Tuesday, October 14, 2014

'Person of Interest' 4x3 'Wingman' Gif-Tweet-Cap: Finch and Fusco Hilarity

"Wingman" is a much funnier than expected episode of Person of Interest, with characters acting out of character, and all sorts of other hilarity. Team Machine now has a new home base in an old subway tunnel, along with a secret phone system that Samaritan is unable to track. So it’s time to get working on some new numbers! I've made the following gifs available on this Tumblr post.

Reese (aka Det. Riley) kneecaps a guy because "it's hot outside," and his new tough female captain isn't too happy about it, especially since this is the fourth kneecapping this week! She believes it's narco-cowboy stuff (his previous cover). Oh, if she only knew!
Finch is broke, and needs Shaw to help cover her part of the costs out of her new job. Wait, what? Finch... isn't made of money?
Fusco eye-flirts with a pretty blonde at a bar as Shaw watches. He's there to meet a “wingman” named Andre Cooper who will help him date women, but Andre is actually the next number. After a few digs at Fusco's attire, Fusco is convinced that Andre is in danger from... Fusco himself.
Root invites Finch on a "scavenger hunt." Hmmmm... what is this madness?
Reese suddenly moves from dunce cap to captain's pet with some good paperwork, and a few unnamed connections.

Andre wants to see a little more positivity out of Fusco, and attention to his appearance to show some respect for the ladies, but Fusco just can't help being grumpy.
Finch gets all scary during a "scavenger hunt" shady deal in which Root has enlisted his help in buying some heavy weaponry -- a rocket launcher.
Fusco is uncomfortably smiley at his first attempt to meet women under the guy's watch, failing miserably.

But Andre seems a bit uncomfortable when he spots a supposed "buddy," then Fusco ends up breaking his cover as a cop when some other guy tries to beat up Andre for looking at his girl. Fusco's got some pretty good skills, by the way, intercepting the punch and taking the guy down in one smooth move.
Andre is pretty upset that Fusco lied about his job, but Fusco says it's just so he won't get picked on by the other cops.

Finch goes into badass mode again for another shady deal.
Shaw continues shadowing Fusco and Andre as Fusco continues his attempt at hooking up, until Shaw spots a bad guy. She takes out the first guy, but there are more, and Fusco and Andre are both abducted.
Reese tries to help Shaw find them, but his captain is still on his ass, so Shaw takes Bear as backup instead.
Turns out Andre’s buddy is a murderous evil-doer. He plans to turn on his friend a second time by murdering Fusco and setting it up to look like Andre did it.

Bear helps Shaw track them to a storage container headed for the bottom of the ocean. Reese shows up too, because his latest homicide traces back to Andre and his "buddy." The bad guys are still around, and they all get rightfully kneecapped.
The next shady deal for the Finch 2.0/Root team-up is to sell the rocket launcher to the mob, but Finch backs out at the last moment. Root and the Machine knew he would, and Root kneecaps all of them. It's all part of the plan.
The Machine's plan was basically to help them gain weapons and bags of cash for their work without Samaritan ever knowing about it.
All in all, Fusco gets something extra out of the job: a date!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

'Arrow' 2x23 'Unthinkable' Gif-Tweet-Cap: The Kitchen Sink of Characters Are Here!

"Unthinkable" wrapped up Season 2 of Arrow with almost every major character ever presented on the show so far, all in one place. So many things happened in such a short amount of time, that you had to watch it a couple of times just to take it all in. Here are some of the highlights, along with a few animated gifs and tweets. I've also made the gifs below available on the following Tumblr post.

First of all, Thea is still mad at the world, and papa Malcolm tries to win her over. Instead, she tries to shoot him dead, which makes him very happy. Oh goody, he can mold her into the sleazy, conniving, murderous daughter he always dreamed of!
Later, the newly cured Roy plots to leave town with Thea, but then she finds his arrows. Of course, all this good-guy lying to protect her drives her to go be bad with her dad. Luckily, Oliver gives Roy his own mask so that he doesn’t have to also be driven to a dark place (we all know how touchy superheroes can be).
Now that they have the cure, they begin making up cure-laced arrows for defeating Slade’s Mirakuru army with the help of Nyssa and her League of Assassins. The only problem is that Oliver/Arrow disagrees with his girlfriend’s girlfriend Nyssa about killing bad guys. Arrow wants to wipe the floor with them (without killing them), while Nyssa wants to wipe them out. Nyssa wins the first round when she takes out bitchface Izzy (loved her in Firefly, by the way).
When Laurel is abducted, Quentin suddenly changes his tune and agrees with Nyssa. But Oliver wins his war on killing when he enlists the help of Sara, Roy, Nyssa and her League to take on Slade’s minions in a tunnel with the cure. Even papa Quentin gets in on the action, saving Nyssa.
Meanwhile, Diggle and Lyla (who’s pregnant!) bring Deadshot to the party to help force Waller to hold off on her drone attack against Starling City. They are successful in stopping the city from being destroyed, which means the show can continue to exist. Although, it would probably survive the attack, because that city survives everything. It must have been created by cockroaches.
Earlier, Oliver had taken Felicity to the Queen mansion for the purpose of being truly cruel to all the shippers out there. While there, he told her that Slade took the wrong woman (Laurel) because… he loves Felicity!! It’s all a show, of course, because Oliver knew that the mansion was being surveilled by Slade. He had slipped the cure into her hand, basically telling her with his eyes that she was bait for Slade.
The trick worked, and Felicity is abducted. When he finally meets up with Slade face-to-face, Slade goes on about how he is going to kill everything Oliver loves, and yadda yadda yadda. Oliver points out that Slade, in his rage, is missing the danger right in front of him. At that, Felicity stabs Slade with the cure.
Unfortunately, the cure does not cure Slade of his irrational rage, and the epic showdown begins. But this is not just a big-scale fight between two strong men. This is two fights juxtaposed — the old and new — into a single, flowing battle. Back on the Amazo, years ago, Oliver opted to stab Slade in the eye with his arrow rather than cure him.
In the present, Oliver allows Slade to live, but sends him away to rot on Lian Yu in an underground A.R.G.U.S. chamber. Good riddance... even though he was a pretty awesome villain!
At the end of the episode, we get to see a short preview of both the present and the past. In the past, Oliver wakes after stabbing out Slade’s eye, and is led outside of a building (in Hong Kong?!), and introduced to Amanda Waller!
In the present, Sara decides to join back up with Nyssa and the League, handing over her leather jacket to Laurel (which “fits”). Just after that, papa Quentin succumbs to his earlier injuries, blood spurting out of his mouth. Uh-oh! Not Harry Dresden... er… Quentin!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

