PERSONS UNKNOWN “Shadows in the Cave” Review

Persons Unknown (NBC) Episode 13 "Shadows in the Cave"

“Shadows in the Cave”, the thirteenth, and last (hopefully) episode of PERSONS UNKNOWN things come full circle.

It begins with a flashback to when Janet tells Renbe she’s pregnant, which he is not too pleased about. Then she wakes up in San Francisco in a mental hospital sputtering nonsense about the program. She was found wandering in the middle of the road four days prior.

In Morocco Erika and Moira are wandering in burkas. This was so embarrassingly fake. Blackham and Charlie drive past Renbe and Kat in the middle of a desert.

The director predictably poses as a psychiatrist and questions Janet.

Nurse Ratchet gives Janet two pills to take. Janet hides them in her mouth. When she comes in to check on Janet, our heroine knocks her unconscious. Renbe and Kat, in the hospital, are chased, and they see Janet, who runs away from them and to freedom. They are not so lucky.

The director tries to extract information out of Joe who refuses to relinquish it.

Janet finds her daughter. All her kid can say is “I love you mommy.” Not where’ve you been? Are you back for good? Granny’s cooking sucks, can you make the dinner?

It turns out Janet’s mother is with the programme (I did not realize this was a big revelation), and she sends Janet away.

Kat is locked in a cage, Renbe is nowhere to be found, but Ambassador Fairchild is there. McNair is in the white room with the director. He is being tortured. Blackham and Charlie talk philosophically about change.

Now to the final sequence:

When Janet wakes up, her daughter is gone and she’s back in the room in the town. Joe, Renbe, and a bunch of people on one hotel. Janet, Moira, Erika, Charlie, McNair and Blackham in another. Tori Fairchild is the hotel manager with Joe and Renbe. Janet and the others on a really shoddy effects trawler called ‘Level Two’. The name of the ship is, translate, ‘Lost Souls’.

All in all, watching Persons Unknown has brought little enjoyment. Watching boring (they don’t even have the decency to be comically horrific) actors playing Lost meets The Amazing Race whilst spewing off a bland and illogical script is not my idea of enjoyment. If you like your mysteries to wrap up without solving anything, without going anywhere, without comedy or drama, without characters to care about or coherent plots to follow, then Persons Unknown is for you.

What did you think of this season of Persons Unknown? Did the finale leave you satisfied or disappointed? Let me know in the comments below!

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Author: Ciara | August 29, 2010 | 40 Comments

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Bill

PU sucks. I invested 13 hours of my life for nothing. I will never watch another NBC series that builds each week. I’m surprised they ever let this on the air, other than they let it end the way it did to get back at the viewing audience who, in the end is responsbile, for its cancellation.
Kathleen

I’m tired of these series that don’t actually tell you what the he’ll was going on at the end. What was “The Program” and what was the goal? Who are these people they are searching for and why are they important. Just another show leaving me with more questions than answers. What happened to “by the end of the summer all with be revealed”!!! Nothing was revealed!!!
Sharon

Horrible!
I lost interest awhile ago but decided to watch the final (fingers crossed) episode. What a disappointment.I hope they aren’t going to try and bring this back again!
Del

So the whole thing is a video game. The made it through level one and are now on level 2, a ship in the ocean. Not really an ending. A colossal waste of time.
Kim

I liked it.
Jane Murphy

I am VERY disappointed in how this ended. I LOVED watching this show at the beginning, and it got really lame in the middle and the end. The finale sucked and I am mad that I wasted all my time this summer watching all episodes, I even convinced other people to watch. What a HUGE disappointment of a show.
http://www.daemonstv.com/author/ciara/ Ciara

Wow 5/6. Glad I’m not alone out there! And Kim, I’m delighted you liked it! After watching that all I can say is I cannot wait for the summer to end and the fall lineup to begin (curse True Blood and Mad Men!)

