Root Path

Episode aired Mar 18, 2014
TV-14TV-14
43m

IMDb RATING

9.1/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

S3.E17

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Amy Acker and Michael Emerson in Person of Interest (2011)

Action

Crime

Drama

The Machine tasks Root to find a janitor who has a mysterious past. However, when her presence endangers him, the Machine sends his number to Finch as well.The Machine tasks Root to find a janitor who has a mysterious past. However, when her presence endangers him, the Machine sends his number to Finch as well.The Machine tasks Root to find a janitor who has a mysterious past. However, when her presence endangers him, the Machine sends his number to Finch as well.

IMDb RATING

9.1/10

2.8K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Jeffrey Lee Gibson
Writers
- Jonathan Nolan
- David Slack
- Sean Hennen(executive story editor)
Stars

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Photos6

Amy Acker and Colin Donnell in Person of Interest (2011)

Michael Emerson in Person of Interest (2011)

Storyline

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The next number the Machine dispenses to Finch and the team belongs to Cyrus Wells, a custodian. His current blue collar job belies the fact that he has an MBA and was once a multimillionaire. What they also quickly learn is that the person who may figuratively pull the trigger on Cyrus, the target, is Root. Finch learns directly from Root that she has her own Machine-driven mission with Cyrus, her tasks (unlike Finch's) are laid out for her by the Machine immediately before she is to carry them out. All Root knows is that her overall goal is to protect the Machine, most specifically now from a competing Machine, namely Samaritan, which is close to being functional. Finch and Root will have to figure out if their Machine-driven tasks are incompatible, especially as Root has demonstrated in the past that the death of someone like Cyrus is acceptable collateral damage. They both have to figure out who truly is after Cyrus and what his role in getting Samaritan functional is. Root also has to decide if she will divulge to Cyrus her past connection with him, of which he is unaware. —Huggo

machine

janitor

nickname

shootout

two handed shooting

17 more

Did you know

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Trivia
The title of this episode, "/", is a symbol which means "Root Path" for UNIX-like systems.

Goofs
When Finch is reading the precautions for the Helium to be delivered to Maxwell Ltd., it refers to the handling of compressed Helium (at room temperature). He tells Reese, and we later see, that there is liquid Helium being delivered. Liquid Helium is at -458°F and requires much more stringent handling procedures.

Quotes
Root: Do you really want to see what it looks like when two gods go to war?

Crazy credits
The title sequence begins in the usual way, with Finch's voiceover, but this time Root suddenly "hijacks" the narration for the rest of the title sequence.

Connections
Referenced in Pastor Mike Online: Centralized Authority and the New World Order (2014)

User reviews5

Review

Top review

9/10

The writers launch Acker into the air ... and she flies

In many ways the episode I was waiting for -- great fun.

The real backstory -- not the one in the script -- is that as this is written (spring 2015) there are in my view two dramas in production where the writing team is barking mad and unafraid of taking chances.

They are in no special order POI and Banshee.

And the above was a compliment I think this episode is important because the writers having long since thrown away the predictable but reliable Harold-Reese-Machine arc (how many shows do that?) just keeping trying stuff.

Here they gave Acker room to take over the whole episode (if she wanted to, and it seems she did). She steals it.

In my reviews I try to emphasize the "fun" factor and the "connection" factor because unlike theatrical releases TV makes you suffer through commercials to get to the good stuff, so you the viewer deserve a payoff And this episode delivers one

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