Pulling Your Strings (Person of Interest S1E23 Firewall)

We're still twitching over the altered titles as we begin this season finale, and today's number is a young woman Reese seems to be following. A young woman, I note, played by Amy Acker, who seems to specialize in evil geniuses these days. That's not entirely here nor there, except that if they wanted to play her up as an innocuous number, casting someone relatively well known by genre viewers is probably not the way to go. There's a phenomenon in TV crime dramas and so on that TV tropes calls "Narrowed It Down To The One I Recognize." For those who are familiar with his body of work, it likely worked in favor of (or to the detriment of?) Enrico Colantoni in the first appearance of Elias. And so on and so forth. So, yes, when we see Amy Acker show up, we know her character is likely to be more significant than a one-off number.

Crush of a Prayer Haven S1E05 Ball and Chain

Previously on Haven! We established that Audrey was looking for the woman in the picture (you guys are still the adorablest) and that Nathan thinks she should become a local cop to, essentially, get other people to believe she's trustworthy. We also established Duke and Nathan's serious issues with each other though not what they are in any great detail. And then oh fuck you guys, we cut over to Vince and Dave straight from Nathan's spitting fury chained up on the Cape Rouge, which has the effect in hindsight of reminding us that they had a similar rivalry that they managed to get past. Sort of. If stuffing your brother in a trunk or cold-cocking your brother with a vase counts as getting past it. Also that Vince had a thing for Sarah. We did not establish that threesomes solve everything, though I think Duke would be on board with it at this point (or say he was) just to push Nathan's buttons. Not like that. Duke got the deed to the Second Chance, we still only know that the woman in 1983 was named Lucy, and in short whoever the fuck edited these previouslies knew all KINDS of things, I think.

Today we begin on a similar if not the same dock that the florist and the rest of the crew of the Caprice left Audrey at without any real answers! With the guys who have ALL the answers. Hello, Vince and Dave. How very not nice to see you, cough up all your secrets. No, they'll cough up banter instead about their grandmama being able to cast farther than Dave. Which neatly establishes them as very, very long term residents of Haven, both in that they're some of the oldest currently living residents who know most-to-all of Haven's secrets and in that they go back at least two generations prior. The way they interact with the town, I would venture a guess that it's much further than that, not that we have any proof. Oh, and Vince is a fairly decent artist. Lots and lots of information crammed into a minute or so of conversation. Apparently now that Dave's done taking the snark as a compliment he'd like to see his brother do any better! I think it's probably very subtly telling that the leader of the Guard and the one most blatantly capable of/willing to commit violence is the one who hooks the boat with the dead body. More snark, and don't cut the line, Vince, that's Dave's favorite lure. What, cryptic comments with insufficient fucking data to explain them to the rest of the world? I believe you're right. But the boat's not tied and the brothers Teagues will now proceed to demonstrate both familiarity with the water and familiarity with pretty much everyone's business in Haven. Vince's tone suggests that they should know whose dinghy that is without having to wonder, which means it's new and unusual, which means they're gonna snoop. That is not the reek of dead lobsters, Dave, and you probably know it already, you're just a bit more squeamish than your brother. Though they are both shocked and appalled to find a decomposing body in the boat. Neither of them has had reason to prepare for violence, I suppose, and though they probably know the Troubles are back they haven't yet adjusted mentally to the body count rising. As it does, with Troubles.

PSA

Due to our being in the same geographical location, and my being a ghost during camp week, there will be no Person of Interest ep posted this week. There may or may not be one next week, depending on what else happens. We're very sorry - we've been looking forward to finishing s1 too - but given the import of these eps it's for the best that they happen when we're both well-rested and able to give them our focus.

Haven eps will continue every two weeks as normal until sometime in August (I am way too lazy to look at our calendar right now) when they'll go to every week so we can ramp up to the new season. Trust me, we're excited. I'm just too sleepy right now to muster anything beyond all your caffeine give to Zim.

We'll also have a proper, full-length state of the blog sometime after SDCC happens and we get a chance to watch chunks of the panels and spoilers and so on. You can help us out with that one by leaving YouTube links in comments, if you like! For any of the three shows we're doing.

Thanks for understanding, and we'll see you back here in August for more Person of Interest and Haven s1.

Eat Prey, Love Haven S1E04 Consumed

Previously on Haven! We met the players and their Troubles, well, as many as we're going to meet this time around. We met Audrey and her search for her mother! And, since we're post third season right now, we facedesked a lot. We, and she, learned that her alleged mother's name was Lucy, and that the Troubles are back. Though not what that means, not nearly all of it, not hardly.

