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Not going to click the spoiler obvs but I understand this episode is a bit of a game changer...?
TV - Person of Interest
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NOTE: The Following Is Filled With Spoilers For Episode 100
The 100th episode of Person of Interest was a hugely eventful one, and ultimately a tragic installment that saw the team losing one of their own - even as the Machine took on a very familiar persona.
I spoke to Person of Interest’s executive producers, Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman, about the death of Root (Amy Acker) in “The Day the World Went Away,” how and why they chose to kill her and how Root lives on, in a way, thanks to the Machine taking on her personality (and voice) for itself.
IGN TV: Obviously, this isn’t the first time you've had a big death happen on the show, but how did you decide on this fate for Root?
Jonathan Nolan: You know, we had been talking about this for a long time, way back to teasing it at Comic-Con just after Season 2. We had sat down and started to break Root's arc at the end of that season. She goes into a lunatic asylum, and we started to break and write her arc for the beginning [of Season 3] where there's this redemptive path, sort of an inflection point for her character. She's desperate to find the Machine. She fights her way to an empty warehouse, and the Machine has moved itself; kind of heartbreaking. So we sat down and charted out her path going forward. At this point we knew we were obsessed with Amy Acker, who's an incredible actor and become a dear friend. Just a lovely person, amazing actor. So we knew we wanted her to be a series regular, and we wanted to build her. We wanted her redemptive story to be believable, because we've invested in this great villain. You don't want to just throw that away and have her become cuddly. But such a fun character to write, and we knew we needed a great arc for her. So we started planning at that point, and then obviously some unexpected turns along the way, most notably her relationship with Shaw, which was awesome to write and see with those two actors. But when we came to the beginning of this season last year, we sat down and said, "Look, this is the plan we had in mind. Do we really want to go this way?" And our only hesitation was we loved working with Amy so much, so what made up for not getting to write her as Root was getting to write her as the Machine, which was always an incredibly cool development and fulfilled the mandate for our show of over the seasons building an AI and anthropomorphizing it one piece at a time, until finally, right at the end here, you put a name and a face to it.
IGN: It's very rare that people know exactly when their show is going to end. You didn't know 100% this was the final season when you made it, although it seemed very likely. If there had been two or three more years of Person of Interest, would things have gone very differently this year? Or did it just seem like this was the right time, regardless?
Greg Plageman: Well, I certainly think, Eric, that things got more compressed. There was more story we could tell, there was more story we could have done with Elias and the merging of the municipal world with the Samaritan and Machine world. That happened in a rather compressed manner. Some of those things we could have taken more time with -- certainly down the stretch of the last couple of episodes, we were compressing some things. I don't think it adversely affected the storytelling, and I do believe we acquitted ourselves well. We went out in a way that I'm proud of. It's a show that I think people will remember fondly, and we always endeavor to tell this incredibly -- when you get over 100 episodes on broadcast television, it's very difficult to sustain a larger narrative, a bigger story, and then finish it off in a way, because you rarely get the notice that this is the last season. And Jonah and I made the decision at the beginning of the year that this was probably it; we should write to that. And I think that in some ways is a gift, certainly on broadcast television, because most people don't know, as witnessed from a number shows that got a sudden cancelation these past few weeks.
IGN: I watched the episode twice now, and first time I didn't see her death coming, and then I watched it the second time and went, "Oh, Root talks about death a lot in this!" Was that one of those things where you wanted to play it carefully because you didn't want to obviously telegraph, "I'm dying in this episode!", while still including these very interesting things she has to say about her philosophy on the Machine and what it means to their existence beyond death?
Nolan: It's a profound point that we're trying to make in that moment, and one that we had three minutes in the middle of a car chase to make, just because we had an attenuated season -- and also because you don't want to telegraph it, as you said Eric. But the idea is that any kind of AI that would be able to anticipate your next move -- and that's really what the machine is there for; it's about reading intent, malicious intent, and hundreds of millions of people simultaneously -- the reality of what that means is you'd have to be able to simulate a person to such a fine degree that you'd essentially have to build a model of that person internally, right? So the Machine has a model, and we've seen it in "If-Then-Else" and then this year, you know, the Machine's counterpart, Samaritan, in "6741" -- and with Samaritan, less so, because it's not as good as the Machine -- but its perfectly capable of simulating not just the world, but our characters within that world. So the implicit idea of there's a literal backup of Root and Reese and Elias and Finch and all of the other people in Team Machine inside the Machine -- as well as all the bad guys; I mean, Greer's in there somewhere too, right? It's the Walt Whitman line: "The Machine literally contains multitudes." And there's something so beautiful…
Greg and I have always played in this show with all of the amazing things that are to come, and this is one of those paradoxical things that's to come. For the Machine to do its job, it would have to contain us inside itself. It's the Venn diagram thing. The set that contains itself. There's a copy of the Machine somewhere in there too, right? You can play these games ad infinitum, and if CBS gave us a few more seasons to do it, we probably would be playing with some fairly loopy quests. But here the point that Root is making is that in their advocacy and protection of the Machine, they've basically created a system in which some trace memory of them lives forever, and there's something to me very beautiful about that. It's not a cop-out, it's an evolution of a character, a Machine that has been, for five seasons, casting about looking for a voice for an avatar, and has settled, for three seasons now, on Root as its analog interface. Well, this is the ultimate evolution of that.