Oh, and if there is anyone who can explain what the program is, any hint or theory at all, I would be very grateful. 13 hours and I’m still utterly clueless!
John

I like the series and hope it would be renewed, Putting on the show in the summer, only giving a couple of days on a prime time slot then moving it to a sat night and saying it did not get a good viewing audiance is unfair and should be given another chance.
http://www.nycny.com Howard Flysher

You are 100% right about LOST and Amazing Race. Very disappointing ending as stupid as the end of The Dark Towers series by S King. When you have no ending just reboot. Went nowhere without a reason for the whole experiment. A waste of 13 shows except for Daisy Bets.
phyllis

You hit the mark. The ads said everything would be explained. I missed the explanation. It would have been interesting if the “cycle” was being bet on – manipulations being made by the bettors. Oh well, the story line was non-existant, the acting was ho-hum, the settings were pitiful, the costumes – were there costumes? I wasted a lot of viewing time wating for the elusive climax.
Wormwood

As steaming piles go, this was quite a large one. Thanks NBC.
Ben

You bitches are on crack. Not all shows have answers to them. That’s what makes them GOOD shows and what keeps the viewers watching. I’m sorry if you like shows with cliche plot lines, but I don’t. Obviously if there is another season, the answers left in the last episode will be answered.

Al-B

I agree. These are the same folk that made it possible for that confusing & rather shitty series Lost to last for the number of years that it did. The actors on PU did a good job IMO & the show over-all was interesting & enjoyable. Sure it had it’s flaws, but no more or less than half the shit that on tv and said to be great. I think NBC should at least consider continuing this show or at least figure out a way to make it an “available online” type of series. I believe that their is enough support for it to make it somewhere.
leesa

You try to make a valid point and fall short. Yes, not every show needs tied up with a pretty bow but this one was advertised as just that. It was billed as a mini-series that would reveal all at the end– it did not. The finale was billed as all answers are there, they weren’t. Had I wanted intriguing mystery with no end and that’s what was promised or even hinted at the ending would not bother me, but I watched expecting it to build to a climax, which it did, but then there wasn’t a climax. Harper’s Island and CBS kicks PU and NBC butt all day long. I am NOT on crack, but maybe if I had been the finale would have entertained me! I want those 13 hours of my life back!

fergie

Guys you are missing the point. The answers were in plain sight! There is no escape from the program!!! Look at all they did to escape and still didn’t. No matter what they do they will never leave the sight of the program. The program watches everyone. Look at how the reporters went all around the world to chase this …story and the most they did was find their HQ in Iowa. The program has won guys. I would love a season 2, but it’s not needed. We learned everything in this episode. None of them will ever go home again.

Tracy

Debra, I get that no one will escape the program. However, when they said that they think that they are doing good. I wish you could explain that to me. What is the good in this situation? I mean seriously, what was the purpose of the program???
Tracy

Sorry I meant Fergie not Debra.

http://none Debra Butler

As the end time approached I got a feeling I would be disappointed in the whole series. I was. From start to finish it seemd to drag on with no concrete answers as to what exactly was going on. My thought about half-way through was that this was going to end with us finding out the whole thing was a dream or it was some sort of virtual reality game that someone was manipulating. I guess we know now what it is. The final show seems to leave it open to possible continuation. It would have to get a lot more exciting and reveal more of the plot to interest me in continuing to watch.
d l

I was sooooooo ticked on how it ended. I have a far better conclusion in my head than what the writers did. And so what? We watch season 2 while they are on a ship? People go overboard and get snatched up by a submarine?

The worst death they showed was McNair falling 10 feet and dying? Stupid, stupid stupid. The only excitement was when Moira went ballistic. Only to find out it was fake.

