you got there! Even as someone who was no longer watching the show then (but with vague intentions of catching up on it eventually) I was pretty blindsided; at that point, I had this show in my head slotted pretty firmly into the "procedural" category and it never seemed like a show that was going to kill off a major character mid-run like that.

I *was* a bit relieved that you seemed more invested in Reese and Reese/Finch so it wouldn't be quite as much of a blow; if you'd been all about Carter I would probably have spent the last couple of posts going "oh nooooooo."

[rionaleonhart]

I can imagine it must have been a shock. Tonally, it's a dark enough show for me to believe it might kill off a major character, but it doesn't have that many major characters, so I didn't think it could afford to!

you seemed more invested in Reese and Reese/Finch

Hey, Reese/Zoe and Finch/the Machine is where it's at! (Although I do love Reese and Finch's relationship.)

[sideways]

Ah... The Crossing. At least one of my friends ragequit the show right here, and honestly, I still have mixed feelings about it when there were ample opportunities to write the actor out as she wished without killing an excellent character with a lot to live for. She's been offered jobs at other agencies before! She has Taylor to think about! Anything, really.

I at least appreciate they give the death the full emotional weight it deserves, both in the episode and the fallout.

Reese/Carter is blithely erased from my personal canon, lol. Agree, there just wasn't enough build-up, and I LIKED that they mattered to each other as much as they did regardless of it being a platonic friendship.

[rionaleonhart]

I at least appreciate they give the death the full emotional weight it deserves, both in the episode and the fallout.

I definitely agree on this. Beecher and Laskey (while obviously much more minor) just left me feeling their deaths were a bit of a waste, but they knocked it out of the park with Carter. The death itself may have been sudden, but Carter got the chance to really shine in the storyline leading up to it, and I thought the way the following episode tackled the fallout was very powerful. I'm shocked and sad, but I'm satisfied with the way the development was handled.

(That said, I can also understand why some people might have ragequit!)

I LIKED that they mattered to each other as much as they did regardless of it being a platonic friendship.

Yes! I liked the dynamic that had been established, and it was confusing to have the show go 'oh, by the way, this relationship was actually something else'.

[sideways]

It's not like "Hurt" wasn't already an emotionally heavy song, but after The Crossing... TAT

[larissa]

most of my memories of this show are foggy (though i loved watching it, and am dying to rewatch thanks to your posts!) but i do remember this part! it was quite a choice. as i recall the actress left to go work on another show that's been quite successful, but the character writing here is a bit iffy. ah, well.

do hope you enjoy the rest of the show, it's quite a ride!

[rionaleonhart]

It's certainly a memorable moment! I hit this part and found myself wondering whether everyone who's been following my Person of Interest posts has been waiting for me to get here so they could see my reaction. Good to know the departure was the actor's choice, and that they took the time to give her a good sendoff even if it wasn't originally a planned development.

[thawrecka]

I wasn't as mad as other people about the Reese/Carter moment at the time, because I could see Reese feeling that way in that moment, but I do feel like the show loses something after without Carter, not least because Henson is a tremendously charismatic actor.

[rionaleonhart]

because I could see Reese feeling that way in that moment

You're not wrong, but this also makes me wonder whether Reese would have kissed anyone he cared about and happened to be trapped in that situation with. Reese kisses Finch, resulting in a lot of confused feelings. Reese kisses Fusco, mainly just resulting in confusion. Reese kisses Shaw and immediately gets his neck broken.

I do miss Carter! It feels strange not to have her around.

[thawrecka]

The image of Reese kissing Fusco, leaving everyone very confused, will probably never leave my brain. A+, I actually laughed out loud.

[facethestrange]

"relentlessly cooing over my murder boyfriend John Reese"
I don't even know him and I'm like 'that's an extremely valid activity tho'. :D

[rionaleonhart]

I'm glad to have your support!

[owlmoose]

Coming in 15 minutes late with Starbucks to be an outlier and say that I did see chemistry and romantic tension between Reese and Carter in earlier episodes leading up to this moment. So I actually found the kiss satisfying (although I didn't know that it was a character decision by Caviezel rather than being scripted). Regarding the whole "you saved me" bit I agree with thawreka that I could see Reese feeling that way in the moment given that the two of them were trapped together and facing likely death.

Cater being killed off rather than written out some other way is my biggest beef with this show overall, although I do see why they thought it was a sensible end to her arc and am glad that they gave the fallout from her death the weight it deserved.

[rionaleonhart]

I did see chemistry and romantic tension between Reese and Carter in earlier episodes leading up to this moment.

Ah, that's interesting! It makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing; maybe it was a case of 'the setup for this romantic moment went over my head' (entirely possible; I'm very oblivious, and my interest in Reese/Zoe may have blinded me to other possibilities) rather than 'they didn't bother to do the setup for this romantic moment'.