Spoiler Alert: Person of Interest S01E03

Person of Interest continues to deal with sensitive human issues related to broad-scale political issues. In this episode, we have reference to September 11, to the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and to the economic downfall of our nation. It seems like Person of Interest is good at dealing with problems that affect the people of New York City. One question I have is whether or not the irrelevant numbers will ever take John Reese out of New York City. Furthermore, I got to thinking that with the escalation of Reese's violence, at what point will "the machine" view him as a relevant threat. That would be insane: one man versus just about every bureau and agency in the United States of America.

1. A Little Ditty About John and Jessica

While the flashback in this episode from 2006 could probably be summed up by the line, "You're still fighting the war. She's still waiting," there was certainly more behind this tripartite scene than simply motivation for John Reese to understand the victim that he was sent to save.

When John and Jessica meet in the airport, Jessica notes that John is back from "over there." I think John mentioned earlier in the episode that he was in Iraq, but I suppose "over there" could mean Iraq, Afghanistan, or possibly even a covert operation somewhere else entirely. John says that he is heading back but it is noted that he is not wearing a uniform. He explains that he has a new job. The easiest explanation is that John took up a private contract with one of the security firms that established a presence in our war efforts over the last few years. But, then again, there could be any of a number of other reasons for John to be leaving without a uniform to a new job.

2. The End of the World as We Know It

Whenever "the machine" displays the timeline for flashbacks, it always ends in 2012. Does this mean that Person of Interest will be dealing with the 2012 end of the world conspiracies connected to the ending of the Mayan calendar? Does this mean that "the machine" is so good at tracing trends that it has limited future vision? This has already been hinted at, considering the fact that the show deals with predicting possible threats. Of course, since this is based on probability there is always a decent probability that "the machine" will be wrong. There's a decent chance this is nothing, but in case it is something, I don't want to be scooped by anyone else. Lois Lane style.

3. Carter is Harder than We Thought

Detective Carter seemed like a simple New York City beat cop turned detective. That's what I assumed, because that's what always shows up on TV. Even John Doggett was a cop who just did the work and became a special agent assigned to the X-Files. Well, it turns out that Carter had at least two tours of duty in the military, in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe Carter and Reese aren't so different after all.

4. Cliffhanger

This week's episodic storyline was not completed within the scope of one episode. Everything that happened was mere puppet work, but who was the puppet master?

The only detail we have is the particular item that was stolen from the police department. The envelope was surrounding CASE H73-36 surrounding NAME ELIAS, M. In the envelope was a picture of a woman who appears to have been stabbed to death and what appears to be the murder weapon.

Someone is trying to cover up a murder that they committed. If it's someone we know, then we only really have Lionel, the dirty cop, Finch's friend from the flashback (who we presume is dead), and Jessica from John's flashback (who we presume is dead; also, the killer would seem to be a man considering the phone conversation that took place). If it's someone new, then maybe we have a villain who will be around for more than just an episode.

See you next week.

Michael Emerson

Actor Michael Emerson. If you're anything like me you first encountered Emerson in the second season of LOST. I'd mention his character name, but even that would have spoilers surrounding it. Well, Emerson is back, and he's the star of the CBS show Person of Interest. Michael Emerson is a fantastic actor, and he can be fantastically creepy at times (he was on X-Files, once, you know, and they only hire creepy actors). I've rarely seen someone as talented at line delivery and facial expression, and I probably won't see many in the ages to come.

Spoiler Alert: Person of Interest S01E02

Person of Interest remains sensitive to the problems that we have faced in the ten years since September 11, this episode referencing the stock market crash and its repercussions. Furthermore, we find out that "the machine" and its logs of video and audio are a perfect method for integrating flashbacks into the show. Person of Interest remains smart and interesting, and here are some of my reflections on the show.

1. Good Cop, Bad Cop

Detective Carter, who I referred to in a somewhat sexist manner last week as the "lady cop," is clearly the good cop, at least on the surface. When Reese calls for a "meeting" between himself and Carter, only to give her Theresa Whitaker, the girl relates that Reese said she could trust Carter. In this sense, she is a good cop.

