Person of Interest 3.02: "Nothing to Hide"

“People who say they have nothing to hide usually always do.”
- Finch

I have to say I wasn’t overly thrilled with this episode. I really didn’t like the POI of the week and I think the fact that he was such a jerk just took me out of the episode. Our main focus this week is a guy named Wayne Kruger, the CEO of a company that mines personal data and sells it to people and companies. It’s kind of like the Machine but more nefarious. Reese and Finch enlist Shaw for some additional help on the case. For someone who doesn’t like being part of a team, she sure is around a lot. As much as I like her snarky quality, I could actually do with a little less of her.

Things are looking innocent enough as Shaw listens in on a business meeting that Kruger hopes will result in a big fat deal. Unfortunately, things start going sideways quickly. His credit cards are being declined and then at his anniversary party, someone’s hijacked his sweet anniversary video and mixed in stuff from a sex tape. Seriously why do people record themselves doing stupid stuff like that? Anyway, it ends the party prematurely and Reese and company have to step it into high gear to stop whoever is coming after Kruger from doing it again.

Carter’s got her own little drama going right now. She visits Cal’s grave and runs into his godfather, Quinn (the head honcho of HR). She heads off for her shift with a rookie officer as he realizes they’ve still got a problem with Carter (demotion notwithstanding). Carter is not pleased to have to ride with a rookie but it means she’s off working the night shift. IN a move that surprises no one, the rookie gets sick at a crime scene. I have to say Cater was a little too bitter at the start, bossing the kid around. I’m still conflicted as to whether he’s an HR plant or not. He gives a nice speech near the end that he wanted to ride with her because he heard about her in the academy and the way she took down the corrupt cops. Time will tell.

Finch has dug up some serious dirt on Kruger after the party mishap. He’s buried all negative online criticism of his company and he also buried a major lawsuit where people’s lives were ruined from fraud to blackmail to murder. It would appear someone is giving the plaintiffs a shot at revenge because Shaw gets security camera footage one of the plaintiffs sneaking in the altered DVD. Carter gets the honor of pulling the woman over and hearing her sob story about how her fiancé dumped her after he saw some old pictures of her and an ex (naughty pics). Later that day, Kruger’s secretary quits on him after she hears a recording of him saying he wished she had more qualifications other than a nice butt. The guy really is a jackass. It is hard to feel sorry for him honestly. The worst part of it is the lead plaintiff in the case lost her daughter because a stalker found the girl’s address on Kruger’s website and killed her.

Our heroes are not having a very good time of keeping Kruger safe. First, he gets into the elevator and it goes into a fee fall even though it’s not supposed to be able to do that. And then he gets into his car and nearly gets killed as the car goes haywire and he can’t control it. And all Kruger is worried about is things getting botched with his big business deal (which by the way appears to be off because it was discovered he’d been arrested in the past and he’d been hiding it). I guess he only put up the façade he wanted people to see on his profile on his site. Jerk. Finally, Reese and Shaw get Kruger to the library and determine that other plaintiffs have been sent packages and ways to get back at Kruger. While in the relative safety of the library, Kruger gets a voice mail from one of the business guys saying the company is willing to reconsider if they meet at the airport. Finch tells Kruger to stay put but Kruger knocks Finch out and takes off. Reese and Shaw have deduced that the lead plaintiff’s ex-husband is really the one behind everything so they’re checking out his home and his locker at work (Shaw spotted him posing as a maintenance guy).

Everyone has underestimated the enormity of the situation it would see when Kruger goes to meet the guy who called him. The ex-husband is waiting and Kruger threatens to kill him, making him straddle the perp/victim line. I will give the writers props for that since we’ve never actually had a situation like that. But it turns out the guy from the company Kruger’s been dealing with is actually the one behind everything. He’s trying to teach Kruger a lesson. Reese shows up but both he and Kruger get shot by the new nefarious big bad. Kruger in fact gets shot in the head. So this is also a first (Elias doesn’t really count) for the team losing a POI. The fact that they’re introducing another long story-arc when they haven’t ever really wrapped up the others (aka Elias, HR, and Root) is a little worrisome. I know the show can be high concept at times and it likes to delve into its mythology but they really need to conclude a few of the bigger storylines before starting a new one. I have a feeling this new big bad will dovetail with Root and that could be interesting but really, HR went on way too long. Carter needs to take them down once and for all and so we can move on. As for Elias, as much as I adore Enrico, Elias could end his storyline too and I’d be fine with that.

Really, I think this episode sets up the bigger plan for the season but it did have some hiccups along the way. I’ll reserve judgment for the new evil until we’ve seen a few more episodes and how the plot unfolds. I was kind of hoping the writers would get back to the boys saving people every week like they did in season 1. I think the show did suffer a bit with the larger mythology last year and I don’t want to see them start to slide downhill in quality.