IGN: Root was the first person to so personalize the Machine and call it "she.” Obviously, she didn't want to die, but it feels as though she would be, basically, honored by the Machine choosing her voice.
Plageman: For me, it feels like the perfect bookend. Think about how Root's character was introduced on this show; like her endeavor to figure out, what was this thing? She knew there was something else. When we saw the flashbacks of young Root, she felt adamantly that human beings were bad code, and trying to find Harold Finch, track down Harold Finch -- she abducted Harold, the father of the Machine. She is its purest acolyte. I feel like the Machine was Root's first love, in some ways, and the way she went out, protecting the father of the Machine and understanding the ultimate import of this in the world, is perfect. It's perfect.
Nolan: Yeah, and not to sound like an asshole, but her name is Root, right? The Root directory of Linux-based computer system. I mean, we’re not Babe Ruth calling our shots here, but I think this is definitely the direction we've been headed for an awfully long time.
IGN: Let's talk about potential fan reaction. If you create a character, you want people to feel something when they die and if they don't feel anything, then you haven't done your job. Presumably many people will be upset just because they love her, but then of course is the fact that you wrote and filmed this episode last year and now it's going to air in the wake of several much-discussed lesbian deaths that happened on TV shows this spring and larger conversations about certain tropes. Knowing that there are going to be some fans who are very upset and some who may be angry, what would you say as far as Root and who she was on the show, combined with what she might represent to some people as a TV character?
Nolan: Listen, you don't get to tell people whether they can be angry or not about something, right? I mean, that's their decision. I think I'll be disappointed if we get lumped in with those other things. I don't watch those shows, so I can't speak to the specifics of what they did with their characters. But to the degree that we looked at what was happening, and as you pointed out we made this episode a long time ago… Our debate was simply about, how can we kill off an actor and a character who we love writing so much? I think that the bigger problem with those moments, when you do it wrong and when it feels like a trope, is when it's handled cynically, right? That's what you felt like when you were feeling coming off of people. It's like, don't do this as a bulls**t stunt or ploy to drive up your ratings. Again, I don't watch those shows, I have no idea what the motivation was for the showrunners and writers involved. Who knows? But the feeling you got was that people felt used because characters they've invested in and loved were used for cheap dramatic effect. And if anyone feels that way about this episode, I'll be very, very disappointed, because we spent years building this storyline, and Root is one of my favorite characters to write of all time. I know, Greg, you feel the same way. There is nothing but respect and love and grief for us that this is where the story went. But you don't want to **** around with the beauty of the journey that this character had gone on. You didn't want to step back from this kind of transcendent moment with this character. And that really is what it is for us, not a cheap kind of "Oops!" punchline like, “We just broke one of our toys." This is one of our characters becoming a ****ing god. It's kind of a different thing.
IGN: In terms of predicting certain things some fans will likely bring up, Shaw and Root had their one kiss before Shaw got shot last year, but that was it, except for the simulation episode. It seemed like something might happen when they're holding hands in this episode, but then the bad guys show up, and ultimately, we only saw them sleep together in the simulation. This was not a show that was telling a lot of love stories, to be sure, but this relationship did become a very big one. Did you discuss whether they should, in any capacity, ever be a true onscreen “couple,” or did it just not feel right for who these people were, as far as the lives they were leading?
Plageman: Honestly, Eric, that didn't even really occur to us. I think the assumption would have been that these characters have consummated this relationship, whether we saw it onscreen in present day or not. Nathan Ingram's never been alive on this show and no one's questioned the emotional connection that Harold Finch has had with Nathan Ingram. That just seems to be a pathetically literal interpretation of something that cheapens it in some way to me. I don't know…
Nolan: And the way our season was structured and the limitations that we had, given Sarah Shahi’s pregnancy and dealing with twins, we had her for a limited window. So our way of addressing their love story, this is the way we went with it. So the limitations of production schedule and the way the story went, by the time we got the characters back together again, part of which was a function of the larger story we were telling… We didn't want it to be easy for Shaw to break out of Samaritan's grasp, and indeed that was one of the first clues, in "6741," that this wasn't quite right; that something was rotten in Denmark, because it was too easy for her to get away. It's been an epic journey for her. So the way it made the most sense for us to see that happy moment for them was in Shaw's imagination. And to Greg's point, I think also it’s “pathetically literal” to imagine that that's not meaningful. I know when I watch that episode, there's a relief and a joy, and that doesn't get taken away - the fact that Shaw was able to go to that place, because Shaw was always the one who was on the fence about commitment and her feelings, so to see that this is her safe place, like that scene ****ing kills me. Every time I watch it, the emotion is no less real that Shaw is experiencing it alone.
