Team Machine goes to great lengths to protect their next number, an undercover cop. Tonight, let me review the 15th episode of Person of Interest (Season 1), “Blue Code.”
Spoiler warning: This post contains major plot spoilers. If you haven’t watched it, please do so before reading my analysis.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Episode Breakdown
The Number
Michael Cahill is a member of a smuggling ring (led by Neil Vargas) with a string of criminal records and a mean streak.
Victim or Perpetrator?
To investigate further, Reese infiltrates the smuggling ring as their driver. He witnesses firsthand how they used a patient transfer from helicopter to ambulance to smuggle diamonds. Cahill shows his mean streak when he punches the young Ajax after the transaction. To cover their tracks, Cahill and Reese burn the ambulance.
After that, Reese sees Cahill break into a family home; The Man in the Suit is about to interfere. But the vigilante duo learns that Cahill is actually Daniel Tulley, a family man, a 2003 police academy graduate, and a Narcotics detective who has been undercover for five months. Tulley Cahill is after a drug lord named L.O.S., and he knows that Vargas has an inside man in the force. Cahill’s records as a cop are almost nonexistent, and only his handler, Detective Byrne, knows his true identity.
Finch and Reese assume that The Machine gave them Tulley’s alias’s Social Security Number because someone knows he’s an undercover cop. Michael Cahill/Daniel Tulley is the victim.
Did They Stop The Crime In Time?
Reese continues his own undercover job as the smuggling ring makes a transaction in the kitchen of Mr. Su’s restaurant. The chef plans to sell the drugs to L.O.S. himself, and a firefight ensued, killing the chef and fatally injuring Ajax. The smugglers and Reese hide inside a warehouse in the Brooklyn docks, and then Vargas asked everyone to destroy their phones and toss their weapons aside. Detective Byrne and his team lost Cahill’s location, and Finch also lost Reese’s. Vargas knows one of the smugglers is a cop, and he plans to find and kill him.
Cahill gives the wounded Ajax a bottle of water while he discreetly takes the youngster’s phone. Ajax grabs his hand, begging to be taken to the hospital. Finch asks Detective Carter to look for Reese, and he gives the smugglers’ car license plate as a tip. Reese made a tourniquet for Ajax, but he lost a lot of blood. Cahill discreetly takes Ajax’s phone, then texts Byrne about their whereabouts.
Detective Lionel Fusco meets with a high-ranking officer of the criminal organization, HR, Officer Patrick Simmons. Fusco wants to shake down Vargas’s, and he asks Simmons if he wants a cut. Simmons doesn’t trust Fusco because his old crew is in prison, yet he still tells him he can shake down Vargas if he is not paid up with HR.
After the meeting, Finch calls Fusco for help. He guides the detective to break into an IAB safe room and shred Tulley’s documents. (Earlier, Carter told Finch about breaking into the safe room being a federal offense.) After the detective shreds Tulley’s documents, a detective named Ian Davidson arrests him. In the car, Fusco defends his actions because a police officer’s life is at stake. Through the earpiece, Finch reassures Fusco that he and Reese will protect him. Davidson calls Vargas about the shredded file and says that the mole made a phone call from the warehouse. Fusco learns Davidson is Vargas’s informant, and Davidson knocked him out.
Vargas can’t find Ajax’s phone in his pockets. He asks everyone where Ajax’s phone is and is about to dial it. Reese points at Cahill, and they fight; Reese discreetly takes away the phone from Cahill’s jacket. Vargas calls the phone, and it rings inside Reese’s jacket. Vargas and his crew beat Reese up and tie him to a chair, even though Reese warned them of “his reinforcements.” Cahill offers to torture him one-on-one, and Vargas allows him. After the ringleader left, Cahill learns that Reese knows he’s an undercover cop and a family man who wants to go home. Cahill says he can’t go home while L.O.S. is still out there, and Reese promises he will help him get home. Cahill shares the next exchange’s location (the scrapyard), as Vargas returns. The ringleader tells Cahill there’s no more time to interrogate Reese, and Cahill “kills” Reese on his behalf.
After the crew dumps them in the back of a car, Cahill places a flashlight on Reese’s jacket and then burns the car. Reese escapes; Carter finds him, and Finch contacts him again through the detective’s phone. Reese and Carter head to the scrapyard with weaponry; Finch informs Reese that Vargas’s informant, Davidson, has Fusco, and they can’t save both him and Cahill.
In the scrapyard, Vargas’s crew meet with L.O.S. and his men for the drug transaction. After L.O.S. walks away, Cahill takes him at gunpoint, and everyone else, including Vargas, pulls their weapons. Reese and Carter take everyone one by one with gunshots, except LO.S. and Cahill. The drug lord warns Cahill that he will go after him, and Reese knocks him out. Cahill arrests L.O.S., but Reese tells him there won’t be any charges because the drug lord is a part of the CIA, and the Company uses drug money to fund their war on terror. Cahill arrests L.O.S. still.
