PROTEUS (2.17)

SYNOPSIS:
After the machine gives Reese and Finch six numbers at once, their search for clues leads them to a coastal town where they are forced to ride out a storm with a group of locals in a police station. However, as the weather rages outside, a sinister situation arises inside when they realize there is an unidentified killer hiding among them.

RECAP:
A brief three day hiatus without any numbers from the machine has Finch worried - could Agent Stanton's virus be to blame? Luckily, Finch and Reese soon find themselves with six new numbers, spread out across the country, with the lone New Yorker being Jack Rollins. Finch tries to find connections between the six POIs, all men who mysteriously vanished after a certain period of time, while Reese follows Rollins' paper trail to Owen Island, where he supposedly went in a hurry. While Reese heads for the island, Finch investigates Rollins' workplace and finds 32 human teeth in a basement furnace, and they quickly realize they're searching for a serial killer who assumes the identities of his victims. With a massive storm moving in, communications go down and Reese gets trapped on the island with an FBI agent, Alan Faber, and a handful of other locals at the sheriff station. Finch takes a sea plane and lands on the island, hoping to warn Reese about the serial killer, and they wind up administering a jerry-rigged polygraph to all the people holed up at the station. When one of the locals disappears out into the storm, Reese gives chase to capture him, only to discover the body of the real Agent Faber in the truck of his car. Back at the station, Declan, the killer, corners Finch and plans to assume his identity next. Luckily, Detectives Carter and Beecher arrive in the nick of time and killer Declan, saving Finch. After avoiding the issue for a while, Carter finally confronts Beecher about his issues with Internal Affairs. He appears stunned by her accusations and gives very noncommittal answers, which puts Carter even more on edge.

PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS:
http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/photos/1000231/season-2-episode-17/

Air date: March 7, 2013
Written by Sean Hennen and directed by Kenneth Fink.

RELEVANCE (2.16)

We open in Berlin, where we meet a fiery, skilled field agent named Shaw, who efficiently takes out a trio of suspected terrorists with her genius and tech-savvy partner, Cole. The duo operates quite a lot like Reese and Finch, though it is unclear what their connection is to our heroes. After the Berlin job is done, Cole informs Shaw that they have a new number, and that they're headed to New York City. Once in New York, they begin to stake out their new target, while Cole begins to question where, exactly their numbers and intel comes from. Shaw reminds him that their source is never wrong, and that they've prevented countless terrorist attacks because of it, but Cole is determined to get answers. He tells Shaw that he unearthed some odd irregularities in a past job (Krugman) that trace back to their superiors, and that he's asked for a formal internal investigation. That investigation never happens, however, because Shaw and Cole are set up inside a kill house, where Cole is mortally wounded. Shaw escapes, with a little help from Reese, before shooting him and making a run for it. Shaw's handler, Wilson, contacts Special Counsel and informs him of the situation, which is grave, to say the least. Despite her being one of their best operatives, Special Counsel wants Shaw found and neutralized as soon as possible. Shaw vows to avenge her partner's death, so she sets up a meeting with Cole's information contact, who turns out to be Root in disguise. Root disables Shaw and tries to extract information from her, but another hit team arrives and interrupts the interrogation. Reese comes to Shaw's rescue, but Root escapes. Reese takes Shaw to Finch, who encourages her to let them help her disappear, but she's determined to extract vengeance for Cole's death. Shaw then sets up meet with Special Counsel, where she gives him Cole's information, kills Wilson, and escapes. Hersh sneaks up on her and poisons her, but our heroes are there to save her once again. At the end of the episode, Finch offers her his card, which she takes and then disappears.

Air date: February 21, 2013
Written by Amanda Segel & Jonathan Nolan, and directed by Jonathan Nolan.

BOOKED SOLID (2.15)

Reese and Finch go undercover at a swanky hotel as a bellhop and concierge, respectively, to protect Mira Dobrica, an Albanian immigrant who works as a maid. With over 700 guests at the hotel at any given time, the threat to Mira's life could seemingly come from anywhere, but as Reese gets closer to her, it's clear that her involvement with a daring journalist staying at the hotel presents the biggest threat to her safety. The journalist, Charles Harris, is working on a piece about a former Serbian Colonel named Petrovic, who committed war crimes in Kosovo that Mira saw with her own eyes. Unfortunately, Petrovic's people have figured out that Mira is Harris' informant, and they will do anything to silence both of them, including sending a hit squad to the hotel. Reese manages to disarm the hitmen and save Mira, but she has another close call later at the police precinct, where Carter and Fusco have to intervene and shoot the final hitman to save her life.

Air date: February 14, 2013
Written by Nic Van Zeebroeck & Michael Sopczynski, and directed by Frederick E. O. Toye.

ONE PERCENT (2.14)

Reese and Finch must protect Max Preston, a self-made internet billionaire and playboy with a penchant for breaking rules and making enemies. Preston helped create a social networking site with his partner Brian Ogilvy, who appears to be one of his closest friends, and the pair recently made the decision to take the company public. Finch speculates that Preston's competitors might want to harm him to prevent this from happening, so Reese has to go undercover as a hedge fund manager to see if he can suss out a threat. Preston, as it turns out, doesn't stick to anything close to a schedule, and Reese and Finch have problems keeping up with his active lifestyle. Reese is forced to break his cover to get close to Preston, and he winds up saving Preston's life twice from an unknown assailant. Preston is able to deduce quite a bit about Reese and Finch based on their actions, and his natural curiosity about them disturbs Finch greatly. Unsure of where to watch for threats, Reese accompanies Preston to St. Petersburg, Russia, at his urging, hoping to lie low until the company officially goes public. While there, Preston is abducted by thugs hired by his partner, Ogilvy, who learned of his plans to leave the company and start another one of his own, with a competing technology. Ogilvy couldn't let that happen, so he decided to kill Preston. Luckily, Reese intervenes in the nick of time, saving Preston's life and bringing the people who conspired against him to justice. In flashbacks, we get a glimpse into the partnership between Finch and Nathan Ingram. There are flashbacks to 9/11, which helped provide a stronger motivation for them to create the machine, and flashbacks to the day the machine was dismantled and moved, where the two men ended their partnership. In many ways, it mirrors the relationship between Preston and Ogilvy, with the two men ultimately going their separate ways due to ideological differences.

Air date: February 7, 2013
Written by Denise Thé & Melissa Scrivner-Love, and directed by Chris Fisher.