Person of Interest Review: Episode 4×08 – “Point of Origin”

Secret Identities Fall Like Dominoes in a Brilliant Cliff-hanger

The term “Point of Origin” has many uses in various contexts. But the context that seems most appropriate here is Euclidean math: “Euclidean space is a special point, usually denoted by the letter O, used as a fixed point of reference for the geometry of the surrounding space.”

In this week’s Person of Interest, an intricate cover is unraveled by establishing a fixed point of reference, Shaw’s work with Tomas in last week’s episode, and using it to find her. But that’s not the only place it shows up. The Brotherhood is also looking for a fixed point to find and eliminate its biggest threat: Elias. Finch also uses the “geo data” of The Brotherhood’ mole to track his movements, discover what he was stealing and ultimately save his life.

Point of Origin features three blown covers, cements, endangers and severs relationships, and demonstrates why even the most powerful machine can’t do what one person can do. We’ve got Samaritan closing in on Shaw, the Brotherhood closing in on Elias, and getting really pissed off at Reese, Reese showing his shrink that his hero complex isn’t really a complex after all, and Team Machine finally figuring out who Dominic is. To top it off, there’s a cliff-hanger. A heart-stopping cliff-hanger. The kind of thing that makes a viewer throw something at the television and scream “No fair”.

Lot’s to discuss so let’s go.

Reese’s Juggling Act Gets a Workout

This is one of those episodes that involved two different but definitely parallel stories. Let’s start with the “non relevant” story.

Reese’s cover this time was to investigate a number while on special assignment to teach cadets at the NYC Police Academy the fine art of weaponry and tactics. But he was not the only person keeping secrets. Internal Affairs had an undercover officer (Silva, the Machine’s number) in place to identify a mole she suspected had been planted by The Brotherhood. The mole himself (Ortiz) was there to steal some computer files for Dominic as a “one time job” (clearly Ortiz was unaware of Dominic’s employment policy but more on that later).

It was really refreshing to see Reese in a mentor role, something for which it turns out he has both the patience and the skills. No matter how much he likes to act the lone wolf cowboy shooter, he’s just…not. He’s always been about relationships. His relationship with the woman he let go. The relationship with his former bosses. His relationship with Finch, Fusco, Shaw, and even Bear. He may know how to go it alone, but it’s not who he really is. He is however a definite outside the line painter so it’s no surprise at all that he appreciated Silva painting outside the lines even though it meant she beat him during the training exercise.

John is always juggling lots of balls (only Root has it rougher). He’s got to be Detective Riley the murder police, John Reese the deadly spy and Machine Agent, and he has to deal with his shrink, Iris, who has the power to end IA’s “excessive force” investigation of him. Iris first appeared in “Prophets” and, in one of my favorite scenes of the season, actually got John to open up about why he thinks he needs to save everybody. This week she was there to follow-up because she still thinks John has a hero complex:

John: Iris, my school didn’t have bullies. I kept them in line.

Iris: Bullying bullies is kind of the very definition of a hero complex.

I don’t know if I agree with Iris here but I’m no shrink. The thing becomes moot anyway when John stops a drive by shooter from killing Silva, who he’s following, and also saves Iris (with whom he’s doing a “walk and talk” session) from getting caught in the crossfire. being saved by John gives Iris a new “perspective” on the whole hero complex issue. Does this mean that she is ready to close the book on his IA investigation? Well, no. But it’s definite progress. We really hope to see more of her in the future because John needs it. He’s still trying to fill a Carter shaped hole in his heart and while it works out in this episode, it has proved disastrous in the past. He needs to regain perspective or he really is going to blow his cover and get himself killed.

Dominic Gives a Geometry Lesson

Dominic is such a fascinating and brutal character. He is good to people while they are of use to him but it’s just as clear that he will throw them away like used diapers the second they screw up or stop being useful. We already knew that his nihilistic philosphy is “we all die in the end”. To that we can now add “You gotta play smarter” and “Might as well go out on top”.

Dominic offered Ortiz help with his uncle’s drug charges and some work in exchange for Ortiz stealing files. Why the Academy instead of NYPD itself? The Academy gave full access to the NYPD computer system but was less secure because it’s basically a satellite of the police. The files contained basically the entirety of NYPD’s investigation of Elias. Why study for a test when you can just steal someone else’s notes? This is Dominic. Playing it smarter.

If there’s one thing Dominic hates, it’s loose ends, and Reese has an annoying habit of preventing The Brotherhood from tying up loose ends. In this case the loose end was Ortiz, and Reese, Silva and Bear the Dog (who deserves his own episode) decided to rescue him. The whole thing sharply recalled the “a few against an army” scenario Reese and Carter faced in Season Three’s “The Crossing.” We understand that the rescue needed to be attempted but we are once again struck by John’s continued participation in situations designed to fill that hole in his heart. Maybe it’s not a “hero complex” so much as a “Carter complex”. Maybe Finch, Shaw or Root need to remind Reese, that as noble and heroic as Carter was, her decision to take on HR by herself got her killed.

Ortiz’ rescue resulted in the closest thing we’ve seen to Dominic losing his cool.

