Person of Interest - 'Pазговоp'

Shaw is still not in her happy place, but looks more comfortable out of a dress

This week's Person of Interest is a pretty big one, especially for Shaw. She gets her own flashbacks, to her father's death in a car accident and the first time she realised that she doesn't feel things like most people do. This becomes something of an issue when she is tasked with protecting the number, ten year old 'spy' Genrika Zhirova, who has been surveilling local drug dealers with home-made bugs to try to force them out of the neighbourhood and now has a price on her head.

When Gen is snatched by her enemies, Shaw gets personal in her quest to retrieve her, even when it puts her at odds with Finch and Reese. It's a different side of Shaw, but doesn't undercut her. She's still the stone badass of the team, making Reese look cuddly by comparison, but as Gen puts it: "It's not that you don't have feelings. It's just like the volume is turned way down, like the sound of an old tape. The voices are there, you just have to listen." Gen herself is kind of wonderful, precocious without being infuriating, wise without being creepy, and her connection with Shaw is lovely.

"This I'm trained for."

The number of the week plot meshes with Carter's ongoing quest to bring down HR, who turn out to be behind the drugs and the kidnapping. Most rewarding for the long term viewer is Carter drawing out and then turning the tables on her HR-planted rookie partner, although HR Underboss Simmons' reaction on failing to get a response from any of the shooters he thought were ready to ambush Reese is also pretty sweet.

And then Root happens, so the gang is all here.

Now, I freely admit that I was not a big fan of Shaw to start with, but she is really growing on me. 'Razgovor' was a tense episode for me, because as a father and ex-teacher I invest more heavily when there is a child on the line, but it was also an excellent development of Shaw's background and character, evolving her into something more than she seemed without betraying that initial impression.