Johnny's in America (Person of Interest S1E22 No Good Deed)

Now that we've spent two weeks diving into some of Reese's history, that should mean it's time for Finch to return the favor, right? At least to us, if not to Reese. The changed opening credits are still changed, giving us just those few frames of tension-ratcheting imagery, and this week's number is a nervous young man, rather clean-cut, being escorted into the back of a squad car while Reese puts up his weapon and looks on in frustration. That's. Interesting.

Our framing device this time takes us back to 2009, in New York, so we know right away that we are getting a fair chunk of Finch and Ingram, and we're coming closer and closer to whatever event precipitated Ingram's death and Finch's injuries. That is a massive fucking server farm that the Machine's turned into, as it would have to in order to keep track of all the data Finch wants to feed it. And unlike previous incarnations, the cables are more neatly tucked away from the disk arrays. Ingram's coming to check on his friend, quite probably to see if Finch needs to be nagged to eat, sleep, and do other normal person things. Yes, Finch, we know you'd upload yourself into the Machine if you had the biochem background to manage it, and we are all immensely grateful that you don't. Ingram's first words are about shutting the Machine down, though, which gives us pause only for a second until Finch says that they're turning it over tomorrow, and he's leaving it on as long as possible. Aww, Harold, you don't want to kill your baby. I know. How about all those non-relevant numbers Nathan's staring at? We get more of the ongoing argument, Nathan's glad to be rid of the thing, not that it won't weigh on his conscience but at least he can fool himself sometimes into making the numbers the government won't save someone else's problem. Finch isn't suffering under such delusions of conscience and I have to say, it would take someone with about his level of megalomania and willingness to look at people as pieces on a chessboard (metaphor chosen advisedly, hello Elias) to build the damn thing in the first place. Nathan has a knife to twist in what little soft underbelly his friend has, about knowing that everyone is relevant to someone if Finch had anyone outside his work. Which nets him a meaningful glare; Nathan may not know about Grace at this point in time, but Finch's point that Nathan matters to him is well-taken. Also, can we haul out the trollfaces yet? Because these two have one hell of a connection that's got a lot of emotions mixed up together, as you do when there's just one person who knows all your secrets for a very long time. Marty and Cosmo, again. Nathan comments as to how maybe Finch should find a relationship of his own after seven years (which is one of those Significant Numbers, by the by, though less commonly used than 3) spent watching everyone else's, and when Finch gets his little I-have-a-secret smile and says maybe he has, points out that he wouldn't hear the end of it if Finch had found someone. Nathan, honey, I'm sorry but you don't know your friend as well as you think you do. Especially not with all the changes he's gone through in the last seven years. The notably false laughter about that does seem to tip Nathan off that something's not entirely on the up and up, but we leave him there staring at the Machine's data-sorting and go back to the present.

Worn Out Places Worn Out Faces (Person of Interest S1E21 Many Happy Returns)

The title of this episode alone is ominous, implying a birthday or anniversary of some kind, which as a general rule in spyssassin drama does not mean anything good. X years on the force is an excuse to kill someone off just before they hit retirement age, a birthday is an excuse to reminisce on past sins in your life just before they come back to haunt you, etc. Anniversaries the same. So, yeah, this isn't going to go well. All we get of today's number before the credits finish rolling is that it's a woman in some hurry with dark glasses that might be a fashion statement but with that hunched body language is more likely a disguise. Not much to go on given that every number is in some sort of trouble. All right, then.

Oh, hello, we're starting with Jess and Reese. This can't be good. First the same flashback that goes with the voice over, then the flashback where she leaves after begging him to ask her to wait, then him talking to her on the phone, Kara shooting him, then Reese is on a bus. He looks tired. Also beardy. Well, that gives us a timeframe, then? One of the baseball kids on the bus with him worries at him, asking what happened to him. He's still got a bloody hole in his side, because that looks at least like fresh blood, so either he tore open some stitches again or he grows his beard really fucking quick because there is no way he would have survived that long with that kind of wound. I'm betting tore open some stitches. Or wardrobe messed up and gave him what looks like wet blood instead of a big dried bloodstain. Any of these except the middle one I would accept! Poor kid is really worried about Reese, as most good-hearted kids would be when there's a homeless-looking guy with a giant bloodstain on his side in front of them on the bus. Reese's only comment is that he quit his job. He thinks. He also sounds very out of it. Oh, and the bus driver is announcing the next stop! It's New Rochelle! Fuck everyone.