Tension is growing between Reese and Finch, those partners in crimestopping. In the beginning, the ex-CIA operative's needling of his nerdy OCD boss seemed almost good-natured, but as Finch continues to deflect Reese's inquiries about The Machine, the latter has moved into full-scale investigation mode with the help of Det. Fusco. These efforts finally bear fruit this week, raising some interesting questions about both the past and current movitivations for the show's resident genius.
First, there's another Number of the Week. And is Reese still "hunted by the authorities," like they say in the intro? Now that Carter's been flipped, that just leaves Agent Snow and company, and we haven't seen them in weeks.
Maybe we'll find out Reese has a library book from 1979 he never returned.
Reese and Finch return to their HQ for the first time since Root's incursion into their network. Finch is going to have his hands full securing everything again. Even so, he gives Reese the next Number: 14-year-old Darren McGrady. Checking his last known address, Reese finds evidence of a home invasion. Darren's older brother Travis was shot dead and the cops took Darren.
Carter tells Reese Travis was Darren's legal guardian and now Darren's AWOL. It *sounds* like three toughs followed Travis home from work after an altercation. Case closed.
Fine, we'll keep going. Reese talks to Lisa, the girl at work Travis protected from the goons. She points him to a comic book store, where he picks up the trail of "Brick," one of the murder suspects. My attention is tuned to the store owner, one Mr. Wilcox, who parcels out some life-enhancement crapola about how superheroes don't always have super powers, but they still help people. Oh please, this guy's totally evil.
Aaaaand here's Brandon, with a mind to gun the Brick down. Reese intercedes, Carter shows up and bags him, and Reese dumps Brandon on Fusco. Carter attempts to interrogate Brick, while Reese traces the other two to a basketball court and observes them moving significant amounts of money.
Will Ingram (the son of Reese's old business partner, remember) shows up with more questions about dad. He's uncovered some info on Ingram's old government contact Alicia Corwin, who has since quit the government and moved to the one place in the country without cell phone or wireless Internet: my house Green Bay, West Virginia.
Brandon escapes again and heads to a bar, looking for Curtis and T, the other two dudes. Reese shows up once again and impresses young Brandon with his "Wu-Tang" moves. Brandon tries to hire Reese, figuring him for a ronin. For those not into manga, the title of last night's episode ("Wolf and Cub") refers to Kazuo Koike's series Lone Wolf and Cub, about a disgraced samurai traveling the land with his young son.
