enemy of perfect

julstorres:

AO3 link | dreamwidth link.

Call it a fit of whimsy. Harold writes the craigslist ad like a personal. Single brown Malinois male seeks playmate for long runs in the park. Like donuts, hot dogs, first edition Asimov. Speaks Dutch.

Read More

livenudebigfoot:

The first threat comes on a Tuesday.

Read More

holy fucking shit this fic

esteefee:

cassandrexx:

leupagus:

cassandrexx:

I mostly agree with the list of recommended Person of Interest eps that’s going around, but it fills me with TRUFAX FANNISH RAGE that people keep leaving out 1x07 - Witness, which is SUPER FUCKING AWESOME and a pivotal moment in a major plot arc.

Speaking personally, I don’t recommend it because I found it really boring.

I’m sorry you’re wrong on the internet. :(

Why would anyone skip any episode, first watch?

That’s my question, too!  I do not understand these strange episode-skipping ways.

But also, why would you ever skip “Witness”?  I love Charlie Burton’s tragic little face.  No, I’m serious!  And Reese was so gentle with him!  He reminded Reese of Finch!  Then at the end they play “Sinnerman”.  What is there not to love???

hellotailor:

enemyofperfect:

hellotailor:

enemyofperfect:

glitchvoice:

[snipped]

Ugh, now I’m thinking about young(ish) John Reese, getting in too deep with Jessica because he doesn’t really know how relationships work.

Clearly, my work here is done!  :D

(No, but seriously, welcome to my world.  Sometime I’m going to have to write my ridiculously long meta arguing that compulsory masculinity ruined Reese’s life.  TL;DR version:  dudes are encouraged to be strong and discouraged from getting all sensitive, and Reese — being a sensitive dude, and eager to please — did his best to live up to that, with the result that despite experiencing FEELS with an intensity and frequency that would do a Tumblrite proud, he never did that great a job of figuring out what to do with them, and instead concentrated on learning how to kill lots of people very efficiently.  Spoiler:  I don’t think that worked out very well for him.)

This is causing me a lot of pain because it’s PERFECT CHARACTERISATION FOR REESE. I want to write Finch/Reese fic but it’s getting all caught up in my Reese feels, which then boomerang back to Jessica/Reese feels because John Reese is a monster who doesn’t know how to interact with adult humans in a functional capacity.

You’re so right: compulsory masculinity DID ruin Reese’s life…

[snipped]

…IN CONCLUSION, FINCH AND REESE ARE BOTH GIANT WEIRDOS.

OMG, I love this post so much.

[…]

They are just such interesting weirdos.

THIS THREAD WILL NEVER DIE. REBLOGGIN TILL EVERYONE HAS UNFOLLOWED ME IN DISGUST.

I really want some future episodes where we get so see more of Reese actively not caring about performing the masculine hero role. IDK if that’s actually likely to happen, but I like to think that it’s an intentional characterisation choice?

Re: Reese admiring people who haven’t lived a life of violence — there is SO MUCH TRUTH TO THAT. And I am v impressed with the way POI manages to portray this as something other than the boring old “idealising the pure damsel” trope you see in a lot of shows like this (even though, OK, I admit it — Jessica and Grace do suffer from this to a certain extent). I particularly like the way he relates to Harold as someone he has to physically protect, since Harold is someone for whom he already has immense respect as a dangerous/capable person in his own right. After Harold was kidnapped by Root, Reese reacted in what I can only describe as the healthiest way possible. As in, he is sensitive to Harold’s trauma, and tries to find solutions in a Harold-friendly way. Basically, John Reese is extremely terrible and feelings and emotions and people, unless it’s feelings and emotions which are directly related to Reese’s are of expertise, ie horrible violence.

For Reese, the ultimate sign of success is that the person he’s helping doesn’t need him any more. Which dovetails neatly with his (not unsubstantiated) belief that he’s a danger to be around, and that the best way to protect the people he loves is to stay as far away as possible. Working with the Machine is ideal, because he can be used as a long-distance weapon to help and save people, and there’s an outside force that obligates him to detach afterwards, leaving the people he’s saved to live safe and happy lives without him. 

Okay, I can’t cope with these beautiful gifs of John and Jessica anymore, it’s too tragic a juxtaposition, I cannot. Text post it is!

I so want Reese’s characterization to be intentional too, because that’d mean we will keep getting more of it. Om nom nom.

And no, you’re completely right — the backstory romances are significantly failier than most of what happens week-to-week. I mean, it’s psychologically plausible in Reese’s case due to extreme brokenness, and I’m nurturing this sad self-destructive hope that the show might somehow snatch awesomeness from the jaws of horrible stalkery deception with Harold and Grace, but nevertheless: failcakes. Elaborate ones, with layers, and lots of pretty icing. And maybe some little edible gold stars.

