Summary: Fusco takes care of the nest POI as Finch and Carter work on getting Reese out. Donnelly is determined and does thorough background checks of all four men. Finch fabricates a backstory for Reese while Carter interrogates him. Reese meets with Elias while in prison and gets in an altercation with Byron. Hersh infiltrates the prison with a goal to kill all four suspects. He kills one. After a tense investigation, Donnelly heavily suspects Reese. He isn't able to find anything and so he uses his altercation with Byron as an attempt to discover evidence. It fails. Carter interrogates another man and is able to pinpoint that he is the man in the suit. Reese is released and meets with Carter. However, Donnelly finds them and arrests both of them. He had suspected Carter to be a mole and it was confirmed when she showed some concern for Reese. Finch gets on the case but the Machine gives him another number: Donnelly. Donnelly's car is crashed and Stanton arrives to kill him. She reunites with Reese.
The Good: Well damn. When "Person of Interest" goes all in, it goes all in. This episode was ridiculously tense and had me completely hooked the entire time. I think this is one of the best tension-based drama episodes I have ever seen, up there with some of the best episodes of "Breaking Bad". It's not often when I feel so mentally exhausted that I find myself pausing just for a few moments to collect my thoughts. This episode started off in a brilliant way. The recap at the start was done in such a stylish way and it immediately captured the building tension that this episode thrived in. Furthermore, the fact that this episode was given a moment like this to kick it off makes it feel so much more important than all of the other episodes. Once the episode really gets going is when it shines though. The interrogation scenes between Carter and Reese are incredible. What adds on to these is Donnelly's presence in the background waiting for just one mistake to capitalize on. Every conversation puts me on the edge of my seat and they only get more and more suspenseful as the episode goes on. The climax results in a terrific scene where Carter is taking opposing commands from Donnelly and Finch, unsure of what to do. My mind was racing, thinking of the possibilities of what might happen. And then, just like that, the scene becomes an emotional scene where Reese gets to recount his life and his most tragic decision (see: Best Moment). It takes fantastic directing for the transition to work as well as it does without taking away from the pounding suspense. Donnelly's character is a standout once again. His persistence and capabilities as an antagonist are what make this episode work so well. Donnelly is so careful to dot his i's and cross his t's that it seems increasingly likely that he may discover something about Reese by outdoing Finch. Donnelly's moves were brilliant and I loved that nothing Finch and Carter did was able to outsmart him. His visit to the office was excellent, his relentless and quick background checks were fantastic, and the little things like him not falling for both the fire alarm and Macavoy's false evidence were splendid details. Plus, they genuinely challenged Finch who had to do some spectacular moves to ensure that Donnelly doesn't get ahead of them, such as contacting Macavoy, forging Reese's background and more. And these excellent developments are all thanks to Donnelly. Everything he does is so pleasingly logical and intelligent that it feels downright refreshing. The best villains are the ones who feel like they are an actual threat to the protagonists. But calling Donnelly a pure villain doesn't seem right. He is just a man doing his job, and that is made abundantly clear in this episode. In fact, his position on catching Reese does come off as morally correct and the points he makes about Reese are very true. Calling Reese a monster ties in nicely with the flashbacks and builds a little bit of morally grey stature around his character. The ending is really tragic for Donnelly. He did everything right in catching Reese, but his fatal mistake was letting the case become personal to him. By attacking Reese, he got caught up in something much bigger than he probably suspected, and without any backup to help him, he met his end. The final sequence was astounding as well. After the episode built up so fiercely, I thought that Reese being proven innocent may have been the end of it. With "Eminence Front" playing, I thought that the episode may have a calm ending that ties up loose ends and maybe spent more time on Fusco's story. So when Donnelly returned and arrested both Reese and carter, it completely caught me off guard. I was very pleased by it and it was consistent for the paranoid Donnelly to suspect Carter after everything that went wrong. After that, I knew something had to happen to Donnelly since two of the show's leads obviously weren't going to be jailed forever. But predictable isn't always bad, and the show managed to create drama at the end by accepting this. By having the Machine give Donnelly's number (also, how great was that scene where Finch walked by pay phones which all prominently started ringing), we knew that something was going to happen. The Stanton reveal was fantastic and provides one hell of a cliffhanger. By the look of things, "Person of Interest" is going to keep the momentum going into the next episode and I can't wait to watch what