'Person of Interest' Review/Recap: "Pretenders"

Joe Carter ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

It would be safe to assume that after such a plot-relevant episode last week that this week’s Person of Interest episode would be mostly filler. Such an assumption would be completely incorrect. This week’s episode “Pretenders” was just as plot-relevant and action packed as last weeks so much so that it’s almost impossible to decide which one was more gasp inducing.
The new number is a meek, mild, average-in-every-way man named Walter who works a boring day job where he adores a woman, named Elana, from afar. Elana’s brother, Abel, has recently died from an apparent suicide. Walter decides to pose as a detective to investigate it because he has a hunch that it was a little more homicidal than suicidal and he has a crush on Elana so he wants to help her out whatever way possible. Walter’s investigation leads him into a shooting gallery gun fight over massive, prototype super guns from which John (Jim Caviezel) and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) have to help him escape. They continue to investigate alongside Walter who talks about the vigilante called the “Man in the Suit” and he figures out that John is that vigilante, but because he’s a good guy he doesn’t tell anyone.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, Harold (Michael Emerson) is forced to give a presentation on a paper for his university professor cover identity and meets a woman named Beth who disagrees with him and carries on an intellectual debate. While walking on the street, their bags are stolen by a robber and the two of them set out to recover their lost belongings.

Then the plot twists happened. (This means spoilers.) They did not disappoint.
While working with Walter, Elias’ men penetrate the police precinct and try to get Walter to tell them where the rest of the guns are. John fends them off and confronts Elias (Enrico Colantoni) who says that he only wishes to control the criminal element and knows that the super mega nasty prototype gun would bring chaos to “his” city. He also has this conversation in a giant room full of guns. They’re literally just stacked in piles on shelves. It’s very unsafe. Elias takes a little too much pride in the second amendment.
This entire episode has officially announced Elias’ return to the forefront of the show. He retrieves the super guns for one thing, meaning he will have an incredibly powerful arsenal up his sleeve, he has access to the POI team’s phone system, so he will know his enemies, and he uses a mighty river metaphor when speaking with Brotherhood leader Dominick at the end of the episode. It might be a blunt force literary device, but it makes absolutely sure that the audience knows Elias is in the game. This would be the perfect time for celebratory gunfire using all of the guns in Elias’ gun room. Hooray!

Another fun plot twist is that Harold was working with the mugger the entire time and had him install something onto Beth’s computer. This was a very confusing action until it is shown that Decima and Samaritan have taken an interest in the algorithmic work of Beth. So far it seems like she doesn’t know who’s interested in her work, but she could end up being an enemy of the POI team. She could also be a new love interest for Harold since she asks him if he would like to get coffee the next time she’s in New York. Here’s hoping she’ll be a friend. Harold deserves someone. Writers please!
Lastly as mentioned earlier, the Brotherhood was brought into this episode as well as their leader Dominick and it felt like they were finally getting the kind of reputation they were meant to have at the beginning of the season. The way they tried to accomplish their goal in this episode was still botched up by John and co, but it was actually thrilling and intellectual. It added a threatening nature to the Brotherhood especially when they shot John in the arm. No one does that! It was impressive. Not to mention that the only way their objective to get super powerful evil guns was messed up was because Elias swooped in and took them. It’s hard to beat Elias. He’s incredibly smart and crafty and the Brotherhood has more modern values that don’t sync with Elias’ antiquated mob boss point of view, but Elias himself admits to Dominick being a formidable force. The Brotherhood just got exciting.
Fun Fact: The actress who plays Beth in this episode played Susan on Friends. So much fun.
Overall Episode Grade: A