Person of Interest 3.13: "4C"

“You computer guys. You build something you can’t control and when it backfires you won’t take responsibility.”
- Reese

When last we saw Mr. Reese he was getting out of the game on Team Machine. And true to his word, he’s trying to get on an international flight to Istanbul. The flight’s been overbooked and he gets up on another flight with a stopover in Rome. At first he’s in seat 1B but he gets bumped back a row for a newlywed couple. As the flight prepares to take off, the guy in the aisle over is being a jerk to the female flight attendant so when she goes to get some help, Reese knocks the guy out. He’s pretty handy on a plane if you ask me. But pretty soon things start to get hinky. He gets a message on his phone saying “4C” (hence the episode title) and it looks like it’s a young guy. He takes a stroll through the cabin and notes that the two guys on either side of 4C are US Marshals. And shortly, one of them ends up knocked out in the lavatory. Reese is kind of irked at this point so he calls Finch to complain. Finch swears he’s not trying to mess with Reese’s travel agenda, even if he doesn’t agree with the decision to leave. It would appear the Machine is trying to still use Reese for its own goals.

Reese is not happy about this at all and he says he’ll inform the other Marshal about his buddy and back off. That plan doesn’t get far. The other Marshal starts having some kind of episode and a Colombian guy jabs 4C in the leg with a needle. Reese takes him out and ends up relaying the goings on to Finch. And while Reese liquors up 4C, whose name is Owen, we learn that he worked for the company that hosted a black market site that just got busted by the FBI. The head of the organization is still at large but clearly Owen knows something. Back in New York, Finch enlists Shaw to infiltrate her former employer because he thinks that Owen’s number might be relevant (which is why it didn’t get sent to the team).

Both of our badass heroes get to do a little but whooping as the case continues. It turns out that Owen actually built the entire system for the black market site and was handpicked by the elusive creator. So that makes him relevant since he can ID the guy. It’s not long before Reese enlists the flight attendant to keep everyone asleep and out of his way (and by asleep he means drugged up on alcohol). And while Shaw is interrogating the man named Foster who sent her on all her missions when she worked for the government, some ex-Mossad operatives try to take out Owen. Reese manages to stop them but he gets a fork in his shoulder. Shaw’s journey back into her old life reveals that an operative from the government is on the plane, too. Reese intercepts him but Owen disappears. I’m not quite sure how he can disappear. The plane isn’t that big and the two bathrooms in the first class section are full of knocked out people.

Reese bonds a bit with the flight attendant and then finds Owen hiding out near where they keep all the food and stuff. Reese drags him down to the cargo hold to keep him away from trouble while Shaw does a bit more digging to figure out why her former employer wants Owen dead. It doesn’t take long for Owen to admit that he’s the mastermind behind the program. He squirreled away a tidy fortune and he’s willing to split it with Reese. He also believes he was doing a good thing by cutting down on drug-related violence. Reese isn’t buying it and he lets out some of his frustration about Finch and the Machine (and presumably their role in Carter’s death) until the government operative shows up. It turns out the government had been skimming from the black market and couldn’t afford that to come out if Owen went public. Reese, with a final assist from Owen, manages to take out the operative but things aren’t all tidy. The Colombian he knocked out at the start of the flight had a partner. The coach flight attendant is the second Colombian on board and his mission is to crash the plane to take out Owen. No wonder the Machine put Reese on the flight.

It’s going to take both Finch and Reese to save the flight. Reese has to ram the door to the cockpit with a cart several times to get in. And Finch, after finally hacking into the plane’s guidance system manages to land the plane. It was a pretty hilarious scene as he hooks up a video game controller and talks himself through it. Just the expression on Michael Emerson’s face was priceless. And as they land and the passengers cheer, Reese notes that the only relevant number on the plane is 130 (the passengers). Things don’t turn out too bad for the Man in the Suit. He gets a night with the flight attendant and he realizes that he needs to work and there can be good points to what they do. Finch has arrived to settle Owen into his new ID and explains that he made the Machine opaque because he always wanted the human element in determining fate. I think that’s part of what turns Reese around. Well, that and the mention that Finch misses Carter, too. They head off together to see Finch’s tailor and visit an art exhibit. I’m quite happy to see that Team Machine is whole again and back in fighting form. Not that broody Reese wasn’t entertaining but I’m happy he’s back. He was pretty awesome in this episode and I loved the relationship he developed with the flight attendant. I kind of hope we see her again someday.