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This week's Person of Interest is Megan Tillman, a pretty young doctor with a striking resemblance to Lindsay Weir. She works constantly, but when JC tails her he finds that she also goes out to the club every night after. She just sits there and rejects guys, which seems like a terrible way to spend the hours you should be sleeping. But a creepy investment banker named Andrew Benton seems to be following her. JC keeps going in that direction for a while, until Megan hides out and takes some pictures of Andrew Benton, turning the tables. Finch's digging reveals that Benton drugged and raped Megan's sister in college. So this is payback. And, while everyone agrees Benton probably deserves to die, JC can't let Megan go through with murdering someone, which would ruin her life. He ends up revealing his own pain to her in the process of talking her out of the murder. Then he takes Benton to a fancy beach house and they have a lovely dinner with a view. Only instead of food, there's a gun on the table. And we still don't know if he's going to kill Benton or let him go when the episode ends.
Also going on this episode: Carter's still trying to figure out what's going on with JC, so she calls Finch (or "Burdett the Paralegal" as she knows him) back in to question him about the robbery. He feeds her a lot of lies that seem to satisfy, but Finch wants to do something about this problem. And, after a lot of drama between Fuscoe and the Mexican cartel that's after him, JC finds another dirty cop and gets him to move Fuscoe over to Carter's unit. So now he's either going to have Fuscoe feed him information about Carter, or Fuscoe's going to be a turncoat and fill Carter in on JC's whereabouts. However, he turned on JC this episode and saw how truly badass JC is when cornered (I mean, do you know anyone else who can take down a drug gang after being tied up and beaten down? I didn't think so).
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Before we get started with the weecap, I wanted to tell those who didn't bother Googling it themselves that our episode title, Cura Te Ipsum, means "Cure yourself." How profound. Anyway, Bench opens us up with his usual, long-winded opening: He acted because the government wouldn't, blah, blah. He needed a hot partner to sell it to a network, and... Ta! Da!... JC! Surveillance image opening segues into surveillance image transitions as a girl's quivering voice says, "Every time I close my eyes, I see him. He won't stop. Maybe I'm already dead."
Cut to an ambulance, and Lindsay Weir reliving her days on ER as she directs some paramedics on where to deliver a guy on a stretcher. She walks around and appears really busy, just so we know she's a Superdoc! Then someone reminds her that some guy's been waiting for four hours. She opens a curtain, and it's Bench. He tells her he'd like some painkillers, but his doctor's off golfing in the Caymans. She looks at some X-rays that depict spinal-fusion surgery he had a couple years ago, then offers him other treatments. He's not interested, nor will he tell her how he was injured. She goes ahead and gives him the prescription, which gives him time to swap a cloned pager for hers. The new one beeps, though, so we get that it still works with her number. Then he turns and does something to the camera in the room so no one will know what he did.
JC spies on our doctor as Bench narrates who she is: the latest number, obviously. But also a single doctor named Megan Tillman who works eighty hours a week. JC watches her buy a burger and fries at a cart, then bump into a guy who watches her as she walks away. She has no known enemies, and everyone seems to like her, which gives them no clues so far as to why the Machine spit out her number. JC watches as she leaves work for the night. Her friends invite her out, but she says she's too tired and heads home. JC says he'll have to watch her around the clock to find out what kind of trouble she's in. As he's spying into her bathroom window that night (could he be any creepier?), she gets made up and ready to go out. This is where JC would stroke his shaggy beard if he still had it, and say, "Hmmm. How curious." (In my imagination, he would also be British.)
At the bar, JC watches a guy hit on her. She quickly rejects him, but JC spots a gun and freaks out. He follows the gun-toting skeeve into the bathroom, throws him on the ground and opens his coat. The "gun" he spotted was just a fancy cell phone holster. The funniest part is that the guy -- not really a looker -- starts squealing, "Please! Not my face! Please!" at JC when he throws him down in the bathroom. As if his face is really worth that much worrying. Now JC's face? Is a different story. JC heads back out to the club and watches Dr. Tillman bump into the same guy from the food cart earlier. JC bumps into him and steals his wallet. He discovers his name is Andrew Benton, and that he has roofies. JC thinks they've found the threat. But since we're only five minutes into the episode, I wouldn't bet on it being wrapped up quite yet.