I don’t know if this is going to make any sense outside my head or not, but I read “Many Happy Returns” as an attempted subversion of the trope of break-up as noble self-sacrifice: John tried to keep Jessica safe by leaving her, but contra the narcissistic self-loathing that had him believe that he was the worst thing that could possibly happen to her, the world is full of all kinds of dangers, and she totally died anyway! The thing is, I’m not sure how successful you can call the attempt, given that the argument that Reese is not actually the center of the world was made by killing off another character to make a point about him. And a meta-fridging still strikes me as pretty chilly, you know? So even if the show does get that Finch is being amazingly terrible and wrong here, I’m not completely sure I’m going to like their fix. /o\

Reese is so matter of fact about protecting Finch from physical danger. Like in “Shadow Box”, when they had the hostage exchange, they just took care of it and kept going about their business. Just another day in the ongoing suicide mission, don’t you know. Meanwhile it makes his entire day whenever Finch hacks something for him. Oh dudes.

In conclusion, your last paragraph fills me with despair because it is SO AWFUL AND SO TRUE. Excuse me, I have to go spend seventy million hours thinking about the “Dead Reckoning” rooftop scene to convince myself that Reese knows now that he doesn’t have to be alone anymore, because Finch just isn’t going to leave him.

glitchvoice:

enemyofperfect:

glitchvoice:

enemyofperfect:

So giandujakiss’s complaint that Tao seemed sort of shoehorned into the latest episode kind of got me thinking.

My headcanon has been that the Machine is coaxing Finch and Reese into relying on Tao more and more — and vice versa, of course — presumably for the reason that he’ll be invaluable if Finch is kidnapped again, or is otherwise incapacitated.

I think there’s a good argument to be made, in fact, that at one point the Machine either planned for Tao to replace Finch, or else chose for complex Machinely reasons to act as though it did.

Read More

Sadly, I think Leon’s presence can mostly be rationalised by the fact that he’s an entertaining character, and provides good comic relief. :// Considering the intelligence of the machine, it seems really difficult to believe that it would choose someone as unreliable as Leon to take over from Finch, when both Finch and Reese are the living embodiment of suicidal dedication to duty. But enemyofperfect’s theories are so good I almost want them to be true.

Something I often wonder about is the location of the numbers. Like, in the most recent episode Reese had to travel to Atlantic City, but nine times out of ten he just stays in New York. How does the Machine pick which numbers to send out to Finch and Reese?? The Machine watches over the entirety of the USA (and probably further afield as well) but almost always restricts itself to NYC when notifying Finch and Reese that someone is in danger. Does it take travel time into account? Whatever its reasoning, I think this is an indication that the Machine does actively pick and choose between Numbers.

Curse your irrefutable Doylist reasoning! :D Meanwhile, though, I’m kind of fascinated that everyone sees Tao as so unreliable. I mean, sure, his ebullient grin leaves something to be desired in the reassurance department, but aside from the attempted embezzling, has he ever let our guys down? Wait, I guess he did also feed Bear human food once, so there’s that.

But seriously, unless I’m forgetting something massive (which is not impossible), I think his success rate when he’s working with Finch and Reese seems about as good as theirs is: he did everything they asked in “Critical”, he ferried Shaw safely to their whimsical little death-themed meet-up without getting more than half-killed in the process, and the minor disaster at the casino was either not his fault or, at worst, a collaborative effort. It’s only when Tao’s on his own that things go to hell, and all available evidence, including his own incompetence at keeping himself alive when things get dicey, suggests that his knack for making enemies is a recent development — which dovetails ever so nicely with my conspiracy theories.

As for the 100K he tried to take from Finch, I don’t know, I guess I just can’t get too excited about that kind of pocket change since the time Reese dropped ten mil just to see the look on Logan Pierce’s face? I think you’ve hit on something, though, in bringing up Finch and Reese’s comfortable certainty that theirs is a suicide mission; the biggest difference between them and Tao isn’t that they’re more skilled or less likely to create chaos, but that unlike them, Tao isn’t completely broken. Whether that makes him more or less useful as an asset… I guess would depend on what precisely the Machine had in mind. Hypothetically speaking.

I think the Machine must take location into account, and I’m both intrigued and a little confused by its having led them a bit farther afield this time. Like, could it possibly have run out of numbers to give them in New York? That seems unlikely… unless its functionality is continuing to degrade in the face of whatever Stanton did to it. Meh!

Leon’s kind of a garden-variety fuck-up rather than being an all-round disaster zone, i guess, but IMO even if he hasn’t specifically let Finch and Reese down… he really can’t be trusted on his own?? Like, it seems like a bad idea to pick him as a *replacement* for Finch and Reese, because by definition he’d be working alone, and he isn’t very good at that. You make a good point about him being a decent sidekick/helper for Team Machine, but he seems like a weird choice to take over as the sole operator of the Machine if they died. He’s nowhere near selfless enough, plus he’s kind of… easily distracted? IDK. Although it’d be interesting if the Machine was developing him as an asset. I’d definitely be inclined to support that theory if we saw hints of the Machine cherry-picking Numbers in future episodes, anyway.

