On tonight's episode of Person of Interest, "Witness," (a repeat of the broadcast of November 11, 2011), Finch (Jim Caviezel) ends up protecting an unassuming Brighton Beach history teacher named Charlie Burton (Enrico Colantoni) who seems to be a Russian Mafia target because he witnessed a hit. Because Finch is good at his job, he manages to get Charlie out of danger, with the assistance of one of Charlie's students, who lives in the dilapidated housing project that the two are using as a refuge. Finch takes one of the Russian mafia who are chasing them as a hostage, and they head off to a rendevous with police who will debrief Charlie and take him to the D.A. Finch and Charlie arrive at their rendevous, but they are betrayed--by whom? Reese, Finch's contact, thinks bad cop Fusco is the culprit and confronts him. As it turns out, Fusco is not guilty. It's Charlie--who has been studying the Russian mafia on his own, and has been carrying out his own revenge, with his own lieutenants, for some time. He tells Finch to tie himself up, and then shoots the Russian, although not fatally--"as a message," he says.
Finch tells Reese that he is furious at the outcome of their mission. He considers that they are supposed to find and protect innocent people, not those who are killers. Reese takes a more philosophical view, noting that the computer gives them limited information about those "whose numbers are up." With that information, he and Finch must act, and they don't really know how things will turn out. Note that in this way Finch and Reese behave much as we do in life. We have limited information, and we just don't know how things will turn out. Most of us, I think, try to do good. But sometimes things are just not within our control.
I also find Finch's reaction rather odd. Aren't he and Charlie Burton are engaged in the same activity? They are vigilantes, acting outside the law. Finch would justify his actions by saying he tries to help the innocent and he doesn't kill people. But Charlie Burton explains his actions to Finch. He tells Finch that he is trying to clean up Brighton Beach by ridding it of its bad elements, and law enforcement so far has been ineffective. He has been effective--quite effective. We see Charlie's methods, and see that his methods are violent. That is undeniable, and that that his methods are extreme is also undeniable. But we have certainly seen Finch beat people up. We haven't seen him kill, but we have seen him threaten to do so. Perhaps we haven't seen him actually do so because he is the hero of the series. Are he and Charlie actually so different?
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