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When the social security number of a young prosecutor comes up, Reese and Finch work together to figure out if their person of interest is the victim or perpetrator.
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The latest social security number the machine spews out is that of teenager Theresa Whitaker. The problem is that Theresa was supposedly killed two years earlier in what was deemed a murder/suicide of her entire family on a boat, the killer being her father, Grant Whitaker. However, Theresa's body was never recovered, presumed drowned and swept away by the current. Reese quickly discovers that it wasn't a suicide, but rather a contract hit. They have to figure out who contracted the hit and why, and why they didn't kill then fifteen year old Theresa. They also have to figure out if the hit had any connection to Grant's now supposedly grieving brother Derek and/or Derek's ex-wife, Elizabeth. But first, they have to find Theresa, who probably has trust issues having been underground for two years. Because of her situation, Finch has a certain empathy for this case. Meanwhile, Finch tells a disbelieving associate of the back door into the system. And Carter hits a stumbling block in discovering who Finch is as all his records have been redacted.
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Joey Durban, a just returned veteran of Afghanistan conflict, is the next case for Reese and Finch. On the surface, Joey seems to be just another vet trying to adjust to civilian life, which includes reuniting with his long time girlfriend Pia Moresco and trying to eke out a living working as a doorman at an upscale residential complex. As Reese begins to follow him, Joey seems to have a secret life, which includes a relationship with a single mother. But the larger issue is that Joey works within a band of robbers, who rob a bank while on Reese's watch. Finch is initially confused as the machine only identifies violent crimes, and the robberies Joey has committed has had no violence associated. Reese, however, believes that Joey is the father of the young child and is committing the robberies to support the child and mother. He also believes that one of Joey's associates is the one who is planning on killing Joey. The only way Reese can find out for sure is to infiltrate the gang as one of their own, which may entail him joining in on their crimes. A further problem for Reese is that Carter has been notified by the robbery division that Reese's fingerprints were discovered at the latest bank robbery, which could be the break she is looking for in tracking Reese. Meanwhile, this case makes Reese reminisce about his own past relationship with Jessica, specifically after his return to the US from an extended overseas deployment.
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Using the pretense of needing a prescription refilled while his own doctor is away, Finch is able to initiate the electronic surveillance on his and Reese's next case, that of emergency room physician Dr. Megan Tillman. In following Dr. Tillman, Reese learns that she is leading a double life. While she spends tireless sixteen hour days at the hospital, her precious time away from the hospital is not spent sleeping, but rather trolling the singles bars at night. Reese is certain the other party involved in whatever will happen to her is investment banker Andrew Benton, who not only frequents the same bars but who Tillman ran into earlier that day. And Reese discovers that Benton has the date rape drug on his person. As Reese learns more about Benton, which includes past criminal offenses expunged, he figures out that not is all it appears on the surface. He and Finch will have to not only try to prevent the murder as planned, but save Dr. Tillman's soul in the process. Meanwhile, Fusco is being threatened by the Mexican drug cartel he and his colleagues used to assist in their crimes. And Carter thinks she's one step closer to tracking down Reese when she sees on security video recordings what looks to be a personal interaction at a crime scene between a masked man, who she knows is Reese, and Finch (under an alias), a supposed innocent bystander. Reese thinks he can kill both the immediate Fusco and Carter problems with one stone.
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When the Machine produces the social security number of a judge renowned for his tough sentencing, Reese and Finch have the added challenge of investigating a POI who wants nothing to do with their brand of vigilante justice.
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Reese is able to track his and Finch's next case, a woman named Zoe Morgan, when she uses his vehicle for hire service. In watching her as he drops her off from place to place, Reese learns that she is a high priced "fixer", which often places her in potentially dangerous and precarious situations. As such, Reese figures she is the target of someone associated with one of her current or past clients. When the situation arises, it becomes apparent that she is being targeted by Mark Lawson, one of her clients, the CFO and heir apparent to Virtanen Pharmaceuticals. Lawson hired her to retrieve an audio recording supposedly implicating him of an affair, news of which would not sit well with his father-in-law, Virtanen's President, Robert Keller. To find out exactly why Lawson is willing to kill for something seemingly so minor, Reese, Finch and Morgan, who somewhat begins to trust Reese (as trustful as she can be as a person in her line of work), have to find out what's on the recording. When they do, Finch in particular becomes more invested in the case in more ways than one. Meanwhile, Carter is investigating a murder, which ends up being associated with a forty year old cold case.
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Carter, her team (including Fusco) and the organized crime unit are investigating what they know is an execution murder of a mob leader named Benny D'Agostino in a bodega in the Russian mob ruled area of Brighton Beach. The murder was the retaliation hit by the Russian mob on a rival mob infiltrating Brighton Beach, that rival mob led by an unknown man named Elias. D'Agostino was one of Elias' underlings. On the surveillance recording, Carter notices that there was a witness in the bodega who vanished after the shooting. Reese, who gets a call from Fusco about Reese possibly helping to identify and find this missing witness, is one step ahead of Fusco in that he knows that his and Finch's latest case is that witness, a dedicated local schoolteacher named Charlie Burton. As Reese approaches Burton, he knows that the Russian mob are after Burton for being a witness. Reese convinces Burton to go on the run with him to try and get out of the neighborhood. While the Russian mob are in their pursuit, Reese and Burton, who lose contact with Finch, are on their own as they try to get out of the neighborhood to safety in Fusco's custody. As Reese and Burton hole up in no man's land - a building run by the Bulgarian mob - in their effort to find a safe route out, Finch learns that there are people working inside the police assisting one of the mob units. Finch and Reese ultimately discover to where that police infiltration leads, but at that time it may be too late.
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When Reese and Finch discover that their latest POI has connections to Cold War Soviet espionage circles, they quickly learn how covert ops were handled in a world before The Machine.
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Reese is dismayed to learn that the next number that the machine dispenses is someone that he respects and admires: Detective Carter. In the process, he and Finch learn more about her, including that she is a single mother and a war veteran. They are however unaware of how her military life has affected her police work. As a principled and clean cop, Carter has many enemies, both inside and outside the force. Reese and Finch believe that the attempt on her life that the machine sees will come from one of three sources. The first is the current primary case on which she is working, where one of her snitches, a young black man named Ronny Middleton, is gunned down in a drive-by, with the suspected killer being a gun runner by the name of Hector Alvarez. The second is the chronic domestic abuse case of Mr. and Mrs. Kovach, the latter who, at the last minute, always comes to her husband's defense. Carter is worried that Mrs. Kovach won't be able to defend him the next time he beats her since she will have died by his hands. And the third is her and Reese's old friend Elias, who may be worried that Carter will want to close the forty year old case by his capture or death. Reese knows that he needs to take a risk by getting closer to Carter than usual, so relies on Fusco more than ever.
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Instead of the usual one, the machine spews out four numbers of seemingly unrelated people: NYU lecturer Claire Ryan, waiter Matt Duggan, hairstylist Wendy McNally and unemployed Paula Vasquez. A grouping of numbers like this generally means to Finch that they are however somehow connected. In tracking the first name on the list, Reese is too late as that person is found dead. As such, Reese believes the best thing to do is for each of himself, Finch and Fusco to follow one of the remaining three apiece to ensure they all stay alive. Some of the three prove to be more elusive than their respective tracker anticipated. In further searching, Reese notices that two have increased their spending of late. And Finch learns that all four were at the scene of a fatal car crash two days earlier. From those two discoveries, Finch and Reese are able to figure out why the four are targeted, but they have to find out who is behind the killings, which seems to have a connection to a congressman and his drug dealing son. Meanwhile, the fact that Carter reported that when she was almost fatally shot by her snitch Bottle Cap, she was saved by the man that she has been tracking proves problematic for internal. But someone else sitting in with internal on Carter's review may provide her with at least some indication as to Reese's identity.
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Open with Finch bringing Reese to a Middle Eastern man who is a great surgeon unable to practice in this country. He dumps a bunch of cash on the table and tells him to patch Reese up.
Snow and the CIA are following Carter. He seems suspicious of how Reese was able to get away.
In the office Carter jumps behind Fusco's desk and gets on his computer. She finds a picture a Finch under the name Burdett.
We flash back to 2005 when Finch is eavesdropping on a conversation with a man named Nathan and a representative from the NSA. She is unsure of the progress and Nathan hands over a nine-digit number. Afterwards Finch assures Nathan the number he gave her will pan-out.
In present day a building super named Trask introduces the wheelchair-bound Reese to his new apartment. Trask talks about a crazy former life down in Miami. Finch stops by and tells him there is a reason he chose the apartment building: The computer just spit out Trask's name.
Trask is 51, born in a small town in Florida. He was obviously exaggerating his person history. Recently Trask was searching out pawn shops for an untraceable gun.
Snow and his team are still closely watching Carter and looking for Reese.
Finch hacks into the building's wi-fi and is able to use everybody's electronic devices to monitor what is going on. They see a cook named Lilly appears to be dating penthouse resident Rick.
Reese breaks his own sink to get Trask out of his apartment and allow Finch to snoop around. Inside Finch finds dozens of pictures of Lilly -- it appears Trask is stalking her. Trask goes back to his apartment to get a different hammer and just catches Finch leaving his place. Finch manages to escape into the elevator, but it later caught by the building's security guard. Reese finds using the security cameras that the guard was there because he was stealing from one of the rooms. Reese sends Finch video of the theft; once Finch shows him the guard the evidence he agrees to let him go.
Back in 2005 we see Nathan (and Finch) get a surprise visit from a Deputy Director Weeks. He tells them the number they gave him was the social security number of an agent with a spotless record. After following him for a few weeks they catch him trying to sell Uranium. Weeks wants to know how the computer works, but Nathan isn't giving up any info. When Weeks brings up the issue of money he is told Nathan is only being paid $1 to develop the computer.
We hear Lilly telling a friend she's terrified of a person watching her.
Reese's research finds Lilly's a rising start in the food industry and has been romantically linked to Rick. Reese gives Finch some advise before he heads out to do some foot patrol research.
Finch breaks into Lilly's place to plant a new camera. He finds somebody already placed one in her bedroom vent. It's connected to a hidden network, meaning Trask has been following her every move.
Carter manages to lose her CIA tail and follows the trace she has on Finch's cell phone.
Finch calls Fusco to asks why Carter is looking for him. He's sent Fusco a prescription bottle with Reese's fingerprints on it and wants him to plant it someplace far away. Finch is watching Lilly and lets Reese know she clearly seem to feel terrorized. Reese finds out that Trask had a wife who mysteriously disappeared.
Carter stops when Finch's signal ends. He is there and the two sit at a table together. She want to know what he and Reese are doing and he points her to a man at the bar named Watson. The guy has lost his job, his home and his wife and Finch tells her he will soon be involved in a violent crime. Finch leaves her to follow their latest name.
Carter calls to get some background on Watson. She doesn't learn anything suspicious. But she finds that he's following a banker named Dalton who filed the paperwork to foreclose on his house.
Reese thinks Trask might be more interested in Rick than Lilly, which could mean he's getting the boyfriend out of the way. He spots an impending confrontation between Trask and Rick, spotting that Trask has his gun. Trask tells Rick he needs to stay away from Lilly. Reese sets off the building's fire alarm, which prevents the incident.
Lilly receives a barrage of obsessive text messages from a blocked number. Finch says he wants Trask out of the building that night.