If anyone gets to the end of this season and feels like they were robbed of something emotionally between those characters, like I said, I'll feel terrible about that. A TV show kind of becomes your extended family, and people get very close to these characters, but it's also a drama. It's a story that we've said from the beginning has stakes. That's always been part of our show. I'm just thrilled we got a chance to explore that emotional intimacy between those characters. And then you didn't feel like you wanted to cram some in in the episode and a half that we have in which Shaw returns. It just didn't feel right to cram it in there. So to Greg's point, the audience is free to use their imaginations, aided by some of the wonderful footage from episode four, to imagine that our characters got some time alone together.
IGN: What can you tease about what's to come? It’s very in character for Shaw to outwardly stay stoic when they get that phone call that Root has died. Shaw is not a character who's going to start screaming to the skies. That's not who she is.
Plageman: [Laughs] That would have been kind of awesome though. "NOOOOO!"
IGN: [Laughs] But we do see Finch going to kind of a scary place, certainly for who he is.
Plageman: Michael Emerson is such a phenomenally gifted actor. A guy who can animate a computer screen in an emotional way is clearly someone harboring magical abilities. He was always sort of viewed in some ways coming from Lost as this villain, and I think what was really interesting about Harold on this show is that he evolved as the moral compass of the show, as someone who refused to allow the Machine to dictate if they should kill a senator, who always held his own code and that conversation he has with that federal agent and when he said, "I have tried. I have always tried to maintain that…" I think there's something revelatory and exciting when a character with the heft of Elias says, "You're the dark one, Harold. You're the one we should be afraid of." And there's that thing we're always waiting for, and Jonah talked about this at the beginning here, it's like, we want to see that Finch unleashed. We have to give that character license to and why and what does it mean? He's carried this tremendous baggage. The loss of so many people close to him - Nathan Ingram, pushing away Grace…. Everyone close to him who's lost someone, it becomes a tipping point in the 100th episode. And to see that turn -- Michael Emerson is thrilling.
IGN: She might not be screaming to the heavens, but how is Shaw going to react? Also, she didn’t hear the Machine with Root's voice yet, so how might she process that?
Nolan: Yeah, it's a fun moment. I wish we had a little more time to explore these moments, but the pace of our show has always been a bit frantic. I think the way that I would put it is that the relationship between Root and Shaw changes, but it doesn't end. It takes on a new dimension. So there are more great moments for those two characters in store -- the idea that that relationship continues on into the infinite is something fun to play with.
IGN: By the way, when you mentioned Root basically becomes a “****ing god,” it made me think that I do love that Amy Acker is the go-to on playing a character who dies in the fifth season of a show and then lives on as a god.
Nolan: Yep! We just wanted to keep that tradition going. You get typecast in interesting ways, and I think this is clearly Amy's gift.
IGN: Not a bad one!
Nolan: I think it would be a reflection of the fact that for both us and I'm sure Joss [Whedon] – and was it Marti Noxon on Angel? No...
IGN: It was Jeffrey Bell working with Joss on the final season of Angel.
Nolan: There you go! Clearly, a lot of people see in Amy such range that she could carry both. Yeah, that's what you're looking at -- an actor with such ****ing sublime talent that it invites the maximum range.
Plageman: I think I would take that deal, by the way. Transcendence, you know?
Nolan: Totally. Isn't that what we're supposed to get when we hit syndication? Netflix transcendence!
IGN: [Laughs] It also occurred to me, watching this episode, how Elias's death was very impactful as well and both he and Root were introduced as villains, as sort of scary antagonists, and then they die in the same episode, and it's very sad to see both of them go. It is great to realize the journey you'd taken both of them on?
Plageman: For me, I think that's so refreshing, that you actually recognize that. [Laughs] I've never underestimated the audience's capacity to forgive. You introduce these characters, no matter what the body count might be on them, if they show a turn and they can become an ally, it's remarkable how much the audience can forgive -- and how much you feel for them.
Nolan: Viewers are ****ing weird, man. We got that note halfway through the first season where a network executive not to be named was like, "Why is Reese being so mean to Fusco?" and we're like, "Dude, nine episodes ago Fusco tried to kill Reese!" [Laughs]
Plageman: Jonah and I were both little brothers -- we know how this s**t works! That doesn't mean he doesn't love him!
The 100th episode of Person of Interest was a hugely eventful one, and ultimately a tragic installment that saw the team losing one of their own - even as the Machine took on a very familiar persona.
I spoke to Person of Interest’s executive producers, Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman, about the death of Root (Amy Acker) in “The Day the World Went Away,” how and why they chose to kill her and how Root lives on, in a way, thanks to the Machine taking on her personality (and voice) for itself.
IGN TV: Obviously, this isn’t the first time you've had a big death happen on the show, but how did you decide on this fate for Root?
