Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S02E03 – Masquerade

In the third episode of the second season of Person of Interest, Reese gets himself hired as the bodyguard of the daughter of a prominent Brazilian politician. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest. 

Trigger Warning: For discussion of trauma / PTSD

This isn’t one of the stronger number-of-the-week cases, but I still had a great time watching this episode. HERE’S WHY.

• First: BEAR. Bear is my everything. Bear is not just here for comedic effect. BEAR IS LITERALLY HERE FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. In just one episode, Finch is given a story that has more development than some characters get IN AN ENTIRE SEASON, and it’s all because of a dog.
• I’M NOT EMOTIONAL, YOU ARE.
• But that development, I suspect, is linked to Finch’s mental and emotional state. In “Masquerade,” we get the rare example of a show actually exploring how a traumatic event affects a person. Look, a lot of truly fucked up shit happens on Person of Interest, so you’d expect these characters to just roll with the punches, but we’ve seen how certain cases triggered emotions or flashbacks in these characters, though mostly Reese. Here, however, Finch is trying to return to a “normal” routine, and I believe that Bear helps him with that. There’s a reason animals are often used in conjunction with therapy!
• Yet Finch’s PTSD manifests in “Masquerade” once he tries to leave his office without Reese. I say that because it’s only alongside Reese that Finch is able to do it at the end of the episode. That’s important. He feels safe with Reese, and it makes sense that he does. Reese has repeatedly proven that he’ll protect Finch no matter the cost.
• Now, I wouldn’t really know exactly what Finch went through here. It looked like a panic attack to me, but that’s about the only familiarity I witnessed. Maybe it was a bit of agoraphobia? Regardless, I appreciate that this show doesn’t say that people experience traumatic events and then are just totally fine the next day. Some people are! A lot of us aren’t.
• BEAR. BEAR.
• FINCH USED A TISSUE TO PLAY FETCH BUT THEN GRADUATED TO A BARE HAND BY THE END OF THE EPISODE.
• PLEASE PROTECT BEAR AT ALL COSTS.
• Initially, it was a little hard to like Sofia. Yeah, I have a thing about people who treat their employees – no matter what form that employment takes – like shit. It’s a difficult hurdle for me to get over, so perhaps that’s why I felt only so-so about this episode’s number. It’s not a bad story! It’s got some great twists in it, especially since we rightfully assume that Sofia’s father’s political career is probably the reason she’s being targeted.
• Aside from her rudeness, though (which I eventually got over), I think this script suffers from balance. There’s so much time spent building up Sofia’s behavior, her secret boyfriend, and not getting to who she actually is that when we get there, it felt like too little, too late. She has an incredible scene with Reese about loneliness that’s the key to understanding who she is, but it comes over the half-hour mark. (I think?) That chance for Reese and Sofia to bond is powerful, and I wanted to see more of it! It made her a deeply interesting character, and I feel like the title of this episode meant that this was supposed to be about the masks we wear to make it through our lives.
• Thankfully, there’s SO MUCH ELSE going on here. Alicia Corwin had something implanted in her arm! WHAT IS THAT THING??? Why are the Feds so worried about whatever it is?
• Seriously, this show juggles multiple serialized plots SO WELL. On top of the creepy men trying to sabotage the NYPD, we’ve also got Fusco warning Carter that maybe she shouldn’t be too interested in the details of the Corwin case. And I get why: this stuff is scary as hell. But this is Carter we’re talking about. She’s too tenacious to ignore something of this magnitude. Fusco prefers keeping things safe and non-risky.
• MARK SNOW.
• I WASN’T READY.
• STANTON IS HOLDING HIM HOSTAGE.
• AND MAKING HIM TRACK DOWN INFORMATION ON SOMETHING
• BY STRAPPING A BOMB TO HIS TORSO
• OH MY GOD.
• John is gonna lose it when he realizes she’s still alive.

PLEASE GIVE ME A KARA STANTON EPISODE SOON.

The video for “Masquerade” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

Mark Links Stuff

- Please visit my new site for all announcements. If you’d rather not have to rely on checking a website regularly, sign up for my newsletter instead! This will cover all news for Mark Reads, Mark Watches, and my fiction releases.