Person of Interest: Matsya Nyaya
November 29, 2024 8:20 AM - Season 1, Episode 20 - Subscribe

The Machine's latest mark puts Reese undercover as part of an armored truck crew.

This is a flashback heavy episode so I will use bold text to indicate flashbacks.

John receives a phone call from an obviously distraught Jessica who says she understands what John meant when saying that everyone is alone and no one is coming to save you. John tells her he is coming in 24 hours and to wait for him.

Reese and Finch meet at the library to discuss the next number provided by the Machine, Tommy Clay (played by Pablo Schreiber) an employee at an armoured car company. Finch has arranged for John to be trainee working with Tommy in order to protect him. Reese discovers that the driver, Murray Langston and Tommy are not really prepared to prevent a robbery.

Agent Snow and Alicia Corwin inform Reese and Stanton that they are being redirected to a new operation, obtaining a laptop and stolen software from Ordos, China. Reese says that he can't go on the operation, but is told that he will do the job. Agent Snow also advises Reese that he will need to kill his partner as she has been compromised. He tries to call Jessica, but gets her voice mail instead.

Finch identifies that one of the pickups for the day is two cases of platinum. After the pickup, an explosion overturns the armored truck. Reese is able to shoot both of the robbers, but is then shot in the back by Tommy who escapes with the robbers.

Reese and Stanton arrive in Ordos, China, on the mission given to them by Snow. They find that everyone working on the project has been killed.

Finch and Carter track Reese to the hospital. Carter escorts him and begins helping with the investigation. She interrogates Tommy's wife and confronts her with a box for a diamond bracelet, realizing that Tommy gave it to his affair partner not his wife. Finch hacks AP's phone in order to lure Tommy to call her in order to track him. Tommy is tracked to the Royce Motel by Finch but when Reese arrives, he finds only the dead robbers and empty cases for the platinum.

When finding a man still breathing, he speaks in Chinese to Stanton, saying that they stole the machine. Hearing him talk about a machine, she shoots and kills him. When asked by Reese why she shot him, she says he asked to get rid of the pain. Reese and Stanton then find the Laptop and Reese puts it into one of his bags.

Finch, realizing Tommy uses his AP's name as his password for everything is able to track him. Reese subdues him. However the AP arrives and frees Tommy, only to betray Tommy by shooting him to take the platinum herself. She is then killed by a dirty cop (part of HR) accompanying Fusco. Fusco kills the cop when he threatens Reese and assures Reese it will be easy to frame the situation as a mutually fatal shoot out between the AP and the cop.

As Stanton sets out the glowsticks to signal that the job is done, Reese pulls his gun out to kill her as ordered by Snow. But instead he puts the gun down and says "Kara, I need to tell you something-". Stanton then shoots him in the gut. She says she was ordered to kill him because he was compromised. Reese, realizing everything, gives her the information of what has just happened: they weren't sent there to steal the laptop. They were told to kill each other so that everyone who came in contact with the site and the Machine would be dead. The glowsticks Stanton just set out to signal the job was done are actually just a beacon so that the CIA could blow the place, destroying all the evidence. Stanton, shocked, looks back at Reese to see that he is gone. As Reese runs away from the site, the building explodes.

Finch questions Reese what they accomplished considering all the bloodshed.

Snow and his partner Evans break into a hotel room, thinking that they have traced Reese though a bank account pointed out by a North Korean asset. Instead of finding Reese, they are surprised by Kara Stanton who kills Evans and shoots and wounds Snow. She tells Snow that they have some "catching up to do".

Points of Interest

The title of the episode "Matsya Nyaya" is a reference to a concept in Hindu mythology as "Matsya Nyaya Pranali", whose literal translation is the "law of the fishes". In the West, it is known as "law of the jungle" or that the strong will eat the weaker to survive. With respect to Hinduism, it refers to the fact that "the big fish eats the little fish", which is the universal "law of nature."

Starting with this episode, a modified title sequence is used. When Finch's narration refers to "a partner," Carter is shown shortly after Reese. When he talks about them being "hunted by the authorities," a clip featuring Mark Snow is shown.

According to casting calls, Ordos was filmed in the Rockaway Beach area.

When Reese and Stanton are in Ordos, they are marked as threats by the Machine

Schreiber played Mad Sweeney on American Gods.
posted by miss-lapin (8 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is the second time this season Reese joins a transport crew that is involved in a heist. In s1 e15 Blue Code Reese poses as an EMT that's actually a group of smugglers. Forgot to add that to the post.
posted by miss-lapin at 8:25 AM on November 29 [2 favorites]


Pablo Schreiber also played George "Pornstache" Mendez in Orange if the New Black and is half-brother to Liev. So young here.

Bit of character building, the talk over MREs.Cool origin story.
posted by porpoise at 7:36 PM on November 30 [1 favorite]


“That’s the trouble with angles, Lieutenant. When you add them all up you always get the same answer.”

GEOMETRY JOKE!

Very good episode, the backstory is interesting and it's the best "Is he the victim or the perpetrator" they've done in a while.

I looked up Matsya Nyaya / the law of the fishes also and I liked how they restated it at the end of the episode:

“That’s the trouble with trying to be the bad guy. There’s always someone worse.”
posted by mmoncur at 11:00 PM on November 30 [4 favorites]


KARA LIVES! And while I should have seen the "they both got the eliminate-your-partner order" twist coming, somehow I didn't. Although ... in retrospect that seems an inefficient and error-prone method of eliminating your they-know-too-much-now agents given that -- as happened -- at least one of them survived the kill-each-other order. I guess their handlers just like the drama.

Ashley is yet another hiding-in-plain-sight brains-of-the-operation antagonist.

"You're getting good at this, Lionel."
"I was always good at this."
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:20 PM on December 3 [1 favorite]


According to casting calls, Ordos was filmed in the Rockaway Beach area.

Interesting! I'd always wondered where in the NYC area they shot this.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:20 PM on December 3


They were told to kill each other so that everyone who came in contact with the site and the Machine would be dead.

A little spoilery? I don't think we know at this point what the laptop represents.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:21 PM on December 3


Context for the idea of Ordos being a "ghost city" in China:
Ordos is known for its recently undertaken large scale government projects including most prominently the new Kangbashi District, an urban district planned as a massive civic mall with abundant monuments, cultural institutions and other showpiece architecture. It was the venue for the 2012 Miss World Final.[4]

When it was newly built, the streets of the new Kangbashi district did not have much activity, and the district was frequently described as a "ghost city" by several Western media outlets.
I remember reading about Ordos before I saw this episode.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:24 PM on December 3 [1 favorite]


Although ... in retrospect that seems an inefficient and error-prone method of eliminating your they-know-too-much-now agents given that -- as happened -- at least one of them survived the kill-each-other order.

I suspect they figured even if they didn't both kill each other, one would kill their partner and then the surviving partner would be blown up. But considering they BOTH survived clearly not a good plan.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:33 AM on December 4


« Older Person of Interest: Flesh and ...   |  The Day of the Jackal: Episode... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments