Person of Interest Recap 2×18
Open with Leon in bed with a woman. She puts handcuffs on him and two men come in to kill him. Reese comes in and saves him at the last minute before being told by Finch he needs to go to Atlantic City for the newest number.
The new number is Lou Mitchell, a 70-something recent widower. He’s a pretty regular Baccarat player at one of the casinos. Reese follows Lou to a pharmacy where he picks up arthritis medication. Finch finds out that Lou is nearly broke, at this point living off of Social Security. Reese notices that all of Lou’s fingers have been broken at some point in his life.
Carter finds out that Lou has history with organized crime in the form of being beaten up by wise guys to whom he owed money. She’s found nothing alarming in Cal’s disciplinary report. Cal stops by to see Carter and asks her for a date. She tells him she needs to think about it and asks him to help her look into the casino connected to Lou.
Lou takes $1,500 from the casino and Finch has no idea where it came from. Finch hacks the casino’s computer. Lou has some connection to Darien Makris, the casino’s owner. When Lou swipes his frequent player card Finch is able to track his playing history. He’s lost $300,000 over the past six months.
Reese wonders if Lou could be an old mobster himself, but Finch doesn’t by it.
Szymanski is brought into the station in cuffs, telling Carter he’s being set-up. He’s supposed to testify against the Russian mafia that day and thinks this is the way they’re trying to keep him from the courtroom. Carter explains this to the judge who agrees to a continuance.
We see Simmons grab the Russian, Yogarov, who was on trial that day and take him from the court house. He’s taken to see HR boss Quinn, who tells him about Szymanski and offers to keep him out of jail in exchange for cash. Yogarov agrees to the deal.
Reese finds out that all of Lou’s old mob buddies are dead and he has no known connection to loan sharks. Finch notices that Lou has returned to the pharmacy a second straight day and recognizes several of the elderly people from the casino.
Leon finds out the pharmacy is owned by a shell company, with Makris the only known board member. Aware he’s being tailed Lou confronts Finch, but in a friendly manner. Finch says he’s with the IRS and looking into the casino. He asks where Lou got his money and Lou makes him pay for the information. Finch doesn’t get much out of him because Lou is clearly a card mechanic.
Reese watches Lou at the casino while Finch finds that other elderly people are down hundreds of thousands of dollars. What is happening is they are picking up money from the pharmacy and intentionally losing it to the casino so Makris can launder his drug money. But Lou has been skimming money and Makris has noticed.
Carter and Cal watch Szymanski being interrogated and he admits it was him who called in the tip. Carter asks Fusco if he’s heard anything about Cal and he tells her that HR is still in operation.
Reese follows Lou outside and saves him from being killed by two of Makris’ security guards. Reese brings him to Finch and Lou tells him that he had been using his talents to win money at Makris’ casino to pay for his late wife’s cancer treatment. When Markis found out, Lou had no money with which to pay him back so he was forced to launder his money. Finch tells Lou his only option is to leave town and gives him cash and a ticket to Chicago. Lou doesn’t want to leave his wife, but he eventually agrees. Finch promises Reese will convince Makris thinks he’s dead.
Finch needs more evidence to put Makris behind bars. The only way to gain access to the “cooked” books is for Finch to get inside the casino. They decide to use Leon as the distraction, giving him one million to gamble at the casino in order to take Makris and his security’s attention away from Finch. Finch gets to the casino’s servers and plugs in. To Reese’s surprise he spots Lou at the Baccarat table. And he’s betting all of his skimmed money.
Reese takes Lou into the hallway and has him speak with Finch. Lou is able to convince Finch to help him break Makris based on a promise he made to his wife before she died. He doesn’t want to die a loser. Finch sets him up with $2 million and Reese brings him back to the table.
While Leon draws a crowd (and Makris’ attention) at the craps table, Lou begins winning at Baccarat with much larger bets. Makris eventually makes his way to Baccarat and sees what Lou is doing. By this point Finch has accessed the cooked books and emails them to Reese in the casino. Reese tells Makris that if he doesn’t let Lou play the books will be sent to authorities. Lou continues to cheat and win big.
Finch finishes his work and Lou is allowed to cash out to the tune of $20 million.
Outside the casino Reese and Lou are confronted by Makris, who has also grabbed Finch and Leon.
The four are taken to what looks like the basemen of the casino. Makris forces Lou to play Russian roulette, each time pointing the gun at one of the other guys. After the first few shots result in empty chambers Reese breaks free and knocks out the guards. Makris tries to use the Russian roulette gun to shoot Lou but Lou used his card sharp skills to remove the bullet. Makris ends up being taken away by police in handcuffs.
Carter shows Terney she’s found evidence that Szymanski was, in fact, set-up. This should be enough to allow him to testify. The marked bills planted at Szymanski’s home came from police evidence. Carter gets a call from Cal, but ignores the phone.
With Lou’s winnings tied up as evidence, Finch gives him his broken $2 million watch. Lou is trying to buy the diner and we learn his wife was a waitress and basically saved his life when he was at rock bottom.
One of the Yogarovs calls Simmons to say that the deal is off. More charges have been added. Simmons tells him to have faith in his boss.
We see Quinn dining with the two of the DAs and Szymanski. When they tell him they won’t be dropping the charges on the Yogarovs he kills all three. Terney, clearly also with HR, walks in and shoots Quinn in the shoulder so they can pretend the real killer left out the back.
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