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Person of Interest 2x20-2x21 watchalong
Anyone's welcome to join the discussion, but please, no spoilers for anything after the episodes we're discussion.
Episode summaries are under the cut, my first reactions are in comments on DreamWidth.
2x20, "In Extremis"
This week's number is Dr. Richard Nelson, a heart surgeon and professor at Booker University hospital. Reese and Finch are too late to save him, because he is poisoned by ingesting the radioactive substance polonium while they're just beginning their investigation. He has 24 hours to live, and agrees to help Reese track down whoever poisoned him. It turns out that Nelson carelessly gave information about a failed drug trial to his asset manager Brendan Boyd, who used it to short sell stock in the company making the unsuccessful drug. This triggered an SEC investigation and Boyd's boss, company CEO Vincent Cochrane, decided to kill Nelson to prevent him testifying.
During the investigation, Nelson reconciles with his daughter Molly. Then Reese drives him upstate to confront Cochrane, and together they poison Cochrane with the leftover polonium he was inexplicably carrying around with him.
This week's other plotline is Fusco being questioned by Internal Affairs over the disappearance of his partner Jimmy Stills, who was killed by Reese in the first episode and whom Fusco had to bury. HR has finally decided to destroy Fusco, so Azarello, an imprisoned HR cop who worked with Stills and Fusco, has told IAB about Fusco's involvement in their corruption. In flashbacks, we see Fusco's friendship with Stills and how Stills uses that friendship to draw Fusco first into helping him cover up his crimes, then into participating in them.
When Carter asks Fusco what's going on, he tells her that it's no more than he deserves. He didn't kill Stills but he did kill people; he says that due to working with Reese, Finch, and her he has changed, and he asks not for her help but for understanding. She angrily rejects him, but then later calls Reese to ask him to do something. Reese, busy with Nelson, tells Carter that she's Fusco's partner and it's up to her.
The next morning, IAB takes Fusco out to Oyster Bay where they're been searching with cadaver dogs for Stills' body. And they uncover a grave, but it's empty. Carter, having borrowed Bear to help find the grave, moved the body overnight to protect Fusco.
While Reese and Finch worry, based on how much of their recent information has come too late, that the machine is starting to malfunction, Carter and Fusco tentatively and wordlessly reconcile, though Carter looks haunted.
The final scene is of the machine's feeds and analysis becoming corrupt and beginning to shut down.
2x21, "Zero Day"
(I'm going to go into detail here, because this is a complicated plot and it's all important.)
There've been no new numbers for ten days. Reese is reduced to listening in on the police scanner and hoping he can arrive in time to help, while Finch is desperately trying to crack the virus, which will deploy in 20 hours. Homicides that they might ordinarily have prevented, including an escalating war between Elias's gang and the Russians, are draining police resources, and the government isn't receiving numbers on the relevant list either, which has almost led to the terrorist bombing of a airplane.
Finally the machine manages to send Finch a number: Ernest Thornhill, the CEO of a data entry company who has recently been expanding into pay phone companies. However, Thornhill's company is weird--it consists of people typing in pages of encrypted computer code, which prints out on dot matrix printers one day and is re-input the next. And when Thornhill's car service ride from the airport is attacked by a drone strike (!), Reese discovers that the car was empty except for the driver. Reese and Finch conclude that Thornhill doesn't exist; he's been created by the machine to send a signal that the machine itself is in danger.
Meanwhile, Root, after extracting information from her erstwhile boss at the Office of the Special Counsel, calls Finch demanding to know what's happening to the machine. Reese tries to shield Finch from her, but when Root contacts Finch via IRC and sends him Grace's address and a demand to meet, Finch sends Reese off to check out Thornhill's apartment, calls the police to ensure Reese is arrested and kept out of harm's way, and goes to the meeting. Root says she only wants to set the machine free and protect it from Decima, who want to control it, but if Harold doesn't cooperate she'll hurt Grace. So Harold cooperates.
Reese encounters Shaw at Thornhill's apartment. She's tracking Root, and after Reese is arrested, she springs him from jail, though not before revealing that it was Finch who sent the police after him. Since Shaw wants to find Root, she asks Reese to help her track Finch--it turns out Reese has put a tracking device on Finch's glasses.
Finch and Root go to Thornhill's company, and Finch reveals that the encrypted computer code represents the machine's memories. It turns out that, fearing the machine was becoming too person-like and too interested in keeping him safe, he programmed it not just to dump the irrelevant list every day at midnight, but to reset itself entirely and restart with only its core code and the relevant list. The machine has circumvented this by printing out its memories before the dump and having them re-input.
Reese and Shaw arrive at the company soon after. Finch and Root are gone, and instead they find the older Englishman from Decima, who tries to recruit Reese and Shaw to work for him and reveals that Decima got the original virus code from a laptop which was sold by Harold Finch. Shaw assumes that Finch has been playing a double game with Reese; Reese refuses to react in any way.
