poi + @nytminuscontext

Root and Shaw + similarities (insp.)

Person of Interest + Songs

Rewatching 6,741 knowing it’s all about locating TM is blowing my mind

Literally every detail is Samaritan pulling an ‘Inception’ trying to get Shaw to reveal the location of the machine but Shaw just keeps deflecting it all like the badass genius she is.

And then there’s just all the things that are slightly off only in the way that Shaw would twist them from her perspective…

Seriously. The writers are brilliant. This show is amazing. 

Person of Interest Week 1 Event

Day 1: Favorite Scenes

Any scene that involves Shaw “telepathically” reading minds (a.k.a insane cold reading skills).

2x21 Zero Day: Shaw needs John to find a coerced Harold so she can track down Root.

2x22 God Mode: Reese finds a picture of Jessica in Finch’s vault.

3x13 - 4C: Finch needs Shaw to investigate the Activity to find out why John is with a relevant number.

4x09 -The Devil You Know: Root tries to hide Shaw after her cover was blown. (They should have reversed Root’s sequence of dialogue to put more emphasis on Shaw’s cold reading.)

You know what? I just realized Shaw’s cold reading skill is something I don’t see fans pointing out often. It kind of annoyed me when some people stated that Shaw can’t really read emotions on others because she herself doesn’t feel emotions nor want to understand it. I’m sure she can read people spot on despite rarely feeling any emotions. There’s a difference between detecting/acknowledging versus relating/compassion.  

Great post. Your last sentence is describing roughly the distinction between cognitive empathy and affective empathy. Shaw has little, if any, trouble identifying and imagining other people’s thoughts and feelings (cognitive), but she doesn’t take those emotions on herself (affective).

We know from the writer’s commentary for God Mode (thanks, @isagrimorie) that Jonah Nolan purposely built this distinction into the character. Nolan seemed to describe her cognitive skill as both a cause and effect of being a good spy, but whatever his reasoning, he hit upon an important and true-to-life phenomenon.

Let’s close with my favourite (though rudest) example of this dichotomy: Shaw with Maria Martinez in Allegiance (3x18). Shaw makes an important discovery about the case based on this gem:

x

Fandom really does provides! I’ve been wanting a gifset illustrating precisely this point! 

(BTW, the transcribed commentary re: Nolan is here: “She sees a lot of human behaviour, she’s incisive in that way but lacks in the way of an empathy chip as she explained to us.”)

Shaw exhibits this perceptivenes, this ‘cold reading skill’ since the beginning, the moment she met up with Wilson in New York, she knew something was up, she just didn’t know what it was. Then in the van in a later scene, Shaw sensed something was bugging Cole, and the moment Cole mentioned Wilson, alarm bells started ringing in her head but shelved it in favor for the task at hand. 

But Shaw has displayed this skills in multple occasions as shown above. It’s one more thing I wish fandom paid attention too because its one of the things that I find fascinating about Shaw. 

And this might be why she was so pissed with Root, Control, and Dominic that they were able to slip pass her spidey sense– then again, once Shaw got a good enough grip on who Root is, she starts accurately reading Root. 

I bet given time Shaw would be able to read Control. Dominic was the one she was really angry about since they spent a significant time together and he still managed to throw her off. 

Then again, Shaw was working on a set expectation about Dominic– that Mini was a minion in Dominic’s army. 

#I see this photoset#and look at her eyes and the way she swallows#and I think about the meta post attached to the gifset of the Russian girl talking to her#this is a sound turned way up moment

#i will never ever be over this show or this character#A good soldier does both#so often narratives (lazy writers) tell the audience they have to choose#you get a character with empathy or one who can make a hard call#you get the ‘right’  choice or the ‘good’ choice#and i will eternally love the way POI forces its audience to acknowledge sometimes there are scenarios you just can’t win#and calls you have to make that might be wrong anyway#and its still good /storytelling/ so  of course its (mostly) satisfying (am i still bitter about Carter yes i am)#but they also give you moments like this where Shaw has to make a choice and it  hurts#and she’s allowed to hurt#but it was the right choice and she knows it and the audience knows it and damn if that  isn’t something female characters just aren’t#given often  enough (via @racethewind10)

I wrote this in…April of 2015, and, uh, it’s still holding up. Reinforced by the scene in Synechdoce, actually.

The ultimate promise of the trio’s coordination would be an instance where all three god!mode together. At the same time, everything in canon indicates that Shaw doesn’t need it.

When John first received god!mode, they made a point of having Shaw take out one of the attackers at the phone booth, before John got to him. Similarly, she never hesitates to step up and shoot at god!mode Root’s side.

Her M.O. in the field, starting all the way with her ISA mission with Cole in Relevance, is all about how Shaw works best given a goal, and allowed to make her own decisions and improvisations, instead of micro-managed orders. If we continue with a Leverage analogy, Shaw is the one who would be molded into the eventual mastermind successor.

As soon as she was burned by Hersh at the end of Relevance, her primary characterization has been in the way she always questions unvalidated orders, and seeks to accomplish her own goals, whether that be survival, thrill-seeking, or protecting her family. Of the three, she never settles for taking The Machine’s commands on faith.

Add to that her “multi-tasker” M.O., her style is actually the closest to that of The Machine’s, next to Carter’s takedown of H.R. In comparison, Root and John like to be enforcers. They need that higher calling, that commanding officer, “that one person who connects you to the world,” that makes them into a different, better person.

All of this pointing to the fact that, thematically and from a character standpoint, Shaw should never operate in god!mode, whereas John and Root both in god!mode at the same time is as it should be, especially as the two that were previously given access at the end of S2.

#girl you have no idea #well actually i guess she does have some kind #because this is in her mind #and even her mind conjures up a teary eyed root dropping lines of devotion

According to Cards Against Humanity (part 2 of ?)

credit to @lionelfusco for the cards

FINCH: I STARTED THIS. I’LL FINISH IT

Stills of Interest

Beta (3x21)

WHO LET THESE TWO NEAR A CHILD