Person of Interest “Witness” review!

This weeks episode finally sees the appearance of a major antagonist for this series. The bad guys name is ‘Elias’ and as was revealed in previous episodes is related to the old italian mob and is actively seeking revenge against the Russian mob who have control over some of the old italian territories. This episode thus actively progresses the mythology of Person of Interest and also brings detective Carter and Fusco much closer to Reese and Finch. No further background information on either Reese, Finch or ‘The Machine’ is given and since episode 2 it has been a little dry on that matter but I am as of now not too much bothered about that. The storyline of this episode starts a little slow and slowly picks up too quite a tense ending that pulls no punches, just the way a tv-show is supposed to end for the mid-season break.

As always the storyline of person of Interest is complex and the devil is in the detail, I will only cover the broad strokes and thus not spoiler too much either.

The episode starts with detective Carter and Fusco investigating the murder of an old italian mobster in a supermarket. Quickly it is discovered there was a witness. Fearing the russian mob had organized the hit Fusco and Carter set out finding out who the witness is.

Reese meanwhile is observing a schoolteacher called Charlie Burton as his social security number came up. Quickly Reese manages to put it together that this man is the witness to the mob homicide. Quickly enough the russian hitmen storm the appartment where Burton lives and Reese only manages to save Burton by the skin of his teeth. Charlie is injured however they are forced to shelter in a very bad housing comlex filled with Bulgarian mobsters.

Reese manages to piss off the Bulgarians after he steals some medication from them and so now the Russian and Bulgarian mobsters team up to find Reese and Burton. Meanwhile Finch tries to find out why the old italian mobster was killed and quickly he finds a conection to the mysterious ‘Elias’. After observing a police officer talking to some russian mobsters Finch tracks him down and manages with Fusco’s help on overhearing their conversation.

Meanwhile Detective Carter gets a tip on the large number of Russian and Bulgarian mobsters in the housing complex and proceeds to arrest most of them. When Fusco is waiting at the ferry for Reese and Burton to arrive he however gets knocked on the head by the cop Finch was investigating. Meanwhile Reese has captured one of the russian mobsters and tries to arrange a deal for Burton’s safety. The russian mobsters is son of the russian don and refuses, explaining in a twist that I hadn’t seen coming that Burton is the italian mobster known as ‘Elias’.

As Reese tries to confront Burton he finds out burton lready has the load on him and orders Reese to tie himself to railing of the ferry. ‘Elias’ explains his methodology, being a schoolteacher for many of the kids of Russian mobsters allowed him to gain a unique insight into the way they worked. He explains that his goal is to unite the five families and take back New York.

To the tune of ‘Sinnerman’ by Nina Simone does Burton kneecap the russian mobster and casually ala ‘The usual suspects’ walk of the ferry and enters a minivan parked there by the corrupt cop. Later on the cop is seen shooting the father of the russian mobster. A final scene shows Burton/Elias walking along the Bright beach boardwalk and being told ‘the hit was done’, he replies by saying ‘No, its only just begun. Veni, Vedi, Vici’

Conclusion…

As I have said the episode ends with a twist after starting of rather slowly, in the end I was pleasantly suprised as I thought the twist was done in style. The biggest advantage of this show having Elias as the main anatgonist is that we will see him try to regain control of the burroughs of New York rather than already being a powerful mobster, Reese and Finch will try to stop him of course and thus Elias makes for a good anti-Reese (no pun intended).

Score; 9/10.
Viewer rating; 11.66 million.

Well, on november 17th Person of Interest will be back, as of yet I have been unable to find a preview for that episode so you will have to wait a bit….