S2 >>
Person of Interest -- Season 1 (Flashbacks in parentheses)
#01 "Pilot" (Reese)	#09 "Get Carter" (Carter)	#17 "Baby Blue"
#02 "Ghosts" (Finch)	#10 "Number Crunch"	#18 "Identity Crisis"
#03 "Mission Creep" (Reese)	#11 "Super" (Finch)	#19 "Flesh and Blood" (Elias)
#04 "Cura Te Ipsum"	#12 "Legacy"	#20 "Matsya Nyaya" (Reese)
#05 "Judgment"	#13 "Root Cause"	#21 "Many Happy Returns" (Reese)
#06 "The Fix"	#14 "Wolf and Cub"	#22 "No Good Deed" (Finch)
#07 "Witness"	#15 "Blue Code" (Reese)	#23 "Firewall"
#08 "Foe" (Reese)	#16 "Risk"

"Many Happy Returns" is the twenty-first episode in season 1, and overall the twenty-first produced hour of Person of Interest. It originally aired on May 3, 2012.

Contents 1 Synopsis 1.1 2010 1.1.1 May 1.1.2 December 1.2 2011 1.2.1 February 1.3 2012 1.3.1 May 1 1.3.2 May 2 1.3.3 Prior to May 7 2 Trivia 3 Production notes 3.1 Bloopers and continuity errors 3.2 Music 4 Analysis 4.1 Themes 4.2 Cultural references 4.3 Literary techniques 5 Quotes

SynopsisEdit

A montage of interactions between John Reese and Jessica Arndt is seen, including their 2001 vacation in Mexico, their 2006 encounter at an airport, and their brief conversation over the phone. ("Pilot") ("Mission Creep") ("Matsya Nyaya")

2010Edit

MayEdit

Jessica calls John Reese's phone and leaves a message that she needs to talk. Her husband, Peter, confronts her about the call.

DecemberEdit

Peter kneeling over a dead Jessica.

Jessica and Peter are seen arguing and Peter pushes Jessica, who falls and hits her head on the kitchen counter top. Peter, realizing that Jessica is dead, initially starts to call 911 but stops. He arranges a car accident to make it appear that Jessica died in the roll-over crash.

2011Edit

FebruaryEdit

Finch, bound to a wheelchair.

Reese is traveling on a bus to New Rochelle when he is asked by a young male passenger if he is OK and what happened to him. Reese replies that he thinks that he has just quit his job.

Reese enters a hospital in New Rochelle and proceeds to the nurses' station, where he asks about Jessica. He is informed about Jessica's death in a car crash two months previously. He turns to leave and bumps into a patient in a wheelchair on the way out, during which time he apologizes without looking at the patient. This patient is Finch, who then looks at a file on his lap that contains pictures of Reese, Jessica and her husband Peter. Just as Reese walks away, Finch silently says, "I'm so sorry."

Reese watches a video of Jessica's wedding.

Reese proceeds to the home of Peter Arndt, where he breaks into the house after Peter leaves for work. Reese remains at the home, looking at pictures of Jessica and watching a video of her and Peter. When Peter comes home, he confronts Reese. John, who after watching the video and listening to the saved message from Jessica, realizes that Peter abused Jessica. Reese explains that he left Jessica behind and asks who he is supposed to be now that Jessica is gone. Peter picks up a fire place poker and Reese attacks him.

2012Edit

May 1Edit

Reese presents Mr. Han his birthday gift.

Reese, already at the Library, greets Finch once he arrives. Finch tells a surprised Reese that he has the day off, as there is no number. Finch then wishes Reese a Happy Birthday and gives him a present in a small box. After Reese leaves, Finch retrieves the number of a female person of interest, Karen Garner, on his computer.

Reese is playing xiangqi in a park with a friend, Mr. Han. Mr. Han asks if John has received any gifts. When Reese opens the package he was given by Finch, he finds a key, but no other information.

Detective Carter is approached by FBI Agent Donnelly about his investigation of Reese. He informs her that they have information about DNA that ties Reese to a case involving smugglers ("Blue Code") and a cold case from 2011 in New Rochelle, New York. He invites Carter to assist on the investigation, but she initially refuses. She then receives a call from Finch and they arrange a meeting at a bar. She informs Finch about the invite to work with Donnelly and Finch urges her to go. When Carter asks him about he wants, Finch tells her that is nothing important, although he was going to ask for her help with the new number. After Carter leaves, Karen Garner, working as a waitress at the bar brings the check to Finch.

