photo: cbs
Person of Interest
Get Carter
Original Air Date: Dec 8, 2011
Len – Two Cents Reviewer
len@thetwocentscorp.com
CBS billed tonight’s episode of POI as a “game changer.” But I don’t know if it really changed the game as much as the reveal of Elias, a mutual enemy of Reese/Finch and Detective Carter. Tonight’s episode was more the natural progression from that moment.
What tonight’s episode DID do, however, was provide some back story on Detective Carter. It’s always seemed to me an odd choice for the writers to go so many episodes without revealing anything about Detective Carter, especially when she’s played by such a recognizable actress as Taraji P. Henson. We also get the long-anticipated face-to-face meeting between Carter and Reese. Sort of. Let’s recap how it all went down!
As you probably guessed by the title, The Machine pulls Detective Carter’s number this week. It seems that she may be the last good cop in New York, and she’s got herself stretched pretty thin. Not only is she trying to track down Elias, but she’s also trying to put away neighborhood thug Hector Alvarez for murder. And if that’s not enough, she’s trying to prevent a domestically abused woman from becoming another homicide at the hands of her angry husband. And if THAT’S not enough, she’s trying to play the role of good single mother to her high-school aged son Taylor. Preventing homicides? Raising kids? Working alone? Sounds a bit like our boys Reese and Finch, yeah? (Maybe not the raising kids part…but I smell SPIN-OFF!!!)
Carter gets called on a new homicide case after a kid named Ronnie Middleton is gunned down outside a bodega. Ronnie witnessed Hector Alvarez shoot a man six months prior, but ultimately decided to recant his story. It looks like Alvarez made sure he’d never be able to change his mind.
While Carter waltzes right into Alvarez’s auto shop, Reese and Finch clone her cell phone, set up a camera in her car, and hook Detective Fusco up with a policeman doll he can place on his desk. Naturally, the doll has a camera in it.
Needing some info, Carter goes to one of her sources, a homeless guy called Bottlecap (awesome – think a harder-edged Huggy Bear), and gives him some scratch in return for his info gathering services. She could have saved herself some cash by talking to Fusco, who finds out from his corrupt old captain that Elias is planning to have her killed in the line of duty through the “chain of command.” This guy’s got his hooks into everything!
So it becomes a question of who’s going to be the one to….wait for it…..Get Carter. With Reese watching her every move, she goes to a bar to confront Edward Kovach, the aforementioned abusive husband, who threatens to use his Second Amendment rights on her if he has to. She comes back with a crack about the size of his “gun.” I like the attitude on this lady!
Meanwhile Reese, who has taken to wearing a motorcycle jacket instead of his normal suits, decides he needs to stop taking a back seat to all this (finally!) and knocks on Alvarez’s door with a grenade launcher. After shooting the guys inside and uncovering evidence that Alvarez has been gun-running, he steals his GTO and tells his cronies to give their boss a message. Now that’s the John Reese I know! It’s starting to feel like Reese is getting a little big-brother protective of his little-sister Carter. It’s clear that he recognizes a kindred spirit, even if they’re enemies on paper.
After Carter discovers that Alvarez has been two-timing his girlfriends, they give up the location of his warehouse. As Carter assembles a team to bust it up, she gets a call from Mrs. Kovach – her husband is beating her again, and this time he has a gun. When she and Fusco arrive on the scene, they find Edward Kovach beaten with his hands tied and swinging from a light fixture, courtesy of Reese. Reese calls the Kovach house. warns Carter that someone wants her dead, and urges her to take caution. As they bring Mr. Kovach into the station, Carter finds an arrangement of flowers on her desk with a card that reads: “Deepest regrets on the loss of Dectective (sic) Carter.” And they were delivered by Elias himself. This guy has his hands in everything – except maybe a junior high spelling book.
At this point, Carter’s feeling like she’s alone on an island, much like she did in her past life as a military interrogator. She was working in Iraq and was tasked with getting information about bomb locations from a detainee. After building trust with him and swearing to protect him and his family, the American soldiers took his information, detonated the bombs safely, and killed the detainee. Carter felt horrible that she was unable to live up to her word and protect him.
However, she doesn’t have time to dwell on the past – she’s got her squad, including an undercover John Reese, out at Alvarez’s warehouse. They bust the gun-running ring, and Carter displays a bit of badassery by staring down Alvarez’s truck (with him shooting at her, no less) and firing a bullet through the windshield, causing him to crash. So far, all threats to Carter have been neutralized.
Reese smartly continues to tail her, which is crucial because she heads downtown instead of heading home. She heads to see her old buddy Bottlecap, who apologizes to her and shoots her twice in the chest. It seems he found Elias, and Elias got him to pull the trigger. Before he can put a kill shot in her, Reese puts a few in Bottlecap. It turns out Carter listened to Reese and wore a bulletproof vest, so she’s not dead – just shaken up.
Reese, with his face shadowed, kneels next to Carter and tells her that he knows she’ll arrest him if she gets the chance, but that she isn’t alone. He then finds Fusco’s corrupt captain pal and gives him a message to give to Elias – if he tries to lay a hand on Detective Carter again, he’s going to put everyone in the ground. And I’ll take Mr. Reese at his word, thankyouverymuch.
All in all, a very good (and crucial) episode. Elias again shows he’s a force to be reckoned with, and I’m now more interested in Fusco than ever. He’s pretty much the wild card in this game, and I think his leanings are going to determine what happens down the road. Meanwhile, we get an immediate test of the Reese/Carter bond in next week’s episode, as Reese’s past starts to catch up with him! Probably my favorite teaser of the season so far!
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