Person of Interest 1.19 'Flesh and Blood' Recap

This week on Person of Interest, Elias is back and he plans on making his biggest splash yet. That means there will be blood and at one point someone close to a member of the Machine team may suffer as well in Elias'thirst for power. The machine spits out five numbers at once, the Dons of five different crime families in the city so it doesn't take long to figure out that it's Elias who wants to take them all out. For Elias it's more personal than business as the episode takes us back in its oldest flashback sequences yet all the way back to 1981 and 1991 to see what young Elias was like growing up as the bastard son of feared gangster, Moretti.

If you will recall, it was mentioned this season that Elias'mother was murdered as a result of Moretti's orders and so without any parent around young Carl Elias grows up with a definite chip on his shoulder as he grows up in foster care. When he gets a little older he seeks out his father and ends up briefly as a bit of a gofer in his father's organization. Until the day when Moretti decides he'd rather not have his illegitimate spawn around anymore and sends him out to the woods in the dead of night with a couple of thugs to finish him off. We get to see Elias'tenacity in action as he fights both men off and walks away unscathed with two bodies in his wake even accompanied by his own epic '�villain in the making'musical score. It's a small taste of what he'll go on to accomplish in the next few years as back in the present he manages to take out two of the three targets before Reese, Finch, and Detectives Carter and Fusco manage to hole up the other three men in Finch's safe-house.

But anyone who watched the promos on CBS this week, or wondered why there was such focus on Carter's son Taylor again after a lengthy absence could figure out that he was about to be drawn into the situation as a bargaining chip for Elias to use against Carter. It genuinely set up a bit of a dilemma as at one point Elias listed off all the immoral things that these men the police are protecting have been involved in. It was an attempt to give over control of the city to the lesser of two evils�though I have my doubts that Elias wouldn't ever do what he stated was so deplorable about the business practices of his current rivals. Having Carter's son in harm's way was an excellent chance for her to resume her trust in Reese and Finch�especially now with the new Federal task force being created to stop her '�man in the suit'. It gave her yet another chance to see the good in what these two men are capable of doing and the lives that they are able to protect.

One of the more satisfying moments of the episode would be when Fusco stuck to his guns even when a rat in the group of men offered him a place at the table if he let Elias through the door�a result of his known reputation of being a dirty cop. When the dust settled and it was revealed that Fusco stayed on the right side it was proof that he's over being bought off so easily. After all, the only reason he's wrapped up in HR again is because Reese needed him to be for the sake of gathering intel. Speaking of HR, probably the most significant scene involved Finch stepping out of the shadows to meet with Officer Simmons of HR personally in order to bring Elias down. I have a feeling that when the heat is on from the Feds for Reese it's going to be this connection that will come through and save the day more than any other so far.

There's something to be said for the fact that the show actually let Elias be arrested and taken to jail. Other series may have wanted him to keep giving the cops the slip so that he could continue to be a threat to the city and to the Machine team. All it took was one well-placed sequence at the end to let the audience know that behind bars or not, Elias has a handle on things. If he wants you dead then you will be dead so Reese and co. had better watch their backs as I wouldn't be shocked to see Elias pull of something else before the end of the season against the people who got him locked up. What makes him such a good villain is even though you shouldn't...you end up wanting to see Elias succeed after all he's been through. With one enemy down for now it's going to be a fight against the Feds as the season finale nears, and the lines our characters wind up on in that battle may not be as one-sided as they were against one common enemy.