I think that I’m just about done with ‘Person of Interest’. Although I still feel that the show has the foundation in place to build a potentially interesting storyline, it has thus far failed to take advantage of that. Based on last week’s episode, the series actually seems disinterested in ever doing so.
In ‘Mission Creep’, Finch’s magic computer spits out the Social Security Number of a former Army vet now working as a hotel doorman. Joey seems to lead a pretty boring life, until Reese discovers that he’s part of a bank-robbing crew made up of members of his old unit. Their Captain, a man named Latimer (Ruben Santiago-Hudson from ‘Castle’), is the ringleader.
Finch arranges for one of the other robbers to get arrested so that Reese, pretending to be a Special Forces vet in desperate need of money, can go undercover and infiltrate the crew, which he does really easily. Reese wastes no time at all in buddying up with Joey, who is actually a really nice guy just trying to support the widow and child of one of his Army buddies that was killed in Afghanistan.
Latimer arranges for the crew to rob a police evidence lock-up to steal something we’re not allowed to see. Once they do so, in a twist that isn’t even remotely surprising, Latimer double-crosses the crew and kills everyone except Reese and Joey. It turns out that Latimer reports to someone else, who in turn kills him after handing over the evidence, whatever it may be.
Reese helps Joey evade the cops and puts him on a bus out of town with his girlfriend. Other than a reference to the name “Elias,” we never find out what the stolen evidence was or the identity of the mysterious Big Bad. I suppose that’s meant to be saved for a later episode.
‘Mission Creep’ is a dull episode that’s extremely predictable and obvious every step of the way. There are no surprises in it at all.
Just three episodes in, I’m already bored waiting for ‘Person of Interest’ to start getting interesting. I don’t think that I have the patience to wait around for a season or more for that to happen. This may be the end of the line for me. If any of our readers continue to watch, be sure to let me know if it ever turns around.
