The next irrelevant number on Team Machine’s list: a young Wall Street proprietary trader. Tonight, let me reflect on the 16th episode of Person of Interest (Season 1), “Risk.”
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
Adam Saunders is a young proprietary trader at the investment firm Baylor Zimm. Harold Finch sends John Reese on an undercover mission as his well-dressed asset manager, John Rooney, and they pick Saunders to invest $153,000,000. Rooney Reese couldn’t force-pair Saunders phone, and Finch assumed someone else bluejacked the device first.
Saunders is confident about his trading choices because he reads everything about his clients. For example, he read about Virtanen Pharmaceuticals and Robert Keller (one of the men who tried to kill Zoe Morgan in “The Fix”) and made a short sale on Virtanen before Keller was found guilty, and their stock plummeted. His co-worker, Victor, and his boss, Sydney Baylor, are astounded by the stock drop.
He keeps his trading secrets to himself, even when he goes to the bar with Reese and his co-workers, including his office friend, Paul Ashton. During a bar fight between Saunders and his co-worker Victor (who has clients with Virtanen stocks), Reese interferes and then brings the young prop trader home.
Later, Finch inspects Saunders’ apartment, and he finds bundles of $200 each in his closet. The vigilante duo also learns that Saunders is romantically involved with Sydney Baylor (who also hired him herself). There is also other information: Saunders’ mother died when he was nine years old, Robert Sowoski is his uncle and legal guardian, and an SEC investigation involving him also happened six months ago. Finch also reroutes Saunders’ phone GPRS to clear out whoever bluejacked him earlier.
Victim or Perpetrator?
Carter meets Finch in a taxi, and he asks him for Saunders’ SEC records. When Reese finally force-pairs Saunders’ phone outside his office, the trader is confronted by Doug Rasmussen, an SEC investigator who pursued insider trading charges at Baylor Zimm. Saunders (a subpoenaed witness) testified in favor of the upper management to protect his boss, Baylor, and all charges were dropped.
Reese sees Saunders talking to a food truck owner, his uncle, Robert Sowoski. The Man in the Suit hears them talk about an MLP called Tritak Energy and how much money goes to it lately. Finch updates Reese on his money being deposited to Saunders’ firm. Later, Reese approaches Saunders in his office, but Saunders holds off to talk to Ashton and Baylor individually about Tritak and how half the client and firm invested in it. Ashton warns Saunders that looking into client money is illegal, and Baylor shows concern for him (especially since they almost lost the case Rasmussen pursued).
While Reese and Saunders played golf at night, Reese asks Saunders about him investing his own uncle’s money. Saunders snaps at him, telling him to have his boss’s money invested with another trader. Still upset, Saunders drives Reese home, and Reese notices a construction worker signaling them in a different direction. The vigilante forced Saunders to drive straight, and a backhoe almost hit their vehicle. After Saunders stops the car, Reese finds the backhoe with no driver.
At this point, it’s clear: Adam Saunders is the victim.
Did They Stop The Crime In Time?
Yes, Reese stopped everyone who attempted to kill Saunders.
Firstly, as mentioned earlier, Reese saves Saunders from being funneled and hit by a front loader. Carter investigates the scene and photographs the heavy equipment involved.
Finch also sees more money being invested in Tritak; there may be insider trading involved, and Saunders knows it. Finch investigates further by interviewing Saunders’ uncle, Robert Sowoski, and learns a few things: he thinks something fishy is going on with Tritak; Saunders’ biological father sends $200 every month, and Saunders used the money to enroll in night classes and eventually a business school.
After Rasmussen confronts Saunders one more time (this time, about Tritak), another attempt on Saunders’ life comes when he receives a text from his boss/lover, Sydney Baylor, to meet on the rooftop. After he arrives, a masked assassin knocks him out. He almost throws Saunders off the building when The Man in the Suit arrives just in time to take down the assassin and save the trader. At the 8th precinct, a police officer hands Carter a utility yard’s report of stolen vehicles: a backhoe, a steamroller, and a refurbished garbage truck.
Reese and Saunders arrive at Baylor’s penthouse, and they find her dead in her bathtub. Reese realizes that because Saunders spent time with Baylor last night, his fingerprints are all over the place, including the murder weapon, a champagne bottle. After Reese and Saunders leave, Carter and CSU investigate the crime scene. Carter theorizes that whoever stole the garbage truck earlier may have searched for the champagne bottle in the basement’s garbage and planted the weapon there.
Reese brings Saunders to a temporary settlement for the homeless where Reese himself stayed for a few months. Reese gives Saunders a burner phone and tells him not to call anyone except him; Saunders tells him to find Victor. Reese goes back to The Library, and Finch learns a fracking bill is being passed, which drops Tritak’s stock and costs millions. Reese confronts Victor about Tritak, and the senior broker tells him that someone influenced the senators to pass the fracking bill. Saunders reads the news of the Tritak drop, and he calls Reese to find the broker who short-sold Tritak. Saunders also apologizes to his uncle, Robert, for the Tritak drop, and he will find a way to get his money back.
At night, Finch breaks into Baylor Zimm’s office. After hacking into their system, he learns that Paul Ashton made the Tritak short-sale worth $4,000,000. Saunders tells Reese that Ashton’s short-selling is impossible, and then The Man in the Suit assumes that Ashton is working with someone at the SEC. In his car, Finch bluejacks Ashton, and he hears him talk to Rasmussen about the short sale and getting rid of Saunders.
