‘Person of Interest’ season 3, episode 12 review: Who left, and who returned?

We had a feeling going into “Person of Interest” tonight that we were going to see a pretty crazy episode, mostly because that is what history had dictated for this season so far. Just remember what happened to Carter earlier this season, and you know that this a show that is not afraid in the slightest to take some big risks, and kill off characters.

This was an episode stuffed full of sadness in so many ways, whether you are talking about that heartbreaking flashback with Finch and his father, Root’s torture and eventual escape from it, seeing what was happening to Arthur, and of course Reese making his proclamation at the end that he was leaving. It is thanks to him that Finch and the entire team are really still alive, but at this point, he wants nothing to do with the machine.

While all of these individual moments were great, coupled with the arrival of John Nolan at the very end of the episode, what to us makes “Person of Interest” so engaging this season is just how delightfully dark it has become. This show has started to drift more and more from being another CBS crime procedural, and it is taking on this same sort of dystopian feel that you get from many of the Nolan family’s other products. The world is immense, the action is relentless, and death is treated seriously, and not something accompanied with supervillain-esque cheesy monologues. This show literally felt like a thrill ride tonight.

So where do we go from here? We imagine that we are going to see Reese back with the team eventually, but it may just come down to when he wants to be back, and if there are circumstances that help him do so. We know that all of this is not over; it’s only going to get so much more intense / crazy the rest of the way. Grade: A-.