PERSON OF INTEREST Recap: Flesh and Blood

Episode 1.19: Flesh and Blood

I just realized that there are only 3 more episodes of PoI left this season after this one. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been enjoying this show for almost an entire season. Thank goodness we have a second season to look forward to in the fall, but it’s definitely going to be a long summer!

Last episode, we saw Finch and Reese struggle (ok, mostly Finch!) a bit to figure out the mystery of two different people with the same social security number. It turns out that sorting out two people was only a warm-up, as this week, the machine produced 5 numbers – one for each of the dons of the major NYC crime families, including Elias’ half brother. Turns out Elias is eager for organized crime to get a fresh start in the boroughs and he’s paid off half of the NYPD to help him make it a reality.

After a brief discussion of the ethics of protecting killers, drug dealers and human traffickers, Finch and Reese spring into action to help prevent collateral damage to innocent citizens by bugging a meeting of the dons. Other than Elias’ half brother, who wants his father back, the dons aren’t too worried about Elias, even  mostly because they are still making money off of him.

Carter is also working the case – she had previously tagged one of Elias’ bank accounts and when the money disappears – dispersed to over a thousand different people, she realizes that something big is going down. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have the means to trace all of the payouts quickly enough to track the receivers and she’s still not answering Reese and Finch’s calls.

Elias still has his father captive – apparently he didn’t kill him a few episodes ago like it seemed he might. We are treated to some  father-son heart-to-hearts and flashbacks from Elias’ childhood and early adulthood. We see his transition from an earnest, sad, motherless boy to a cool criminal mastermind. Along the way, his father continuously manipulated him and even tried to kill him. I was starting to feel bad for the guy (which is reasonably easy anyway because every time I see him I think of Veronica Mars’ dad, not a calculating sociopath) for a few moments there.

Speaking of cold and calculating, Officer Simmons, the chiseled leader of the dirty cops (AKA “HR”), approaches Fusco. He wants Fusco to get him information about Reese. He also tells him that they are doing a job for Elias and Fusco might want to call in sick for a few days because the body count is going to be high.

Tasked with protecting the dons, Reese first tries the direct route. He approaches one of the dons and asks him to come with him to a safe house. The mob boss  shrugs him off and drives away, only to have his SUV explode in a massive fireball two blocks down the road. (One down, four to go.) Reese calls Elias and asks him to rethink his dastardly plan, but Elias calmly assures him that it’s not going to happen and that Reese should leave the mob bosses to him.

Carter attempts to protect a second don and sets him up to go into protective custody. At the designated meet, Carter sets up a police blockade and then tries to take the mob boss into custody. When they get to the street, though, the police officers and cruisers are gone and instead there is a gunman who assassinates the don and trades fire with Carter. Luckily, Finch has surveillance on Carter’s phone, realizes what she is up to, and is able to track her location. He shows up just in time to kill the gunman and save her (again). (Two down, three to go.)

Finch, Reese and Carter powwow at a dinner and share information. Carter tells Reese that the FBI has a new task force set up to find him and that they think he’s working with Elias. Reese gives Carter a bag full of some serious firepower, in case he can’t be there next time. She accepts it and leaves.

Finch attempts to track down the recipients of Elias’ payouts and soon they have a list of ex-cons all around the city to surveil. They soon realize that Elias is having the families of the dirty cops followed as a bit of an insurance policy.

Back at the station, Carter asks Fusco for help as she’s the only person she can trust. They barge into a club where the two remaining dons and Elias’ brother are having a meeting. They demand that they enter protective custody and when they refuse, Carter and Fusco force them to leave with them at gunpoint. Elias’ men arrive just as they get the men into the car. They drive them to a safe house that Finch has set up.

Elias is not so happy when he finds out that Carter has snatched the dons, so he retaliates by sending one of the HR cops to kidnap Carter’s son, Taylor, from his school. Reese anticipates this move, but arrives at the school a few seconds too late to prevent the abduction (but just in time to take a round from a machine gun right into his vest without flinching or altering his aim). Reese calls Carter but before he can tell her what happened, another call comes over her phone.

Elias calls Carter from Taylor’s cell phone and offers to trade Taylor for the dons and his half brother. He tells her that she is protecting people who murder, sell drugs to kids, and traffic young girls and that he is “the evolution of organized crime”. Carter refuses to trade. She calls Reese and he promises her that he’ll get Taylor back safe, no matter what the cost.

Fusco tries to comfort Carter and asks her to call back-up, but she recognizes the two goons Elias has staged outside the safehouse as two vice cops from another precinct and tells him that they can’t trust anyone. Great ironic statement, seeing as Fusco is of course, working as a double agent and knows this fact well. Fusco goes off to make sure that their location is secure. One of the dons suggests to Carter that the goons are outside because she can’t trust Fusco – he was partners with the dirty cop who was killed earlier in the season (by Reese, I believe) and was in it deep.

