Person of Interest 3.09: "The Crossing"

“There was a time I thought about saying goodbye. I lost someone. I lost myself.”
“What changed your mind?”
“I got into a fight with some punks on a subway. A cop detained me. You changed my mind, Joss.”
- Reese and Carter

We are now in week 2 of November sweeps and the episode that touts “a hero will fall”. I have my theories on who the fallen warrior will turn out to be so we’ll see if I’m right. We pick up right where we left off with Carter and Reese escorting Quinn (head of HR) to FBI custody. Back at the judge’s place, Simmons shows up and shoots the judge, saying he’d turn state’s evidence if they didn’t silence him. And he sends a uniform off to find Carter and Quinn and bring them both back alive. Simmons thinks that setting every criminal and dirty cop after Reese will take care of the problem. Reese and Carter take the subway to get where they need to go while Shaw breaks into Fusco’s apartment (after he puts his son to bed. Speaking of, his kid got really big since the last time we saw him way back in season 1) so they can provide back up. So it seems all of our heroes are in play. And of course, Finch gets a bunch of new numbers which turn out to be tied to Reese’s former aliases. And just as Finch delivers the somewhat reassuring news that at least Elias and his boys will be sitting the manhunt out, a bunch of gang bangers come onto the train to confront Reese.

Not surprising, Reese takes them out and as they exit onto the platform, he mentions to Carter how it reminds him of their first meeting. I can see how that ties in and I like it! They need to transfer trains but all service has been suspended thanks to the cops hunting for Reese. Quinn manages to get Reese’s phone and smashes it so Finch loses contact. Shaw suggests he get Root to ask the Machine for Reese’s location but Finch is hesitant. Root offers to get him back unharmed if Finch lets her go but he’s not interested. He knows if he lets her loose, bad stuff will happen. Since the train is a no go, Reese and Carter commandeer an ambulance. Unfortunately, HR has a checkpoint at the Brooklyn Bridge (where Fusco is standing watch). Shaw’s at the train station and sees some shady Asian thugs looking about. The ambulance almost gets through the checkpoint unnoticed until Simmons spots a blood smear on the back door. A shootout ensues and with Fusco’s help, our guys get away. Not so lucky for Fusco who gets KO’d by Simmons and another cop. I really hope my theory is wrong about who dies. Not that the options are particularly vast at this point. And I wouldn’t be any happier with the other option I have in mind. But things really are not looking good for Lionel at this point.

Things are going to get very emotional very quickly. In typical Lionel fashion, he’s kind of a wise ass to Simmons and his goons. This earns him several punches to the face and some broken fingers. They demand to know what the key goes to and he finally gives up an address in New Jersey when Simmons brings up shooting his son. Meanwhile, Reese, Carter and Quinn duck into the city morgue and Reese silences Quinn with a sedative (he thinks). Then as HR learns of their location, Shaw leaves a cop with a live grenade as she tries to find Lionel’s location. As Reese takes stock of whatever weapons they can find, they start comparing battle scars. This leads to Reese pulling out a bullet from his pocket, kind of like a reminder. He admits he thought about committing suicide but a fight with some punks on a train and being detained by a certain detective stopped him. At this point I’m starting to really get teary-eyed because they share a kiss. It is sweet and tender and wonderful. It feels like the writers are really calling back to the pilot and the start of the Reese/Carter relationship. Very interesting indeed. The kiss is broken rather rudely by Finch announcing they’ve got company. The morgue is surrounded and so now Reese and Carter are going to have to fight their way out one way or another. Oh and Finch decides to go out at 4am (after Root taunts him about Reese being his creation and that she’s sorry for his loss preemptively).

The HR cops bust into the morgue and start searching every room and they cut the power. Reese tells Carter to check the supply closet for chemicals they might be able to use but when she comes back he’s gone and he’s left his bullet in the air duct. She catches him before he gets too far (she’s still barricaded in the room) and he tells her to get Quinn into FBI custody. He’ll draw the cops out because he can’t lose Carter. And she’s going to be furious with him forever if anything happens to him. I honestly did not see this whole turn in their relationship coming. It makes me excited and anxious since we still don’t know who is going to die. Things are not getting dangerous for Lionel since Simmons knows he lied about the bank. One of the HR goons has at Lionel’s house and Lionel gets to talk to his son before the guy kills him. We hear a shot go over the line and then Shaw comes on the other end. She figured that they would target his family and that Lionel would want her to be there to protect his son. But he realizes that means he’s on his own and that no one is coming to save him.

It turns out Lionel is pretty damn resourceful. Since they broke most of his fingers on his right hand, he broke his thumb and gets his hand free of the cuffs and ends up strangling the guy who was supposed to kill him. Elsewhere, Reese takes out most of the cops while Finch gets the power back on at the morgue which sounds alarms. Oh and he alerts the only two honest cops to Reese’s presence, figuring it might be safer to have him in custody rather than on a slab. Carter makes it to the federal building and Quinn is charged and the rest of HR’s cronies, minus Simmons, gets arrested. Carter has her old job back and she’s figured out how Finch gets the numbers. She promises to spring Reese from lock up as she gets a call from Lionel whose watching his son head off to school. Shaw climbs in the back seat and they banter a bit before he thanks her. Man, lots of emotional revelations this week. Everything seems like it’s going great.

Carter springs Reese from lock up after having a motif on their first conversation from the pilot and that’s when I realized my theory was wrong and this was worse than what I assumed. So much worse. They walk out of the precinct and Finch is across the street. He starts towards them and Simmons appears and starts shooting. Reese takes one in the arm and Carter gets hit twice. She gets off a few shots at Simmons but he gets away. And then, the saddest moment in the entire episode. Reese is begging Carter to hold on when she keeps telling him that she needs to know her son knows she loves him and she needs Reese to look in on him. And there in his arms, she takes her last breath as a payphone rings in stark contrast to the moment. He presses a kiss to her forehead as he breaks down. I was so hoping it wasn’t going to be Carter. I can see from a plot standpoint why it had to happen but they were just starting to explore things between them and we’ll never get to see where that goes. But now Reese is going to be out for blood.