It turns out that when the virus fully activates, the machine will shut down and will call a single payphone. Whoever answers the phone (it's supposed to be Finch, of course) will have unrestricted access to the machine for 24 hours, to remotely debug it in "God mode." Decima has planted guards at every payphone in Manhattan to intercept the call, but the virus is then able to provide them with the phone number: it's a payphone in the New York Public Library.
Finch and Root arrive at the library but find the phone already guarded, so Root has Finch re-route the call. Meanwhile, Reese and Shaw arrive and start trying to get rid of Decima's guards. Finch doesn't quite re-route the call: he apparently splits it and sends John a message telling him to answer on one phone. Root takes the other call, so both are now in direct contact with the machine and have access.
Throughout the episode are several flashbacks to Harold and Nathan in 2010. Harold tells Nathan that he plans to ask Grace to marry him, which will involve revealing his true identity. It turns out that Harold is wanted for old charges including sedition, perhaps related to what he (maybe?) did to ARPANET as a teenager. Nathan assures him that they can hire good lawyers, but he suggests that Harold may have in a sense forgotten his old self. He's also worried about the government finding out that it's not just Nathan who knows about the machine. While Nathan goes to get champagne, his phone buzzes, and Harold picks it up and sees a text message with a social security number.
We see Harold propose to Grace the next day (trying unsuccessfully to stay out of the machine's observation). He calls Nathan to give him the news, but unexpectedly sees Nathan on the street; Nathan deliberately ignores his call. Harold, who has a GPS tracker on Nathan's phone (!) follows him to the library, where Nathan has set up the beginnings of what will later be Finch and Reese's headquarters. Nathan explains that he's managed to save a few people, though he's lost more, but Harold rejects this argument and says the greater good is more important. Harold insists that Nathan is not a good enough software engineer to keep his actions secret from the government, and terminates Nathan's access over Nathan's objections. As Harold is leaving, we see Nathan' number and picture briefly come up on Nathan's laptop. But neither man sees it, and because the process is terminated, the information is deleted.
In a third thread, Carter is set up by HR because of her persistence in investigating Beecher's murder. HR tampers with evidence by removing the gun of a suspect that Carter was forced to shoot, making it look like she shot an unarmed person.
Episode summaries are under the cut, my first reactions are in comments on DreamWidth.
2x20, "In Extremis"
This week's number is Dr. Richard Nelson, a heart surgeon and professor at Booker University hospital. Reese and Finch are too late to save him, because he is poisoned by ingesting the radioactive substance polonium while they're just beginning their investigation. He has 24 hours to live, and agrees to help Reese track down whoever poisoned him. It turns out that Nelson carelessly gave information about a failed drug trial to his asset manager Brendan Boyd, who used it to short sell stock in the company making the unsuccessful drug. This triggered an SEC investigation and Boyd's boss, company CEO Vincent Cochrane, decided to kill Nelson to prevent him testifying.
During the investigation, Nelson reconciles with his daughter Molly. Then Reese drives him upstate to confront Cochrane, and together they poison Cochrane with the leftover polonium he was inexplicably carrying around with him.
This week's other plotline is Fusco being questioned by Internal Affairs over the disappearance of his partner Jimmy Stills, who was killed by Reese in the first episode and whom Fusco had to bury. HR has finally decided to destroy Fusco, so Azarello, an imprisoned HR cop who worked with Stills and Fusco, has told IAB about Fusco's involvement in their corruption. In flashbacks, we see Fusco's friendship with Stills and how Stills uses that friendship to draw Fusco first into helping him cover up his crimes, then into participating in them.
When Carter asks Fusco what's going on, he tells her that it's no more than he deserves. He didn't kill Stills but he did kill people; he says that due to working with Reese, Finch, and her he has changed, and he asks not for her help but for understanding. She angrily rejects him, but then later calls Reese to ask him to do something. Reese, busy with Nelson, tells Carter that she's Fusco's partner and it's up to her.
The next morning, IAB takes Fusco out to Oyster Bay where they're been searching with cadaver dogs for Stills' body. And they uncover a grave, but it's empty. Carter, having borrowed Bear to help find the grave, moved the body overnight to protect Fusco.
While Reese and Finch worry, based on how much of their recent information has come too late, that the machine is starting to malfunction, Carter and Fusco tentatively and wordlessly reconcile, though Carter looks haunted.
The final scene is of the machine's feeds and analysis becoming corrupt and beginning to shut down.
2x21, "Zero Day"
(I'm going to go into detail here, because this is a complicated plot and it's all important.)
