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Person of Interest: Bury the Lede

“Maxine’s fondness for intellectuals presents us with a graceful way to cover up your identity. Are you wearing those glasses I got you?”

I’m not sure I can express how much I loved this episode. Everything was perfect. This is literally the best episode of Person of Interest so far. Either that, or I’m just way, way too hopped up on leftover Halloween candy. By ‘leftover,’ I do mean the Butterfingers I fished out of the bowl and hid. Hey, sometimes adults need candy too.

Seriously, was this episode written by fans on a message board? It has everything we’ve been wanting. Zoe. The return of HR. Acknowledgement that this is basically a superhero show. I laughed out loud, I gasped out loud, I got really pissed off at the commercials for taking so damn long. (Also because I’m so tired of campaign ads by now, I could actually vomit. Crap, maybe I did eat too much candy...)

This episode featured a few really excellent twists. The writers completely kept me guessing. The only thing that seemed obvious to me was that the ledger was in the carousel. Well, that, and that Griffin being the head of HR was a mislead. Still, I was sure the mislead was intended to obscure Walker’s involvement. I had no idea they would do the triple twist. They showed Quinn just enough on screen. Too little to have him occur to me as a suspect, but enough to avoid the Castle trap. (That guy’s the murderer? Who the heck is he? Is this the first we’re seeing of him?)

In addition to being awesome in every other way, this episode also happened to be hilarious. It was quite possibly the funniest of the season so far, although I don’t think "Super"’s title of ‘Funniest Episode Ever’ is in danger. Bear was funny and adorable, Reese and Finch were at their witty best, and we had to watch Reese date the woman who’s sworn to expose his identity to the public. If I had to find something wrong with this ep, I would probably say they hit the ‘Maxine doesn’t know she’s dating the man in the suit!’ thing a little hard. Particularly at the end. Still, I enjoyed it.

This episode really embraced the whole Reese as superhero motif they’ve been working with from day one. He’s had recurring villains (HR, Elias, Root), he’s had secret identities (“John Rooney, assets.”), he even has a costume. This week he gets a Lois Lane: Maxine Angelis, investigative reporter for the New York Journal. When Reese was first faced with the problem of protecting Maxine he asks Finch, “How am I supposed to save a woman who wants to put me on the front page?” My sarcastic response was ‘I’d suggest glasses. It always seemed to confuse Lois Lane.’ Then Reese put on glasses. It was such a Harold and the Purple Crayon moment.

Bits and Pieces:

Some of the show’s best moments (in no particular order):

     Finch stuck in Reese’s arsenal

     Finch explaining to John how he had set up a date for him with Maxine and how he had been flirting with her all day as John

     Reese turning off his earpiece mid-date

     Bear and his toy

     Bear sitting in front of the door Finch was hiding behind

     The return of Zoe

     The reveal of the head of HR

Quotes:

“Finch, is that feedback?”
“No, I simply made the grievous error of buying Bear a squeaky toy.”
I can sympathize. I can’t tell you how often my dog has decided to provide his own squeaky soundtrack to whatever I’m watching.

“Nice to meet you. Get off my property.”

“I do wish you wouldn’t do that here.”
“When I do it in the park, people look at me funny.”

“Oh, we spent two very long nights together last year.”
How I’ve missed Zoe. Plus, from the previews, it looks like we’ll be getting a lot more of her next week! I can’t wait.

“There’s a rumor about this guy. The police just call him the man in the suit. No one’s seen his face. No one knows his name. I’m not even sure he exists, but he’s like something out of a comic book. When people are in trouble, he comes out of nowhere. He always seems to be there just in time. Whoever he is, he saves a lot of lives...and he shoots a lot of kneecaps.”
That’s our boy.

“He really likes that closet, huh?”
Army-trained attack dogs aren’t that stealthy, it turns out.

“Did you get a good look at the men who were shooting at you?
“I tried, but they were shooting at me.”

“So you off to chase your man in the suit?”
“No, you were right. Urban legend. And with the week I just had, if there really was a man like that, I think I’d have met him by now.”

four out of four men in suits glasses
---
sunbunny, Person of Interest and Bear the Dog fangirl

12 comments:

  1. I agree, this was simply an awesome episode! Plus it was made even better by one of my favorite reoccurring guest stars on White Collar (Gloria Votsis) showing up.

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  2. I have only just started watching, and have not caught up on past episodes...
    Does HR stand for anything?
    I got the impression that at the end Maxine knew who he was and was choosing to walk away.

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  3. Good review, sunbunny.
    This ep is also my favorite of the current season, too.
    The deadpan humor scenes were great!
    Loved seeing Zoe again.
    You are right, sunbunny, someone's going through message boards. :)
    Looking forward to the next ep.
    Have a nice day!

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  4. Sooze - They've never said HR stands for anything. Obviously in the real world it means Human Resources. I think it's just an ironic name.

    It also occurred to me Maxine knew who Reese was, but I think it would have been out of character for a tough as nails investigative reporter to give up a MASSIVE story out of gratitude. In any case, I don't think we've seen the last of her. :)

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. I loved it, too. The Clark Kent thing with the glasses? Bear and the squeaky toy and the closet? Finch flirting electronically with Maxine to set John up? Terrific. And bringing in Clarke Peters from The Wire to be the head of HR was great, although when his part seemed small in the beginning, that should have given it away.

    Great review, Sunbunny. Your line about Clark Kent? LOL.

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  7. Yup. I think it's one of my favourite POI episodes also! Lots of fun and some interesting twists! :o)

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  8. Glad to hear everyone enjoyed this one as much as me!

    Billie - I never watched The Wire and thus didn't recognize Clarke Peters as someone famous. I hate when they bring in a recognizable face on crime shows. Who killed the victim, the person you've never seen in your life, or the Oscar winner? Hmm.... They did it ALL THE TIME on the original L&O.

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  9. This was wonderful. And I'm referring to both the review and the episode itself, of course.

    When Reese was first faced with the problem of protecting Maxine he asks Finch, “How am I supposed to save a woman who wants to put me on the front page?” My sarcastic response was ‘I’d suggest glasses. It always seemed to confuse Lois Lane.’ Then Reese put on glasses.

    I said something else: "Why don't you try not wearing a suit?!" But I suppose JC in sweats and a hoodie wouldn't have the same impact.

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  10. Good, good, good stuff.

    "Oh Bear, please !" No more squeaking at the end. Finch gets easily distracted.

    LMAO for the restaurant and the dating scenes. Yay ! More Zoe. She's always welcomed; she'd be perfect for our team on a permanent basis.

    (LMAO : "he shoots a lot of kneecaps." You don't say. Glad you wrote this one)

    "Oh shoot ! I've got your dog !"

    A massive number of guns in Reese's closet, huh ?. Better those than skeletons I guess...


    ====

    People ! I hope you have noticed at how he Machine looks upon the World. A triangle for an airplane; a lozenge for a boat, and a white square for a person. And it is yellow when it looks at Reese. Interesting...

    And I'm madly in love with season one's soundtrack. I'd be happy if they'd make a CD for this one.

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  11. I really, really love imdb...

    Clarke Peters played an engineer in In Plain Sight.

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  12. Oh no! Lester as the head of HR? I did NOT see that coming. LOL about the Castle trap. I thought exactly the same thing at the reveal. We had seen enough of him that it was believable.

    Like some of the rest of you, I got the strong impression that Maxine, at least on some level, suspected that Reese was the man in the suit, but chose to let it go. She's a smart lady and throughout the episode we saw her make much more significant intuitive leaps.

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