But perhaps Carter's being a good cop could be exactly the problem. As a cop she does her best to stand up for justice, but in fact she is much more connected to the laws. What's the difference? The laws are little steps here and there meant to lead us toward justice. But since they are imperfect, since they are not justice itself, they can sometimes lead us away from justice. Carter is trying to track down Reese, or as she says, "some guy in a suit." His fingerprints are at tons of crime scenes, he relates to eight case files (four of which have been redacted, making me wonder: who is redacting Reese's "crime spree"?) and to be fair, he's killing people. Regardless of how much the audience believes that these criminals deserve it, much of Reese's activity is straight up illegal. But it may just be just.

Carter is doing what a cop ought to do, and that is exactly what might make her and Reese enemies.

Lionel, on the other hand, is described as a dirty cop from the very beginning. In this episode he tells Reese that he cannot get a file for him because people may suspect that he is a dirty cop. Reese responds, "You are a dirty cop."

Lionel has underground connections, and we can suspect that he is useful to Reese both because of his underground connections and because of his police connections. But what happens if we find out Lionel is all bad, that he is setting Reese up, working with some people that Reese has already pissed off in order to make things hard for Reese. There are tons of ways that Lionel could be either a terrible foe or a horrible liability for Reese. If he works in with Carter, she's probably going to be the first one to know that he's not doing the right thing, and by investigating Lionel she may find her way to Reese.

But, then again, maybe Lionel is as loyal as Reese believes he is. Maybe Lionel believes in doing the right thing, believes that Reese is doing the right thing, and believes that he ought to do everything in his power to support Reese.

2. Crazy Theory of the Week

I mentioned at the beginning of the "Spoiler Alert" project that I used to be obsessed with LOST. Well, one of the things that comes out of watching a show like that for a very long time is that you're likely to have some crazy theories that don't fully make sense. The other thing that comes out of it is that your theories are sometimes right.

This week, I have this crazy idea that Mr. Finch is a cyborg.


When Mr. Reese is attempting to track Mr. Finch, Finch allows it for some time before disappearing and suggesting that they have their meeting on Finch's time, not Reese's. This suggests that, without the use of some supercomputer, Finch can track Mr. Reese. Is this because his back door into the machine is somewhere in his body?

Also, it has been brought to the forefront a couple of times that Finch has a limp. But it's more than that. Finch walks so squarely, hobbling like a 1950s robot in a sci fi movie. Maybe he doesn't walk correctly because he is a first generation robot / human hybrid, a cyborg.

Consider also the fact that Mr. Reese could be a reference to Kyle Reese, the man who traveled back in time to protect Sarah Connor in Terminator. With this in mind, "the machine" seems a whole lot like Sky Net. What if Finch has become "the machine's" creation rather than the other way around? What if Finch is the part of the computer that deals with the irrelevant?

3. Finch's Past

Through "the machine's" records we see a glimpse of Finch's past. In this glimpse, we see Finch (did anyone notice if he was limping in the past? my bet is that he wasn't) interacting with an unnamed colleague (an actor that LOST fans may recognize). We know very little about this character, but he has quite a bit to say about Finch and his machine. He calls "the machine" an "Orwellian nightmare," due to the fact that it can track people so carefully. (This is, of course, a reference to George Orwell's 1984.) He says that Finch has been leading a double-life, presumably balancing a normal family life and job with a secret federally contracted computer project. But what if Finch is something else?

In the second flashback, Finch keeps referring to the builders of "the machine" as we. There is the possibility that this mysterious colleague is responsible for some part of "the machine," and perhaps this is why he criticizes the thing's existence. When they discuss the relevant and the irrelevant, the colleague holds Finch personally responsible for "the irrelevant," the people slipping between the cracks who could be saved. Last episode, we thought that it was Finch's conscience that held him accountable. I think there's a decent chance that Finch's colleague is actually a close friend, and that he was one of the irrelevant people who got killed as a result of Finch's oversight. Guilt is one of the most important motivators for personal change. (Of course, it also connects you so thoroughly to the past that it's hard to change.) I think we can assume that, dead or alive, this character will play an important part in the upcoming story.

