Recap / Person Of Interest S 03 E 10

Season 3, Episode 10:

The Devil's Share

NYPD Psychologist: You killed a man?
Lionel Fusco: Nah. He got the Devil's share. That's what you call it when a guy like Jules gets his. It's the way the world evens things out. Guy got what he deserved. And you want to know how I've been sleeping? Like a baby.

After the events of "The Crossing" and Detective Carter's death, Reese is left with a score to settle with Simmons and the other remnants of HR.

---

Tropes present in this episode include

• Armor-Piercing Question: Reese's CIA interrogator asks several of these to establish if Reese has what it takes to make a suitable assassin. He finds out the answer all too well.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Simmons' number comes up, because Reese intends to kill him. Shaw isn't too concerned about his safety.
  • Also Jules, the drug dealer Fusco killed in 2005. That said, it was payback for killing a rookie cop with a baby on the way.
  • The well done thugs that fall victim to Reese are described by Fusco as "dirtbags of the highest order". Two out of the three might have survived.
• Badass Boast: Courtesy of John Reese.
  Reese: I'm not going to threaten to kill you. I am going to kill you.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Elias and Marconi show up at the end of the episode and kill Simmons, which Fusco (and Carter, as Elias explains) explicitly refused to do.
• Bait-and-Switch: Shaw complains about Simmons sustaining his Karma Houdini status, and Root points out that the Machine never said that Reese was the only person planning to kill Simmons. The scene then cuts to Fusco finding the notepad with Simmons' exit location - implying that Fusco intends to kill Simmons. He doesn't, taking Simmons into custody instead. Then Elias and Scarface show up and finally put Simmons down.
• Book Ends: The episode starts with a shot of John's active heart monitor and ends with Simmons heart monitor going off line.
• Blinded by the Light: Reese shoots a pile of flares he's left in a corridor to blind a SWAT-team with Night-Vision Goggles.
• Blunt "Yes": In Shaw's flashback, she asks her psychiatrist if he would rather have one of the other doctors, whom she's seen let fear cause them to make mistakes, work on him instead of her. He would.
• Breaking Speech: Elias engages in one just before Scarface garottes Simmons.
• BSoD Song: "Hurt," performed by Johnny Cash, over the otherwise wordless opening sequence.
• Call-Back:
  • The opening of the episode shows Reese has taken a leaf out of Kara Stanton's book. His use of Car Fu is identical to the one she subjected Donnelly's SUV to in "Prisoner's Dilema" back in Season 2.
  • Shaw's medical experience, previously mentioned in "Relevance" and demonstrated in the beginning of Season 3 is further elaborated on in her episode Flashback.
  • In "Endgame", Carter was able to hit Simmons in the shoulder before going down. In his confrontation with Simmons, Fusco takes full advantage of this, gouging the man's bullet wound in order to gain an edge and compensate for the disadvantage he has, namely his broken fingers. He also bludgeons Simmons with his cast at one point, since he can't punch with that hand.
    Fusco: "Carter got you good, huh?"
  • Elias' speech to Simmons parallels Reese's conversation with Andrew Benton at the end of "Cura Te Ipsum."
  Elias: Civilization rests on the principle that we treat our criminals better than they treated their victims, that we not stoop to their level. But you and I are outliers....which means, of course, that we can do the things that civilized people can't.
• Call-Forward: Finch tells his therapist that he's thinking of doing something radical in Nathan's memory.
• Cigarette Burns: Shaw protests that Reese could not have done this to Quinn's lawyer...as Reese doesn't smoke. "He would have just used a lighter. This is theatrical, amateur hour."
• Combat Pragmatist: As noted above, Fusco targets Simmons' bullet wound in order to compensate for the disadvantage of his broken hand when trying to apprehend the man. He also breaks Simmons' arm in order to end the fight quickly.
• Confess in Confidence: In Fusco's flashback, he's been sent to a police psychologist after shooting a criminal. After confirming that anything he tells the psychologist is privileged, Fusco confesses that the man wasn't armed and Fusco killed him in cold blood.
• Convenient Misfire: The only reason Quinn lived is because Reese's blood was pouring over the gun and caused it to not fire.