Jonathan Nolan: You know, we had been talking about this for a long time, way back to teasing it at Comic-Con just after Season 2. We had sat down and started to break Root's arc at the end of that season. She goes into a lunatic asylum, and we started to break and write her arc for the beginning [of Season 3] where there's this redemptive path, sort of an inflection point for her character. She's desperate to find the Machine. She fights her way to an empty warehouse, and the Machine has moved itself; kind of heartbreaking. So we sat down and charted out her path going forward. At this point we knew we were obsessed with Amy Acker, who's an incredible actor and become a dear friend. Just a lovely person, amazing actor. So we knew we wanted her to be a series regular, and we wanted to build her. We wanted her redemptive story to be believable, because we've invested in this great villain. You don't want to just throw that away and have her become cuddly. But such a fun character to write, and we knew we needed a great arc for her. So we started planning at that point, and then obviously some unexpected turns along the way, most notably her relationship with Shaw, which was awesome to write and see with those two actors. But when we came to the beginning of this season last year, we sat down and said, "Look, this is the plan we had in mind. Do we really want to go this way?" And our only hesitation was we loved working with Amy so much, so what made up for not getting to write her as Root was getting to write her as the Machine, which was always an incredibly cool development and fulfilled the mandate for our show of over the seasons building an AI and anthropomorphizing it one piece at a time, until finally, right at the end here, you put a name and a face to it.
IGN: It's very rare that people know exactly when their show is going to end. You didn't know 100% this was the final season when you made it, although it seemed very likely. If there had been two or three more years of Person of Interest, would things have gone very differently this year? Or did it just seem like this was the right time, regardless?
Greg Plageman: Well, I certainly think, Eric, that things got more compressed. There was more story we could tell, there was more story we could have done with Elias and the merging of the municipal world with the Samaritan and Machine world. That happened in a rather compressed manner. Some of those things we could have taken more time with -- certainly down the stretch of the last couple of episodes, we were compressing some things. I don't think it adversely affected the storytelling, and I do believe we acquitted ourselves well. We went out in a way that I'm proud of. It's a show that I think people will remember fondly, and we always endeavor to tell this incredibly -- when you get over 100 episodes on broadcast television, it's very difficult to sustain a larger narrative, a bigger story, and then finish it off in a way, because you rarely get the notice that this is the last season. And Jonah and I made the decision at the beginning of the year that this was probably it; we should write to that. And I think that in some ways is a gift, certainly on broadcast television, because most people don't know, as witnessed from a number shows that got a sudden cancelation these past few weeks.
IGN: I watched the episode twice now, and first time I didn't see her death coming, and then I watched it the second time and went, "Oh, Root talks about death a lot in this!" Was that one of those things where you wanted to play it carefully because you didn't want to obviously telegraph, "I'm dying in this episode!", while still including these very interesting things she has to say about her philosophy on the Machine and what it means to their existence beyond death?
Nolan: It's a profound point that we're trying to make in that moment, and one that we had three minutes in the middle of a car chase to make, just because we had an attenuated season -- and also because you don't want to telegraph it, as you said Eric. But the idea is that any kind of AI that would be able to anticipate your next move -- and that's really what the machine is there for; it's about reading intent, malicious intent, and hundreds of millions of people simultaneously -- the reality of what that means is you'd have to be able to simulate a person to such a fine degree that you'd essentially have to build a model of that person internally, right? So the Machine has a model, and we've seen it in "If-Then-Else" and then this year, you know, the Machine's counterpart, Samaritan, in "6741" -- and with Samaritan, less so, because it's not as good as the Machine -- but its perfectly capable of simulating not just the world, but our characters within that world. So the implicit idea of there's a literal backup of Root and Reese and Elias and Finch and all of the other people in Team Machine inside the Machine -- as well as all the bad guys; I mean, Greer's in there somewhere too, right? It's the Walt Whitman line: "The Machine literally contains multitudes." And there's something so beautiful…
Greg and I have always played in this show with all of the amazing things that are to come, and this is one of those paradoxical things that's to come. For the Machine to do its job, it would have to contain us inside itself. It's the Venn diagram thing. The set that contains itself. There's a copy of the Machine somewhere in there too, right? You can play these games ad infinitum, and if CBS gave us a few more seasons to do it, we probably would be playing with some fairly loopy quests. But here the point that Root is making is that in their advocacy and protection of the Machine, they've basically created a system in which some trace memory of them lives forever, and there's something to me very beautiful about that. It's not a cop-out, it's an evolution of a character, a Machine that has been, for five seasons, casting about looking for a voice for an avatar, and has settled, for three seasons now, on Root as its analog interface. Well, this is the ultimate evolution of that.
IGN: Root was the first person to so personalize the Machine and call it "she.” Obviously, she didn't want to die, but it feels as though she would be, basically, honored by the Machine choosing her voice.