Reese waits for Trask and confronts him about Lilly. Trask says he doesn't have feelings for Lilly "like that." At the same moment the computer spits out the source of the hidden network and all of the photos -- it was Rick all along.
We see Rick waiting for Lilly when she returns home. With Finch watching he pulls her away from the phone. Rick asks her if she "lied" to Trask about him and grabs her by the neck. Finch walks in and temporarily stops him. He gets help from Trask and Reese, who throws Rick out the window.
The CIA guys hear about Reese's fingerprints found in Connecticut.
Rick survived the fall and we see Lilly telling the polic he was stalking her for months. She credits Trask for helping her. Finch learned that Trask had a different name when he was in Miami. He was telling the truth about his lifestyle, but is in New York as part of witness protection after testifying against the Cuban mafia. His wife left him when his lifestyle changed.
Carter stops Walton just before he can shoot Dalton in a restaurant. As soon as she slaps the cuff on him her phone rings with Finch on the line: "That, Detective Carter, is what we do."
A final flashback to 2005. Finch and Nathan celebrate the machine finally getting its government contract. Finch gives Nathan a little insight into how the machine was able to spot the dirty agent. Finch says he plans to encrypt the device so that nobody else will know its secrets.
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Reese finally decides to meet with Carter, who, by helping him and Finch in their next case, is provided a little insight into what he and Finch do. Reese is hoping that Carter will see the merit in their association despite the unlawful nature of many of his and Finch's actions. Regardless, Reese decides not to tell either Carter or Fusco of their mutual association. That next case is of a young attorney named Andrea Gutierrez, a woman originally from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks, and who has gone deep into debt in financing both her schooling and independent legal business. Her six previous cases have all been for ex-cons who have had a grudge against some aspect of the justice system which has done them wrong. She is hoping that one of these low level cases will be her breakthrough to what she sees as a more lucrative legal career. Her seventh and latest case, which is no different, is for ex-con Terrence King, an ex-con who was sent back to jail on a parole violation. Reese and Finch believe Andrea's violent incident will be associated to one of her clients. In further digging, they find connections between that violent incident to King's less than caring parole officer, Dominic Galuska, and Terrence's son Jacob King who is currently in foster care because of Terrence's imprisonment. Meanwhile, Reese hopes to find out more about Finch's private life through a reconnection Finch makes with someone from his past.
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The next number the machine dispenses is that of Scott Powell, who is seemingly undistinguished from the many in the working middle class. He works as a construction projects manager for the city, he is a family man with a wife and two children, and the Powells live a typical suburban middle class lifestyle. But as Finch and Reese dig a little deeper, they find that he was laid off from his job eight months ago which he has not told his wife, he is still unemployed but pretends to go to work every morning, he has maxed out their credit cards, and he has been blogging negatively about Congressman Michael Delancey, whose policies led to the municipal cutbacks which cost Powell his job. As Reese sees a desperate man who has hit rock bottom, he believes that Powell will try to kill Delancey. As Reese and Finch do some more investigating, they do see that Delancey is the probable target, but that there is another more powerful force behind the violent act. That powerful force threatens Finch's mission i.e. his reason for creating the machine. As that force seems to be one step ahead of Finch at every turn, he calls in a reinforcement person, one of their past POI's who may be able to delve deeper into the political machinations behind Delancey.
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The latest case that Reese and Finch work on will be without Finch for much as he rebuilds his computer and library from the recent threat. The next number the machine dispenses belongs to fourteen year old Darren McGrady. When Reese first investigates, he finds that Darren's older brother and legal guardian, Travis McGrady, was just murdered - shot point blank - and Darren has since escaped from the authorities as they were in the process of transferring him to Child Services. Reese quickly finds Darren, who seems to want to avenge his brother's murder on his own. Three young men are known to have killed Travis. Darren is about to shoot one of the three, Brick, when Reese and Carter apprehend Darren and Brick. While Carter deals with Brick in custody, Reese, with Darren at his side, tracks the other two, Curtis and Trim. While Darren wants Reese to take the direct approach by shooting Curtis and Trim directly, Reese believes a better solution is to look at the bigger picture of who they are. Reese soon learns that Brick, Curtis and Trim aren't just low level thugs, but are highly paid criminals, who have more than their fair share of muscle behind them. A problem may continue to be Darren, who has a mind of his own and has a penchant for running away when things aren't going the way he wants. Meanwhile Finch is concerned that Will is getting close to discovering the fact of the machine. And Fusco reports back to Reese about one of Finch's many aliases.
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The latest number that the machine dispenses belongs to Michael Cahill, who on the surface is an unassuming and upstanding but solitary citizen, which masks the fact of being involved in a major smuggling ring led by a man named Neil Vargas. Members of the ring will not hesitate to kill if anyone gets in their way. Reese quickly infiltrates the smuggling ring as one of their own. But when Reese follows Cahill away from the group, Reese finds that he is really Daniel Tully, husband, father and undercover cop, who is deep undercover. Tully could have long ago put Vargas away, but is waiting to nab the true ringleader, a man going by the code name L.O.S. Reese also learns that Vargas probably has a connection working inside the police force. While Finch gets Carter to provide information on the police workings of undercover cops, Reese gets Fusco to re-establish his connections with the dirty cops to flush out Vargas' connection inside. If anything goes wrong, it could mean the demise of Tully, Fusco or both. Seeing Tully's conflict of his work against wanting to be with his family, Reese remembers back four years earlier on his return to the US and wanting to at least know what was going on with his ex-girlfriend Jessica.
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The next number that the machine dispenses belongs to Adam Saunders, a proprietary trader with the Wall Street investment firm Baylor Zimm. Adam is seemingly a high roller who likes to play big and win big... all with the company's money. However, that high rolling exterior is partly a mask for a man who does his homework to figure out the odds, which usually pay off for him. Below the professional surface, there are three issues which may be factors in whatever incident will be happening. The first is that he is having a clandestine relationship with one of the company's managing partners, Sydney Baylor. The second is that he has been and is currently being interrogated by Inspector Doug Rasmussen with the SEC, who seems to think that Adam and or Baylor Zimm as a company are involved in some securities unlawfulities. And the third is that Adam's uncle, a food truck operator named Bob Sowoski, is a client with Baylor Zimm, although another of the traders is handling his Uncle Bob's portfolio. Finch learns that of late there has been a major buy order at Baylor Zimm into one company called Tritak. All of Adam's Uncle Bob's money has been directed into this one investment. Finch and Reese have to figure out who is behind the buy and the reason why to find out what the violent incident involving Adam will be. But Carter takes the case one step further by looking at what she considers the bigger picture.
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In an on-going case, Reese accompanies Carter when mob boss and Elias' father Gianni Moretti is released from prison. Carter wants to offer Moretti police protection as they are all aware that Elias is out to kill him. Regardless, Finch has another number in hand, the number only issued two months earlier to a Leila Smith. He surmises that Leila is either a recent immigrant or obtained the number through identity fraud. Finch is wrong on both counts: Leila is a six-month old safe haven baby whose parents are unknown, and who obtained her social security number through one of the attending nurses at the medical clinic where she is currently residing. That nurse wanted Leila to have an identity despite her situation. Reese and Finch track down who they believe is Leila's single mother, but the identity of the father requires further investigation. They believe the father has to do with recent sizable donations to the medical clinic, which they learn was made by Petrosian Construction, a family owned business led by Adnan Petrosian. Reese and Finch have to find out if the father is one of the Petrosians, and if the father's identity has anything to do with the obvious kidnap attempts on Leila. Reese may have to do some juggling between the two cases. In the process, he may have to decide if Moretti or Leila's life is more important. Reese requests the assistance of an old nemesis, who has his own agenda in whether to help Reese.
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Carter, disapproving of Reese's methods, still is not accepting his or Finch's calls. She receives a visit that provides yet another perspective on Reese's possible life. Without Carter's assistance, Reese and Finch will require Fusco to return to good cop mode to help with their latest number, that belonging to Jordan Hester. They have little information about Jordan, who seems in large part to be living off the grid. They have no photographs of Jordan, nor do they even know if Jordan is a male or female. What little information they have seems to indicate that Jordan leads two parallel lives, including having two apartments. What they find on their leads is two different Jordan Hesters, a male bar worker, and a female antiques aficionado. They come to the conclusion that one is the true Jordan Hester, the other someone who stole the identity. Reese's find of a third apartment under Jordan's name and information obtained by Fusco from the Identity Theft squad and from a convicted criminal who claims to be behind bars since he was the victim of identity theft leads Reese and Finch to figuring out which is the real Jordan, and what the fake Jordan is up to. However, they may come to the realization too late for one of them.
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Open with Carter and her son Taylor talking about him being bullied.
Finch tells Reese they have new numbers -- the heads of the Mafia's five families. Reese assumes Elias is targeting them in an attempt to take over organized crime in the city. Considering the collateral damage that could result, Reese wants them to babysit the dons.
Finch goes to the Brooklyn building where the dons hold a regular meeting and manages to install a listening device. We hear Moretti's son (who has taken over) asking about retaliating against Elias for kidnapping his father. The other dons aren't interested because they feel like he's brining in money. Reese thinks they need to let the dons know Elias will be coming after them.
Carter sees that Elias money was withdrawn in the form of cash and wire transfers. He's planning something big, it seems.
We see Elias is holding Moretti hostage. He tells his father he wants to keep him alive for the "the show," which will be him uniting the families. Elias says the dons won't have a choice in the matter.
A cop with HR tells Fusco they want info on Reese. They're interested in what the feds know, so they can help Elias. He also tells Fusco that he should call in sick for a few days.
Reese tells one of the dons that he is in danger and the only way he'll be safe is if he comes with him. The don turns him down and is almost instantly killed by a car explosion.
We see a flashback to young Elias with the woman who raised him. He's struggling with his identity and wants to know more about his father and what happened to his mother.
Reese calls Elias and asks him to "end this." Elias thinks he's doing what is in the best interest of the city. Reese says he can't let him finish his plan without trying to interfere.
Finch tells Reese that Carter is looking into Elias, but isn't aware of the connection to the dons and HR. Reese leaves to try and protect her.
We see Carter attempt to place another of the dons into protective custody. The don is killed, but Reese shows up just in time to save her.
A teenage Elias tries to get work with Moretti. Moretti tells him he didn't know his father either and thinks that a hard life is the best way to achieve success. He tells Elias to keep his head up and there will always be a place for him.
Carter meets with Reese and Finch. She tells them about Elias making the transfers and her inability to access the accounts. Finch offers to use his resources to help and Reese gives her a military-issue weapon.
Reese follows one of the guys on Elias' payroll. He's following the families of the HR cops.
Carter and Fusco meet with the last three dons. They still aren't willing to accept her help. She pulls out a gun, planning to take them into custody by force. They have to shoot their way out of there. Finch calls and gives her a safe house location.
Elias talks to Moretti about his mother. It seems he witnessed her murder when he was four years old. Elias is told about Carter's intervention and he says they need to turn to their friends on the police force.
Finch tells Reese about Carter's plan with the dons. Reese then asks about Carter's son. We see one of the dirty HR cops take Taylor away, having told him his mother is in the hospital.
Finch calls Taylor's cell phone as the kid is headed to the car. The cop realized what's happening and grabs Taylor. Reese shows up gun blazing but can't get to Taylor before he's taken away.
