Last night’s episode of ‘Person of Interest’ involved a person of interest named Dani Silva who is a cadet at the police academy. The team must work to solve the mystery of whether she’s the perpetrator or victim without Reese risking his cover.
Does that description sound familiar? It seems to me that most episodes would revolve around that basic premise. This show has always been about the POI and whether or not they’re the victim or perpetrator but now it typically involves possibly blowing their cover.
That was just a side thought, but now onto last night’s episode. I enjoyed this episode so you probably won’t find as much complaining as I had last week. I’m sure everyone will be happy about that.
The episode begins with Reese and the cadets running a exercise where Reese manages to get “shot” by Dani Silva, the NYPD cadet. We learn that Reese has taken an assignment at the academy as a Weapons and Tactics Instructor, on a recommendation from his therapist since she seems to think he needs to have a refresher on proper police conduct.
I don’t think at all that Reese was shot because Silva was that good. I believe he allowed it in an effort to get closer to Silva. Reese gets shot, but rarely because he’s been snuck up upon.
After the training session there is a minor confrontation which I believe is there to completely mislead the audience about who we’re supposed to look suspiciously upon. Coming to Silva’s rescue is another cadet, Alex Ortiz who seems to be smitten with Silva. She rejects his advances and invitations to hang out with the gang.
But those rejections don’t stop her from tailing the gang as they go out to the local bar. It’s then that we learn that she’s working with someone named Howard, her handler perhaps and that she’s figured out her target and is ready to complete the objective. I know at this point the writers probably wanted us to think she was the perpetrator but it’s at this point that I figured she was undercover and actually was in danger, and the one who was a danger to her wasn’t the people we were lead to believe they were earlier in the show.
Soon though it is revealed through the detective work of Shaw and Fusco that she is undercover and her handler is Howard. At about the time that Shaw and Fusco are discovering this, Reese and his therapist are tailing Silva and they are involved in the saving of Silva who was ambushed.
Of course this incident manages to convince the therapist that perhaps Reese doesn’t have a Hero Complex, but rather just is a magnet or very good at detecting dangerous situations. Either way, it’s a bit of a stretch that the therapist would suddenly be okay with everything, although having been shot at she just might be thankful to be alive and that the guy with the Hero Complex was there to save her.
Shaw and Fusco continue their investigation of Silva and those attempting to kill her and they are lead to a community center to help at risk kids in the area. Apparently this community center is a cover for Dominic and his team. This is where they hold business and recruit new members to the Brotherhood. Here the team finally learns that Mini, who they saved previously, is actually Dominic. Déjà vu for Harold I think. They also learn how the Brotherhood has people in the inside of the NYPD.
At this point I realized that Dominic’s security is crap. How Shaw and Fusco were able to stand at the door and watch everything go down frankly is beyond me. I mean, if it were Elias those two would have never been close enough to visually watch him. Heck, they wouldn’t have been able to listen in on the conversation unless Elias wanted it. Perhaps this over confidence on Dominic’s part will be his downfall? It seems the only gang in the city that is organized and keeps good security is Elias, although that might change next week.
Shaw was obviously unhappy with finding out she saved the life of the leader of Brotherhood and she was willing to take him out right then and there which wouldn’t have been great for her cover. Anyone else amazed that Dominic was going to kill one of his men in the gym of the community center? Doesn’t this seem like a bad idea, especially with the potential for kids to walk in any minute?
The Brotherhood manages to kill Howard and steal all Silva’s files and the only proof that she’s from IA and a cop rather than the killer the Brotherhood framed her to be. This is where I questioned the logic of not having records elsewhere about who she was. It’s as if her entire life disappeared with the stolen records. But they do explain later in the episode why Howard was so paranoid of electronic files.
Ortiz, who we learn is the mole and the one Silva is after, delivers the items he was sent to find to Dominic. We learn they are files which have detailed information on Elias because Dominic plans to take down Elias by learning whom his enemy is in detail.
This is where I began to wonder why it seems that every main bad guy in this show is some sort of philosophy major who is insanely smart? I guess because stupid people never manage to become the leaders of major crime rings?
Ortiz has to go into hiding while the Brotherhood finishes up its framing of Silva but Reese and Harold know how to find Ortiz and track him down to an abandoned school (with a working pool that will come in handy). Once again lax security allows for Silva and Reese to come in and save Ortiz from death, because Ortiz wasn’t smart enough to know that you never do just one job for a crime ring, once you’re in, you’re in for life.
They have to escape though and get trapped in the pool area of the school. This is where the grenades that Reese packed on Bear come in handy. He blows a hole in the bottom of the pool and they swim their way to safety. Thank God Bear is scuba certified.
Now while all of this was happening, Robotic Samaritan Woman (my nickname for her) has been tracking down Shaw. Samaritan can’t name who she is, but Greer is smart and thinks with how Shaw hides from cameras it must mean that she’s part of Harold’s team. This then results in Robotic Samaritan Woman explaining how people could hide, by taking cover identities. So she’ll find out who Shaw is and take her down, which is how we end the episode, with Shaw being confronted by Robotic Samaritan Woman.
Overall I enjoyed this episode. John showed more emotion in this episode than any previous episode, which was a good change of pace for him. Also he dropped the Dark Knight voice for a little bit which I found very interesting.
Dani Silva is an interesting character because I don’t believe she’s gone. She said she had more questions for John and was suspicious of his obvious military training, which wasn’t listed in his file. Will she be another asset to the team or someone who will learn the truth about John?
This episode built upon the previous episodes and the build up to a confrontation between Elias and The Brotherhood as well as Samaritan finding one of the team. Next week Elias is the number and the confrontation between Shaw and Robotic Samaritan Woman takes place. It should be one great lead in to the mid season finale. We have next week’s episode and then a two-week break before the next one.
So everyone hold on while the rollercoaster of action begins!
