Recap / Person of Interest S02 E18

Season 2, Episode 18:

All In

Reese and Finch get the number of a retired watch repairman named Lou who spends his days losing money at a casino. While they try to unravel the source of all the money he loses and the nature of the danger he's in, Carter finds that a colleague who is a key witness against a Russian mob figure has just been arrested for corruption by IA and has to figure out what's going on.

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Tropes present in this episode include:

• Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Finch stakes a million bucks on Leon's high roller act, then Lou's Absurdly High-Stakes Game.
• Card Sharp: Lou again.
• Chained to a Bed: Leon thinks it's his lucky day when his girlfriend Candy breaks out the Kinky Cuffs. Then two pissed-off Nigerian gangsters burst in.
• Clear Their Name: Carter tries to prove that Szymanski was set up.
• Continuity Nod: At the end of the episode, Finch hires Lou to repair the two million dollar watch that he had destroyed at the end of "One Percent", which would easily earn Lou enough money to buy the diner his late wife worked at and save it from being bought up and torn down by developers.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon
  Leon: It's not technically a crime to scam a scammer!
  Nigerian gangster: But it is a crime to cut out a man's intestines, and make him wear them as a hat.
• Dirty Cop: Detective Terney, a previously minor recurring character, is revealed to be working for HR.
• False Roulette: A variant. The man with the gun believes it's loaded, but Lou actually managed to steal the bullet.
• I Have Your Friends: Lou and Reese are walking out of the casino scot-free, when it turns out the bad guys have seized Finch and Leon.
• Jizzed in My Pants: Leon commenting on the limo that takes him to the casino as Jason Bao:
  Leon: There was a stripper pole in that thing; I feel weirdly grimy.
• The Lost Lenore: Leon is Drowning My Sorrows over Candy's betrayal. Lou is unwilling to leave the city where his wife is buried. Finch is again reminded of what he had to give up.
• Make It Look Like a Struggle: At the end of the episode after Quinn murders Syzmanski and Wright, Terney enters and Quinn has Terney shoot him in the shoulder.
• Mugging the Monster: Leon is bemused to find the Nigerian gangsters he was scamming on line actually were Nigerian gangsters.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: HR show just how far they're willing to go to regain their former power. When the plan to Frame-Up Szymanski goes sour, Quinn murders both him and the DA handling the case, and is even willing to take a bullet to make it more convincing.
• Nerves of Steel: Reese doesn't even flinch when the revolver's trigger is pulled in his face.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Lou's plan to hurt the casino owner. Also, Leon's interaction with the Nigerian scammers.
• Perp Sweating: Reese is shown in the aftermath of roughing up some hoods for information. When he has more questions to ask after talking to Finch, he goes back for another round.
  Hood: [off-screen] Oh, come on!
• Punk in the Trunk: Reese tells the casino owner his hitmen are in the trunk of a taxi headed for Vermont.
• The Purge: To prepare the groundwork for their assault on the power base of Elias, HR begin to take out threats to themselves. First on the list is Szymanski who buys it when Quinn whips out a suppressed Glock 17 without warning and shoots him clean through the head.
• Russian Roulette: The casino owner's plan to kill Lou, Reese, Finch, and Leon. Of course it doesn't turn out how he was expecting.
• Shout-Out: Reese says that being an international spy and all, of course he knows how to play baccarat.
• Suspicious Spending: Lou has been losing $2,000 a day at the casino for over a year, leading Reese and Finch to wonder where he's getting all the money he's losing. The money actually belongs to the casino owner: He slips the profits from his drug business to senior citizens via prescription bottles at a pharmacy he owns, who then spend the money at the casino, laundering it for him.
• Tempting Fate: Finch says this tailing stuff is easy, but Lou has been onto him all day.
• Too Dumb to Live: Leon's number comes up a third time. Ironically, he realizes that Reese is going to bust in and save him.
• Verbal Backspace: Leon is jealous...angry over the casino's money laundering operation.
• We Gotta Stop Meeting Like This: Reese's deadpan response to saving Leon in the nick of time again.
• We Need a Distraction: Leon playing the high roller. Unfortunately the casino boss isn't fooled.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lou gives one to Finch when he realizes that Finch left the love of his life.
  Finch: It's too late, Lou.
  Lou: You're still breathing! It's not too late! Go to her Harold, today, while you still have time!