No Good Deed (S1x22)
Airdate: 10 May 2012
Written by: David Slack
Directed by: Stephen Williams
Running Time: 44 minutes
As Person of Interest hurtled towards its Season 1 finale, the show found itself in the precarious position of having to tie together a sprawling narrative while simultaneously expanding its mythology for the future. By this stage, the series had deconstructed the "vigilante" trope with John Reese, giving the audience glimpses into his traumatic past without ever fully fleshing out the details. Meanwhile, Harold Finch remained the enigma at the centre of the operation, his genius and history shrouded in mystery. It was a narrative imbalance that the penultimate episode, No Good Deed, finally addresses. This instalment serves as a critical pivot, shifting the focus from Reese’s exploits to Finch, beginning to peel back the layers of the man who created the Machine and, in doing so, ties up a significant amount of loose narrative thread.
The episode opens with a classic procedural hook that quickly escalates into a conspiracy thriller. Reese, ever the persistent student, attempts to tail Finch to ascertain the method by which the Machine delivers its numbers. His suspicion that the payphones are the conduit is compelling, though Finch’s cryptic assertion that there is a "contingency" leaves the audience to speculate on exactly what he means for the future of the Samaritan operation.
This setup leads to the assignment of Henry Peck (Jacob Pitts). Peck is a young financial analyst whose attempt to reconnoitre his office soon reveals that the place has extraordinary security, including anti-bugging measures. It soon becomes obvious that the office is nothing more than a front for a high-level NSA operation, and that Peck works for the Agency. The brilliance of the script lies in the irony: the Machine targets Peck not because he is a threat, but because his curiosity about the names given to various federal agencies without a clear intelligence source inadvertently exposes his awareness of the Machine's existence. Those inquiries made higher-ups in the federal government very nervous, suggesting that Peck knows about the Machine. Consequently, he has drugs planted in his home, loses his job, and is being pursued by an elite "black ops" elimination team.
Peck has, independently, figured out what the Machine is and tries to warn reporters and the Special Counsel. The Special Counsel (Jay O. Saunders), is a high-ranking official in the agency that protects whistleblowers, but he is secretly one of the very few people aware of the Machine's existence. He sends assassins to silence Peck. Peck survives only thanks to Reese's intervention. Finch meets with Peck and, after admitting that he built the Machine, tells him that he should disappear and start a new life—a suggestion that Peck accepts, effectively ending the current arc.
During this time, Reese, while tracking down Finch, also sees him coming around the house belonging to Grace Hendricks, a magazine illustrator. Reese is intrigued, talks to her, and realises that Finch used to be her fiancé. Finch later admits that he faked his own death solely to protect her. This revelation adds a layer of emotional depth to the character, grounding his cold calculations in a very human tragedy.
The flashbacks set in 2009 are crucial for understanding why the federal government took such lengths to prevent knowledge about the Machine. It was apparently compromised by Nathan Ingram, who was the public face of Finch's secret efforts. Ingram was negotiating with the federal government but, while talking with Alicia Corwin, had it slip that someone other than him knew about the Machine. The tragedy of the situation is highlighted in the final flashback, which depicts Ingram, rather than Finch, activating the backdoor which would ultimately allow Finch to use the Machine. It is a significant narrative twist, reframing Ingram not as a rival, but as the unsung hero whose death created the vacuum Finch has filled.
The last scene of the episode depicts Alicia Corwin using a portable microphone to listen to the last conversation between Finch and Peck, and, realising with horror, that someone else than federal government knows about the Machine. This sets the stage perfectly for the Season 1 finale and the ensuing war.
The script by David Slack shares some plot elements with the classic 1970s conspiracy thriller Three Days of the Condor, but it fits remarkably well within the already established thematic parameters of the series. The episode is well-written and does a solid job of intertwining the present-day procedural with the past and general story arc. The revelation of Ingram being the hero instead of Finch is an interesting twist that adds gravitas to the lore. However, the episode is not without its flaws. The revelation that Finch had a romantic past, and that made the terrible sacrifice look like a loss, feels a little bit soapy for a series that was drenched in nitty-gritty realism. Finch is made to look too similar to Reese; both men are defined by the trauma of losing a woman they loved. The fact that Grace survived, unlike Reese’s Jessica, makes Finch's situation feel less tragic and more like a plot device to explain his aversion to intimacy. It feels like the show is trying to humanise Finch too quickly, diluting the mystique of the "Man in the Suit."
Furthermore, the casting of Grace Hendricks as Carrie Preston, Michael Emerson’s real-life spouse, could be interpreted as some sort of fan service and a nod to Lost, where Preston briefly appeared as Emily Linus, the mother of Emerson’s character. While this adds a nice meta-layer for fans of Emerson's previous work, it doesn't always serve the narrative fluidity.
Ultimately, while "No Good Deed" delivers on the promise of deeper lore and character development, it occasionally stumbles in its attempt to balance emotional melodrama with the show's characteristic noir edge.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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