JC visits his sugar daddy at the Library and tells him that Tillman left the club around 3:30. Bench says she showed up at work before sunrise, treated a twisted ankle, a heart attack, and a cut on a hand. She's only stopped to have a cup of coffee. JC says work isn't the only thing she's dedicated to: The doctor told him she's been at the club every night this week. Bench -- who, at this point in his Machine-creating, Number-following existence shouldn't be quite so incredulous -- marvels, "A double life?" JC confirms and says it's a dangerous one, since she's attracted the unwanted attention of Benton. About him: Bench's research shows he's an investment banker at Hudson Liberty Financial. He technically has no record, but there are a string of allegations for stalking, harassment, and sexual assault. But no charges. JC thinks the sexual predator's picked out Tillman as his victim. So he breaks into Benton's apartment, of course. It's all decorated with pictures of Benton, plus his initials all over the place. JC says he "likes to mark his own territory." Then he notices there's a coffee canister, but no coffee maker. He looks inside, and finds cocaine. JC finishes downloading Benton's email and personal computer files and heads out.
NYPD. Detective Carter's hard at work these days on nothing other than obsessing about JC. She's watching the footage from last week's robbery, focusing on the part when JC pulled Bench up and whispered to him. She tells her cop friend that it's obvious that JC said something to Bench, and that Bench said something in return. She's going to question Bench, she says, but she thinks he's a paralegal named Burdett.
Bench and JC sort through Benton's computer, and find pictures of him with all sorts of women. Must be his conquests. However, none of them is Megan Tillman, and he's never researched her online or looked up her apartment or anything else that would connect them. JC says he's careful (but, if that were the case, why would he have pictures of all of his conquests on the computer, brainiac?). Bench has also dug up a sealed record from when he was in college. It's been expunged, though, so JC's going to ask for Fuscoe's help. Bench tells JC he's not comfortable with the relationship JC has with Fuscoe, who will sooner or later bite back. (Hint: That's foreshadowing.)
Fuscoe's playing what appears to be parking-lot hockey with his son when the ball rolls away and he heads off to shag it. That's when he's approached by some drug dealers who tell him he's on the hook for $1 million because the rest of the dirty cops are either missing or dead. Fuscoe's son asks his dad to come play, which gives the drug dealer a chance to threaten Fuscoe by telling him that if he brings the money in two days he'll be able to go home to son again.
JC's spying on Tillman at the club again, talking to Bench (or himself?) about what might be driving her to work eighty hours a week and then party the rest of them. Benton heads over to Tillman about then, and flirts with her. She introduces herself as Kate, but Benton gives his real name. JC asks Bench why she'd be using a fake name. Then he follows "Kate" and Benton as they walk out and down the street. They consider going elsewhere to hang out, but when Benton offers his place, she declines, since she has to work early. He doesn't get pushy about it at all; just leaves her alone. She, on the other hand, heads into a parking garage with JC close on her tail. She ends up across from Benton's apartment building, where she can snap pictures as he enters his door code. JC, stunned, tells Bench that Benton's not stalking the doctor; she's stalking him! There's a twist? Gasp!
That same sad voice that opened the episode once again says, "It's me. I know it's late. It was my fault. I know that now. I tried to put it out of my head, but I can't." Then Fuscoe's waiting, paranoid, when JC sneaks up. Fuscoe tells him not to sneak up on him when the Toreros are after him. JC says he spent a little time in Mexico. Fuscoe says these guys are the death squad; if you cross them, your head ends up in a bag. JC, ever sympathetic, "But you've already crossed them." And he'd like Andrew Benton's expunged record, please. Fuscoe has that, and the medical examiner's report. He won't give it to JC, though, unless he'll protect him from the Toreros. He says it's either them or him. JC says there are a lot of crooked cops in this town, and he could easily find one more useful than Fuscoe. He asks for the report, "please," but it's clearly a threat, so Fuscoe hands it over.
Back at the Library, JC and Bench go through the expunged record. Turns out Benton sexually assaulted a freshman at a fraternity rush party when he was a senior at NYU. The girl had a couple beers with him, and he slipped something in her drink. But she waited two days to report the assault, so the rape kit was inconclusive and the tox screen came back clean. She dropped the charges. And the kicker? The girl was Gabrielle Tillman, the doctor's sister, who overdosed on sleeping pills a year later. JC states the obvious: That's why the Machine spit out Tillman's number. She wants to murder Benton. JC says that she's a doctor who saves lives and doesn't know what it's like to take one. He says it will destroy her.
