Person of Interest - 'RAM'

Holy crap! That's the kid from Jurassic Park in the middle there.

A man in a suit saves a woman from hitmen, but it's not John Reese. The year is 2010 and Harold is working with an ex-Blackwater merc named Dillinger who is happy to save those in peril 'as long as the cheque clears,' and isn't averse to leveraging the gratitude of numbers who turn out to be attractive young women. Then the number of a young coder comes up; a man who was hired by the government to test the security of a system beyond anything in his experience; a man hunted by the CIA and dangerous private concerns.

'RAM' takes Person of Interest on a stroll down memory lane, with almost the entire episode in flashback as Dillinger races to snatch nice-guy nerd Daniel Casey from the sights of pre-betrayal Reese and his partner Stanton, and a team of British mercs working for Decima industries. Casey is the purpose of the episode in plot terms, and the stinger has Root tapping this long-hidden asset on behalf of the Machine in the way only she seems able to get away with, waltzing into his cabin and rigging it to explode while explaining he has a mission and men with guns are about to arrive.

"Don't mind me; I'm just looming."

On a more personal level, however, the episode expands on the backstory and motivation of Finch and Reese: Reese's increasing dissatisfaction with the CIA and Finch's cringing horror at the boorish thug he has hired to assist him in his good work really illustrate why the two of them make such a perfect partnership. We also get a glimpse of Shaw's early work, and an affecting look at the nature of Harold as he first tries to warn and then stays to bury Dillinger, even though his erstwhile partner has by this point thoroughly betrayed him.

After a lot of very character-based episodes, it's nice to get back to the arc, and nicer still that the episode also manages some extremely solid character work of its own.