Medium Episode 5.03 A Person of Interest

Bridget outsources her laundry folding duties by making Marie do the work. Allison finds a week-old note from Bridget's school announcing that parent/teacher night has been cancelled for tomorrow night. She scolds Bridget for not passing it on sooner. Joe points out that the bright side is that they're all free the next night. No one seems to be thrilled about this.

Behind a grocery store, Scanlon briefs Allison on an unidentified man killed by bludgeoning to the head. Scanlon doesn't know who he is because the only ID he has is fake and his fingerprints have been removed. Scanlon hopes Allison can get a feeling off the body to help find his identity, but she's transfixed by a discarded microwave nearby. She asks Scanlon if it's okay to take it. He says if she helps him solve the case, he'll buy her a new one.

Joe teases his sole employee David for coming into the office early, chiding him for being after his job. Turns out David got an inspiration and solved a design problem that he wanted to work on. Joe invites David and his wife Debbie to dinner. When he gets home from work, he finds Allison in the garage dissecting the microwave. She's become obsessed with its inner workings. Later, Joe wakes from the couch to see her still at it six hours later. He tells Allison the time, and she's shocked she became so obsessed with the microwave.

Allison dreams of a teenager watching television. He moves to the back of its exposed innards and tweaks it for better reception. A news report comes on about a missing federal judge, Heath Clemens. The kid's father, who is her unidentified murder victim, calls him outside and shows him the judge in his trunk, bound and gagged. The son is shocked and shows sympathy for the judge. His father tells him the judge isn't a working man like him, but a member of the ruling class. As he spouts radical anti-government sentiments, he slits the terrified judge's throat in front of his horror-struck son. Allison wakes.

Allison researches the judge from her dream on the Internet. She prints out an article about him and takes it to Scanlon. She tells him about her dream that connected their unidentified murder victim to the dead judge, whose murder still remains unsolved. Allison adds that their victim was a conspiracy nut who had a son. At the store, Allison is lured to very specific pieces of hardware and fills her cart with them.

Joe gets home to see that despite the fact that they're expecting company, Allison hasn't made dinner and the dishwasher has been gutted for parts. The kids say they tried to intervene but she ignored them. He finds Allison in the garage, building something she can't identify. Joe is disturbed when he sees that she also bought five carloads of fertilizer. He tells her to step away, but she won't. He forces her off it and tells her she's building a detonator for a fertilizer bomb. It sinks in for Allison how she's endangered her family. The doorbell rings. Company has arrived.

Joe and Allison apologize to the Brewers, who understand, especially when Allison says she got food poisoning. David gives Allison a bottle of wine, and upon touching it gets a vision of various yearbook-style photos of different people. After they leave, Joe loads the fertilizer in both cars and says he's taking it back. Allison is temporarily resistant until Joe reminds her she was building a bomb. Later in bed, Allison apologizes to Joe, who insists she call him if she gets any more compulsions to build things.

The next day, in Devalos' office, Scanlon and Devalos tell Allison that their unidentified murder victim is Mitchell Slocum, who bombed a California federal courthouse in 1985, killing 17 people. Devalos asks Allison if she has any more insights before he talks to the media. She doesn't, but is shaken at the coincidence of her building a bomb. She goes to Joe's office to discuss it with him, fearing Slocum's spirit is possessing her to build a bomb since she works in a courthouse. Joe takes away her credit cards to prevent her from buying any more hardware in case Slocum tries again.

Outside, Allison sees a distressed David, whose hands shake as he pulls out a cigarette. When she's concerned, he says it's "family stuff." She sees a circular burn mark on his palm and gets a vision of Slocum burning his son's palm on the stove as punishment for anonymously telling the police where to find the judge's body. Slocum scars him so he'll have a reminder that they're at war with the ruling class, just like his facial scar from Vietnam reminds him that he was a casualty of a war created by rich men whose sons didn't fight. When she snaps out of it, Allison realizes David is Slocumb's son.

Allison discusses her vision with Joe, who says that doesn't change who David is. Allison thinks he doesn't get it, but she says it's her job to find out who killed Mitchell, even though he was a monster. Joe says he wants to talk to him first. David agrees to talk to them and since he has no alibi, asks them to be discreet in their investigation. He's spent 20 years becoming David Brewer and distancing himself from his past. At home, Bridget sees Joe and David on TV as reporters shout questions. A graphic identifies David as Slocum's son and says he's being questioned in his murder.

Scanlon calls Allison to tell her they caught Slocum's killer, another right-wing nut who killed Slocum over money. Allison is horrified that they destroyed David's privacy when he wasn't even guilty. Joe tells Allison that David has quit and is moving because he's been getting threats and someone threw a rock through his window. Allison wonders why she's being shown all these things if David is innocent.

Allison dreams of David, his hand still bandaged from the burn, showing his father the bomb he built and explaining that it can blow up a building. His father is proud of him and hugs his son, who flinches at his touch. Allison wakes and realizes David built the bomb. Joe finds her in the kitchen with the parts and is at first alarmed until Allison tells him about her dream. And, that the people she saw when she took the wine from David were the bomb victims. She thinks she saw the vision because David is haunted by them.

Allison confronts David at his house about building the bomb. He denies it, saying she can't prove it, then softens, saying if it wasn't that bomb it would have been another. Allison asks if he tells himself that to feel better about killing 17 people. David says a badly damaged boy named Arlo also died that day, but David Brewer was born out of those ashes. He asks what the point would be of destroying one more family and is sorry she didn't get to know him. They shake hands and Allison sees the victims' pictures flash again. "It's always there, isn't it?" she asks. David says to give Joe his best and drives off.