POI

[kindkit]

I've just watched 3x08, "Endgame." 3x09, "The Crossing." I am not pleased.

(ETA: I got confused about the episode number. This episode was actually written by Denise Thé.)



I've known for quite a while that Carter was going to die. When this episode originally aired, there was a burst of outrage on my reading list; I got curious, as I sometimes do about controversies in other people's fandoms, and read a post or two about it. I then promptly forgot, but at some point while I was watching S2 it came back to me.

I'm not innately angry that Carter was killed off, although I'd like to know whether Taraji P. Henson wanted to leave the show. If she didn't and her character was written off anyway, that does make me angry. And I'm not comfortable with the fact that the only character of color in the main cast was killed. But in terms of the kind of show POI is and the kind of character Carter was, her death was not gratuitous.

But. I've seen her killing described as a "fridging." Until about halfway through the episode, I really thought it wasn't, because the story of Carter's death was Carter's story. And then. And then. Oh my fucking god. The writers pulled a Carter/Reese romance out of their asses and suddenly everything was all about John's feelings. Even Carter's death scene was all about John's feelings. The writers took Carter's story away from her, and that makes her death a fridging.

Unless you've just wandered in (in which case, hello stranger!) you'll know that I'm no fan of het romance. But I think even if I was, the utter bullshit in this episode would have infuriated me. Carter and Reese have been friends and colleagues for two and a half years without a hint of romance, and then suddenly they have to kiss just in time for Carter to be killed and John to cry about it??? And CARTER is the one who saved Reese from despair and suicide? Not only does it go against everything John has previously said about how Finch saved him (and he's said it multiple times) but it's downright impossible in the show's timeline! Reese and Carter didn't even speak, apart from the initial interrogation, until months after Reese started working with Finch. It is seriously one of the most pathetic retcon attempts I've ever seen. (ETA: I also meant to mention, and cathexys's comment reminded me that I've forgotten, that this episode also erases the real relationships that were previously shown as important to Carter--her romance with Cal Beecher, of course, but even her relationship with her son was ignored.)

Also, was the show really trying to create/imply UST between Finch and Root? Because that's just creepy.

This hot mess was written by Nic Van Zeebroeck and Michael Sopczynski, who previously wrote several of the worst POI episodes, so in that sense I'm not surprised that an episode with so much action, danger, and tragedy managed to be not only stupid and infuriating, but boring. (Really boring. I kept checking the clock and waiting for it to be over, except when I was howling "OH HELL NO!" at the screen.) I am surprised that such a major plot development was left to writers who previously had been limited to filler, plot-of-the-week episodes, though. It makes me wonder what kind of shake-ups were going on behind the scenes with the showrunners. (ETA: See note above about my confusion over the episode number and writer. But this doesn't change my main point, it just shifts the blame. Though I will say that the only non-cowritten Denise Thé episode I've liked much was "Cura Te Ipsum," and that mostly for the final scene.) I know that one executive producer and writer, Patrick Harbinson (who wrote or co-wrote some of the best episode of the first two seasons, including "Number Crunch," "Bad Code," and "God Mode") left the show after season 2. Due to my spoiler aversion I'm slightly afraid to google around trying to find out what else was happening between S2 and S3, but so far this season the show really feels like it's lost its direction. If any of you follow the show closely enough to have gossip to share, please feel free. Just no spoilers for the rest of S3, please.

I'll keep watching, but so far I am very willing to say that everything in S3 is all a hallucination due to a gas leak in New York and never actually happened.

Comments

[cathexys]

Yes, I so hear you on this. The way the entire ep came off, Carter's death was such an afterthought, such a male angst inducing fest. I liked that they didn't make her stupid and had her work with backup, and I weirdly liked that it was the arbitrary after the fact, that you can survive crazy shit but at some point it might get you (unless you're Reese, of course). But yes, the pseudo romance was such bull! Especially after the three girl outing and the total brethren in arms vibes and carter's actual love story! Argh!!!

[kindkit]

The weird thing is that throughout S1 and S2 the show was (mostly) so careful about continuity, and now in S3 there's so much carelessness and clumsy, cheap retconning. Besides all the Carter stuff, apparently we're now supposed to forget that Root murdered Alicia Corwin; kidnapped, terrorized, drugged, and injured Finch; poisoned an innocent bystander; and tortured and murdered Denton Weeks (which, admittedly, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy, but at the time it was still shown as Not A Good Thing). No, we're now supposed to think she's awesome because she can shoot two guns at the same time! (Yes, I watched 3x10 to get the taste of 3x09 out of my mouth.)

[cathexys]

I think I'm really easy :) I know she's a bad gal, but I think I am just superficial enough to believe that bad circumstances create weird allies.

And Finch and Reese kind of don't forget, so there's that. (Also, I like the way Finch trained Reese to not randomly kill, and then Reese is now training the girls to try and do better).

Plus, with Root in the picture, she can take Shaw away and we get the Harold and Reese show again. (but then, I really like Root and Shaw together, so there's that for me :)

But yes, continuity isn't S3's best feature!!!

[kindkit]

bad circumstances create weird allies

Oh, I can accept that easily. I find it harder to accept that we're supposed to believe that Finch likes her on some level (as opposed to "uncomfortably recognizes their similarities"). And I certainly can't accept what I feel like the show is pushing me to accept, namely that she deserves his forgiveness. (Er, it may be that my protectiveness towards Finch is nearly the equal of Reese's.)

I like Root and Shaw together too. Their strangeness and brokenness and semi-nonfunctional moral compasses make them an interesting pair, and they are very slashy: they're basically the mirror-verse Reese and Finch, or, as I said in an earlier post, the Brotherhood of Mutants to Reese and Finch's X-Men.

Plus, yes, if Root and Shaw are having their own adventures, Reese and Finch might get to actually spend time together again! Maybe Finch will get some screentime! One of my biggest complaints about S3 so far has been that apart from 3x06 and 3x10, the show seems to have forgotten that Finch is a central character. There were way too many episodes where he was given nothing to do except sit in the library and be Basil Exposition. (A cynical part of me wonders if Jim Caviezel complained that his character was spending too much time with Finch and not getting to kiss enough women. Since the showrunners appear to believe that Caviezel is the star, and to greatly undervalue Michael Emerson, I find this disturbingly plausible.)

[vilakins]

I googled after watching it and yes, they wrote Carter out. As for the kiss, that was unscripted. It was Jim Caviezel suddenly deciding he'd do it.

I got all this from an interview with Taraji Henson. I like this bit:

...the walls were closing in, they were about to die. "What if I never get to see this person again?" So it just kind of happened. It was like, "Oh, my God, I just kissed my friend, my best friend."

[kindkit]

*headdesk* Somehow I suspect that Jim Caviezel's understanding of the show and his character is about as reliable as Paul Darrow's understaning of Avon.

Thanks for the link to the interview. I wonder if the parting was really as amicable as Henson makes it sound. I could certainly understand her being happy to move on and try other things, but Carter was a very good role, and there unfortunately aren't a lot of good, complex, important roles for black women actors.

[vilakins]

I completely discount anything PD says about Avon, so yeah.

I wonder that too. Of course being very positive about it all makes Henson a much more attractive casting option. Some actors shoot themselves in the foot with bitter interviews. I wish her well as she made Carter a great character I miss.