I'm not sure if the show can get there organically by staying in Pawnee. Those individual opposition traits which you mentioned are rare enough - a combination of them all together would create an extremely unwelcome presence in Pawnee (i.e. Pawnee's Mr. Burns), and you'd wonder why the residents don't toss them out…

I don't think the show works if you put Leslie against serious opposition. You can see hints on this in the season premier when she's in Washington, the big-fish-in-a-small-pond scenario. She's fairly crushed by the setbacks after a particularly bad day - she picks it back up the next day when she gets back to Pawnee,…

Did this episode's ending feel abrupt? Everything from canning Jordan to the jump from the coroner's "courtroom" to the settlement cheque, Cary's goodbye to his father - all of them felt really rushed. It's like the episode needed about 10-15 minutes more, but just ended - very weird.

@avclub-bd639b876c6a37363c08ea18cbcfe0c4:disqus @Ike1:disqus  I'm pretty sure the May 9th finale day is locked in. Last year, it was 23 episodes, so it's reasonable to assume it will be the same this year. I miss it back in the day when a season was 26 48-minute episodes.

@Ike1:disqus That makes sense - sometimes I forget that that these are all business decisions. But I do remember pre-Lost and pre-24 that serialization used to be a dirty word in primetime programming, and there's still some stigma associated with it today with the general viewing audience. But my thought was if…

@drdarke:disqus We're talking about the IAB agent Davidson (http://personofinterest.wik…, right? Reese killed him when he was about to execute Fusco, but Reese made Fusco call Simmons to help him dispose of the body. That's why Fusco became indebted to HR. I don't think Fusco has really killed anybody on-screen during…

Missed the flicker on Finch's laptop, although I wish they would do some flickering during the opening title - a nice little nod to the fans, although it might freak out casual viewers.

I don't think the surveillance in that casino is comparable to, say, a Las Vegas casino. There wasn't even anyone monitoring the monitors when Harold broke in.

I think the implication is that they have enough power to bury the investigation, so it's not too much of a worry. But it also speaks to their hubris - like how they thought they could wipe the slate clean with Elias because they needed him now.

That's an interesting observation about the dark and dreariness. I remember one of the complaints against CSI:NY's first season was that is looked to gritty and dark. I heard it also has something to do with a cool "blue" filter which they use in post-production to give it a certain look, something that I kind of see…

Actually, PoI is doing better this year than it was last year. It's off its peak this season, but it's regularly dominating the Thursday 9 pm slot.

Maybe it's a manpower thing. For all we know, maybe HR head, Simmons and Fusco are all that's left of HR.

Just relatively - according to TVLine (http://tvline.com/2013/03/1…, PoI's finale airs May 9th. Elementary and TBBT ends May 16th, and Elementary takes the 9 pm slot to do a 2 hour episode.

Wow, just saw it - the first 10 minutes was really the best part of it.

@drdarke:disqus HR head is probably in a position to make the Russian guy disappear if he didn't accept the terms. I thought he was going to stay in the shadows, which would have made it a cooler scene.
I thought Fusco telling Carter was more of a warning in the "You might not like where the money leads you", implying…

Up here in Canada, the local affiliate always puts the same generic promo for Scandal EVERY WEEK (it follows PoI), despite Michael Emerson's promise to "stay tuned for scenes from our next episode."

I'm not sure if Carter could ever cross that moral boundary given that Elias did kidnap her son.

If you knew that the head of HR did it, then it would be incredulous. But given that it's the mayor's chief of staff's house and "the shooter went out the back" and that the CoS was also shot, it's not that far-fetched.

As a fan of the show, I love a lot of the things you mentioned, but I'm keenly aware that it's not a perfect show. I've felt that some episodes were a  "step back" or "spinning (its) wheels", but that doesn't change the fact that I enjoy the PoI universe immensely. Being able to discuss the highs and lows of the show…

I think giving its leader a face is a double-edged sword. It took a lot of the mysteriousness out of HR. I'm interested in seeing how it will play out (i.e. through desperation, their actions will impact on the major virus arc) - this was more of a gut-reaction based on just this episode. I'm worried that it won't…