Person of Interest “One Percent” 

Given the fact that our Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) is a self-made billionaire, we should have known that eventually we would get a Person of Interest episode centered around a billionaire software genius.  Besides shedding some light on Finch’s past and his relationship with his business partner, Nathan Ingram (Brett Cullen), it also cleverly takes some potshots at Facebook and its eccentric CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.  Very nicely done, Person of Interest.

Tonight we are introduced to Logan Pierce (Jimmi Simpson), CEO and co-founder of “Friend Czar”, a social networking site that Pierce and long-time friend, Justin Ogilvy (Charles Semine), began building after dropping out of college.  The site just surpassed one billion users, and in less than 72 hours will be going public with its IPO.  All Pierce seems to care about are his material things, his expensive lifestyle and partying.  Little does he know that he’s surrounded by threats, people who he thinks are his “friends” but who actually want him dead.

One thing is for sure, when you become instantly rich, you are suddenly surrounded by a lot of people, most of which care about one thing – money.  They could care less about you, especially when you begin to look like a threat to making more money.  “Friend Czar” is about ready to go public, and so appearances are everything.  But, Pierce really could care less.  All he wants is to be himself and have some fun.  Just leave him to his video games and some scotch, and he’ll be happy.  However, his closest friends in his inner circle begin to see his eccentric behavior as a big problem, and the Board of Directors of “Friend Czar” quickly vote to remove his as CEO.

But, then it escalates to attempts on his life.  First, Pierce’s lawyer installs malware in his car’s computer, and almost causes him to crash.  Then, he spikes Pierce’s scotch with something that he knows Pierce is allergic to.  Fortunately, Finch and Reese (Jim Caviezal) are there and are able to save Pierce.  However, while Pierce may seem to be naïve, he’s much more clever than he appears.  He has an endgame planned for everyone at “Friend Czar” who betrayed him and that involves going into business with the founder of Alchementary, a competing and far superior social networking site that “Friend Czar” had promised to fund anyways.  Ogilvy is ultimately arrested for attempted murder, and everyone else at “Friend Czar” have their dreams of becoming rich shattered.

While the storyline itself was quite interesting, the more intriguing part of the episode is what we learn about Finch and Ingram’s past relationship and the parallels we can draw from their relationship and Mr. Pierce.  We have known since season one how troubled Ingram was living with the fact that there are people the Machine is flagging as needing help and no one is trying to save.  We also should recall that Ingram went behind Finch’s back and wrote a “backdoor” – i.e. a contingency – into the Machine that would give someone the ability to access it if needed.  We see tonight Ingram bringing this possibility up to Finch, but Finch just blows it off.  As Finch says, “We can move on and work on the next Project… or not”.  At this point, we see Finch and Ingram’s friendship begin to crack, much like Pierce and Ogilvy’s did.  We also finally get to see what I’ve suspected for a long time – Ingram going rogue and trying to save some of these people the Machine is flagging.  Now that we know this, some big questions are raised.  Did Finch eventually join Ingram in his quest for helping these people, or did they eventually go their separate ways?  And, how does this fit into (if at all) the mission to China in 2010 to retrieve the stolen laptop?

The only part I really didn’t like in this episode is Carter’s (Taraji P. Henson) attitude toward Fusco (Kevin Chapman).  She has been helping Reese for months now, have broken more laws than I can count, but then, she preaches to Fusco about how she is all about the law in the end.  I thought it was out of character for her, and if nothing else, two-faced.  I wonder what she will do when she finds out that Detective Stills was actually killed by Reese, and Fusco only disposed of the body after being threatened by Reese?  Regardless, I think Fusco may have to count on Reese and Finch to get him out of the Detective Davidson mess, and not Carter.

Lastly, we are introduced to a new threat to the Machine, and surprisingly, it’s Pierce.  He may have appeared to have changed, found God, and all that good stuff at the end of the episode, but remember, this guy is brighter than he lets on.  He plants a GPS in a $2 million watch that he gives as a gift to Reese, but fortunately, Finch spots the device right away.  However, I suspect that won’t stop Pierce.  His curiosity is piqued, and I have a feeling he won’t stop until he finds out what Finch and Reese are hiding.

Most memorable quotes and random thoughts

•  Mr. Reese, this is not petty cash – Finch to Reese
• Pierce isn’t just encroaching on Kamin’s business, he’s encroaching on his wife – Reese to Finch
• If we don’t change the world, someone else will – Ingram
• See, I knew you were interesting – Pierce
• Well, here’s to unemployment – Pierce to Reese
• Every technology gets old.  The only thing that doesn’t is connecting to people – Pierce
• You flew me halfway around the world for dumplings? – Reese
• You need to get new friends, Pierce –– Reese
• Absolutely LOVED the Bear storyline.  At first I was scared that Bear might be sick, but luckily it was something much simpler — doggie depression 🙂 Bear just needed some interaction with other doggies.

Person of Interest airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. EST on CBS.