Carter shows up at a fancy house and knocks. Bench answers, and she talks to him, "Burdett," saying she'd like to talk about the robbery he witnessed. He says he got her call. They go inside and he talks paralegal mumbo-jumbo about why he was at the lockup that night. Carter notices Bench's limp and asks if he was injured during the robbery. He says it's an old injury, but the stress didn't help. She asks him to walk her through what happened. He does, though he leaves out the part where JC grabbed him and talked to him. Until she shows him a picture of them talking. He tells the truth at this point, telling her that JC told him to stop staring at him. She says most people's instinct is to look away, but he says he's never been accused of being like most people. She asks if he communicated with JC, and he says he asked him to let her go. She gets really pushy -- which seems an odd way to treat a witness -- until he tells her he was begging for his life, but can't remember the exact words he used since he was terrified. She asks him to give her a call if he remembers anything, promises him they'll catch this guy, and leaves.
Bench calls JC's cell phone as he watches some guy picking up a prostitute. He tells Bench that he's taking care of a side project while Tillman's working. Bench fills JC in on Carter's obsession with him, and says he needs to have a plan for when she catches up to him. JC says he's taking care of it, by making a new friend (the guy picking up the prostitute, I presume, since JC's snapping pictures of the deal) on the police force. He says the friend's going to help with their problems with Carter and Fuscoe.
JC follows Tillman after work to a support group of some type. When he sits down, a woman is crying and talking about being assaulted. Tillman gets teary and uncomfortable, and finally gets up and leaves. JC gets up and follows her to the coffee machine. He makes small talk with her about how coming to these groups should make him feel better, but it makes him worse. He asks if she knows that woman talking in there. She says no, but she knows someone like her. She asks why he's here, and he says he lost someone very close. She says she's sorry, and he goes on that not a day goes by when he doesn't think about what he might have done. Tillman says it took her years to piece together what happened with her "friend," and she thought she'd put it behind her. Until she saw him a month ago, out on a date at a French place. He looked content, and her world shattered. She chokes back tears and apologizes for telling him all this. He says everyone needs someone to talk to. He introduces himself as "John," and she says she's "Kate Leman."
Back at the Library, JC fills Bench in on Benton's M.O. He takes pictures with these women, gets them to do cocaine, then slips them a sedative and rapes them. In the morning they're too afraid to come forward and implicate themselves because of the cocaine. JC says Benton gets off on this, and he's not going to stop. He asks Bench if he got a hit on the name Kate Leman. There are three in the area, but two don't seem related. The third has a P.O. box a block from Tillman's hospital and recently signed rental agreements for a van and a vacation home in Montauk. JC checks out the vacation home and finds a closet full of lye. He tells Bench it's everything she'd need to dissolve the body for good. Bench says he'll refrain from asking how JC knows that. JC says Tillman planned this to a T, and is going to get away with it. Bench is beginning to think she should, but JC says she's not a killer and this will ruin her life. He has to find a way to make Benton disappear first.
Fuscoe's waiting outside an apartment door, a bundle of nerves, when JC shows up. Fuscoe's glad he's decided to help him, but warns him these guys are dangerous, so JC shouldn't leave any of them standing. Fuscoe asks if he should go cover the exits, but JC says he's good right here. They knock on the door, and the cartel lets what they think is Fuscoe in. They're watching a football game, and an announcer yells the longest "touchdown" in the world as JC punches out all the Toreros, takes their drugs, and heads out. Fuscoe can't believe it; he asks if JC's stealing from them. JC tells Fuscoe that if it makes him feel better, it's for a good cause. Then he approaches Benton in his parking garage and knocks him out. scene is Benton passed out in his car, with the airbag deployed and the horn honking. The cops arrive to find him passed out and crashed into a light pole with all the cartel cocaine in the seat to him.
One scene later, JC's in the car with Fuscoe watching Benton be released already. JC wonders how this is possible, and Fuscoe chalks it up to money and expensive lawyers. Fuscoe asks what about the Toreros, who are going to come looking for him and their coke. JC tells him to make sure they don't find him, "Lionel." Fuscoe asks himself what's stopping him from making some noise and getting JC arrested right now. JC doesn't know; what is stopping him? Fearless, he gets out of the car.
Surveillance images as we get the sad-voiced girl again: "It's me. I know it's late. It was my fault. I know that now." At about this point, we see it's an old answering machine that Tillman's listening to while she packs a bag. "I tried to put it out of my head but I can't. I'm sorry, Meg. I should have been a better sister. Please, just forget I called. Forget all this." Tillman turns it off and looks sad. Then Bench tells JC that she's on the move (I assume the pager's a GPS). JC thought she was in the middle of a shift, and Bench says she was, but she went to take a nap and asked a nurse not to wake her. But now she's moving away from the hospital, headed toward Benton's loft. Bench tells JC to get there quickly.
