"Foe" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American television drama seriesPerson of Interest. It is the 8th overall episode of the series and is written by Sean Hennen and directed by Milan Cheylov. It aired on CBS in the United States and on CTV in Canada on November 17, 2011.
Plot
Reese and Finch track former Stasi agent Ulrich Kohl across New York City. Kohl, having been secretly imprisoned by the German government for 24 years, has finally escaped and located his former Stasi teammates — Hauffe, Wernick and Steiller, all of whom betrayed Kohl to the American and German governments in exchange for new lives in New York. Further, Kohl believes that his former Stasi colleagues are responsible for the murder of his wife Anja, who was killed while attempting to flee Germany with him. Kohl kills Hauffe and poisons Wernick, but Reese manages to save him. When confronting Steiller before killing him, Kohl learns a terrible truth — Anja is still alive, having staged her own death to escape from his atrocities. When he attempts to locate her, he also learns that Anja had their child, Marie, and so sets out to find them both. Kohl finally locates Anja, having taken Marie hostage, and admits that he understands the reasons behind her flight, before raising an unloaded weapon to her, forcing Reese to shoot him dead. Kohl's predicament leads to Reese reflecting on his own life as a spy, where it is revealed that "John Reese" is an alias bestowed on him by his former CIA partner, Kara Stanton.
Reception
Viewers
In its original American broadcast, "Foe" was seen by an estimated 11.65 million household viewers and gained a 2.6/7 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research. This was a slight decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 11.76 million viewers with a 2.7/7 in the 18-49 demographics. With these ratings, Person of Interest was the third most watched show on CBS for the night behind Rules of Engagement and The Big Bang Theory, third on its timeslot and sixth for the night in the 18-49 demographics, behind Bones, The Office, The X Factor, Rules of Engagement, and The Big Bang Theory.
Critical reviews
"Foe" received generally positive reviews from critics. Keysha Couzens of TV Overmind wrote "Taking a complete aside from Person of Interest itself, it gave me a great amount of fannish joy to see Alan Dale and Michael Emerson in the same scene again. Brought back some of the bestLOST memories and it was almost like Widmore and Ben's rivalry has just kept on going. Seriously, pitching people this show as a sometimes procedural with great actors, fantastic action sequences and a mini-LOST reunion every other episode not a bad way to go about it. While this wasn't quite as exciting of an episode as perhaps the one before it, it still had its moments despite the cliché plot-points. I do hope that the next time we do get a flashback though, it's for Mr. Finch. I could watch a whole hour on that character's complex background, easily." Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy wrote "Despite the dull title, 'Foe' is one of the strongest episodes of Person of Interest yet. It's great to see Reese finally meet an opponent who is more than a match for him!" Luke Gelineau of TV Equals wrote "This was an adequately exciting and fitting end for the story, and it was an overall solid episode. I'm excited to see what they have in store for the episode after Thanksgiving, as we're off next week for the holiday. I'll see you all then!" Sean McKenna of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.1 star rating out of 5 and wrote "Once again, another decent episode that although really didn't offer anything new to the show - but remained consistent in its storytelling, premise and characters."
