‘Person of Interest’ series finale: Michael Emerson on the team’s sacrifice

So far on the final season of “Person of Interest,” we’ve had a significant death in the core cast as Root ended up paying a really terrible price for some of her heroics. Years ago, we lost another great character in Taraji P. Henson’s character, and there is a perfectly good chance we could lose more people on Tuesday night’s series finale.

So, in retrospect, was all of this worth it for the tragedy that came as a result? It’s an interesting question, but also a good one given just what sort of toll we’ve seen this journey take on the characters. They may be able to stop great evil, but at the same time, there may not be much left of them in the process. This is a topic that Michael Emerson touched on further to TVLine, explaining how he feels about what is needed to achieve success on this show … and how there are even some mysteries for him moving forward:

“You have to have casualties to give it gravity. That’s the only way that writers can say that these things have consequences, that these decisions have cost. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure who’s left standing, unitl I see it [Tuesday] night. But I’m always the one that has a bunch of questions after I see a finished episode, like, “Is that what that means?” Sometimes I have to replay them just to make sure that I’m getting what they’re putting out there! I had read the [series finale] script of course and acted in the scenes, but things change a little bit when they get cut and music is added, and they highlight the things they want highlighted and bury the things they want buried. That’s one of the interesting aspects of the job and one of the reasons why I always watch the finished episodes.”

No matter what happens, massive kudos to Emerson for doing an outstanding job all series long as Finch, and for giving us in general two wonderful shows in a row in between this and “Lost.” We’re extremely eager to see what happens Tuesday.