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Tonight's Person of Interest was a piece of television of sublime quality, unlike anything I've seen before. Titled 'RAM', it was written by Nic Van Zeebroeck and Michael Sopczynski, a duo who have written 5 episodes together, and directed by Stephen Surjik, who has directed two previous episodes.
For relative newcomers to the series, or those who struggle to keep pace with the most complex storyline on television, here's a basic wrap of everything that happened in this episode, along with how it relates to the storyline of the entire series, which will hopefully help you keep up to speed.
Veteran viewers of the first season will have noticed that the opening title sequence in tonight's episode was straight from season 1. Word for word, clip for clip, up to the point where the title sequence begins rewinding.
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The episode opens in 2010, with Dillinger, a guy who served much the same role that John Reese does today. After saving a damsel in distress, he is summoned to the library where we see Harold Finch sitting at his computer, in a wheelchair, wearing the same glasses he wore in the pilot, but were not seen again except in flashbacks.
Some important background information here. September 26, 2010 was the date that Finch was injured in a car bomb blast which killed his long time friend, Nathan Ingram. According to the fastforward scene at the end of the episode, the events in this episode probably occurred in December. Finch was in hospital in both January and February 2011, when he would have had spinal fusion surgery to repair the back injury caused by the bar bomb. Furthermore, Finch used the bomb blast to fake his death to his fiance, Grace Hendricks.
Right, let's get back to the action. In the opening moments after he saved the damsel in distrss, Dillinger suggested to Finch he get a dog. Dillinger comes across as rather arrogant, inquisitive and pushy, making Finch work rather hard to keep the level of privacy he prefers. Dillinger also likes getting paid, which runs with his overall arrogance. Nothing like John Reese, that's for sure.
The next number that comes up is that of Daniel Casey. Casey is a former tiger team specialist. They specialize in breaking into systems so their owners can find out about any security flaws and the like. Casey has a friend in Lester Strickland who does the same sort of work, but additionally specializes in false documents.
At the same time as Dillinger is trailing Casey, so are CIA buddies Kara Stanton and John Reese. Viewers present back in season 2 will note that Stanton is now deceased, along with the pair's CIA handler, Mark Snow.
A Chap named Lambert turns up, impersonating Ian Banks in a meeting with Casey. Ian Banks is a member of the SSCI, or the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Dillinger and Finch listen in on the conversation which doesn't lead anywhere. Casey feels uneasy and leaves, with Dillinger in hot pursuit. The pair are confronted by Reese and Stanton, who have their eyes on Casey. However a crew associated with Lambert storms the party and engages in a shootout. The crew is killed but Lambert himself escapes. As do Dillinger and Casey, who head to Finch's library.
On the way back, Casey tells Dillinger, with Finch listening, that two months prior, he was asked to test a system for weaknesses. The system was located in a bunker somewhere in the Pacific North West and was the most advanced system he had ever seen. Finch tries to hush the conversation with some urgency which makes Dillinger suspicious.
Back at the library, Dillinger is not impressed by the situation. Finch sends him outside - an order he follows, but not before he bugs the room with a microphone placed on an empty magazine from his gun.
Scene switch now, to Pennsylvania 2, aka Sepcial Counsel, in his office, when Control abruptly enters, demanding an explanation from him as to why his team (Reese and Stanton) failed to neutralize Daniel Casey. Control suggests she should have dealt with the situation in-house, but Special Counsel disagrees, saying that getting the CIA to do the job protects them and Northern Lights.
But things get mighty interesting here, when Control says "If Casey had done his job, and we had access to Northern Lights, we could find him in a heartbeat, or anyone else for that matter". This is vitally important, because it implies that The Machine (the project to build it was codenamed Northern Lights) was not operational in 2011, when we were previously told that it was prepped for delivery in 2009.
It gets better, when Special Counsel responds to Control by saying "All due respect ma'am, we might not be in this situation if we hadn’t killed Nathan Ingram. Who better to provide unfettered access to the source than the man who built it." This means that it was definitely the decision of Control to kill Nathan Ingram. This wasn't known for certain previously, other than the fact that Hersh, an employee of Special Counsel, staged the bombing to kill Ingram. Control isn't done yet, when she says "Nathan Ingram outlived his usefulness and was dealt with accordingly."
Some more background here. Ingram had programmed a back door named 'Contingency' into The Machine before it was delivered. The back door was designed to feed the numbers from the irrelevant list to Ingram, who, before he was killed, acted as a vigilante himself and tried to protect those on its irrelevant list. Finch, at the time, wholeheartedly disagreed with the idea and locked Ingram's access. However in the seconds before he did this, Nathan Ingram's own number came up, suggesting he was in iminent danger. Ingram died in the bomb blast shortly after. Today, Finch gets his numbers in the same way Ingram received his, using the same back door that Ingram programmed.
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All of this shows that The Machine was indeed active in 2010, but it appears that the government agencies, and Control and Special Counsel, were not getting what they wanted - if anything at all - from The Machine around this time, but Ingram, and later Finch, were. My theory here is that The Machine went on strike following Ingram's death in an attempt to prevent itself from being misused, and the government wanted The Machine back online, so they enlisted Daniel Casey to get it to resume operations.
