'Person of Interest' season 5 episode 1 recap and review: The Machine comes back to life in 'B.S.O.D.'

“Person of Interest” ("POI") Season 5 launched on May 3, picking up the final events during the last episode of the previous season. Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) have been doing everything to protect what remains of The Machine, which was placed in a tough briefcase.

Reese met with Finch to go to Manhattan and hopefully keep themselves away from cameras. Root (Amy Acker) was also busy trying to stay safe. She battled Samaritan’s men who tried to deal with her and successfully reached Bela, a Russian hacker who provided her with temporary protection. Later, Bela let Samaritan know that Root was with her. It was revealed that Samaritan planned to distribute spyware to individual computers around the world.

Meanwhile, Fusco is being questioned about the deaths of two most wanted criminals – Elias and Dominic. He initially said that a sniper killed Dominic, but Reese subsequently convinced him to tell the truth and avoid alerting Samaritan and giving him more ideas.

Harold was able to wire hundreds of PlayStation consoles for The Machine to upload into. It successfully returned to life and became operative.

IGN notes that the focus of Episode 1, titled “B.S.O.D.,” which means “Blue Screen of Death,” was on Finch’s attempt to resurrect The Machine before it is too late. Flashbacks were shown to explain why he erased The Machine’s memories every night and how he regretted the first time that it gained control. Finch understood how The Machine could make the world better or worse, which is why he chose to disable it. The Machine was featured starting on its new brain for the first time and Finch’s tear-jerking exchanges with it.

Most of the episode involved firefights and Reese, Finch and Root trying to escape Samaritan’s men. The most thrilling parts of the show included cooling the Machine while being transferred into the 300 PlayStation units, well as the emotional flashbacks that revealed more of the relationship between Finch and his creation.

The next episode of “Person of Interest,” titled “SNAFU,” will air on May 9. More updates and details are expected soon.

Check out the trailer for Season 5 Episode 2 here.