Recap / Person of Interest S01 E08

Season 1, Episode 8:

Foe

Ulrich Kohl after killing Steiller.

Wernick: He's on his way now. What do we assume he knows?
Steiller: Assume he knows everything.

Former Stasi hitman Ulrich Kohl (Alan Dale) arrives in New York, pursued by German intelligence and determined to carry out a mission of revenge against his former colleagues who have since defected to the United States. When the number of his alias, Wallace Negel, XXX-XX-5209, comes up, Reese and Finch intervene to try and stop Kohl before his Roaring Rampage of Revenge reaches his supposedly-dead wife, Anja (Laila Robins), while Carter and Fusco attempt to smooth over a potential international incident.

In flashbacks to 2006, Reese reports for his first CIA operation and meets his new partner, Kara Stanton (Annie Parisse), who has the task of bestowing him with a new operational name. They meet with a pair of American spies who have been flagged — by an anonymous source — as being responsible for helping a terrorist escape the country. Stanton casually murders both spies and orders her new partner to clean up the mess, and comes up with his new name: "John Reese".

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• Actor Allusion: This might not have been intentional, but the first name that Stanton suggests for Reese is Wilson. An ISA agent named Wilson appears in Relevance, played by the real life husband of Stanton's actress.
• Alliterative Name: Heinrich Hauffe, Kohl's first target.
• And Then What?: Reese asks Kohl what he's going to do after he finishes his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. After receiving a fatal gunshot wound from Reese, Kohl reveals he didn't have a tomorrow.
• The Atoner: Wernick (and to lesser extent Steiller) are disturbed by what they did in the Cold War (and in Wernick's case, by what he thought happened to Anja, who wasn't supposed to be involved) and have been trying to live model lives since, with Wernick also showing no resistance when Kohl is prepared to kill him.
• Badass Boast:
  • Reese tells Kohl that he was once tortured with electricity for sixteen hours without even giving up his name.
  • And with the sniper rifle.
  Finch: What if you miss?
  Reese: I wouldn't know. Never have.
• BFG: Reese's Barrett sniper rifle.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Reese hijacking Wernick's ambulance and injecting him with something to counter the poison.
  • Fusco saves Reese from being shot by Kohl while the latter has Reese immobilized.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Kohl attempts to torture Reese for Anja's whereabouts, using his needles to pinpoint nerves. He also did the same to Hauffe before killing him.
  "The ulnar nerve is the largest nerve in the human body that is unprotected. It goes from the shoulder, to the fingernail beds; when it passes through the elbow, it's known as the funny bone." [jabs needle into Reese's right elbow]
• Compromising Call: How Kohl gets a bead on Hauffe, his first target. When Kohl sells off his East German marks, he uses the store's phone to make a call to Hauffe's apartment to see if he's home. Hauffe answers, Kohl goes to his apartment and kills him.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Reese handily beats Heinlein even when the other man has a gun trained on him; Reese throws three punches and Heinlein is down for the count.
• Electric Torture: Reese mentions he was tortured with electricity for 16 hours in Kandahar.
• Establishing Character Moment: The final 2006 flashback is this for Stanton, when she goes straight back to thinking of a new name for John after executing two men right in front of him. She then orders him to dispose of the bodies, and sums up the reality of their job in five words: they're walking in the dark.
• Flashback: To Reese's early days with the CIA, working with Stanton.
• Four Is Death: Kohl's team: he shared triggerman duties with team leader Steiller, Wernick was a Master Forger, and they reported to Hauffe as their case officer. Wherever they operated, death followed.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Kohl went from a guard on the Berlin Wall to one of the deadliest Stasi operatives.
• Going Native: Wernick mentions that the rest of the team was encouraged to drop their German accents when they defected.
• Guns Do Not Work That Way: Kohl's bolt-action Welrod briefly functions in semi-automatic when he takes two shots at Fusco to escape.
• Heel Realization:
  Kohl: You were right to fear me. You were right.
  • Steiler claims that he and the others had this after seeing Kohl become too ruthless, and too eager to assassinate their targets.
• Hidden Supplies: Kohl had stashed a sizable amount of East German Marks (and possibly weapons and other spy gear) in a graveyard plot he had purchased years before.
