Person of Interest 1.15: "Blue Code"

“Your version of a lucky day is being shot and lit on fire?”
- Carter

This week we dive right into the action. The person of interest of the week is a guy named Mike Cahill who at first blush looks to be an upstanding buy but is really part of a smuggling ring run by a guy named Vargas. Somehow, Reese manages to get in as the driver of an ambulance to pick up the latest thing they’re smuggling (diamonds in with a guy supposedly having a heart transplant. They manage to get away without a hitch (save a busted tail light on the ambulance) and make delivery to their boss. Cahill roughs up one of the younger guys in the crew for getting twitchy and then takes off. Naturally, Reese follows him despite the fact it’s 3am and finds out that Cahill is actually an undercover cop.

It’s been a few episodes since we had flashbacks and so now we get some. We jump to 2008 in some likely Eastern European country (it doesn’t say) where we find Reese obsessively cleaning his gun. He’s with his partner (the one the CIA claims he killed) and they are waiting on orders for what to do with the package they have. Agent Snow shows up and tells them they don’t ask questions or care where they’re dropping the package (turns out to be a government official who tried to sell American tech to the Chinese) or who he is. Reese gets booted for some R&R and he ends up outside staring at the cityscape.

Back in 2012, Reese is still following Cahill (aka Tully). Reese follows him to a meet up with his handler. They’re a day away from taking down Vargas’ higher up (a guy named L.O.S.). Cahill seems pretty confident that L.O.S. will be there at the next shipment. Finch is concerned that the reason the Machine gave them Cahill’s number is because someone has discovered or will soon discover he’s an undercover cop. So he pays Carter a visit (after she runs into Agent Snow) to ask about the system for keeping records on undercovers. The files are only hardcopy and only the handler has access to them in safes kept in a locked room at IAB. So now Finch is going to have to figure a way to get in there and get rid of the file without getting caught. Reese sends Lionel to chat up some of his dirty narcotics cop buddies to see what they know.

Meanwhile, Reese joins the smuggling crew on another pick up but things go south. The guy they’re taking the product from has back up in the way of machine guns. And before the crew heads in, Vargas gets a call and he’s not happy with the news he’s receiving. They manage to get away and hole up in a warehouse. But he orders everyone hand over their weapons and destroy their phones. Obviously Cahill’s handler and Finch aren’t too happy about that, having lost a way to track the deal and to keep tabs on Reese. We jump back to 2008 for a tick where it’s obviously early enough in the year for the bar to be playing Obama’s acceptance speech. Reese orders a beer and sits down next to a guy. They chat a little and Reese tells the guy he’s originally from Washington. The guy goes off to call his wife (also from Washington) and Reese’s partner shows up. She told him to get a drink and he apparently managed to pick the one guy married to his ex.

Back in 2012, Reese convinces the rest of the crew to let him make a tourniquet for the wounded guy (mainly to shut him up). Cahill steals the wounded guy’s phone and lets his handler know that his cover might be blown and where they are. Meanwhile, Lionel meets with an old corrupt cop buddy and says he wants to shake down Vargas. But he’s told he has to go through proper channels. A call from Finch interrupts the meeting and it looks like Lionel is going to have to break into 1PP. Yeah, don’t think he’s going to like that much. We get a little bit of a funny scene where Finch has to juggle both Carter and Lionel on the coms (well only Lionel is on coms) as the two run into each other at 1PP. Lionel almost gets away with destroying Cahill’s file but he gets caught by Vargas’ informant. Back in the warehouse, Reese accuses Cahill of making a call and tackles him to steal the phone to keep the guy’s cover. Reese gets knocked out with a crow bar for his troubles.

Reese gets hit a bunch of times before Cahill talks Vargas into letting him interrogate Reese. Reese reveals what he knows about Cahill and says he can get them both out. Cahill says he can’t go back to his family with L.O.S. still at large but he tells Reese where the shipment is going down. He then shoots Reese. We get another flashback to 2008 where Reese’s partner basically tells him he can’t see his ex and that no one would really understand what he’s done or who he’s become. They leave before Jessica’s new hubby can introduce them. I mean it’s got to be hard on Reese. He loved Jessica but he kind of is stuck in the CIA still.

Things aren’t going much better in 2012 either. Reese gets locked in the trunk of a car and set on fire. Luckily Cahill left him a knife to get free and Carter’s waiting on the outside to give him a lift. They have to race against time to save both Cahill and Lionel. The meet is about to go to hell when Carter and Reese show up guns literally a blazing and take pretty much everybody down. L.O.S. is CIA and Reese knows charges won’t stick. But Cahill wants to arrest him anyway. Reese shows up just in time to Lionel’s life but things aren’t going to be any fun for Lionel for a while. He has to go back to being dirty to be useful to Reese. Agent Snow bails L.O.S. out and then has him taken out in a car while Reese keeps an eye on Cahill to make sure nothing happens to him or his family.