Person of Interest - 'Blunt' and 'Karma'

Working lunch.

In 'Blunt', PoI of the week Harper appears to be a college student working in a legal marijuana store, but it quickly becomes apparent that she is a chameleon con artist and half-Robin Hood (she steals from the rich, or specifically from the rich and criminal.) Unfortunately, her latest mark is Dominic, and a flippant attitude is unlikely to be enough to protect her from the Brotherhood, who are branching out into almost legitimate security.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of Harper. She's annoyingly cocky and espouses a self-interested philosophy at odds with our heroes, but I get the feeling the show wants me to like her; which I don't. I think if we saw more significantly a realisation that the Brotherhood was something more dangerous than the crooks she has played with before, even a flicker of real humility, I might, but it's not there.

Scene of the week: Reese and Harold bid Harper farewell. She obvious-pickpocket-hugs Harold as they part and then Reese points out that she took Harold's watch. Harold looks, then responds: "That's all right; I stole her ring."

As part of the war no Samaritan, Root creates a killer app to recruit unsuspecting Machine assets, which she sells to a company owned by former PoI Caleb Phipps. Phipps also offers her a job as part of a project team, which she accepts. As in other recent episodes, there is also a reference to a former PoI providing a medical marijuana prescription for Reese, indicating that with their diminished resources the team increasingly relies on the fact that they have made friends.

"We need to talk."

Then in 'Karma' we hit pure PoI of the week territory in the first time in who knows how long, and also go back to serious flashback territory. In the now, Harold clashes with Reese and Fusco when their PoI, a trauma counsellor who uses elaborate schemes to frame the people who hurt his patients, sets out for revenge against the man convicted of his wife's murder, but who has always protested his innocence.

At the same time, Reese is getting closer to opening up to Iris, eventually beginning to tell her about... Whatshername; the blonde who was super important in Season 1. I'd actually almost forgotten about her since his pain started to be all about Carter and then Shaw.

In flashback, we see the recently crippled Harold trying to blow up Alicia Corwin in revenge for Nathan's murder, and the Machine trying to talk him out of it, despite not yet having a voice.

Season 4 continues to be an emotional wringer, although the absence of direct Samaritan involvement lets the pressure ease a little, and it's interesting how odd it feels to go back to Number of the Week after all this time.