happens next. There were so many other things I loved about this main storyline. I was pleased that Finch and Reese already had an alias planned in the event that Reese gets captured. Finch's preparations were terrific and I was continually pleased that he considered several things that could happen. I really liked his plan to pin the blame on somebody else before Reese gets ratted out. The presence of Byron was some lovely continuity and the test that Donnelly did at the end was a perfect hail Mary. The chaotic feel of the episode was awesome. So many factors kept coming into play as Hersh and Elias also got involved, and it only added to the sense that something crucial to the story was happening on screen. I liked Fusco's story too. It worked to put the POI in the background of an episode for once, making this episode feel refreshingly different and special. Additionally, Fusco's story led to some of the funniest jokes that the show has ever done, a very necessary bit of relief in an episode which was so sensationally tense. Every time the episode cut to Fusco, he was in such an overly dramatic and funny situation. I absolutely loved it. The flashbacks were really good too. It's about time that we got to learn more about Reese and Stanton's dynamic, and it gives us a good idea of what to expect once we catch up with them in the next episode. The Bad: The final flashback was a bit redundant. We saw majority of it back in "Matsya Nyaya", and I don't think we needed to see it again. The Unknown: Who is Special Counsel's contact that sent him the information? Why did he feel the need to send Hersh to kill the four men? Is this the end of the man in the suit investigation? Or will somebody else continue it? Will the FBI be satisfied with Packer as the culprit? What does Stanton want with Reese? Will she treat him the same way she treated Snow? Or does she have something else in mind? What does she want? What will she do with Carter? Will she dispose of Donnelly's body or will she use it as a message to the FBI? Whatever is happening, I suspect it's going to be pretty big. Best Moment: A tense interrogation by Carter turns into a heartfelt moment as Reese fabricates a story for John Warren about how he lost his girl. It's a lovely bit of storytelling that of course mirrors how Reese lost Jessica. It's a really touching moment amidst utter chaos and I love it. Character of the Episode: Donnelly. His presence will be missed, though with Stanton and Root around, I'm sure that the show can fill his shoes nicely. Conclusion: What a stellar episode. I was expecting something big to happen from this storyline, but I never expected something as downright epic as what we got here. This is far and above the best episode of the show so far. It was remarkably tense, used all of its characters in a very efficient way and provided us with the best writing I have seen in the show. This checked all the boxes and showed me a glimpse of just how good this show can be. Score: 82
3 Comments
Ben
2/22/2019 02:38:46 pm
It's nice that you appreciated Donnell'y character so much. I thought it was interesting that he didn’t even seem triumphant once he had caught John. Maybe it was the disappointment over Carter's betrayal that was overwhelming his feelings at the time, but he's also just genuinely disturbed by John's presence I think. Catching him wasn’t about personal glory, but because he's genuinely concerned with protecting his country. It reminds me of Javert's pursuit of Valjean. I would have liked though a little more over what personally motivated Donnelly as it seemed it was largely just paranoia. Still, he was a very competent foe, the twist of him catching John and Carter worked really well, and his death did feel tragic. I also found Fusco's story absolutely hilarious, as well as Finch preparing to break John out of prison at the end of the episode. I agree, very tense episode throughout, and the best moment was between John and Carter during the interrogation. I'm also a big fan of Stanton, and I enjoyed her and John's roles in the flashbacks. This probably is the best episode of the series so far, though I'm also a big fan of Many Happy Returns from last season.
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Aaron
2/22/2019 07:35:12 pm
Funny, I had the same thought connecting Donnelly to Javert while watching the episode. I agree that Donnelly's motivations were sorely lacking. I would have liked to learn more about him back when he was introduced. This episode is great enough as it is, but I think it could have been even better had Donnelly been given a little more to do back in late season 1/early season 2. I forgot to mention Finch arming up in my review (after 1500 words I got a bit tired lol), but it was a terrific joke. The terrified look on his face as he hoisted up what looked like a tear gas gun was amazing.
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Joe Y
8/30/2020 01:31:00 pm
This is definitely in the top 10. One of the most well thought out episodes in the series. It would’ve been easy for the writers to have Donnelly just believe them and end the story there, but nah. Donnelly remains intelligent to the very end, and as paranoid as Harold Finch himself. That’s what makes him so dangerous. I can see why you found this conflict more engaging than the various shoot-outs.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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