Monday, October 29, 2012

Person of Interest 2.04: "Triggerman"

“I suppose I should thank you for saving my life, as well as my current accommodations. Being stripped of all my possessions eliminates certain distractions. I’ve got time to think, to play chess. Though finding a worthy opponent has been a little challenging.”
- Elias

We start again with another voice over. This time the Machine is recording it. It sounds like yet another hit of some kind. Reese is on the stalk, and finds this week’s POI is the enforcer, Riley Cavanaugh, of an Irish mobster. Reese heads inside, clones Riley’s phone and flirts with the hostess. In short order, Mr. Mob threatens the restaurant’s owner for being behind on payment. Apparently the mob isn’t fond of remodels when it eats into their dirty money. The hostess, Annie, turns out to be the widow of one of Mr. Mob’s cronies who was killed a few months ago. Annie kind of mouths off to the guy for her husband’s death. The boys head out to a bar and with some quick thinking on Reese’s part, they figure out that Riley is being sent after Annie to shut her up, permanently.

That night, Reese follows Riley and Mr. Mob’s son Eddie. We learn a little more about Annie’s dead husband, he was killed in Brighton Beach. It was a nice call back to last season when we learned who Elias really was. Finch monitors a call to Eddie’s phone and his dad tells him to kill Riley as well as Annie. Riley’s not stupid. He ends up shooting Eddie before Eddie can do the same to him. Finch and Reese are kind of surprised to find out that Riley and Annie are an item. So now Reese has twice the protecting to do.

Reese is tailing Riley after the accident and decides to get Carter and Fusco involved to help keep tabs on everyone. Finch is hesitant to actually protect Riley, given his background. Reese isn’t so squeamish about it. He’s not really that different from Riley. I sort of found it interesting how Finch was reacting in a way that Root would have. Finch actually braves the big scary world to make sure that Annie isn’t still at her apartment (Mr. Mob’s thugs were already at Riley’s place). We also get a reunion with Carter and Detective Shamanski. He makes some cheesy jokes about how Eddie died. Meanwhile, Finch is in Annie’s apartment trying to figure out where she’s gone while Reese continues to follow Riley.

Shamanski and Carter head over to talk to Mr. Mob and things are pretty much a dead end. But they couldn’t really expect him to be a big pool of conversation. He makes the comment though that if he finds the shooter before the cops, they’ll never know. Fusco is chilling at a bar snooping around. He’s buying people drinks. Finch has had some luck at Annie’s place though. He figured out where the building is. Which is very good since Reese has lost Riley. Lucky for Reese he’s not far from the location. Annie and Riley finally meet up and they argue about whether they’re running away together. We get some backstory on how the two of them fell in love. It looks like Annie may have convinced Riley to go with her until they realize the money he’d hidden has been stolen. In its place is a cell phone that rings and Mr. Mob taunts him. Not surprisingly, mob goons show up and Riley and Reese take them out. Of course Reese gets shot by Riley for his trouble. Thank god for bullet proof vests!

Shamanski has figured out it was Riley who shot Eddie. And he’s getting ready to take him out for good. Not so good for our heroes. We get a brief scene of Fusco buying more drinks for people. Fusco does learn that Mr. Mob has put a million dollar bounty on Riley and Annie. Our heroes realize that Mr. Mob is going to need to get someone to get the news about the hit city wide. Carter gives Reese the update and he tells her to derail a homicide investigation. She’s pissed which isn’t surprising. Annie heads over to the restaurant and she gets some money from the owner so they can get out of town. Some hired guns show up and of course Reese takes them out.

Finch is on his way to try to derail Mr. Mob’s plan. And thus enters Elias. I have to say I’m kind of happy to see him again. I like that the writers are keeping him involved in the storylines. It provides continuity which is always important in a show like this. It keeps things grounded and real. Of course Elias would still be controlling things from inside the prison system. He’s just that connected. And when Finch asks him to make it a big no-no for anyone to go after Riley and Annie to collect the bounty, he has to make a deal with Elias. We don’t know what that deal is exactly but it’s obvious it’s not your usual prison trade.

Riley and Annie are at the train station getting tickets. Finch reports in about the bounty being off limits but it seems one person didn’t get the memo. So Reese has to take them out. It doesn’t work though because the bounty hunter sets a trashcan fire and makes off with Annie. Reese is following Riley and pretty soon Riley realizes he’s being followed. He and Reese scuffle. Reese hypothesizes that Annie’s husband wasn’t killed by a rival mob but it was in fact Riley who did it. Reese and Riley agree to team up and get to Annie in time for a big gun fight in which Riley doesn’t make it. Finch also explains his verbal slip-up earlier (he called Riley “bad code”). He is able to admit that he was wrong about Riley and that people can evolve. So he’s not really like Root. Which is good. We end with Finch and Elias playing chess. Guess we know what the trade was for putting the kibosh on Mr. Mob’s bounty.

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