"Person of Interest" Is Really A Continuation Of "Frequency"

Just hear me out! Frequency is one of my favorite movies; Person of Interest is my favorite TV show. John Sullivan and John Reese are one in the same.

Frequency follows John's life after his father's death...

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1999: His life is in shambles 30 years after his father's death in a fire. He's an alcoholic, his girlfriend left him, and he lives alone in despair.

...Until his best friend Gordo and a young Michael Cera find the ham radio Frank Sullivan used in the 1960s.

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This is where some funky stuff happens.

The Aurora Borealis can help people communicate with the past... and the dead.

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No big deal. It happens all the time when the Northern Lights come around.

When you mess with time and history, there are consequences.

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While using the ham radio, John and his father did the following:

1) John warned his dad about his death in the fire, ultimately saving him, but caused his dad to die in 1989 due to lung cancer. He also tells his dad to stop smoking.

2) Because he survived, Frank did things out of the ordinary. He visited his wife Jules at the hospital, which resulted in her saving a serial killer from a drug reaction. Had he died, Jules would have been home, not at the hospital.

3) Jules saved the killer, then she became one of his victims. John and Frank scramble to save her, rewriting history again, causing Frank to become a suspect in the Nightingale murders.

4) Frank outsmarts the killer, but he disappears until later that evening...

While all this was going on, John encounters the murderer, Jack Shepherd, 30 years later at a bar. Jack knows John is on to him, and he appears at the house the same evening, causing past and present to collide where both John's parents are alive and Jack gets shot.

And they all lived happily ever after...

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Frank and Jules are a merry older couple. John and his girl Sam are still together and now have a baby on the way, and John gets to play baseball again despite an injury. Garth Brooks sings us home with "When You Come Back to Me Again."

The feels.

...or do they?

The man messed with time and history! You cannot tell me he got through unscathed! No, no. There's more to it than that.

Person of Interest picks up in 2011.

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There's a 12-year gap between Frequency and Person of Interest. A lot can happen in 12 years. When POI opens, we see a, yet again, depressed and downtrodden John. He's seen things...

He has a dark past...

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Through flashbacks, we see glimpses of John's past. Prior to meeting Finch, we discover John is a military man; a killer for the CIA; and he had a girlfriend, Jessica, who tragically died after a dispute with her husband.

2001-2010

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Between 1999 and 2001, something happened to Sam and their kids. If anyone messes with time, of course there are bound to be sacrifices, and through POI flashbacks and John's depressive ways in Frequency, it's pretty clear the man is not allowed to be happy. What happened to Sam?

1) She and the tots died in an accident or they are murdered (in Frequency, John is a cop, so anyone could have been gunning for him).

2) They left him after his parents die naturally, and he reverts to his alcoholic ways before joining the military to straighten up.

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2001: John meets Jessica six months prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They fall madly in love. He quits the military to be with her, but 9/11 causes him to go back.

2006: John and Jessica meet again at the airport. She tells him she's engaged; he tells her he now has a new secretive job. After lots of awkwardness, she tells him she would wait for him if he said to, but he says nothing until she walks away.

John considers this the moment that changed his life when talking to Finch and Carter, but screwing with history was really the defining moment, but this memory is suppressed. However, it was this moment with Jessica he realizes he's never allowed to be happy as punishment.

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2007: Jessica's number came up in the Machine, indicating she was in trouble. It is revealed she and John still talk, and her husband's a controlling jerk.

2010: Jessica is killed during an altercation with her husband, setting the stage for John to come onto the Machine's radar.

But the Machine knew of John for much longer...

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Because of his ability to use the radio to communicate with the past, the Machine knew of him since its birth and considers him an asset prior to it alerting Finch of his existence. The Machine tracked John and knew his history, which is why Finch had to locate him in 2011 to save John from himself.

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- John Reese is part of Finch's contingency for this reason. He has the ability to control the Machine and keep it running if anything ever happens to Finch.

- Besides escaping the death plan the CIA had for him and Kara in Ordos (they were sent to locate the Machine), the CIA may also be aware of his past. They want to eradicate him so he never recalls those memories and gains control of the Machine.

- Sam Groves, aka "Root," is not too fond of John because of what he does to help Finch. But the Machine talks to her, so she may be aware of John's past, thus fueling the dislike. She wants to set the Machine free and gain control before John does.

But how is John Reese really John Sullivan from Frequency?

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John Reese is not actually his name. In "Foe" during Season One, Episode Eight, Kara Stanton gives John the name "Reese." It is never actually revealed what John's real last name is.

Wouldn't he remember his past and history-bending?

In psychology, mental suppression is the blocking of unwanted thoughts and dealing with the reality of those thoughts (Wegner, 1989; Kozak, 2008). Suppression can cause people to shut down emotionally, which is why John can shoot and kill without flinching. According to Wegner (1989), suppression involves:

-Finding distractions to avoid reactions.

-Not discussing topics to avoid negative emotions.

-Substance abuse.

In Frequency, John was emotionally distant and an alcoholic. In Person of Interest, John is emotionally distant, often ignoring his own pain to get a job done. In the pilot, he is a drunkard. His family is not really mentioned in POI, so suppression could play a part.

In POI, John is a military man. In Frequency, he's a cop.

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Besides the military angle, not much is known of John's past. He could have very well been a cop, which could also explain his soft spot and respect for Detective Carter. She is the person he once was.

John also knows how to beat the law at its own game. This could be learned in the CIA, and it could be learned by being a cop.

J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan are known to reference other shows and films...

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They've already referenced The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Count of Monte Cristo, Heat, and Lost among others, so Abrams and Nolan are no strangers to Easter eggs referencing their own shows, movies, or anything else the POI stars acted in, so a Frequency reference is possible, especially since Nolan acknowledged Frequency is a favorite film for many.

Reese was a character name in The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He is a resistance fighter who was sent to the past by the future John Connor. "John Reese" could reference both characters, but Reese is now the future of past John, coming full circle.

POI just continues John's sad story from Frequency

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It just makes sense...