POI watchalong: 2x11-2x13
Apr. 4th, 2014 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitThis post covers three episodes to finish off the ginormous mid-season plot.
Episode summaries under the cut. My comments and further discussion will be on DreamWidth, because I'm having trouble getting LJ to load.
As always, anyone is welcome to join the discussion, but please, no spoilers for anything after the episodes discussed here.
2x11, "2πr"
Reese is in Riker's Island jail, in isolation, awaiting the results of DNA and fingerprint tests to sort out which of the men in suits is the man in a suit. Finch contacts him by somehow getting a phone into his cell and assures him that there's a contingency plan for this situation and he'll be free within 72 hours.
Meanwhile, Finch has to work the latest case himself with Fusco's help. The number is that of a high school student, Caleb Phipps, whose older brother Ryan was killed in 2010 when he was hit by a subway train, possibly after being pushed onto the tracks. Finch poses as a substitute math teacher to learn more about Phipps, who is brilliant but carefully keeps his grades and test scores average.
It turns out the Phipps has secretly become the supplier for the school's drug dealers. He has also coded a groundbreaking new data compression algorithm; his computer science teacher, Chris Beckner, meets with a venture capitalist and seems prepared to sell the algorithm as his own work. Meanwhile, the school's previous drug supplier threatens Caleb unless Caleb pays back all the money he made.
When Finch confronts him, Beckner denies having stolen Caleb's algorithm--he's going to give Caleb full credit and all the money. But Caleb only asked for half the money, in a trust fund for his alcoholic mother. Finch realizes that Caleb plans to kill himself out of guilt for his brother's death--Ryan was never pushed, instead he was killed because the two brothers were racing across the tracks. Finch finds him at the subway station where his brother was killed and talks him out of suicide.
Meanwhile, Carter has deleted Reese's fingerprints from the system and swapped his DNA sample for someone else's. This should lead to Reese being released, but at the last moment, FBI Agent Donnelly orders all four men held as "unlawful combatants" until their identities are proven to his satisfaction.
2x12, "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Donnelly asks Carter, as a former army interrogator, to question the four "man in the suit" suspects. She spends much of the episode interrogating them, with Agent Donnelly communicating with her via an earpiece that Finch eventually hacks into. Finch, meanwhile, is preparing a plan to break Reese out of Riker's island if necessary, and has sent Fusco to assist the latest number, a supermodel (throughout the episode we see moments of their adventures). And the CIA, or whoever they are who've been trying to eliminate the "rogue agent," infiltrate an assassin into Riker's Island to kill all four possiblities.
One suspect, Kelly, is quickly broken and eliminated as possibly being the man in the suit. Meanwhile, Reese is sent out to the exercise yard, where he's confronted by the Aryan gang from several episodes ago and then by Elias, who offers to help, though Reese has to refuse any obvious protection.
As the interrogation continues, Reese offers Carter an only slightly falsified version of much of his own background as we know it, with Finch creating evidence for the details Reese invents. Another suspect breaks and offers to identify the man in a suit, but Finch contacts him and persuades him, by threatening his family's finances, to change his mind. So he fingers the last remaining suspect who isn't Reese. But meanwhile, the assassin has killed Kelly, leading Donnelly to believe the whole investigation is compromised and that "Warren"/Reese must be the right man. Further interrogation provides no evidence, so Donnelly sends Reese out into the yard unprotected, to see if, when attacked by the Aryans, he'll show his combat training. Instead Reese allows himself to be beaten up until Elias eventually stops the fighting. And Carter gets the last suspect, Holt, to reveal a military background that makes him seem like the man in a suit.
Reese is freed, just as Finch was preparing to start breaking him out. But Donnelly follows either Carter or Reese to their meeting and arrests them both, planning to take them to a safe house until he finds a contact he can trust.
