Person of Interest 2x17: Proteus
Mar. 9th, 2013 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arduinnaI'm giving myself the luxury of rewatching this, which is something I fell out of the habit of doing when fannish tv started appearing in droves so there was always something else to catch up on. But POI is ringing my fannish bell like nothing else has in years, so I'm going to wallow for a bit. *happy sigh*
Spoilers for Proteus (2x17).
I appear to be the only Olde Tyme Fan who completely failed to connect this to Cypher from The Sentinel, possibly because I was never as in love with that episode as most of the fandom was. Me, I went straight to Haven instead, and had a brief, surreal moment of wondering if the FBI guy was actually taking on appearances, too, before I remembered all the missing photographs.
(It was ridiculously obvious that it was the FBI guy - so obvious that I was vaguely wondering if I was wrong, and maybe one of the obvious-strangers-to-the-island was the bad guy. But that's okay, I'm fine with obvious for something like this, since there was no reason for it to be obvious to the characters. And they did a nice job of obscuring the real agent's face with the rain on the window, so the match with fake FBI agent was plausible.)
Ahaha, and after I wrote that up, I sawcesperanza citing the actual original source, Agatha Christie. That's awesome. I would never have gotten that; I don't read mysteries much, and don't think I've ever read a Christie. But I've definitely seen variations on this plot, and almost always enjoy it.
Onward! Those blue code flashes are getting painful. Poor Machine! *pets it madly* I want to pour Mucinex or something in it so it can just cough all that bad code up and then have some nice tea with honey to make things better.
...I should stop anthropomorphizing it so much.
I loved all the little Machine touches everywhere, though -- all the bluescreened and static-y monitors in the montages from the power outages, and all the dark spots on the map, ditto. Right at the end, when the camera pulls back from the body being wheeled out into a view of the map of NY, you can see all the little grid sections coming back online as power is restored across the region, and then once it's all stable the view zooms back down again.
I saw someone puzzling at the ep/show timeline, because winter is too late for a hurricane in New York, and wondering if this was supposed to be Hurricane Sandy -- which sort of cracked me up, because while ordinarily I might have thought "hm, yeah, looks more like late fall than late winter", the ep aired while the Northeast was being pummeled by a nor'easter. If it had been just a few degrees warmer, NYC would have gotten all rain, and it would have lined up pretty perfectly with what the ep showed.
Did Finch actually refer to Carter as "Miss Carter"? That was so odd.
And was this the first ep we never saw Fusco at all? Also very odd. Although now that I've said that, I feel like there's been at least one other...
I'm kind of fascinated by the Cal storyline; I'd assumed he was a fairly throwaway side plot to scupper Carter's shot at the FBI and keep her in closer, but clearly there's more to him. And he's had way too good a look at Carter's side business now.
OTOH, I was ready to poke him right in the eye for that "I won't allow it" to Carter about driving to the island -- wtf, dude, you are not her dad or her captain. And then taking her keys away from her and insisting on driving! But hey, I guess penises still confer magical driving-in-storm abilities, even when they come attached to someone who can't keep his damn eyes on the road, and is so distracted by emotion he doesn't notice he's driving nearly 80 in gale winds, then corrects that by slamming on the brakes (which should have sent him hydroplaning straight into a tree). Clearly he is inherently the superior driving choice.
Grr.
In happier things, hee, how awesome and appropriate that Finch can fly! Of course a man who consistently identifies with birds is going to want to get up in the air. <3 And if he managed to fly (and land) safely in that storm, he must keep in practice.
And even better, we find out about it because he's desperate to get to John to warn him, because John is in danger. ♥ ♥ ♥
Which brings me around to the beginning of the ep, where I just melted at the screen. They go to the movies together! In storms! While John holds an umbrella up so Harold doesn't get wet, and pulls Harold closer to share it! Because they have actual rainy-day activities! And they sneak Bear in! ♥_♥
Oh my heart, this little found family of misfit toys on the mend is just too adorable for words.
(ETA: crossposted to tumblr, to see how posting things like this works over there. Once again I have discovered that I hate their html interface a lot, bah.)
Spoilers for Proteus (2x17).
I appear to be the only Olde Tyme Fan who completely failed to connect this to Cypher from The Sentinel, possibly because I was never as in love with that episode as most of the fandom was. Me, I went straight to Haven instead, and had a brief, surreal moment of wondering if the FBI guy was actually taking on appearances, too, before I remembered all the missing photographs.