Plageman: For me, it feels like the perfect bookend. Think about how Root's character was introduced on this show; like her endeavor to figure out, what was this thing? She knew there was something else. When we saw the flashbacks of young Root, she felt adamantly that human beings were bad code, and trying to find Harold Finch, track down Harold Finch -- she abducted Harold, the father of the Machine. She is its purest acolyte. I feel like the Machine was Root's first love, in some ways, and the way she went out, protecting the father of the Machine and understanding the ultimate import of this in the world, is perfect. It's perfect.
Nolan: Yeah, and not to sound like an asshole, but her name is Root, right? The Root directory of Linux-based computer system. I mean, we’re not Babe Ruth calling our shots here, but I think this is definitely the direction we've been headed for an awfully long time.
IGN: Let's talk about potential fan reaction. If you create a character, you want people to feel something when they die and if they don't feel anything, then you haven't done your job. Presumably many people will be upset just because they love her, but then of course is the fact that you wrote and filmed this episode last year and now it's going to air in the wake of several much-discussed lesbian deaths that happened on TV shows this spring and larger conversations about certain tropes. Knowing that there are going to be some fans who are very upset and some who may be angry, what would you say as far as Root and who she was on the show, combined with what she might represent to some people as a TV character?
Nolan: Listen, you don't get to tell people whether they can be angry or not about something, right? I mean, that's their decision. I think I'll be disappointed if we get lumped in with those other things. I don't watch those shows, so I can't speak to the specifics of what they did with their characters. But to the degree that we looked at what was happening, and as you pointed out we made this episode a long time ago… Our debate was simply about, how can we kill off an actor and a character who we love writing so much? I think that the bigger problem with those moments, when you do it wrong and when it feels like a trope, is when it's handled cynically, right? That's what you felt like when you were feeling coming off of people. It's like, don't do this as a bulls**t stunt or ploy to drive up your ratings. Again, I don't watch those shows, I have no idea what the motivation was for the showrunners and writers involved. Who knows? But the feeling you got was that people felt used because characters they've invested in and loved were used for cheap dramatic effect. And if anyone feels that way about this episode, I'll be very, very disappointed, because we spent years building this storyline, and Root is one of my favorite characters to write of all time. I know, Greg, you feel the same way. There is nothing but respect and love and grief for us that this is where the story went. But you don't want to **** around with the beauty of the journey that this character had gone on. You didn't want to step back from this kind of transcendent moment with this character. And that really is what it is for us, not a cheap kind of "Oops!" punchline like, “We just broke one of our toys." This is one of our characters becoming a ****ing god. It's kind of a different thing.
IGN: In terms of predicting certain things some fans will likely bring up, Shaw and Root had their one kiss before Shaw got shot last year, but that was it, except for the simulation episode. It seemed like something might happen when they're holding hands in this episode, but then the bad guys show up, and ultimately, we only saw them sleep together in the simulation. This was not a show that was telling a lot of love stories, to be sure, but this relationship did become a very big one. Did you discuss whether they should, in any capacity, ever be a true onscreen “couple,” or did it just not feel right for who these people were, as far as the lives they were leading?
Plageman: Honestly, Eric, that didn't even really occur to us. I think the assumption would have been that these characters have consummated this relationship, whether we saw it onscreen in present day or not. Nathan Ingram's never been alive on this show and no one's questioned the emotional connection that Harold Finch has had with Nathan Ingram. That just seems to be a pathetically literal interpretation of something that cheapens it in some way to me. I don't know…
Nolan: And the way our season was structured and the limitations that we had, given Sarah Shahi’s pregnancy and dealing with twins, we had her for a limited window. So our way of addressing their love story, this is the way we went with it. So the limitations of production schedule and the way the story went, by the time we got the characters back together again, part of which was a function of the larger story we were telling… We didn't want it to be easy for Shaw to break out of Samaritan's grasp, and indeed that was one of the first clues, in "6741," that this wasn't quite right; that something was rotten in Denmark, because it was too easy for her to get away. It's been an epic journey for her. So the way it made the most sense for us to see that happy moment for them was in Shaw's imagination. And to Greg's point, I think also it’s “pathetically literal” to imagine that that's not meaningful. I know when I watch that episode, there's a relief and a joy, and that doesn't get taken away - the fact that Shaw was able to go to that place, because Shaw was always the one who was on the fence about commitment and her feelings, so to see that this is her safe place, like that scene ****ing kills me. Every time I watch it, the emotion is no less real that Shaw is experiencing it alone.
If anyone gets to the end of this season and feels like they were robbed of something emotionally between those characters, like I said, I'll feel terrible about that. A TV show kind of becomes your extended family, and people get very close to these characters, but it's also a drama. It's a story that we've said from the beginning has stakes. That's always been part of our show. I'm just thrilled we got a chance to explore that emotional intimacy between those characters. And then you didn't feel like you wanted to cram some in in the episode and a half that we have in which Shaw returns. It just didn't feel right to cram it in there. So to Greg's point, the audience is free to use their imaginations, aided by some of the wonderful footage from episode four, to imagine that our characters got some time alone together.
