Person of Interest (4×3) –”Wingman” Review

The Machine Roars Back Into Action

In “Wingman”, the third installment in this season’s Person of Interest, The Machine took center stage, orchestrating a complicated series of circumstances that would not only help the members of Team Finch to strike a balance between their cover lives and their larger fight to save the “irrelevant numbers” but also solve their financial problems. In other words, it conclusively demonstrated that Samaritan has not yet had the final word. Wingman’s tone spanned almost comic to deadly serious. A new Captain was introduced and different characters took on unexpected roles. The overall result was a thoroughly entertaining and satisfying hour full of dizzying but brilliantly crafted twists and turns. Let’s discuss!

“You’re Not a Lone Wolf Anymore; You’re a Cop”

We’ve been talking about the role switches and reversals since this season started but Fusco dressing down Reese and schooling him on how to be a homicide detective may be the best yet. When the show started Fusco was a dirty cop and Reese dragged him kicking and screaming out of the dark and Carter finished the job by turning him into the good cop he was always supposed to be. Now Reese is his partner, his junior partner and he’s spent 20 years as an international spy who colors outside the lines. Reese doesn’t know how to be a cop and we very much approve of Fusco telling him that his first and ask questions later” modus operandi is not going to cut it in the NYPD.

The new Precinct Captain, Felicia Moreno (played by Lie to Me former cast member Monique Curnen, is similarly unimpressed

“Well that was novel; shooting a perp in front of hundreds of witnesses. Subtle. The guy’s probably gonna need crutches for the rest of his life. What is that, the third or fourth guy you’ve knee-capped this month?”

Reese tried to argue with them but knew they were right. After a second dressing down, Moreno sent off to be a real homicide detective instead of a lone wolf drug buster:

“No more Narco cowboy business. And try not to shoot anyone for a few days.”

To his credit Reese spent most of the remainder of the episode trying to be a good cop and he even mostly colored between the lines. Mostly.

This is Captain Moreno’s first appearance on the show. Fans will inevitably compare her to Joss Carter (played to perfection by Taraji P. Henson) but we think Captain Moreno brings a different dynamic to the show. Reese is a colleague, not some vigilante wanted by the FBI, which is how Carter got to know Reese. Fusco is, literally, the good cop now. No HR type issues (that we know of) going on. On the other hand, Reese solved three cases in one day and obviously used unorthodox methods to gain the information. Moreno paid lip service to asking about it but largely ignored it. This seems suspicious. Carter would definitely have questioned it. Why didn’t Moreno? Maybe it’s just that she’ll take the results so long as “Riley” isn’t shooting people. But knowing this show, it’s just as likely that she has a different agenda. It seems unlikely that she works for Samaritan but that doesn’t mean she’s on The Machine’s side. We’re keeping an eye on Captain Moreno because on Person of Interest there is a twist around every corner.

Choices, Choices, Choices

Throughout this episode Fusco, Reese, Shaw and Finch were faced with difficult choices. For Fusco it was choosing to give Cooper the benefit of the doubt because he understand probably better than anybody else on the show that’s it’s really hard to turn one’s back on a good friend even when it’s the right thing to do.n.The new number, Andre Cooper, is a former dock worker turned professional Wing Man. He is also a potential witness in a murder investigation surrounding an arms shipment that went missing from the dock. Fusco’s “training” which includes a crash course in the use of cufflinks is interrupted when Rick, old “friend” shows up and suggests he and Cooper get together to catch up on old times. The two are later abducted.

For Shaw and Reese it was about choosing how to respond to Fuisco’s abduction. After tracking hime to to the docks, Shaw was understandably eager to head off on a rescue mission. Reese however, chose not to go, not because he didn’t want to help Fusco but because he because he’d been handed a priority homicide and understands that if he blows it as a cop, it could lead Samaritan to them and they’d be dead. Shaw wasn’t happy about it (neither were we) even though she (and we) knew Reese was right.

These choices all paid off. Reese’s priority murder was the same murder in which Cooper was a Shaw need not have worried because Reese’s “priority homicide” proved to be the same homicide in which Cooper had been asked to testify so they all ended up at the dock anyway where they found Fusco and Cooper locked in a shipping container and ended up saving Cooper, which could not have happened if Fusco hadn’t chosen to stick with him.

The beauty of this is that The Machine orchestrated it this way. It wanted these characters to have to make these tough choices and it (she) trusted them to successfully walk the sometimes very thin line between their personas and their real selves. It’s a brilliant if somewhat dizzying twist but this show pulled it off.

Finch’s Dilemma: To Trust or Not?

