Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S01E03 – Mission Creep

In the third episode of the first season of Person of Interest, Reese and Finch work a case where the criminal has compelling motives. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest. 

Finch gives Reese a warning early on in this episode, but it’s a warning that is promptly and consistently ignored throughout “Mission Creep.” Reese is not to let his own experience as a military man cloud his judgment. He is not supposed to develop an emotional connection, lest this specific target pull a fast one on them all.

And yet, every step of the way, Reese sees himself in Joey Durban, namely in that his time abroad in the military changed him so fundamentally that he was unable to maintain relationships once he came home. At the start of this episode, it looks like Joey was suffering the same thing. His relationship with his girlfriend was rocky because he couldn’t commit to anything else; it appeared he was paying child support to an ex; he had gotten wrapped up in a gang of bank robbers who had hit numerous institutions over the past few months.

So why does this episode offer Joey a second chance? Why is he exempt from paying the price for his crimes? There’s no point where the show actually addresses the fact that countless people were stolen from, and Joey never has to pay back a dime of the money he stole. Yet, the end of “Mission Creep” rewards Joey for what he’s done, and it felt strange to me. It’s not until I considered how Reese’s backstory factored into this that I realized what the writers might have been attempting.

See, throughout “Mission Creep,” we get glimpses of Reese’s run-in with an ex at the airport back in 2006. There’s a reason we don’t see the scene in its entirety, but rather, split into three overlapping parts. The first sequence highlights Reese’s pessimism regarding himself and his life; the second appears to give us a finality in Reese’s decision to walk away from Jessica; but the third adds a tragic contrast to the whole story. Jessica asked Reese to ask her to wait for him, and he couldn’t do it, at least not until after she walked away.

That’s not the story that Joey gets. Instead, Reese consistently tries to help Joey not only get out of this destructive arrangement with Latimer, the man responsible for setting up all these robberies and then EXECUTING THE ROBBERS ONCE THEY’VE HAD A FEW ROBBERIES UNDER THEIR BELT. (What the fuck, HE WAS SO UNDENIABLY EVIL.) I felt like the script tried its best to make these characters seem more sympathetic than usual, and they certainly went overboard with Joey. See, his motivation for robbing people was to pay for his friend’s daughter’s college fund. Why? Because the man switched places with him while on duty and died by an IED blast. Joey is consumed with guilt over this, and it’s what drove him to desperation. (Which makes me wonder how many soldiers Latimer manipulated and exploited to make himself money. PROBABLY ALL OF THEM. That’s not to excuse what they chose to do, but it’s an undeniable part of this scheme.) So Reese gave a damned good attempt to first convince Joey to drop out of this gang, and then to offer Joey the chance to escape New York and build a life with someone who was willing to wait for him.

So, that’s my theory: the writers offered Joey sympathy to highlight that Reese didn’t get a second chance. It makes for an awkward moral reward, but it has another purpose for the protagonist. Can Reese even entertain having a relationship at this point anymore? PROBABLY NOT.

So who the hell killed Latimer? Who is M. Elias??? WHAT’S GOING ON? I’m also hoping that Detective Carter gets a bigger part of this show beyond what we’ve seen in these three episodes because… well, she’s a main cast member, yet she’s still a subplot. I did enjoy that scene where she taunted Reese, though. MORE OF THAT.

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

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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