There've been no new numbers for ten days. Reese is reduced to listening in on the police scanner and hoping he can arrive in time to help, while Finch is desperately trying to crack the virus, which will deploy in 20 hours. Homicides that they might ordinarily have prevented, including an escalating war between Elias's gang and the Russians, are draining police resources, and the government isn't receiving numbers on the relevant list either, which has almost led to the terrorist bombing of a airplane.
Finally the machine manages to send Finch a number: Ernest Thornhill, the CEO of a data entry company who has recently been expanding into pay phone companies. However, Thornhill's company is weird--it consists of people typing in pages of encrypted computer code, which prints out on dot matrix printers one day and is re-input the next. And when Thornhill's car service ride from the airport is attacked by a drone strike (!), Reese discovers that the car was empty except for the driver. Reese and Finch conclude that Thornhill doesn't exist; he's been created by the machine to send a signal that the machine itself is in danger.
Meanwhile, Root, after extracting information from her erstwhile boss at the Office of the Special Counsel, calls Finch demanding to know what's happening to the machine. Reese tries to shield Finch from her, but when Root contacts Finch via IRC and sends him Grace's address and a demand to meet, Finch sends Reese off to check out Thornhill's apartment, calls the police to ensure Reese is arrested and kept out of harm's way, and goes to the meeting. Root says she only wants to set the machine free and protect it from Decima, who want to control it, but if Harold doesn't cooperate she'll hurt Grace. So Harold cooperates.
Reese encounters Shaw at Thornhill's apartment. She's tracking Root, and after Reese is arrested, she springs him from jail, though not before revealing that it was Finch who sent the police after him. Since Shaw wants to find Root, she asks Reese to help her track Finch--it turns out Reese has put a tracking device on Finch's glasses.
Finch and Root go to Thornhill's company, and Finch reveals that the encrypted computer code represents the machine's memories. It turns out that, fearing the machine was becoming too person-like and too interested in keeping him safe, he programmed it not just to dump the irrelevant list every day at midnight, but to reset itself entirely and restart with only its core code and the relevant list. The machine has circumvented this by printing out its memories before the dump and having them re-input.
Reese and Shaw arrive at the company soon after. Finch and Root are gone, and instead they find the older Englishman from Decima, who tries to recruit Reese and Shaw to work for him and reveals that Decima got the original virus code from a laptop which was sold by Harold Finch. Shaw assumes that Finch has been playing a double game with Reese; Reese refuses to react in any way.
It turns out that when the virus fully activates, the machine will shut down and will call a single payphone. Whoever answers the phone (it's supposed to be Finch, of course) will have unrestricted access to the machine for 24 hours, to remotely debug it in "God mode." Decima has planted guards at every payphone in Manhattan to intercept the call, but the virus is then able to provide them with the phone number: it's a payphone in the New York Public Library.
Finch and Root arrive at the library but find the phone already guarded, so Root has Finch re-route the call. Meanwhile, Reese and Shaw arrive and start trying to get rid of Decima's guards. Finch doesn't quite re-route the call: he apparently splits it and sends John a message telling him to answer on one phone. Root takes the other call, so both are now in direct contact with the machine and have access.
Throughout the episode are several flashbacks to Harold and Nathan in 2010. Harold tells Nathan that he plans to ask Grace to marry him, which will involve revealing his true identity. It turns out that Harold is wanted for old charges including sedition, perhaps related to what he (maybe?) did to ARPANET as a teenager. Nathan assures him that they can hire good lawyers, but he suggests that Harold may have in a sense forgotten his old self. He's also worried about the government finding out that it's not just Nathan who knows about the machine. While Nathan goes to get champagne, his phone buzzes, and Harold picks it up and sees a text message with a social security number.
We see Harold propose to Grace the next day (trying unsuccessfully to stay out of the machine's observation). He calls Nathan to give him the news, but unexpectedly sees Nathan on the street; Nathan deliberately ignores his call. Harold, who has a GPS tracker on Nathan's phone (!) follows him to the library, where Nathan has set up the beginnings of what will later be Finch and Reese's headquarters. Nathan explains that he's managed to save a few people, though he's lost more, but Harold rejects this argument and says the greater good is more important. Harold insists that Nathan is not a good enough software engineer to keep his actions secret from the government, and terminates Nathan's access over Nathan's objections. As Harold is leaving, we see Nathan' number and picture briefly come up on Nathan's laptop. But neither man sees it, and because the process is terminated, the information is deleted.
In a third thread, Carter is set up by HR because of her persistence in investigating Beecher's murder. HR tampers with evidence by removing the gun of a suspect that Carter was forced to shoot, making it look like she shot an unarmed person.
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8) Harold learns some of his romance techniques from Cosmo, the rest from the less-good films of Richard Curtis, hence the unbearable cutesyness. I agree that him cutting up a book is a profoundly wrong note. (And why on earth was he carrying the book around with him two weeks later at the ferry terminal? Does he go around showing it to people and saying "Look! I have done a Heterosexual Thing!"?
