[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03jlx01oVSA]
Person of Interest: Wingman (4×03)
Synopsis: Fusco gets caught up helping a professional wingman while Reese stays at work and attempts to impress the captain. Meanwhile, Shaw continues to be a badass and helps the boys while Root and Finch go on a mission of their own.
Rating: ★★★★★
This week’s episode reminded me why I love Person of Interest so much. Even without the huge focus on the Machine and the science fiction aspect of the show, Person of Interest manages to keep a hold on me. This week, we really got to focus on Fusco. With Reese tied up attempting to impress the homicide Captain, and not lose his job, the task of taking care of the number was left to Fusco.
The number of the week is a young man who used to be a dock worker. For some mysterious reason he suddenly quit working his dock worker job and picked up work as a professional wingman. In other words, he helps guys get girls by giving them insight into what is attractive to women. It was a great chance for some comic relief in the midst of the beginning of the season as Fusco begrudgingly allows everything about him to be examined under a microscope. Poor Fusco gets torn apart, all while trying to save Cooper, the guy doing the critique.
While Fusco is preoccupied, Reese finds himself stuck in the office. The Captain isn’t impressed after the opening scene where Reese ended up knee capping a guy. Thankfully the guy was a pretty bad dude, but the problem was the fact that he wasn’t related to the cases Reese had been assigned. In other words, Reese ends up on his Captain’s shit list and has to be on his best behavior to try and win her favor. Finch has to remind him that their covers are a precious comoddity, not meant to be easily tossed away.
It sure is nice to see Finch back on the same page as everyone else.
So Fusco is off learning how to date again while Reese is closing as many cases as possible. Thankfully Shaw is able to take the time to follow Fusco and keep an eye on the number while Reese is preoccupied. More interesting, though, is what Finch and Root get up to this episode. It seems the Machine has plans for them and has Finch take on the identity of a Mister Egret. That’s right folks, we’re continuing on with the bird names. He’s apparently some sort of badass and, following Root’s lead, ends up purchasing some sort of anti-tank missile which they then plan to turn around and sell.
Finch was brilliant this week, as he was last week. For once we got a chance to see him put on a bad ass face, usually reserved for Reese. The best part? even though he’s a small statued man with a limp, he was scary as hell. Well done on the part of Michael Emerson for successfully frightening me while at the same time making me giggle with delight because it was so un-Finch.
While Finch and Root wander around breaking a lot of laws while kicking some bad guy ass, Fusco ends up with bigger problems than finding a date. Unfortunately early on his cover gets blown, since he’d lied about his line of work, but he plays it off pretty well. You know, until they get jumped outside of a charity event by one of Cooper’s old dock worker friends. Apparently Cooper had been asked to testify in the case of a murdered dock worker and the fellow who had done the killing wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
So Fusco ends up in a bit of trouble, locked in a shipping container with Cooper. The worst part? Cooper hadn’t ever intended to testify because of the strong bond of friendship he had with his fellow dock workers. He learned, through this experience though, that even our friends can be bad people and it doesn’t excuse their behavior. Funny enough, as it often happens, Reese ends up on the scene and comes to the rescue because the murder he was investigating happened to be connected to Cooper. With just enough time to spare he finds the shipping container and frees Fusco and Cooper before going to kick some ass and take names.
In the end, while Shaw, Fusco, and Reese solve a murder case and bring in the bad guys, Root and Finch end up doing some good work of their own. They take out some major players from a mob by faking a weapons deal and shooting out their kneecaps. Or, well, Root does the shooting. Finch just stood there and decided to refuse to go through with the deal halfway through. Thanks to their bust, they not only make the NYPD look good (after calling in an anonymous tip), but they score some major money and supplies for Team Machine. As Root put it, Samaritan won’t bat an eye at the use of “ill gotten gains,” which were necessary after Finch’s financials were frozen.
The episode ends with Team Machine on top. Reese and Fusco get on the good side of their captain, Root and Finch stock Team Machine with some much needed cash and weapons, and Shaw and Bear got to be serious badasses. All in all, it was a fun filled episode and I am happy to see the team back together, thriving despite the circumstances.
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