Season 1, Episode 4:
Cura te Ipsum
The latest person of interest is Dr. Megan Tillman (Linda Cardellini), an emergency room doctor by day and bar-hopper by night.
At first, Reese and Finch think that Tillman is being targeted by a serial sex offender named Andrew Benton (Adam Rothenberg), but they soon discover that Tillman is the one stalking Benton, planning to kill him as revenge for when Benton drugged and raped Tillman's sister, who later committed suicide.
Reese turns to Detective Fusco to get Benton's unredacted criminal record. But Fusco's reluctant because Reese has gotten Fusco in trouble with a drug cartel. Reese and Fusco meet with the drug dealers. Not only does Reese beat up the drug dealers, he steals several packets of cocaine from them.
Reese finds Benton in his car and knocks the rapist unconscious. Then Reese places the cocaine in plain view inside the car and crashes the car into a light pole near the police station. Surely Benton is going to jail for a long time.
Except of course that as a rich white guy, Benton is quickly released as if nothing had happened at all. So, just as she had planned, Tillman kidnaps Benton and drives him to a place miles away where she has everything ready to kill him and dissolve the body in lye.
Maybe Tillman should be allowed to kill Benton, but Reese thinks that killing someone will further traumatize Tillman. So Reese goes to intercept her, but just then he's intercepted by the drug dealers, who now demand both their money and their cocaine.
Meanwhile, Detective Carter investigates the police lock-up robbery and visits one of the hostages, "Harold Burdett", an alias of Finch. He manages to throw Carter off the scent, but is convinced that it's only a matter of time before she catches up to them.
In response, Reese blackmails the precinct captain (John Fiore) to get Fusco transferred to the homicide task force, to the desk across from Carter, in order to keep an eye on her.
Tropes present in this episode include:
- Actor Allusion: The title is Latin for "heal thyself", which is an allusion to the Gospel of Luke. As we all know, Jim Caviezel played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.
- Ambiguous Situation/No Ending: The episode ends with Reese debating whether to let Benton go and trust his conscience to punish him, or to simply kill Benton himself.Reese: Andrew, help me make a good decision.
- A later episode heavily implies Reese let him live. But had him thrown in a really shitty prison South of the Border, possibly for life.
- Blackmail: Reese takes photographs of Carter's precinct captain picking up a prostitute, so he can get Fusco transferred to watch Carter.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Reese's first encounter with the cartel thugs is this. He needed to steal some of their drugs, and it was for a good cause.
- Date Rape: Andrew Benton's MO.
- Driven to Suicide: Tillman's sister after Benton raped her.
- Electricity Knocks You Out: Played with. Dr. Tillman zaps Andrew Benton with a taser, and he is almost immediately on the floor, but it is something else the doctor administers via a nasal spray that knocks him out fully long enough for her to restrain him in a wheelchair and wheel him to her van.
- Evil Versus Evil: Reese ponders the possibility that he may never change, but that's all to the good as he can be used to kill people like Benton, who won't change either.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Reese tries this on Benton, but he's got good lawyers.
- Funny Background Event: While Reese takes out three cartel hitters with his hands tied, Fusco looks on in slack-jawed amazement.
- Gratuitous Latin: The title means "Take Care of Yourself" in Latin.
- He Who Fights Monsters: This is Reese's advice to Tillman, to try and convince her not to murder Benton. He's speaking from experience.
- I Don't Want To Know/Disposing of a Body:Reese: Doctor has everything she needs to erase Benton for good.
Finch: What do you mean, "erase"?
Reese: Eight pounds of lye, heated to 300 degrees. Body will dissolve in three hours, give or take.
Finch: I will refrain from asking how you know that. - Holding Hands: Tillman and Reese as she hands him the keys to the van with Benton inside.
- It's a Long Story: Finch's response to how he got his spinal injuries. He's not kidding.
- Naughty by Night: Subverted; Tillman's nighttime social life is actually a cover so she can zero in on Benton.
- Percussive Pickpocket: How Reese gets Benton's wallet.
- Rewatch Bonus: A dark one. The woman that Benton is with at the beginning of the episode can be seen later at the Rape Trauma Meeting.
- Schmuck Bait: Reese has a pistol lying on the table halfway between himself and Benton. However Benton is neither brave or stupid enough to grab for it and give Reese an excuse to kill him.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: I'd get used to it, Fusco.
- Sympathetic Murderer: Tillman intends to be this, given what Benton did to her sister. Reese talks her out of it. It's ambiguous whether he does this in her place, though it's later implied that he dropped Benton in a Mexican jail.
- This Cannot Be!: Tillman breaks down crying over the impossibility of Reese appearing out of nowhere yet somehow knowing everything about her plan to kill Benton.
- Vigilante Execution: Tillman is talked out of it by Reese, who considers doing himself.
- With My Hands Tied: Near the end, Reese proves yet again just how much of a badass he really is when he takes down the cartel thugs with his hands cuffed.
