Person of Interest

Person of Interest

Episode 19: Flesh and Blood

By: Carlos Uribe

Person of Interest is a drama about preventing planned crimes before they happen.

Spoilers Ahoy!

This week, Elias has finally decided to target the Don of each of New York's major crime families. He plans to take over the mafia under his leadership. The machine spews the five numbers and our two vigilantes try to save them. The problem is that the Dons aren't really interesting in getting Reese's help. They don't know who he is and they don't take the threat from Elias serious enough. That is until one of the Dons dies in a car bomb. This leads Detective Carter to try and place the Dons under police protection. This ends up backfiring on her when the Don gets shot down by one of Elias' men and she realizes that Elias has bought a significant amount of police protection. She is essentially alone along with her partner Fusco.

There's still three other Dons who are left. Reese gives Detective Carter some heavy weaponry but he mostly decides to follow some men that Elias hired. Men that just happen to be tracking the families of the cops that Elias had bought. Reese takes Fusco and essentially kidnaps the other three Dons. Finch is nice enough to give her a safe house but Elias and the dirty cops manage to find the place easy enough. The good news is that the place is very fortified, but that only buys them time. There is some tension added as Carter discovers that Fusco used to be dirty and how he is used to looking to the other side. There is a new complication added when Carter's son is kidnapped by some of Elias' men. She refuses to negotiate her son's life for the Dons because Reese promises to rescue son. This is clearly very much exciting me at this time.

Kidnapping Carter's son is a bold move, but it only serves to anger Reese. He doesn't like it when kids are placed in danger and he will do anything to save the son. If that means barging directly into where the son is being held, then that's what it takes. If to find out the location, Finch must reveal to the dirty cops that Elias is having their families followed, then so be it. The dirty cops reveal the location and even stop helping Elias as it stops being in their best interest. Reese goes in and manages to save Carter's son without much difficulty. He has a small actual fight with the guy with the scar, but the guy flees when he realizes that he simply can't beat Reese. He also rescues Elias' father as a bonus.

Once the dirty cops have stopped helping Elias, Finch manages to call in the clean cops to save the lives of the remaining Dons. That is except for one of the Dons, who is revealed to have been working with Elias the entire time. That Don tries to get Finch to betray Carter and to let Elias in. The Don gets shot by either Carter or Finch, but I think the show wants us to think it was Finch who pulled the trigger. Elias is arrested and it looks like his family is safe and sound. Elias apparently is still leading his organization from prison because at the end of the episode, his father and half-brother are killed in a car explosion. That leaves only one Don that is still alive. There is clearly a promise from Elias that he will eventually be the leader of organized crime.

This was an exciting and extremely good episode of Person of Interest. Elias is a formidable foe, but it was nice for him to finally suffer some setback. He still has power and I'm really invested to see where this story is going to go next. I also like how this show is trying to get you to see the world from Elias' eye and maybe to even sympathize with. He's not just a black-and-white villain, he's an actual human being.