History Recap / PersonOfInterestS01E20

* WhamShot: The supposedly-dead Stanton appearing in the hotel room. Bonus points in that the scene has her firing [[IncrediblyLamePun shots]].

In flashbacks to 2010, Reese is on assignment when he gets a call from Jessica (Creator/SusanMisner), who is distraught and wants him to come and see her. Reese promises to be there soon, but Snow (Creator/MichaelKelly) arrives, along with Alicia Corwin (Creator/ElizabethMarvel, she was introduced in [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E11 the eleventh episode]]), who assign Reese and Stanton to retrieve a laptop with stolen software on it from a research center in Ordos, China. In private, Snow tells Reese that once the mission's over but before they're extracted, he's to kill Stanton (Creator/AnnieParisse), his partner.

The latest number is Tommy Clay, the hopper for an armored truck service. Reese infiltrates the crew, believing that the truck will be the victim of a heist and that Tommy is a victim, but it transpires that Tommy is the mastermind behind the heist when he shoots Reese in the back and makes off with the cargo, unprocessed platinum. Reese and Finch attempt to track down Tommy and the platinum -- as does Fusco, playing the part of a HR man. Since Elias' arrest, HR has been collecting the payouts that normally went to the Mafia and they want a slice of the armored truck robbery, so Fusco is dispatched by Captain Lynch, one of his HR bosses, to find Tommy. Reese and Fusco both find Tommy's hideout, but the rest of his crew are dead, murdered by Tommy. Finch locates Tommy's mistress, Ashley, and Reese uses her to find where Tommy is hiding, but Ashley turns on both of them, tying up Reese and killing Tommy. She tries to leave with the money but Fusco and Lynch arrive and kill her. Lynch tries to kill Reese too but Fusco shoots him with Ashley's gun, making it look like the three had a falling-out and preserving his cover with HR. Meanwhile, Carter is visited by Snow and his partner, Evans, who warn her not to cooperate with the FBI's manhunt for Reese.

In flashbacks to 2010, Reese is on assignment when he gets a call from Jessica, who is distraught and wants him to come and see her. Reese promises to be there soon, but Snow arrives, along with [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E11 Alicia Corwin]], who assign Reese and Stanton to retrieve a laptop with stolen software on it from a research center in Ordos, China. In private, Snow tells Reese that once the mission's over but before they're extracted, he's to kill Stanton. When the pair reach Ordos, they find almost everyone at the research center dead from bullet wounds. One technician, wounded, tells Stanton in Chinese that their killers came and took "the Machine", but Stanton doesn't tell Reese this and puts the technician out of his misery. They find the laptop, which Stanton secretly slips into her own backpack, before setting out glow-sticks to signal for extraction. Reese finds he cannot kill Stanton and is going to tell her about his orders when she shoots him, having been given the exact same instructions by Snow. He realizes that their mission wasn't about recovering a laptop, but confirming that everyone in the research center was dead and no one knew what had really happened. Reese flees as CIA fighter jets fly over and, guided by the glowsticks, bomb the facility into oblivion.

In a present-day coda, Snow and Evans receive intelligence that links the survivor of the Ordos mission to a hotel room in Manhattan. They go in and find guns and equipment, but Evans is killed and Snow captured by the room's occupant: Stanton.

* GhostTown: Ordos.

* BilingualBonus: the title is a Hindi idiom equivalent to "the law of the jungle." The literal translation is "the law of the fishes."

* GhostCity: Ordos

* LoveInterestTraitor: Tommy's [[InLoveWithTheMark girlfriend]] Ashley

** And Tommy and Tommy's henchmen.
* YouKnowTooMuch: It's implied that anyone in Ordos (including Reese and Stanton) who knows or even could find out about the Machine is being killed.

-->'''Reese''': We got a live one here. Mostly alive.

** TitleDrop:

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: "Lonely Souls." Someone in the show music department apparently really likes Unkle.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing

** When the CIA raid an apartment where they think Reese is staying, a close-up of a pair of ladies high-heeled shoes tips off the viewer that it's Stanton instead.
* FreezeFrameBonus / ColourCodedForYourConvenience: When we see Reese and Stanton in Ordos from the Machine's POV, they're in red brackets, indicating that they've been flagged as perpetrators by the Machine.

* IronicEcho

* [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident Make It Look Like A]] MutualKill: Fusco shoots Lynch with Ashley's gun, so it looks like they killed each other.

* NoKillLikeOverkill: As if Stanton and Reese killing each other isn't enough for the CIA, a cruise missile comes down on their heads, guided in by the chemlights they put out for their non-existent extraction.

* ShaggyDogStory: If Reese and Finch hadn't gotten involved, the events of the episode most likely would have played out exactly the same.

--->'''[[AlmostDeadGuy Technician]]''': They came and took it away.\\
'''Stanton''': Took what away?\\
'''Technician''': The Machine.

* WhamShot: The supposedly-dead Stanton appearing in the hotel room. Bonus points in that the scene has her firing [[IncrediblyLamePun shots.]]

* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Reese to Tommy. Ironically this applies to both parties.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Reese and Stanton.

->''"Problem with trying to be the bad guy is [[AlwaysABiggerFish there's always something worse]]."''
-->-- '''Reese'''

-----

-->'''Finch''': And today's Film/TrainingDay.

** Averted with Stanton. Reese refuses to carry out his orders to shoot her, only his partner to shoot him InTheBack.

* CatScare: The guards pull a practical joke on Reese, making him think there's a robbery and jumping out with a Halloween mask. Reese is not impressed with their lack of professionalism.

* DoYouTrustMe: Carter says the only people she can trust are Reese and Finch, two vigilantes that she barely knows anything about. She wants to know everything that Team Machine does, so [[HypocriticalHumor Reese agrees to work the next case together...then reveals that they're sitting in the same pub with the POI]] and her pissed off girlfriend is about to enter with a pistol.

* DoYouTrustMe: Reese and Carter have a discussion on her ToBeLawfulOrGood dilemma.
* DramaticIrony:
** Carter says the only people she can trust are Reese and Finch, two vigilantes that she barely knows anything about.
** Carter tells Reese she suspects Fusco is a DirtyCop. Reese can't conceal a smirk as he promises to keep on eye on him.