What I’m Watching: Person of Interest

Person of Interest: Season 1, Episode 21 “Many Happy Returns” (B+)

It’s easy to forget that rogue operatives like Reese have birthdays too. Of course, Reese doesn’t spend his birthday like most, and Finch trying to give him the day off and leave him out of an operation didn’t turn out too well. Finch was smart to try to leave Reese out since the number in question hit too close to home for Reese, whose past continued to be revealed in a direct follow-up to last week, abandoning Stanton’s return and instead focusing on Reese and the death of his newly remarried wife Jessica. If there’s one thing that Reese can’t stand, it’s abusive husbands, and he demonstrated that in his aggressive pursuit of Brad. Finch and Reese may make a good team, but it’s clear that Reese has something bottled up inside him which terrifies Finch, despite the connective shot at the end of the hour where Finch revealed himself to be watching Reese way back at the hospital when he came to check in on Jessica. Carter’s discovery of Reese’s personal life through the investigation into Jessica’s death was quite interesting, and it’s good to see her into looking into him with his well-being in mind rather than a desire to put him behind bars, or somewhere much more difficult to find. With just two more episodes to go, I’m looking forward to the plotlines being connected, as Stanton’s return becomes known to Reese and the two detectives regularly in contact with Reese and Finch discover that they are both working with the same team.