PERSON OF INTEREST Post-Mortem: Greg Plageman and Jonathan Nolan on the Shaw Mystery, Control’s ‘Awakening,’ and What Comes Next

[Warning: this post contains spoilers for the January 13th PERSON OF INTEREST episode, “Control-Alt-Delete.”]

The mystery of what happened to PERSON OF INTEREST’s Shaw will remain unclear for a at least a bit longer.

Though “Control-Alt-Delete” was billed as the final part of a PERSON OF INTEREST trilogy, the (very excellent) hour actually set Team Machine on the right path to getting answers about what happened to Shaw after the attack in “If-Then-Else,” versus answering it outright.

“We think [the story] goes beyond a trilogy,” PERSON OF INTEREST executive producer Greg Plageman explained. “In a lot of ways, this storyline will continue into the back half of the season, in sort of surprising, shocking ways the audience will be pleasantly surprised by it. There’s an element of emotion to this [arc] — and we didn’t want people to miss these episodes — so we liked to categorize them like that to a certain extent. But I do think you’ll be rewarded as a viewer if you continue to watch these next few episodes.”

“Our philosophy with our show has always been, you have to watch every episode,” PERSON OF INTEREST executive producer Jonathan Nolan added. “Occasionally, it’s nice to organize the viewers’ experience in an arc, especially in the midseason. But honestly, it would probably be better described as a quadrilogy [combined] with [the upcoming] episode 13.”

And the team will continue on with their search for answers in the next episode.

“I think we have the opportunity here to put a couple of our characters on the road in search of a final answer in terms of what happened to Shaw’s character,” Plageman teased.

“It’s definitely a Root and Reese [team-up] episode in 13, and given that Shaw is MIA, they’ll be spending more time together [beyond that],” Nolan confirmed. “We’re looking for more mayhem and more hijinks in the second half of the season.”

Oh, yes…just because the show has excelled in bringing trauma to beloved characters around the midseason mark over the past few years, don’t expect things to slow down any time soon.

“We sat for a while and talked about having a nice, relaxing, and happy set of episodes to wrap up the season,” Nolan joked.

“A crossover with NCIS: NEW ORLEANS,” Plageman interjected, with a laugh.

“What we did instead is completely the opposite,” Nolan previewed.

But will that include any final word on what happened to Shaw?

“We’re not terrible big on definitive,” Nolan acknowledged, also declining to say whether Sarah Shahi (Shaw) would appear again before the season wrapped. “But [whether it’s resolved,] Shaw is a fan-favorite, so, frankly, we’re still talking it through.”

In the more immediate future, the show will touch on Control taking it upon herself to go around her bosses and investigate the Wall Street attack that Team Machine told her about.

“Oh, I think you’re going to see an awakening by Control to the extent of what she has handed over, in terms of the NSA feeds,” Plageman shared.

“We showed a little bit of reluctance, and a little bit of second-guessing, even at the end of last season, in the season finale, in which Control saw the devil’s bargain she was making with Samaritan,” Nolan added. “It’s definitely growing for her.”

“You’ll definitely see [Control again] before the season’s over,” Plageman said. “Perhaps more than once.”

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PERSON OF INTEREST airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on CBS. And check back soon for more from Plageman and Nolan!

Related:

PERSON OF INTEREST: Greg Plageman and Jonathan Nolan Tease Going ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ in ‘Control-Alt-Delete’
PERSON OF INTEREST: ‘Control-Alt-Delete’ Photos
PERSON OF INTEREST: The Cast and Showrunner on the Big ‘If-Then-Else’ Twist

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