Finch also mentions that only eight people in the world know that "the machine" exists. If that number does not include Finch and his friend (and later Reese), we can assume that there are somewhere between eight and eleven people who know of it now. And if I know anything about television drama, this means that all of those people have a target on their heads.

Finally, we see a bust of The Founder in the office building that Mr. Finch (or "Harold," as his co-workers know him) leaves. The Founder lived from 1962 until 2010. Is the founder actually Mr. Finch? Did he fake his death in 2010 when everything went wrong and he decided to start doing some right? Or is this more of a tribute to a filmmaker who died in 2010 who was integral to getting Person of Interest off the ground? Of course, there's always a chance that this is an entirely different mystery altogether. Looking at the bust again, The Founder looks a whole lot like Finch's colleague. I guess there's only ten or less people in the world who know about "the machine." What do you think?

Spoiler Alert: Person of Interest S01E01

Person of Interest is, well, interesting. In many ways it is like Burn Notice only relevant (and well-written, and well-acted, and with an interesting story). But it has real heart, too. It deals with people whose lives were changed because of the events of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing war in the Middle East, accompanied by the massive breach of privacy that happened because of the Patriot Act. The show critically deals with the problems that the U.S. government created for its people while reverently dealing with the individual losses felt across the nation by the American people.

I wasn't expecting to add Person of Interest to the spoiler alert series, but it has proven itself. Executive J.J. Abrams has given me a couple of my favorite shows of all time and the best mysteries. Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher Nolan) has been involved in some of the better scripted films of the last couple decades (including Memento). And Michael Emerson is absolutely one of the best character actors I've ever seen. My friend Zac said the other night that he doesn't understand why they even make new television programs because they all get canceled anyways. And that's incredibly true. The only shows that seem to make it are the ones that were created five to ten years ago that keep getting renewed because they are part of peoples' habits even when they no longer have anything valuable to offer. Here's to hoping that CBS does not cancel Person of Interest, but also that Person of Interest continues to have something to offer rather than uninteresting episodic drama.

And now, the characters:

1. Person of Interest / Mr. Reese

Jim Caviezel's Mr. Reese is the "person of interest" to which the television's program refers. Of course, Mr. Finch reveals that this is simply one of several identities and we see a driver's license that reads "James J. Manzione," so it appears clear that one of the overarching concerns of this program is going to be to figure out who Mr. Reese really is.

What do we know about Mr. Reese? Instead of getting mugged in the subway by a gang of twenty-somethings, Reese beats up every single mugger and is brought to jail for the crime. The viewer is likely to think, "Where did he learn to fight like that?"

The police officer who interrogates Mr. Reese believes that it is clear that he spent some time in the service, but believes that his skills go beyond Army to Special Forces or Delta. We are lead to raise the question of whether he's a good guy who is poorly adjusted or a man who has done evil things? When his fingerprints are found at several other crime scenes, he is called "the angel of death." Is he good or evil? If this is anything like the other works of J.J. Abrams, the answer is that he is both or neither: he is human.

At first, Mr. Finch describes Mr. Reese as someone who has worked for the government, had doubts about the government, faked his death, tried to drink himself to death, and who has contemplated suicide. It is revealed that Reese was "with the agency," which we might be able to presume means the CIA. (If he was with the FBI, we would say he was "with the bureau," for example.) Of course, in the flashback with Jessica we hear about him going "back to base" and then subsequently quitting, which suggests that he had military connections as well.

2. Jessica

In the beginning we are shown a flashback where Mr. Reese is with a woman named Jessica, a woman he describes as his "one person." We later find out that they had known one another for six months and that they were spending a long weekend in Mexico. Jessica has not told her family about Mr. Reese, so this is a secret affair. During the series of flashbacks, we find out that this trip happened during the same week that the attacks on the Twin Towers happened.