While Reese is balancing police work with working numbers and Shaw and Fusco are rescuing Cooper from murderous arms thieves and sellers, Finch is wondering how he will obtain the resources to continue working The Machine’s numbers and fight Samaritan.

“While the Machine gave us may have given us a new base of operation, I’m afraid it didn’t account for our financial situation”

As with everything else in this episode, The Machine has a plan. Root and Finch buy a rocket that $50,000 that Root stole and then prepare to sell the rocket to a mobster. The acting on this show is always marvelous but Michael Emerson definitely wins show MVP in this one. He goes from softly spoken genius to terrifying arms dealer in seconds. Everything about him from the glint in his eyes to a deeper voice, changes in these underworld encounters. The scene that especially stood out was when the rocket seller made the mistake of asking Finch whether he would mind saying what he intended to do with the rocket.

Looking terrifying, Finch responds:

“You know I would mind. Very much”

We know that Emerson has played creepy before (on Lost, eg.) but this still wowed us.

When Finch tries to back out of selling the rocket (as Root and The Machine knew he would), guns are drawn but Root defuses the threat by knee-capping the mobster and his henchmen and leaving them to be picked up by the authorities.

. It is worth noting that Root not killing someone who draws on her is almost inconceivable but The Machine obviously gave her very specific instructions because it knows how Finch feels about killing and it was The Machine’s order to kill someone that caused Finch to lose faith in it (her) last season it needs Finch’s trust if there is to be any hope of beating Samaritan. Ordering Root to use restraint is a good first step. The bigger step is Root showing Finch the stockpile of weapons and huge bags of money they now have because they took the gangsters out of the picture. And, of course, all of this is the very shipment that was sold to the mobster by the murdering dockworker thieves who tried to kill Cooper and Fusco.

The shipment consists of an impressive arsenal that Reese and Shaw will find very useful in their fight against Samaritan. But the big prize is many many huge bags chock full of money.

As it dawns on Finch that his resource troubles have been considerably alleviated in a way that Samaritan could not find out, Root reminds Finch that The Machine is looking out for him and his team:

“She believes in saving your irrelevant numbers Harold. And while you can’t access any of your old bank accounts right now? Things are looking up.”

They are indeed.

Final Verdict: There’s Still Life in the Old Girl

Wingman was intricately plotted and full of twists and turns. Yet it still managed to maintain a balance between telling a serious story and doing it in a fun and often funny way. And balance was indeed the theme of the episode. Finch and Reese in particular struggled with striking the right balance between maintaining the integrity of their covers and fighting the good fight in a larger sense. The episode was shown through the eyes of The Machine, which served to remind the viewers and Finch that Samaritan’s victory at the end of Season 3 does not mean that The Machine has or is going to give up. It constructed all the events in this episode, Reese’s life as Fusco’s partner, Cooper’s number, the missile deal for two reasons: to show that it can be trusted to take care of them and to prove that Samaritan can be beat. Team Machine sorely needed this reassurance.

Our favorite thing in an episode rich in cleverness was the use of the computer Finch’s Machine instead of the red tinged target assessing ones from Samaritan that we saw in the first two episodes of the season. What a wonderful way to visually convey the message that The Machine is very much still in the game. As Root points out. “She’s still doing her job. Always watching.” Well done, show.

Wingman was written by supervising producer (seasons 1-2) and co-executive producer Amanda Segal. Ms. Segal, whose producing and writing credits include Without a Trace, The Good Wife and Nikita has been with Person of Interest since it began and it shows in her obvious understanding of the characters and the various paths they are on and in the skill with which she has constructed an intricate plot which, in the hands of a less skilled writer, could have been a mess.

The episode was directed by Fred Toye, whose credits include Fringe, The Good Wife, Hawaii Five-0 and Lost. The scenes where Finch switched from menacing to soft-spoken in the space of a breath were particularly effective. Toye really captured what Finch would have looked like had he turned out to be a villain (which clearly could have happened). So often on television these days night scenes are extremely difficult to see. The final showdown at the dock, shot at night, could have been murky. Instead the viewer could clearly see the action, right down to Bear attacking one of the bad guys. Also very impressive were the shots of Reese chasing then shooting a perp at the beginning of the episode and the strain of his struggles with playing a good cop. He looked almost haggard in these scenes. These are just a few examples of the terrific directing choices that helped make this episode so good.

Wingman is one of the best episodes of the series and we are very eager to see what Team Machine does now with their newly improved balance and newly acquired resources. Bravo.

Questions and Concerns:

• Is Captain Moreno on the up and up?
• Are there more than two sides in this conflict?
• Will Reese install central heating in the new HQ now that he can afford it?