(It was ridiculously obvious that it was the FBI guy - so obvious that I was vaguely wondering if I was wrong, and maybe one of the obvious-strangers-to-the-island was the bad guy. But that's okay, I'm fine with obvious for something like this, since there was no reason for it to be obvious to the characters. And they did a nice job of obscuring the real agent's face with the rain on the window, so the match with fake FBI agent was plausible.)
Ahaha, and after I wrote that up, I saw
cesperanza citing the actual original source, Agatha Christie. That's awesome. I would never have gotten that; I don't read mysteries much, and don't think I've ever read a Christie. But I've definitely seen variations on this plot, and almost always enjoy it.Onward! Those blue code flashes are getting painful. Poor Machine! *pets it madly* I want to pour Mucinex or something in it so it can just cough all that bad code up and then have some nice tea with honey to make things better.
...I should stop anthropomorphizing it so much.
I loved all the little Machine touches everywhere, though -- all the bluescreened and static-y monitors in the montages from the power outages, and all the dark spots on the map, ditto. Right at the end, when the camera pulls back from the body being wheeled out into a view of the map of NY, you can see all the little grid sections coming back online as power is restored across the region, and then once it's all stable the view zooms back down again.
I saw someone puzzling at the ep/show timeline, because winter is too late for a hurricane in New York, and wondering if this was supposed to be Hurricane Sandy -- which sort of cracked me up, because while ordinarily I might have thought "hm, yeah, looks more like late fall than late winter", the ep aired while the Northeast was being pummeled by a nor'easter. If it had been just a few degrees warmer, NYC would have gotten all rain, and it would have lined up pretty perfectly with what the ep showed.
Did Finch actually refer to Carter as "Miss Carter"? That was so odd.
And was this the first ep we never saw Fusco at all? Also very odd. Although now that I've said that, I feel like there's been at least one other...
I'm kind of fascinated by the Cal storyline; I'd assumed he was a fairly throwaway side plot to scupper Carter's shot at the FBI and keep her in closer, but clearly there's more to him. And he's had way too good a look at Carter's side business now.
OTOH, I was ready to poke him right in the eye for that "I won't allow it" to Carter about driving to the island -- wtf, dude, you are not her dad or her captain. And then taking her keys away from her and insisting on driving! But hey, I guess penises still confer magical driving-in-storm abilities, even when they come attached to someone who can't keep his damn eyes on the road, and is so distracted by emotion he doesn't notice he's driving nearly 80 in gale winds, then corrects that by slamming on the brakes (which should have sent him hydroplaning straight into a tree). Clearly he is inherently the superior driving choice.
Grr.
In happier things, hee, how awesome and appropriate that Finch can fly! Of course a man who consistently identifies with birds is going to want to get up in the air. <3 And if he managed to fly (and land) safely in that storm, he must keep in practice.
And even better, we find out about it because he's desperate to get to John to warn him, because John is in danger. ♥ ♥ ♥
Which brings me around to the beginning of the ep, where I just melted at the screen. They go to the movies together! In storms! While John holds an umbrella up so Harold doesn't get wet, and pulls Harold closer to share it! Because they have actual rainy-day activities! And they sneak Bear in! ♥_♥
Oh my heart, this little found family of misfit toys on the mend is just too adorable for words.
(ETA: crossposted to tumblr, to see how posting things like this works over there. Once again I have discovered that I hate their html interface a lot, bah.)
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 02:20 am (UTC)And the thing Finch flew out to warn John--John already knew. So it was pretty useless as a warning. I think Finch just can't STAND IT to be cut off from his surveillance.
Also, I'm pretty sure the movie they watched was Rashoman, judging by the marquee and John mentioning subtitles.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 05:29 am (UTC)Finch's warning wasn't needed, but he didn't know it, and the urgency of needing to protect John just melts me every time. <3 He really can't stand to be cut off from John, especially faced with first-hand evidence of what John's up against.
Yep, agreed about Rashoman; perfect choice for two men whose entire lives revolve around ferreting the truth out from different angles of observation!
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 08:34 am (UTC)In the early scene when Finch is at his computer, he says, "I'll enlist Carter's help looking into the other five," but it sounded like "Miss Carter" on first pass. If it's in another scene, I didn't hear it.
And they did a nice job of obscuring the real agent's face with the rain on the window, so the match with fake FBI agent was plausible.
We never see real FBI agent alive. We only see the real Agent Fahey in the trunk of the car, poor guy. :( The guy in the car in the rain, talking to Carter, was the killer. I suspected him immediately because he was sitting in a car in the rain. I don't know why I found this so suspicious, but I did! :)
And was this the first ep we never saw Fusco at all?