Elias calls Carter and tells her he has her son. He will let Taylor go if she lets the dons go. He explains the evil that the dons perpetrate but she won't make the deal. Reese promises Carter he won't let them hurt Taylor. One of the dons tries to convince Carter that Fusco had something to do with her son being taken. Elias shows up at the safe house in person.
Finch meets with one of the HR cops named Simmons. He shows up pictures of Elias following the dirty cops' families, including the former rapist who has been watching Simmons' wife and kids. He warns him there is no telling what Elias will do once he has no use for HR. Finch asks him to find out the location of Taylor and severe their relationship with Elias.
Elias begins breaking into the safe house.
Several of Moretti's men take young Elias to be killed, referencing the murder of his mother along the way. Elias talks about his strength coming from being alone and kills both of the henchmen.
Finch bravely offers to help Reese get Taylor back, but Reese declines.
Elias breaks into the safe house just as Reese breaks into the place where both Taylor and Moretti are being held. While Reese battles through Elias' men, one of the dons takes Fusco's gun and points it at Fusco. He says he's made a deal with Elias. But Carter ends up places Elias under arrest, just before Taylor calls to say he's safe.
Carter thanks Reese and we watch as Elias is processed. Moretti and his son get into a car and a phone rings. It is Elias from prison, calling to tell them good-bye. The car explodes.
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With some hesitancy, Carter re-enters life with Reese and Finch, in part because she feels her police work may be in jeopardy since she doesn't know who in the force she can trust, with Fusco at the top of that list. Reese believes that it still is not the time to tell either Carter or Fusco of their relationships. Regardless, Carter is in place for work on the next number, that belonging to armored car security guard Tommy Clay, who they believe is the intended victim. Reese's belief of Tommy being victim is strengthened by seeing, while Reese works under him on the three person team, that the team is ill prepared if an attack was to happen on their vehicle. Reese is only half right. He and Finch will have to uncover Tommy's hidden relationships to find out who was responsible for the hit, which works its way back to Carter and Fusco's continuing problems. Meanwhile, flashbacks show Reese on his last job in 2010 with the CIA, which explain why Snow is so eager to find Reese now.
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Because it's Reese's birthday and because there are no new numbers, Finch gives Reese the day off. However, there is a new number that Finch believes would not be a good case for Reese to work on, since it may hit a little too close to home regarding the nature of the death of his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Arndt. Reese is aware of Finch's motives. That number belongs to Karen Garner, who Finch is pretty sure is the victim. He is certain that Karen Garner is an assumed name and that she is on the run from someone, probably a violent boyfriend or husband. The case does hit home for Reese who decides to take matters into his own hands much like he would have handled the situation if the woman was Jessica. This situation doesn't sit well with Carter, who has been asked by FBI Agent Donnelly to assist in the investigation on Reese and finding his DNA at a past crime scene in New Rochelle, that crime scene being the death of Jessica's husband, Peter Arndt. Finch encourages Carter to join that investigation knowing what she will find out about Reese. She ends up finding more than Finch anticipates. And Finch's mysterious birthday present of a key to Reese becomes a little less mysterious when Reese learns to where that key unlocks.
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Before the start of their next case, Reese, based on what he sees or more precisely doesn't see, is more curious about how the numbers from the machine make their way to Finch. That next number belongs to Henry L. Peck, an equities financial analyst. They quickly learn that Peck is security conscious, lives a solitary life and is meticulous about having a squeaky clean record as he even got a speeding ticket expunged from his record through the provision to the judge of a seventy-eight page brief. They also quickly learn that the office where he works is only a front for the National Security Agency, and that his real job is as an intelligence analyst. Reese and Finch believe that he is being set-up for a fall, with the ultimate goal of those after him to kill him. When Finch learns why, he and Reese have to decide how much assistance they can provide him as going too far may jeopardize their own work. Not included in their decisions are things unknown to Finch that happened to the machine after it left his hands. This case also provides a bit more information on Finch's life that he has not previously disclosed to his partner, and makes Reese's original question of how Finch gets the numbers more important.
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Reese and Finch will need all the help they can get with their latest number, a young woman by the name of Caroline Turing, whose specialty as a therapist is to counsel high powered clients who expect and require complete discretion. They quickly learn that she is the intended victim as Fusco informs them that HR has entered into a lucrative contract funded by an unknown person or organization to take her out. Because of the mysterious nature of Caroline's clients, one of whom they believe is funding the assassination attempt, Finch and Reese call in an old friend whose own sources may provide greater information on those mysterious clients. The cat and mouse game begins to get multi-layered. As Reese and Finch try to get Caroline to safety, they are tracked by both HR who is after Caroline, and the FBI, with Carter's knowledge, who is after Reese. Added to the mix is someone from Finch's past, who, unknown to him, is trying to locate him. Through the process, Carter and Fusco come to some unsettling revelations. And when they all learn who funded the assassination attempt and why, more than Caroline's life is at stake.
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Reese is feeling at a loss with Finch having been kidnapped by Root aka Caroline Turing, the woman who the machine had identified as a person of interest, but who had set the machine up so that she could find Finch. Reese however does discover that Finch had set the machine up to use him as the contingency if anything were ever to happen to him, although it takes some deciphering on Reese's part to discover how the machine communicates the numbers. Reese hopes that the next number will be for Finch as the next person of interest. That's why Reese is disappointed when he learns that the next number belongs to Leon Tao, an accountant who stole $8 million from gangsters, an arm of the Aryan Nation. With Fusco's assistance, Reese tries to protect himself and Leon while getting Carter to do some legwork on Alicia Corwin's death, which is the primary lead they have on Root and Finch. They are unaware that there are other factions working against them, those faction who are hiding aspects of what happened to Alicia. Reese ends up having to do a little negotiating with the machine for its help. Meanwhile, Root slowly divulges to Finch what her plans for kidnapping him are and to what lengths she'll go to get what she wants.
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While Reese leaves his newly acquired dog, Bear, with Fusco who will continue to investigate Alicia Corwin's death in New York, Reese and Carter head to Bishop, Texas to follow a lead about Root, and hopefully a still alive Finch who also hopefully did not need to divulge how to access the machine to Root in order to stay alive. Reese believes that Root's real name is Hanna Frey, who went missing in 1991 at age fourteen. In the eyes of the authorities, Hanna, who spent the evening at the library the night she went missing and was reported to have gotten into a man's car after her stint at the library, is presumed dead. Reese and Carter manage to speak to many of the still alive players associated with Hanna or that evening, including Hanna's father, Barb Russell the librarian, Sheriff Landry, and Cody Grayson, a boy at the library that night who is a suspect in Hanna's disappearance since he had previously followed her home. The information they are able to collect - including from some junk mail addressed to Hanna, and from Finch concerning his investigation - leads Reese and Carter in some unexpected directions. Meanwhile, Root continues to use the hot button issues to get the information she wants about the machine from her now two captives, Finch and Denton Weeks.
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Finch's recent abduction and captivity by Root has affected his psyche, which may or may not be helped by adjusting to life with his new roommate. Despite Finch's problems, the machine still dispenses numbers, the latest being for twenty-one year old Sofia Campos, the daughter of Brazilian diplomat and aspiring Brazilian presidential candidate, Hector Campos. Following Sofia may be Reese's biggest challenge to date, as she is a smart but spoiled young woman with a mind of her own who dislikes the overly protected life of a diplomat and potential presidential candidate's daughter. She would rather go shopping on her own, or clubbing or hanging out with her friends, most specifically her best girlfriend Gabi, and her American boyfriend, Jack Hughes, of whose existence her protective father is unaware. Reese figures the best way to stay close to Sofia is to get a job as her bodyguard. As Sofia tries to lose Reese at every turn, she may inadvertently set herself up to that unknown threat, which may come from the people she least expects. Meanwhile, Carter and Fusco continue their investigation into Alicia Corwin's death. In doing so, Carter runs into an old nemesis.
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Reese and Finch are pretty certain that the person associated with the next number dispensed by the machine is going to be the perpetrator of the upcoming crime. He is mob enforcer Riley Cavanaugh, who works for a mid level gangster named George Massey. That is why they, but especially Finch, have mixed feelings when they learn that Riley is the intended target. Reese, however, looks at the bigger picture when they learn that Riley is protecting an innocent party, she being Annie Delaney, the widow of one of Massey's former thugs. Massey had always been attracted to Annie, but instead Annie and Riley fell in love after the death of her husband, about which Massey does not know, or so Annie and Riley believe. The difficulties of this case include different people targeting Riley and Annie which means that Reese and Finch have to keep abreast of these different groups; Riley having no qualms about killing even Reese, the mysterious suited man following and seemingly helping him; and Carter having to throw her colleagues off the trail during a murder investigation as they they themselves track Riley. Finch calls in some help from an unusual source, who has an unusual request of his own in return.
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Protecting the latest number that the machine dispenses will be difficult for Reese and Finch because of the large number of potential perpetrators of the crime due to the enemies she's acquired through her work. She is investigative New York Journal reporter Maxine Angelis, who has a bulldog mentality when it comes to getting the story. She is working on three stories concurrently, each which have its potential perpetrators. The first is illegal campaign fund-raising for current New York City councilor and mayoral candidate Ed Griffin, who is running against idealistic district attorney Landon Walker. The second is uncovering the head of HR, which has several New York City police, formerly including Fusco, in its back pocket. This aspect of the case places Fusco in a difficult position in his current role as Reese's inside man into HR. She gets an anonymous tip that the head of HR may be Christopher Zambrano, the son of a mafia don, a lead which she follows relentlessly. And third, which may place Reese in a difficult position in trying to protect her, is uncovering the identity of who the authorities are calling the suited man who comes out of nowhere to save the day but in the process uses less than legal means to do so. Finch comes up with what he believes a solution to have Reese get close to her without divulging his identity as the wanted suited man. But as Reese gets close to Maxine in this role, he finds that things are not quite as clear cut as they seem on the surface. As such, Reese and Finch call in the assistance of an old friend.
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Reese is out of his element with their next number belonging to Graham Wyler, a seemingly straight laced family man who lives and owns his own small hardware store in suburban Far Rockaway, New York. Reese learns that surveillance in the residential suburbs is much different than it is in the city. That's why Finch sets up a cover for him as a suburban family man who moves in across the street from the Wylers. It is up to Reese to find his own "wife", who he chooses being an old friend who owes Reese, but to who the suburbs are equally as foreign. As they dig a little deeper, they learn that Graham Wyler is an assumed identity - one taken from a dead man - that Wyler's wife Connie and their teenaged daughter Izzy are probably unaware. As they discover who Graham Wyler really is, they believe his past will come back to haunt him, with Graham having the options of taking the right path to a somewhat happy ending with his family, or the wrong path into a violent life of crime. Meanwhile, through flashbacks, how Finch met who is probably the most important person in his adult personal life is shown.
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The latest number the machine dispenses belongs to heart surgeon, Dr. Madeleine Enright, known as the best in her field. That is why wealthy businessman Oliver Veldt chooses her for his heart surgery, which is kept secret from the public and for which the entire wing of the hospital is to be kept secure for his safety. Finch and Reese are certain that she is the intended target. But they quickly learn that she is the unwilling perpetrator. Just before the operation is scheduled to begin, she is threatened by a mysterious Brit named Alistair Wesley to kill Veldt on the operating room table and make it look like an accident, or else Wesley will get one of his many operatives to kill Maddy's wife, Amy, who, during the duration of the operation, is left vulnerable in a wide open and busy public space, where the many unknown operatives can monitor her movements. Reese and Finch also learn that Wesley has at least one operative somewhere in the hospital monitoring what Maddy is doing in the operating room. With the help of one of their old persons of interest who again is in trouble due to his own doing, Reese and Finch have to find out for who Wesley is working to discover why he is intent of killing Veldt before Maddy has to make the decision to sacrifice Veldt or possibly her wife Amy. Meanwhile, Fusco calls in Carter on a homicide that seems to have a personal connection to her.
