More fangirling? Sure, why not! But is it okay with the mods if we continue our thread takeover?
I'd go with 1.04. Very strong end that left it up to the viewers decision what happened with him.
Yeah, that episode was great. Judging from comments I've seen, it's the first episode that made people think, "this show is different". Some suggest that Reese sends the guy to the same Mexican prison where he sends some other guy later on... a wife beater I think, but I like the fact that you can make up your own ending and nothing will contradict you. I agree with you though.
Some non-Root/Shaw centric favorites off the top of my head are 3x05 (badass Shaw and Carter and great team banter), 4x09 (for the Elias storyline, surprisingly!), 4x20 (ouch) and the "bottle episode" with the serial killer (can't remember which one it was, but I thought it used the classic format well).
And there's the individual scenes that blow your mind, like (retrospectively) that time they predicted the Snowden leaks, or the times when all the pieces of a plotline click together after months/years of buildup. Or every time Carter is a badass.