PERSON OF INTEREST RECAP: It Begins

Person of Interest 2.20 In Extremis

2011 – Fusco is crying audibly while he buries the body of Detective Stills 

Reese is at a fancy reception at a medical school honoring this week’s POI, Dr. Richard Nelson  – a renowned heart surgeon and researcher. He works the room as a waiter to keep an eye on things. Another physician approaches Nelson with a bottle of aged whiskey. They talk about a drug trial that the colleague was running that was cancelled after Nelson pulled the plug as part of an advisory board concerned with the safety of the drug. His colleague assures him that he doesn’t take it personally. Next,  a patient and a friend, Brandon Boyd, who is a trader at a hedge fund, shows up to congratulate him.

Beecher’s funeral
Courtesy of CBS

Meanwhile, Carter is at Beecher’s funeral, which ironically (and also appropriately) is presided over by Beecher’s godfather, Alonzo Quinn. Fusco confronts Simmons after the funeral and he tells Fusco that he no longer is being protected by HR and he’s going to make sure Fusco regrets crossing him and HR. When Fusco gets back to the precinct, Detective Sariano from internal affairs (IAB) approaches him and tells him he’s under investigation for the death of Stills and asks for his badge and gun.

Nelson  comes down with a nosebleed and is acting sick. Reese worries that he’s been poisoned and that they are too late. Later, back in his office, while Reese watches with binoculars, he develops another nosebleed and then vomits blood.  He recognizes his symptoms and calls 911 and goes out into the street to look for an ambulance. Reese approaches him on the street and Nelson recognizes him. He takes an awkward swing at him and just then the cops arrive, so Reese leaves. Nelson tells them that someone poisoned him.

Carter goes to talk to Fusco where he is waiting in an interrogation room. She asks him to tell her what’s going on. She may not have wanted to hear it before when he tried to confide in her, but she wants to know now. He tells her that people around him always get hurt. Her phone rings and she has to step out.

It’s Finch. He offers his condolences for Beecher’s death and she asks how he didn’t know that Beecher was at risk. Finch isn’t sure and he’s also worried. He’d like Carter’s help, but she refuses  – she wants his help and not the other way around. She wants to clone someone’s phone.

2004 – Fusco’s in a bar, drunk. His wife has left him and taken his son with her and he’s hit rock bottom. Stills shows up – they are clearly good friends – and invites him home to his house for the night.

Fusco confronts Simmons
Courtesy of CBS

Finch searches Nelson’s lab and finds low levels of radioactivity. Reese goes to the hospital to see him. Nelson accuses him of slipping something in his drink, but Reese tells him that he was trying to protect him but was too late. He tells him that he ingested polonium, an extremely toxic radioative element, and will be dead in 24 hours. Reese asks him for his help finding his murderer.

Carter bluejacks Sariano’s phone so she can listen in on Fusco’s interrogation. The officer shows Fusco video and audio describing his involvement in the HR schemes, including a video statement from Detective Azarello, one of his old colleagues who is in prison as part of the HR sting.

2004 – Stills and Fusco arrive at a murder scene in a tenement apartment. Azarello was stealing some money and drugs and the dealer tried to run, so he shot and killed him. Stills emotionally blackmails Fusco into helping them cover up the murder – ” I was there for you when you needed me” .

Carter goes to visit Azarello in Rikers but he’s not going to talk other than to point to a picture of Stills and warn her that bodies have a way of showing up.

Carter looks into some of the attendees at Nelson’s reception and finds out that Brandon Boyd’s company is under investigation by the SEC for insider trading.  Nelson told him a drug trial was going to fail when they were golfing together and he used that info to bet against the drug company and make half a billion dollars. Now his employer may want to kill Nelson to obscure the source of the leak.

Finch finds the source of the polonium – it was in the water pitcher at the podium at the reception. He collects the remainder of the water from the pitcher and informs Reese of his find.

Reese and Nelson abduct Boyd and Nelson interrogates him (rather effectively) while Reese drives. Boyd admits to using Nelson for insider information. When the investigation started, he told his boss, Vincent Cochrane, about the source of his information and Cochrane said he’d take care of it. He tells them that Cochrane is currently staying at a lodge upstate.

Finch investigates Nelson’s lab
Courtesy of CBS

2005 – Fusco arrives at an apartment at Stills’s request.  There are several dead bodies and lots of drugs and money. Fusco refuses to be involved. Just then, a man bursts into the apartment with his gun drawn and Fusco instinctively shoots him. Stills gives him a big wad of bills and welcomes him to the crew.