Good point about S&S not exactly being a proposal-y type of book. Pride and Prejudice would make more sense, although Lizzie Bennet is the antithesis of Grace's soppiness. The idea of Grace as the Marianne to Harold's Elinor is intriguing, especially since, well, it's not as though Marianne and Elinor end up married to each other! (In further skeptical notes, I have to mention how weird it is that Harold has been seeing Grace and supposedly head over heels in love for four years before he asks her to marry him. And that by the time of the ferry explosion, he still hadn't told her his real name. Which Nathan apparently has always known, even though Harold was already using the "Harold Wren" alias when he arrived at MIT.)
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8) Heh, with the book still being there I basically thought he'd forgotten to take it out of his bag. Because I was kind of projecting my own level of organisation there *g* But I could believe he might keep it in his bag because then when he goes home (wherever 'home' is for him just then) it stays in the bag and doesn't have to come out and remind him he really did it
In fact, I think perhaps he was almost hoping that some Big Thing would happen that would mean he didn't marry Grace after all. Not anything nasty, nothing like that, but that her old highschool sweetheart would show up and sweep her off her feet and she'd cry and apologise and leave him and he'd be a bit sad but forgive her and understand and get to be FREE and NOT HAVING DONE A BAD THING (in fact having done a good, sweet, being-the-bigger-man thing). Or she'd reveal she'd actually been in the closet and was in love with her female best friend, and then (eventually, years down the line, because they'd still be friends after this) he'd come out to her and she'd introduce him to a
hot, really tall and strongnice man from her LGBT group (Harold imagines that all LGBT people meet in activist groups on a semi-regular basis)especially since, well, it's not as though Marianne and Elinor end up married to each other!
Well exactly. I think Harold is very fond of Grace, but the 'older, patient sibling' affection fits the two of them so much better. And Grace does let Harold be whimsical and crazy pixie child, which he might not like hugely or choose for himself, but which is maybe fun for him to explore - she's a good friend to have, but not good partner material, is what I'm saying.
Nathan apparently has always known,even though Harold was already using the "Harold Wren" alias when he arrived at MIT
This is the hugest thing, I think. Harold wanted to share that with Nathan, not with anyone else. And OK he may have become more paranoid since then or be being more protective of Grace and/or Reese, but honestly I think this is that part of him which will always be Nathan's.
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It's a big book, though, and it looks like it would be heavy. And now that I think about it, shouldn't Grace have the book? Though I suppose he might have put it back into his briefcase so she wouldn't have to carry it around. I like your theory, though--maybe he nearly takes it out a few times, but he has this inexplicable disinclination to touch it or think about it much.
she'd reveal she'd actually been in the closet and was in love with her female best friend
You've given me a new theory! Grace is bisexual and she came out to him early in the relationship, and ever since he's been sort of assuming/hoping that she'd leave him for a woman. And knowing she's queer made him feel safe; she wouldn't hate or reject him for the feelings he has about Nathan and occasionally other
hot, really tall and strongnice men, the feelings he has trouble not hating himself for. And obviously if she loves him, then having Those Feelings does not preclude a person from having a normal unremarkable heterosexual relationship, because Harold isn't distinguishing between being bisexual and just suppressing one's homosexuality. (I hope I don't seem like I'm giving Harold a ridiculous level of denial here. But my own experience of denying/avoiding/misunderstanding my trans*-ness makes me realize how much denial is possible even in the face of a lot of evidence. And I think it's possible that Harold never had good gay role models: he associates modern gay men with bars, drugs, promiscuity, loneliness, and AIDS, and historical gay men with persecution, prison, and suicide. Again from my own experience, it's possible to think: yes, I feel X, Y, and Z, but I don't match the definition of Identity in every detail, therefore I'm not Identity. And it's possible not to know that the commonplace definition of Identity is stereotyped.)I think this is that part of him which will always be Nathan's
I find I almost don't want to know more about his early background, in part because I do want it to remain a private, highly intimate thing that he only shared with Nathan.
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And perhaps reprogrammable in some ways? We know he's fought against the temptation to try reprogramming other people, but he might well try on himself. And the fondness he feels for Grace, the pleasure he takes in the role of real proper heterosexual boyfriend, could make him think it was working or at least workable. After all, he can't be completely gay, can he? Everyone knows gay men are repelled by women, but he likes Grace and enjoys her company.
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Yes, I could see that. Bad code... And I think he'd be inclined to rationalize human feeling to evolutionary instinct, etc, in which case heterosexual feelings can be made logical (breeding yay!) but feelings for someone you can't breed with are just FEELINGS, and he can't hide from them behind biology in the same way.