Saturday, March 16, 2013

Person of Interest 2.17: "Proteus"

“What? People like you don’t stop. You can rationalize it however you like but you hurt people because you like it. Because you’re sick, you’re maladjusted and you need help.”
- Mr. Finch

This week’s episode had kind of a murder mystery “Clue” feeling. I kind of like to think of it as Doctor Who’s “The Unicorn and the Wasp” meets Leverage’s “The 10 Li’l Grif6ers Job”. The coast of New York is under heavy rain from a monsoon and that causes part of our heroes’ woes this week. The other is that the Machine seems to be on the fritz. Three days with no new numbers. Reese and Finch are discussing this very fact after leaving a movie theater with Bear (he’s got a service dog vest on) when a pay phone rings. They get not one, not two but six numbers. Sure they’ve had multiple numbers before but this is all spread over the country. The closest is a guy named Rawlins. Reese heads out into the icky weather to check out Rawlins’ place while Finch enlists Carter’s help to get any info she can on the other five.

Carter finds that all five seem to be missing and the FBI has files on all of them. So, after thanking Agent Moss for his help and trying to get any info he has about Detective Beecher, she calls the agent who wrote the reports; Alan Fahey. Agent Fahey insists he’s just a desk jockey, although he’s sitting in a car in the rain in a place that doesn’t look much like DC. Anyway, Reese has some more luck at Rawlins’ house. He finds a train ticket and a rental property on Owen Island. Reese makes it out to the island and to Rawlins’ rental house before the island is shut down due to people evacuating. Finch heads back to Rawlins’ apartment after Carter informs him there was a weird link at each of the other crime scenes, missing or destroyed photos.

Things get rather morbid on Finch’s end. In his search of Rawlins’ apartment, he and Bear head to the basement where Bear alerts to something in a grate. Carter shows up and confirms it to be human teeth. Ew. But I guess we know what happened to all the numbers. Out on the island, Reese is checking out the house and he’s not alone. He meets Agent Fahey and thank goodness Reese is carrying the US Marshal’s badge he nabbed last year. After clearing the house, they head off to the police station to get some help from the local LEOs. All they get is a grumpy Deputy who is scrambling to evacuate the island. Meanwhile, Carter confirms that whoever killed Rawlins knew what they were doing. Seeing as communication to the island is nil, Finch decides he needs to be there with Reese so he’s going to fly. Carter’s trying to figure out anything she can on the other victims when Detective Beecher stops by. She gives him the cold shoulder and I have to say I’m glad about that. I don’t trust him and I don’t like him.

We start to meet the cast of characters who are going to become our suspects on the island. Fahey shares with Reese that he thinks there’s a serial killer out there taking on victim’s identities. This reminded me of an episode of Criminal Minds a few years back. Guess there’s only so many plots to go around. As some of the locals straggle in, Reese and Fahey go out to a boat to haul in a guy tr7ying to get out on the water. They get a two-for because there’s a guy trying to stow away on the boat, too. They get back to the station to find Finch has arrived and landed his plane in the middle of the town. Go Finch!

Things start to get really interesting once Finch arrives. The guys come up with a way to try and weed out the imposter. Finch conveniently brought equipment that could be used as a polygraph. So Reese and Fahey start asking questions and things are going well until they start talking to the fisherman. Based on his heart rate he’s rather jumpy. Their interrogation of the second guy they found at the boat doesn’t go any better. He’s really jittery and his heart is racing. Back in the city, Carter gets a little assist from Beecher in figuring out that some surveillance video they have of Rawlins before he moved to New York is off. The guy closing up the shop and opening it the next morning isn't the same person. And Carter gets some news from the Dean of Students from Stanford (the first victim was an international student there seven years ago). Apparently he requested a new roommate his last semester and there is no digital record of the guy he’d been rooming with. My guess is that guy is the killer.

Carter is trying to get through to the island to let Reese know the newest info when the generator on the island goes out. Reese goes to check it out and when he gets back, the deputy has been stabbed. Things kick into overdrive now. Everyone starts arguing about how killed the deputy and Reese clues in on the drifter. Turns out he’s an AWOL Marine who couldn’t face going back overseas. Of course there’s a fist fight between him and Reese because an episode of this show wouldn’t be complete without some violence. And the fisherman’s disappeared. So Reese goes after him. Meanwhile, Carter decides she needs to jump into action and get out to the island. Beecher insists on going with her and they sort of have it out on the drive there. Reese catches up with the fisherman and finds he’s been smuggling marijuana. He’s about to put the guy in the trunk when he discovers there’s already a body in there. The real Agent Fahey. I have to say on first watch, I figured out he wasn’t the real Fahey pretty early on.

Unfortunately, Finch is figuring this out, too. He’s checking the readings and he sees a spike in Fahey’s heart rate. He goes to check the badge to find it empty (just the shield part is there). And that’s when Fahey decides on his next identity. He takes Finch out to a secluded area behind the station and explains that he’ll stop taking identities when he’s found himself. I have to say this guy was sufficiently creepy. He’s about to shoot Finch when carter shows up and shoots the poser in the back. Finch is grateful for her arrival and it turns out having Beecher along was a good thing. Fake Fahey pops up thanks to his body armor and Beecher shoots him in the head. It would seem all is well, despite the Machine glitching. Finch is worried about the future and what all of this means. I have a feeling he’s right to be concerned.

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