Carter continues to listen to Fusco’s interrogation. Sariano  asks him about being at Oyster Bay shortly after Stills disappeared. They found bleach stains in the car that Fusco had signed out as well as calls from his cell phone in Oyster Bay the night Stills disappeared. He also shows him satellite images of the area where he buried Stills and tells him that cadaver dogs, backhoes and other equipment are on their way to Oyster Bay to find the body.

Carter meets Fusco in the bathroom and he tells her that he didn’t kill Stills, but he’s going to go down for it because of the other stuff that he did. He tells her how he got involved with HR – first stealing some drug money from dealers, then deeper and deeper. He and Stills were friends and he got dragged in. He’s killed people, but he’s not that person anymore, since he met her, Finch, and Reese. She says she doesn’t know him, gets choked up, and leaves.

Nelson passes out in the backseat and tries to die, but Reese forcefully injects him in the heart with a huge syringe (epinephrine?) and he revives (why do they always do this on TV???). Reese and Nelson drive off, leaving Boyd standing outside in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, in the snow.

At the lodge, Nelson has a drink with Cochrane. He calmly tells him a very disturbing story of what happens to the body during polonium poisoning. Cochrane seems nonplussed and doesn’t deny poisoning him.

Carter calls Reese to ask what he’s doing about Fusco. She asks him if he knows what Fusco has done. He tells her that she’s Fusco’s partner and he’s not the one to pass moral judgements on others. She’s conflicted because he’s done horrible things, but he’s Fusco. But she’s a cop… Reese points out that in her world, things are often black and white – once dirty cop, always dirty cop.  But he’s kind of busy, so he can’t talk with her.

Cochrane tells Nelson that the secret that he was the informant will die with him. Actually, it will die with them, Nelson corrects. Cochrane’s nose is bleeding – he looks down at his glass, then up at Reese, who is standing at his shoulder in a waiter’s tux with a bottle in his hand.

IAB digs up the area where Stills was buried and they find a freshly filled in hole – the body is gone. Azarella also recants his testimony, so Fusco is safe – for now.

Reese and Nelson sit on the porch of the lodge, looking out over the snow covered countryside, drinking vintage liquor. Nelson slumps in his chair and dies with Reese at his side. Reese calls Finch – this is the third death that they’ve been too late to prevent. Reese asks Finch if something is wrong with the Machine. Finch tells him that he doesn’t know, and they wonder who else they are missing.

Back in the library, Finch tells Reese that he found out from Elias that Azarella recanted. He shows Reese a computer screen – Kara’s virus has activated. Reese notices that Bear’s bed is empty. Finch tells him there is another matter that they need to discuss.

Fusco retrieves his badge and gun and goes back to his desk. Carter brings him a file and asks him to look at it for her. She’s one her way home and before leaving, she stops and retrieves Bear from under her desk.

We then see images from the Machine as the virus takes over its memory and it completely fails.

My Thoughts:

With only three episodes to go before the season finale, we knew things were going to heat up, and as usual, POI did not disappoint! Tonight’s big theme seemed to be redemption/atonement for past sins – Fusco’s battle with the demons of his past, Nelson realizing that his mistakes brought about his death, and the ever present issue of Reese and his past (and I guess present as well…). Fusco’s character has grown easier and easier to like and it was interesting to see how he got involved in HR in the first place. Although his past is certainly reprehensible, it’s a bit easier to swallow knowing that he was initially a quite reluctant participant that was very emotionally vulnerable. Ironic that of all of his misdeeds to come back to haunt him that it’s Still’s death, which was at Reese’s hand, not his, that nearly does him in. Finch clearly paid off someone awfully shady to move the body.

Carter’s had an awfully rough second half of the season! First Syzmanski’s death, then her relationship with Beecher, and now her conflict over Fusco. As expected, it seems like she’s in peril, but I have my concerns that Bear adds much additional protection. Then again, she’s not one to take vacation and hole up in a safe house, either.

I can’t wait for next week’s episode! What will Finch and Reese do without the Machine? What will the government do? Was the plot to bring down the Machine designed to allow a major terrorist plot to go on undetected? Does Finch really have no way to access the Machine? With two episodes to go this season, I doubt we’ll get all these answers.

Next Week:

No machine, mortal peril, and Root…oh boy!!!

Memorable Quotes:

It looks like this week’s number has as big a brain as yours, Finch – Reese