Person of Interest/Recap/S01/E16

Season 1, Episode 16:

Risk
The latest number is Adam Saunders, a gifted young Wall Street trader with a penchant for expensive suits, adrenaline and sleeping with his boss. Despite this, he's a relatively straight arrow and has a close relationship with his foster father, who runs a franchise of food trucks. Reese gets close to Adam by posing as a client and intervenes to save him from two seperate assassination attempts, but isn't fast enough to stop those conspiring against Adam from murdering his boss and framing him for the crime. While Finch investigates Trytek, a pipeline company whose rising stock prices are central to the conspiracy, Reese hides Adam at an abandoned slum building populated by homeless people and introduces him to Joan, an older woman who took care of Reese during his homeless period.

With Carter's help, Reese and Finch uncover a conspiracy by a broker and an SEC investigator to short the stocks of Trytek, which is about to go under thanks to a pro-fracking bill. They're able to thwart the final stage of thier plan by having Adam use Finch's money to reinvigorate the stock, and the conspirators are arrested by the NYPD. The SEC investigator is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but Carter realises this happened after the officer was arrested. She examines security footage of the arrest and realises that the arresting policeman was Scarface, who also dropped a burner phone in a nearby rubbish bin. Carter retrieves the phone and delivers it to Reese, along with her suspicions about who could organise such a slick money-making scheme and could use $300 million to fund a personal war. John dials the only number in the phone's memory.

"Elias: Hello, John! It's been a long time."

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Tropes present in this episode include
"Reese: I'm familiar with the case."
 * Always Murder: Minor example. Everyone writes off the SEC officer's death as a suicide except Carter, who realises the death took place after his arrest.
 * Continuity Nod: Adam makes a truckload of money on the short sale of Virtanen Pharmaceuticals when the executives are imprisoned.


 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Matt Lauria as Adam the trader.
 * Homeless Pigeon Person: Joan lacks the animal familiar, but otherwise fits this trope.
 * The Man Behind the Man: The whole scheme was orchestrated by Elias.
 * Shout-Out: There's a lot of Wall Street.
 * Shown Their Work: The episode uses correct terminology and the like when it comes to showing how Wall Street works.
 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The SEC investigator.