Tell me something. Erika was this super tough woman who could fight and kicked everyone’s butt when she arrived. Then after that episode she could no longer fight.
Mike

My first thought, after viewing the ending was that it was indeed a video game. That thought lasted for a second til the thought of them being in Hell and the characters have just graduated to the 2nd level of Hell like in Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (a.k.a. Dante’s “Inferno”). This idea was backed by the name of the ship “Almas Perdidas” which translates into English as “Lost Souls”. The fact that NBC carried on about all being revealed at the end of the summer was a big joke, when in fact the show ended leaving people with a bitter taste of regret in their mouth for having wasting their time in the hopes of a better ending then what was aired.
Evan

The biggest mystery is why I wasted thirteen hours on this dickhead of a show.
Jon

Persons Unknown was a great show, and I really hope it continues. It was interesting and suspenseful. I truthfully don’t understand all of the bad reviews.
Rick Peterman

the bottomline is that NBC lied to their viewers every week. I don’t necessarily blame the writers or producers of the show, they did what they did. I blame NBC for telling viewers “all would be revealed by the end of summer”. Completely crappy move. They knew that was the way to get people to continue watching because people wanted an end…not some lingering show that goes in circles with no end in sight. Screw NBC.
dylan

i think what was going on is after every “level” 1 person stays on level 1 and has to try to not be last, in this case it was joe, and the rest go on to level 2, and so on a so forth, and the winner in the end, gets to join the board, or go home
Julie

There was never going to be a season 2. It was a summer miniseries with 13 episodes from the beginning. Which gave them even more reason to “reveal all” at the end, as NBC advertised. Which they didn’t. A waste of time!
ali

i have been watching this show for like months, and i now think this season finale sucked in the end how everybody is in the program!!!!!!
Tracy

I totally agree with you about the series finale of persons unknown. This series went wrong in so many different ways. In the beginning the announcer always told us that “all will be revealed”. Well that was a LIE!!. After watching the entire series, I felt cheated. What was the purpose of THE PROGRAM? How could they think that they were doing good? I would have loved to hear this explanation. How on earth could cameras be everywhere? Oh that scene where Charles and the other guy was in the desert…? How could there be cameras out there? I mean how did they even know that they would be there? How did Erika and Moira get to Morocco? What could possibly be a good reason for Janet’s mother to sacrifice her daughter like this? I seriously feel cheated.I stupidly spent 13 weeks watching this series. NBC is constantly putting on stupid programs and then when they do have a good show they cancel it quickly. Overall, it’s amazing that they spent money on this production and seriously thought that people were going to like it.
http://www.nycny.com Howard Flysher

What I did not understand is why Janet trusted her mother after getting a call from her when she was a prisoner in the Town?
Inga

Persons unknown was absolutely the worst! The final episode left me so angry and dissatisfied that I wanted to smash something. Whatbthe heck was the story all about? Does anyone know?

MIchael

I agree… I was so angry that I would agree to being dipped head first in the bog of eternal stench. Horrible. What was special about Janet? What did the bald headed lead actor mean when he said you will never get that information… why was the Sarge getting zapped, for what information.

What makes me want to throw things, like you is I was told that all would be revealed. And it wasn’t…. so horrible!

LIsa V

What a let down! This was somewhat intriguing nad interesting at first, but got worse and worse with each episode and the finale was atrocious. Confusing, jumping from scene to scene with no coherency and then the ending.. really, like I’m going to watch another season of this crap.
d l murphy

What is surprising is that Johnathan Frakes was director of it. If anyone is a Star Trek 2nd Generation fan, they’d know he’s done some good work directing episodes for that show.

I liked the idea that there was a mole in the group. That is what keeps it intriguing. But you’re right. It never went anywhere. For example. When Janet’s hub and girlfriend discovered the town, it should have been the town where the captives were, not a cleaned out town.

As much as we have corrupt agencies in this world, none, in my opinion to that degree, but hmmmmm…..I could be wrong.

http://www.daemonstv.com/author/ciara/ Ciara

I love conspiracy theories about the ‘corrupt agencies’ but I did not think it was at all well done. It was totally unbelievable and it was as it the creator (Christopher McQuarrie, who won the Academy Award for The Usual Suspects-Keyser Söze!) had an idea for a town holding people prisoner…but he never answered the ‘why’. I wonder does he himself know why, or did he just try to make it up as he went along. It all felt rather sloppy. Bad casting also lessened the intrigue, with the only standout, in my opinion, being Chadwick Boseman as McNair.

