Person of Interest – Honor Among Thieves Review

Honor Among Thieves is a decent stand-alone episode. It isn’t going to light the world on fire (though I can’t say the same for a bunch of tablet computers), but it works quite effectively as a To Catch a Thief style case-of-the-week. Our number this week is Tomas, a seemingly straightforward wine dealer whose ordinary life turns out to be a cover for his life as an international thief. With Shaw’s admittedly somewhat abrupt split with her current crew, she’s primed to take a spot in Tomas’. Plus, did I mention that she finds him hot? The show certainly does. If I had to find a nit to pick, and I do, it would be that Shaw’s affection for Thomas tends to be overplayed and ends up feeling a bit out of character for her. A subtle buildup might have served the show better than having her constantly ogle him. That being said, this does lead to a scene where Tomas is pouring concentrated seduction into Shaw’s ear while Root listens intently and occasionally makes wisecracks into Shaw’s earpiece. It turns out that Tomas was unknowingly hired to steal a container filled with illegally imported research samples of the Marburg Virus. Furthermore, the perpetrators this week are actually the rest of Tomas’ crew who steal the virus and try to kill him. Once underway, the plot gets further complicated by a few double crosses and the eventual involvement of agents from the “relevant side” working off of Samaritan provided intel. But, in the long run, there isn’t anything too shocking or surprising to the plot.

While Shaw is dealing with this week’s number, Finch and Root begin investigating an engineer who recently received a large investment from the new Governor. The engineer, Jared Wilkins, has started a new company named OTPS, the nature and purpose of which is unknown. Actually, the fact that the company is so mysterious is a little peculiar since it turns out that the company’s primary goal is to put a tablet in the hands of every student for the sake of promoting education, hence its name “One Tablet Per Student.” There really isn’t any reason for such an altruistic goal to be kept so secret, besides padding out the runtime of the episode. Upon discovering the purpose of OTPS, Finch and Root decide to sabotage the 3D printers being used to construct the tablets, lest Samaritan gain the ability to influence the teaching of every child in the country.  While they ultimately succeed in destroying the printers, Finch is concerned that they may have simply acquired a pyrrhic victory, given the ambiguous nature of the challenge they faced. Did they prevent Samaritan from influencing the nation’s children or did they simply tear apart a man’s philanthropic dream? While I find these to be interesting questions, they don’t carry as much weight as they would have, had this been the primary story of the episode. Still, it could be viewed as an intriguing reminder of where these Samaritan driven plots can go.

One thing of note that Honor Among Thieves does is that it introduces the viewers to Devon Grice, one of the agents sent to recover the virus, and a former apprentice to Shaw.  His distrust of “Research 2.0” allows him to serve as an intriguing look at an individual in the trenches who knows something has changed, but doesn’t know how to feel about it.  I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if we saw him and his partner, Brooks, again in the future.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• Reese and Fusco barely appear in this episode until near the end. It’s a testament to this show’s writing that it can have what is ostensibly it’s main character sit out almost an entire episode without it notably affecting the quality. That being said, we haven’t really had many episodes focused around Reese lately.

• Honestly, I’ve never given much thought to Root’s sexuality, but is it just me or does she seem to bear a certain jealousy towards Tomas? Given Root’s history, that could actually inform her character in a rather intriguing way.

• Devon Grice is played by Nick Tarabay who was featured in the Spartacus TV series and will also be playing Captain Boomerang on Arrow.

• Do we ever figure out who hired the guy who hired the rest of Tomas’s crew? …In hindsight this episode does get slightly complicated.

Honor Among Thieves is a decent and enjoyable episode that doesn’t really do anything special, but also doesn’t really do anything wrong.  It’s nice to see Shaw get an episode of her own, but it doesn’t do too much to develop her character further, so it ultimately is little more than a fun but slightly forgettable episode.