We got chills when Dominic picked up a compass (remember what we said about Euclidean math and geometry) and used it to show how his and Reese’s path keep crossing and why he’s upset about it:

I had a math teacher once. She said all the world’s infinite possibilities rest within this one simple circle, including the possibility that the big quiet kid at the back of the class, the one everyone’s underestimated, could one day run the streets of New York.

What’s stopping me is this Detective Riley. Our circles keep on overlapping.

(Soon to be dead gang banger): Why you worried about a stupid cop when you got us Trinitarios on board now.

Dominic: This ain’t about numbers…it’s about cutting down the old lion and ruling his kingdom but that. can’t happen if guys don’t follow orders.

How anyone working for this man thinks he’s going to stand up to him, let alone screw a job up and live to tell the tale is beyond us. Dominic is hypnotically terrifying. I’d say Reese and he are due for a massive show down in the near future. Shaw (assuming she survives the next episode) is just going to have to wait her turn. She is irrelevant to Dominic. Reese has become quite relevant to him. Almost as relevant as The Machine’s next number: Elias.

Speaking of “relevant”…

Human Investigation Trumps Computer Hacking.

Point of Interests second story followed up on the end of last week’s “Honor Among Thieves” where it appeared that Samaritan had captured Shaw’s image as she and Tomas escaped with the virus Samaritan was trying to retrieve. Indeed, Greer’s reference to it as “our virus” in this episode has us convinced that Samaritan was behind the theft all along though we doubt that it really intended to release it. The point is that Shaw got away the virus and Greer is not happy so he turns to his deadly terminator: Martine to track Shaw down. Martine isn’t just lethal, she is also an expert investigator who used to work at The Hague. And she is as least as cold as Dominic.

Martine: These crews are audacious but predictable. They hide in plain sight behind everyday 9-5 cover jobs, luring them into a false sense of security. The thing they always forget?

Greer: Relationships.

Martine: No matter who they become or where they hide, there will always be the people they meet, the people they love, the people they’ve wronged.

Greer: All of Whom can be leveraged.

Samaritan puts Shaw with Tomas’ crew from last week (again with continuity) and Martine takes over. First she blackmails the woman thrown in jail last week (by threatening her daughter) to get Romeo’s name, then torturing (and probably killing though it wasn’t shown on-screen) Romeo to find out how he first contacted Shaw. Which leads her right to the Estee Lauder counter (and to the cliff-hanger). So much for honor among thieves.

Let’s talk about the scene where Martine shoots Romeo:

Huh. Buck shot. Go Figure. Sorry to get all Dick Chaney on you. Had they been slugs, you would’ve lost an arm. Let’s just get to the point.

Those words could easily have been said by Reese or Shaw and I’m sure that words to that effect have been said by Reese or Shaw. It’s a thin line between good and evil especially when so many people are cut from the same cloth. And they’re not the only ones. How different are Root and Finch? How different are either of them from Greer? And in the end, how different is Samaritan from The Machine?

Martine, not Samaritan, found Shaw. Root’s virus may have prevented Samaritan from finding Team Machine. But all the computer hacking in the world is not going to defend against human investigation. In fact, even when Martine finds Shaw, Samaritan insists that Shaw is not there. This is alarming as it could reveal Root’s hack. It also demonstrates that even all-seeing all-knowing machine “gods” need human agents.

Do we know how it all turned out? NO. Why? Because the episode ended with Martine drawing her gun as she and Shaw making eye contact, and left us shaking our heads in a good imitation of Shaw.

Final Verdict

It’s difficult to find flaws with Point of Origin. The story could easily have been confusing but Tony Camerino’s script was so well crafted that it kept the viewer engaged and on track without sacrificing any of the story’s complexity. A reviewer can’t really ask for more than that. We were, however, just a tiny bit skeptical of the “walk and talk” version of therapy. It just doesn’t seem particularly likely and instead seemed contrived to put Iris in a position to see John in action. It’s a very minor thing that is easily outweighed by the satisfaction of watching Iris experience Reese in full-on hero mode. It was also very touching how pleased he was when she thanked him. Jim Caviezel just keeps getting better and better.

The guest cast was again stellar and we were pleased to get some insight into Martine and Dominic. We also hope to see Silva again. The Brotherhood is the best gang on a screen since The Wire. Maybe even better. Major major kudos to whoever conceived and cast them.

Richard J. Lewis, who also directed this season’s opener got the most out of everybody and everything. The pool explosion was especially cool as was every single frame of Bear action. We have a question though. Finch looked ill. He also said he had to run an errand and we never found out what that was. Is something happening with him? Was he supposed to look ill?

Our bottom line is that we thought Point of Origin a finely crafted complex story whose cliff-hanger left us even more eager than usual for the next installment.

Questions/Concerns

• Did anyone else notice the resemblance between Silva and Shaw?
• Is John’s obsession with Carter going to get someone killed?
• Is Finch ill? What was his “errand”.
• Where’s the new Police Captain?
• Are Reese and Iris going to play doctor?
• Will Bear ever get his own episode?

Tell us what you thought of Point of Origin in the comments below and don’t forget to vote in our poll.