Mark Watches ‘Person of Interest’: S01E05 – Judgement

In the fifth episode of the first season of Person of Interest, TOO MUCH SUSPENSE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest. 

Whew, this was a breathless episode, y’all. Each of these five “cases” have felt so utterly unlike one another, and I appreciate that I’m constantly kept guessing as to who the real focus is supposed to be. Here, I assumed the judge was the target, and those creepy men following him after lunch sure as hell appeared to confirm that, but NOPE. So why would The Machine report Judge Gates’s number rather than the son?

There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding how The Machine reaches its own judgments, and this episode highlighted how frustrating it can be that Finch never gets anything other than a Social Security number. Actually, it’s more than that. Until the baffling reveal that the kidnappers at the center of this story want a case thrown out of court rather than money, this whole conflict is shrouded in mystery. It felt even more aggravating than normal. Why this person? Why kidnap his son and refuse money? Why was Angela Markham so important that a close-and-shut hit-and-run case needed to be thrown out?

There’s a vicious urgency to “Judgement,” though, and I admire that you get a constant sense that time is running out. But how long can the viewer believe that? How long before the audience begins to assume that everything will turn out okay, and thus, the suspense feels artificial? I imagine I would have had much less to say if the writers for this episode didn’t do one specific thing. At the end of the second act, Angela Markham is declared not guilty. Up to that point, I had assumed that we were heading to a big confrontation in that church, and then Judge Gates would get to dramatically declare a mistrial or something once he knew his son was okay. Instead, Reese and Finch’s efforts to determine where Gates’s son was being kept and what Markham’s connection was to an Eastern European gang weren’t good enough.

So what happens then? What happens when the two of them fail to stop something from happening? There’s such a quiet horror that spreads over this episode once that verdict drops, and it’s because we all know that once these people got what they wanted, it was much more convenient for them to kill Gates and his son. There was nothing to reward Gates with, and now, there were two loose ends they were more than willing to get rid of. SO WHAT THE HELL, HOW WERE REESE AND FINCH GOING TO PULL THIS OFF?

I’m gonna call it now because I think I can see it coming: Reese and Finch are going to be forced to be more and more bold over the course of this first season, and it’s going to make it impossible for Fusco to obfuscate their activities from Detective Carter. Reese is remarkably forward throughout this episode; he literally approaches Judge Gates immediately after the man finds out his son has been kidnapped. In order to combat the not-guilty verdict, Reese has to go to much more dramatic and risky lengths to rescue the Gates family. THAT FINAL CONFRONTATION IS RIDICULOUS, isn’t it???

And while Fusco has a reason to help Reese, how long is that going to last? Carter is obviously suspicious of her partner and his intentions. If anything, these five episodes have shown us that she’s incredibly observant, so it’s not like they can keep this mystery from her for that much longer. Right??? I don’t suspect it will happen until at least the end of the season, but this is my prediction. I’M LAYING IT BARE FOR ALL OF YOU.

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

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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