IGN: What can you tease about what's to come? It’s very in character for Shaw to outwardly stay stoic when they get that phone call that Root has died. Shaw is not a character who's going to start screaming to the skies. That's not who she is.
Plageman: [Laughs] That would have been kind of awesome though. "NOOOOO!"
IGN: [Laughs] But we do see Finch going to kind of a scary place, certainly for who he is.
Plageman: Michael Emerson is such a phenomenally gifted actor. A guy who can animate a computer screen in an emotional way is clearly someone harboring magical abilities. He was always sort of viewed in some ways coming from Lost as this villain, and I think what was really interesting about Harold on this show is that he evolved as the moral compass of the show, as someone who refused to allow the Machine to dictate if they should kill a senator, who always held his own code and that conversation he has with that federal agent and when he said, "I have tried. I have always tried to maintain that…" I think there's something revelatory and exciting when a character with the heft of Elias says, "You're the dark one, Harold. You're the one we should be afraid of." And there's that thing we're always waiting for, and Jonah talked about this at the beginning here, it's like, we want to see that Finch unleashed. We have to give that character license to and why and what does it mean? He's carried this tremendous baggage. The loss of so many people close to him - Nathan Ingram, pushing away Grace…. Everyone close to him who's lost someone, it becomes a tipping point in the 100th episode. And to see that turn -- Michael Emerson is thrilling.
IGN: She might not be screaming to the heavens, but how is Shaw going to react? Also, she didn’t hear the Machine with Root's voice yet, so how might she process that?
Nolan: Yeah, it's a fun moment. I wish we had a little more time to explore these moments, but the pace of our show has always been a bit frantic. I think the way that I would put it is that the relationship between Root and Shaw changes, but it doesn't end. It takes on a new dimension. So there are more great moments for those two characters in store -- the idea that that relationship continues on into the infinite is something fun to play with.
IGN: By the way, when you mentioned Root basically becomes a “****ing god,” it made me think that I do love that Amy Acker is the go-to on playing a character who dies in the fifth season of a show and then lives on as a god.
Nolan: Yep! We just wanted to keep that tradition going. You get typecast in interesting ways, and I think this is clearly Amy's gift.
IGN: Not a bad one!
Nolan: I think it would be a reflection of the fact that for both us and I'm sure Joss [Whedon] – and was it Marti Noxon on Angel? No...
IGN: It was Jeffrey Bell working with Joss on the final season of Angel.
Nolan: There you go! Clearly, a lot of people see in Amy such range that she could carry both. Yeah, that's what you're looking at -- an actor with such ****ing sublime talent that it invites the maximum range.
Plageman: I think I would take that deal, by the way. Transcendence, you know?
Nolan: Totally. Isn't that what we're supposed to get when we hit syndication? Netflix transcendence!
IGN: [Laughs] It also occurred to me, watching this episode, how Elias's death was very impactful as well and both he and Root were introduced as villains, as sort of scary antagonists, and then they die in the same episode, and it's very sad to see both of them go. It is great to realize the journey you'd taken both of them on?
Plageman: For me, I think that's so refreshing, that you actually recognize that. [Laughs] I've never underestimated the audience's capacity to forgive. You introduce these characters, no matter what the body count might be on them, if they show a turn and they can become an ally, it's remarkable how much the audience can forgive -- and how much you feel for them.
Nolan: Viewers are ****ing weird, man. We got that note halfway through the first season where a network executive not to be named was like, "Why is Reese being so mean to Fusco?" and we're like, "Dude, nine episodes ago Fusco tried to kill Reese!" [Laughs]
Plageman: Jonah and I were both little brothers -- we know how this s**t works! That doesn't mean he doesn't love him!
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
the Nine Inch Nails music at the end was perfect for the subject matter
- 14,656
- The UK
- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
At the Dallas Comic-Con Fan Expo this weekend, Person of Interest star Amy Acker took the stage, in the wake of the show's big 100th episode, for a Q&A session with fans where she spoke about her role as Root and what to expect from the series for the final remaining episodes.
"The last three episodes are really really good," Acker said. "And I will say that I cried on the 100th episode when I was leaving the cast and crew and was like 'I'm never going to see you guys again.' And then when I was back the next week? It was a little awkward. Is that a spoiler? I don't know. They have shown some previews for the next three episodes and you do see me in the flesh so..."
So how will we see Root given that she died saving Finch from a sniper's bullet in the 100th episode? Well, that remains to be seen. But we do know that the Machine has now taken Root's voice as its own. But how much of the Root character will be present? "I think there's going to be some discussion about that in the show," Acker revealed. "So you'll hear that better explained through Jonah's [Nolan] word than mine. But they really wanted to hit home in the 100th episode that the Machine really does know us better than we know ourselves and I think it's kind of shown at one point - and I'm not sure off this made it in to the actual episode - that she knows us with 99.6% accuracy. It's close. So it was actually really complicated to figure out."
