PERSON OF INTEREST RECAP: A Very Dangerous Game

Episode 4.02 Nautilus

This week’s episode finds Finch still trying to avoid the numbers, until Reese tricks him into the latest number – Claire Mahoney, a straight-A math major and chess prodigy who has suddenly left school, taken to committing minor felonies, and has purchased a gun, all within the last 48 hours. In spite of himself, Finch feels compelled to follow her.

It quickly becomes clear that Claire’s involved in an elaborate scavenger hunt involving multiple puzzles hidden all over the city, that all include a picture of a nautilus. She’s not the only one playing and some shadowy guys will stop at nothing, even murder, to stop some of the players, including Claire.

Claire herself is pretty ruthless, which leads to her catching Finch following her and framing him for shooting out a car window of two thugs. Luckily for Finch, “Detective Riley” arrives just then, and saves Finch under the guise of arresting him for another crime. To make sure that they don’t attract undue attention, Reese is sure to actually handcuff Finch and keep him cuffed for a while.

Reese searches Claire’s room and finds a hard drive she’s hidden. At the hotel room, he meets a man who claims to be Claire’s father. Finch goes to work on the hard drive while Reese heads to the next location on the hunt. He finds her and essentially saves her from getting hit by a car while she stands in the middle of the road, staring at the next puzzle. Finch and Reese learn that Claire’s parents died in a car crash a year earlier and she started going off the rails afterward. The man claiming to be her father shows up and Claire escapes while Reese fights the man and his partner.

Finch finds out that Claire hacked into some secret network to steal a file as part of the gamer. The same game has been played several times before in major global cities. Finch realizes that the game is actually a recruitment tool made by a very powerful being – Samaritan.

An entertaining scene between Root and Finch unfolds and we learn that Samaritan is basically looking for its own version of Root (likely old Root – scary).

Finch tries multiple times to convince Claire to stop her quest, but she is not to be deterred. She finally gets to the end and is about to claim her reward, whatever that is, when her “father” and other goons show up. Things look dire but suddenly all the men are shot from a distance and Claire hears a phone ring. Finding it, she sees a text message from Samaritan promising to protect her. She then disappears off the grid.

Meanwhile, the information that Claire hacked for the game is released to the public, which results in the disbandment of an organization that was developing its own surveillance system, not unlike Samaritan and the Machine. Turns out these were the men trying to kill Claire to get back the files. So, not only did Samaritan get Claire, it eliminated another potential rival.

Finch invites Reese and Shaw down into the subway tunnels to show them the new lair – he’s managed to hook it up to the electric grid and internet in ways that Samaritan won’t be able to track. Now they have a train car full of computers and Finch is clearly all in again.

My Thoughts:

Although much has changed, some things have stayed the same – Reese shooting up a biker bar, for instance. I’m looking forward to seeing more of the Reese and Fusco partnership. Reese really couldn’t have a better cover and it seems appropriate that if anyone had to replace Carter that it would be Reese. It also gives Fusco a chance to get a little payback on Reese.

Shaw’s cover has apparently changed from department store makeup counter girl to bank robbery get-away-gal, which seems to suit her reasonably well, but isn’t nearly as entertaining.

Root’s cover is still unclear, although she was apparently a flight attendant for the day in this episode, who somehow managed to abduct the pilot (and presumably hijack the plane) without any repercussions. Her scene with Finch was just awesome – she comes off as so warm and concerned and motherly to Finch and even to Shaw, yet two seasons ago she had abducted him and was torturing him.

The idea that Samaritan is recruiting an army of fearless, brilliant people with nothing to lose (i.e. just like Root) is quite frightening. Particularly if they are like the old Root, and not the current, nearly warm and fuzzy Root.

It seems like the team so far has made little progress in the fight against Samaritan, but at least they now have a home base. I would expect that they might move away from the Samaritan mythology for an episode or two and we’ll get a taste of what the more stand-alone episodes of this season will look like.

The new lair is very clever and has a lot more of a bat cave flavor than the library did. Once again, I expected that Finch would put up more of a fight before rejoining the team completely, but I guess realizing what Samaritan is up to can be a pretty powerful motivator. That, and realizing that the Machine is really trying to fight back.

Favorite Quotes:

The job may be cover, but the last minute paperwork is real – Reese

Code cracking. Sometimes you forget I was an international spy – Reese

You can be a good thief, just not too good. Shoot for a B+ – Root

Don’t let your frustration with me affect your judgement – Finch
He’s going to let his frustration with you affect his judgment – Shaw

What’s wrong, Harold? Did you and the big lug have another spat? – Root

Are you abducting someone? – Finch to Root, who has indeed, abducted someone

Not half bad doesn’t mean good – Reese to Fusco

If we lose and Samaritan wins, the world as we know it will vanish – Finch

Watch new episodes of Person of Interest on Tuesdays at 10/9c on CBS!