Finch, trying to track down what has happened to Carter and Reese, gets a ringing payphone that signifies a new number. He tries not to answer, but every phone he passes starts to ring and eventually he gives in. The number is Agent Donnelly's. Finch calls him, but too late to prevent his car from being deliberately hit by a truck. While Donnelly, Finch, and Reese are dazed in the wreckage, Kara Stanton approaches, shoots Donnelly dead, and drugs Reese.
At intervals throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Reese's work with Stanton, focusing on how she trained him to suppress his emotions and conscience.
2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Reese wakes up to find himself Kara Stanton's prisoner. She's put a bomb vest on him and makes him and Mark Snow perform various tasks. First they pick up the hard drive Snow previously stole, which has now been formatted to Stanton's specs by cyber-criminals. Then they attack two ATF agents, taking their car and their jackets, and immediately receive a call on one agent's phone telling them they need to report a building where there's been a bomb threat. Before discarding the phone, Reese uses it to text "UXO" to Finch, who's been desperately trying to track him down with Carter and Fusco's help. "UXO" means "unexploded ordinance," and that plus the info on the phone's owners directs Finch's attention to the building.
Carter and Fusco go to the building while Finch tries to work out what's happening. Meanwhile, Reese and Snow have infiltrated a secret Defense Department lab on the top floor that produces cyberweapons to attack enemy computer systems. Since the lab is shielded from all electronic contact, Stanton sets the bomb timers to 15 minutes. Believing Stanton intends to steal a supervirus, Reese gets a scientist to wipe the entire system. He also calls Finch and tells him to stay away from the building. Stanton arrives and it turns out that her aim wasn't to steal anything, but to use the hard drive to insert her own program into the system. Once that's accomplished she resets Reese's and Snow's timers to 5 minutes, locks them in, and exits.
They manage to override the door lock, and Reese tries to convince Snow to go with him to get away from civilians before their bombs explode, but Snow escapes, saying he'll try to get to a CIA safe house nearby. Carter and Fusco arrive, but Reese sends them away for their own safety. Reese then goes to the roof, where he finds Finch waiting for him. Finch refuses to be sent away and manages to defuse the bomb at the last moment.
Throughout the episode are flashbacks showing how Stanton, after surviving the Ordos attack, was approached by an Englishman working on behalf on an unnamed agency. He offers her the name of the person who sold the laptop in exchange for her help with the project she's just completed. But when Stanton returns to her car, Snow is there waiting for her. Snow's bomb vest explodes, killing them both.
Finch is unable to figure out what's on the hard drive beyond the fact that it's set to take effect in five months. Carter learns that the FBI have decided that Snow was the man in a suit and have officially closed the case.
In the final scene, we flash back to the explosion of Stanton's car, and see the name that the mystery agent gave her: Harold Finch.
Episode summaries under the cut. My comments and further discussion will be on DreamWidth, because I'm having trouble getting LJ to load.
As always, anyone is welcome to join the discussion, but please, no spoilers for anything after the episodes discussed here.
2x11, "2πr"
Reese is in Riker's Island jail, in isolation, awaiting the results of DNA and fingerprint tests to sort out which of the men in suits is the man in a suit. Finch contacts him by somehow getting a phone into his cell and assures him that there's a contingency plan for this situation and he'll be free within 72 hours.
Meanwhile, Finch has to work the latest case himself with Fusco's help. The number is that of a high school student, Caleb Phipps, whose older brother Ryan was killed in 2010 when he was hit by a subway train, possibly after being pushed onto the tracks. Finch poses as a substitute math teacher to learn more about Phipps, who is brilliant but carefully keeps his grades and test scores average.
It turns out the Phipps has secretly become the supplier for the school's drug dealers. He has also coded a groundbreaking new data compression algorithm; his computer science teacher, Chris Beckner, meets with a venture capitalist and seems prepared to sell the algorithm as his own work. Meanwhile, the school's previous drug supplier threatens Caleb unless Caleb pays back all the money he made.