Re: the machine taking location into account… the Atlantic City casino in this episode was the same one where Finch taught the Machine to recognise stuff in CCTV footage during one the flashback episodes last season. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?? is the machine returning to old haunts?? does he have a certain affinity for places connected to his and harold’s backstory? WHAT??

A minor tragedy in the annals of enemyofperfect has occurred:  I was doing okay with Tumblr not believing it about Tao and the Machine, but today I learned that my own mother — also a POI fan — doesn’t even believe me.  My own mother!  It was a bitter pill, my friends.

I am SO FASCINATED by it being the same casino.  What does it mean?  I guess it’s easy to be sentimental when you have perfect recall for everything you’ve ever witnessed.  Or maybe because Finch has been there before, it figures it’s fair game?  I’d love to attribute all kinds of other random motives here (maybe it wants to remind Finch of the time it SAVED HIS LIFE as a way of politely suggesting that he might like to return the favor???) except, unless premeditated murders are happening at that casino constantly, it seems overly convenient that there was a related number to report at all, so, probably not.

glitchvoice:

enemyofperfect:

So giandujakiss’s complaint that Tao seemed sort of shoehorned into the latest episode kind of got me thinking.

My headcanon has been that the Machine is coaxing Finch and Reese into relying on Tao more and more — and vice versa, of course — presumably for the reason that he’ll be invaluable if Finch is kidnapped again, or is otherwise incapacitated.

I think there’s a good argument to be made, in fact, that at one point the Machine either planned for Tao to replace Finch, or else chose for complex Machinely reasons to act as though it did.

Read More

Sadly, I think Leon’s presence can mostly be rationalised by the fact that he’s an entertaining character, and provides good comic relief. :// Considering the intelligence of the machine, it seems really difficult to believe that it would choose someone as unreliable as Leon to take over from Finch, when both Finch and Reese are the living embodiment of suicidal dedication to duty. But enemyofperfect’s theories are so good I almost want them to be true.

Something I often wonder about is the location of the numbers. Like, in the most recent episode Reese had to travel to Atlantic City, but nine times out of ten he just stays in New York. How does the Machine pick which numbers to send out to Finch and Reese?? The Machine watches over the entirety of the USA (and probably further afield as well) but almost always restricts itself to NYC when notifying Finch and Reese that someone is in danger. Does it take travel time into account? Whatever its reasoning, I think this is an indication that the Machine does actively pick and choose between Numbers.

Curse your irrefutable Doylist reasoning! :D Meanwhile, though, I’m kind of fascinated that everyone sees Tao as so unreliable. I mean, sure, his ebullient grin leaves something to be desired in the reassurance department, but aside from the attempted embezzling, has he ever let our guys down? Wait, I guess he did also feed Bear human food once, so there’s that.

But seriously, unless I’m forgetting something massive (which is not impossible), I think his success rate when he’s working with Finch and Reese seems about as good as theirs is: he did everything they asked in “Critical”, he ferried Shaw safely to their whimsical little death-themed meet-up without getting more than half-killed in the process, and the minor disaster at the casino was either not his fault or, at worst, a collaborative effort. It’s only when Tao’s on his own that things go to hell, and all available evidence, including his own incompetence at keeping himself alive when things get dicey, suggests that his knack for making enemies is a recent development — which dovetails ever so nicely with my conspiracy theories.

As for the 100K he tried to take from Finch, I don’t know, I guess I just can’t get too excited about that kind of pocket change since the time Reese dropped ten mil just to see the look on Logan Pierce’s face? I think you’ve hit on something, though, in bringing up Finch and Reese’s comfortable certainty that theirs is a suicide mission; the biggest difference between them and Tao isn’t that they’re more skilled or less likely to create chaos, but that unlike them, Tao isn’t completely broken. Whether that makes him more or less useful as an asset… I guess would depend on what precisely the Machine had in mind. Hypothetically speaking.

I think the Machine must take location into account, and I’m both intrigued and a little confused by its having led them a bit farther afield this time. Like, could it possibly have run out of numbers to give them in New York? That seems unlikely… unless its functionality is continuing to degrade in the face of whatever Stanton did to it. Meh!

giandujakiss:

So I’m guessing the Machine is being sabotaged by feeding it bad information in some way that it can’t properly process.  I assume this is the case because the Well Manicured Man told Kara Stanton that the Titans were destroyed when the king was fed a stone instead of a baby, plus, an upcoming episode is called Trojan Horse. 