Reese and Carter stopped Cahill’s murder in time.
The Threads After
In a forest, before Davidson is about to execute Fusco, he tells him that he will always be dirty and no one’s coming to save him. Fusco refuses to give Finch and Reese’s identities, and he shares his realization to do good before his close calls with death. Davidson makes Fusco kneel, and he’s about to kill him… then Reese saves Fusco just in time by killing Davidson. Reese checks Davidson’s phone Fusco took, and he destroys it. Reese tells an astounded Fusco to go undercover inside HR; Fusco needs HR’s help to cover up Davidson’s murder. A disappointed Fusco says, “My hands are dirty, always will be, huh?”
From afar, Finch and Reese see the Tulley family outside their home. They are going to the hospital for the birth of a new brother. Finch informs Reese that Mark Snow arranges L.O.S.’s release, and Reese plans to protect Cahill.
Snow and L.O.S. exit the precinct. Snow reassures L.O.S. that they take care of their own; the latter tells the former that a detective (Carter) and an undercover cop (Reese) have to go. Snow tells him that he’s impulsive and he shouldn’t have been arrested. As L.O.S. goes inside the car, agents put a black hood over his head while Snow looks.
Fusco walks away from the forest with a shovel in his left hand, and he meets Simmons. Fusco asks Simmons for help to cover up Davidson’s murder, and he will be indebted. The officer grimly says, “You’ll be a little more than indebted, my friend. You belong to HR now.”
Other Threads
To be updated soon.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Thoughts & Feelings
The Episode Title
According to Wikipedia, the blue wall of silence (also known as blue code) is an informal code of silence among police officers in the United States regarding their colleagues’ errors, misconduct, or crimes.
On Michael Cahill/Daniel Tulley
I’ve mentioned several times in my previous reviews that childhood can affect anyone’s journey. This time, I will bend that statement somehow. One important part of Daniel Tully’s younger period led to his journey to becoming a police officer and fighting the war on drugs: the overdose of his younger brother, Connor, after he graduated high school.
His determination to fight that war is incredible. Firstly, he went undercover as a smuggler to take down L.O.S., Vargas, and his crew. Secondly, after Reese told him that L.O.S. is a part of an intelligence agency, he still arrested him. But, of course, he is not blinded by his determination. At the end of the day, he’s still a man who wanted a better life for his family, and before his undercover job ended, he went back home for a while to feel normal, even if that was risky. Eventually, Team Machine helped him escape and brought him back to his real life as a father, husband, and cop.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Standouts
The First Mention of HR
A massive group of corrupt police officers and public officials have been working since the series started, and they backed up Carl Elias (mob boss and a previous number Reese saved in “Witness”) when he ordered the killing of Carter in “Get Carter.” Now, in “Blue Code,” their organization’s name is revealed: HR.
Yes, it’s simple, but in a pretty grounded world with an AI surveillance system watching everyone every day, simplicity fits—they are a group of people in power working hand in hand to protect their selfish interests.
The Closing Scene’s Music
Person of Interest is a serious sci-fi/crime drama series that deals with artificial intelligence, ethics, and choice, and their moments of hope seem rare. But after the first time I watched “Blue Code” (and the many viewings after that), I felt an icky hopelessness and sadness not just because of the closing scenes (from Fusco almost being killed to being owned by HR) but also the accompanying music: the slow-tempoed, dark experimental song, “If I Had a Heart” by Fever Ray. It’s perfect.
Speaking of Fusco…
Fusco’s Risks
In the first episode, Fusco was already aligned with Detectives James Still and Louis Azarello, corrupt cops who shake down drug dealers. Reese convinced Fusco—at gunpoint—to work for him and change his ways in the process, and over the next several episodes, he did change while still being him, a guy of humor and pessimism.
But in “Blue Code,” he took a big risk for Team Machine by shredding confidential files to save Cahill’s life, which is a federal offense. Thankfully, Reese saved Fusco just before Davidson was about to murder him. But in destroying the evidence that Davidson was killed, Reese also introduced a bigger risk to Fusco: asking for HR’s help to cover up the murder and go undercover for the team.
My hands are dirty, always will be, huh?
When Fusco said that line, I felt really bad for him because he was doing great as a good cop, and now his redemption is being tested, and HR owns him. Good luck, Fusco.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Conclusion
In “Blue Code,” one of the Person of Interest’s darkest episodes (in my opinion), Team Machine went to great lengths to bring an undercover cop home, and it placed their most humorous member, Fusco, on a dangerous undercover of his own. The closing scenes with the dark, experimental music are some of the grimmest I’ve ever seen without being too violent, and I still feel hopeless and sad seeing those, even years after the series ended in 2016.
Rating: 👁️👁️👁️👁️
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Summary, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Disclaimer: This is simply an in-depth analysis from a fan. No copyright infringement is intended in any show-related media featured in this post.
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