When Finch confronts him, Beckner denies having stolen Caleb's algorithm--he's going to give Caleb full credit and all the money. But Caleb only asked for half the money, in a trust fund for his alcoholic mother. Finch realizes that Caleb plans to kill himself out of guilt for his brother's death--Ryan was never pushed, instead he was killed because the two brothers were racing across the tracks. Finch finds him at the subway station where his brother was killed and talks him out of suicide.
Meanwhile, Carter has deleted Reese's fingerprints from the system and swapped his DNA sample for someone else's. This should lead to Reese being released, but at the last moment, FBI Agent Donnelly orders all four men held as "unlawful combatants" until their identities are proven to his satisfaction.
2x12, "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Donnelly asks Carter, as a former army interrogator, to question the four "man in the suit" suspects. She spends much of the episode interrogating them, with Agent Donnelly communicating with her via an earpiece that Finch eventually hacks into. Finch, meanwhile, is preparing a plan to break Reese out of Riker's island if necessary, and has sent Fusco to assist the latest number, a supermodel (throughout the episode we see moments of their adventures). And the CIA, or whoever they are who've been trying to eliminate the "rogue agent," infiltrate an assassin into Riker's Island to kill all four possiblities.
One suspect, Kelly, is quickly broken and eliminated as possibly being the man in the suit. Meanwhile, Reese is sent out to the exercise yard, where he's confronted by the Aryan gang from several episodes ago and then by Elias, who offers to help, though Reese has to refuse any obvious protection.
As the interrogation continues, Reese offers Carter an only slightly falsified version of much of his own background as we know it, with Finch creating evidence for the details Reese invents. Another suspect breaks and offers to identify the man in a suit, but Finch contacts him and persuades him, by threatening his family's finances, to change his mind. So he fingers the last remaining suspect who isn't Reese. But meanwhile, the assassin has killed Kelly, leading Donnelly to believe the whole investigation is compromised and that "Warren"/Reese must be the right man. Further interrogation provides no evidence, so Donnelly sends Reese out into the yard unprotected, to see if, when attacked by the Aryans, he'll show his combat training. Instead Reese allows himself to be beaten up until Elias eventually stops the fighting. And Carter gets the last suspect, Holt, to reveal a military background that makes him seem like the man in a suit.
Reese is freed, just as Finch was preparing to start breaking him out. But Donnelly follows either Carter or Reese to their meeting and arrests them both, planning to take them to a safe house until he finds a contact he can trust.
Finch, trying to track down what has happened to Carter and Reese, gets a ringing payphone that signifies a new number. He tries not to answer, but every phone he passes starts to ring and eventually he gives in. The number is Agent Donnelly's. Finch calls him, but too late to prevent his car from being deliberately hit by a truck. While Donnelly, Finch, and Reese are dazed in the wreckage, Kara Stanton approaches, shoots Donnelly dead, and drugs Reese.
At intervals throughout the episode we see flashbacks of Reese's work with Stanton, focusing on how she trained him to suppress his emotions and conscience.
2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Reese wakes up to find himself Kara Stanton's prisoner. She's put a bomb vest on him and makes him and Mark Snow perform various tasks. First they pick up the hard drive Snow previously stole, which has now been formatted to Stanton's specs by cyber-criminals. Then they attack two ATF agents, taking their car and their jackets, and immediately receive a call on one agent's phone telling them they need to report a building where there's been a bomb threat. Before discarding the phone, Reese uses it to text "UXO" to Finch, who's been desperately trying to track him down with Carter and Fusco's help. "UXO" means "unexploded ordinance," and that plus the info on the phone's owners directs Finch's attention to the building.
