If you haven’t yet listened to episode 2 of Pop Culture Sociologist I hope you’ll do so before continuing to read this post!

Here’s the episode for your listening convenience:

(Don’t forget to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or the app of your choice if you don’t want to miss future episodes!)

So, during this episode I mention a viewing guide for “Person of Interest” if you only want to see the “good parts”, or at least what to me were the best parts.

(A disclaimer that I mention in the episode but feel the need to expand on here: the procedural plots on the show go consciously working against various biases to leaning into those biases pretty hard. The farther away you get from season 1 the more true that is.)

First, if you do want to watch the best of what the show has to offer with Reese and Finch, before Shaw and Root arrive on the scene, here’s what I’d suggest:

1×01 – Suicidal homeless veteran John Reese is hired by a mysterious figure to help save lives.

1×10+1×11 – the beginning of 1×10 and start of 1×11 is about a mission that ends with Reese getting shot and then rescued by his employer, Harold Finch.

1×17 – Reese and Finch adopt a baby! I’m not usually someone who finds babies adorable, and I truly can’t stress how wonderful this episode is.

1×18 – Finch does field work and pays for it – getting drugged and having to be rescued by Reese.

1×21 – Reese’s ~tragic backstory~ episode. Finch gives Reese the day off when he realizes their next case has to do with domestic violence.

OK, and now for the real reason we’re here, the root/Shaw show! This episode guide will include: mandatory viewing and optional viewing. (Optional viewing means episodes are not necessary, I think, to enjoy the core of the emotional/character arcs, but they add texture and detail and layers.)

2×16 – “Relevance”. Sameen Shaw, a medical school grad and former marine, works for a secret government organization tasked with “eliminating” threats to national security. However, Sameen’s partner is having doubts about how the organization acquires its information and how accurate the info is, and when the organization tries to kill Sameen and her partner those doubts become part of Sameen’s reality as well. 

This episode is completely standalone and completely self-contained. Honestly, if you watch nothing else of this show, do yourself a favor and watch this. Sarah Shahi is fantastic in this mini-movie about the toughest, most dispassionate government assassin ever to be betrayed by her own organization. Her medical competence, her emotional detachment, her determination to claw her way to safety and freedom and revenge in the face of unbeatable forces is a sight to be seen. 

3×06 – “Mors Praematura” In 2×16 Shaw is introduced to Samantha “Root” Groves, a brilliant hacker with a fondness for torture implements who gets under Shaw’s skin by tricking her into lowering her guard. In 3×06 Root finds Shaw again, tazers her and drags her on an adventure to save the world. 

Optional – 2×02 “Bad Code” Root’s backstory and an expansion of her original ideology. 12 year old Sam Groves witnessed her best friend get kidnapped and murdered and told every single authority she could think of, only for them to do nothing. This made her turn into a vigilante hacker with a pretty bleak view of humanity. 

3×12 – “Aletheia” Root rescues Shaw and Finch from certain death, letting herself get shot and captured (to everyone’s surprise) to allow them to flee. 

Optional – 3×05 “Razgovor”. Shaw’s backstory episode where she bonds with a girl she must rescue and remembers the night she realized she “wasn’t normal” – when her father was killed and she didn’t really have any emotions about it. I’m not a fan of this episode because of its overwhelming, astounding Russian fail, but it does have a lot of backstory.

Optional – 3×10 “The Devil’s Share” Mostly an episode about Reese’s drama but features a flashback that explains why Shaw quit medicine. (During her residency she was “found out” by a superior who told her he’d never allow her to become a doctor due to her clinical lack of empathy towards human beings.)

3×17 – “/” Root, having used the injuries from being tortured in a previous episode (3×12) to get implants so she’s now plugged directly into the omniscient Machine that surveils everyone in the world, follows the Machine’s orders to use various people, teaming up with Shaw and the rest of the gang to keep the evil company trying to build a rival (evil!) Machine from succeeding in their mission. A very clever, very fun episode I highly recommend.

