John Reese is on the job.
It’s a real team effort this week on Person of Interest as John and Harold find themselves spread too thin in the case of a surgeon forced to become the perpetrator against her will or her wife dies. We also saw the return of Ken Leung’s Leon Tao and the introduction of a new member of the POI Rogue’s Gallery.
Repeating Number
The episode opened up with Finch and Reese already working on the case of a repeating number from the Machine. Surely, no one was going to wind up in trouble more than once… nevermind, because it’s the return of perpetual punching bag for whatever seedy group of unsavory individuals you can think of, Leon Tao. Reese kicks some ass then with no other options available, he reluctantly brings Leon back to he and Finch’s HQ. Bear gets to see his old friend Leon again and you can’t tell me the Hot Pocket joke that comes up later on wasn’t a slight nod to the other show Leung and Emerson were both on (remember when a spooked Hurley flung one right by Ben’s head?) Later on during the real POI case of the week, Leon proves his worth as he serves as quite the asset in a very tricky situation for John and Reese to navigate alone and without their technological resources at their disposal.
Medical Power Play
A powerful man, Oliver Veldt, arrives at a local hospital for a major heart surgery and what should be a hush-hush medical procedure quickly turns into something far deadlier. Madeline Enright is a tough competent surgeon coerced by a mysterious man named Alastair Wesley (Julian Sands) to make a series of errors during the procedure and allow Oliver to die on the table so that Veldt’s highly ranked company would be vulnerable in the stock market. He has an entire team of snipers trained on Maddy’s wife, Amy, waiting for the word to open fire if Dr. Enright doesn’t carry out his instructions exactly to the letter. When John and Harold suss out the threat, one stays behind at the hospital to keep an eye on Maddy Enright while the other attempts to secure Amy before she takes a bullet. When John finally gets close enough to the man behind the op, Wesley is very intrigued by John Reese’s knowledge and training. They share a drink and after a few tactical complications Reese is able to get Amy out of harm’s way. Meanwhile, Finch is disguised as a doctor back at the hospital who’s assisting in this procedure. I wasn’t the only one who knew the minute that random nurse Liz both had her name mentioned and was straight up staring at Finch that she was going to be the ‘back-up plan’ in case Maddy balked, right? Loved seeing Finch take matters into his own hands when she tried to kill Veldt on her own.
Another Familiar Face
For the first time in a while it seemed as though Det. Carter would have a separate case to work away from the Machine team’s usual actions. A body was dropped and along with it Det. Fusco found Carter’s personal card nearby. It turned out to be an attention-getting technique from Mark Snow as he lured Carter to a place without cell reception in order to give her a glimpse of something that’s going to rock the series later on this season. She offered to help him get the bomb vest off that we saw Kara Stanton was responsible for putting on Snow in the first place. He warns her that she has something big planned but Carter has no idea who he’s talking about. Later on, she meets with Reese to ask him just that and refreshingly he draws the line there for what she should really know about him. He has a point after all, she has a son and he’s been in danger before because of who his mother is so she should think twice before continuing to pursue this particular mystery.
John Made a New (Old) Friend
Alastair Wesley (Julian Sands) runs the game that Reese and Finch are forced to play.
Before the episode’s final moments, John received a phone call from Alastair. Though his current plan was thwarted, he’s very eager to keep in touch with John. They apparently encountered each other once in Istanbul, and I’d love if we were treated to a flashback of what the circumstances of that first meeting were. This is definitely the kind of guy that’s going to keep coming back to cause a mess.
What do you think Kara might be planning? Are you hoping we see Leon return yet again?
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