Recap / Person of Interest S02 E05

Season 2, Episode 5:

Bury the Lede

"Okay, Finch; how am I supposed to protect a woman who wants to put me on the front page?"

— Reese

The latest number belongs to Maxine Angelis, a newspaper reporter whose ambition to get the big scoop may have landed her in trouble.

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Tropes present in this episode include

• Amusement Park of Doom: The final shootout takes place on a carousel.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!:
  Fusco: You want anything else from me, never mention my son again.
  Simmons: I'm not a threat to your son. You are.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Reese snarks that he didn't get a good look at the men shooting at him because they were shooting at him.
• Blackmail:
  • Maxine blackmails Griffin's finance manager to reveal some shady deals.
  • Simmons both threatens and blackmails Fusco into getting him the ledger.
• Blatant Lies: Reese claiming he's wearing the Nerd Glasses Finch got him. He does put them on later.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Maxine tells Reese about the research she's doing for a story about a certain guy in a suit; Reese thinks he sounds like a great guy.
• Call-Back:
  • Simmons confirms that he did see Fusco working with the Man in the Suit during "Firewall".
  • Zoe mentions "The Fix" but is deliberately vague on the details (see Not What It Looks Like).
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Finch brings up Maxine's notes on the Man in the Suit, they contain references to several past episodes.
• The Chessmaster: The boss of HR.
• Clark Kenting: Finch gets Reese some Nerd Glasses to make him appear more intellectual for his date.
• Closet Shuffle: Reese tells Finch they're going back to his apartment, and as Reese's dating website profile says he loves dogs, Finch has to rush over to the apartment with Bear. Reese and Maxine turn up while he's still there, so Finch ducks into a nearby closet only to find Reese's Wall of Weapons there. Despite Bear sniffing at the door he doesn't get discovered, and emerges when Maxine goes to the bathroom.
  Finch: You shouldn't have brought her back here. The longer she stays, the more questions she'll have.
  Reese: (herding Finch to the door) Imagine how many questions she'll have if she comes out and sees you here.
• Compensating for Something: Maxine hopes that's not why John owns such a Cool Car.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Fusco confiscates the ledger for evidence, but only tears out the pages on him and Simmons. Turns out that Simmons knew the identify of the Boss all along, so he ends up protecting the Big Bad anyway.
• Cool Car: The black Porsche John steals for his date with Maxine. In reality, it actually belongs to Jim Caveziel. This in turn leads to some Fridge Humor: John Reese apparently stole Jim Caviezel's car.invoked
• Covert Pervert: Zoe patting Reese's behind.
• Danger Takes A Back Seat: Simmons to Fusco.
• Dating Service Disaster: John and Maxine's first blind date might qualify as this, despite Finch going out of his way to make them the perfect match online.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Finch gets annoyed when Reese is assembling a sniper rifle on his table.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The head of HR was the campaign manager.
• Double Meaning: Quinn tells Maxine that he has to "throw her under the bus" in order to descredit her allegations against his candidate. He's also hinting about the entire scheme being his fault, to hide his role as the head of HR.
• Double-Meaning Title: "Bury the lede" is newspaper slang for not putting the most important fact in the first sentence ("lede") of a story; Maxine is a reporter who is manipulated into outing an undercover informant, who is then murdered by the real bad guys. The "lede" of her story gets buried in a pine box.
• Eye Take: John's reaction to Zoe's Flirtatious Smack on the Ass. It's hilarious.
• Friendly Enemy: Griffin's campaign manager rings up Maxine to let her know they're going to smear her.
• Geeky Turn-On: Finch gets excited when Maxine quotes George Orwell.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Deconstructed. In her haste to get her big story on the front page, Maxine fails to check her sources, relies on circumstantial evidence, and ends up getting an innocent man killed.
• Goshdang It To Heck: Harold says "Oh shoot!" during an Oh, Crap! moment.
• Gun Stripping: Reese cleans his sniper rifle on Finch's desk.
  Finch: I do wish you wouldn't do that here.
  Reese: When I do it in the park, people look at me funny.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Invoked by Reese to take Maxine out for drinks after her mistake, so he can keep guarding her.
• Insane Troll Logic: Maxine supports her belief that Zambrano is guilty with this. "I don't think he was yelling at me because he's innocent." Yes, because innocent people never yell when you accuse them of being criminals...
• It's What I Do: Maxine
• I Was Never Here:
  Zoe: "It was a pleasure meeting you, but it's a shame we never met."
• Killer Cop: The hitmen are ex-FBI.
• Knee-capping: Reese's modus operandi is lampshaded.
  Maxine: Whoever he is, he saves a lot of lives. [Beat] And he shoots a lot of kneecaps.
• Laser Sight: The killers use them for a hit on Maxine — as per usual for this trope, it only warns Reese they're there, giving him time for a Diving Save.
• Little Black Dress: Maxine on her dates.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: The hitmen beat up Reese (but not Maxine) and put his blood under Maxine's nails, so their deaths will look like a domestic dispute.
• The Man Behind the Man: Invoked by the boss of HR.
• Not What It Looks Like: Zoe tells Maxine that she and John spent a couple of long nights together, deliberately letting her draw the wrong conclusion (see below).
• Operation: Jealousy: Reese has an Oh, Crap! moment when he runs into Zoe during their date, but Finch says that being desired by another beautiful woman will make Reese seem more attractive to Maxine. It doesn't hurt that she already knows who Zoe is.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Played with when Reese dons a pair of Clark Kent glasses and seems to assume that they make him unrecognizable when standing in the middle of the police station. Granted that he hadn't planned to be there, but still. To be fair, however, the only picture the police have of him is pretty grainy.
• Perp Walk: Maxine does the Walk of Shame past her whispering colleagues after her article turns out to be untrue.
• Playing Cyrano: Subverted in that Finch and Reese are trying to get close to Maxine to protect her, but Finch sets up an online dating profile for Reese on the same dating site as Maxine and proceeds to write to (read 'flirt with') her as Reese and gets Reese a date with her. Although Finch giving advise re this trope would seem a disaster in the making, it's Reese who stuffs up because he hasn't checked the dating site for what's being said.
• Removing the Earpiece: Reese flicks off his earpiece when Finch prattles on too much Playing Cyrano.
• Stealth Escort Mission: Reese has to help Maxine without exposing himself.
• Throw-Away Guns: Justified; Reese has to get rid of his gun after firing so Maxine won't see it.
• Scandalgate: Fundgate
• Ship Tease: Reese/Zoe
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Invoked Trope.
• Spray And Pray: Reese fires some shots to make the HR assassins keep their heads down while he drives off with Maxine.
• There Is Only One Bed: Despite an obvious opportunity to score with Maxine, Reese takes the couch.
• Urban Legend: The Man in the Suit has become this.
• UST: Noting the Reese/Zoe vibe, Maxine assumes that Reese still has a thing for his 'ex', and so politely breaks up with him at the end of the episode.
• Wall of Weapons: The arsenal contained in John Reese's closet. Finch finds it terrifying.
  Finch: (pointing at closet) When were you ever going to need all those?!
• Workaholic: Maxine. She never stops working, and one of her reasons for breaking up with John is that she considers herself Married to the Job.
• You Can Never Leave: Despite his promises earlier, Simmons tells Fusco he'll never be out of HR.