Carter and Fusco go to the building while Finch tries to work out what's happening. Meanwhile, Reese and Snow have infiltrated a secret Defense Department lab on the top floor that produces cyberweapons to attack enemy computer systems. Since the lab is shielded from all electronic contact, Stanton sets the bomb timers to 15 minutes. Believing Stanton intends to steal a supervirus, Reese gets a scientist to wipe the entire system. He also calls Finch and tells him to stay away from the building. Stanton arrives and it turns out that her aim wasn't to steal anything, but to use the hard drive to insert her own program into the system. Once that's accomplished she resets Reese's and Snow's timers to 5 minutes, locks them in, and exits.
They manage to override the door lock, and Reese tries to convince Snow to go with him to get away from civilians before their bombs explode, but Snow escapes, saying he'll try to get to a CIA safe house nearby. Carter and Fusco arrive, but Reese sends them away for their own safety. Reese then goes to the roof, where he finds Finch waiting for him. Finch refuses to be sent away and manages to defuse the bomb at the last moment.
Throughout the episode are flashbacks showing how Stanton, after surviving the Ordos attack, was approached by an Englishman working on behalf on an unnamed agency. He offers her the name of the person who sold the laptop in exchange for her help with the project she's just completed. But when Stanton returns to her car, Snow is there waiting for her. Snow's bomb vest explodes, killing them both.
Finch is unable to figure out what's on the hard drive beyond the fact that it's set to take effect in five months. Carter learns that the FBI have decided that Snow was the man in a suit and have officially closed the case.
In the final scene, we flash back to the explosion of Stanton's car, and see the name that the mystery agent gave her: Harold Finch.
2x11, "2πr"
Date: 2014-04-04 10:20 pm (UTC)2) Carter is willing to cross a lot of lines to help Reese. Not just professional ones, either. It's a bit worrisome that she's willing to drug an innocent man so she can get a DNA sample from him--that's assault, and while she doesn't mean any harm, she still could have caused him harm. What if he reacted badly to the drugs? And does she get him to a safe place or just leave him passed out in his car?
3) Speaking of crossing lines, Donnelly definitely crosses into abuse of power at the end of the episode. Civil liberties issues are always a big theme on the show, and here it's highlighted when early in the episode the warden says "This is Rikers, not Guantanamo." But Donnelly has the power to turn Rikers into Guantanamo, and he does. It's a shame because I liked Donnelly up to that point.
4) Turning to the other plot, there's something delightful about Finch having to be a substitute teacher. But isn't the school supposed to be a specialized, selective math and humanities school? In that case, why are there so many tuned-out students and students who are basically just there to deal drugs? (Incidentally, if you pause and read the texts the students are sending when Finch force-pairs their phones, there's a hilarious one asking whether someone likes Ritalin or Adderall better.)
5) Somehow the surveillance comes across as unusually creepy in this episode. Part of it's the "teacher stalks an underage student" thing, and part of it is that we see Finch using the camera in the Phipps' apartment just to watch their ordinary, damaged lives--Mrs. P. drinking herself into a stupor and Caleb looking after her.
6) Finch clearly identifies with Caleb the troubled boy genius. He also seems strongly, personally affected by Caleb's situation with his mother, which makes me wonder if there was parental alcoholism or some other neglect in his childhood. Certainly Finch gives the impression of someone who never felt secure and loved in childhood.
7) The subway conversation is fairly well-handled, without too many platitudes, though I think the "you can't remove a digit from pi, therefore you shouldn't commit suicide" thing is specious and that Caleb would have seen it as specious. More affecting is Finch talking, in a way that is clearly painful to him, about his own mistakes and regrets. He describes himself and Caleb as "two reckless people," and says "the world is better off with both of us in it," which suggests to me that at some point he seriously thought through whether the world might be better off without him. (ETA: I also wanted to mention that extremely hesitant, brief shoulder-pat Finch gives Caleb. It suggests how difficult touch is for Finch, how much it doesn't come naturally.)
8) The implication that Finch was the mysterious teenage hacker who cracked the internet and made it public is intriguing, but I wonder if it's true. He never directly says that it was him, and one thing we know about Finch is that he easily and frequently deceives people with false personas. Is he just telling Caleb what he thinks Caleb needs to believe?
