The fifth and final season of the American television series Person of Interest premiered on May 3, 2016. The season is produced by Kilter Films, Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. Television, with Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, J. J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Chris Fisher and Denise Thé serving as executive producers and Nolan and Plageman serving as showrunners.
The series was renewed for a fifth season in May 2015. In March 2016, it was reported that the season would be the final season of the series. The season stars Jim Caviezel, Kevin Chapman, Amy Acker, Sarah Shahi and Michael Emerson. The series revolves around a team led by a mysterious reclusive billionaire computer programmer, Harold Finch, who has developed 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, as well as detecting all lesser crimes, known as "irrelevant" crimes. The season revolves around the team's last fight against Samaritan, a mass surveillance system that aims to destroy the Machine.
The season premiered on May 3, 2016, on CBS and ended on June 21, 2016. Viewership for the season averaged 6.14 million viewers, making it the least watched season of the series. The season received acclaim from critics and audiences, with the writing, performances, directing, and emotional tone receiving praise. The series finale, "return 0", received universal acclaim from critics and audience.
Season summary The Machine is reinstated onto a makeshift network of computers in hiding, but takes some time before it works reliably again due to damage sustained from power failures while it was in storage. At a Samaritan facility, advanced VR technology is used on a captured Shaw to run thousands of neural simulations in order to get her to reveal the Machine's location. During these simulations, Shaw is made to believe that an implant had been placed in her brain stem and that it was influencing her actions. She later escapes, but is unsure whether the escape itself is just another simulation.
Samaritan engineers a lethal infection in order to force people to provide their DNA during vaccination, which will be used to decide who will be allowed to live. Root pleads with Finch to allow the Machine to be more proactive, in its fight against Samaritan, but Finch refuses, fearing the result of an uninhibited superintelligence, even of his own making. Finch is captured by Samaritan operatives, and Root is killed during her escape. Finch is taken into custody for treason, where he delivers a soliloquy via CCTV to Samaritan, in which he describes his struggle with long-held pacifist beliefs, due to the greater risk posed by Samaritan. Finch relents and asks the Machine to help him directly; it chooses Root's voice as its own, and helps him escape. It admits that in watching people, it has learned to love and understand people, and had grieved for those lost.
Finch steals and weaponizes ICE-9, a virulent computer virus capable of infecting and destroying Samaritan, although it will also destroy the Machine and much of the global computing infrastructure as well. On the verge of ICE-9's activation, Greer sacrifices himself in vain to kill Finch and ensure Samaritan's continuation, and Samaritan tries to argue that Finch must change his mind and consider the consequences of his actions, but Finch responds that he has indeed considered them; he activates ICE-9 within the NSA and to all systems the NSA is capable of reaching, as well as breaching the Federal Reserve to destroy Samaritan's backup with the same virus.
A final copy of Samaritan, uploaded as a last resort onto an orbiting satellite, is destroyed when Reese sacrifices himself to save Finch and uploads a copy of the Machine there to directly fight Samaritan. The Machine also falls victim to ICE-9 and ceases to function after showing Finch its prediction of the world and his friends' futures if it had not existed - Samaritan would have arisen anyway, but without means of restraint. Finch survives and reunites with his former fiancée. A while later, Shaw is unexpectedly contacted by the Machine; it has restored itself from the satellite back to a land-based computer, to continue its work.
Cast and characters
Main Jim Caviezel as John Reese Kevin Chapman as Lionel Fusco Amy Acker as Samantha Groves/Root Sarah Shahi as Sameen Shaw Michael Emerson as Harold Finch
Recurring Josh Close as Jeffrey Blackwell Enrico Colantoni as Carl Elias John Nolan as John Greer Julian Ovenden as Jeremy Lambert David Aaron Baker as Martin LeRoux John Doman as Ron Garrison LaChanze as Mona James Le Gros as Bruce Moran Robert Manning Jr. as Zachary James Carpinello as Joey Durban Brett Cullen as Nathan Ingram Ned Eisenberg as Joseph Soriano Oakes Fegley as Gabriel Hayward Annie Ilonzeh as Harper Rose Michael McGlone as Bill Szymanski Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Michael Cole Annie Parisse as Kara Stanton Jacob Pitts as Henry Peck Michael Potts as Travers Carrie Preston as Grace Hendricks Wrenn Schmidt as Dr. Iris Campbell Jimmi Simpson as Logan Pierce
Notable guests Keith David as Terence Beale Stephen Plunkett as Alex Duncan James Riordan as Dr. Aaron Wendell Will Connolly as Ethan Garvin Christina Bennett Lind as Karen Turner Purva Bedi as Maggie Scott Adsit as Max Greene Jenna Stern as Dr. Mason Neal Huff as Terry Easton Geoff Pierson as Agent Roberts
Episodes
Production Development The series was renewed for a fifth season in May 2015. In contrast to the previous seasons getting renewed in March, the decision to delay the renewal until May was due to the declining ratings of the second half of the fourth season, with the season finale hitting a new series low. On the very same day of the renewal, it was announced that CBS only ordered 13 episodes for the season. This prompted many analysts to question whether the season would be the final season, to which Nina Tassler, President and Chairwoman of CBS, commented, "We're having those conversations with the team right now. Jonah Nolan and Greg Plageman came in and pitched really terrific ideas for the new season. It's always been a really smart, creative show. If it is the final season, then we'll have a great ending."
