Dead Reckoning (S2x13)
Airdate: 31 January 2013
Written by: Erik Mountain Directed by: John Dahl
Running Time: 44 minutes
The midpoint of Season 2 of Person of Interest was not a bad stretch of television, but looking back, it was slightly disappointing. The series had built significant momentum in its first season, culminating in a massive "wham" development that saw Reese ending up in government custody. This episode, Dead Reckoning, was tasked with resolving that massive cliffhanger. While it manages to add a little bit of extra mystery to the narrative, it ultimately returns everything to a state of relative normalcy—at least judging by the episode itself. The promise of a major shift in the status quo felt somewhat hollowed out by a conclusion that resolved the immediate conflict but didn't push the overarching story forward with the same gravity, effectively treating Reese's imprisonment as a hurdle rather than a permanent change in the show's landscape.
The episode opens by repeating the previous finale's cliffhanger, a bold choice that immediately highlights the stakes. FBI Agent Donnelly has arrested Reese and Carter and is driving them to a safe house, unaware that his vehicle is about to be rammed by a lorry. As the wreckage traps him, Donnelly meets his end at the hands of Kara Stanton, who then incapacitates and abducts Reese. Carter is left behind at the scene, seemingly ignored by Stanton. She manages to make contact with Finch, who orchestrates her escape. Finch insists that she hide all the evidence that would connect her to the incident, and she, along with Fusco, begins working on setting Reese free. Reese wakes up only to realise the grim reality: he, just like Mark Snow, has been equipped with remotely controlled suicide vests. Stanton uses this as a leverage to make both men her unwilling assistants. She orders them to disarm two ATF agents and assume their identities. This cover story, combined with a false bomb threat, allows them to infiltrate a building containing a computer warfare lab serving as a top-secret Defense Department facility.
Inside the facility, Reese and Snow take out the guards and coerce Kevin (Cameron Scoggins), one of the DOD technicians, to help them obtain Cygnus, one of the most destructive computer viruses capable of shutting down the entire Internet and even destroying The Machine. Stanton arrives, but instead of stealing the virus, she activates a failsafe mechanism to wipe out the drives and infect her own supervirus. She then locks both men in with their vests armed. Reese and Snow manage to escape, but their ways part because Snow says he would try to reach a nearby CIA safehouse. Reese, not wanting to harm anyone by exploding the bomb, goes alone to a roof. Finch, however, meets him there and manages to disarm the bomb in the last moment.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to flashbacks, showing Reese’s and Stanton’s trip to Ordos from Stanton’s perspective. These sequences show what happened next after the missile attack; she survived, was picked up by the Chinese, and woke up in a hospital. There, she was approached by John Greer(John Nolan), the head of a private intelligence firm apparently working with the Chinese. Greer makes a deal with her, offering the name of an individual who sold the US government a laptop and was ultimately responsible for her predicament.
Back in the present day, Stanton contacts a mystery man, and receives the name of the man who sold laptop. She writes it down, but before she can do anything about it, she finds Snow in the back seat of her car. Instead of escaping, Snow has decided to take her out with his suicide vest, and the car explodes, killing them both in the process. Later, Carter is contacted by FBI agent Brian Moss, played by Brian Hutchinson, who is investigating Donnelly's murder. He tells her that the FBI thinks two rogue CIA agents—Snow and Stanton—were responsible, and that Snow was actually the "The Man in Suit." Since both are dead, the FBI investigation is closed. Finch later tells Reese that the supervirus is still there and would do some damage in five months' time. The final flashback shows that the name Stanton wrote was "Harold Finch."
Written by Erik Mountain and directed by John Dahl—a filmmaker renowned for some of the more interesting neo-noir thrillers in the 1990s—Dead Reckoning delivers a blend of intrigue, suspense, and action fans of the series have learned to expect, and generally features good quality production values. Yet, it is far from perfect. The opening and flashbacks seem slightly repetitive, and the first part of the episode is rather underwhelming compared with the finale, during which Reese, faced with all but certain death, decides to sacrifice himself in a manner that would protect people around them. That leads to a number of emotional moments: Fusco tells Carter to leave Reese and think of her son, while Finch does not, leading to a tense last-minute defusing of a cellphone-controlled suicide vest.
The twist at the end—Stanton deciding to take her abductor with her—is rather unexpected and shocking, but it removes another fascinating character out of the picture. Kara Stanton was, in comparison, a one-note villainess, hardly in the same league as Root. While her death was dramatic, it felt like a wasted opportunity to explore a complex adversary. This is, to a degree, compensated with the introduction of a mysterious new villain, John Greer, played by veteran British actor John Nolan. He just happened to be the paternal uncle of series creator Jonathan Nolan. His appearance hints at broader political and corporate machinations that go beyond the immediate threat of the Machine, adding a layer of sophistication to the show's villain roster.
While Dead Reckoning serves as a functional episode of television, it ultimately feels like a bridge rather than a destination. It resolves the immediate tension of the previous cliffhanger but leaves the larger picture more ambiguous than before. The chemistry between the leads remains strong, and the action sequences are well choreographed, but the narrative feels less adventurous than it did in the episodes preceding this one. The return to the status quo is safe, but perhaps a little too safe for a show that prided itself on subverting expectations.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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