Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
So I'm, like, five days late with this review?
Actually, as you probably know, we don't do weekly coverage of CBS' Person of Interest here at IGN TV (unfortunately, not enough of you have read previous reviews to warrant that), but we do like to check in with the show, especially with premieres and finales. I reviewed the exciting Amy Acker-tastic Season 1 finale, "Firewall," last May, so I thought it'd be cool to check back in and see if Reese was able to find Finch in the premiere. But last week I was up in Vancouver and wasn't able to see the premiere until recently so...that's how we wind up with a review of "The Contingency" the following Tuesday.
I appreciated the fact that they kept Reese and Finch apart and didn't solve the Finch-napping from the Season 1 finale right away. It also gave us more time to spend with Amy Acker's wonderfully sadistic mega-hacker, Root. But the machine still spit out a number at Reese, and that number was Leon (Michael Emerson's fellow Lost alum, Ken Leung). And Leon's adventure was a bit dull considering the larger stakes. Of course, Reese mostly just made Leon tag along on his adventure, thinking that Leon was a part of some integral clue in finding Root.
But the machine wasn't interested in finding Finch. It had been programmed, by Finch, to only consider the greater good. And lucky for the machine, and Leon, Reese was able to figure out the Dewey Decimal system involving Finch's books labeled with specific number combinations. But "The Contingency" didn't really pick up until the final act, after Reese realized that the machine wasn't helping him. And the only danger that Reese really faced here was the danger he put himself in so that he could blackmail the machine to look for Finch. Which was a nice touch, forcing the machine to fall back on its "greater good" policy and realize that it can't save people at all without Reese.
Acker's Root is fun to watch, especially how she plans out her kills. I have no idea what she's up to, or what she means when she says that she wants to set the machine free, but I'm intrigued. It's hard to believe that someone so beautiful would have grown up a malicious social outcast who thinks that humans are nothing more than "bad code," but I'll roll with it. There's obviously more to her than I can ascertain at the moment, and given how well she was able to fake, you know, being a completely different person in "Firewall," I assume she has an extensive background in faking her life and keeping up certain appearances.
The flashbacks to Finch's initial camera tests of the machine were a nice way to break up the story while still being relevant to the revelation that the machine was taught to not protect Finch like its master. Again though, in an almost Burn Notice-fashion, it wasn't until the end of the episode that Reese found a breadcrumb that could lead him to Root. Also, to that point, dragging around a "What the hell is going on?" uninitiated character like Leon can be a drag. I don't think I need to see Leon again, but if he does pop back up it'd be nice to see him and Finch have a scene together. You know, to make it a proper Lost reunion.
Carter and Fusco were integral in Reese's scramble to find Finch, but I'm glad the team still has to go one more episode without Finch so that they have an opportunity to act more like a stable, crime-fighting unit. Plus, we now have the addition of the Dutch-speaking attack dog, Bear! It's Season 2 and Person of Interest has already gone for the cute, sassy mutt. To be fair, Bear can tear your face off. And Reese seems to like him far better than any human being he's encountered so far.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!
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