SNAFU (Person of Interest)
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Episode 2
| "SNAFU" | |
|---|---|
| Person of Interest episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 2 |
| Directed by | Chris Fisher |
| Written by | Lucas O'Connor |
| Featured music | Ramin Djawadi |
| Cinematography by | David Insley |
| Editing by | Ryan Malanaphy |
| Production code | 3J6002 |
| Original air date | May 9, 2016 |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"SNAFU" is the 2nd episode of the fifth season of the American television drama series Person of Interest. It is the 92nd overall episode of the series and is written by Lucas O'Connor and directed by executive producer Chris Fisher. It aired on CBS in the United States and on CTV in Canada on May 9, 2016.
The series revolves around a computer program for the federal government known as "The Machine" that is capable of collating all sources of information to predict terrorist acts and to identify people planning them. A team follows "irrelevant" crimes: lesser level of priority for the government. However, their security and safety is put in danger following the activation of a new program named Samaritan. In the episode, the Machine is rebooted but it assigns numbers with no threat to the team. To complicate matters, it starts seeing the team as threats when it gets a more contextualized background on them. The title refers to "SNAFU", an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcastic expression "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up". It means that the situation is bad, but that it is a normal state of affairs.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 5.80 million household viewers and gained a 1.0/4 ratings share among adults aged 18–49. The episode received very positive reviews from critics, who praised the writing, humor and exploration of the Machine's themes.
Two months after being decompressed, the Machine starts the process of rebooting, although it struggles in identifying its assets through facial recognition. Needing more resources to properly activate the Machine, Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) steal 64 next-generation GPU blade servers while Root (Amy Acker) works to make the Machine recover its memories and database.
Once activated, the Machine properly works and Finch starts asking for the irrelevant numbers. The Machine ends up producing 30 numbers so the team works separately on each case. Reese pursues a bomb threat but finds that it was a call from a student to skip school while Fusco (Kevin Chapman) pursues a killer but finds that it's just a play. Finch and Root find that the Machine fails to differentiate threat with violence as it knows no context or background. They decide to run a contextual background on themselves. However, the Machine, after collecting all their actions, considers them a threat and locks Root and Finch in the train.
Root destroys the train's window to escape and cuts the Machine's access to the doors so they can open them. However, the Machine responds by attacking her cochlear implant. They realize that the Machine deems them threats and is protecting itself from them. In order to avoid the Machine from attacking her, Root knocks herself out with Desflurane. Meanwhile, after discarding all the pointless numbers, Reese takes the case of Jessica Granger (Laurie Granger), who coincidentally shows up at the police precinct. He leaves to help Finch and Root but Granger follows him and is revealed to be an assassin and both start a gunfight in the streets. Finch discovers that the Machine sent Granger after Reese.
Finch tries to convince the Machine of their real personas but eventually discovers that the Machine is experiencing everything as "Day " (in reference to the real numbers), especially the 42 times that Finch "killed" the Machine. Finch then shows the Machine all of their numbers they've saved throughout the years in an attempt to show their relevance to the Machine. This successfully returns the Machine to its original entity but the Machine is unable to call off the hit on Reese as it was paid on advance. Nevertheless, Reese subdues Granger and saves himself. At the same time, Fusco saves a family targeted by Lithuanian gangsters due to the husband's gambling debts.
With the Machine back, Finch asks for Grace's status, finding her in Venice. Having recovered Root's aliases, the team has a picnic in Central Park. The episode ends with ex-con Jeff Blackwell (Josh Close), one of the 30 numbers who was dismissed as someone who was not involved in any nefarious activity, asking for employment and be recruited by a Samaritan agent named Mona (LaChanze).