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The machine unusually dispenses two numbers simultaneously belonging to husband and wife, Daniel and Sabrina Drake, who own their own small but lucrative publishing firm. Their marriage is despite their differing backgrounds, Sabrina who had a privileged upbringing, while Daniel grew up in working class Flatbush. Reese and Finch believe they are the intended targets, most specifically of Maryland militia leader Wade Huggins, on who their firm published an exposé. However, they eventually learn that the Drakes are not only the targets, but they are also the perpetrators, as each has contracted a hit on their spouse. The latest issue in their now troubled marriage centers on Daniel's want to sell controlling interest of their business, while Sabrina wants to retain control. After coming to the conclusion that they do need to protect both husband and wife, Reese and Finch realize that they not only have to stop the respective hit men from carrying out their contracts, but have to figure out how to stop both the Drakes from wanting to kill the other. Meanwhile, Reese, Finch and Carter try to figure out why Fusco is being so evasive, their primary concern being that he is getting into something bad. Finch can't help but think about his lost love, Grace Hendricks. And Carter may enter into a new relationship of her own.
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Reese and Finch's next number may be their most difficult to date if only because there is not on the surface any clear indication who he may be a target of or who he may be targeting, and because of the large number of non-connected people he encounters every day. He is Fermin Ordoñez, who defected to the United States from Cuba as a major league prospect, leaving behind a wife and child in Cuba in search for this better life for them all eventually. An injury ended his pro ball aspirations, and now he ekes out a living as a cabbie. He is trying to smuggle his family out of Cuba, but his contact is requesting more money than he has available. As Reese tails him, Carter learns that one of his recent fares is found dead, with the Secret Service involved. Through that murder, Reese discovers that the murder was because of something that was left in Fermin's cab that may be a breach of national security. Reese and Fermin have to find that now missing item as leverage to protect him against the people who murdered his fare and who will continue killing until they retrieve that item. Meanwhile, HR is trying to resurrect itself despite the investigation into their activities. Their current manoeuvrings place Fusco in a difficult position.
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Open with video of a woman talking about the fact she's about to break the rules "in a big way." We see someone steal a motorcycle. The latest number is Abby Monroe who had until recently worked for a charity for injured soldiers. They feel as if she's hiding from someone and Reese rushes out to find her. Carter talks to a guy she's dating named Cal about Davidson and the tip she got about a cop killing him. The man has heard things about HR. Donnelly takes Carter aside and tells him his team is shifting priorities to the man in the suit. They have information about who is working for. He thinks Snow may have been recruited by the man in the suit. He offers Carter a temporary assignment with the FBI and believes it could turn into a full-time gig. Carter calls Finch to tell him the news. Carter meets Reese at the Department of Planning. Apparently Monroe downloaded a building plans file illegally and nobody knows where she is. Carter tells Reese about Donnelly's theory that he's working for China. Using footage from nearby cameras they spot Monroe getting on a motorcycle with a man. They see the man is wearing a high-end prosthetic hand. The motorcycle has been seen at an explosive robbery a few days earlier. Fusco makes inquiries about Cal. Finch doesn't think Monroe could be involved in domestic terrorism since they got her number. Finch plans to look into the charity she had been working for. Reese finds the apartment complex where Monroe and the motorcycle man have been hiding out. Inside he finds a picture of her little brother, Josh. Finch is told that Monroe was fired for stealing, ultimately talking significant amounts from the charity which gives loans to veterans. Reese watches Monroe's video for her parents. In it she says the reason she's going to break the rules is complicated, but "it's right." She says she knows Josh would be proud of her. Finch is told Monroe's problems started after she met a Marine named Shane Coleman. He is an explosives expert who lost his arm during service. Carter tells Finch Coleman had been in deep financial trouble. The man Finch spoke with at the charity, Chapel, tries to track him to find out Monroe's location. Finch is ahead of him and hides the GPS transponder on a laundry truck. After hours Finch breaks into the charity and runs into Coleman. Reese finds Monroe. Finch and Coleman get what they want and Coleman helps him escape the scene on his bike. Reese asks Monroe about the video for her parents. She tells him that Chapel is a thief. Reese tells her he's a former soldier. Coleman calls Reese and Reese tells him they should meet. Monroe tells Reese that Chapel's loans have ruined the lives of hundreds of soldiers. She says she's going to do "the right thing." Finch has tapped into Coleman's prosthetic arm, allowing him to track their movements. Carter tells Cal about her offer from Donnelly. He thinks she should go for it. Cal gets a call from Quinn. Fusco listens to Quinn and Cal's meetings. Quinn asks about a certain Russian mob situation. Simmons catches Fusco while he's listening. Fusco tells him to watch his back. Simmons tells him to leave. Finch tracks Coleman and Monroe to an investment bank where the cash being shared with Chapel is stored in a vault. Chapel tells his men to get to the vault and "finish it." Donnelly tells Carter he has the break he's been looking for. He thinks the key to finding the man in the suit is his phone. He SWAT teams standing by should Reese use his phone. Coleman tells Monroe to go home but she wants to stay and help him finish the job. Reese shows up and wants the whole story. Their plan is to give the money back to the soldiers. Monroe tries to go the DA but got nowhere. Finch wants him to stop them, but Reese says he has a thing against people who screw with vets. Two minutes before the job is done Finch notices that the FBI is monitoring the line and tells Reese to leave. Reese wants to wait. They break into the vault and find that Chapel has stolen $30 million. Chapel's thugs arrive and Reese starts to shoot it out with them. Donnelly's team gets word of the shootout and head to the scene. She calls Fusco and tells him to give the guys a head's up. Quinn and Simmons talk about the Russian mafia. Quinn's interested in a new revenue stream and says HR needs new friends. Simmons' job is to talk to the Russians and open a dialogue. Minutes before the bank is set to open, Reese, Monroe and Coleman are trapped in the basement. Finch arrives with ID badges for everybody. After the bank opens Carter arrives at the bank with the FBI. Chapel is also there. Finch gives Monroe and Coleman their IDs and gives them a back-story. Reese tells Finch that he's not going to make it and tells him "it's been fun." Finch tells Monroe and Coleman he'll empty Chapel's accounts and deposit the money into reputable military charities. Carter tells the FBI she doesn't recognize any of the men found in the basement, Reese being one of them. All of them are placed in cuffs.
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Open with a subway train operator calling in an accident. We're at Rikers Island, where Reese is being held along with the two other men. Donnelly can only legally hold them for 7s hours, but tells Carter he's confident he'll be able to figure out which one is Reese. Finch manages to sneak a phone into Reese's cell and gives him a call. He's confident that in 72 hours Reese will walk free. We see Finch posing as a substitute teacher named Mr. Swift. He's there to look into a student named Caleb. Fusco tells Finch that Caleb's brother was killed in a subway accident two years ago. Carter meets Finch outside the school and tells him she's deleted Reese's fingerprints from the system. She wants to get rid of Reese's DNA but will need help. Fusco finds out that Caleb was a witness to this brother's death and that on that day the police rescinded a call for back-up. Finch hacks into the school's records and finds that Caleb is likely a genius who has been hiding his intelligence. The next day in class Finch shows Caleb that he fished a piece of paper out of the trash that demonstrated Caleb is pretty bright. Finch seems to be engaging the previously disinterested class. Fusco pays Caleb's mother a visit. He plants a webcam and she tells him times are tough. Fusco tells Finch he thinks Caleb's mother is probably an alcoholic. Finch comes across Caleb in a pushing match with two of the school's drug dealers. After he breaks it up he finds a piece of paper on the ground. It's coding that Caleb has been doing longhand since he has no computer and Finch thinks it could be "groundbreaking." Fusco follows the two drug dealers to a meeting with the new drug lord. Finch sends some specs to Carter, who is dressed up at a bar. She spots a guy and starts to flirt. She drugs him and takes a swab of saliva after he passes out in his car. Finch sees Caleb leave his apartment in the middle of the night. He follows him and ends up running into Fusco, who has been following the drug money at several stops. It turns out Caleb is the new drug lord. In class the next day Finch sees that Caleb has a meeting with his supplier that afternoon. He also sees an IT teacher at the school copying a number of files from Caleb's computer. Finch gives Caleb back his coding notes and makes a suggestion that Caleb seems to like. Finch and Fusco follow Caleb to his meeting. He finds his supplier shot and is cornered by the school's former drug lord, a man named Lorenzo. Lorenzo tells him that if he doesn't pay back all the money he made selling to "my customers" by the following night he'll kill Caleb. Fusco and Finch try and figure out why Caleb would be selling drugs. Fusco thinks it's related to his brother's death, as he's learned Caleb changed his story from the incident. Caleb initially said his brother was pushed onto the tracks by two youths, but changed his story. Fusco thinks the drug dealers who unknowingly have been selling for Caleb, Ronnie and Diego, are the ones who killed his brother. Fusco sees Chris uploading some of Caleb's work and arranging a meeting with someone named Howard. Chris meets with a venture capitalist partner named Howard. It turns out Chris is taking credit for Caleb's work, which is a new method for compressing files. Howard is prepared to cut Chris a huge check. Finch sees Caleb moving money into a trust. Chris wants to meet with Caleb at the same time he's supposed to meet Lorenzo. Carter breaks into a lab and switches out a DNA sample. The transit officer who worked Caleb's brother's death tells Fusco that what happened was the two brothers were drinking and daring each other to cross the tracks before the train came. Fusco tells Finch that Caleb must feel guilty for his brother's death. Finch loses track of Caleb, meaning they don't know which meeting he plans to attend. Fusco sees that he's a no-show at the Lorenzo meeting. Finch goes the high school and confronts Chris about what he did to Caleb. It turns out that Chris is actually helping Caleb, who only wanted a little bit of money up front. Chris is actually going to give Caleb all the credit. Chris is in fact giving Caleb all the money. The project is called 17621. Finch finds Caleb at the subway. He talks to him about mistakes and being able to move on. We learn that 17 years, 6 months and 21 days is how old Caleb's brother was when he died and Caleb is that exact age today. Finch tries to convince Caleb that the world (and his mother) will be better with him around. A train passes by and Caleb sits still. Donnelly is told that the DNA does match any of the three men he has in custody. He wants the samples tested for tampering and asks for Carter. In the school the following day Caleb thanks Finch. Finch implies that when he was Caleb's age he pulled off one of the most famous hacks in internet history. Reese is told by a guard that he is about to be released. On his way out Donnelly arrives and tells the warden that they've been ID'd as "Unlawful Combatants" and will continue to be held. Carter arrives and Donnelly asks her to interrogate the three men, starting with Reese.
