Most of the following gifs are available on this Tumblr post. "Allegiance" was a bit of a one-off episode of
Person of Interest, although it had some truly awesome fight scenes. It also continues the on-going saga of the Machine versus Samaritan, which is always a fun ride.
The episode begins with bad boy Bear finding his stash of treats. Awww... he's so cute though, nobody can possibly blame him!
Finch (Michael Emerson) could use some help with the latest number, but Root's busy chasing down Greer (John Nolan) so she can stop him from bringing Samaritan online. The Machine is not infallible, so he is able to get away by shutting off cameras, then obscuring the sound of his footsteps, then turning off GPS. Root (Amy Acker) gets fooled into grabbing the wrong guy.
The next number is Maria Martinez (Nazneen Contractor), who works for a private energy corporation. She's involved with setting up large generators in third-world countries. Shaw and Fusco watch her (wherein Fusco comically speaks of eating falafels as all the knowledge he needs of foreign countries), initially believing she is targeting someone for death when she plants a GPS device on his car.
She then speaks with a man named Jamal (Usman Ally) about preventing his brother Omar (Haaz Sleiman) from being deported. Turns out that she's not trying to kill her target -- U.N. High Commissioner Rene LaPointe (Michael Gill) -- but to show him proof that Omar should be classified a refugee so he can remain in the U.S. He has her removed by security, but a Greek diplomat named Christos (William Aradie) allows her to come with him to his table, and listens to her story.
Later, Shaw (Sarah Shahi) follows her as she goes to her apartment, but someone from the French Foreign Legion is waiting to kill her. Shaw takes care of him by knocking him out with his own stinky drug-rag.
Right off the elevator, Shaw kneecaps and shoots a couple more of the goons.
Then Fusco (Kevin Chapman) hits another one, but he gets away.
There's one more, but Reese (Jim Caviezel) throws him out the window, then uses him as a cushion as they land on a car, far below. Reese gets off the crumpled car/man and looks at them like it "ain't no thang."
The gang takes Maria to their safe house, where she tells them that Omar was her interpreter in Iraq, and saved her life. One of her large generators went missing, and she began receiving death threats. Finch poses as Omar's new legal representation to speak with him, and learns that the entire region fell into disarray when the generators were never installed, and diverted elsewhere.
Shaw learns that Maria also had a relationship with Omar, and she soon gets played by Maria when she locks Shaw in the safe house using her engineering skills, and takes off to save Omar.
Maria's boss Davis (Casey Biggs) wrote both Omar's recommendation, and false accusations about him from Iraq. The originals are in the LaPointe's office, and Maria is set on finding them.
Meanwhile, Omar is being deported early, so Finch ensures that he's loaded into a truck under his control, and saves him from being sent away.
Then Reese has an idea for breaking in to save Maria, and it involves "a smoke screen and a big-ass truck." Shaw provides the smoke screen.
Reese, Fusco and Omar ride up in the big-ass fire truck, dressed as fire men. Unfortunately, they are met by more of those annoying bad guys upon entry.
As all this is going on, Christos helps Maria break in to LaPointe's office, but he catches them. Christos shoots him dead. He's French Foreign Legion!
Root finally calls in to help with a name given to her by the Machine: Habur Gate. Oh, and she also borrows Bear for a bit.
One of the bad guys is hit in the head by one if Shaw's smoke bombs.
Another one brings a knife to a gun fight, a la
Indiana Jones.
After they fight off the douchebags at the entry, Reese throws an ax right past Christos’ head as he's about to shoot Maria.
Then Fusco throws Christos a good old fashioned punch, and Maria finishes him off with a bop on the head.
It turns out that Christos was the guy who diverted the generators for use by Decima on the border of Iraq and Turkey, so asylum is magically approved for Omar, and Christos’ immunity is magically revoked immediately so he can be arrested. It's all for the sake of happy endings, so Omar and Maria can enjoy a lovely dinner overlooking the New York skyline.
By the way, Root borrowed Bear so she could do some old-fashioned tracking. It works! But then she allows Greer to drone with a recruiting spiel about why Root should help him bring Samaritan online. The speech ends in a draw, as Root was lulled by his soothing smoker's voice into a false sense of security. "Touché," fugly old man, touché.
