Principle and Honor

"No one's gonna tell you nothin'. They're wise to your act. You got rules. The Joker, he's got no rules. No one's gonna cross him to you. You want this guy, you got one way. But you already know what that is. Just take off that mask and let him come find you. Or you gonna let a couple more people get killed while you make your mind?" — Salvatore Maroni, "The Dark Knight"

There is a moment in the Christopher Nolan Batman films where the titular hero is forced to question his motives. In "The Dark Knight," Batman faces an evil he can't comprehend and he questions whether he needs to adopt the motives of his adversaries.

Batman, of course, doesn't break with his means. He maintains the core of who he is and honors his mission.

One of the architects of that story was Jonathan Nolan, the brother of Christopher Nolan and the creator of the TV show "Person of Interest." For a long time I've seen "Person of Interest" as a take on what the idea of Batman would look like in a real, grounded world. As the show has faced down it's own big bad — in this case the nefarious corrupt police ring HR — the titular hero of the show, John Reese (Jim Caviezel), was forced to question his own motives.

After the death of his partner, Reese sought revenge. He wanted to get the men responsible, and to do that he felt he needed to abandon his way of going about business. But, in the end, neither he nor Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman), the team's other police partner, could bring themselves to kill someone. Instead, they sought justice — not revenge.

The show has been uneven this season, but this three-episode arc was a reminder of the core "Person of Interest" was built upon. It was a chance for all the principal actors to shine and a chance to showcase the principles that have made the show compelling.