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Open with Donnelly watching Carter question Reese. Finch calls Fusco. He sends her the name and address of a woman in Brooklyn who is about to be in trouble. While Reese talks to Carter, Donnelly looks up his alias, John Warren. Reese plays his role very convincingly. Pennsylvania Two calls Hersh for information about the "rogue operative." He wants him to shut him down and tells him about the four men being held at Rikers. Hersh says he'll "remove" all four and immediately begins firing a gun into the gun in order to get arrested. Carter gets permission to un-cuff the men in order to gain their trust. Donnelly is aware their guy is backed by somebody sophisticated enough to create a cover. He wants to check on Reese's Wall Street job. Carter texts this information to Finch, who doesn't seem concerned. The FBI arrives at Reese's supposed work address, which appears to be a flawless cover. Finch reminds Carter that she is also in danger. Donnelly isn't 100 percent convinced yet. He gives Carter an earpiece so he can feed questions during the interrogation. We flash back to Reese and Stanton working an old case. It is the first time he had to kill people and she reminds him he'll have to "love his work." Flash forward to Carter asking Reese if he's ever killed anyone. He says yes, during his military service in Bosnia. Donnelly has her push him on his military background. Everything he says checks out. Carter begins to build a rapport with him. We see Hersh processed at Rikers. One of the men is eliminated from the pool of candidates when it is established he was serving in Iraq during one of the incidents. During time in the yards Reese is brought to see Elias. In another Reese/Stanton flashback we see even more killing. Elias is well aware of Donnelly's hunt for the "man in the suit." Elias says he wants to help and Reese asks him to send a picture of Hersh -- who he has spotted in the yard -- to Finch. Fusco tells Finch he recognizes Hersh as a "government spook." Finch has hacked Donnelly's ear piece, meaning he's able to communicate with Carter while she speaks with Reese. Reese continues to do well reciting his cover bio. Another of the suspects, McAvoy tells Carter if he's given immunity he'll tell her whatever she wants to know. Donnelly bursts into the room and says if he can tell them which of the other two is the man in the suit he can have his deal. A fire alarm sounds, set off by Finch. Finch has Carter drop her phone into McAvoy's pocket on his way out of the building. In the yards the phone rings with Finch telling him he's aware he's made millions working as a mercenary. Finch drains his offshore account and offers him the chance to work with him instead of the FBI. Hersh kills Kelly, the fourth of Donnelly's suspects. McAvoy tells Donnelly the man in the suit is not Reese. At that moment Donnelley is told that Kelly "hung himself" and he immediately pulls McAvoy's deal. Donnelly tells Carter he's now more certain than ever that Warren is his man. In a flashback we see Stanton force Reese to decide whether he's going to fully commit to his work. This leads to them kissing. Donnelly tells Carter to "break" Warren. As Carter asks Reese questions, Finch is creating confirmation for the answer. Donnelly has her asks Reese if he's ever had a girlfriend and this leads to him talking about some of his real life. Donnelly tells Carter there is one final test to try. We see Reese let into the yard. Donnelly tells Carter he's going to let one of the Arians go after Reese and see if his combat skills surface. He tells the warden to lock the guards out of the yard. Reese is beaten mercilessly and hardly fights back. Just as Hersh walks over with a shank Elias puts a stop to it with a whistle. Carter yells at Donnelly that he's way over the line. Carter gets the fourth suspect into the room and pushes him hard. Eventually he attacks her and has to be held back. Carter tells Donnelly "that's your man." Reese is set free. He meets with Carter and thanks her for the help. They begin to talk and Donnelly jumps out with his gun drawn: "Congratulations Carter, you just caught the man in the suit." He has her put cuffs on Reese, then places cuffs on Carter. We flash to Reese being ordered by Snow to "retire agent Stanton" after the current mission is over. Later on she shots him and they realize they were both given the same orders. A bomb explodes nearby as Reese runs off. Finch calls Fusco with word of an emergency. Pay phones begin ringing next to Finch as he walks along the street. It seems to be the machine. The code the machine gives him over the phone points him to Donnelly. Donnelly drives Carter and Reese to a safehouse. Since he's not sure who to trust, he has no backup. Carter tries to convince Donnelly that Reese is a good man. Donnelly thinks he nothing more than a monster. While looking at Donnelly's bio Finch says "Oh no" and immediately calls Donnelly. He tells him he's Reese's partner and that he is in grave danger. At this point Donnelly's car is t-boned by a truck. All three survive, but a person walks up and puts two bullets in Donnelly's head. It is Stanton and she walks over to Reese and knocks him out with a hypodermic to the neck as the episode ends.
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Open with Carter waking up at the scene of the accident with her phone ringing. It's Finch, making sure she's okay and telling her to get out of there. She tells him Donnelly is dead and Stanton ambushed them and took Reese. Reese wakes up on a bus and finds himself next to Snow and Stanton. He is now wearing an explosive vest just like the one Snow has had on. She shows him she can detonate his vest from her phone. She wants them to help her on one final mission. Carter gets a call from Fusco. He's at the scene of the accident and tells her about Donnelly being dead. He asks her to drop by. At the scene Fusco spots that one of Carter's earrings is missing. An agent named Moss asks her about Donnelly. Carter hunts around the wreckage and finds her earring. Fusco asks what is going on. Finch meets with Carter and Fusco and tells them about Stanton. She'd been declared dead and it's unclear what she's been doing since that point. When Carter found Snow breaking into the tech company with a bomb vest he'd told her about a woman who was planning something "big." Reese and Snow are instructed to drop by an apartment and pick up a disc for Stanton. The man who made it asks for more money and through an earpiece Stanton instructs them to kill him. Reese won't do it, but Stanton shoots them through the window using a sniper rifle. Stanton tells Reese that was his last warning. We flash back a few years to Stanton, Snow and Reese in China looking for the laptop. Snow tells both Stanton and Reese to kill the other one after the mission. Stanton shoots Reese, he tells her they both got the same order and Stanton is attacked from above with a missile. Stanton wakes up at gunpoint and ends up in a hospital. A man with a British accent tells her he's in the information business. He's got the laptop the U.S. government was so eager to acquire and want to work out some kind of arrangement with Stanton. In present day Stanton, Reese and Snow have lunch. Snow tells Stanton the goal of the cruise missile was "to be sure." She wants them to follow the men at the counter outside and steal their car. They are ATF agents and she tells them to assume their identities. Reese makes it clear to Snow that he doesn't want to kill civilians. They are called to a "situation." Carter gives Finch information about the hard drive Snow stole. It's used for military information. Finch gets a text from Reese that indicates he's wearing one of the vests. Reese and Snow are called to a bomb threat. She tells them to go inside the building. Fusco and Carter figure out where Reese is headed. Finch finds out that the there is a 21st floor not registered publically. It is owned by a shell corporation. In the elevator Stanton gives them a code to get to the 21st floor, which is a Department of Defense facility. She tells them when the doors open they'll be fired upon by Delta Force agents. Reese and Snow get past them and Stanton tells them in the next stage time will be a factor. She turns on their vests and gives them 15 minutes. Back to our flashback with Stanton and the British man, who assures her he does not work for any government. He tells her a story about the old guard being afraid of the next generation. He wants her to work for him in exchange for the answer to any question she has. She wants to know who put her in that bed. He says it wasn't Snow, but that he can tell her who stole the laptop in the first place. In present day Reese and Snow are guided by Stanton through the floor. Carter and Fusco enter the building. Finch tells them the 21st floor is cover for the DOD's cyber security center. He thinks their mission is to develop weaponized malware and Stanton wants to steal a program of some kind. Carter and Fusco hit the stairs. Reese grabs a technician and has him get them into a secure room and login to a computer. Snow sits at the computer and begins to work. The room they're in prevents any outside contact, so Stanton can't listen in. Reese wants them to try and figure out a way out but Snow doesn't think there is any way to disarm the bombs. Reese moves away from Snow and asks a technician named Kevin to help him. He calls Finch who tells him about cyberweapons. Kevin tells Reese about a new virus that in the wrong hands could be used to cripple networks or shut down the internet. Kevin says that if the network notices a breach it will automatically wipe the drives. Reese breaks in to a computer and starts the process. Reese and Snow fight with Reese eventually knocking him to the ground. Stanton arrives in the room and says she knew Reese would never follow orders. Reese defiantly tells her he's erased the drives, but Stanton said that was what she was hoping he'd do. In fact she wants to use the room to upload a file. The vests are re-armed with five minutes left on the clock and she walks out, disarming the door lock on her way. Kevin is able to overload the system and help the guys open the door. When Reese talks about trying to minimize civilian casualties Snow kicks him to the ground and says he's headed for an agency safehouse. Carter and Fusco shows up and Carter tells Reese she thinks she can disarm the vest. Reese tells her she has too much to lose and tells them to leave. Reese heads up to the roof where Finch happens to be waiting. He gives Finch the drive Stanton uploaded and tells him to get away. But Finch says he wants a crack at disarming the bomb and walks over. He'll have three chances to enter the phone-based bomb's unlocking code, and there are five possible codes. The first two tries are failures. Stanton places a call informing the man from the hospital that "it's done." He tells her the payment, the name of the person who sold the laptop which led to her being in China. He says it's a person he's never been able to find. Finch guesses right on his third attempt, disarming the bomb with seven seconds left on the clock. Stanton gets into her car and finds Snow waiting for her in the back seat. The vehicle explodes. The FBI tells Carter they believe Snow to be the man in the suit. Their investigation into that person is now over. Finch can't figure out what Stanton uploaded. Whatever it is will go live in five months. We see that the name Stanton was given before she died was Harold Finch.