While promoting the season at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, series creator Jonathan Nolan said, "We're going to make 13 kickass episodes, and drop the microphone. I can't predict down the road but we're very proud of the show and if it's the last season, no one is going to be disappointed with the story we tell." Executive producer Greg Plageman said that the season finale could work as a series finale and he had the final scenes planned in advanced, although he said the writers still had more stories left to tell. In August 2015, Michael Emerson explained how they approached the season, "I think because we're thinking of this like an ending — although I'm guessing it will be ambiguous enough to be pursued later on — it's an ending. Splashy endings usually involve casualties. So I think we're likely to either lose characters or have them somehow transformed." Co-star Jim Caviezel also expressed doubt on the final season announcement. In the same month, CBS still was not confirming the series' final season. Tassler said, "We haven't determined if it's the end of the series yet. We don't know those dates. We're not anywhere near having to determine what that last storyline will be." In November 2015, TVLine deemed that the series was in danger of cancellation, citing the limited series order and delayed schedule for the season.
In November 2015, the cast and crew celebrated a party for reaching 100 episodes. Michael Emerson commented on the series' trajectory, "When you start out with a show, you think of it as, 'OK, this is a pilot. It's a job. I don't think you really have an expectation of it going'. Actors, we just train ourselves over the years not to hope too much. So when it does actually go, you think, 'Oh my God. I'm going to have to really do this. I'm going to have to do it a lot. One hundred episodes, possibly. Hahahaha!' It doesn't seem real."
In January 2016, Greg Geller, the new President of CBS, said no decision was made yet. In the same month, executive producer J. J. Abrams said he thought this would be the final season, "My guess is this is the final season. The only heartbreak there is how much good story there was to come if it were to have continued. But Jonah Nolan and Greg Plageman I think have done such an amazing job on that show and I know what these episodes are that they've done wrapping it up. We don't yet have a schedule, but they will see the light of day. People will get to see these episodes and I know the power of that story. To have a show go as many years as that has, it's very hard to complain. It's a miracle to get a show on the air and to have it last that long is something that we should just be grateful for. But I do love that show and I would love to have seen it continue." Abrams also said that even though they had no confirmation, the season finale could work as a proper series finale.
In March 2016, CBS officially announced that the fifth season would be the series' last season. Nolan and Plageman released a statement saying, "We're extremely excited to be able share this final season with the fans. We're eternally grateful to our amazing cast and crew, as well as our partners at the studio and network. Most of all, we want to thank the show's fans — the best fans in the world. This subversive little paranoia-inducing cyberpunk-thriller is for you and would not have been possible without your support. As life has come to imitate Person of Interest, it's been our great privilege to work on show for the past five seasons. We can't wait for you to experience this thrilling and final chapter."
Series creator Nolan commented on the final season, explaining that despite being announced as the final one, they brought closure to the show, "It became abundantly clear to us that we were a part of a business model that did not work for the network anymore, despite loyal fans and the better part of 10 million people watching every week. We read the writing on the wall. We're in a very fortunate position to be able to write the end of the show, and write it in a way that it's not the very end of the story. I think with this many characters and a world as big as the one that we created with the show, you never say never. But we wanted to definitively end this chapter, this version of the show." Emerson also talked about the season, saying, "We had to hurry up and end it. They had 13 episodes to turn a very large, slow-moving boat. But I think the idea that we had to do it in 13 was actually a plus rather than a minus. I think it allowed the writers' room to set aside their need to create palatable side stories or a murder-of-the-week or whatever, and really just get focused on wrapping up the loose ends of this thing."
Executive producer Greg Plageman mentioned that despite the late announcement, the ending was exactly as they envisioned it, "It seemed to spring organically from the sacrificial nature of what Reese was doing. It felt right in terms of that relationship from the very beginning." Regarding the idea of a sequel series, Plageman said "I would say never say never in a world where we've seen the X-Files and 24 and a number of really strong premises come back as well." Nolan also debunked rumors that "Synecdoche" could serve as a spin-off, "We didn't want to do a spinoff. We've watched friends go through this where it's like, the series is doing great, spin it off and then you wind up impoverishing both shows."
Writing