Dead Reckoning (Person of Interest)

"'Dead Reckoning" is the 13th episode of the second season of the American television drama series Person of Interest. It is the 36th overall episode of the series and is written by Erik Mountain and directed by John Dahl. It aired on CBS in the United States and on CTV in Canada on January 31, 2013. The episode's title refers to "dead reckoning", the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimations of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time..

Plot[]

Flashbacks[]

In 2010, after the explosion in Ordos, Kara Stanton (Annie Parisse) is taken to the hospital. A mysterious man (John Nolan) visits her, fully aware of her CIA records and identity. The man constantly visits her and then offers her a chance of working with him and get revenge against the person responsible for everything and the person who sold the laptop.

Present day[]

Carter (Taraji P. Henson) regains consciousness following the crash but finds Donnelly (Brennan Brown) dead and Reese (Jim Caviezel) gone. Finch (Michael Emerson) calls her and upon freeing herself from the handcuffs, tells her to leave the scene. He is told by Carter that Kara Stanton (Annie Parisse) took Reese.

Reese wakes up in a bus with Kara and Agent Snow (Michael Kelly) with both Reese and Snow strapped to a bomb suit. Carter is called by Fusco (Kevin Chapman) to go to the car crash. She is questioned by Special Agent Brian Moss (Brian Hutchison) but she claims no involvement. Fusco reveals that he knows she was on the scene as he found her earring at the crash. They meet with Finch, who gives them access to all of Kara's records but question what her motives would be.

Reese and Snow go to a warehouse where they must retrieve a hard drive for Kara. When the seller demands more money, Kara tells Reese to kill the sellers. When he hesitates, Kara kills the sellers from a distance and Reese and Snow take the drive. She has them knock out ATF agents to assume their identities but Reese uses the opportunity to send Finch a decoded message revealing his location before discarding the phone. Reese and Snow then head to a building and gain access to a secret floor where they subdue the guards to enter. Finch discovers that the floor belongs to a shell corporation belonging to the Department of Defense and the building has a cybersecurity system while developing programs like Stuxnet and Flame. He deduces Kara is trying to get a cyber-weapon.

Reese and Snow take a lab technician named Kevin (Cameron Scoggins) to gain access to the facility's main laboratory and realize that they house servers with military malware used to destroy enemy servers. There is a super virus in the servers called "Cygmus" which could be used to deactivate all technology in the world, including the Machine. The servers can only be erased if there is a security breach so Reese sets out to delete all information. But Snow, not wanting to put his life on risk, fights Reese to continue with the mission. But Kara shows up, revealing she only wanted them to destroy the servers and only cared for the drive. She takes them to another laboratory where she installs the drive, activates the bomb suits and locks Reese, Snow and Kevin on the lab. They escape but Snow leaves first, intending to go to after Kara.

Reese goes to the rooftop to let the bomb go off and avoid civilian casualties, only to find Finch waiting for him, who helps him deactivate the bomb. Kara then receives a call from the mysterious man, who gives her the name of the person who sold the laptop and writes it on a note. She gets in her car, only to find Snow in the backseat and both die as the vest explodes. The FBI then deem Snow the "Man in the Suit", closing the case and clearing Reese's off suspicion. The final scene shows the car explosion and then the note, revealing Finch as the man who sold the laptop.

Reception[]

Viewers[]

In its original American broadcast, "Dead Reckoning" was seen by an estimated 15.71 million household viewers and gained a 3.2/9 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This means that 3.2 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode, while 9 percent of all households watching television at that time watched it.^[1] This was a slight increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 15.67 million viewers with a 3.3/9 in the 18-49 demographics.^[2] With these ratings, Person of Interest was the second most watched show on CBS for the night, beating Elementary and Two and a Half Men but behind The Big Bang Theory, first on its timeslot and third for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory.

With Live +7 DVR factored in, the episode was watched by 19.33 million viewers with a 4.3 in the 18-49 demographics.^[3]

Critical reviews[]

"Dead Reckoning" received critical acclaim from critics. Phil Dyess-Nugent of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A" grade and wrote, "I suppose you could chalk this up to my being nuts, but as far as spy thrillers about chickens coming home to roost go, I enjoyed this hour of television more than I did Skyfall, with its unfortunate last-act development of the villain turning into a suicidal, blubbering mess of mommy issues. If 'Dead Reckoning' goes soft in its last act, it's in the focus on Reese's self-sacrificial nobility, as, the minutes ticking down, he forsakes both revenge and human contact, preferring to go hide on the roof so he can blow up without hurting anybody."^[4]

Tim Surette of TV.com wrote "It was one of those things that was so shocking when you first see it, but after thinking about it for two nanoseconds, you realize that's more of Person of Interest trying to lead you down the wrong path. Worst case scenario, it's one of those misunderstandings that Reese and Finch can laugh off later."^[5]

Sean McKenna of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 3.2 star rating out of 5 and wrote "There were some entertaining parts for sure , but overall the episode left me disappointed, especially when Person of Interest normally spits out solid and engrossing episodes."^[6]

References[]

External links[]

• "Dead Reckoning" at IMDb