TV Review: Person Of Interest 2.15, “Booked Solid”
rating: 4.5
It's official: Person of Interest is officially the best thing on Thursdays for me. After delivering a fairly pedestrian but still solid effort with last weeks One Percent, POI came back this week in a big way with Booked Solid. One of the first things that got me outright was that it was, for the most part, a bottle episode. For those of you who dont know, a bottle episode is when all the action of an episode is confined to one space. With these limited parameters, the shows writers can really step up and highlight their strengths when it comes to the more minimalist approach.I love bottle episodes, and Booked Solid has risen to the top of the list in my book. It certainly brought back memories of season 1s excellent Firewall. The bottle this week is the Coronet Hotel, where this weeks POI is a Serbian refugee named Mira Dobrica trying to get by life as a hotel maid. Things immediately got started with Reese and Finch already arriving at the hotel and posing as employees while the opening credits were still going. Its always good when the show mixes up its format like that. By this time, the viewer knows that they get a number from the machine, they do background, and then Reese and Finch slowly move in. Oddly, our dynamic duo fit right into the hotels microcosm with their respective jobs. Oh, and Zoe Morgan! It was immediately established that anyone in the hotel can be a potential threat to Mira, making this an even tougher job for Reese and Finch. Soon, it became clear that the smarmy hotel owner had an illegal side business going, and perhaps Mira was going to expose it. By law of television land however, the first suspicion is always a red herring. It was a fairly interesting red herring though, one that figured into the plot near the end. The actual threat to her came at the halfway point of the episode, when Finch uncovered the fact that Mira was actually an Albanian refugee of war posing as a Serbian to gain asylum in the U.S. Before she came stateside, she witnessed the death of her family at the hands of a warlord. Now a journalist is talking to her in hopes of exposing the warlord as a war criminal, therefore putting a target on both their backs. Naturally, said warlord sends a hit squad to take out Mira and the journalist. Well good thing Reese and Finch are there, because as always, they save the day. The episode ends with the threat neutralized, Mira the new owner of the hotel, and Reese and Zoe going up to one of the hotel suites to do what weve always wanted them to do: play poker and drink bourbon. Okay, now that we got the recap out of the way, lets get to the good stuff. First theres the return of Zoe Morgan, the classy uptown girl thats proven to be a valuable ally to Reese and Finch on more than one occasion. The chemistry between her and Reese was well done and believable as always. If anything, this episode couldve used more of her, but POI is an expert in portion control so Im not going to complain much. On top of the case of the week, the arc of Pennsylvania Two (dude in the Washington office) and their ownership of the actual machine are brought back. His operative, Hersh, has finally gotten out of Rikers and is on the hunt for Reese. I was prepared for this plotline to be more set up for further exposition down the line, as per usual with this show. Imagine my surprise when Hersh actually caught up with Reese and the two engaged in an intense fisticuff worthy of placement in a Steven Segal movie (the old ones of course). Reese, being the superhero that he is, won the battle but spared Hershs life because he knew all of us viewers want more fights between these two killers. And he guessed right. Booked Solid is a perfect example of POI at its standalone best. The case of the week was intriguing, especially seeing how the entirety of it took place within the confines of a hotel. Several ongoing arcs were progressed at a nice pace, and a great balance was struck between all of the main characters. Carters sideplot of her involvement with Cal Beecher is without a doubt set up for another episode further down. Is Beecher part of HR? Is his number close to being given by the machine? Its these careful juggling of set up and progression that POI has perfected in its sophomore year that always keeps things interesting. We got the advancing of plots in overdrive as Hersh finally faced off with Reese, and round two fairly visible in the horizon. We even got Fusco graduating from hidden badass (see Prisoners Dilemma) to full on badass as he schooled two Serbian assassins in the art of awesoneness. Last but not least, if all that wasnt enough, the episode managed to put us even farther on the edge with Root. You didnt think Id forget about her, did you? In the final shots of the episode, it's revealed that Root has infiltrated Pennsylvania Twos office, posing as his secretary, putting her that much closer to the machine. Worlds are beginning to collide and its these types of endings and tight storytelling that get me excited every week. Do I have a complaint about this episode? I do. Two words: Wheres Bear? Are you watching Person of Interest? Let us know in the comments section below.