3. The Flashbacks
Normally when Person of Interest delves into a flashback, it deals with one character and one character only. Never before has it examined multiple characters in flashbacks before. What was so unique about this was seeing the recurring theme of grief in the flashbacks as each character spoke with an anonymous therapist or superior, the viewers only hearing their voice. The camera focused solely on the characters as they spoke about their grief or listened to their therapist describe why they should unburden themselves. Not only did the flashbacks provide a running theme connected to the episode's main story, but we got to learn a bit more about each one's past. We learnt more specifically why Finch started saving irrelevant numbers in Nathan's name, why exactly Shaw left med school and saw more of the cold and withdrawn Reese, but the real highlight was the flashback with Fusco. Viewers always knew Fusco had a checkered past, but his flashback showed just how dirty he could be as he described was it was like to kill a cop killer. It was far and away a different side to Fusco which emphasized how significantly he had changed since the start of the series, mainly due to his friendship with Carter. Fusco can only change for the better again as he works hard to honour the memory of his fallen comrade.