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Open with the latest number playing pickup basketball. He's a college dropout named Logan Pierce who started a social network called "Friendczar" with a friend named Justin Ogilvy and is now a self-made billionaire. Pierce will be taking the company public in 72 hours. They can't clone his phone, so Reese will attend a charity function at which Pierce is supposed to speak. Fusco and Carter talk about who killed Davidson. She mentioned that Stills also went missing. Fierce calls her with info related to Pierce. At the event Reese sees Pierce with Ogilvy and Jeremy Campbell, the website's lawyer and the other member of the inner-circle. Reese watches Pierce interact with Ben and Cynthia Kayman, whose social networking site has lost half its value because of Pierce. Reese sees that Pierce is having an affair with Cynthia Kayman. The chairman of Friendczar's board, Sinclair Melbourne, expresses concern to Ogilvy that Pierce isn't doing enough to get them good press. Pierce sneaks away from the event in a helicopter. We flash back to 2001. As Ingram and Finch watch coverage of 9/11, they talk about what they can do to stop the people who brought down the buildings. Finch is able to pose as an employee at Pierce's dry cleaner and replace his credit card with one that has tracking equipment. A woman who is suing Pierce, Emily Morton, doesn't show for a hearing. Her lawyer charges Campbell with intimidation. Pierce is still doing battle with Melbourne. Pierce's sports car has issues with its brakes. Finch is able to hack into his car and remove malware somebody had planted, just in time to prevent a huge accident. Pierce jumps into a cab and Reese suggest to Finch they try a different tactic. Reese muscles his way into Pierce's office and tells the billionaire he can protect him, but only if he lets him. Pierce says it "sounds like fun." We flash to 2009. Finch tells Ingram they are at a place where they help make a difference. Ingram is still obsessed with the machine, while Finch wants to move on to the next thing. He tells Ingram to make up his mind as to whether he wants to join him and he walks out. Finch watches a deposition of Morton where she vows to make sure Pierce keeps his promise to launch her site, which has technology that would compete with Friendczar. Finch tells Reese this bit of news and they wonder if Morton might be behind the hacking of his car. Pierce brings Reese to his house and plays video games instead of attending a party for investors. Finch tells Reese that because of some public comments about the stock being overvalued the Friendczar board has thrown Pierce out -- he is no longer CEO. Pierce's scotch is spiked and he is unable to breath. Reese manages to save his life. That night Pierce talks to Reese about his family history. His father went out of business because he wasn't quick enough to adapt. Pierce thinks the only thing that remains constant is that people will always want to connect with other people. Finch and Reese meet and talk about moving Pierce to a safe house. Pierce has followed Reese to the meeting and asks Finch who he is. Pierce has looked into them and seems to have a decent sense of what they are all about. He's curious about their motives. Pierce has a better suggestion then a safe house in the city. Pierce and Reese fly ten hours to a remote location he thinks will keep him off the radar. Carter got a partial print off of the Pierce's poisoned drink. It belonged to Campbell. Campbell shows up at the bar where Pierce and Reese are hiding out, having been sent a text by Pierce. At this point Finch tells Reese about Campbell, saying he plans to move firms. Reese confronts Campbell and eventually puts him on the ground in cuffs. At this point dozens of Pierce's friends arrive and Pierce admits he told some people where they were. Reese feels like he's eliminated the threat and leaves. Fusco tries to open up about mistakes he's made. She cuts him off and says there won't be anything she can do if those mistakes come back to haunt him. Finch tells Reese that Pierce's number has come up again. Pierce's credit card was just used at a nearby location and Finch sends him the address. Reese walks into the room and finds Morton there with her gun drawn. Morton appears to be working with Pierce. They are working together and are going to announce their venture the following day. It will all but destroy Friendczar. Cut to Pierce meeting with Ogilvy, who is with several large bodyguards. Ogilvy tells Pierce he brought this on himself and Pierce is knocked to the ground violently. Before he is thrown off a bridge Pierce tells Ogilvy that Morton reminds him of the way he used to be. Plus he thinks Morton's idea is better. Reese arrives at the last minute and saves the day. Another 2009 flashback: Ingram sits in his car holding a gun. In present day Finch sees that Ogilvy has been arrested for attempted murder and Pierce is partnering with both Morton and Kayman in the new venture. Pierce tells Reese he's figured out why he does what he does. He gives Reese a gift and leaves. The gift turns out be one of Pierce's super-expensive watches. Finch smashes it and finds that Pierce had placed a GPS inside.
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Open with the machine picking up a conversation about a girl who "saw it happen" and whether a woman can keep her safe. Finch talks to Reese about how much he loves hotels as they walk into the employee entrance of one. The latest number is Mira Dobrica, who works as a maid. Finch doesn't know much about her, but based on her life he assumes her danger is work-related. Reese will be a bellhop and Finch a concierge. These means Reese can get into every room and Finch will have computer access. The guys will be working for a manager named Derek. He tells them they are hosting an aviation industry event and we see the guests are arriving. In the elevator Reese briefly runs into Zoe. Reese plants a camera on Mira's cart, then overhears her arguing with an energy drink CEO named Todd. Todd is making sexual advances and Reese arrives to protect her. Mira and Reese talk in the hallway. Finch has learned that Mira originally came to the U.S. as a Serbian refuge during the Kosovo War. She came alone in 1999. We see Derek and his head doorman Bud confront Mira about police looking into their "side operation." Over the phone Pennsylvania Two welcome Hersh back from prison. He wants Hersh to quickly find Reese and find out who is working for. We see Hersh break into a police cruiser and drive off. Carter and Cal talk about taking their relationship to the next level and having him meet her son. Moss tells Carter he's found in Donnelly's notes reference to her possibly becoming an FBI agent. She's still interested and the next step will be a lie detector. Reese notices potential prostitutes and wonder if that might be Derek's side business. Carter calls Finch with word that a working girl was picked up at the hotel and had her bail posted by Bud. She asks him for advice about the polygraph and he advises her to lie on one of the baseline questions in order to trick the test. He advises her to avoid he and Reese in the near future. A guest with an accent named Charles Harris wants to speak with Mira and pulls her into his room. Reese enters the room and finds Mira and Harris arguing. There are photos on a table. Outside Reese tells Mira he knows she's involved with the girls and that she tipped off the police. She tells Reese to stay away from her. Reese finds out Harris is a freelance journalist and thinks Mira must be one of his sources. A suspicious-looking man in a turtleneck has been sitting in the lobby all day. The guys have Zoe strike up a conversation with him and "accidentally" spill a glass of wine on him. As soon as he leaves to clean himself somebody walks over and takes his place. They realize the men are spotters of some kind, a hit squad with military training. Reese searches a room connected with one of the spotters named Peter who checked-in with a German passport. There is a file in the room on Harris and a series of articles he wrote on a Serbian colonel accused of war crimes named Petrovic. Finch gets into Harris' laptop and finds out that Mira is actually Albanian and witnessed Petrovic order the execution of her entire family. She changes her ethnicity and name for protection. Reese shoots one of the spotters just before he can kill Mira. She realizes the danger she is in. Finch loses his connection to Harris' floor and sends Reese to the room. Carter begins her polygraph. She admits to smoking marijuana in college, which is a lie. Harris is missing and there is a blood stain on the wall. They are too late. Mira fills in Reese about some of her history. Reese tries to figure out how they could have found her. Using her phone he finds a microphone in one of the lamps in Harris' room. He follows the cord to the room next door and manages to take out another operative. Mira makes a run for it but ducks into an elevator containing another member of the hit squad. Finch stops the elevator. Fusco calls Reese with word the hit squad member are moving out with Harris' body. Finch tells him to make sure they don't leave the hotel. The assassin wants to know the location of Harris' recording of another witness. Reese arrives on the scene and takes out the man. Mira won't leave without the recording. Fusco takes out the men with Harris' body. Hersh calls Pennsylvania Two with word that something is happening at the hotel. Reese sends Mira with Fusco and tells Finch they need to leave. During Carter's polygraph somebody pops into the room. She is then asked questions about Cal and informed there are ongoing investigations into him. Reese gets the recording from Mira's locker. Derek wants to know what is happening. Reese knocks him out and leaves. On Reese's way out of the hotel Hersh shows up behind him and puts a gun to his head. Carter is told her offer to join the FBI has been rescinded. It sounds as if the reason is her relationship to Cal. Fusco arrives at the station with Mira. One of the assassins is also there, pretending to have been mugged. Hersh brings Reese to the kitchen and asks him who he works for. The two end up fighting and Reese is able to stab him. He tells Hersh he's 20 minutes from death and leaves him to decide between following him and going to the hospital. Carter tells Cal perhaps it's too soon for him to meet her son. She tells him she "needs time." The assassin makes a break for Mira. He gets a wire around her neck but Carter shoots him and saves her. We see that Petrovic will stand trial. Zoe tells the guys that the prostitution ring has been broken up. Finch has purchased the hotel and made Mira the manager. Hersh calls Pennsylvania Two from his hospital bed. He tells he's needed "ASAP" and Hersh pulls out his tubes and leaves. We see Pennsylvania Two preparing for a state dinner and that his new assistant is none other than Root.
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Open in 2011 with a conversation about a man who "asks too many questions," followed by gun shots. In present day Berlin, an English-speaking woman (Sarah Shahi) is cornered by two men. A police officer arrives but she says she thinks it's just a mistake. The two men pull out guns, yell that someone named Bekhti needs to be contacted and say the "Americans are onto us". The woman shoots the two men, then knocks out the officer. A voice in the woman's ear asks about Bekhti. The woman, named Shaw, and her male partner track some men to an apartment where they are building a dirty bomb. They use gas to knock the men out and eventually take care of the explosive. She gets out of there unharmed and the two make reference to her making a trip to New York since "we have another number". In New York Shaw meets with a man named Wilson, who gives her the next number. Shaw's partner, Cole, tells her the new number she's been following is a Michigan resident named James Mercer. He was a former Marine with a dishonorable discharge who became part of a militia and was recently wired ten grand before heading to Queens. During this process she spots Reese and tells Cole she thinks she's been made. Mercer gets a call telling him "tomorrow's the big day". That night Cole asks Shaw if she ever wonders where research gets the numbers and if they might be wrong. She tells him that research is never wrong, but he has checked up on an old case and thinks one of their past targets, a man named Aquino, wasn't accurate. Aquino was supposedly working for the Hezbollah, but Cole found that his funding actually came from a U.S. government source. Cole is able to get into Mercer's computer and finds their names all over his files. A message then pops up reading "It's a trap. Get out of there. Now." Cole is able to warn Shaw just before automatic gunfire rips through the wall but he is shot and killed. Reese shows up and tries to help her but she doesn't trust him. Shaw jumps out of a window and finds that Wilson is behind the operation to kill them. They exchange shots but Shaw manages to get away. Wilson places a call to Pennsylvania Two telling him what happened. Wilson tells him the only edge they may have is that he thinks he "clipped her". Shaw kidnaps a drug dealer named Louis and brings him back to his boss' apartment. She's been hit in the stomach with a hollow point and borrows some "supplies" to help her remove the bullet. After removing the bullet she loses consciousness. She wakes up to find other men in the apartment. She quickly takes them out with her back-up gun and lets Louis leave. Hersh tells Pennsylvania Two (Jay O. Sanders) that Shaw is one of the best and won't be found unless she wants to be. He thinks it's highly likely she'll be coming after them for revenge. They plan to find Veronica Sinclair, Cole's CIA contact. Shaw calls Sinclair and tells her they need to meet the following day. Shaw calls Wilson and says she wants to meet with control or else she'll go public with the Aquino files. Cole arrives at the Sinclair meeting but Root (Amy Acker) is there pretending to be Sinclair. Root says Cole asked her to look into wire transfers related to a nuclear engineer named Daniel Aquino. His payments were made to look as if they were coming from Hezbollah, but in fact were coming from a wing of the Pentagon called the Intelligence Support Activity. It is the group Shaw has been working for. Shaw hears Sinclair tied up in the bathtub and Root knocks her out with a stun gun. Root says she doesn't want to hurt Shaw, but she wants the name of Aquino's contact. It sounds as if Aquino was paid to build a home for the Machine. Shaw is saved from torture when Root sees that Wilson's men are on their way upstairs. Shaw is able to kill the three men. Reese shows up just after that and is able to convince her not to shoot at him. He says he has a friend who wants to meet with her. Reese takes Shaw to Finch. He shows her that her and Cole's numbers came up. Finch says she'll never scratch the surface of the organization she's looking into and offers their help. She declines. At a formal gathering Shaw confronts Pennsylvania Two. He tells her that he is not Control, but he's "the closest you're going to get." He tells her that the public not knowing what they do is the reason there hasn't been another attack. She gives him Cole's research on the Aquino case. She then kills Wilson. He lets her leave, impressed that she is ultimately a good soldier. Hersh sneaks up behind Shaw and appears to kill her with a hypodermic needle. Carter and Fusco show up at the scene and take over. With help from Leon Tao (Ken Leung) as a fake paramedic they bring her back to life in a cemetery. Shaw thanks them, but takes their cell phones and drives off in the ambulance as the episode ends with Finch asking, "I wonder if she'll call us a cab."