Re: 2x11, "2πr"
Date: 2014-04-07 03:35 pm (UTC)It's the same thing they did with the Root arc at the beginning of the season, establish a crisis and then pause in the middle of it for a number plot. I don't think it helps the pace, although it probably works well on viewing figures...
2) I worried about those things with the drugging too. Surely there were other ways? Perhaps not less illegal but less dangerous?
3) I feel that we're supposed to see Donnelly as having cracked under the strain of looking for his man in the suit, and forgetting that the ends don't justify the means. Which is quite a good message for the other characters in this ep, come to that.
4) In terms of the students, how long are classes in America meant to be anyway? Because Finch turns up to introduce himself and then the bell goes about 5 minutes later... I think I've seen that in High School based movies too (which are, of course, incredibly factually accurate). Or is that some kind of pre-lessons classroom session? Are there specific classes you're in with one class tutor in America, or do you just attend what's on your schedule? Or does it vary?
7) One of the benefits of this episode is that Finch has to interact directly with the number for once (handy, then, that it was someone he could easily identify with!) and I agree with your point about parallels seeming to be between their situations and also Finch's difficulties with touch. I definitely think Finch had some issues in his life significantly pre-dating the machine, Nathan and all the later baggage of his character.
Re: 2x11, "2πr"
Date: 2014-04-07 10:00 pm (UTC)Are there specific classes you're in with one class tutor in America, or do you just attend what's on your schedule?
I don't think I entirely understand what you mean, but the way high school typically works in the US is that the students choose their own classes (though there's a set of requirements they have to fulfill) and spend their days going from class to class. Typical class sessions are about 50 minutes (I don't think US public i.e. state schools have double classes as the UK does). So you would have your math class in room 123 with Ms. Y and then go to your English class in room 456 with Mr. Z.
7) If Finch really was using an alias as earlier as his freshman year at MIT, as is suggested in S1, then there's definitely something odd in his background, probably unpleasant.
Re: 2x11, "2πr"
Date: 2014-04-09 12:09 pm (UTC)Re: 2x11, "2πr"
Date: 2014-04-09 07:32 pm (UTC)2x12, "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Date: 2014-04-04 10:23 pm (UTC)2) We see the moral decline and fall of Donnelly here as he resorts to Guantanamo tactics, paralleling Reese's moral decline in flashbacks. Poor Donnelly, I liked him until this episode.
3) Reese's affair with Stanton is interesting. It can be read as marking his own moral decline in that he has learned to "love his work," but I tend to see it as showing that Reese trying to form some kind of connection, however twisted, because he needs that sense of connection to survive. But the affair with Stanton is sufficiently meaningless that when he's ordered to kill her, he does so (or tries, rather) without much hesitation, which on the one hand contrasts with his devotion to Jessica, but also doesn't--he fails to get to Jessica in time because of a mission, in fact the mission that sends him to Ordos, so once again Reese's loyalty to the CIA trumped his loyalty to people. The stronger contrast is of course to Reese and Finch's relationship. They've been consistently loyal to each other and in the next episode will be stunningly so. Reese's relationship with Finch, with its real growing affection, can be read as a redemptive counterpart to the previous, negative partnership and affair with Stanton.
4) Both Stanton and Donnelly mention Reese having chosen the life of a killer. Which is true, and we see it happening. This is the first episode that doesn't shy away much from what Reese was doing in those years.
5) Reese's little moment of alternate history, in which he describes the life he might have had if he'd stayed with Jessica as though it's his real life, is rather heartbreaking.
6) Finch is much more distressed about Reese here than in the last episode, because of course he's less confident that he can fix it. We see more of his loneliness (partly expressed through Bear's behavior, because Bear is not only a touch substitute, he's become a sort of symbol of Finch and Reese's feelings for each other) and the desperation that leads him to the "break Reese out" plan. Finch, who hates guns, has an automatic weapon in that scene! Whatever his exact plan is, it goes strongly against his usual behavior and looks, frankly, suicidal. He's willing to risk everything--his own life, the project to save people--to save Reese alone.
