Tonight, let me take a deep dive into the tenth episode of Person of Interest (Season 1), “Number Crunch,” where Harold Finch and John Reese received not one but four numbers from The Machine, and a few CIA agents reached out to Detective Joss Carter after discovering that one of their own is still alive.
Spoiler warning: This post contains major plot spoilers from “Number Crunch.” If you haven’t watched it, please do so first before reading my analysis.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Episode Breakdown
The Numbers
Yes. Numbers. For the first time since Finch and Reese started their mission together, The Machine sent four numbers: Matt Duggan, a waiter (played by Jeremy Beck), Claire Ryan, an NYU lecturer (played by Helen Coxe), Wendy McNally, a hairstylist (played by Bridget Regan), and Paula Vasquez (played by Melonie Diaz).
Victims or Perpetrators?
All the numbers are victims.
The Machine watched a car accident involving Congressman Jim Hallen’s son, Jamie, and then Matt, Claire, Wendy, and Paula found the wreckage, Jamie with cocaine all over him. Minutes after they left, another man found the wreckage, and he confirmed over the phone that the money was gone.
Did They Stop The Crime In Time?
It’s complicated. Finch and Reese had to figure out their connection while saving them, and that’s no easy task.
Unfortunately, Reese was too late to save the first number, Claire Ryan, as he found her dead in her own apartment (now a crime scene) when he subtly posed as a CSU agent. After Reese cloned Claire’s laptop, Detectives Lionel Fusco and Olson entered the crime scene and noticed Claire’s body and her newly bought gadgets and shoes (all expensive).
Reese couldn’t track the remaining three, so he asked Fusco to follow Paula Vasquez and Finch to Matt Dugan, while he tracked Wendy McNally in her salon. He followed a delivery rider inside the salon, whom he mistakenly took as a hired assassin about to kill Wendy. Wendy noticed Reese and offered him a haircut; everyone in the salon gushed over him.
Meanwhile, Fusco tracked Paula, who quietly bought a gun from a dealer. Paula made Fusco from afar, and a chase ensued, with Fusco losing Paula. Reese also lost Wendy, who went out in an emergency. Finch found Matt—who splurged on an expensive motorcycle—but he was not able to save him from a bomb planted by a disowned stroller.
A regretful Finch overanalyzed what he could’ve done to save Matt, and Reese asked him to let it go and focus on the ones still alive: Wendy and Paula. Finch extracted Matt’s, Claire’s, and Wendy’s recent phone locations, and they were all in Roosevelt Drive before midnight, the location of a fatal car accident. Reese assumes Paula could be the perpetrator, so he tracks down Wendy’s mom, Susan.
From afar, Reese found Wendy at home, and so was Paula, with a gun in her hand. He was ready to fire when he saw them hug. He entered the house, and Paula pointed the gun at him, which he quickly disarmed. That’s when he found out that they were foster sisters.
A man knocked on the door, introduced himself as Dayne, and asked for help and a phone call. Reese asked Paula to let him in, and then a fight ensued while the two women escaped. Dayne also escaped with the help of another assassin who fired back at Reese.
Still at their home, Reese found a letter from St. George Hospital, and he asked Finch to look up information about their mom being there. Finch discovered their mom had a broken hip and also a bank’s notice of foreclosure of their home (the reason they took the money).
After interrogating Congressman Hallen and Davis Bannerman (a banker whom Hallen is investigating), Detective Fusco noticed they lined up their statements. He assumed they were actually working together, and somehow, Jamie was involved.
To be updated soon.
Reese found Wendy in the hospital, and they talked about the car accident she found with Matt, Claire, and Paula. They stole the $1 million and divided it equally among them—250,000 each. Wendy and Paula needed the money, but she was also regretful about stealing it after knowing some people had killed Matt and Claire and were still after them. They hid the money under their mother’s hospital bed. They want to give it back, and they will find another way to pay for the mortgage. Dayne, the assassin earlier, sent a photo of Paula to Wendy and demanded to bring the stolen money back to the parking garage alone.
