Person of Interest – ShotSeeker

By: Alex Steele

As we all still recover from the emotionally-driven, out of this world return of Sameen Shaw, “Person of Interest” continues with its second episode of the week. Entitled ShotSeeker it opens on Finch (Michael Emerson) with Bear in tow at the safe house. As he walks through, we notice that it seems “lived in” – anyone else find that odd? He is finishing his check in when Reese (Jim Caveizel) calls to ensure that the security at the safe house is up to standard. It is. But alas, more important things are on their agenda as they’ve just received a new number. Ethan Garvin (Will Connolly), a sound analysis engineer, is working with ShotSeeker which is a program that identifies gun shots. The program is so high level that it is able to rule out false positives – an update Ethan himself is responsible for.

Ethan is about to finish his shift when gun-shots sound, he works his magic along with shot seeker to analyze whether they are legitimate or not, they are. When he’s done, he goes to leave, but before he does so John hears him on the phone lying to his girlfriend. Something is definitely up.

We meet Fusco (Kevin Chapman) this week watching his son’s hockey game. As he is buying a hot dog, he is approached by a bearded-man who dressed quite formal. This unknown subject continues on to say he knows about Elias and the shooting and that if he doesn’t want anything happening to his son he’ll tell him what he knows. We all know not to threaten Fusco and his family and when he resists giving any information up the man, who we come to know as Bruce Morgan (James Le Gros), encourages him to tell Reese that he is being looked for.

Root (Amy Acker) and Finch this week spend most of their time in the subway working away at identifying Samaritan weaknesses. After downloading the malware earlier, Finch has used it to develop a baby Samaritan – a move Root finds quite genius. Not only that, he’s created a baby Machine too; his goal is to pit them against one another under controlled simulations as a way to reveal Samaritan’s weaknesses. Unfortunately, Finch doesn’t want anyone else involved in this aspect of the plan and locks Root out. Oh Amy Acker, the puppy dog eyes you give Root when she is rejected get us every time.

Back with Reese, he has tracked Ethan to a university housing complex where he is seen popping countless pills and banging on a door quite aggressively. Getting Harold to run the address, we discover it is the home of a chemistry student – Krupa. And after no answer, and no help from neighbors, young Ethan breaks in. Reese noticing how volatile this kid is and rushes in after to catch him in the midst of firing bullets into the fireplace. When Ethan is cornered, we learn that he is doing his own investigation into the disappearance of Krupa. She hasn’t been seen for three days and three days ago gun shots were heard from this apartment. Reese questions how he knows that and after Ethan runs him though the ShotSeeker evidence, Reese can’t help but agree with him. Before they can get started, Fusco has shown up, agitated after his run in with Moran. Reese assures Fusco that he will take care of it. To make that happen; however, Fusco is now responsible for working the Krupa disappearance with Ethan.

Back at the subway, Finch is checking on the dual between baby machine and baby Samaritan to find that the machine is being severely dominated – a fact he does not share with Root. In fact, he lies to her. Elsewhere, Fusco and Ethan have arrived at a non-profit organization that Krupa worked for to question the CEO. Meanwhile, John swiftly disables Bruce Moran’s security detail, hops in the back of the SUV with the mobster and quite calmly tells him to back off Fusco. If he doesn’t, Reese will kill him. As all of this goes down, the team discover that shot seeker is being hacked and Ethan is being set up, so much so that he is held up at gun point. With all this confusion quickly being resolved, Mary (the neighbor from Krupa’s building) wants to talk so Fusco, Ethan and Reese track her down. Unfortunately, they get there too late and find Mary (Julie Cavalierre) shot and bloodied. This all occurs quickly – Root and Finch receive a phone call that Mary is the new number, while they also find evidence of cyber-attacks on the non-profit organization. All of this links back to a company named Harvesta, who was in competition with “Feed the Globe” for Krupa’s research.

Reese runs after the gunman on the scene at Mary’s shooting, but unfortunately falls subjects to an abduction by Bruce Moran and his thugs. While the entire situation spirals out of control, Root and Finch put their heads together to work out that Samaritan is behind everything. And I mean everything. With Reese nowhere to be found, Root pleads with the Machine to track him down and for once, but she can’t seem to find him. Elsewhere, Fusco is running headlong into the crosshairs as he takes it upon himself to question the Harvesta CEO. While this occurs, Root and Finch also discover that Ethan is in danger. He is Samaritan’s next target and sure enough they are already in the police precinct to kill him. Luckily, Fusco pops back up at the right time. Meanwhile, Root and Harold are tasked with retrieving the hard drive of Krupa’s. As Reese is missing and Fusco is busy, it is up to Root to get it. She’s met with a Samaritan operative who we’ve seen before – Jeffrey Blackwell (Josh Close). He and Root have a stand-off and we discover that he doesn’t know much about his new employer. So when Root continues to divulge information about said organization he begins to shake in his boots. She lets him go before they are both caught in an all-out Samaritan gun fight.

Root and Finch discover that the reason they couldn’t open the file previously is due to a high level encryption. A high level encryption only one other ASI is capable of – Samaritan. One of the biggest challenges this season so far has been figuring out what is right and what is wrong. Harold continues to grapple with what direction to take the Machine, especially with Samaritan becoming increasingly brazen in its tactics. With a little bit of tough love from Root, he seems to be coming around to the idea. Samaritan is being ruthless and elaborate, that is why it continues to win. The encrypted file seems to be a decoy, used to frame the head of Harvesta for the murder of Krupa. Encouraging Finch that doing the opposite of what Samaritan wants is exactly the play they need to make, that they have the power to save a life today, when Finch finally gives the go ahead Root disseminates the research to every scientific journal she can and Ethan Garvin is saved. Closely after, they hear from Reese; he’s safe, he’s fine. But he is with Bruce and he wants the truth. What comes next is a twist I didn’t see coming.

The next scene, Reese and Finch have arrived at the safe house (apartment) with Bruce in tow. What is revealed next made me audibly gasp. They have a hospital bed there and have been housing Elias. Yes, that is right, Elias. Remember the gun fight last season involving him and Dominic in which we thought he was assassinated? Well, he’s alive. Well and truly, in the flesh. Bruce is just as shocked as the audience it as this point. As Bruce and Elias reconnect, Finch encourages Reese to call Fusco as his partner was incredibly worried about him. They share a really sweet, honest moment where Reese thanks him for his help and is truly appreciative for all that he does and Fusco is thankful, too. Yet, not enough to make him back off because he isn’t done asking questions and is going to keep investigating with or without the “nerd herd.” Elias expresses the same sentiments to Bruce, telling him to go back underground as it isn’t safe. And like Fusco, Bruce resists. As the episode closes, Fusco hangs up Krupa’s photo on his computer screen, motivation to keep searching, while Finch admits to Reese the struggle of the machine – 10 billion scenarios in and it hasn’t won one.

Other key plot points:

• Root wants Harold to teach the Machine to push back, to defend itself. He is worried that teaching it aggression could lead to more trouble
• What part is Elias going to play moving forward?
• And can anyone predict when we’ll have a “real” Root and Shaw reunion?