May 2Edit

Finch enlists the aid of Detective Fusco. They discuss Karen and whether she is a criminal or on the run. Fusco loses Karen when she ducks into a store. Finch then proceeds to the bar where she works, looking for her, only to be told that she is off. A U.S. Marshal, Brad Jennings, follows Finch out of the bar to question him, where the two are confronted by a visibly annoyed Reese, who takes Finch away in a car. At the library, Finch reveals that he is working a case of an abused woman. He informs Reese that when he was working on The Machine, he would note that the same number could repeated come up, and he finally realized that he was looking at the numbers of people who were being abused. Reese, after a tense exchange with Finch, set off to Karen's apartment. He confirms that Karen, who's name is actually Sarah, is running from her abusive husband and the team confirms that he is actually the deputy that confronted Finch earlier. Reese confronts the husband at the U.S. Marshals office and tells him to leave his wife alone.

Carter has traveled to New Rochelle where she discovers that Peter was in debt to loan sharks and Donnelly thinks that they hired Reese to kill him, although no body was ever found. Carter talks to the medical examiner and concludes, after looking at the evidence, that Peter was abusing Jessica and probably killed her. She calls Finch to get more information and is informed cryptically that “she will make sense of it”. After interviewing Jessica's mother, Sharon, Carter is looking through some of Jessica's things and discovers a picture of a smiling Reese and Jessica.

Sarah Jennings is arrested attempting to leave New York and returned to her abusive husband. Finch shows Reese that the car of the deputy Marshall can be tracked, and a angered Reese orders Finch out of the car and takes off after them. Reese finds the motel where they have stopped and attacks and subdues Jennings and tells Sarah to leave, that she is free. Reese is later stopped by Carter, who has been alerted by Finch. She tells him that he can't execute Jennings, but tells her that he has to do what needs to be done and leaves.

Prior to May 7Edit

Reese and Finch meet up under the Queensboro bridge where Finch gives Reese a business card of Harold Wren, with an address to an apartment that Reese opens with his gift key and finds that it has an overlooking view of where he played chess with Mr. Han. Carter, who has requested Reese's military file, reviews it and destroys it. She keeps the picture of Reese and Jessica. She is later contacted by Gustavo Peña, a warden at Torreón penitentiary in Mexico, who informs her that 'her fugitive' has been delivered by a 'Marshal Jennings' and will be spending a long time in prison. She confirms that the prison has “one or two” other Americans as well.

TriviaEdit

• The military personnel file Carter reviews reveals that John's middle initial is H.
• The board game Reese and Mr. Han are playing is called Xiangqi, a Chinese version of chess.
• In real life, Sarah could have purchased a ticket at an automated machine, thus avoiding the agent.

Production notesEdit

• Jim Caviezel and Dagmara Dominczyk were co-stars in the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, as lovers Edmund and Mercedes.
• "Many Happy Returns" was originally titled "Best Served Cold."

Bloopers and continuity errorsEdit

• Though Reese's birthday is revealed to be May 1 on his dossier (the first day this episode supposedly takes place in), Reese checks his phone for messages in his apartment, and the date is April 24.
• The time 8:08am also conflicts with his early morning meeting with Finch which took place at 8:09am, further proving the phone may have been an oversight by the crew. It is, however, more likely that this scene takes place the following day.
• When Reese follows Marshal Jennings who is taking Sarah out of the city, it appears that both go in the wrong direction. The GPS in Reese's car shows that the Marshall is going north to Poughkeepsie. When they arrive, they are at the Meadowbrook Motor Lodge, which is a real motel located in Jericho, NY, about a hundred miles south.
• Right before Reese attacks Jennings in the field office, he unbuttons his jacket. As he walks away, his jacket is buttoned.
• Reese still has the message Jessica left for him in the previous episode. ("Matsya Nyaya") In that episode, he gives up the phone to a team leader in China. This makes it impossible that he would have that same message on his phone unless Reese had a messaging service.

MusicEdit

• "Revenge" by Dangermouse and Sparklehorse - end of episode.

AnalysisEdit

ThemesEdit

• Revenge
• Loss and regret

Cultural referencesEdit

• Reese is reading "Stress Fractures in Titanium" when Finch tells him that there was no new number. A reference to the movie "Heat".
• Many happy returns is a birthday greeting and used as a salutation to offer the hope that a happy day being marked would recur many more times. As the title of this episode it is a painful hint to Reese having to live through the loss and death of his loved one again by helping Sarah Jennings to get away from her abusive husband.
• "Many Happy Returns" is the 7th episode of The Prisoner. The episode also takes place on number 6's birthday. Jim Caviezel played the role of Six in AMC's miniseries, The Prisoner.

Literary techniquesEdit

• Reese's monologue from the first scene in the pilot episode appears in the flashback when Reese confronts Peter in his house.

QuotesEdit

• "When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different, someone better. But when that person is taken from you, what do you become then?" -Reese
• "Sorry... I'm so sorry." -Finch

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