What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 1, Episode 17 “Baby Blue” (B+)

Two people not particularly well-equipped to deal with having a baby around are Reese and Finch, yet somehow they managed to do alright in this hour. Despite lacking social skills, both men care deeply for innocent people, and that quality makes them good caretakers when the situation requires it. Leila getting her hands on a hand grenade while Finch was watching her was frightening, but fortunately she survived that dangerous encounter. I most enjoyed Reese carrying Leila on his chest and explaining to Carter that he's teaching her how to go undercover. Reaching out to Elias to get her back was a monumental step, and things seemed to be going fine until he decided to double-cross him and extract the location of his convict father, played by Mark Margolis, recently seen as the bell-ringing Tio on “Breaking Bad.” Reese’s noble saving of baby Leila seems to have alienated Detective Carter, who no longer wants to be involved in the extralegal affairs conducted by Reese and Finch since she’d prefer to be able to use the law to help people. At the same time, Detective Fusco is getting deeper into his HR role, and now he’s keeping tabs on his own partner for them too. It’s not clear now whether bringing down Elias is now going to be the goal of the season, since there’s plenty of corruption rampant within the NYPD, and Finch and Reese have quite a tough war ahead of them if they really want to clean house.