Person of Interest 30-Day Challenge - Day 5
Day 05: Who is your favorite Person of Interest (Number)?
Among the many, many excellent choices (Dr. Tillman, Teresa Whitaker and Andrea Gutierrez being at the top of the rest of my list), I have to choose Leila as my favorite POI. At first blush, it is easy to love Leila because she’s just an absolutely adorable baby. But her character is actually a cipher, a catalyst to allow the writers of Baby Blue to explore the deeper emotional and moral themes of Person of Interest.
The easiest things to enjoy about Leila are the now-classic funny scenes: Finch building a book-castle playpen and allowing her to play with one of his beloved silk ties; Finch’s epic baby gear shopping trip (I am so hoping we get to see him shopping for his suits and ties someday!); Finch teaching Reese how to change a diaper; the whole “It’s still a grenade!” scene; Reese carrying Leila in a sling carrier through the park and telling Carter “I’m teaching her to go undercover.”
Leila’s unexpected presence in the midst of our heroes’ daily lives allows them and us to uncover the depths of Reese and Finch’s hidden humanity. Finch claims that he is lacking in capabilities with regards to “human interaction.” Reese believes himself to be a monster unworthy of salvation or redemption. And yet both of them instinctively become excellent “fathers” and caregivers of the highest order to Leila. How sad that their perception of themselves is so very, very wrong!
The child also allows us to explore the depths of evil to which humanity often sinks. Leila’s father banished her and her mother to a life of obscurity in order to preserve his greed and pride. Leila’s grandmother’s greed and hatred condemned Leila’s mother to death, and almost consumed Leila as well. The greed and indifference of the hired kidnappers and killers is shocking. And Elias’ megalomania allows him to callously use Leila as a pawn to manipulate Reese to obtain his revenge against his own father.
This firestorm of evil forces Reese into a heartrendingly desperate, frenzied, and ultimately successful chase to save Leila and give her the chance at a normal, happy life. Leila and the episode Baby Blue spur me to ask myself, just how far would I be willing to go in order to save the life of an anonymous child?
Among the many, many excellent choices (Dr. Tillman, Teresa Whitaker and Andrea Gutierrez being at the top of the rest of my list), I have to choose Leila as my favorite POI. At first blush, it is easy to love Leila because she’s just an absolutely adorable baby. But her character is actually a cipher, a catalyst to allow the writers of Baby Blue to explore the deeper emotional and moral themes of Person of Interest.
The easiest things to enjoy about Leila are the now-classic funny scenes: Finch building a book-castle playpen and allowing her to play with one of his beloved silk ties; Finch’s epic baby gear shopping trip (I am so hoping we get to see him shopping for his suits and ties someday!); Finch teaching Reese how to change a diaper; the whole “It’s still a grenade!” scene; Reese carrying Leila in a sling carrier through the park and telling Carter “I’m teaching her to go undercover.”
Leila’s unexpected presence in the midst of our heroes’ daily lives allows them and us to uncover the depths of Reese and Finch’s hidden humanity. Finch claims that he is lacking in capabilities with regards to “human interaction.” Reese believes himself to be a monster unworthy of salvation or redemption. And yet both of them instinctively become excellent “fathers” and caregivers of the highest order to Leila. How sad that their perception of themselves is so very, very wrong!
The child also allows us to explore the depths of evil to which humanity often sinks. Leila’s father banished her and her mother to a life of obscurity in order to preserve his greed and pride. Leila’s grandmother’s greed and hatred condemned Leila’s mother to death, and almost consumed Leila as well. The greed and indifference of the hired kidnappers and killers is shocking. And Elias’ megalomania allows him to callously use Leila as a pawn to manipulate Reese to obtain his revenge against his own father.
This firestorm of evil forces Reese into a heartrendingly desperate, frenzied, and ultimately successful chase to save Leila and give her the chance at a normal, happy life. Leila and the episode Baby Blue spur me to ask myself, just how far would I be willing to go in order to save the life of an anonymous child?