Person Of Interest “Trojan Horse” 

Trojan Horse — A person or thing intended secretly to undermine or bring about the downfall of an enemy or opponent.

Person Of Interest is currently one of two of my favorite shows, and one of the reasons why the series captivates my interest is its intricate attention to detail.  I’m the type of person who can remember almost everything, and I have found that if Person Of Interest mentions a detail, no matter how minor, you can be sure that it will be explained later.  It takes enormous skill as a writer to pull something like that off, and from all indications, the show has an entire team of such writers.  With the season finale in just a few weeks and with the central story line this season being the virus that Cara Stanton installed on the DoD network in “Dead Reckoning”, we can be sure this arc is going to be the focus for most of the remainder of episodes, as it was tonight.  As we discover in tonight’s episode, the virus isn’t a typical piece of malware but a Trojan Horse, whose real purpose is known by only person at this time, Harold Finch (Michael Emerson).

Finch and Reese (Jim Caviezel) are pretty busy tonight with 2 numbers popping up, the first being that of esteemed Software Technologist, Monica Jacobs (Tracie Thoms).  Jacobs is the VP of one of the top technology companies, Rylatech, and on the surface, she seems like a normal software geek, but underneath it all, Finch uncovers a web of secrets.  Just a week ago, another engineer in R & D, Justin Lee, had been killed in an accident, and Jacobs is found copying files off of Lee’s company laptop.  At this point, we don’t know yet whether Lee or Jacobs or both are the bad guy, but that is about to quickly change.

Soon after copying Lee’s files, Jacobs is abruptly fired from Rylatech, who accuses her of copying and emailing confidential files to their competitors.  Jacobs knows she is being set up, as does Reese and Finch, but by whom?  To get to the truth, they must access Rylatech’s servers directly from the inside, and Jacobs enlists Finch’s help.  What they find is a lot more than the stealing of company secrets.

First, there isn’t just one or two company spies, but most of Rylatech’s employees are involved in the scheme.  Secondly, while company information is being sent to the Republic of China, the stealing of company secrets is only a ruse.  The real threat is a part of the so-called “trojan horse” that is traversing the Department of Defense’s network and whose sole purpose is to attack a single entity — The Machine.  The scheme seems to be working too, because the government is completely ignoring this threat and concentrating on the stolen information that was sent to China.  The big questions are Who and Why?  Who is the person(s) behind this attack, and an even bigger question is who is the author of the malware?  Is this person the same as the “Controller” who had Michael Cole killed?  And, finally, what are these people’s motivation?  Is it to simply shut down the Machine?  If someone wanted to shut down the Machine and didn’t know how to access it, a virus would certainly be effective.  I certainly have my own theories about who the “Controller” is and why he/she is doing what they are doing, but we’re going to have to wait a few weeks to see if I am right 🙂

As if this plot wasn’t big enough to fill the entire episode, the writers made everything even more interesting by spinning a couple of additional arcs.  Over the past couple of episodes, I was beginning to like Detective Beecher, and was very happy to see his return tonight.  This was a long time ago, and most fans may not remember it, but Beecher was introduced to the viewers by meeting Quinn at the very beginning of the season.  We had assumed Beecher met Quinn because he was knee-deep in HR.  With tonight’s revelation that Beecher was Quinn’s God son, we now know this was probably not true.  This is strengthened by Beecher’s relentless quest to get to the truth about Schimanski’s murder, which included visiting Elias (Enrico Colantoni) in prison.  We all should know by now that pulling crap like this does not  set well with HR, and before anybody could do anything, Beecher is dead.  Both Taraji P. Henson and Kevin Chapman did a fantastic job in the final scene after they find Beecher’s body, and I applaud them both.  Carter is overcome with grief because she never got to apologize to Beecher for accusing him of being dirty, and Fusco knows full-well that if it weren’t for his “guardian angels”, Finch and Reese, he’d be dead right now just like Beecher.

We get one final surprise in this episode, and that’s the return of Samantha Shaw (Sarah Shahi).  Shaw doesn’t strike me as someone who just sits around on her  hands, and I had been wondering what she’s been doing since the Finch, Reese  Bear, and Leon rescue back in “Relevance”.  After being shrewd enough to follow Finch to his man-cave in the library, Shaw decides she needs a “hobby” and promptly selects Root.  Oh, boy, this should be interesting, and I’m just dying to know what the writers have in store for us now!  Shaw is the muscle in an operation, much like our Mr. Reese.  In contrast, Root is the brains, almost like a female version of Mr. Finch.  Root is very effective in “handling” her enemies, but she’s not really hands-on like Shaw, and I can’t wait to see how they respond to each other once they meet up again.

From beginning to end, this was another fantastic episode.  It had tons of action, and it wrapped up a whole slew of loose ends, while at the same time raising even more questions.  After the season one finale, I thought Person of Interest could never top that finale again.  After seeing this episode and where the season 2 finale is headed, I have a feeling I will be eating my words in the next few weeks.

So, what does everyone else think?  Who do you think “Controller” is?  And, how do you think Root will receive Shaw when they finally meet again?

Most memorable quotes and random thoughts

• Techie and code makers, doesn’t sound too dangerous – Reese to Finch
  
• Don’t count me out yet, Harold. I may have a few moves left – Elias to Finch
• You have a crush on this number do you, Finch? – Reese to Finch
• In our line of work, we walk in the dark – Reese to Jacobs
• Is this your hobby, hosting a half-way house for retired assassins – Shaw to Finch
• In Season 1 and in response to the quote In our line of work we walk in the dark, Cara Stanton tells Reese No, we don’t walk in the dark — we ARE the dark.
• Finch’s alias in this episode is Harold Starling, which is yet another bird reference
• When the screen occasionally flashes with just a series of 0’s and 1’s, I think that’s the response of The Machine being infected by the virus
• At the end of the episode, Monica Jacobs get a job offer from IFT Inc, which we should remember as the software company Finch and Ingram started together

Person of Interest airs Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.