Person of Interest ‘Booked Solid’ Review!

The Person of Interest episodes ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ and ‘Dead Reckoning’ were so far the two only hard-core mythology episodes besides the season première, unfortunately at the end of the two episodes we had lost CIA agents Kara Stanton and Snow as well as FBI agent Donnelly. This drained the series of some important blood and put some story arcs in serious jeopardy. I was now looking for an episode that could reestablish the mythology for season 2 and with this episode entitled ‘Booked Solid’ I got more than I bargained for.

As for the plot of ‘Booked Solid’…

Reese and Finch work undercover in a hotel to protect a maid (Mia Maestro) who escaped the war in Kosovo. With help from Zoe, who is also working in the hotel, Reese follows Mia as a bellhop while Finch works as a concierge. Finch finds out that Mia is hiding her true identity, and they realize she is being followed by a hit squad. John discovers she is refusing to coöperate with a reporter attempting to uncover a Serbian general’s war crimes. When the reporter is murdered, she decides to send a DVD with evidence to the authorities.

Fusco escorts Mia to the station, where one last hit man attempts to kill her, before being shot by Carter. Carter receives an offer to join the FBI, and is asked to take a polygraph, but is rejected because she has had contact with a fellow officer they claim has a record of Internal Affairs investigations. Hirsh follows Reese to the hotel on the orders of the Special Counsel, intending to kill him, but Reese injures Hersch and walks away; the Special Counsel’s assistant, Miss May, is shown to be Root. To thank Zoe for her help, John takes a suite in the hotel for a night.

Conclusion…

‘Booked Solid’ was meant as a transitioning episode in that it combines a procedural plot interspersed with side-plots that deal with the show’s mythology. Luckily for viewers both aspects are very well handled and are even too some degree interrelated. Which is not what ordinarily happens. The return of the ‘Special Council’ who handles all matters relating to ‘the machine’ for the government and his hit-man Hersh (Boris McGiver) a few episodes ago could only mean that Root (Amy Acker) would also show up sooner or later. Of the two main threads throughout the mythology I so far found the Root/Special Council storyline less interesting than the CIA/Stanton storyline that was killed off two weeks ago.

So far it feels too muddled by characters with obscure motivations. Only Amy Acker’s performance of Root as the ultimate femme-fatale stands out. That said, her interest in Finch is still a bit vague. There has to be more than just Finch being the designer of ‘The Machine’. No doubt we will soon know. In short, this episode of Person of Interest managed to put the show back on track after several important characters were killed off for little reason.

Pros; Kevin Chapman as Detective Fusco.

Cons; where do all those Serb hit-men come from?

Score; 8 / 10.

Person of Interest will be back next week with the episode ‘Relevance’.

Source; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series)