But when JC hangs up and starts to walk that way, the Toreros surround him. He asks if they can do this later, but they're not much for waiting, so they punch him and drag him off. Meanwhile, Benton arrives home to find his key code already entered and his door unlocked. He wonders "What the hell?" but goes ahead and enters the apartment. (Word of advice: If this happens to you, call the cops to go in instead.) He shuts the door behind him, and we see Tillman hiding down a dark hall. He doesn't, though, so she manages to get him with a taser gun and knock him out. As she puts something else to knock him out for good in his nose, his eyes flutter so we know he's seen her. She's wearing latex gloves as she puts an oxygen mask over his face (though I'm guessing it's not pumping oxygen).
Bench calls out to JC, saying Tillman's been at Benton's loft for five minutes; where the hell is JC? Cut to a bag being removed from his head in what looks like the same apartment he found them in before. When JC looks around, he sees the Toreros and, of course, Fuscoe. He tells "Lionel" it's nice to see him again, and the Toreros explain that Fuscoe owes them a debt, and JC was a down payment. Fuscoe says it's a "win-win." Elsewhere, Tillman wheels Benton out to her chimo while all of New York City is apparently asleep. She closes the van door behind them and heads, presumably, toward Montauk.
Back with JC and the Toreros, one of them asks JC for their cocaine. JC says he knows the guy, who replies that he knows, then, that if you cross the Toreros, you lose your head. JC says he's sorry, but the guy says it's too late for apologies. JC says no, he's sorry that this guy's going to lose his head... then, in Spanish, he continues: "when your boss finds out you've been helping your rivals in the Gulf Cartel slaughter your boss's men. And his son." Another Torero asks if it's true, and the guy tells him to shut up, that JC's a liar. But the seed's clearly been more than planted. Enough to let JC jump up and, handcuffed, take them all out. Again. He grabs the gun, points it at the main guy, then tells him in Spanish that if he sees him again, he will lose his head." Fuscoe tells JC he had no choice; they were going to kill him. JC says he told him he's not the only dirty cop in town, and he called in a favor. He says it's time for a change of scenery, so Fuscoe will be doing something else for JC. "And, Lionel, don't do this again." I can safely say I'd rather cross the Mexican drug cartel than JC. He can pretty much ruin anyone. I'd love to see him up against Emily from Revenge. Now that would be a life-ruining battle for the ages.
Tillman stops her giant blue chimo van at a gas station/diner, and heads inside. There's a cop eating there, who she greets nervously. Then she asks the employee to fill her van. JC approaches her then, and says he thought that was her. She recognizes him from support group, but says she has to go. He startles her, though, by calling her "Megan." Then he whispers that the guy tied up in the back of her van can wait. She obviously has no choice but to follow him to a table. She's so jittery she can't pick up her coffee cup without clanking it against the saucer. JC tells her she's been smart and careful and probably wouldn't get caught, but the truth is she won't really be getting away from it. He tells her he knows all about Benton, and all about her. He says he knows she's spent years healing people, and that if she murders this man in cold blood, it will kill her. She asks if he was telling the truth when he told her he lost someone. He just looks at her. She asks how he can sit there and tell her not to do something that he knows he'd do, too. He says he's not her; he knows what happens when you take a life. You lose a part of yourself. "Not everything. Just the part that matters the most." She asks if that's what happened to him. He actually tears up and looks away.
But he shakes it off quickly and turns back to the topic at hand. He tells her she doesn't have to do this; she can turn around now. She says she can't, because he's seen her face. JC says he'll have a little talk with him and she can trust him. He asks for the keys to her van. She doesn't want him to walk free. What does she get? JC says she gets a second chance, to let go; she gets her life back. He asks what Gabrielle gets, and he says she gets to keep her memory of Megan. Only it's really the other way around, isn't it? Tillman doesn't get this. She asks who JC is, why is he here. He says he already told her that everyone needs someone to talk to. She gives him the keys and cries as he holds her hand over the table.
Bench asks JC where Tillman is. JC says she's fine; he has her van. And Benton. Bench asks what he's going to do, and JC says they're going to have a little talk. Then he asks Bench why he does this -- the numbers, all of it. Bench seems like he wants to tell JC, but instead he just says he has his reasons. He changes the subject and asks about their little problem with Detective Carter. JC says it's taken care of.
Fuscoe's being led into Carter's office, and he thanks the cop leading him there. The cop -- the same one who was picking up a prostitute earlier -- tells him to spare him that; he says he was told to leave him here and not ask questions, so that's what he's doing. But now he wants Fuscoe to call his friend and tell him to lose the pictures of him. He threatens Fuscoe that if he messes up here, he doesn't care who's protecting him; he'll see to it that he fries. He leaves, and Carter walks by. She makes small talk with Fuscoe about the picture of his kid, then he asks her about the lockup robbery, and she asks if he just transferred. They finally introduce themselves to each other, and he says it looks like she's stuck with him. She smiles.
