Photo Courtesy Of CBS
Warning: Spoiler Alert
There’s a reason they put up graphics, saying “Don’t Try This At Home!” John Reese can pull off pretending he’s an NYPD Homicide Detective, named John Reilly, but your average businessman’s not up to the task, as an insurance worker named Walter, learned in the latest episode of the CBS series, “Person Of Interest.” Walter, a nondescript, quiet man, who basically keeps to himself, got inspired listening to the police scanner about the so-called vigilante, known as “The Man In The Suit,” who seemed to disappear a few months earlier. So when a woman in his office Elena, whom he’s got a crush on, lost her brother earlier in the week in a suspicious looking suicide, Walter decided to investigate the case.
That lead to Walter coming up as the latest number “The Machine,” supplied to Harold Finch and Finch got Sameen Shaw a job in Walter’s office and Reese to follow him when he hits the streets. When Walter sees Elena weeping, he offers his condolences and some tissues. She thanks her office-mate and says the thing that bothers her the most, is that her brother Abel, neglected to leave a suicide note. Walter says he’s working on that and in tandem, Elena, Shaw and Finch all say what? Walter then mumbles something and heads to his desk, Shaw realizes that Walter’s got the phone data card from Abel’s cell phone and put it in a burner phone, which Sameen quickly copies.
He puts on an ill-fitting fedora and leaves the office, John takes up the chase and Harold tells Shaw he needs her back at headquarters. When she arrives he tells her via speaker-phone that he needs to attend a conference in his guise as Professor Whistler and asks Sameen to take over monitoring the computers until he returns. She begrudgingly agrees and asks if the conference’s in Boston and Harold tells her its Hong Kong.
John follows Walter to Abel’s apartment as he inspects the room and then the fire escape, Reese and Shaw start to think that Abel’s death wasn’t a suicide and it appears Walter knows that too. He heads to the office of the truck driver’s boss, dispatcher Banks Van Hess. He tries to gain access into the building, but it’s locked tight, suddenly a security guard appears and asks if he can help. Walter tells him he’s trying to see Van Hess and the guard replies, he’ll just radio to the dispatcher, but Walter pulls out a badge, identifying himself as Detective Hodges of the task-force. He tells the guard if he alerts Van Hess, he could blow his case, so the guard lets him in the building.
Walter walks around looking for the dispatcher and luckily sees Van Hess first, as he’s tied to a chair and being doused with gasoline by two thugs. The dispatcher swears he doesn’t know where it is, the thug says he finally believes him, then shoots him between the eyes. He then sets the room on fire and the pair take off, leaving Walter alone and stunned, until he hears a voice, he turns around and gets knocked out by Reese.
Harold arrives at the conference and gets greeted by an attractive woman his age, who identifies herself as Beth Bridges and tells Professor Whistler, his topic, which centers on operators maintaining control of the machines they create is the antithesis of everything she believes in. She’s not nasty in the least, in fact she seems delighted to debate him and the pair hit it off, although their philosophies differ. Harold believes Beth’s another professor, then realizes she’s the head of a new tech firm that’s sponsoring the conference.
Reese/Reilly, wakes up Walter with a vial of ammonia under his nose, then plays along that Walter’s really Detective Hodges and asks him to compare notes, then brings him to the station. Reilly tells Walter that he believes the homicide he’s investigating’s connected to the case Reilly and his partner are working. Fusco walks in and Reilly introduces Walter as Detective Hodges, but Lionel quickly realizes something’s off and Reilly asks to talk to him privately. John tells Fusco that Walter’s not a cop, but he’s the latest number and could help them. When they finish their discussion, Walter’s vanished.
Walter’s back at his office and his cell phone rings and a hardened voice greets him as Detective Hodges. He nervously disconnects and he picks up his office phone and the same voice addresses him as Walter. He runs out of the office and a group of thugs attempt to kidnap him, but Reilly and Fusco, save Walter, overcome the bad guys and pick up a huge gun in the bargain.
