Mission Creep- Thank you so much for another fun reaction for Person of Interest, Jessie! I truly appreciate all of your insights regarding Reese's feelings about Jessica and how he treats her, and your insights regarding his need to help Joey. And I absolutely agree with you one hundred percent.
I really love this episode a lot!! I especially love the main storyline with Joey and the team of robbers with whom Reese infiltrates to protect Joey as best as he can. Joey is a really good character and I love his character on account of how noble he is for taking care of his friend's wife and daughter after his friend is killed in Afghanistan. Yes... Joey is a criminal. His actions are still wrong, of course. However, he's also still a good guy, doing something bad for good reasons. And I love him! More so... I really love that Reese helps him to get away with his girlfriend.
I also absolutely really love how Reese struggles to help Joey, while trying to convince Finch that Joey's worth saving.
Joey is definitely wrong for choosing to rob banks and other places such as the gambling hall in order to make much more money than he ever could at his everyday job. However, I understand why he does so. I understand his desperate need to honor his friend and to pay the debt he believes he owes him upon his friend's death in their war. And I really appreciate the personal reasons for Joey doing as he's doing. He's a complex character, whose personal story allows for me to feel deeply for him, and to want him to be happy with his fiancée. I really love it. And I love how their story reminds Reese of his past relationship with Jessica. Which makes me hurt for Reese, as well as for Jessica all the more.
As for the scene with Joey's girlfriend... I love how Reese seeks to learn if she is as loyal to Joey as he is to her. Because Reese is trying to figure out if Joey really does deserve to be saved. Reese knows Joey will have to go to prison if he doesn't quit, but he's looking for information to help him decide whether or not Joey deserves his help to leave New York under a new name and with a new life for him and his girlfriend. I just absolutely love all of Reese's efforts to try to understand Joey's full story when the police and anyone else would simply see him as a robber, thief, and killer, because he does see that Joey is a good man. And I am so happy that Reese's efforts and drive to save Joey pay off in the end. I love it!
There are also a lot of twist and turns throughout this episode. And as for Carter... her character grows and gets better as the show continues. Sadly... Fusco isn't in this episode, but he too gets better as this show continues on too. I really love both of these detectives.
As for the recruiter from the bar... He is played by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. And I know him as the police Captain from the TV series... Castle. The robbers' recruiter is not a good guy, and I love that he dies at the hands of his own boss, which sets up a big mystery involving someone named Elias, and an upcoming story arc. This show's only getting better. Just you wait! :)
And lastly... I really love the backstory between Reese and his former girlfriend, Jessica, whom he is very clearly still in love with. I appreciate seeing this side of him, because like we see in the Pilot episode... Reese is a broken man ready to die upon the revelation that this woman he loved is dead. And while her death is clearly Reese's breaking point, the backstory within this episode allows us to see that Reese had already begun to break even before he learned of Jessica death. You can absolutely see the pain in his eyes when he's pushing Jessica away. Not because he doesn't want to be with her any longer, but because his job has begun to make him believe he's unworthy of her and that she deserves someone better than him. Someone like Peter. And he believes that in the end, he will just wind up dying alone. A burdened life that John pushes her away from in order to protect her from himself.
And as to whether or not Peter was mentioned before within the Pilot episode... the answer is no. Jessica was talking about a friend in the Pilot, and she had been on the phone with her mother, who Jessica never talked to about Reese. Peter and her being engaged is a new reveal within this episode. Also... the events shown within this flashback takes place after the backstory shown in the Pilot, after Reese had made the difficult choice to return to fighting upon learning about 9/11. Only at some point, Reese is offered a special job within the government, where he falls down an even darker path that causes him to become the man he is in the present. I hope all of this makes sense.
Oh, and yes... Jim Caviezel absolutely pulls off the salt and pepper hair! He is a gorgeous man, and a phenomenal actor!! The look in his eyes in the very end absolutely breaks my heart every time I watch this moment between him and Jessica. I feel so badly for them both.
Thank you so much for this reaction, dear friend! I'm so happy that you enjoyed this episode and I can't wait for more!! Until next time, Jessie...
Sincerely,
Heidi