Person of Interest 2.06: "The High Road"

“John, it’s the doorbell. Let’s try not to shoot any Girl Scouts on our first day, okay?”
- Zoe

We begin with a jump back in time to May 2004. Finch and Nathan are trolling the park and Finch is demonstrating how much the Machine has learned. Nathan is skeptical that Finch can teach the Machine the intricacies of human nature and Finch works his magic and finds out that Nathan has been seeing a 24-year-old grad student (Nathan and his wife are separated and they don’t want to talk about divorce). The Machine also brings up Grace (Finch’s will-be fiancée). We then fast forward to the present where Finch is researching their latest number (Graham Wyler) while Bear is mooching donuts. Turns out Reese has to go out to the burbs to track our latest POI. Things seem really normal at first. Graham is a happily married guy who owns a store with his wife and whose daughter is a soccer star and an honor student. Reese notices maybe a drug buy going down with Graham and Finch does a bit more digging. Turns out the same time Graham moved from the Midwest to the city, the real Graham Wyler died. During his surveillance run, Reese gets a ticket for being parked in a no parking zone. Finch has procured a house in the suburbs (right across the street from the Wylers) and Reese needs to find an appropriate wife. And so, on a darkened bridge in New York, he proposes to one Zoe Morgan. This episode is going to be awesome.

Reese and Zoe roll up in their suburban-worthy car and get into the new place with just enough time for the Wylers to appear with a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift and an invite to a barbeque at their place. Reese manages to swipe Graham’s beer bottle after Graham gets an upsetting postcard from Philadelphia. Zoe seems to be bonding a little with Graham’s wife, Connie. Back at their place, Reese is doing some make-shift CSI work and pulls a partial print off the bottle. He sends it to Carter with instructions to run it. I have to say, I’m not like her with bangs. Just doesn’t suit her. Back in the burbs, Reese and Zoe end up drinking and playing cards all night as something fun to do. The next morning, Reese is out running and see Graham run into a couple guys; one of them calls Graham Lloyd. Later, Graham’s daughter’s soccer game, Reese gets a call from Carter. Graham really is Lloyd. He got busted for a misdemeanor breaking and entering back in 1991 and had been running with a three-man crew for robberies but didn’t get busted in 1997 with his boys (whom we just saw confronting him). Guess they got out of prison recently.

After the soccer game, Reese is going to try and have some words with one of Graham’s old crewmates. He doesn’t get the chance because Graham’s car catches fire and he gets a call ordering him into the city the following afternoon for a chat. Graham is kind of freaking out and upset and snaps at his wife as he heads out for his city rendezvous. Reese offers him a ride while Zoe goes over to comfort his wife (Finch has installed a security system so our gang can monitor them). Finch is watching the ladies chat about how they met their guys and we get another jump back to 2005. Finch is back in the park, trying to teach the Machine to spot connections between people that no one would know. And Grace shows up again. I think the Machine is trying to tell Finch something.

Back in the present, Graham goes to meet his old crew while Reese and Carter argue in her car. They overhear that his old buddies are going to pull a huge heist and they need him to crack the safe. They threaten his family to make him do it. Reese wants to swan in and take them out but Carter talks him out of it. So he drops a burner cell in their truck to track them. That night it appears Reese and Finch are trying to keep Graham from doing anything stupid. There are open warrants from PA out on him still but Finch is worried about breaking up the family. It turns out Graham has made the decision already. He left to meet the guys for the job.

Reese and Zoe are on their way to intercept Graham and his buddies. Finch manages to do a little digging to figure out which building they are going to hit. We get an amusing little scene where Reese and Zoe meet up with Carter and Zoe introduces herself as John’s wife. Carter remains outside to keep an eye on things while Zoe gets Reese into the building. He repels down the side of the building to the 42nd floor. Meanwhile, Finch is tapping into the security system in the apartment. He gets a video feed and sees there are more than just Graham and the two other guys. Reese takes two of them out while Graham is trying to unlock the safe. Not surprisingly, he’s the only robber without a mask. The apartment owner’s nephew manages to press the panic button and Carter is monitoring the bands and expects the cops to show up in a few minutes. Graham refuses to continue unlocking the safe and one of the guys says he’s going to kill Graham if he doesn’t get the safe open in the next three minutes.

Graham manages to crack the safe just as the cops arrive on street level. Carter convinces them she’s the on-scene commander and leads them the farthest way up she can find to give Reese enough time to escape. He convinces Graham not to shoot the other guys but can’t convince him to just go home. Graham turns himself in and turns state’s evidence. He ends up at home with an ankle monitor. It looks like Reese and Zoe are going to head out when she suggests they stay another night (they have some scotch left and maybe Reese can win some of his money back from the other night). As Finch is taking down the photos from the case, he flashes back to January 2006. He’s getting a small vanilla cone from an ice cream truck and gets a text from the Machine that Grace is in the park. He finally gets the courage to go say hello.