"The Machine knows Root exactly to 99.6% accuracy but then the Machine is saying its own ideas in Root's voice," she continued. "But Root and the Machine share a lot of the same ideas as it is. So I hope it all becomes clear. It's a lot of Root and the Machine melding into one thing."
Yes, Acker did acknowledge that there are some similarities to Root's fate on Person of Interest and Fred's fate on Angel. "I'm the only actor who's been killed off on a show and turned into a god twice," she said with a smile. "It's not bad typecasting."
Acker then recalled how she got her start on the series, originally only being brought in for five episodes. "I don't think they imagined I'd be around much longer than that," she said. "I think I was set up to be the bad guy for Season 2. Luckily I tricked them into keeping me there for the rest of the year. I don't think they knew what I was going to do. I know Jonah said that early on the idea was that the Machine would take Root's voice. And he told me that in the summer before we started shooting Season 5. And I think they'd had that planned for a while because he'd said a thing at the Comic-Con a year before that and he says it was about that. So I was glad I didn't know for two years. It was hard enough to keep that secret for a year."
"It was interesting because the first episode I did, of Person of Interest, I wasn't really playing Root," Acker laughed. "I was playing the psychologist. So I didn't really know what the role was going to be. And then there was just that one scene at the end when I blew the woman's brains out and kidnapped Finch and that kind of gave me the sense that she wasn't that nice of a person. So when we got to filming that scene Jonah and Greg [Plageman] made a real point of saying that they didn't want her to be this low-voiced ominous villain. They were like 'No, we want her to be like you. She can be smiling when she kills people.' So I think that set the tone for what they wanted the character to be."
"I think the thing that I like the most about Root was her transformation from feeling like we're all "bad code" into feeling like she was a part of a family with Team Machine," Acker added.
A huge part of the Root character, one that grew out of Acker's chemistry with co-star Sarah Shahi, was her relationship with Shahi's character, Shaw, and Acker spoke about how honored she was to play out that love connection. "One of my favorite parts of how they wrote this role, and Shaw, and how they handled the whole relationship was that they just made it that these two characters loved each other and it was never about if they were gay or straight or anything," she said. "It was just clearly these two characters were meant to be together. And then the other characters didn't comment on it in any way."
"And from meeting so many great people at these conventions or having people come up to me later and tell that this role I was playing of an LGBT character was inspirational to them made me feel good. I was just trying to play the character as best I could so now I mostly honored that it spoke to people and that I got to play one of the few characters like that and that it's had a positive influence on the community and people."
Looking back, Acker reflected on her favorite Root/Shaw moments, including the famous introduction between the two - a scene that involved a scalding hot iron. "I don't think anyone knew that scene was going to be what it was," she said. "They just thought it was a normal 'torture someone with an iron' scene. But it ended up being the start of a beautiful relationship."
"And then I really liked the scene in the 100th episode where we're talking about shapes and I'm telling her about her thing that she has. I love the dynamic with them when they get to be dong action-y stuff and then have these conversations. And Shaw's like 'Why are you talking to me?' Sarah's so good at that so that's one of my other favorite parts. There's a lot. And, I mean, all of her simulation episode. That was a great one. I love all the Root and Shaw scenes, really."
"The last three episodes are really really good," Acker said. "And I will say that I cried on the 100th episode when I was leaving the cast and crew and was like 'I'm never going to see you guys again.' And then when I was back the next week? It was a little awkward. Is that a spoiler? I don't know. They have shown some previews for the next three episodes and you do see me in the flesh so..."
So how will we see Root given that she died saving Finch from a sniper's bullet in the 100th episode? Well, that remains to be seen. But we do know that the Machine has now taken Root's voice as its own. But how much of the Root character will be present? "I think there's going to be some discussion about that in the show," Acker revealed. "So you'll hear that better explained through Jonah's [Nolan] word than mine. But they really wanted to hit home in the 100th episode that the Machine really does know us better than we know ourselves and I think it's kind of shown at one point - and I'm not sure off this made it in to the actual episode - that she knows us with 99.6% accuracy. It's close. So it was actually really complicated to figure out."
"The Machine knows Root exactly to 99.6% accuracy but then the Machine is saying its own ideas in Root's voice," she continued. "But Root and the Machine share a lot of the same ideas as it is. So I hope it all becomes clear. It's a lot of Root and the Machine melding into one thing."
Yes, Acker did acknowledge that there are some similarities to Root's fate on Person of Interest and Fred's fate on Angel. "I'm the only actor who's been killed off on a show and turned into a god twice," she said with a smile. "It's not bad typecasting."
Acker then recalled how she got her start on the series, originally only being brought in for five episodes. "I don't think they imagined I'd be around much longer than that," she said. "I think I was set up to be the bad guy for Season 2. Luckily I tricked them into keeping me there for the rest of the year. I don't think they knew what I was going to do. I know Jonah said that early on the idea was that the Machine would take Root's voice. And he told me that in the summer before we started shooting Season 5. And I think they'd had that planned for a while because he'd said a thing at the Comic-Con a year before that and he says it was about that. So I was glad I didn't know for two years. It was hard enough to keep that secret for a year."
