I'll have a much longer, more thought-out review of both last night's and tonight's (100th episode) of Person of Interest up on SpoilerTV later in the week, but before then, here are a few quick thoughts on "Sotto Voce."
The main reason as to why 'The Voice' worked in his first and previously only appearance on the show is that he was an adversary for Finch. With Root making a turn from villain to protagonist (and, later, hero), Finch didn't really have anyone to contend with in terms of antagonists. Sure, you could say that anyone the team face technically fits this bill, but realistically, almost every single number has resulted in physical battles for Reese, Shaw, Root, Fusco, Carter, and even Bear, to engage in, excluding Harold from things. So while "Last Call" wasn't the greatest of episodes, and though it did feature the usual fistfights and action-oriented storytelling we've come to expect, it did a good enough job in putting Finch right at the heart of a situation and left us hanging as 'The Voice' threatened to come after him.
In "Sotto Voce," that changed and Finch, searching for the identity of their returning foe, was part of the story no more than he is usually: Doing his thing from behind the screen to find out pieces of information, assisted by Elias and his methods of coercion, to discover the truth about the caller's identity. Worse still, there was very little payoff to the aforementioned threat, with 'The Voice's' sights set firmly on other matters. Plus, with just five episodes remaining, there was very little progression of the main plot from Finch's side of things. Had the story been placed earlier in the season, and/or handled much better, I might have enjoyed it more. Instead, it became a mostly predictable, uninteresting number-of-the-week.
What prevented the episode being a complete waste of time was the plot involving Shaw's return to the team after 20 episodes away from her friends. As I speculated in my review of last week's trio of episodes, Shaw's experience in the simulations has left her scared to return to her team - "I escaped a week ago," she tells Root. "I couldn't come and find you because it wasn't safe." - and so she's been taking down Samaritan, one operative at a time. But when Root tries to convince her to return, she threatens to kill herself just as she did in the simulations. Root's decision to do the same should Shaw go through with it was an interesting twist, one that fits with the character's development thus far. Shaw's reunion with everyone on the team - except Bear, who was notably, given her love for him, absent - was a nice way to end the hour. Four episodes from the end and everyone is back together, but chances are, it won't stay that way for very long.
Also, Fusco has been clued in on matters, and received a yellow box from the Machine in the closing moments. All I can say is it's about damn time.
What did everyone think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to keep an eye out for my review of this week's pair later in the week.
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