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grimorieMy little spy family! I am not lying when I say the ISA part of Person of Interest was my jam! I love the Activity! And because of that love, I share Shaw's slight (not so slight?) bias against the CIA.
In my opinion, the best operators from the CIA were Kara and John and that's it. I wasn't impressed at the CIA folk in season 5.
Meanwhile, I love everyone from the Activity and squee'd whenever they appeared! Samaritan shutting down the Activity saddened me and in retaliation in all my post-season 5 headcanons Shaw always rescues Control from a Samaritan controlled black site and helps her get the Activity up and running again.
This brings me back to Hersh.
I believe that not only did Hersh train Shaw, but he recruited her too. I really love how, even when he was killing her, you can tell Hersh was very fond of Shaw, and Hersh being genuinely concerned about Shaw's new employment situation was sweet.
My headcanon is they were both products of the Navy but Shaw moved to the Marines after she was booted off the Navy's medical program so they have an instant bond.
I bet Hersh always looked to the Navy first when he had to set up the Northern Lights/Catalyst unit even if the Activity was originally an Army Intelligence unit but it was seeing Shaw in action that made Hersh stop and consider the young Marine Captain.
I bet this shared Navy history is why Shaw derogatorily calls Hersh 'George'. (In Navy Slang for Junior Officer Requiring Guidance (JORG) - "George jobs: Nit-picking paperwork jobs given to George because no one else wants them." HT to kindaoffkilter).
As for Michael Cole, I think Shaw and Cole were contemporaries, they both joined the program at the same time but their beginning couldn't be more different. Cole volunteered because he was an idealist but where Shaw shone Cole was in danger of washing out but Shaw was able to help him.
Initially, I think Cole was wary of Shaw but just like what happened with Fusco and his son something similar happened that cemented Cole's trust for Shaw completely.
Cole was one of the few people allowed to call Shaw 'Sam'. There are levels of intimacies to Shaw's name. Shaw is what she goes by for everyone she has to introduce herself to, 'Sameen' is complicated because it can be a name she introduces to people under her non-official covers and people who do know her but only a few can get away with calling her 'Sam'.
Wilson called her 'Sam' in Relevance and Wilson used it to both bait and taunt Shaw. He knew that was what Cole called Shaw, it's also presumptuous because Wilson thought because he was her handler he can call Shaw 'Sam'. He was wrong.
Root as Veronica Sinclair called Shaw 'Sam' because it was the fastest way to establish trust. Root was on the clock and she knew it was only a matter of time before the Activity would appear. Much later Root calls Shaw 'Sam' after their field trip to Alaska and Miami implying they've grown closer and from then on Root is the only one to call Shaw 'Sam'. It's not often but it's notable.
TLDR: Cole really was the only person Shaw considered friend.
For Cole, his feelings for Shaw was more complicated, I think Cole's 'Only yours' was more than a declaration of romantic love. Their bond was fire forged.
I think once Cole grew to understand Shaw it was hard for Cole not to love Shaw but he knew Shaw won't return his feelings. He understood and accepted it and beyond those romantic feelings he genuinely cared about and respected Shaw.
There was a real bond between them and it was a different flavor from Kara and John, and Grice and Brooks' partnerships.
Alicia Corwin and Mark Snow's ruse on Kara and John would never have worked on Shaw and Cole.
Hersh, Special Counsel, and Wilson all knew this. It was why the kill order was for both Shaw and Cole.
Hersh was always secretly proud to hear about Team Indigo Five's successful missions.
Back in their day Shaw and Cole were the team. After the kill order on Shaw and Cole was approved Hersh had a brief but sharp feeling of regret; there would never be as effective a team as Shaw and Cole in the Activity again. Crimson Six Team would be close but that's through Shaw's training of Devon Grice.
In the end, I think Hersh was satisfied to see Indigo Five Alpha landed on her feet (she always lands on her feet) and that her new partner was an adequate back-up for the daughter he never had.
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Date: 2017-01-29 12:21 am (UTC)It really wouldn't! But unfortunately I think Cole wasn't really suited to his job because he was too ready to ask the big questions. If he'd been able to, like Shaw, keep that in check until he was in a position to act, he could have had a long and successful career, but he wasn't ruthless enough, or able to put aside his emotions like Shaw could. And I suspect that why he and Shaw got along in the first place, because it's not that she doesn't have emotions or questions, but that they're really buried, and she could experience them with Cole instead, while also protecting him.
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Date: 2017-01-29 01:45 pm (UTC)Agreed! He really struck me as someone who was too much of an idealist to be doing what he and Shaw were doing, it's part of his character to wonder and question and this might be why it wasn't a coincidence that in the AU episode it was Peck who jump-started Cole's curiosity.
In a lot of ways, Peck and Cole are very similar.
Whenever I rewatch Relevance it always struck me that not only was Shaw angry that Wilson had Cole killed, it was that Wilson never gave Shaw the opportunity to talk Cole out of his investigation, I think to her Cole's death was preventable.
(It won't do any good, I feel like if Shaw did manage to talk Cole into dropping the investigations, he would still come back to it like a dog with a bone, but this time at least he would have Shaw at his side, and there'd be a higher chance he and Shaw would come out of it alive).
Also, Shaw thinking Cole's death was such a huge waste was one of the things that brought home how different Shaw and Kara Stanton were despite the surface similarities. Kara didn't mind collateral damage, and while Shaw doesn't mind either she just doesn't see the point of needlessly killing people when she didn't have to.
The lower the body count, the less likely people will investigate which I guess speaks to how different the CIA and ISA methods were.
Uh, sorry tldr. I just really like talking about how similar and different Kara and Shaw were.
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Date: 2017-01-30 08:50 pm (UTC)I agree! (And that ruse almost didn't work because John trusted Kara)
Samaritan shutting down the Activity saddened me and in retaliation in all my post-season 5 headcanons Shaw always rescues Control from a Samaritan controlled black site and helps her get the Activity up and running again.
Same - I was really disappointed Control never showed up in season 5, especially considering the amount of time with the Van Gogh lookealike whose name I can't remember at the moment. And the setup with Grice and Brooks that didn't quite pay off (iirc, Brooks kinda disapears?)
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Date: 2017-01-31 02:33 am (UTC)*sigh* me too, also I really feel like it was a mistake to kill off Grice, I wish they never showed that. I miss Control!