But Jessica was taken from Mr. Reese. By whom? We cannot know. What we do know is that Jessica was killed while Mr. Reese was half-way around the world. Was she kidnapped (taken by someone) or killed (kidnapped from this mortal coil)? We haven't seen a body, and this is a J.J. Abrams show, so there's always that chance Jessica could be alive somewhere.

Another question to ask is whether or not Jessica was the only one killed. Mr. Reese says, "I don't have any friends. I don't have any family either." Were they all taken from him, or is that just something you say when you feel alienated, when you've faked your death and started an "untraceable" life. My guess: he's still got some old friends and family life, and we're going to meet them at some point.

3. A Concerned Third-Party / Mr. Finch

Mr. Finch is a wealthy man who made a lot of money prior to September 11 in the private sector. When the government began massive surveillance on its people due to the Patriot Act, Finch designed a kind of filter that is capable of dividing possible threats into relevant and irrelevant. The only relevant threats were those that could result in massive loss of life, and those were presumably forwarded to the NSA or the FBI. (This poses the question: Were they really forwarded to the NSA or the FBI? Or is there some other party involved?) But people were still being hurt as a result of the irrelevant threats, and the irrelevant threat list was deleted daily. Finch wishes to help the lives of the individual people that he can now save due to the back door he built into "the machine." He has chosen Mr. Reese as his hero, but why? Finch explains that he's followed Reese for some time and that he believes they have a great deal in common. Finch also explains that he has lost someone. Who has he lost? We're to presume that a member of his family was killed as well, but that seems too easy. I think it's possible that he's referring to the fact that he has lost "the machine" to the government.

A couple of other things ought to be noticed about Finch. First of all, he walks with a limp. Second, while he is climbing the stairs he almost immediately begins to have labored breathing. Something serious has happened to Finch that threatens his health. Perhaps he has chosen Mr. Reese to help him out as something of a deathbed wish. Third, Finch does not like fire arms, which could explain both the fact that he is injured in such a way and the fact that he lost someone close to him.

4. The Machine

Every transition in this program has some sort of surveillance feed in it. It makes one wonder who is watching this surveillance feed. Finch and Reese are often seen through the eyes of a camera or their voices heard through a wire tap. This suggests that someone is paying attention to what they're doing. Is this a particular government agency? Is this the machine? Or is this someone else altogether?

Furthermore, when Mr. Finch talks about "the machine," it seems like it is alive, intelligent, possibly even sentient. This calls upon ideas like those in Lawnmower Man or Eagle Eye. This is why I am considering the machine a character. While its drives are presumably located in a government facility (in the end we see a scene reminiscent of the end of the "Pilot" episode of X-Files where the computer takes up an enormous warehouse), "the machine" is everywhere, suggesting that it is nearly omniscient and its eyes and ears are omnipresent. In a way, this machine is a god in toddler-form. My guess: We're going to see it grow.

5. The Rest

The white kids from the gang who attempted to mug Mr. Reese on the subway appear once again while Mr. Reese is loading up on weaponry later on. This is often a sign that these characters are going to pop up more often. Maybe they're important. Maybe they're not.

Similarly, the lady cop who interrogates Mr. Reese after the mugging appears near the end of the episode. Will she be important?

And finally, the episodic events that happened may have existed solely for the sake of introducing Mr. Reese to a dirty cop named Lionel. Lionel explains that he became a bad guy because Wall Street was robbing everybody in America. But Mr. Reese thinks it has something to do with loyalty, suggesting that he's a good guy after all. Reese wants to keep the bad cop as a contact, and he wants the bad cop to continue what he's doing but not to hurt anyone. I think we can feel pretty sure that Lionel will be a main character, and I would guess that we might have a big Lionel episode coming up next week.

See you next week!

LOST's Michael Emerson Makes Ordinary Phrases Sound Ominous