Person Of Interest Episode 3.02 Nothing to Hide **** SPOILERS ****

Television, Movies Games and Books Person of Interest
#1

Episode Summary from aceshowbiz.com:

The number comes up for an Internet entrepreneur in the business of eliminating people’s privacy, but finds his own being rapidly stripped away. As his life spirals out of control, Reese tries to protect him while Finch calls on Shaw, Carter and Fusco for help finding whoever is after him. Meanwhile, Carter finds herself unexpectedly paired with new rookie partner, Mike Laskey.

Episode Summary from en.wikipedia.org:

Reese, Finch and Shaw, (with help from Carter and Fusco) try to determine if the business owner of “Life-trace”, a company which releases personal information to the public, is a victim or perpetrator. After following Mr Kruger around for an amount of time, they realize that the outcomes of his website, including the death of one young woman, would harm him, proven as his life gets destroyed, first with his marriage, when a sex tape of him was shown to his wife and many others at their anniversary, followed by the complete wipe out of his bank account. Followed by his death. The first attempt at his death was undertaken by an employee, the janitor “Mr. Summers” however when the car crash failed it was left to the head operator to organize Mr. Kruger’s death. Disguised as a business plan Mr. Kruger was called to a hotel, where he was really being planned to be killed. Mr Reese heads to the hotel in time to stop Mr Summers from killing Mr. Kruger, only for both Mr. Kruger and Mr. Reese to be shot by the head operator. The head operator then informs Kruger that this had all been meant as a lesson, but that he clearly had learned nothing, after which he executes Kruger.

Please use this thread to discuss the series’ fourty-seventh overall and third season second episode Nothing to Hide. Rule: Please keep spoilers limited to those revealed during the series up to this episode only.

#2

This episodes finds all the chess pieces settling in and the board revealing itself for the season.

Shaw is integrating herself into the team despite Finch’s reservations. And Shaw’s old habits are still showing as she is going through the same initial-employment phases as John did like trying to follow Finch. Shaw’s a bit more of a wild card than John was so this should be an interesting season with the pair working together and gives Finch and John more options as the plots become more complex. And I do love Shaw’s role-reversal witty statements.

Carter finds herself unknowingly at the epicenter of the HR with Beecher’s godfather. Elias isn’t in this episode but Carter’s new trainee, Laskee, is quite the HR plant, isn’t he?

Wayne Kruger is almost inconsequential to the overall series plot. His sole purpose in the series is to bring out this new group of thousands led by Mr. Pete Collier that are teaching data brokers and the government lessons - an interesting plot development considering the Edward Snowden NSA leaks over the summer. So not only do we have HR, Elias, and the government “research” operatives but now we have an anti-data public involved. And THEY KNOW WHO JOHN IS. And they are very connected.

Hey, did you notice the original BSG Cylon voice in the elevator as it was free falling with Kruger inside it? I would have loved to have heard it say “By Your Command!”

#3

YES! That Cylon moment!

If this episode could be summarized, Finch’s “Turnkey revenge” is most apt.

I like that Reese made the immediate comparison between the internet snooping website and The Machine.

When Kruger was free falling in the lift, did anyone else also wonder if The Machine was also capable of hacking into other systems this whole time, and not just passively monitoring everyone?

Anyone else noticed the CGI bits indicating The Machine’s processes are not just flashy graphics anymore - they’re starting to be relevant to the plot!

I like the “take the power back” theme of this episode - with reference to the whole Snowden saga - the show writers managed to turn the situation around and make the snoopers be scared of the snooped. Collier’s monologue would have given anyone the chills!

The final beat where Reese, Shaw & Finch take a walk and evaluate the whole episode verily revealed how much the characters have grown.
Shaw is obviously Reese’s protege - her character is where Reese was at in Season 1 - and when she says shooting Kruger would have been simpler outright, Reese is able to perceive that there’s more to it, that there’s an organization spreading an ideology. In this respect, the student (Reese) has learnt from the master (Finch) to see the big picture. To think in term of systems.

Now I’m concerned that plot direction seems to point to Finch being killed off or something later in the season?

#4

I think The Machine has demonstrated that she is evolving. So I’m not sure when she gained the ability to hack into other systems at her will under her own plan recently or for the past few months/years, but I suspect we’ll see much much much more of this as the series progresses.

I think the graphics have always been relevant, but we’re just seeing far greater detail this season than we had in the past.

I would disagree with Shaw being Reese’s protege. She is very capable on her own and as we’ve been shown later in season 3 there is a reason why she is what and how she is (Staying spoiler free here). I’m more interested in any potential relationship between Shaw and Fusco. I think there is more there than we’ve been shown to date.

Hmmm. While the series has shown a willingness to kill off major characters I do not think Finch or Reese will ever be one of them. At least not until the final episode or so. There is too much investment in them in my opinion.