7) This ties in with him trying to ignore the phone call with the new number. I wonder if the machine would usually react to that by calling more phones, or if it's aware enough to realize that this number is specially significant? Either way, it's incredibly important that Finch tries very hard not to answer that call.
8) When Finch calls Donnelly, he identifies himself as "the partner of the man in your back seat." "Partner" is a wonderfully ambiguous word. It also provides another parallel/contrast to Kara Stanton, who was Reese's operational partner and also his sexual partner for a while, if never his emotional/romantic partner.
9) A couple of plot nitpicks. First, why was Elias in Riker's Island? Riker's is a jail, not a prison. Does that mean he hasn't been tried yet? And second, why doesn't Kara Stanton shoot Carter? It seems unlike her to leave a living witness. I suppose the answer is "because the show needs Carter alive," but that doesn't make it less out of character for Stanton.
10) The Fusco + supermodel stuff is fun, but silly enough that it feels like it belonged in another episode.
11) Belated additional observation: I'm a little confused by the thoroughness of Reese's John Warren identity. Are we supposed to believe that in addition to the constant surveillance etc. that Reese performs, he's also holding down a day job? But the secretary vouches for him, so either he really is in that office frequently enough to seem like a company executive, or else the secretary is in Finch's pay and is lying--which would be a pretty serious weak spot in a cover identity. And in fact I've wondered the same thing about Finch's former cover identity as a low-level software engineer at IFT: when did he have the time? Especially since low-level software engineers don't have meetings, business travel, etc. to excuse frequent absences. Nitpicky, I know, but since I tend not to see plotholes unless I'm really thinking about it, I guess this is kind of a big one.
Re: 2x12, "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Date: 2014-04-07 03:47 pm (UTC)3) Reese trying to form some kind of connection, however twisted, because he needs that sense of connection to survive
I think he needs to believe in who he's following, definitely. He can be convinced to break given laws, but he needs to believe in his commander. And I think for a while that worked with the CIA, until he realised that they clearly didn't know for certain enough what they were doing and whether it was right, and that Stanton didn't really care what she was ordered to do. I think sleeping with her is part of hoping, on some level, that he'll see her point of view, at least love her and maybe be able to use that to direct himself, but that clearly doesn't come either. And, yes, absolutely, the contrast is between this and Reese's feelings for Finch, which appear to be utterly devoted and ready to follow without (much) question (or, to put it a better way, to question and to investigate but to trust absolutely and be prepared to die for him at the same time)
6) 'We'll get him back, Bear, I promise' is so lovely. They are a little unit now. And yes, that plan to break him out looks terrifying if it involves Finch shooting anything/anyone. As I've said above, that scene and the exchange with Carter are very clever not only for being unexpected, but for what they convey, so much in a short space of dialogue.
And yeah, NOT ANSWERING THE PHONE. Finch's prime mover is the numbers, and Reese too to an extent, but they've both now explicitly said that they won't help numbers without each other, or that they'll help each other first. I don't think either of them wanted to feel that way, but it's there all the same.
8) Good spot - 'partner' is indeed wonderfully ambiguous. I wonder if Finch knows that he'll sound more threatening (more likely to do something dangerous, to do anything at all) if he implies their relationship is personal?
10) I liked the jump cuts to Fusco and the supermodel, the whole number plot going on 'off stage' with all that drama we never see. It worked for me *g*
11) Good point. I think Reese *must* show his face at the John Warren identity at least fairly regularly. Which is just about believable if he can do it once or twice a week, on the way to other places etc. The numbers don't seem to come every day or even every week necessarily. Finch's engineer identity is more problematic, I agree.