Further background here. In 2011, Samantha Shaw eliminated Daniel Aquino. Aquino was one of the people who played a part in the Northern Lights project. When he was deemed a loose end, by the orders of Special Counsel, he was framed for selling designs of a nuclear centrifuge to Hezbollah, with the idea being that The Machine would track him on the relevant list, and the ISA (Intelligence Support Activity) of which Shaw was a member, would do the honors of neutralizing him. That means The Machine was doing its job at that point.
Getting back to the episode, Daniel Casey found the back door when he was testing the system. The Machine was smarter though, and locked him out. Casey came to the conclusion that the government didn't want the system to be tested, they wanted to break into it - furthermore supporting the theory that they weren't getting anything from The Machine at the time. Casey was later scheduled to be killed but miraculously survived a car crash which killed his executioners, and he was able to escape with the laptop containing the code to the back door. One wonders how such an oversight could be made if Casey had the laptop even when he was about to be killed, which makes me think that laptop was destined for somewhere else following Casey's death.
Meanwhile, Finch was tweaking the code on the laptop in the library. He decided to sell the laptop to protect Casey in the hope that the laptop was more important than Casey's life. However, Finch would have been doing much more than simple tweaking. Rather, he would have been modifying the code to tell The Machine to go it alone. More background on that later.
From the earlier shootout with Lambert's crew, Stanton and Reese interrogate one of the crew members who did not succumb to the shootout. After telling the pair nothing, the man jumps from the window. However before that, we hear his voice. He is definitely English or Scottish. That's important too, and again, more on that later. The crew member dies though, after he catches Reese and Stanton off guard and out a window to his death.
Back in Finch's library, Dillinger returns, and reveals that he overheard the conversation Finch had with Casey. Finch is overcome by a sleeping drug placed in his tea, and Dillinger tells Casey to run. Dillinger takes the laptop to a meeting with a group of Chinese buyers in Central Park, but before he can get there, Finch tracks him down and tries to dissuade Dillinger, though to no avail. He watches on as Dillinger is shot through the heart, and all but one of the Chinese buyers succumbs to the same fate. Out of the shadows comes none other than Samantha Shaw, who was trained by Hersh.
Meanwhile, Daniel Casey was on his way to Lester's place when Reese stops him in his tracks. Stanton, while holding Lester hostage, is interrupted by Lambert and another couple of crew members. For the second time, all but Lambert meet their end, and Lester follows them to the same fate too. However, outside, Reese spares Casey's life, while Finch watches on from a car nearby. Stanton and Reese get in a car where their next mission awaits, in Morocco - or so they thought.
Back in Special Counsel's office, he confirms to Control that the laptop has been traced to a software company based in Ordos, China. In a separate scene, Lambert informs Greer of the same information. The Machine is aware as well, and can be seen tracking the conversation and the threat to its operations. Control orders the destruction of the laptop by sending Reese and Stanton to Ordos, where they were set up to kill each other.
This is where any newcomers or those who struggle to follow the storyline might feel a bit lost. In 2010, Reese and Stanton were in China, at the software company's headquarters, when they realized that they had been set up by their own people. They managed to escape an airstrike on the facility, but Stanton was badly injured and spent a year in a Chinese hospital under the supervision of Greer, from Decima Technologies. Reese made his way back to the US, but was too late to save his former girlfriend, Jessica Arndt, from being killed by her husband.
Arndt worked as a nurse in a hospital. Before he went to China, Reese received a call from her, asking for help. His request for leave from the CIA was denied, and it probably cost her her life. After he managed to get back to the US, Reese rushed to the hospital where Jessica worked. While he was there, he bumped into the then wheelchair bound Harold Finch, who was recovering from his spinal fusion surgery.
Sometime later, in 2011, is when the series pilot is set. Reese, an alcoholic living on the streets, is harassed by a group of youths on a subway, who he promptly dispatches. It is none other than Harold Finch who provided him with a lawyer and removed him from the police station where the now deceased Detective Joss Carter had been questioning him. He was whisked away to a meeting with Finch, and the rest, as they say, is history. But one thing is for certain. John Reese has lasted a lot longer than Dillinger.
Later in the series, after recovering from her injuries, Kara Stanton returns to the US to plant a virus in a DOD facility. The virus is from Decima, and uses code from the laptop obtained from the Chinese, but modified by Finch. That is what initiated things for The Machine to develop a mind of its own and take steps to ensure its own survival, the impacts of which are being felt to this day
Like I said at the beginning of this review, this episode was incredible. The creative team behind this amazing television series are highly talented, daring, and knowledgeable. They had created a masterpiece by the end of the first season, and it has only got better as time has passed. Tonight's episode has again taken things to an entirely new level.
However let's not forget the final scene of the episode, where Root knocks on Daniel Casey's cottage door and begins rigging the place to blow. He is given a location and a name, and told to leave now. Who knows where things are heading from here.
Thanks so much for reading. Hopefully this has helped refresh some memories and bring others up to speed with the best series on television. Feel free to share your thoughts and spin your theories in the comments below. Remember you can see full ratings, an episode guide, and a comprehensive Character Relationship Chart on my website, www.seriesmonitor.com/personofinterest
Jimmy