• Cop Killer: Fusco's flashback provides the page quote.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Reese easily and nonlethally dispatches the US Marshals SWAT Team that's trying to protect Quinn. Likewise, Root's Machine-guided Guns Akimbo leaves an entire team of Russian would-be killers laying on the ground groaning in pain before they even get a shot off.
• Deal with the Devil: After their only link to finding Quinn is killed by the Russians, Finch releases Root so that they can get to him before either Reese or the Russians do. Graduates to Token Evil Teammate status after she returns to the Faraday cage, despite Finch releasing her.
• Dirty Coward: Quinn, when asked by Reese to reveal Simmons' exit strategy, gives a speech about how HR was built on loyalty, and he won't repay that loyalty with betrayal, "even if you threaten to kill me." He rapidly changes his mind when Reese says:
  I'm not gonna threaten to kill you, I'm going to kill you whether you tell me or not. No bargaining. In three minutes, you're dead. I've killed many people. Never bothered me much, that's why I was good at it. I didn't like them suffering, though. Took me years to figure out how to do it quickly, painlessly—but if you don't tell me, I'm gonna forget all of that. Understand? And I'll make the last three minutes of your life last forever.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Root's abilities seem a lot like a psychic to the uninitiated. It's no wonder Fusco has trouble believing what he's seeing.
  Fusco: Just when I think life with you people couldn't get any weirder, one of you takes it to the next level.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Finch's therapist refers to his trauma as being similar to, but less extreme than, that of the survivors of the ferry bombing. Of course, Finch and the audience both know that actually is the source of his trauma.
  • The police officer guarding Simmons takes a suspiciously-timed break just before Elias turns up in his room. Simmons, the ultimate Dirty Cop, is killed due to police corruption.
• Driven to Suicide: Reese has been shoved off the Despair Event Horizon due to Carter's death and is in a highly self-destructive mood. As a result, he decides to track down and murder HR's leaders and is beyond caring about any collateral damage he causes. What's worse is that he's doing this while bleeding to death from the gunshot wound Simmons gave him, which hasn't yet healed.
• The Easy Way or the Hard Way: See Dirty Coward above
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: Shaw argues that her Lack of Empathy makes her a better doctor. The psychiatrist points out that her technical perfection means nothing as she'll eventually get bored with her patients' welfare.
• Enemy Mine: Root has chosen to ally herself with Team Machine in the face of a graver threat.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Elias. After launching into an epic Breaking Speech, he coldly oversees Simmons' death as Scarface breaks out a garotte wire and strangles him.
• Evil Gloating: Simmons expects that this is why Elias is in his hospital room. Unfortunately for him, that's not why Elias is there.
• Exact Words: Elias isn't going to kill Simmons. He's just going to watch while Scarface does the job.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: Shaw, as a psychiatrist explains exactly why a sociopath does not make a good doctor.
• Flash Back: To interviews of Finch, Shaw, Reese and Fusco.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the final scene in the Faraday cage, when Root is talking to Finch about a storm on the horizon, the books on the table next to her are about military history.
• Game Changer: This episode is the turning point in Team Machine's relationship with Root; from now on, she is no longer their prisoner and fights alongside them.
• Genre Savvy: Quinn knows there's no point in trying to escape with the Marshalls.
  Quinn: The guy who's coming after me; your men won't be able to stop him.
• Get It Over With: Simmons after Fusco beats him down.
• Godzilla Threshold: "We need Root." Finch makes it quite clear to Shaw that he's fully aware that they are about to cross this trope by setting her free.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Fusco's final confrontation with Simmons is a simple fistfight on the tarmac.
  Simmons: So what's the plan here, Fusco? You gonna shoot an unarmed man?
  Fusco: Nah, I got a better idea. Been wanting to do this for a long time. [advances towards Simmons in a boxing pose]
• Guns Akimbo: Played with. Being a former Marine and trained military assassin, Shaw briefly scoffs at this when Root asks for two pistols. But when Root actually subjects a Russian mobster hit squad to this, Shaw is rather impressed. (And possibly aroused.)
