The push-pull between Harold and John continues in this episode, with John making some small but significant in-roads – though Harold tries to hide it, John is having an impact on his personal choices and John is also able to see through Harold’s cover-up attempt fairly easily. We also see John taking point on the number as a whole, straight-up telling Harold what he needs Harold to deliver to him. John also keeps pushing emotionally, chipping away at Harold’s wall of isolation.
The episode’s number also gives us another chance for more insight into John, both through direct comparison and also with flashbacks to the last time he saw Jessica.
In the Jessica flashback, we get the line – “In the end, we’re all alone, and no one’s coming to save you” – and much like some of Harold’s flashback lines in the previous episode, this is a point of view that John’s current lifestyle actively fights against (though we see him succumbing to this idea again in S4, when he’s more isolated from the rest of the group and locked into being ‘Detective Riley’… actually, that just made me realize we see Harold retreat into his flashback persona in the same way as he’s playing Whistler. He tries to stop caring about the Irrelevant list again, because they have to focus on ‘survival’, the way that flashback!Harold said they need to focus on the ‘greater good’).
Also, wow, what John said to Jess must have echoed so loudly and damningly in his head when he found out what had happened to her. No one’s coming to save you… and, for Jessica, no one did. And he doesn’t ask her to wait for him until she’s too far away to hear the words.
So, John can sympathize with being screwed up and making bad choices – the scene where he’s talking to Finch about being able to understand where the number is coming from reminds me, actually, of the Joss and John interrogation scene from the pilot, only with Reese on Carter’s side of things.
The episode uses John‘s past to add depth to the episode’s storyline, and it does the same with Joss – we see her use her past in the military to have a base of knowledge that helps her start to break a case that’s been tough for others to even begin to crack.
Joey’s situation goes back to that theme of loss (+guilt) and how it changes us. His friend took his place on patrol and died, so now Joey feels like he needs to make it up to his friend’s family, and he’s put his own life in danger to do that. I’m very interested to see how many numbers this season will share that theme. “Can’t cure someone of guilt.” But, as we see with Joey, you can start to move on from it. Doesn’t mean that the guilt is gone, but you don’t have to be submerged by it.
Also, did I see the name ‘Elias’ on that box? I see the show setting up another long game over there, yep.
The cat-and-mouse with Carter chasing Reese (and then incidentally chasing the robbery gang) was well-done, with a truly excellent conversation at the end. Very solid episode.
Original Post:
mission creep
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