Wisdom of the Crowd episode 5 review: Can Sophe be sold?

When you have success in some of your endeavors, it shouldn’t come as much of a shock that people are going to come for you. This was in part what the story of Sunday night’s episode of Wisdom of the Crowd was all about as Jeffrey Tanner faced the possibility of his new endeavor being bought out and monetized.

The longer the episode went on the more troubling the story became for Tanner and the Sophe project. His former company was filing a lawsuit against him, effectively claiming that he used some copyrighted codes in the creation of the platform. After this, he started to scramble for lifelines. It’s too bad for him that one of these lifelines (Alex) proved fruitless, largely because she sold her shares and wouldn’t be able to help Tanner at all.

This was a story about capitalism and Tanner’s struggles to move from something cutthroat to something innovative but also personal. He didn’t start Sophe for the money; instead, the platform is a creation of passion, a tool to help the public solve crimes. In turn, he hopes that eventually it will help to uncover the truth about his daughter’s death.

Tanner did his best to defend himself and Sophe tonight … but for the time being it was to no avail. Jeffrey’s decision to hire Sara Morton when he did proved to be in violation of a contractual idea he came up with while at his former company, which meant that they may actually own much of the code and there is nothing he can do about it.

Does this mean that Sophe as we know it is already over — only a few episodes into the series? We refuse to believe that. What this storyline showed to us tonight is that Jeffrey has his work cut out for him trying to reverse his own past actions, ones that have seemingly doomed his new venture.

The latest case

One of the other interesting aspects of this episode came via a chance to learn a little more about the supporting characters. Take, for example, Tommy Cavanaugh and the close connection that he had to the primary case of the week tonight. After the death of a retired detective, the higher-ups attempted to keep him away from the case — largely and understandably because they thought he would not be able to keep his eye on the prize. That didn’t turn out to be true — this was the sort of case that no higher power could keep him away from.

In the end, it still wasn’t Cavanaugh who took the lead on much of the case — he didn’t have to. The main purpose of the police storyline this week was Cavanaugh realizing that just like Sophe, he has a team around him that is able to help when the going gets tough. He’s one of those cops who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. At the end of the case it was nice to see him lighten up and go out for a drink with Tanner. (Does anyone else think that Tommy Cavanaugh’s name has to be inspired by Tom Cavanagh the actor?)

The new Ochoa reveal

In the closing minutes Tanner learned about a message from Ochoa about Mia’s murder — one that just so happened to come out the day he was stabbed. Is the murder of Mia a cover-up? There’s your cliffhanger…

CarterMatt Verdict

Wisdom of the Crowd does still have work to do when it comes to connecting the many different aspects that it has going on. After all, you’ve got the police side of the story and the Sophe side — tonight, they could’ve been connected more than they were. Jumping back and forth between the two storylines was a little jarring, but when they did come together it definitely made things a little more entertaining.

What is coming up on Wisdom of the Crowd?

Let’s just say that some of Tanner’s past connections are going to come back to haunt him in some way. You can head over to the link here in the event you want to read our episode preview.

Also, like us now on Facebook for more insight on this and other shows we cover! (Photo: CBS.)