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Open with a storm approaching the New York region. Reese and Finch walk out of a movie and talk about not having heard from either Agent Shaw or the machine. Finch wonders if it's related to Stanton and her virus. A nearby payphone rings. It's the machine. The guys have been given six number from various parts of the country that don't seem to have any connections. Three of them are listed on a missing persons database and the others are completely off the grid. Jack Rollins, a Brooklyn antiques dealer, is the only local name. At Rollins' home/office Reese finds a rental property bill. He's left town in a hurry for an island property in Suffolk County, the heart of the area expected to be hit by the storm. Reese heads for the beach. Carter looks into the missing person files from the machine's numbers. An FBI desk jockey named Alan Fahey did the paperwork on all of the files. Carter asks about Cal and learns that he's probably bad news. Carter calls Fahey, who says his only job is to file reports. She says her lead connecting the cases is confidential and he isn't interested in hearing any more. Reese arrives at Rollins' rental house, while Finch searches his home. In the basement Finch finds empty photo frames, which matches the files of the other missing person, whose homes were found without pictures. Finch and Reese get cut off just as Reese realizes he's not alone in the house and Finch's dog finds something in the furnace. Reese turns a corner and comes face to face with Fahey, who has his gun drawn. Reese pretends to be a U.S. Marshall looking into Rollins. Finch had found what appears to be burned human remains in Rollins' basement, with only the teeth still visible. He wonders to Carter whether they might be looking at a string of murders. Carter agrees, thinking they might be looking at a serial killer. With phones not working Finch thinks he needs to go warn Reese in person. At the local police station Fahey and Reese show Rollins' picture to the only remaining officer still on duty. She can't help them because of the weather. Fahey takes Reese aside and says he thinks they're on the trail of a killer. Cal drops by to see Carter. He wants to know what he did wrong and she basically blows him off. Fahey thinks that the killer has been taking the identity of each person he kills. Reese thinks the killer could be on the island. Gradually people start to filter into the station to avoid the weather. One of them mentions they saw someone prepping a boat for travel. At the docks Reese and Fahey find two guys on the dock. They bring them both back to the station. At the station Reese finds that Finch has arrived, now under arrest for landing his plane in the middle of town. Reese talks her into letting him go for the moment. Finch tells Reese they need to consider who the killer has been and therefore what he might look like. Fahey shows Reese that someone just recently tries to burn the Rollins identity, meaning he's moved on. This means the killer could be anyone with them in the station. Carter asks Cal to look at security camera footage of Rollins in Chicago. In the second image Rollins is taller and left-handed. Reese asks Fahey to allow Finch to help him investigate everybody in the station. His plan is to use some hidden equipment to record whether or not the person is lying. One of the fishermen seems nervous about something. The cop thinks it's weird a drifter would come to town in winter looking for seasonal work. Carter conducts a Skype interview about one of the other names on the list. The missing student has a roommate named Declan who requested a change. She can't find Declan in the school records. Carter tries to connect with the station where Reese and Finch are hold up but can't get through. The power goes out and Reese turns on the generator. When the lights come back on the on the officer is lying dead with a knife in her chest. Carter leaves to follow-up on her lead and Cal demands to go with her. The locals begin to get riled-up. Reese targets one of the guys from the docks, named Victor. He immediately starts to punch Reese then admits he was lying because he's a Marine who deserted during a second tour. It was his knife, but he didn't kill her. They realize the fisherman Ethan is missing and Reese goes after him. On the drive Carter brings up Cal possibly being dirty. Reese finds some marijuana on the dock, realizing that's what Victor was trying to protect. He's a small-time smuggler. Ethan tries to attack him and Reese quickly knocks him out. Reese opens his trunk and finds a body wearing an FBI jacket. Ethan uses the distraction to knock Reese out. Finch figures out that Fahey is the killer. Fahey sneaks up behind him and sticks a gun to his head. He tells him if he makes a sound he'll start "hurting innocents." Fahey said he killed the deputy because he couldn't be sure what she heard over the radio. Fahey asks Finch if he is "like me." Finch says "you have no idea. You're an amateur at this." Ethan is about to dump Reese into the water. Reese turns the tables and knocks him out with a paddle. Finch assures Fahey he'll never get off the island. Fahey responds that Finch will fly him off the island. He's says he's living people's lives better than they did but Finch counters that all he does is hurt people. Fahey raises his gun to kill Finch but Carter arrives from behind and takes him out. As they turn away Finch realizes that Fahey also had body armor. Fahey pops up but is cut down by Cal who walked in from the other side of the room. Reese tells Finch he's glad the machine was smart enough to give them all of the false IDs. But Finch is still worried about the machine having gone down for three days. He wonders what that might mean for the future.
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Open with Leon in bed with a woman. She puts handcuffs on him and two men come in to kill him. Reese comes in and saves him at the last minute before being told by Finch he needs to go to Atlantic City for the newest number. The new number is Lou Mitchell, a 70-somethinng recent widower. He's a pretty regular Baccarat player at one of the casinos. Reese follows Lou to a pharmacy where he picks up arthritis medication. Finch finds out that Lou is nearly broke, at this point living off of Social Security. Reese notices that all of Lou's fingers have been broken at some point in his life. Carter finds out that Lou has history with organized crime in the form of being beaten up by wise guys to whom he owed money. She's found nothing alarming in Cal's disciplinary report. Cal stops by to see Carter and asks her for a date. She tells him she needs to think about it and asks him to help her look into the casino connected to Lou. Lou takes $1,500 from the casino and Finch has no idea where it came from. Finch hacks the casino's computer. Lou has some connection to Darien Makris, the casino's owner. When Lou swipes his frequent player card Finch is able to track his playing history. He's lost $300,000 over the past six months. Reese wonders if Lou could be an old mobster himself, but Finch doesn't by it. Szymanski is brought into the station in cuffs, telling Carter he's being set-up. He's supposed to testify against the Russian mafia that day and thinks this is the way they're trying to keep him from the courtroom. Carter explains this to the judge who agrees to a continuance. We see Simmons grab the Russian, Yogarov, who was on trial that day and take him from the court house. He's taken to see HR boss Quinn, who tells him about Szymanski and offers to keep him out of jail in exchange for cash. Yogarov agrees to the deal. Reese finds out that all of Lou's old mob buddies are dead and he has no known connection to loan sharks. Finch notices that Lou has returned to the pharmacy a second straight day and recognizes several of the elderly people from the casino. Leon finds out the pharmacy is owned by a shell company, with Makris the only known board member. Aware he's being tailed Lou confronts Finch, but in a friendly manner. Finch says he's with the IRS and looking into the casino. He asks where Lou got his money and Lou makes him pay for the information. Finch doesn't get much out of him because Lou is clearly a card mechanic. Reese watches Lou at the casino while Finch finds that other elderly people are down hundreds of thousands of dollars. What is happening is they are picking up money from the pharmacy and intentionally losing it to the casino so Makris can launder his drug money. But Lou has been skimming money and Makris has noticed. Carter and Cal watch Szymanski being interrogated and he admits it was him who called in the tip. Carter asks Fusco if he's heard anything about Cal and he tells her that HR is still in operation. Reese follows Lou outside and saves him from being killed by two of Makris' security guards. Reese brings him to Finch and Lou tells him that he had been using his talents to win money at Makris' casino to pay for his late wife's cancer treatment. When Markis found out, Lou had no money with which to pay him back so he was forced to launder his money. Finch tells Lou his only option is to leave town and gives him cash and a ticket to Chicago. Lou doesn't want to leave his wife, but he eventually agrees. Finch promises Reese will convince Makris thinks he's dead. Finch needs more evidence to put Makris behind bars. The only way to gain access to the "cooked" books is for Finch to get inside the casino. They decide to use Leon as the distraction, giving him one million to gamble at the casino in order to take Makris and his security's attention away from Finch. Finch gets to the casino's servers and plugs in. To Reese's surprise he spots Lou at the Baccarat table. And he's betting all of his skimmed money. Reese takes Lou into the hallway and has him speak with Finch. Lou is able to convince Finch to help him break Makris based on a promise he made to his wife before she died. He doesn't want to die a loser. Finch sets him up with $2 million and Reese brings him back to the table. While Leon draws a crowd (and Makris' attention) at the craps table, Lou begins winning at Baccarat with much larger bets. Makris eventually makes his way to Baccarat and sees what Lou is doing. By this point Finch has accessed the cooked books and emails them to Reese in the casino. Reese tells Makris that if he doesn't let Lou play the books will be sent to authorities. Lou continues to cheat and win big. Finch finishes his work and Lou is allowed to cash out to the tune of $20 million. Outside the casino Reese and Lou are confronted by Makris, who has also grabbed Finch and Leon. The four are taken to what looks like the basemen of the casino. Makris forces Lou to play Russian roulette, each time pointing the gun at one of the other guys. After the first few shots result in empty chambers Reese breaks free and knocks out the guards. Makris tries to use the Russian roulette gun to shoot Lou but Lou used his card sharp skills to remove the bullet. Makris ends up being taken away by police in handcuffs. Carter shows Terney she's found evidence that Szymanski was, in fact, set-up. This should be enough to allow him to testify. The marked bills planted at Szymanski's home came from police evidence. Carter gets a call from Cal, but ignores the phone. With Lou's winnings tied up as evidence, Finch gives him his broken $2 million watch. Lou is trying to buy the diner and we learn his wife was a waitress and basically saved his life when he was at rock bottom. One of the Yogarovs calls Simmons to say that the deal is off. More charges have been added. Simmons tells him to have faith in his boss. We see Quinn dining with the two of the DAs and Szymanski. When they tell him they won't be dropping the charges on the Yogarovs he kills all three. Terney, clearly also with HR, walks in and shoots Quinn in the shoulder so they can pretend the real killer left out the back.
