Notes for season 3 episode 1, “Liberty“
09:00 If you’re wondering where you recognise Dr Carmichael, it’s probably Bruce Altman’s portrayal of Evil Corp exec Terry Colby on Mr Robot.
09:02 Is Root’s hospital alias “Robin” a reference to Finch’s bird naming scheme, or a Batman reference suggesting Root as a future Team Machine member.
10:15 This episode aired in September 2013. One thing that happened between the end of season two (May 2013) and this episode, were the June 2013 Snowden revelations about NSA mass surveillance. (But technically “Fleet Week” means this episode is set in May 2013, before the news stories. So Dr Carmichael is making a clear, yet non-specific, reference to this. In the real world there was no Fleet Week in 2013.)
10:26 Another appearance for the Sony SNC-RZ25N camera prop.
13:02 A hidden entrance to the Speakeasy being a fake phone booth in a bodega… is very on-brand for this show.
19:50 Dr Carmichael’s phone is the BlackBerry Q10.
22:26 The sniper rifle is a Kel-Tec RFB Carbine, according to this site that identifies firearms in movies.
25:36 Carter respects Elias’s phone opsec and powers off. They continue to lean into framing Elias as a sort of underworld Hannibal Lecter type character. The pilot for “The Blacklist”, which takes this as a premise, aired on NBC one day earlier than this episode.
28:50 The marines opted, in line with the show’s retro touches, to place the uncut diamonds in a vintage 50s Aladdin black dome construction worker lunch box.
31:13 Why do Person of Interest crime plans usually involve deliberately initiating a Mexican standoff?
33:19 Why wouldn’t Reese have waited until Fusco had defused the bomb before showing his face?
43:09 The machine’s outcome predictions put “Marriage/Procreation” at a 0.04% probability, and “Global Thermonuclear War” at 2.96%. Which feels personally relatable.