According to IMDB, yes. I had a vague feeling there might have been another ep without Fusco, but I think I'm thinking of eps where he wasn't in it much -- there are a few of those.
I thought the ep did a good job of reminding people of Hurricane Sandy while not trying to be Hurricane Sandy. But I loved that they used some real life webcam and CCTV footage from Hurricane Sandy in the transition scenes (I recognized some of the webcam footage.) I thought that was cool!
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 08:14 pm (UTC)We never see real FBI agent alive.
Hmm. Okay, I think I had the timeline screwed up; I thought real Fahey was driving to the island, where he met fake Rollins and got killed and then impersonated. But you're right -- when fake Fahey was talking to Harold he said "and then this damn storm hit", so that has to have been him in the car in the rain. Kind of freakish, though -- he knew way too much about Fahey and his case and how to interact with the cops for having had an hour or two of exposure before taking over Fahey's life.
But I loved that they used some real life webcam and CCTV footage from Hurricane Sandy in the transition scenes (I recognized some of the webcam footage.) I thought that was cool!
Oh, very cool! I hadn't realized that, that's awesome.
no subject
Date: 2013-03-10 10:16 pm (UTC)It is very freakish! I wondered if somehow the killer realized an FBI agent was getting close to making the connection between the missing persons. We don't know exactly when the killer incinerated Rollins, when and who pieced the rental papers together from Rollins' trash (and why leave them on the floor like that?). We know Rollins left his building and killer came back as Rollins. If this is the same building where Finch found Rollins' remains (I assumed it was?), I guess killer got Rollins in there some other way that wasn't on the security footage Carter was watching...
Anyway, the timeline of Rollins' last moments and Agent Fahey's last moments isn't clear. But based on the scene between killer and Finch, we see that the killer can be an adaptable opportunist. And he's willing to kill without taking over someone's identity if it's going to be too much trouble. It's possible Agent Fahey crossed killer's path at the wrong moment, then Carter's call forced the killer into assuming Fahey's identity and he rolled with it.
Btw, I'm not picking apart the ep or the plot or the timeline! I enjoy pondering over what might've happened that we didn't see. Unlike some other shows, I trust PoI and believe that it all hangs together somehow. It's been a while since I've trusted a show this much! *knocks wood*
no subject
Date: 2013-03-19 07:15 pm (UTC)We don't know exactly when the killer incinerated Rollins, when and who pieced the rental papers together from Rollins' trash (and why leave them on the floor like that?). We know Rollins left his building and killer came back as Rollins. If this is the same building where Finch found Rollins' remains (I assumed it was?), I guess killer got Rollins in there some other way that wasn't on the security footage Carter was watching...
I had to think about this one for a while, because it didn't make a lot of sense. But I think the timeline went like this:
* Killer kills Rollins in Chicago, disposes of the body but keeps some trophies, including (but not necessarily limited to) teeth.
* Fake Rollins moves to NYC, stores teeth somewhere he can be morbidly pleased about them, 'cause crazy.
* FBI Agent starts nosing around a few months ago, somehow tips his hand. Fake Rollins starts taking steps, including incinerating incinerates his trophies to be safe, maybe rents the home on the island to stash an emergency serial-killer-bug-out kit.
* Something - survival instinct is all I've got, because this part is so waffly and weird -- tips fake Rollins off to run, so he bolts for the island, doing a crap job of covering his tracks, maybe because he knows the storm is coming and doesn't want to get caught in it. Fahey is close behind, breaks into the apartment and finds the rental agreement, heads for the island post-haste without telling anyone.
* Fahey shows up on the island just as Fake Rollins is about to split. Fake Rollins kills Fahey, stuffs him in the trunk, grabs all of his IDs and puts on his spare FBI jacket (... I am a little put out that Fahey-in-the-trunk was wearing an FBI jacket, since Fake Fahey was, too) in case anyone remembers an FBI agent driving that car, and tries to leave, but the storm forces him back.
* Fake Fahey goes back in the house to ride out the storm, but John shows up. Fake Fahey figures trying to hide two bodies of federal agents is a bit much when he hasn't had time to plan anything, so he does what he does best: fakes it, and convinces John he's real so he can control the investigation until he can get off the island. It actually makes sense in that context for him to upscale the investigation into a serial killer rather than missing persons, since he knows about the killings and can look like a better investigator without risking knowing the wrong parts of real Fahey's intel.
I'm kind of fascinated that Fake Fahey spotted Harold as an impostor right away, but never once spotted John, whom he spent much more time with.