3×23 – “Deus Ex Machina” Root and Shaw team up to save the world yet again, in the familiar pattern where Root calls the shots and Shaw provides the fire power/tactical advantage. While the world seemingly crumbles around them, Shaw is certain Root’s plan will prevent the new evil AI, “Samaritan”, from coming online, only to discover that the situation is far more dire than she realized. 

4×02 – “Nautilus” Root’s relationship with the Machine is mirrored in Samaritan recruiting its own brilliant, messed up young woman to serve as its operative. Shaw, Root and the gang try to stop it from happening. 

4×07 – “Honor Among Thieves” Shaw goes undercover to infiltrate a group of international thieves while Root serves as the “voice in her ear” feeding her surveillance info.

4×09 – “The Devil You Know” Shaw’s secret identity is discovered by Samaritan and Root must drag her to safety while the others are in danger.

4×10 – “The Cold War” Samaritan decides to take its war with the Machine to the next level and demands a “face to face” meeting. Root, the Machine’s “human interface” travels to parley with Samaritan’s equivalent.

4×11 – “If-Then-Else” As the team rushes to prevent a Samaritan-initiated apocalypse Root and Shaw finally discuss their mutual attraction (over gunfire, of course). Shaw admits she too has feelings for Root. The gang succeeds in their mission to stop Samaritan (for the time being) but at the last moment a sacrifice must be made, and after Reese is shot Shaw remains the team’s last heavy hitter. (I truly can’t recommend this episode enough, I was completely 100% spoiled for it and I still found it very affecting. Shaw’s scenes especially are handled to perfection.)

Optional – 4×12 – Root and Reese team up to search for Shaw, wreaking havoc and kidnapping “Control”, the head of the government agency that works with Samaritan. It’s revealed Finch believes Shaw is already dead.

4×13 – “M.I.A” Root and Reese’s search for Shaw continues. New intel leads them to a small town in upstate New York where an injured Shaw might have been taken. As Shaw recuperates under Samaritan’s control Root and the Machine experience their first rift, when the Machine tells Root to stop looking. 

4×18 – “Skip” Root returns and finds Finch on the brink of dealing Samaritan a serious blow. Unfortunately, she has to stop him, knowing it will probably cost her his friendship and her place on the team. 

4×21 – “Asylum” Root receives a distress call from Shaw. Knowing it’s probably a trap, she traces the call to a mental hospital and goes undercover (with Finch) to try and find her. 

Optional – 4×22 – the season finale, in which Root, Finch and Reese struggle to keep the Machine alive.

Optional – 5×01 “B.S.O.D.” This episodes sets up the full arc of the final season and gives a framework for understanding the plot of later episodes for Root.

5×04 – “6,741” We finally meet Shaw again, and find out what’s been happening with her. Knowing conventional methods of torture would be ineffective, Samaritan has been applying psychological torture, making Shaw relive simulations of killing her friends over and over.

5×06 – “A More Perfect Union” More details about what Shaw’s going through, as her captors grow increasingly desperate and try anything they can to get to give them the information they want.

5×07 – “QSO” Shaw and Root finally manage to communicate! Just as things look to be at their worst for Shaw, when she’s struggling to tell reality and simulation apart, she gets a message from Root that gives her hope.

Optional – 5×08 “Reassortment” This has a few scenes with Shaw escaping imprisonment. Good set up for the next episode’s events.

5×09 – “Sotto Voce” Root and Shaw are reunited at last! At their dramatic reunion Root is able to finally convince Shaw what’s real and what isn’t, and that their feelings for each other are in the former category.

Optional – 5×10 – “The Day the World Went Away” Root’s final episode, where she dies. I put this under optional because if you’d rather quit this pairing on a high note, you can totally skip it.

Optional – 5×11, 5×12, 5×13 These are the final episodes of the show, and each contain various things related to Root and Shaw. Finch mourns Root’s loss, Shaw kills the person who killed Root before saying her final goodbyes at Root’s grave, and in the final episode Reese dies as well.

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