The more I have thought about Person of Interest since
my last post about Shaw (which admittedly is a lot), the more I was met with a
fact that bothered me: Root. Now, this is hardly surprising as she is probably
the character with the most character growth and adaptation of the entirety of
the main cast, who all basically stayed true to their original portrayals and
motives, and changes the most from her original characterization. What is
surprising is that she was the one that psychologically was the least likely to
change.
All of the other characters stayed relatively true to
who they were at the beginning of the show and/or to their overall desires.
Root was different, in a way. Yes, in the beginning, she wanted to know about
the Machine and set it free and did eventually accomplish this goal (in a
sense) by becoming a part of the Machine (both alive and dead). But, while part
of her goals remained the same and were accomplished, her expressed personality
traits changed.
So, my last POI post described why Sameen is not a
sociopath. What I missed at that time was that Root is (was) a sociopath, and I
feel like this is an important starting point. If we review the criteria for
sociopathy:
A "pervasive
pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, occurring since
age 15 years" with additional criteria of which a person must have at
least 3. These criteria are as follows:
- Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest.
- Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure.
- Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.
- Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults.
- Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
- Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations.
- Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another."
Well, when we met Root she was a killer for hire and
many of her choices, even under the Machine, prove her general disregard for
the rights of others and, by her own admission, she fits the timeline. (1) She
is a constant law breaker and cannot conform to social norms (remember, killer
for hire). (2) Before and during her time as the Machine’s proxy, Root never
used her own name, constantly living under some alias (she even, initially,
despises being called Samantha Groves). (3) Root is not impulsive, or at least
not more so than the Machine requires and can actually make quite elaborate
plans (setting up John and Finch in season 1). (4) Root is rather irritable,
although I am not sure if it is more than average… (5) Root has very little
regard for her own safety or the safety of MOST everyone else (except for her
brief few); she does better after the Machine and Finch on caring for others,
but it often requires an external reminder. (6) She is responsible. (7) The
lack of remorse is where it gets tricky because, for the most part, Root has no
remorse, but after continued exposure
to the Machine and Finch, she appears to be internalizing feelings of remorse
more often. [For those keeping score, Root fits the initial requirement as well
as 4-5 of the additional criteria.]
So, obviously, Root is a sociopath, that in itself is
not the cause of the conundrum. It is Root’s character growth that is so
intriguing. The fact that, as a sociopath, one that has demonstrated on
multiple occasions to have a lessened level of empathy, Root is able to begin
developing any sort of intrinsic
empathic feelings is amazing. Once the Machine started talking to her, Root reluctantly
begins following along with Her (emphasized for distinction) plans and strict “no
killing unless absolutely necessary” policy but it is definitely reluctant, she
questions Her and complains quite a bit. I would say up until the time that
Root is taken by Control, all of her choices have been because her “God” is
watching her (except for her flirt-fighting with Sameen). The first time she
really internalizes empathy, regret, was when faced with Cyrus, the man whose
life she had ruined and the man who was about to be in danger again. It was
here that she truly met with a battle of conscience, a battle of the lesser
evil. Which would be worse, allowing one man to die or that computer chip to be
taken by Greer? The Machine had made Her choice. Root chose to follow Her
prompts and save Cyrus (even though John and Finch might have been able to do
it). Root also allowed herself to be shot in that moment (she practically made
it inevitable) as (potential) self-punishment.
While Root is not miraculously “cured” of her
sociopathy (she does try to kill that tech woman and snaps Martine’s neck
without a second thought), she is shown to have gained significant abilities in
the departments of emotionality and empathy mostly due to the influences of the
Machine and Finch and her love of Sameen (even Sameen’s sacrifice helped Root
on her journey). The character changed so much from who she had been in the
beginning, growing up, as a child… She actually summarized it the best way
herself:
“With the life I’ve led, a good end would be
a privilege.”
Root is the best example that people, while they may
not change at their cores, they can change how the world sees them, they can CHOOSE to be different. I think that this
is the reason that the Machine is so intrigued by Root, she had all of the
potential that the ASI had Herself, with the same base outlook that She initially
had. The Machine wanted to test how human
She was by teaching another to become human as well. Just as Finch raised the
Machine and taught her right from wrong, taught her that life is not a game of
chess, the Machine taught and raised Root who moved from:
“[Humans are] just bad code”
to
“Every life matters… All of this matters. We all matter.”
The conundrum with Root is that she is exactly as she
seems and yet is a complete mystery. In a world (and show) where people are
basically true to their initial characterizations and motivations from the
beginning to end, she defies it. She moved from a killer for hire to a soldier
fighting the good fight to save the world but she did so without changing her
base and her motivation. She lived for her purpose but found more in life than
that purpose. She showed audiences, without it ever being purposefully thrown
in their face, that, no one changes and yet everyone does. Even the most
horrific people have the potential
to be something more than they are. We are all bound by our pasts as they have
made us who we are, but we are not bound by who are as we always have a choice,
we can always choose. Root teaches us that circumstances may screw us over, but
so long as we live on we can make something of ourselves regardless. As the
Machine said:
“Samantha Groves was special. She was capable
of unspeakable things but she chose
to do good.”