My big hope is that if the Machine is broken, Harold has to fix it - because he’s the only one who can.  The question is, how much of himself he has to reveal to do it.  And whether we get a road trip to the Machine’s physical location.

Ooh.

I’ve been wondering whether he might have to join forces with Root.

glitchvoice:

giandujakiss:

One of the more fascinating things about Reese’s character is how he needs the direction and purpose that Harold provides, and he’s unable to find that for himself.  And the reason this is so fascinating that we’ve now seen Reese contrasted directly with two other operatives who were also betrayed by the Agency in a nearly identical fashion - Stanton and Shaw - and both of them found their own purposes without needing a new master.

I.e., both Stanton and Shaw found a new purpose in revenge, or at least in ferreting out the truth.  And the difference between Stanton and Shaw on the one hand, and Reese on the other, is not just that Reese is a good soldier who follows orders - it was pretty clearly established in 2x16 that Shaw is also a good soldier who follows orders.  But as Shaw said, a good soldier finds a way to both follow orders and pursue his/her own personal goals - and that’s something that Reese wasn’t able to do; it’s why he needed Harold.

Speaking of Reese needing direction, the kiss between Stanton and Reese in 2x12 really freaks me out because it reads as such dub/non con.  Earlier in the episode, Stanton mocked Reese for refusing to kiss her as part of their cover; later, when she basically insists that he decide whether he’s doing this job or not, he says “I love my work,” and allows himself to be kissed (and, presumably, sleep with her).  It doesn’t read as consensual to me; it reads as Reese following more orders.

Finally, appropos of nothing (based on these comment threads), it amuses me to think of Reese as just one more close call away from approaching random strangers on the street to tell them how much he loves his friend Harold who found him, and saved his soul.  Just sayin’.

WE SHOULD ALL APPRECIATE HOW REESE IS OBSESSED WITH REFERRING TO “MY FRIEND, HAROLD.” “My friend,” he says meaningfully, introducing Harold for precisely zero reason at every opportunity. “Don’t worry, my friend will keep you safe.” “Tell me where my friend is.” GOD, IT’S THE WORST/BEST/WORST. John Reese is an intense, A-grade failboat when it comes to relationships and emotional expression, so his reaction to this is to be 110% sincere about Harold being HIS FRIEND. Which is fantastic because most people probably interpret this as a euphemistic hint, ie, “my friend,” as in, “my boss”, or “my associate”, or “this nameless terror who associates with me, another nameless terror.” PROBABLY ZERO PEOPLE ACTUALLY THINK JOHN ACTUALLY MEANS “MY FRIEND” WHEN HE SAYS “MY FRIEND”.

The whole situation is pretty tormented, I think you’ll agree.

Oh, and I definitely agree with your points about Reese and Stanton. Reese was definitely always more of a company man than Stanton. Stanton is a good agent, but she’s a lot less trustworthy than Reese — and TBH, I think she views him as kind of a dullard for this exact reason. Stanton and Snow are both excellent spies/agents, whereas Reese is an excellent soldier who happens to have a bunch of additional spy skills. To a certain extent I align Shaw more with Reese than with Stanton and Snow in that she’s a soldier, but in general she’s more like… a mercenary? IDK. But Reese is reliant on other people for direction, whereas Shaw is way more independent — even when she was still working for the government.

I think Reese needs an externally provided purpose because he doesn’t value himself or his own desires, leaving him with absolutely no basis for deciding on a life course — unless someone gives him a way he can help other people, whose happiness and well-being he does value.

NOT THAT HE’S MESSED UP OR ANYTHING.

I love the description of Reese as a really good soldier with added spy skills, except it also breaks my heart, because suddenly I’m thinking that what let Reese be a good soldier was the fact that he was willing to accept praise for following orders as a substitute for love. Oh my gosh, why do I do this to myself.

Ricocheting from one terrible thought to another — I have a whole horrible tangle of thoughts about the Stanton/Reese kiss that this margin is too narrow to contain, but no, I don’t think Reese was consenting.

So giandujakiss’s complaint that Tao seemed sort of shoehorned into the latest episode kind of got me thinking.

My headcanon has been that the Machine is coaxing Finch and Reese into relying on Tao more and more — and vice versa, of course — presumably for the reason that he’ll be invaluable if Finch is kidnapped again, or is otherwise incapacitated.

I think there’s a good argument to be made, in fact, that at one point the Machine either planned for Tao to replace Finch, or else chose for complex Machinely reasons to act as though it did.

Read More →

glitchvoice:

usethecushion:

OKAY BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT DID REESE AND LOGAN DO DURING THEIR 10 HOUR PLANE RIDE?

Logan sexted random people from his entourage and got no replies; Reese sat at the back of the plane where Logan couldn’t hear him, and talked quietly to Finch on the phone. And then maybe took a nap.