• Handicapped Badass: Despite having a bandanged hand, Fusco manages to beat Simmons down and arrest him.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Finch points out that Carter died to bring down HR the legal way.
  Finch: Mr. Reese you know what Joss sacrificed to bring this man down on her terms, legal terms.
  Reese: Everything.
  Finch: Yes. So if you are going to kill Mr. Quinn, don't imagine that you are doing it in her name. That's not what she would have wanted.
• High-Altitude Interrogation: Offscreen. The forger that Shaw strings up to interrogate had already been dropped off a roof by Reese before she got there.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: This episode exemplifies the problems with hiring ex-CIA and ex-ISA assassins to work for you; when they don't want to be found, they are impossible to find, as Finch discovers.
• Hope Spot: The episode opens with a pulse monitor registering a slow pulse, giving the possibility that Carter survived her wounds at the end of the previous episode. Then the camera pans out to show it's connected to Reese. The next scene is Carter's funeral.
• Humiliation Conga: Basically the combined events of the day are this to Patrick Simmons. Having had his life ruined the previous day, he fails to flee the country, gets his arse handed to him by the man who he's constantly belittled over the past two Season and then Marconi breaks out the garotte wire when he's immobilized on a hospital bed with nowhere to run.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Simmons tells Fusco to Get It Over With after Fusco wins their fistfight, and Fusco retorts that Carter's faith in him and helping him redeem himself are precisely why he's not shooting Simmons.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: When Team Machine locate Quinn's safehouse, Fusco wonders if Reese is on the scene. Cue Stuff Blowing Up.
  Shaw: Pretty sure.
• It's Probably Nothing: The Federal Marshall who refuses to call for air support since "It's a car fire in Queens." Never mind that the car just blew up in front of the building he's in with no warning.
• It's the Only Way: Shaw re Root being let out of her cage.
• Immolation Discretion Shot: Reese walks away from the burning SUV, but we don't really see what happens to the guy in the back seat that he was questioning. Later, Fusco remarks, "Guy in the back may make a good bag of charcoal."
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Toyed with. Shaw at the start of the episode is shown employing it repeatedly, and Reese employs an offscreen High-Altitude Interrogation to get to the next link in the chain. However, his questioning of Quinn's lawyer was explained to not be this, as the lawyer's injuries and execution were done by Russians. Reese does threaten to make the last three minutes of Quinn's life the most painful, but Reese doesn't have to lay a hand on him to make Quinn talk.
• Jaw Drop: Fusco as Root demonstrates her Machine-acquired knowledge.
• Just in Time: Team Machine is able to prevent Reese from killing Quinn and going after Simmons. If not for their intervention, Reese would have died from his injuries.
• Killer Cop: Fusco's flashback establishes him as this; he manipulated a drug dealer into drawing his gun, whereupon Fusco shot him and claimed self defense. All as payback for the rookie cop the drug dealer killed. At the climax, viewers are led to believe that he'll kill Simmons, but he instead chooses to arrest him.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After having his fingers broken in the previous episode, Fusco makes sure Simmons' arm is snapped in his attempt at apprehending him.
  • After abusing the Karma Houdini trope to a large extent, Simmons is killed by Scarface when he's completely helpless and trapped on a hospital bed.
  • Mentioned in Fusco's speech that includes the Title Drop.
  Fusco: That's what you call it when a guy like Jules gets his. That's the way the world even things out. The guy got what he deserved.
• Mook Horror Show: The SWAT guys think there's three or four shooters waiting for them in the corridor. Nope, just a One-Man Army. That's his own men he hears shooting.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Even in the midst of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, Reese is careful to not to kill any of the U.S. Marshalls protecting Quinn. He doesn't even kneecap any of them.
  They'll need some Aspirin, maybe a little physical therapy.
• The Nameless: During Reese's flashback interview, the name tag is conspicuously absent from the velcro strip on his uniform.
• The Nicknamer: Fusco refers to Reese as "Tall Dark and Deranged".