'Person of Interest' 4x1 'Panopticon,' 4x2 'Nautilus' Gif-Tweet-Cap: That Sneaky Machine!

"Panopticon" is the Season 4 premiere of "Person of Interest," and "Nautilus" is the second episode of the season, both of which are gif-tweet-capped right here on a single page. I've made the following gifs available on this Tumblr post.

I had been wondering how on earth the gang was going to get out of their predicament at the end of Season 3, having lost to Samaritan. The Machine's workaround is very creative. While the premiere involves a plot with Elias and a number who needs to be saved, it's really all about getting the characters into their new roles, and providing them with an easier way to work with the Machine under Samaritan's nose.

First, we learn all the new fake jobs the Machine has given each of our heroes. Shaw's, as a department store makeup lady, is the most entertaining. Below, Shaw misfires her perfume bottle. I thought she had good aim? Perhaps her fake dead-end job has caused her to lose all hope, therefore impeding her skills. But it's probably just for the purpose of having another funny Shaw scene:
Reese does his thing on the bad guys. No other explanation would normally be necessary. In this case, he's doing all this in his new job as a narcotics detective rather than as savior for the Machine.
Later, Reese does his thing again, this time from the side of a moving vehicle.
Finch, meanwhile, is a professor with almost no students wanting to take his class. He and Reese have switched places, in a sense, with Reese wanting to continue taking numbers and working for the Machine, and Finch no longer wanting any part of it.

Root is the only one who appears to have kept her old job as working for the Machine. She is probably, from Samaritan's perspective, someone who job hops every few weeks.

Isn't it weird to see Reese having a good excuse to be looking suspicious, and for the cops to not be dirty, trying to take him out?

By the time we reach the end of the episode, Reese has been promoted to homicide, to work alongside Fusco. Reese clearly reacts to the realization that his new job resides at Carter's old desk.
In addition, Shaw gets promoted to "driver"... for a gang of thieves.
Earlier in the episode, Finch receives a corrected dissertation, clearly written by the Machine, with typos pointed out by someone who has no clue that those typos contain a message. It's probably the most clever thing the Machine has done so far, and leads Finch to a new hideout in a subway tunnel.
Meanwhile, the outcome of the case involving the number from the Machine leads to a hidden phone network. The gang now has everything it needs to continue working for the Machine.


In the second episode of Season 4, "Nautilus," Reese jumps in head first on a case given to him by the Machine, while Finch is still more than hesitant to be involved, despite having all the tools he needs. The number is a woman named Claire, who seems to believe she is playing some sort of game.
Reese tricks Finch into wanting to get involved by sending him to a cafe where she happens to be sitting a few seats over. The details reveal that she is a mega-genius. How can Finch refuse helping a fellow smarty-pants?

Unfortunately, Claire would rather play the "game" on her own, believing Finch is cheating off all her hard work in deciphering all the codes that only a genius could understand. Oh, if only she knew! She shoots out the back window of a car, blaming Finch for the action (as if he were capable of such an act of violence). Luckily, Reese is there to arrest Finch before he gets the crap beat out of him.
Claire continues with her game, this time trailed by Reese. He saves her as she stands in the middle of the road staring at some signs, completely unaware that she's about to be dead.
Later, Finch realizes that Samaritan created Claire's game when it hacks his system, so he throws out his compromised laptop. It knows where they are, so they must quickly "DRIVE!!!"
Even though Reese knows he could be in grave danger with Samaritan involved, he just can't help saving the lost young Woman. She has gained quite a following of people who want to kill her, having been involved with Samaritan's game of secret codes. Reese is OK with that, nonchalantly taking out each stalker, without her even realizing that anyone was following her in the first place. For a genius, she sure is oblivious to what's going on around her. She must live inside her own head.
Finch gets some help from Root, who believes that Samaritan must be recruiting Claire (just as the Machine recruited Root). Oh, and she just happens to be posing as a flight attendant, with a pilot named Larry locked in the trunk.
When Claire reaches the final few clues in Samaritan's game, Finch makes a final attempt to save her from blindly following a bad Samaritan, that will never care about her. She refuses his help, clearly needing some bigger purpose in her life.
At the end, three of the bad guys have followed Claire to the final step in the game. Suddenly, the three men are taken out by a sniper. Presumably, Samaritan sent the sniper a PM about making lots of shady money to do the job. I wonder if Samaritan has ever posed as a Nigerian prince. Anyway, she wins the "game." Her prize is a brand new Samaritan Phone, with a lifetime contract. Yep, Samaritan has recruited its own Root!