Person of Interest 1.19: "Flesh and Blood"

“I’m going to do what you never could. I’m going to unite the Families and take control.”
- Elias

Overall, this week was a very heavy Elias episode. We start with him doing a little voice over on what his life would be like if his mother hadn’t been killed. We next see Carter dropping off her son at school. He’s a little upset about some rich kids picking on him, but he refuses to let his mom get involved. Carter gets a call from a cop in SID (played by Lola Glaudini. I swear she keeps popping up in stuff recently) letting Carter know that Elias has moved all the money in his accounts.

Reese shows up to the library to find Finch putting up 5 pictures; the five heads of the crime families. It looks like Elias is going to take them all out and claim control. Reese is inclined to let it happen, but Finch reminds him of the collateral damage that it would generate. They go to do some surveillance and find that the dons meet in a room with no cameras or cell phones. Finch rigs some of the wiring in the building, though, to act as a microphone, and they overhear the conversation going on inside. Moretti Jr. thinks it is a bad idea to trust Elias (being his half-brother notwithstanding) but the other dons don’t seem too upset. Reese tries to call Carter to apologize and give her an update, but she ignores his call again. She wants to know what Elias is using the money for (he’s made a thousand different payouts), but it’s not that easy to find.

We find Elias bringing his father a sandwich and giving a brief Evil Speech of Evil. But Daddy Moretti isn’t interested. Meanwhile, Reese is going to try the direct approach with one of the dons. The guy’s not interested, and he and his guys get as far as the end of the street in this big SUV before it blows sky high. Not a surprise in the least. There had to be at least one car bomb in the episode or else it wouldn’t be mobsters trying to off each other. Lionel takes a trip out to Queens to meet with his HR contact. Apparently, HR is backing Elias’ play, and he tells Lionel to take some time off the next few days (after he looks into what the Feds know about Reese).

We get our first flashback of the episode to 1981. We find a young Carl Elias with his foster mom in a diner. He got beat up by some kids who were calling him names. He wants to know about his father (he has to do a family tree assignment for school), and his foster mom says he needs to be his own man. Back in 2012, Reese goes after Carter to keep her safe. She’s caught on to Elias’ plan (sort of) and is offering the remaining dons protection. Unfortunately 99% of the squad she’s with is HR and they bail. Don #2 is taken out, but Reese manages to take out the gunman before much else happens. We get another flashback, this time to 1991, where we find Elias working for Moretti. It becomes obvious that Elias figured out who his father is. Daddy isn’t really interested in another son but says that Elias will find his place in the organization.

Back in the present, Carter, Reese, and Finch are having a little pow wow. Carter relays the information about the FBI task force while Finch agrees to use less conventional methods to track down the recipients of Elias’ money. Carter is going to try and convince the three remaining dons to go into protective custody. Reese gives her a bag of high powered assault weapons to protect herself in case he isn’t around next time. Next we see her, she’s packing up the guns into her car and dragging Lionel along as back up. Reese is watching one of the guys on Elias’ payroll, and between him and Finch they realize Elias has people watching the families of HR (you need to have power of your allies in war according to Reese). Elias really is an evil prick.

The three remaining dons are hiding out in their little club when Carter and Lionel bust in and pretty much kidnap the three of them. Carter gets to use her fancy new tech to scare off Elias’ men. Finch gets them to a safe location but there’s still danger lurking. While Elias is monologuing about his mother some more, he gets a message that Carter has the dons. He involves HR and kidnaps Carter’s son in retaliation. Reese catches on and gets to the high school just in time to see Carter’s son being driven away. Reese calls Carter to give her the news, but Elias calls on her son’s phone and gloats a bit. He wants her to trade the dons for her son but she refuses. Reese promises to get her son back and she’s left to stare angrily out the window as more of Elias’ men show up. One of the dons tells her about Lionel’s prior life as a dirty cop, but she obviously thinks he’s just messing with her because he’s a crotchety old mob boss. Before much else can go down between them, Elias shows up and says he wants to talk things out in person.

Finch is working his own connections while Reese is waiting for Carter’s son’s location. He convinces the HR cop that Lionel is chummy with his guys and that severing ties with Elias would be a good idea, and he gets the location of Carter's son as well. Finch can be very convincing when he wants to be. And color photos of the guy’s family (taken by Elias' goons) don’t hurt. Back at the safe house, Elias’ guy starts blow torching the door to get through and we get our last flashback. We find ourselves with Elias and two other guys shortly after the 1991 encounter. They’ve taken Elias out to the woods to kill him, but he gets the upper hand and kills them, but not before declaring he’s going to get rid of all of them.

In the present, Reese and Finch have found Carter’s son’s location, and Reese goes seriously bad ass. He has a thing with people hurting kids. He ends up rescuing Moretti too while he’s there. Carter gets kind of badass herself and shoots one of the dons for pulling a gun on her and Lionel. She starts shooting that fancy gun from Reese again. Lionel’s gone and called for backup that arrives just in time to arrest Elias and his men. So at this point, we’re down to two dons (plus Moretti). Carter is reunited with her son and thanks Reese for keeping his promises. It looks like she might be up to trusting/working with the boys again, and that makes me happy. Elias is finally going to jail but not before making one last phone call to Dad. The car that he and Junior are in doesn’t exactly blow up, but they both die. And then there was one old cranky don. Things are going to get very interesting.