Before Reese and Wendy went back to the parking garage, he called in an anonymous tip to Detective Carter (who is on desk duty) about the assassins who killed Matt and Claire. Before Reese ended the call, Carter thanked him for saving her life, and he only answered, “You’re welcome.” Seconds after the phone call, Carter called Mark Snow, the CIA agent she talked to earlier, “I know where he’s gonna be.”
Reese, with a sniper rifle, and Wendy, with the stolen money, arrived at the parking garage. He told Wendy to call Dayne, the assassin, and tell him she would not give money until she knew Paula was safe. Paula showed up while Dayne was hiding from a car. Reese told Wendy to walk towards her foster sister, and they should run when he shouted. A nurse, whom Reese talked to earlier, checked in on Reese again, then suddenly shot him. She was the other assassin who was with Dayne. On the ground, Reese shouted Wendy and Paula to run, and shot the steam pipe near Dayne. Reese took down the other assassin by smashing her head on a car window, and then Dayne with gunshots.
Reese went back to Wendy and Paula to check up on them, and Paula asked him to take the stolen money. Reese declared they earned the money, and that no one is coming after them yet. He told them to go out quickly, which they did.
In short, they were not able to stop the crime in time and save Matt and Claire, but they were able to save Wendy and Paula.
Other Threads
After being saved by Reese last time, Detective Carter was interrogated by Internal Affairs officers about the incident and assigned to desk duty. Fusco asked Carter how the interrogation went and if she saw Reese’s face when he saved her. Carter said no, and she is still determined to arrest him.
Captain Womack asked Carter to go inside his office, and the detective saw a man in a suit reading her file on Reese. Womack asked Carter about the man she’s been after for months. Then the man who had Reese’s file asked Carter if he shot her confidential informant. Carter was hesitant at first, but she relented after Womack gave her two options: answer or turn in her badge.
While updating Fusco on the fake Detective Foster, Carter had a feeling she was being followed by the same man who asked about Reese in front of Captain Womack.
To be updated soon.
After Reese saved Wendy and Paula, he went to a parking lot where he was found by Carter and the CIA agent. The security camera feeds were already cut off by his partner. Reese addressed his co-worker as “Mark,” and they chatted about coming home. Reese said in disbelief, “You know that will never happen,” then suddenly he was shot in the gut and the leg with Mark’s partner’s sniper rifle.
Reese was able to shoot the car’s headlights and escape, but his wounds were almost fatal to the point of limping inside the emergency stairs. Finch called Reese to ask about his whereabouts, then Reese said it’s “not looking good” and thanked his boss for giving him a second chance. Finch pleaded with him to just go to the ground floor, and Reese refused to be saved by him. Meanwhile, Carter followed Reese’s blood trail in the emergency stairs.
Reese finally reached the ground floor, and Finch was about to bring him to the car when Carter pointed a gun at them and shouted, “Hold it!” The detective realized she had met Finch months earlier, and for a few seconds, she was unsure whether to make the arrest. Suddenly, she set aside her weapon and helped Finch bring Reese into the car. A weakened Reese stared at Carter; Carter checked on him one more time, and signaled Finch, “Go.” The vigilante duo drove away as she looked without a word.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Thoughts & Feelings
The Episode Title
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, number crunching is “a mathematical work performed by people or computers that involves large amounts of information or numbers.”
In “Number Crunch,” Finch, Reese, and Fusco had to literally track and protect more than one number, and that’s unprecedented since the start of the series.
On Money, Character & Intention
Money has a way of revealing someone’s character and intention. In “Number Crunch,” Matt Duggan, Claire Ryan, Wendy McNally, and Paula Vasquez stole money from a drug dealer who died in a car crash, and their intentions with the stolen money reveal who they are. Matt and Claire, people who have honorable jobs, used the money to buy expensive things like designer shoes and high-end motorcycles. Wendy and Paula, on the other hand, needed the money to pay for the overwhelming mortgage while their mother is recovering. The first pair are seemingly greedy; the second, desperate.