Re: 2x12, "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Date: 2014-04-07 10:04 pm (UTC)2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-04 10:26 pm (UTC)2) So, Finch sold the laptop to China, thus causing Reese and Stanton to be sent to "retrieve" it. I can't think of a good reason why he'd sell what presumably was a copy of the machine's operating system. And we know that whatever was on the laptop was encrypted and the encryption wasn't successfully broken. So what was he trying to achieve by this? If he wanted to stop the machine from being used, he'd have gone public with his knowledge (even anonymously). And I don't believe he actually wanted the Chinese government to have a machine of its own. Anyway, regardless of what he was trying to do, one effect was to do Reese a good deal of harm, a fact which I'm sure is going to come up and bite them both. Finch is aware of that, hence his "Please, don't mention it" when Reese thanks him. And was selling the laptop also the trigger for whatever happened to Nathan and Finch himself?
3) Okay, enough plot. Though this episode gave me so much of what I wanted that it's almost hard to talk about it. First of all, the scene of depressed!thoughtful!Finch, clearly missing Reese, and reassuring Bear "We'll get him back, I promise." As I said earlier, the show is using Bear as a way to demonstrate Finch and Reese's feelings for each other.
4) "Harold, I need you to stay clear of the building." Oh, Reese, you've come over all Noble Suicide but you have to make sure Reese is safe. Which is genuine, but I wonder if subconsciously it's also a version of Finch's "I'll make sure no one can save me" gesture from the end of S1, a sort of quiet plea that the other one will in fact care enough to come and save him. Reese definitely should have known that Finch's reaction to "stay clear of the building" would be "What the hell is he planning? I'd better get over there NOW." Just like his reaction in S1 to "CIA agents are trying to kill me, save yourself!" was to floor the gas.
5) I will not ask how Finch got himself onto the roof, but will vigorously suspend my disbelief, because it leads to . . .
6) The bomb-defusing scene of LOVE and AWESOMENESS. Unlike Carter and Fusco, Finch refuses to be sent away even when Reese pulls a gun (to be fair to Carter, her decision was about her son, not her own fears). And there's such lovely dialogue in which all the things they've never been able to say get said, albeit in indirect ways that suit their repressed personalities. When Reese says that this is his past catching up with him and doesn't concern Finch, Finch says, "But this moment does. I'm not leaving you here, John." And there's this fantastic exchange: "I'm pretty sure I'd be dead already if you hadn't found me." "It's hard to say." "Not really." All that on top of Finch's decision that he'd rather be blown up with Reese than just let him die. This is like his Riker's Island jailbreak plan, only more so. And unless Finch has another contingency plan we don't know about, he knows that if he and Reese both die, there'll be no one to do anything about the numbers. So he's willing to sacrifice not just himself but his whole mission to try and save Reese.
7) I'm curious about which part of bomb defusal protocol requires Finch to unbutton Reese's shirt (as opposed to Reese doing it himself). A wonderful part, obviously.
8) In that moment after Finch turns off the bomb, when they're standing there with their eyes closed, breathing heavily, overwhelmed with relief, and then the camera cuts away and we don't come back to them until the other bomb goes off? I choose to believe there was . . . something. A kiss? A hug? Something they were both embarrassed about afterwards but secretly treasure the memory of.
9) Then, just when I thought it couldn't get any better, there was the scene of Reese coming back to the library. Bear goes wild with joy, and Reese and Finch just give each other those amazing looks and smiles. And then Bear knocks Reese to the floor and leaps on top of him, which I'm sure is what Finch would do if he were less repressed.
10) This is really not a ship I was sold on from the beginning, or even a ship I was entirely inclined to like. But, damn, I can deny it no longer.
11) I wanted to end on a happy note, but . . . one thing I've been expecting to happen, because I have watched TV before, is that something will create a serious conflict between Reese and Finch. Finch having sold the laptop could be the thing.
Re: 2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-05 04:44 am (UTC)But yeah, I liked this ship from the beginning, and the rooftop bomb-vest scene is THE moment. Remember it; treasure it. I do.