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Fusco delivers a satisfying one to Simmons. After all the crap the man put him through over the course of the show, seeing Fusco floor Simmons is extremely satisfying. The fact that Fusco did it with one hand in a cast made it even more impressive.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: The Harold Wren interview.
• One-Man Army
  Quinn: The guy who's coming after me; your men won't be able to stop him.
• Only Sane Man: Fusco. Even though he wants Simmons to suffer just as much as John does, he tells Harold that even he thinks John's violent antics will make it harder to locate their target and not accomplish their mission.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Reese did not take Carter's death well to say the least. At the end of the show's opener, he rams a three criminals' car with a truck, then approached them, while his face is practically the embodiment of Tranquil Fury. Then he interrogates one of them for Simmons' location while their car burned, and when they doesn't know anything he leaves them in there, which results in the death of at least one of them
  Fusco Guy in the back might make a good bag of charcoal.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Simmons, as Scarface moves in for the kill. He gets another earlier when he realizes the pilot that's going to get him out of the country isn't there.
  • Quinn, when Reese says "I'm going to kill you whether you tell me or not. No bargaining. In three minutes you're dead."
  • Reese's interviewer for the CIA assassination program finds out Reese is an active agent sent there to kill him - right before Reese kills him.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Elias and Scarface pay a visit to Simmons' hospital bed. The latter coldly garottes Simmons to death as revenge for Carter's demise.
• Perp Sweating: All over the place.
• Perp Walk: Fusco marches Simmons through the Eighth Precinct while the other cops watch.
• Pet the Dog:
  • At the end of the episode, Root voluntarily goes back to the Faraday cage. Finch closes the gate, but if you look closely, he deliberately doesn't put the lock on.
  • Elias notes that Carter was one of the few people he truly respected due to her unwavering desire to do the right thing and refusing to be tempted by his offer to kill Simmons... just before he avenges her by having Scarface garotte Simmons to death.
  • Literally when we see Root petting Bear. Finch doesn't look happy that his Angry Guard Dog is friendly with her.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I'm just going to watch."
• Prophecy Twist: Reese isn't the only person who wants to make Simmons a victim.
• Psychotic Smirk: Fusco of all people gives one when telling how he smiled on shooting Jules.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • Reese is going after Simmons and Quinn who is in protective custody for the attack on him and Carter that ended up killing her.
  • Reese gets the location of Simmons but is incapacitated by blood loss, and then Fusco apprehends him. But it's Elias and Scarface who make the kill, the latter garotting the helpless Simmons in his hospital bed.
• Rogue Agent: Reese. Shaw is as well at the start, but she agrees to play things Harold's way because John's injuries are life-threatening.
• Unwilling Suspension: The forger. Who gets left up there.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: Dr. Shaw is in trouble for snacking on an energy bar while telling a family their father was dead.
• Special Edition Title: There are no opening titles.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Shaw pulls this on Finch at Carter's funeral.
• Stepford Smiler: Reese and Fusco.
• Survivor's Guilt: What the psychiatrist naturally assumes is Harold Wren's problem. She reminds Finch that he's not God and had no control over events, so the death of his best friend isn't his fault.
  Finch: Let me ask you a question then. Does survivor's guilt pass when everything that has happened actually is, in fact, your fault?
• SWAT Team: The US Marshals have one protecting Quinn. They aren't very effective against Reese, who instead of attacking them head-on like they expect, engages in asymmetric warfare.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Breaking Speech Elias does to Simmons is this.
• Title Drop: Fusco, as in the top quote.
• Tranquil Fury: Reese and Shaw in the intro. While both seem like their usual stoic selves, it's easy to see that they are both just barely hiding their rage. Their following actions confirm this.
• Vigilante Man: Reese (current) and Fusco, in his past.
• White Shirt of Death
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Fusco upon learning that Finch has lost contact with both Reese and Shaw:
  Fusco: You mean both your stray dogs are off the leash?