Desperate to find out where Taylor is being held, Finch drops in on Simmons, the HR leader, when he stops for a cup of coffee. He shows him pictures of one of Elias’ goons following his family and other officer’s families. Finch tells him that Elias kidnapped Detective Carter’s kid and tells him that he needs to find out where Taylor is being held and HR needs to sever all their ties with Elias.

Elias, meanwhile, arrives at the safe house and one of his men starts cutting his way through the door with a torch as he tries to convince Carter to turn over the dons. Carter still refuses and decides she’s going to make a stand and gets a HUGE gun (from Reese) ready and aims it at the door. Fusco tells her that the HR cops are no longer outside and Carter asks him to keep the dons in the back. At that moment, we hear a gun click and one of the dons is holding a gun on Carter and Fusco, who also have their guns drawn. Turns out he had a deal with Elias and was the one that let him know where they were.

Just as Elias has managed to cut through the hinges of the door, there’s a gunshot. He opens the door and finds the don dead on the floor (three down, two to go) and Carter with the big gun pointed right at him.  Sirens are heard approaching and Fusco tells her that he called for backup – there are some cops they can trust. Fusco and Carter arrest Elias, who doesn’t seem all that concerned about the change of events.

Finch and Reese go to where Taylor is being held and Reese shoots, kicks and punches his way in, rescuing both Taylor and Elias’ father. Taylor calls Carter and then Reese delivers him to her. Carter is so grateful that Reese kept his promise to save Taylor. For a second, it looks like she might even hug Reese, but she doesn’t. Regardless, the look on her face clearly said that all is forgiven.

With Elias safely in police custody, Elias’ father and brother get in a car to drive off. They hear a phone ring and find one in the glove compartment, along with crime scene photos from Elias’ mother’s murder. When Elias’ father answers the phone, Elias (who is in prison orange and walking to his cell while talking on a cell phone provided by a cop) says that he just called to say goodbye. He hangs up and the car explodes, engulfed in a fireball. (And that makes five dead dons… Elias 3, Team Machine 0) Elias hands the cell phone back to the officer and is alone in his cell.

My thoughts:

I’ve really enjoyed the Elias storyline from the very beginning. This episode gave us a lot of insight into his character and how he became the man that he is. The character is such a twisted mix of cold-hearted killer and the fatherly schoolteacher persona he was using when he and Reese first crossed paths. The most intriguing part is that none of these events would be happening if Reese hadn’t set them in motion when Elias tricked him into saving his life back then. That one deception set everyone down a path that is going to be hard to recover from as I get the impression that Elias is far from out of commission (killing his father and half brother from prison was a bit of a hint). He’s going to be a thorn in our heroes’ sides, not to mention a blight on the city, until he is dead and in the ground (which I imagine will eventually happen, at Reese’s hand).

PoI is never a show that shies away from moral dilemmas. Nearly every episode blurs the line between good and evil, moral and immoral. If your intentions are good, do your methods matter? Is it a bad thing to kill a bad person? Is it okay to violate a person’s civil rights if you are trying to save them (from others or themselves)? For most of the season, Carter has generally used as a kind of moral compass for the show, but this week, it was interesting to see her making the ambiguous choices (which I guess turned out to be a best of two bad options scenario and completely in vain) . She refuses to back down even when Elias kidnaps her son.

Meanwhile, Reese is the one that initially questions them protecting a bunch of “trash”.  But of course when Taylor is kidnapped, Reese goes into child protection mode and will save him at all costs. I wonder if it would have been Reese with the dons instead of Carter if he would have killed them or turned them over so Taylor would be released, much like he did two episodes ago, to save the baby. The contrast between Reese’s intense desire to help people and the emotionless way he is able to kill or wound “bad” people to do so, is part of what makes the show so intriguing. In many ways, he and Elias are two sides of the same coin.

I wonder if he and Carter will find out that they are both working with Finch and Reese before the season is over. It seems like it will be hard to keep them in the dark much longer as they both must be getting suspicious.

You’ve heard my thoughts. What did you think of the episode? Let me know in the comments!

Memorable Quotes and Other Musings:

Bit of a late start, Mr Reese. Did you forget to set your alarm? – Finch
Had my yoga class – Reese
Well, I hope you’ve gotten in touch with your chi… -Finch

You really should return your calls, Detective – Reese, after saving Carter’s life (again)

I’m often misunderstood – Reese

You’ve got some weird friends, Carter – Fusco, talking about Finch but not knowing it

Elias isn’t the only fallen angel in our Rolodex – Finch

Mom, it’s me. That guy you sent is kind of a bad ass – Taylor, Carter’s son, after being rescued by Reese