Finch goes undercover as a 911 operator to help save another dispatcher. So basically he does what he always does, but in a more timely manner.
SPOILERS BELOW
The person of interest this week, Sandra Nicholson (Melissa Sagemiller), was one of the more intriguing people Team Machine has been tasked to help. Not because she is charming or scheming, but because she is genuinely a good person and exceptional at doing her job. This quality made the audience invested in her plight. The conflict, however, was not as original or twisty as some of the other cases the team has worked. Bad guys kidnap a kid to motivate her. Did we not just see the same ploy last week? Bad guys want her to delete 30k calls into 911 from a week ago. Finch emailed 150 of them to Fusco easily, why not back them all up and let her delete them? Maybe they were playing for time to give the team longer to save the kid, but that was never mentioned. Let’s move on to the team and the things that worked a bit better.
Finch undercover is never a bad thing because it comes with layers. Harold Finch is essentially a cover to begin with since Harold is really not Finch, so adding another aspect to it is great to watch. What little detail to Finch will Harold add or subtract to become this other person. In this case, he was a little less prim and proper, but basically the same guy. It was a little disappointing that he only interacted with the team over coms and not in person. That makes the banter a little disconnected.
Speaking of the team, Reese and Shaw really worked together well this week. Well, when Shaw reminded Reese he wasn’t working alone. Reese is in a strange place in that he’s back, but he’s still working through some issues. He pretty much picked a fight with ten guys when he could have waited a minute and Shaw could have helped. It seemed a bit more reckless than normal, but he was kind enough to save the torture for Shaw. That does seem to be the part of the job she enjoys the most. That’s not scary or anything.
Fusco had his own storyline with a bunch of rookie cops looking to him for guidance. Considering what a screw up Fusco is normally portrayed as, this is a new development. Since he brought down Simmons and HR, he’s the new hero on the block. It’s interesting to see him adjust to this notoriety, mostly with grumbles and attitude, but secretly he kind of likes it. What is interesting is that it shows how great he is as a homicide detective. He used to work through cases with Carter, but the emphasis there was that he wanted to keep his head down while Carter wanted to solve cases. There was a confusing moment where it looked like he was solving a case completely unrelated to Team Machine’s number, but at the end it was all connected.
At the end of the day, Reese and Shaw save the kid with a bomb strapped to him while under fire. For the two of them, not that extraordinary of a task. However, Finch has to save Sandra from a hit man unarmed. Finch used his brain and electricity to trap the guy which was very cool, followed up by the dumbest thing he’s ever done. He then tells Sandra to go into the electricity conducting water to retrieve the gun the hit man dropped. That completely wipes out his leverage since he’s not going to drop the electric wire in the water while Sandra’s in it. The only reason this works is our bad guy is an idiot. More is expected from Finch and that was just bad form. The mastermind of the whole plot got away due to being ghost-like and the team now has a new Big Bad. It was interesting that Finch was unfazed by this guy’s threats. He has so many people out to get him it seems like old hat now. Nothing of consequence, indeed.
