PERSON OF INTEREST: Greg Plageman Teases the Return of Elias and the ‘Mind-Blower’ Season Finale

Elias is back!

Yep, the PERSON OF INTEREST troublemaker returns in tonight’s episodee, so to get some scoop about what’s to come, I spoke with executive producer Greg Plageman about the hour, the season finale, and more…

Enrico Colantoni is back! What can you tease about Elias’ return?
Greg Plageman: He’s been gone too long! We love him. We think that our audience has — the great thing is we originally set him up as the big bad villain of the season, but we’ve had a couple other characters sort of emerge along the way who I think are equally compelling. One of which you haven’t even seen her face yet. But I think Enrico, what we’re going to find out in his return is how did this character come about? We’ll get a little bit of the origin story of Elias and the story between him and his father, who is one of the Dons of the five families of New York City.

The CBS tease for tonight’s episode says Finch and Reese think Elias is the one setting up these five families, but should they be so quick to judge?
GP: Nah, that’s what he’s doing.

It’s straight-forward?
GP: He’s coming! And if you’re going to go, go big. And that’s what Elias is about. We think the fun of that character is the clash of the old and the new. Mob 2.0. You guys things this way, we’re doing it this way.

You mentioned he was a one season character. Now that you officially have your renewal for next season, could you see his arc stretching beyond that?
GP: I would say if a character isn’t dead, then there’s a good chance you’ll see him again.

So that’s a “wait until May to find out” kind of a thing…
GP: Absolutely.

Will he be back beyond this week’s episode?
GP: No comment. Watch! Watch and see! CBS at 9.

I need to start working on my time machine. But in the meantime, is there any particular episode you’re really excited for fans to see?
GP: Yes, in fact. I think [episode 21] going to answer a lot of questions that were posed in the pilot about Reese and his character and what happened to Jessica. I think it’s a case that’s very personal to him and it’s going to open up a whole new dimension to his relationship with Carter and also the relationship between Finch and Carter. It’s a really strong episode.

The episode prior to that, I really love, too. It’s about armored car guards and we have Lenny Venito and Pablo Schreiber. It’s a very cool episode, a very tense episode, where we find Reese’s character as an armored car guard, trying to suss [things] out. And you can imagine…

I can’t even fathom that. Does he get to do anything special? Some sort of extra action sequence or something?
GP: Oh yeah! We went big in this one. We went big in this one. I think our audiences expects it right now, which is making our life a living hell, because we’re trying to top ourselves or try and find something where they don’t have that kind of element in the episode. But then people are like, “Wait a minute! That one was kind of light on action!”

But I think the fun for me with these episodes is that they’ve all felt a little different to me in tone. Like you have one that can be a real slow burn with “what’s going on with this doctor?” And then you realize she’s actually out to kill someone and you can end with an ambiguous ending.  It’s kind of fun.  And then you have one that’s straight on rails where you’re following a guy and then you realize he’s been framed by of all people, a hacker. And he’s just a guy trying to get his life back.

“Root Cause” is one of my favorite episodes. It dealt with a web of corruption and Fusco being thrust back into the dark side and having to handle some bad business for Reese. And then you throw in an episode and all of a sudden [the focus for the week is] a baby and people can laugh and say, “I like these characters and the humor and the interplay between them.” And I think that’s just fun for all of us…just mix it all up. It never feels like you know what to expect when you tune in to our show…it’s always going to surprise you. And it’s going to have a twist.

Should viewers expect the season finale to be darker in tone?
GP: I will say that the penultimate episode is very serious in its tone. The last episode is serious and we have a mind-blower cooked up for you guys. I think it’s going to be really fun. You’re going to want to watch it again right after it’s over, because you’re going to want to rewind everything you just saw to make yourselves completely understand what happens. At leas that’s what I hope.

I love when shows do that, so I’m very intrigued.
GP: We have to make sure everything is buttoned down and right as you’re watching it, because I think there is a slow-burn aspect to it, and we also have a situation where Reese and Finch’s character are placed in jeopardy where not only is it their lives [at risk], but there’s a danger of someone finding out about the machine. So we have all these balls up in the air and I think we can pull it off.

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PERSON OF INTEREST airs Thursdays at 9 PM on CBS.