PERSON OF INTEREST Recap: Identity Crisis

After two weeks of basketball, my heart definitely has grown fonder of Person of Interest! So glad to have a [great!] new episode tonight to celebrate the fantastic news that it has been renewed for a second season!

Episode 1.18

This week, Reese and Finch are tracking down a number that has a minimal online presence. The person, Jordan Hester, seems to be living a double life, though, from what Finch can find. It soon becomes evident that there are two Jordans – one male, one female. They split them up and Finch gets the woman. He ends up getting trapped in her closet and Reese has to rescue him by setting of the fire alarm and the sprinklers. Finch continues to follow her while Reese takes the man and they try to figure out which is the person they are actually pursuing.

Carter is definitely not ready to forgive and forget and after she refuses to take Reese’s calls, he’s forced to ask Fusco to look into the two Jordans. Carter notices the pictures on his desk and he tells her that he’s helping out a friend in vice. She comments that it must be nice to help living people for once (how ironic!). Just then Special Agent Donnelly from the FBI appears and asks to speak to Carter. Apparently she submitted Reese’s fingerprints to APHIS a while back and now the FBI suspects that he’s responsible for a number of murders in NYC, and lists some of the situations that we’ve seen Reese in. Donnelly tells Carter he has something he wants to show her.

Finch finds a third address, a trendy loft apartment. Reese checks it out and finds an Ecstasy lab. After knocking out a guy in the apartment and bluejacking him, he is led back to the male Hestor, who seems to be running the show. Finch, meanwhile, is still following the woman and liking what he is seeing. They assume that the guy has stolen the woman’s identity. The man meets with two guys who are the cooks in the lab (none of them has met in person before) and they bring up more supplies.

Reese searches Hester’s truck and finds some unusual things – like videos on how to shoot a gun on his computer. Soon it is clear that things aren’t cooking as planned and the male Hester tells the guys to stop and start wiping down the lab because the police are on the way. The cooks get suspicious and soon realize that Hester is some sort of imposter. Luckily, Reese is watching the feed from the camera he planted earlier. He calls Finch to let him know that the woman is the real drug boss, but it’s too late.

Meanwhile, Fusco meets with an officer from the identify theft department of the NYPD. He tells him about the two Hesters and the Ecstacy lab. He tells Fusco about a case a year ago where a person who was convicted of making Ecstacy insisted throughout his trial that his identity had been stolen. Fusco goes to interview the inmate. Fusco shows him some  bank and credit card statements that show purchases of chemicals and other supplies. The inmate recognizes the charges as the same kind of things he saw on his bank statements. There is a picture of the female Jordan Hester in the folder as well and he recognizes her immediately as the receptionist at his accountant’s office. Fusco realizes that the female Hester is actually the drug boss.

While Reese checked out the loft, Finch was tailing the female Hester and liking what he saw – beautiful, into old books and antiques. Two thugs approach her on the street and Finch is sure that they have mistaken her for the imposter and are trying to take her out of the equation. He manages to get her away from them and into a cab. She tells him that she realized her identity was stolen a few weeks earlier, but the police were not being helpful. He wants to move her immediately to a hotel, but she talks him into taking her back to her place to grab a bag.

While at her place, she pours them both a drink. A few minutes later Finch starts feeling strange – she’s drugged him with Ecstasy, leading to perhaps one of the funniest 15 minutes of the series to date. Reese calls to warn Finch, but it’s too late. Finch is too drugged too tell Reese much and Jordan destroys his phone and earpiece.  Finch accidentally tells her that the person he was talking to through the earpiece is at the lab. She mixes some chemicals in a dish, all McGyver like, and puts them in the microwave. She turns it on and leaves the apartment with Finch hallucinating on the couch.