The final attempt on Saunders’ life comes when someone locates Saunders’ location via his phone call to Robert, and a team of hired assassins with automatic weapons arrives at the temporary settlement. The homeless run away and hide, while Reese protects Saunders and shoots the assassins with his handgun.
The Threads After
Reese and Finch conclude there’s a mastermind behind Ashton and Rasmussen’s Tritak scam, and Finch advises Saunders to return to work. The next day, Tritak’s stock reaches an all-time high. A panicked Ashton learns that Saunders bought all of the new Tritak stock on behalf of Finch’s cover, Harold Crane. The police arrive to arrest Ashton and Rasmussen, and the latter runs after Saunders, only to be punched by Reese.
Saunders visits Robert in his food truck and gives him the money back. He asks for his uncle’s forgiveness, and he embraces him. After reconciling, they talk about franchising the food truck business. Meanwhile, Reese helps an amused Joan and the other homeless people in cleaning up the temporary settlement. Reese tells Joan that Saunders bought the settlement, and Joan doesn’t need to move out. Reese then thanks Joan for looking out for him during his stay there. Joan asks him who’s looking out for him now, and Reese simply replies, “Someone new.” Finch hears their conversation and moves his glasses for a bit.
With Ashton now in custody, Carter asks a police officer about Rasmussen’s whereabouts. The officer tells her that the SEC agent died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Carter checks surveillance footage of Ashton’s and Rasmussen’s arrest, and sees a familiar face in a police uniform dropping a phone in the trash: Scarface, Elias’s right-hand man.
On a rooftop, Carter hints to Reese at the real mastermind behind the Tritak scam, who will use the $300,000,000 he scammed for his personal war, and gives him the phone she retrieved earlier. Reese calls the phone, and Elias answers, “Hello, John. Been a long time.”
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Thoughts & Feelings
The Episode Title
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, risk means the possibility of loss or injury and someone or something that creates or suggests a hazard.
And according to Investopedia, risk, in financial terms, is the chance that an outcome or an investment’s actual gains will differ from an expected outcome, usually leaving one worse off.
On Adam Saunders & Finance
As I mentioned before in my previous reviews, childhood can affect anyone’s journey. But then again, anyone has the freedom of choice. Adam Saunders grew up without a father, even though he still provided for him financially. But instead of spending those bundles of $200 on anything a kid wanted, Saunders, to quote his uncle, “bought himself a future.” That’s a great mindset to have when you’re young, and now he thrives as a proprietary trader—even though he ends up gambling client money daily and digging into information he shouldn’t have.
Honestly, while I’m fine financially lately, I can do better. Also, I wish I could’ve been as thrifty as Saunders early in life. In fact, I’ve seen Person of Interest so many times, and I’ve also seen a few series that explored the financial world, and I’m still a dunce when it comes to that world’s terms. I need to learn (and relearn) more about those.
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Standouts
Modus Operandi Shakeup
In “Risk,” somehow the vigilante duo’s modus operandi is shaken. Firstly, Reese wore a suit finer than his usual hired-assassin uniform, and he had to learn a thing or two about finance before meeting Saunders. He pulled the asset manager cover off quite nicely. Also, nice glen check suit, Reese. I’d like to own one someday.
Secondly, while Reese was at Baylor Zimm with Saunders, Finch pulled a page off Reese’s playbook: monitoring from a rooftop far away, even if he doesn’t like it.
Reese: My client prefers to stay anonymous. He’s the silent type.
Finch: He’s also not fond of heights. I thought rooftops were your domain, Mr. Reese?
Reese Is Grateful for Finch (Again)
At the end of the episode “Judgment,” Reese thanked his boss, Finch, for giving him a job. He actually meant it, and Finch was quietly moved. In “Risk,” when Joan (Reese’s guardian when he became homeless for a few months) asked who was looking after him now, he only said two words: “Someone new.” Reese didn’t need a long speech for Finch; two words were enough for him to acknowledge Finch’s impact on him, and Finch heard it and quietly accepted it.
Sometimes, fewer words and quiet actions have more meaning and impact, and this duo proves that.
Elias Returns
Lastly, of course, a number that Team Machine protected and a recurring villain returned: the cunning mob boss, Carl Elias. After all that cloak-and-dagger in Baylor Zimm, it turns out he was the real mastermind behind the Tritak scam.
Let me quote Reese’s question to Finch after the episode “Witness”:
…how many of those numbers will come up because we saved one man’s [Elias’s] life?
Elias now has more than a million dollars to take over the criminal world. More numbers will definitely come up, and Team Machine might have to scramble to save them. Here’s the question: is saving Elias earlier worth it now?
Navigation: Introduction, Episode Breakdown, Thoughts & Feelings, Standouts, Conclusion
Conclusion
In “Risk,” Team Machine went into the world of finance to protect their number, and for someone with minimal knowledge in that field, it was a doozy, and it made me reflect personally on my financial choices. And after all that, it turns out Elias (a number they protected) was behind the scam, and that was perfectly executed. Now the criminal mastermind is back in the fold, and Finch, Reese, Carter, and even Fusco (who didn’t appear in this episode) will need to protect more numbers. Exciting times.
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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