Line #44 Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E11


1	'''Season 2, Episode 11''':
2	!! 2-Pi-R
3	-> ''"The thing about the world is that it doesn't have any extra pieces. It's like pi, it contains everything. You remove a single piece... no circle."''
4	-->-- ''Finch.''
5
6	With Reese now in FBI custody, Carter takes it upon herself to ensure that he is not identified as the Man in the Suit. Meanwhile, the numbers never stop coming in, so Finch heads [[BackToSchool back to school]] as a substitute teacher and enlists Detective Fusco's help to protect the latest POI; an underachieving teenage computer genius.
7
8	-----
9	!!Tropes present in this episode include:
10	* AlcoholicParent: Caleb's mom.
11	* AllUpToYou: With Reese in FBI custody, it's all up to Finch and Fusco to save the numbers from Irrelevant list, and it's up to Carter to make sure the FBI doesn't discover his identity.
12	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Caleb is basically a younger Finch while his teacher fills in for Nathan Ingram. Even Finch sees the similarities.
13	* AppliedMathematics: According to Finch, all of the world’s infinite possibilities are contained within the mathematical constant Pi. He also states that his phone number is contained somewhere in the first 3000 digits.
14	* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Finch arranges for the teacher he's replacing to win a trip to a conference in Maui.
15	* TheAtoner: Finch, for making the Machine. Sometimes however [[AIIsACrapshoot your mistakes can surprise you]].
16	* BadassInANiceSuit
17	-->'''Warden:''' They're terrorists? They look more like investment bankers to me.
18	-->'''Donnelly:''' Well, warden, three of them may be. But one of them is the most dangerous criminal I've ever pursued.
19	* CameraSpoofing: Carter does a better job of breaking into an evidence room than Fusco did.
20	* CliffHanger: Carter is given the job of interrogating the suspects, starting with Reese.
21	* CrazyPrepared: Reese enters his holding cell to find that Finch has arranged for a mobile phone to be planted there. He states that he already had a plan in place to get Reese out of prison if he were arrested.
22	* ButHeSoundsHandsome: Implied by Finch when he talks about the person who hacked Arpanet, but not stated outright.
23	* DemotedToExtra: Reese appears briefly at the beginning and at the end of the episode.
24	* TheDogWasTheMastermind: In true ''Person of Interest'' style, that new drug lord that's been dealing drugs at the high-school? It's Caleb.
25	** Finch mentions that the infamous hacker who hacked the Arpanet in the 70s was a "kid with a homemade computer".
26	* EveryoneHatesMathematics: Except Finch, who is aghast at the idea that it's being done as class punishment.
27	* FemmeFatale: Carter plays this role to get access cards off of a bar-cruising FBI agent. It's ''scary'' to see how easily she slips into the role of a giggly floozy.
28	* AFriendInNeed: Finch tells Carter he has a plan to get Reese out of prison, but finds that Carter has already pulled his fingerprints and has a plan in place to fix the DNA.
29	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Subverted; when the teacher is going to sell Caleb's program, the man he's selling it too asks if anyone else is involved, implying that he will murder Caleb to keep all profits for himself. Turns out he had no intention of taking credit for Caleb's work.
30	* HeadTurningBeauty: Carter gets some open admiration when she walks into a singles bar in a cleavage-revealing blue dress.
31	* HopeSpot: It looks like Reese is about to be released from prison. Not if Donnelly has anything to say about it.
32	* InstitutionalApparel: The Man in the Suit becomes the man in orange prison overalls.
33	* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Finch knows a home-made computer was used to hack the Arpanet, even though it's never been mentioned anywhere else.
34	* MouthfulOfPi: This one was obvious just based on the title, though it was downplayed more than usual.
35	* MundaneMadeAwesome: Finch's explanation of Pi is an in-universe example.
36	-->"Pi. The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. And this is just the beginning. It keeps on going--forever, without ever repeating. Which means that contained within this string of decimals is every single other number. Your birth date, combination to your locker, your Social Security number. It's all in there somewhere. and if you convert these decimals into letters, you would have every word that ever existed in every possible combination. The first syllable you spoke as a baby, the name of your latest crush. Your entire life story from beginning to end. Everything we ever say or do... all of the world's infinite possibilities rest within this one simple circle. Now, what you do with that information... what it's good for... well, that would be up to you."
37	* MyCard: Finch does his own paranoid version, his phone number hidden in Pi where only a TeenGenius could find it.
38	* ObfuscatingStupidity:
39	** Caleb is really a TeenGenius whose computer coding skill impresses even Finch, but he intentionally gets low grades to hide it.
40	** Fusco asks Finch why anyone would want to hide the fact that he's a genius, while talking to a man who's been doing this since 1980.
41	* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: Donnelly tells Carter she's the only person he can trust.
42	* OneSceneWonder: the transit cop who investigated the death of Caleb's brother.
43	* ProperlyParanoid: Donnelly correctly assumes the evidence has been tampered with. Unfortunately, he's not paranoid enough, as he goes to Carter for help interrogating Reese, as [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist she's been chasing the Man in the Suit from the beginning]].
44	* RetCon: A comment made in Season 4 [[spoiler:implies that criminal mastermind Dominic also took inspiration from Finch's pi speech, though obviously Winston Duke isn't playing one of the students, having not been cast at the time.]]
45	* ShortDistancePhoneCall: Finch and Fusco realise they're tracking the same person when they run into each other while talking on the phone.
46	* ShoutOut: Caleb says that he has no intention of standing on a table for Finch, a reference to ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety''.
47	** Caleb puts on a bit more of an accent when he comments about Finch going through the trash, which comes across as a reference to ''Film/GoodWillHunting''.
48	* ShroudedInMyth: Mention is made of the greatest hacker of all time, a genius who hacked the Arpanet in the 70s, ultimately causing it to become the internet of today rather than a government-controlled network, and got away with it because the government could never identify who did it, much less catch him. As foreshadowed, [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E12 it was Finch]].
49	* SingleTear: Caleb when Finch talks him out of killing himself.
50	* SlippingAMickey: Carter does it to her date at the bar to get a sample of his DNA.
51	* TalkingDownTheSuicidal: Finch for Caleb.
52	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The subplot concerning Caleb's conflict with a local gang for running a drug operation in their turf is never resolved.

Context Recap / PersonOfInterestS02E11