"It was interesting because the first episode I did, of Person of Interest, I wasn't really playing Root," Acker laughed. "I was playing the psychologist. So I didn't really know what the role was going to be. And then there was just that one scene at the end when I blew the woman's brains out and kidnapped Finch and that kind of gave me the sense that she wasn't that nice of a person. So when we got to filming that scene Jonah and Greg [Plageman] made a real point of saying that they didn't want her to be this low-voiced ominous villain. They were like 'No, we want her to be like you. She can be smiling when she kills people.' So I think that set the tone for what they wanted the character to be."
"I think the thing that I like the most about Root was her transformation from feeling like we're all "bad code" into feeling like she was a part of a family with Team Machine," Acker added.
A huge part of the Root character, one that grew out of Acker's chemistry with co-star Sarah Shahi, was her relationship with Shahi's character, Shaw, and Acker spoke about how honored she was to play out that love connection. "One of my favorite parts of how they wrote this role, and Shaw, and how they handled the whole relationship was that they just made it that these two characters loved each other and it was never about if they were gay or straight or anything," she said. "It was just clearly these two characters were meant to be together. And then the other characters didn't comment on it in any way."
"And from meeting so many great people at these conventions or having people come up to me later and tell that this role I was playing of an LGBT character was inspirational to them made me feel good. I was just trying to play the character as best I could so now I mostly honored that it spoke to people and that I got to play one of the few characters like that and that it's had a positive influence on the community and people."
Looking back, Acker reflected on her favorite Root/Shaw moments, including the famous introduction between the two - a scene that involved a scalding hot iron. "I don't think anyone knew that scene was going to be what it was," she said. "They just thought it was a normal 'torture someone with an iron' scene. But it ended up being the start of a beautiful relationship."
"And then I really liked the scene in the 100th episode where we're talking about shapes and I'm telling her about her thing that she has. I love the dynamic with them when they get to be dong action-y stuff and then have these conversations. And Shaw's like 'Why are you talking to me?' Sarah's so good at that so that's one of my other favorite parts. There's a lot. And, I mean, all of her simulation episode. That was a great one. I love all the Root and Shaw scenes, really."
- 1,572
- Famine's house.
- Milford_Cubicle
5x11 last night...hope to see it soon...both excited and stressed to see where it's going now!
- 14,656
- The UK
- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
I'm hoping to see 5x11 today but I've seen the promo for 5x12 and I really cannot wait for the final 2 episodes.
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
don't hold your breath, episode eleven was mostly forgettable apart from the bits with Harold in, which, where excellent
- 5,210
- Essex, UK
I thought it was pretty good.
The tie ins with the old characters was neat and hints towards other future possibilities with what the machine is planning. The wider network of assets will be invaluable against Samaritan.
- 14,656
- The UK
- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
I quite liked this episode. Not as good as 5x10 obviously but it was still a great episode.
I liked how they tied in the old POI's into this episode and the scenes with Harold & The Machine were the best parts of the episode. One thing I wonder is why The Machine only talks to Harold in Root's voice.
- 1,572
- Famine's house.
- Milford_Cubicle
5x10 was a game changer... and is currently scoring 9.9 on imdb! Can't believe there's only 3 episodes remaining 
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
they cover the reason why in the episode quite well
- 14,656
- The UK
- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
No I don't mean why the Machine only uses Roots voice. Why she only talks to Harold with it, she didn't use Root's voice with anyone else
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
- 14,656
- The UK
- JASON_ROCKS1998
- JR98 GAMING
Really liked this episode
The scene with Finch and Greer talking about how Harold was going to sacrifice the Machine in order to kill Samaritan I thought was great and I really loved the ending. I really CANNOT wait until the finale!
And the simulations showing what the teams lives would've been like without the Machine were amazing.
And it looks like the finale will be amazing
And the simulations showing what the teams lives would've been like without the Machine were amazing.
And it looks like the finale will be amazing
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- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
personally i didn't like the end of the show; wanted more tension and menace
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
And how, exactly, was that supposed to happen?
It was a foregone conclusion that Samaritan would be destroyed.
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
how so?
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Because the alternative was killing off every single character, destroying the Machine and having Samaritan take over the world in an Orwellian nightmare.
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
which would of been very refreashing
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
But there was nothing in the previous episodes to suggest that that was a possible, much less likely, outcome.
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
which is why i utterly loved the end of season 3 so much
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
The problem is that there is no story there.
- 98
- forever land
- ultravioletblade
- uv1
after John Greer's short speech in 'Deus Ex Machina' [it might of been 'A House Divided'] i wanted the show to take that direction, shame it didnt as after that i lost all interest
- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
There's still no story there. The villains take over, kill everyone and then what?
