Person of Interest (TV Series) All In (2013) User Reviews

Money Laundering

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 26 February 2024]

Reese saves Leon Tao again from two men that want to kill him in a hotel room. Then The Machine delivers the number of Lou Mitchell, who is a widower, gambler and former watchmaker that lives in Atlantic City. Finch learns that Lou lives with a small income from the Social Security, but has lost three-hundred and twenty thousand dollars playing baccarat to a local casino owned by Darien Makris along the last six months. Reese follows Lou to the pharmacy where he receives arthritis medication. Carter finds that Lou was beaten in the past by men from the organized crime since he owed money to them, and his fingers were broken. Soon Finch and Reese find that several senior people are losing large amounts to the casino, in a clear money laundering scheme. Now they want to create a diversion with Leon and Lou to allow Finch to access the casino's servers and find the accounting books to prove the laundering. Meanwhile, Detective Bill Szymanski will testify in the trial of Peter Yogorov. HR contact him and offer to release him per an amount, and soon Yogorov is framed. Carter succeeds to prove his innocence, and the District Attorney and Szymanski are invited to have dinner with Alonzo Quinn, where a tragic event happens.

"All In" is an important episode of "Person of Interest", where the viewer sees how powerful the HR is. The Machiavellian Quinn is the dangerous leader of the organization and together with Officer Patrick Simmons, a permanent danger to the honest NYPD cop. The lead episode with Lou Mitchell is funny and secondary in importance. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "All In"

Worst episode in the series so far..

[A_Different_Drummer · 5/10 · 11 October 2014]

And for the record this is a series I pretty much love.

It is March of 2013 and in the middle of a brutal winter the writers behind this generally excellent series all come down with a case of Brain Freeze.

Seriously. The critical flaw in the premise behind the show is that, with the wrong script, and the wrong tone, and the wrong direction, suddenly you may find yourself watching an episode of TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL instead of a clever riff on THE BOURNE IDENTITY.

What's wrong with this episode you ask? Pretty much everything. The opening scene is a set-piece taken from 100 forgettable movies, a throw-away scene simply designed to remind the viewer that they are retrieving a "spoofy, comicy" character from an earlier episode who (coincidence!) will be needed for the plot arc in this instalment.

The "number" that pops up requires the duo (now a trio) to head to Atlantic City where every possible cliché about "the mob" is trotted out, and the victim in need of protection (see above) constantly talks about his dead wife and, generally, looks like he would indeed be more at home in a TBAA episode.

The climax, in this case an escape or table-turning (reversal) after being caught by the bad guys, is terribly done, and seems more random or lucky than any sort of well-planned action scene.

Even Bear, who does a walk-on in the aforesaid opening scene, seems eager to get back to his trailer and away from this horror.