Person of Interest 1.11: "Super"

“Possible Threat Detected. Subject: Ingram, Nathan C.”
- The Machine

With our first episode of 2012, we’re right back where we ended the last episode. We see Reese get shot and then we end up in a Coroner’s office where Finch pays the Coroner (who was a well-respected surgeon in his home country but can’t afford a US license) to stich Reese up with no questions asked. The next morning, Carter leaves her apartment building and spots a green truck on the street and a few guys in suits standing around. Agent Snow appears and tells Carter that they’re watching her to see if Reese contacts her, since it was odd that he managed to get away. After some posturing where Carter and Snow remind each other that threatening a cop and lying to a fed are crimes, Carter heads to work and uses Lionel’s computer. Guess she’s concerned the Feds are bugging hers. She finds the picture of Finch from the bank robbery and realizes she had his cell number the whole time. Too bad it’s been disconnected. Regardless, she puts in a request for all the data on the number.

We have some interesting flashbacks this week, to 2005. They involve Finch and his partner, Nathan Ingram before Nathan died. Nathan is meeting with a woman named Alicia who is from one of the alphabet agencies and she tells Nathan that if they don’t see progress, the funding will be pulled. So he gives her a 9-digit number (a social security number) as Finch watches. Finch assures Nathan that the number will pan out. The Machine just knows. Back in the present, Reese is wheelchair bound and moving into an apartment. The super, a guy named Trask (Sergeant Batista from Dexter) is kind of rambling on about how he used to have six night clubs down in Miami with a mansion and exotic pets. Once he leaves, Finch materializes (breaking that space-time continuum again) and says that given the situation, he thought Reese should be somewhere low profile. Besides, Snow is focusing all his attention on Carter.

And of course, Reese isn’t really there to rest. Trask is their latest number and Finch has verified the guy bought an untraceable handgun. So Finch hacks the entire building’s Wi-Fi signal. We get a really amusing scene where Reese comments on one of the tenants doing yoga, saying she’s “healthy” with an accompanying head tilt of interest. What made it even better was Finch did it, too. Speaking of, Finch has gotten Reese some house-warming presents including books and donut to sit on. Reese’s expression when he sees the donut is great. Meanwhile, Snow and his buddy are watching Carter but all she’s doing is paperwork. She knows what kind of game they’re playing and she’s not going to make it easy for them.

Back at the apartment building, Reese notices that Lily (a cook) appears to be dating Rick, the guy who lives in the penthouse. Finch has managed to verify some details about Trask’s history but says he’s likely got a wild imagination since he didn’t actually have all the luxury he said he did. Reese picks up on the security guard who has been trying to find a jewelry thief. That could a potential victim for Trask. The only way to know who the intended victim might be is for Finch to do a little leg work. He gets into Trask’s apartment easily enough, thanks to Reese taking a hammer to his bathroom, but gets caught when Trask realizes he needs a different wrench. Finch does plant a few cameras and find lots of pictures of Lily.

They solve one mystery as Finch is trying to escape and get back up to Reese. The security guard is coming out of an apartment when he spots Finch and Reese rolls back the video to see the guard is the one stealing the jewelry. Finch gives the guy a choice, they can call the cops or each go on their way like they’d never seen each other. Obviously the security guard takes the second option. And we head in to our second flashback of the week.

Finch races into Nathan’s office and disables his computer just as Alicia and her boss arrive. The social security number indeed panned out. They caught a traitor in the government selling weapons-grade uranium to enemy governments. But Alicia’s boss (Weeks) doesn’t like that there’s not control over the Machine. But he’s really got not choice, seeing as price isn’t an issue (Nathan is developing the Machine for $1). In the next room, Finch is listening in to the conversation while the Machine analyzes the situation and determines that Weeks is a threat to the system. I like that the Machine is becoming its own character, with a little bit of personality.

Back in 2012, Finch and Reese need to get eyes on Lily at work and at home. Unfortunately for her, someone else has been watching her. Finch finds a wireless camera in her heating vent. Poor girl just can’t get away. Over at the precinct, Carter gets the cell phone data on Finch’s phone and sets out to lose her FBI tail and does it pretty well. She commandeers a guy’s coat and hails a cab. Finch has made it to Lily’s work and is watching her and sees her receive some flowers that she immediately tosses in the trash. It’s safe to say she knows that someone is stalking her. Reese isn’t having much luck on his end with the tech side of things. I think he prefers to hit people. Finch has also enlisted Lionel to help throw the CIA off Reese’s trail by giving him a pill bottle with Reese’s prints. It works, too. The CIA get the hit and head off to Connecticut.

Later that night, Carter ends up at the last location Finch’s phone was used and Finch ends up calling a meeting. Carter wants answers but Finch isn’t going to give them up very easily. He does give her a target to focus on, a drunk named Derek Watson. She does a little digging and ends up stopping him before he shoots the guy that foreclosed on his house. She’s got a little bit of an idea of what our dynamic duo does. And things are finally coning to a head at the apartment building. Finch and Lily are on the way back and Reese realizes (thanks to some video watching) that Trask is after Rick. We see Trask confront Rick but Reese does a little MacGuyver-ing and sets off the fire alarm to divert Trask’s attention. Reese confronts Trask but just as he think he knows what’s going on, Finch finds out the hidden network was from Rick. Reese is going to have to whip a can of whoop-ass on Rick to save Lily. Fighting on crutches with gunshot wounds is tough but Reese manages it and Rick ends up flying out a window and going ‘splat’ on the ground. No more possessive stalker guy. We find out that Trask is in WITSEC after testifying against the Cuban mafia. So everything he said was true.

We end this week with our final flashback to 2005. Finch pops the hood as it were on the Machine to explain how it picked out the traitor. It was the tiniest thread linking him to his contact and Finch seems glad that Nathan is the only person to know how it works. Finch is fine with the world not knowing he created the Machine because that’s the only way he can ensure the government uses it properly. Too bad he doesn’t realize his brother-in-arms could be the next victim or perpetrator.