• Hollywood Silencer: Justified as the Welrod pistol was designed as a silenced weapon.
• Information Broker: Pilcher, who Finch blackmails into giving up information on Kohl and his team before having much of an idea of who they are.
• Ironic Death: Kohl dies sitting up like his first victim and is buried in the plot he used as a supply stash.
• Jumped at the Call: Reese and Kohl. "Your country needs you." Reese bitterly notes that recruiters always say things like that.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Heinlein the German agent is a stone-faced man who took part in Kohl's illegal imprisonment, but seems motivated by genuine passion, shown when stating that Kohl "killed Germans for years", and is willing to cooperate with the Americans to save Kohl's targets after being arrested.
• Loose Floorboard Hiding Spot: Hauffe kept his private documents under a loose floorboard hidden under a dresser.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Kohl, Anja and their daughter dance around this reveal.
• Master Forger: Wernick filled this role for Kohl's team.
• Morality Pet: Kohl lampshaded this with his last words.
  Kohl: They took everything I had, but part of me survived. It was... her.
• Nerves of Steel: When convinced that Kohl has fatally poisoned him, and is going to kill Steiller next and then escape, Wernick shows no desperation or defiance towards Kohl, even wishing him well before collapsing.
  Wernick: Then be at peace, old friend.
• Not Quite Dead: Anja.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Kohl and Reese have a conversation about how both were soldiers who were recruited by ruthless agencies and how they lost everything they had.
  Kohl: My country needed me.
  Reese: Yeah, that's what they always say.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: When Reese is confronted by the German agent Heinlein who says that Kohl's plan is just beginning, Reese replies "Then this is going to be a very long day" before beating Heinlein down with three punches.
• Railing Kill: Kohl kills Steiller by shoving him through a railing as they struggle over Kohl's gun.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Discussed; Carter and Fusco note that the Kohl case is deeper than just a "homicidal geriatric" (in Fusco's words) due to the fact that the German government sent only one man to take on someone as dangerous as Kohl, with no backup from US authorities.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Kohl is determined to murder his former teammates for betraying him.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Heinlein, the German agent, telling Carter and Fusco the truth about Kohl in order to help his targets rather than just stay silent until his Diplomatic Impunity kicks in. When Reese destroys Heinlein's car later on, the latter gives him the necessary information about Anja with little prompting and tells her to save her if he can.
• Secret-Keeper: Steiler was the only one who knew that Anja wasn't really dead.
• Shadow Archetype: Kohl, for Reese.
• Sole Survivor: Wernick is the only person from Kohl's team still alive at the end of the episode thanks to Kohl killing Hauffe and Steiller and Reese killing Kohl.
• Speak of the Devil: When Finch informs Steiller that Kohl is coming for him, Steiller says that Finch is "talking about a dead man". Cue Kohl showing up at his construction site.
• Spotting the Thread: Reese figures out Hauffe is dead thanks to a loose floorboard in his apartment that he opens and rifles through to find a commendation with the latter's name on it.
• Suicide by Cop: Kohl threatens to shoot Anja, forcing Reese to shoot first. He only realizes after that Kohl's gun wasn't loaded.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Kohl displays this when he is able to get the drop on (and later overpower) Steiler, the only one of his old team to put up a fight.
  Kohl: I learned from the best. I learned from you.
• This Cannot Be!: Hauffe when he finds himself face-to-face with Kohl.
  "It can't be you-" [Kohl shoots him]
• Torture Technician: Kohl was a student of inflicting pain on others. Hearing him calmly describe the various nerves in the human body and exactly where he'll cause pain as he jabs acupuncture needles into Reese is genuinely chilling.
• To the Pain: As he's torturing Reese, Kohl lectures him on human nervous anatomy and where exactly he's sticking the needles.
• Un-person: Kohl has been jailed illegally by the German government, hence they can't ask for help officially. "He's not supposed to exist."
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Kohl finds out too late how complicated the world really is.

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