Benton wakes up at the water. Looks like JC took him to the Montauk vacation rental after all. He looks out at the sailboats and happiness, then across the table he's sitting at. JC's across from him, and there's a gun on the table. Benton asks where he is, and says the woman in the loft tased him. JC says he told her to leave; she isn't cut out for this. "She fixes people. Not like us. We break 'em." Benton asks who JC is, but JC's not answering that for Benton of all people. Benton asks what JC's going to do to him, and JC says he honestly hasn't decided yet. He asks Benton if people ever really change. "I mean, you hurt innocent people. And I... well, I, for a long time, I killed people like you." Benton says this is a mistake; he's not who JC thinks. JC puts his hands by the gun, and Benton's like, "Okay. I've done some things. But I won't do it again." He asks JC to let him go, and JC says he could do that because he'll know JC's watching him for the rest of his life and would stop him if he hurt anyone. And maybe Benton could change, and so could JC. But the truth is people don't really change, do they? Benton nervously stutters that they can. He thinks he can, and he doesn't think JC's going to kill him because he can see inside that he's a good person, a good man. JC scoffs, "Good?" Then he gets sad and says he lost that part of himself a long time ago and isn't sure he can find it. He says maybe he's supposed to do what the good people can't, or maybe there are no good people, anyway, only good decisions. Benton tells him not to do something he'll regret, so JC asks what he thinks he'd regret more: letting Benton live, or letting him die. He puts his hands by the gun again, and tells Benton to help him make a good decision. The camera pans out to show them both and the view behind them. And... that's the end. So far, JC's only killed people when absolutely necessary, so I'm going to assume he doesn't kill Benton unless we learn otherwise.
week: A judge's child is kidnapped. The announcer wants us to think of Bench and JC as "two heroes" giving him hope. Inspirational music. JC tells the judge to trust him. I hope it's not as sappy as that looks.
DeAnn, a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon, doesn't understand why a crime of the week needs a cliffhanger ending. You can contact her at twopmodmars@gmail.com.
What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Talk Without Pity, the social media site for real TV fans. See Tweets and Facebook comments in real time and add your own -- all without leaving TWoP. Join the conversation now!
Benton wakes up at the water. Looks like JC took him to the Montauk vacation rental after all. He looks out at the sailboats and happiness, then across the table he's sitting at. JC's across from him, and there's a gun on the table. Benton asks where he is, and says the woman in the loft tased him. JC says he told her to leave; she isn't cut out for this. "She fixes people. Not like us. We break 'em." Benton asks who JC is, but JC's not answering that for Benton of all people. Benton asks what JC's going to do to him, and JC says he honestly hasn't decided yet. He asks Benton if people ever really change. "I mean, you hurt innocent people. And I... well, I, for a long time, I killed people like you." Benton says this is a mistake; he's not who JC thinks. JC puts his hands by the gun, and Benton's like, "Okay. I've done some things. But I won't do it again." He asks JC to let him go, and JC says he could do that because he'll know JC's watching him for the rest of his life and would stop him if he hurt anyone. And maybe Benton could change, and so could JC. But the truth is people don't really change, do they? Benton nervously stutters that they can. He thinks he can, and he doesn't think JC's going to kill him because he can see inside that he's a good person, a good man. JC scoffs, "Good?" Then he gets sad and says he lost that part of himself a long time ago and isn't sure he can find it. He says maybe he's supposed to do what the good people can't, or maybe there are no good people, anyway, only good decisions. Benton tells him not to do something he'll regret, so JC asks what he thinks he'd regret more: letting Benton live, or letting him die. He puts his hands by the gun again, and tells Benton to help him make a good decision. The camera pans out to show them both and the view behind them. And... that's the end. So far, JC's only killed people when absolutely necessary, so I'm going to assume he doesn't kill Benton unless we learn otherwise.
week: A judge's child is kidnapped. The announcer wants us to think of Bench and JC as "two heroes" giving him hope. Inspirational music. JC tells the judge to trust him. I hope it's not as sappy as that looks.
DeAnn, a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon, doesn't understand why a crime of the week needs a cliffhanger ending. You can contact her at twopmodmars@gmail.com.
What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Talk Without Pity, the social media site for real TV fans. See Tweets and Facebook comments in real time and add your own -- all without leaving TWoP. Join the conversation now!