‘Person of Interest’ season 5: Amy Acker sounds off on key Root decision

Killing off a character is never easy for any showrunner to do, since you spend so much time working with these actors and you want to keep them around as long as humanly possible. In the case of “Person of Interest,” though, we have to imagine that it is even more difficult for a wide array of reasons. Everyone loved Root as a character, and we have a good feeling that they felt the same exact way about Amy Acker as an actress. She was infectious to watch on TV, and while it seems like she has in some ways become the Machine, seeing her no longer around following the 100th episode is not going to be easy.

Speaking to TVLine about the exit, Acker made it clear that ultimately, she really wouldn’t have it any other way when it comes to how she was written out of the show:

“I mean, that would be the way I would want to go. To me, she was never really afraid of dying. Throughout all of the storylines, especially between Root and Harold, she always made it clear that she knew he was the priority, that The Machine needed him and all of that. I’m glad that Harold made it. That makes me happy!”

At least Root had a way to go out here that felt meaningful, and it also feels like this was something that was planned by the writers for a long time and wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment choice to get the character out of the show. Ultimately, it seems like they’ve had a plan for ages and have done their best to stick with it.