Person of Interest "Pretenders" Review: Let's Be Cops

Person of Interest S04E06: "Pretenders"

Although Person of Interest sprung from Jonah Nolan's head as an original television idea, the series has never been shy about its comic-book roots or the idea that John Reese is a proto-superhero (Captain Leg Shooter!) and a man without tights building his legend with the help of his very graphic-novelly billionaire friend. "Pretenders" played with this idea, sometimes with heavy hands, for a fun and meta episode that explored what it meant to be a hero, whether it's by shooting bad guys in the leg or helping out a coworker (preferably without the felony of impersonating a police officer). But as has been the case all season, "Pretenders" explored some fantastic ideas that enriched the mythology of the series.

The number of the week belonged to Walter Dang, an unassuming insurance peddler whose bespectacled and mustachioed face already looked like he was wearing a disguise. Dang is plain as can be and a social outcast, but Dang has a secret life: he likes to put on a hat and a fake badge and pretend to be Detective Jack Forge, a noir-ish old-timey detective, to solve crimes. In this case, the crime was the mystery of his coworker's apparent suicide.

The theme of metaphorically wearing a mask was everywhere, with Forge's assumed identity paralleling Reese's fake day job as a cop, Finch's professor impersonation, and Shaw's bogus gig as an office temp. And when Dang/Forge collided with Reese, "Pretenders" became a comedy about an awestruck fan meeting his "Man in the Suit" hero, with Forge asking Reese "How do you do that with your voice?" and repeated references to his hot girlfriend Shaw ("She's not my girlfriend," Reese potesteth too much). Duh, dude, that's Root's girlfriend.

I couldn't help but think this felt like an episode of Supernatural or three, a show that regularly destroys the fourth wall for laughs by winking so closely to its fans' faces that the two exchange eyelash mites. Person of Interest has a surprisingly keen sense of self-aware humor, and for the most part it worked, but tonally "Pretenders" changed at unexpected times, like when Fusco and Shaw cinematically arrived on the scene in slow motion halfway through the episode implying that it was time to start the funnies after much of the previous 20 minutes of Forge's story were dead serious.

However, I have always been fascinated by Person of Interest's long game of creating a new superhero in Reese, particularly during the world's current pandemic of blistering superhero fandom that is almost exclusively built around previously existing superheroes. Where's the new blood? Where's the fresh meat? It's right here in Person of Interest, that's where. It's nice to see the show recognize that, particularly at the end when Dang told Reese how he idolized The Man in the Suit and asked him whether The Man in the Suit ever really went away. Dang previously told Reese that since The Man in the Suit disappeared, following the boot up of Samaritan of course, crime was up throughout the city, so Reese struggled with the question given his low-profile situation. That's where the Dang/Reese relationship really paid off, and where we could all bellow "A hero must rise!" to our geeky hearts' content.

As for the bigger picture, things tied in when Dang's coworker's brother was discovered to be smuggling some insanely powerful guns that can turn tanks into Swiss cheese. A man from Chicago known as "The Armorer" was looking to tilt the balance of power in that war-torn city with some new firepower, but good old Elias wanted to prevent him from doing so. "The Armorer" ended up being a front for Dominic, the leader of The Brotherhood, who wanted the guns for his own gang to help him ascend to power.

A confrontation between Elias and Dominic resulted in a bad river metaphor and a helpful reminder of Elias' intentions: he doesn't want to run the criminal element in the city, he merely wants to control it by not letting any one gang claim dominance. That in of itself puts Elias in the supreme position of power, but he wields it in order to keep things copacetic between all the crooks and robbers in New York so that the city doesn't burn itself down. So while Elias tried to keep a natural order, Dominic wanted to make it personal and become the new king. We haven't seen the last of these two meeting under a bridge, I'm sure.

But before I leave that, one more thought on Elias. His river metaphor did include talk of awakening a mighty flow from slumber, as if he was saying, "Yo bitch, I'm baaaaaaack!" Does Elias have aspirations for more than just regulation now that he's emerged from being underground? If he does, his relationship with Reese and Finch, which turned symbiotic over Season 3, could return to being adversarial and develop into one of the season's more interesting storylines.

While Reese played fake cops with Forge, Finch was off in Hong Kong attending a conference for something or other. There, he engaged in flirtatious debate with a comely woman named Beth Bridges, who was right in his Tinder right-swipe wheelhouse since she was an older and intelligent match for his wits. Finch's amorous behavior was immediately suspicious because GRACE AND FINCH FOREVER and because he's the last member of his team that should use seduction as a means to get what he wants (no offense, sir). And what do you know? By the end, it was all a complicated setup by Finch to install something (a tracker? a virus?) into Beth's computer because the company she works for, Geospatial, is a leader in predictive analytics that has some rad algorithms that Samaritan is interested in. In fact, Beth will be meeting with Greer (or one of his representatives) in New York to discuss the exchange of ideas and money. How Finch knew all this beforehand we'll never know, but let's just say he Googled it.

If "Pretenders" ends up being the worst episode of the season, we'll be in great shape because though it wasn't up to par with the rest of Season 4, it was still pretty good. Thus far, there hasn't been a wholly standalone episode this season, so if some of the throwaway standalone episodes of seasons past are being converted into semi-standalone episodes that tie into the bigger picture, I'm all for it.

NOTES OF INTEREST

– That punch dodge!

– That gun!

– Hey! Look at Shaw play computer jockey while Finch was away. Is there anything she can't do? Well, besides speak Dutch to Bear, I guess.

– Bear fans got their fill as the poor doggy missed his daddy and wouldn't eat until he talked to Finch on the phone.

– Greer looks like he's setting up shop all over the world as he moves forward with his nefarious plan. I think we've seen inklings of that before, but to hear how the progress is going is scary.

– I'm really liking Dominic as a supervillain this season. He's been stymied twice now and that can't keep up; expect him to pull something big off very soon as the show continues to build him up.

– Finch was a little rude to his Chinese delivery man cohort, wasn't he?

– I'm not ready for a new romantic interest for Finch. Let's see where this Beth-Finch thing goes with caution.