Carol

My husband and I liked it a lot! Thank God it was on this summer because besides True Blood and Friday Night Lights there wasn’t much on to get our attention. Yes there was some bad acting and bad writing but overall it was thought provoking and we like coming up with our own ideas about what the show was about. For instance, maybe it was about: a “program” that is trying to socially engineer (and study) the best possible human society, where they learn to work together as a team and not fight against each other (like certain countries do)and to pinpoint certain individuals who demonstrate themselves to be great leaders. The goal would be to learn and teach these strategies and to find these kind of people to be leaders in the future. Or, something like that…….like I said at least the show was trying to be thought provoking, and I hope it comes back next season. I thought the ship idea was great too!
Raghu

The first few episodes are very interesting. The actor are very good expect in last two episodes. Horrible plot and ending. NBC should have canceled the show after pilot, if they know what was coming.
Jim

While I loved Persons Unknown, it was a great show for people who need something more than another cop or hospital show. Plus the story builds on itself unlike the simpleton ends in 1 episode only shows. That is what great story telling is about.

On the other hand NBC lied repeatedly to their audience. NBC looked at Lost and said “We can do that to”. Instead of realizing how the ending of Lost showed how ABC just cared about ratings, NBC had a chance to prove otherwise. Instead of capitalizing on showing how NBC is the honest network, NBC said “we can lie just like ABC, it worked for them”. NBC could have put themselves on the high road, instead they wanted a piece of ABC’s deception of Lost.
Lightshock

Hi, well i like the show. It´s quite curious and clever. Most people expect happy endings, this is not a happy ending. It´s something monstruous, something huge. Maybe similar to the ending of LOST, maybe verybody is dead and…
Maybe is a game, something like Matrix. Maybe the end is similar to a dream like in Inception, why not????

But the cool thing is to search for the details, despite erros, continuity and so on, just things that helps to create an entire universe. This ending let us dream, let us think and argue about What does they mean?????

So, is we just pick the easy way, why spent timing viewing shows?

Inception by itself is weird and scrambled and it is so cool and freak with an ending that guide us to several possibilities not just that two that most people think in a 1st glance. Let´s think more people. There is a lack of clever shows like this, let´s think outside the box. The titles of the episodes are tickets to us to think about things…. Shadows in the caves! Think dudes!!!!!

Hey a little tip: Platos Myth of the Cave just for a bit of brain practicing… See ya
Rubes

If this show makes it back for another season, I may check out the web to see if someone came up for a good reason for the Program. A group of people in a boardroom keeping people hostage and driving them crazy? For what? Are they doctors? Are they making money from this? Are they writing theme papers on behavior of trapped individuals? Some may deserve the private hell, but what did Janet do? Did I miss that? Did her mom give her up because she’s a badass and promised them her first born if they let her go? And who made the board the judge and jury of these people’s lives? Like the woman locked in a cage? Hello.

I even paid $1.99 to watch the drivel online because I missed the last episode and thought there would be some answers. Pfft. Give the Program an explanation for being and then the show would have been worth it.
Dang, why did I get sucked into that?
Rubes

If this show makes it back for another season, I may check out the web to see if someone came up for a good reason for the Program. A group of people in a boardroom keeping people hostage and driving them crazy? For what? Are they doctors? Are they making money from this? Are they writing theme papers on behavior of trapped individuals? Some may deserve the private hell, but what did Janet do? Did I miss that? Did her mom give her up because she’s a badass and promised them her first born if they let her go? And who made the board the judge and jury of these people’s lives? Like the woman locked in a cage? Hello.

I even paid $1.99 to watch the drivel online because I missed the last episode and thought there would be some answers. Pfft. Give the Program an explanation for being and then the show would have been worth it.