The phrase “two wrongs don’t make a right” can be applied to Matt and Claire because they used money that is not theirs, even if the source of that money is illegal. Is there a deeper reason why they think they deserve the stolen money? And if they were ever saved by Finch and Reese, and if they asked them to give back the stolen money, would they listen? Sadly, with their deaths, there are no answers to those questions. Yet even if they did something justifiably wrong, they still don’t deserve to die. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
The other phrase that contradicts the first, “two wrongs make a right,” can be applied to Wendy and Paula because, unlike Matt and Claire, Wendy said to Reese a reasonable explanation of why they needed the money (the mortgage), yet also expressed regret for stealing in the first place and fear of dealing with the criminals who were after them. Again, stealing money is wrong, even if the money came from illegal means, yet they still don’t deserve to die. Thankfully, Wendy and Paula are saved by The Man in the Suit. Also, I believe Reese made the right call of letting them get away with the stolen money because, if anyone deserves it, it’s Wendy and Paula, foster sisters who are in dire need of saving their home.
If ever Wendy and Paula’s numbers are up again, the agents of The Machine will be there in time.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Standouts
Not Stopping Crimes in Time
For the first time since the series started, The Machine sent more than one number in “Number Crunch.” That alone is a standout for me. This proves Finch’s warning to Reese in the pilot episode, “The numbers never stop coming.”
Reese has a certain set of skills, but because The Machine only gives numbers, he had to track their persons of interest with his surveillance skills and Finch playing tech support. But because of limited information and their own human limitations, sadly, they couldn’t save Claire Ryan, the first number, in time. That’s when Reese realizes he can’t track the other three all at once, so he asks Finch to do more than work on a computer at The Library, and Fusco to basically be a good cop.
Finch also has a certain set of skills, but with his physical limits, he couldn’t also save Matt. And while Fusco lost Paula, he was helpful to Reese and Finch in different ways (that’s something I will discuss in the next point), and eventually, the team saved Wendy and Paula in time.
Overall, they saved two out of four people. Matt’s and Claire’s deaths are saddening, and Wendy’s and Paula’s survival are a victory for Team Machine. I think that’s better than not being able to save all of them.
Fusco’s Competence
While Fusco was not able to follow Paula like Reese told him to, he was able to inform Reese that she bought a gun discreetly. At least Reese knew how to deal with Paula, though she is not a killer. He also suggested his work partner, Carter, in digging into the man who went after the crash scene, Detective Foster (who was actually Hallen’s hired gun, Dayne).
But what really stands out for me about Fusco in this episode is his familiarity with liars (take note that he’s also good at lying). When Congressman Hallen and Davis Bannerman said the exact same words about Hallen’s son, Jamie, he knew they coordinated their stories. He also assumed they were working together and pretending to be enemies. To quote the detective:
Look, I interrogate a lot of douches, and I know when they got their lies lined up.
Good job, Fusconator.
Carter Helps Reese & Finch
While Reese and Finch are working on the numbers with the help of Fusco, a on-desk-duty Carter is approached by Reese’s co-worker at the CIA, Mark Snow, and his partner Evans. They told her more about The Man in the Suit’s past (something she has been wondering about for weeks), and he convinced her they would rehabilitate him once she hands him over to them. Since she wants to arrest him, somehow their intentions line up.
She was wrong. After she and the agents found Reese in a parking lot, she watched them shooting him. That’s murder, not making an arrest. Still, her conviction as a cop made her follow the injured vigilante, and she finally found him and his quiet partner, Finch. But instead of making the arrest, she helped them escape.
As a cop, that could’ve been a bad move, but she has been familiar with their work as vigilantes for months now; she knows they are just helping people. So, she finally crossed the line and helped them continue their mission, and she quietly became a new member of Team Machine.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Conclusion
“Number Crunch” has to be one of the game-changing episodes of Person of Interest along with “Witness.” The Machine may be accurate in delivering the numbers Reese and Finch had to protect, yet there’s a downside to working with limited information, their own strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that they are not a huge agency. They had to divide and conquer to save whoever they can save, and that’s thrilling to see.
Meanwhile, Reese’s CIA past came back to haunt him, and he and Finch got surprising help from the detective who has been after them for months. I’m over the moon that the team now has four members: Reese, Finch, Fusco, and Carter.
Rating: 👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Summary, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Header image: Person of Interest: Number Crunch (Season 1, Episode 10).
Disclaimer: This is simply an in-depth analysis from a fan. No copyright infringement is intended in any of the show-related media featured in this post.
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