Re: 2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-07 04:00 pm (UTC)1&2) Agree on both of these. I thought Mysterious Englishman was Wesley at first. I am getting quite lost in all the various agencies now chasing Reese and/or Finch and/or the Machine. I think I need a giant 'investigating stuff' board with pictures connected with string on drawing pins like they have on TV...
Why would Finch sell the laptop indeed? Although, was it Finch? At this point, surely, pretending to be 'Harold Crane' in imitation of Finch could be done by a couple of people (Nathan? Alicia? Grace even?) Also, how can 'Harold Crane' not be on any known database? Surely there is at least one Harold Crane in the whole USA, just randomly? (nitpick)
Good point about how it did Reese harm (is *this* even the first instance of Finch getting interested in Reese's case?)
3) Ah, the 'we'll get him back' is this episode, sorry, got a little mixed over watching these over a few days!
And then askjgionweong;kojhohg the roof scene OMG...
Parallels between this and Finch trying to nobly sacrifice himself at the start of the season, yes. Parallels in the devotion of the other to get to their partner. Interestingly reminiscient of the rooftop scene with Sherlock and John in 'Sherlock' with the 'if you tell me to leave you alone I think I'll run like hell towards you actually' measure of loyalty.
And yes, Finch insisting on staying when no one else will. Agreed, Carter has good reason to save herself and this is part of what makes the Reese/Finch realtionship what it is - they have nothing and no-one else. This is it for them. They've basically both said they'd rather be dead together than alive separately, which is just.. this is what I mean about how adding sex would not add much, really, to the depth of feeling already between them (well it would allow more expression and change some things, but being ready to die for someone is about as intense as it gets. Or to put it another way, plenty of people sleep with people they wouldn't die for...)
I also think there's an amusing metaphor with the expression of feelings, gun and bomb vest: 'Don't come near me with feelings or I'll hurt you!' 'No, no, I will have the feelings, and you want them really, don't you?' 'OK, I want the feelings, but the feelings will kill us both!' 'No, it's OK, trust me, we will not die just because of the feelings'
8) THE CUT AWAY I AM SO GLAD YOU ALSO NOTICED THAT. Really really annoyed me. I'm thinking a nearly-hug with pressing of faces to necks and hair-smelling...
9)And then Bear knocks Reese to the floor and leaps on top of him, which I'm sure is what Finch would do if he were less repressed
YOU ARE READING MY MIND HERE *g*
Re: 2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-07 10:13 pm (UTC)3) this is what I mean about how adding sex would not add much, really, to the depth of feeling already between them
I was skeptical of this, as you know, but I can see it at this point. I do think that sex would add certain vulnerabilities and potential complications, since it's so tied up with body image and self-esteem. But the love, and the emotional vulnerability created by love, are already there and declared in actions if not in words. A lot of the fics I've read show them as being hesitant to take that last step into sexual intimacy on top of everything else, but I could just as easily see them shrugging and saying "Why not?" Possibly with Reese afterwards teasing Finch along the lines of, "Do you remember there was a time when you wouldn't tell me what you ate for breakfast?" Of course Finch is still keeping a lot of his life secret despite the mutual "I would die for/with you" stuff, because Finch is weird that way.
8) I'm thinking a nearly-hug with pressing of faces to necks and hair-smelling
*nods* Somehow a kiss or an ordinary hug would be almost too conventional, if that makes sense? They'd do something odd and almost shockingly intimate like that.
Re: 2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-09 12:15 pm (UTC)Re: 2x13, "Dead Reckoning"
Date: 2014-04-09 07:43 pm (UTC)Another thought on 2x13
Date: 2014-04-07 04:03 pm (UTC)Also, I liked that Mark Snow got a noble end of a kind. The actor plays a character I like in another show (Generation Kill) and I was hoping he'd get a good finish. Also, him being in the car was a clever twist that I did not expect.