When they meet up with Shaw, Walter smiles at Reilly and asks if he’s a super-hero and John says no. Fusco and Shaw arrive, Lionel sporting shades and Sameen wearing a little black dress and Walter says, to John he is a super-hero, then tells Fusco he’s a lucky guy. Shaw identifies the weapon as being a next-generation prototype, that can shred armor vests and easily pierce armor-coated limos. John grabs Walter and puts him in a locked room at the precinct for his own protection.
Professor Whistler and Beth Bridges, finish lunch and about to return to the conference, when they’re mugged and a thief on a motorcycle takes all their possessions. When they return to the conference, Bridges tells Harold she’s calling the police, but he begs her not to, as the thief got his passport and he’s got visa troubles. He’s also able to draw out the characters on the back of the motorcycle, the name of the restaurant he delivers for, they decide to get back their property on their own and Harold grabs an umbrella.
Walter’s room gets opened with a key by a man wearing an FBI windbreaker, identifying himself as an agent and saying Detective Reilly, said that Walter might help with a gun running case they’re working. However, the guys a thug trying to kidnap Walter and he and Reilly get into a standoff, until he pushes Walter away and escapes.
We hear John’s voice ask where New York Gang Lord Carl Elias’ at and we see an address that the other man in the conversation identifies as a communal address. Reese draws his weapon when he enters the building, but a well dressed, attractive , young woman, assures him that’s not needed. He enters a vault that’s labeled Fort Knox and filled with racks of high-tech state of the art automatic weapons. Elias walks in and Reese talks about the cascade of weapons and what it took to acquire them, then threatens to take Carl out, but Elias says that three snipers placed directly above them would stop that. He then tells Reese that they should take a walk.
Elias and Reese had problems early in their relationship, when Reese saved the Crime Bosses life, thinking he was a New York City School teacher. But after two or three run-ins, they established an understanding between them, Finch even visited Carl regularly in prison to play chess with him. Reese told Elias, that he wanted the Gang Leader to work for him earlier this season. However bad feelings exist on both sides in this situation, as Reese believes Elias’ gang’s responsible for bringing one hundred of those next-gen weapons to NYC and trying to kidnap Walter.
Elias tells Reese that he indeed sent the phony FBI agent into the station but the Armorer, a guy from Chicago’s responsible for the weapons and the other kidnaping and he tells Reese, that Walter knows where the truck’s at that Abel abandoned, holding the weapons. The reason he knows is he’s got Abel’s cell-phone.
The Professor and Miss Bridges wait outside the restaurant the thief works at and finally he gets on his bike and starts to ride off, but Harold smacks him in the front of his helmet with the umbrella and the thief falls from his motorcycle. Beth and Harold recover their stuff and run away.
Walter gets kidnapped again while John’s away and the Armorer’s gang follow the route on the phone to the truck. Shaw locates the truck from the copy and texts it to Reilly and Fusco. They arrive just as the armorer’s about to kill Walter and they get into a shootout with Walter in the middle. Things look tough for Reilly and Fusco, but Elias’ man shows up with the prototype and the three take everyone out, but Walter sees John’s in the sights of a shooter, knocks down Reilly and takes the bullet.
Elias then appears as the Armorer’s the only member of his gang breathing. At first Carl congratulates the Armorer, for his plan, but soon realizes that he’s not pulling the strings. He offers to trade the Armorer’s life for who his boss is, but the gangster tries to shoot Elias and gets shot by Carl’s aide.
In Hong Kong, Beth Bridges and Professor Whistler exchange goodbyes and she tells him she’ll be in New York soon and would love to meet him for coffee. Harold smiles and says he’d love that, she gives him her card and kisses him on the cheek, but when she leaves Harold’s smile disappears. He walks down an alleyway and we realize he hired the mugger to put a tracking device on her laptop, as she’s soon going to be doing business with Samaritan.
The final scene’s a meeting with Elias and his aide and Dominic of the “Brotherhood,” and his aide. Mini asks Carl, where the guns are, and Elias informs him the NYPD destroyed all one hundred of them. Dominic then tells Elias, that’s the second time he’s interfered with his affairs and Elias isn’t a king. We know this war’s only going to get more heated this season.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday at 10:00 pm on CBS.