Reese goes to the rescue of the real Jordan Hester and takes out the two cooks. Hester tells him that he had had enough and hatched a plan to get even. He was going to take over the person who stole his identity’s identity, destroy the lab, and use the finished product to lure the perpetrator out. Finch tells him it’s a terrible plan but agrees to help him with it. He sends Fusco to go rescue Finch.

Carter meets again with Agent Donnelly. He takes her to an FBI command center and tells her that the FBI and CIA parted ways many years ago because the CIA didn’t want to play by the law, even at home. He thinks that since Reese left the CIA that he is working as a mercenary for Elias (the organized crime leader that has more than once one-upped Reese). Men who do the job that Reese did for the CIA can’t just integrate back into society – they are a danger to everyone around them. Donnelly tells Carter that he also wants to bring down Snow, the CIA agent who had Reese shot and dogged Carter earlier in the season. Snow’s job is to clean up after the ex-CIA wet workers run amok back at home, like Reese has. He wants Carter’s help so he can catch Reese and bring all the CIA’s misdeeds to light. Carter agrees to help, but it’s clear that she’s quite conflicted and not ready to give Reese up, at least yet.

Fusco finds Finch at the imposter Jordan’s apartment, staring mesmerized at all the sparks coming from the concoction in the microwave. Fusco drives his car while Finch plays with all the buttons. Fusco tries to focus Finch by letting him use his computer to track down an accountant that he’s linked to Hester and the guy at the prison’s identity theft.

The Hester impersonator shows up at the lab before Reese and the real Hester can leave. She tells her goons to kill Reese and Hester and then leaves. Reese quickly takes out both goons (of course!) and he and Hester leave the lab. They track fake Hester to a restaurant where she is meeting with the accountant. He has another identity for her, but before they can get much further, Reese and real Hester show up. Hester tells her off and then the police come and arrest her.

Fusco goes to the prison to personally see the previous identity theft victim get released.

Reese takes Finch back to his lair and tells him to drink lots of water and sleep off the drug.

Underneath the main plotline of the number of the week, this episode had a lot of character development. We see Carter struggling with her feelings for Reese and his causes as well as her sense of duty and morals. Fusco, meanwhile, is still trapped between corrupt cops and  redemption, where Reese left him a few episodes back. His dedication to making sure that the previous identity theft victim got released and the perpetrator got caught really made me feel for his position. His character just gets more and more likable and it’s hard to remember that it was his grievous misdeeds that got him into the situation with Reese and Finch in the first place.

Drugging Finch was an ingenious way to allow him to lighten up a bit and give us a bit more insight into his character. It’s sad that he got “outfoxed” by a woman, though, as he always seems rather lonely and it was sweet to see how much he liked the fake Hester. In addition to Carter, who I think is a fabulous strong female character, Finch and Reese keep running into other women, good and bad, who challenge them and reflect back their own character and personality traits.

We also get to see how much the Finch-Reese relationship has grown. Over time, we’ve seen Reese and Finch become much more comfortable and even fond of each other. It’s so telling that while once Reese had Fusco follow Finch and frequently snooped into his life, now he stays at the lair to make sure he’s safe and is unwilling to let Finch say anything to compromise himself in his drug-addled state. The scenes between Reese  and the real Hester also reinforce that he does have a heart and some sort of [unique] moral compass, in contrast to how the FBI has portrayed him.

Favorite quotes and other musings:

Finch is a billionaire – why doesn’t he buy himself a new glass panel to tape the stuff about the numbers to instead of using the old broken one?

I’m supposed to recognize him by his accent? – Reese

I’ve never understood why people put all their information on those sites…made things easier for the CIA – Reese
Of course, that’s why I created them…the machine needed more information! – Finch

My dopamine and norepinephrine levels are…whooo.. – Finch

Hello detective, just in time for dinner – Finch

Whoa, why didn’t you tell me I had so many books? – Finch

You leaving?…you don’t want to talk? – Finch

C’mon…ask me anything! – Finch
Goodnight, Harold – Reese
Goodnight, Nathan – Finch