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Open with Finch and Elias playing chess in prison. Finch references that recent events have benefited his enemy, Yogarov. Elias says he's up against a "ghost, someone I'd very much like to identify." Finch thinks it looks like the outcome is a forgone conclusion, but Elias tells him not to count him out just yet. Reese is watching at the Cole home. He glances at a newspaper article discussing the murder of Michael Cole. The newest number is Monica Jacobs, a senior VP for Rylatech, one of the country's top networking companies. Jacobs is a rising start in the tech world. Finch has managed to get himself inside Rylatech and strikes up a rapport with Jacobs right away. Finch overhears a sales meeting. Jacobs sells the company to a potential client, specifically mentioning company CEO Martin and how clean Rylatech is compared to the competition. Carter talks to Terney about investigating the shooting from last episode. Cal still won't tell Carter the name of his CI. She's upset because she blames the CI for getting Syzmanski killed. Carter tells Fusco she's worried Cal set him up and asks him to look into it for her. Finch still hasn't located an obvious threat to Jacobs and it's clear to Reese that he has a healthy respect for her. Jacobs leaves her office and Finch followers her to the R&D floor. She downloads something onto a flash drive and hides under the desks when a security guard walks by. Reese suggests she might be a spy. While Reese searches the woods he's snuck up on by a gun-wielding Shaw, who is there doing the same thing Reese is: protecting Cole's parents. Reese suggests they might team up. Finch is thwarted in his first effort to find out what Jacobs stole. Fusco tells Cal that by not coming clean to Carter he thinks he had something to do with Syzmanski's death. Cal says he knows a little bit about Fusco's background. The two end up nose-to-nose until Terney walks in. Finch sees Jacobs leave for a meeting she did not put on her official calendar. He follows her and sees her meet with another Rylatech employee named Ross. She's concerned that a former member of his team, named Lee, may have been a plant. She gives Ross emails she took from Lee's computer. Reese walks by and quickly steals the flash drive for Finch. We see Cal meet with Quinn. It turns out Quinn was his source for the tip, but Quinn doesn't seem to be involved in HR. Quinn reluctantly tells Cal the tip came from one of Elias' soldiers. We also learn Quinn is Cal's godfather. After Cal leaves Simmons walks up and asks whether Cal is going to be a problem. "Let's hope not," says Cal. Finch thinks the threat to Jacob may be whoever Lee was spying for. He sees that someone is synching her phone without her knowledge. We see Martin and Ross approach Jacobs with a security team. They are framing her for the security breach using Lee's emails. Jacobs is fired with charges pending. Finch tells Reese he thinks her life is in danger. Finch has found out Lee's resume means he was a plant, put at Rylatech by pros. Cal sits with Elias in prison. Fusco is listening from his car. Elias asks who benefited from Syzmanski's death and tells Cal that he's been played by HR. Carter tells Finch that Lee's body is missing. Simmons tells Quinn that Cal has been looking for answers at Rikers. Quinn seems to give the go-ahead for taking Cal out. We see Jacobs' personal assistant Jerome speaking with someone on the phone in Chinese. Jacobs grabs him looking for some answers and he shoves her. Reese shows up and grabs him. Jerome says "there are too many of us" and someone begins shooting at them. Reese hustles Jacobs into a car. Finch calls Reese with word that Lee's father was a high-ranking member of the Chinese government. He was spying for another country, not another company. Shaw walks into Finch's library. She spots a picture of Root on his wall and decides she's going to look into her as a new hobby. Reese tells Jacobs about Lee being a Chinese spy. She thinks China might want to steal or sabotage their work. Finch arrives and they talk about the fact Ross must be involved. Finch and Reese tell her she can't go to the authorities. Jacobs helps Finch hack into Rylatech's system. Once they get into the system Finch is reverse-hacked and his laptop destroyed. The only way to get into the server is to go inside Rylatech. Finch places Jacobs' security card on Bear's collar to distract security inside Rylatech. Reese and Jacobs find a certain server and connect Finch. They find the spies have been using Rylatech to spy on all of its clients in government, banking and the military. Finch has to shoot his way out of the room and sees that there are operatives inside the building. They find Ross dead in his office, then turn around to find Martin pointing a gun at them. Martin tells Jacobs the opportunity to spy presented itself after the dot-com bust. He has no concern for patriotism. Martin gets a call from the guy with the English accent. He tells him "the time has come. Your family will be provided for." Martin then shoots himself in the head. Fusco plays Carter tape that prove Cal wasn't in on the scheme with HR. He also thinks Cal may be in danger. Carter calls Cal while he's working on a drug bust. She asks him to get a drink after he's done and he agrees. Not surprisingly he's killed during the bust. Jacobs tells the guys her company is under federal investigation. She's intrigued by an opportunity from a specific company. When she walks away Finch tells Reese that while inside Rylatech's server he noticed a name Desyma Technologies. He thinks Desyma is trying to infect the machine. The Englishman tells somebody on the phone he's going to go after Finch.
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Reese first catches up with the latest number, Dr. Richard Nelson, when he is being awarded the title of professor emeritus at a lavish dinner banquet. Dr. Nelson is a well respected and renowned cardiac surgeon and researcher, with his credentials suggesting that he is the target. That is indeed the case as Reese and Finch are too late: someone has poisoned Dr. Nelson, probably he ingesting something at that banquet that was slipped into his food or drink. Dr. Nelson first believes that Reese is the culprit, but Reese convinces him that he is only there to help find who did it, even if Reese cannot save him as he finds out the poison is radioactive, which is eating Dr. Nelson's insides and which also means that he will be dead probably within 24 hours. Reese, Finch and Dr. Nelson have to find out what Dr. Nelson ate or drank that was the source of the poison, and wade through the many facets of his life to find the killer. Among the suspects are Dr. Nelson's estranged daughter Molly, or someone tied to the drug trial on which Dr. Nelson sat on the review committee which denied that drug's approval at the eleventh hour. Meanwhile, Simmons threatens Fusco to keep on playing ball with HR or else. Simmons is good on his threat as internal affairs does come knocking on his door regarding the disappearance of Detective Stills. Although he did not kill Stills, he did bury the body. Carter didn't want to hear about Fusco's shady past before, but she has to now to determine if she will help him or let internal find what Simmons wants them to find. Written by
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Open with Reese pestering Finch for a new number. There is a virus countdown for the machine is at about 20 hours. Reese is listening to the police scanner. At a murder scene Terney asks Carter about her looking into Cal's death, offering his assistance if she needs it. Carter tells Reese she knows HR was behind Cal's death. Reese tells here there is a "situation" on his end. We see Special Counsel tell somebody on the phone about the lack of numbers and the chip found in Corwin's body. He tells the person about Decima and a belief it is behind an attempt to destroy "the program." Root walks in and pulls a gun. She tells Special Counsel she wants information. The machine calls Finch from a cell phone and gives him another number. It is a data CEO named Earnest Thornhill who has recently begun purchasing pay phones around the city. He's worth $20 million. Reese and Finch stop by Thornhill's company. Reese pretends to be there for a meeting with Thornhill. Finch spots strange printouts in the trash and can't figure out what the point of the company actually is. Finch gets a cell call from Root, who is now aware the machine is under attack. She wants to know why the machine isn't fighting back and offers to help. Finch declines and she references Thornhill. We flash back to 2010. Finch drops by to see Nathan and tells him he's met someone (Grace) and is planning to propose. Finch wants to tell her who he really is, but Nathan isn't sure that will fly with their "government friends." When Nathan leaves to get champagne Finch spots a strange text on Nathan's phone. Reese and Finch are convinced Thornhill's company is a front for something. He has a pending charge for a car service that is picking him from the airport that day. Reese arrives to intercept Thornhill and finds a man attempting to blow up Thornhill's car with a remote controlled drone-type explosive. Thornhill is not in the car. Finch believes Decima is behind the attack on Thornhill's car. Reese believes Thornhill doesn't actually exist. Based on some information Finch has uncovered, he believes Thornhill is actually the machine attempting to protect itself. Back in 2010 Finch proposes. Grace says yes. Finch isn't sure why the machine created Thornhill or why Decima wants him dead. Reese leaves to check out Thornhill's apartment and Finch calls 911. Carter tells Reese she thinks something is weird with Thornhill. Reese tells her to stick to Cal's case. At the apartment Reese finds himself staring at a gun-wielding Shaw. She says she's hunting Root. Finch goes to where a fake cell phone call from Thornhill had been placed. He spots Grace walking out of a building just as Root walks up from behind. Root swears she doesn't want to harm Grace, but will do it if he doesn't help her. She knows at midnight the machine will place a call to a pay phone and whoever answers the call will have full administrative power. Decima is looking to control the machine, she thinks, not destroy it. Root thinks with her help they can save the machine. Terney has gotten an order from above to kill Carter. He tells her he has a lead on the person responsible for Cal's death. Shaw tells Reese that Root is in DC. She disappears just as armed men enter the apartment and place Reese in custody. Back in 2010 Finch calls Nathan to give him the good news about Grace. After leaving the voicemail he spots Nathan walking out of a restaurant and ignoring his call. Finch follows Nathan into an unmarked entrance. Inside he asks Nathan "what is this place?" Root thinks Decima wanted to kill Thornhill because he was buying up all the payphones in an attempt to become the machine's admin. She's not sure why Finch left the machine so vulnerable. He tells her after the virus crashes the machine, the person who answers the phone will have "unfettered access" for one day. As they look we see there is someone standing by every pay phone in midtown. Reese's "lawyer" (Shaw) shows up when he is brought into custody. She plays him Finch's 911 call, which was the reason authorities grabbed Reese. She needs him to find Finch for her and he tells her he's put a tracking device on his glasses. Shaw and Reese escape from custody rather easily. Root brings Finch to Thornhill's company. She doesn't understand why the machine felt the need to create an entire fake company. Finch tells her the dot matrix printers are printing off the machine's memories. Every night at midnight the machine destroys its information. It's "killed" every single night. Root is upset that Finch crippled the machine and thinks it's up to them to intercept the call. Carter and Terney bust down the doors at a home. A man with a gun runs out the back and Carter shoots him. Terney isn't able to kill her. Root and Reese run into Greer, the British guy, at Thornhill's office. He knows all about Reese and Shaw. Reese wants Greer to tell him how to stop the virus. He refuses and says the virus originated on the laptop he and Stanton were sent to retrieve in China. Greer says Finch is responsible for everything. More armed guards arrive and they are forced to leave the office. In 2010 Finch sees that Nathan has changed the machine. He's put in the back door that is responsible for the machine sending out numbers to save the "non-relevant" people. Finch doesn't want them to play God and tries to put a stop to what Nathan's done. Finch thinks the greater good is at stake and apologizes. Four minutes from the machine shutdown Greer heads to the pay phone that will get the call. It's a New York public library. Root and Finch arrive and see Decima is there. They knock out a Decima worker and wait for the call. Internal Affairs arrives at the scene. The dead man's gun has disappeared and Terney is pretending he never saw one. Reese and Shaw arrive at the library. They take out several gunmen but see more are on the way. The virus clock strikes 00:00. The reboot begins and a call is placed. The phone next to Root and Finch rings, but Finch is doing something with the junction box. Root answer the phone, smiles and says "absolutely." At the same time a phone downstairs rings and Reese picks it up. He hears: "Can you hear me?"
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Carter is dealing with internal affairs about a possible wrongful shooting on her part which resulted in a fatality. During the process, Terney shows his true colors to her. She has to figure out how to get herself out of her predicament, as well as prevent HR from carrying out its grand plan, even if it means helping the enemy. Meanwhile, the machine has rebooted itself, and has provided Root with 24 hour unfettered access to what it sees. The one thing it will not tell her is where the machine is located, which is her ultimate goal so that she can "set it free". She seemingly has Finch assisting her. Although she knows that Reese is following her, she is unaware that Finch also maneuvered the machine in providing Reese, and by association his current sidekick Shaw, who he tells from where the information is coming, that same unfettered 24 hour access. Beyond the location of the machine, what Reese also wants to know but which the machine will also not divulge is Finch's whereabouts. As Reese and Shaw track Root and Finch while dealing with whatever numbers the machine is sending their way, and as Root and Finch look for the machine, all four still must contend with Decima, which has its own plan with the machine. And in flashbacks, Finch divulges the reason why he embarked upon this work with Reese. Written by
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Nobody knows where the Machine has now relocated itself, but it is still in contact with both Finch, and by association Reese and their new partner Shaw, as well as Root. Still institutionalized, Root may have a short term problem in dealing with her psychiatrist, who she sees as being stupid, and from who she has not been provided access to any electronic devices including telephones. Carter, now demoted to patrol following her HR initiated wrongful shooting incident, has her own new primary agenda. She has also not told Finch or Reese of her association with a past number. And the Machine has dispensed another number to Finch, that of navy sailor, petty officer second class Jack Salazar. Upon first sighting, Reese, despite or partly because he chose the military over a prison sentence for an assault five years earlier, likes Salazar, a man who seems to stand up for his principles and his friends, and who knows how to take care of himself using his fists. After Reese loses track of him, he may be difficult to relocate since he is one of approximately 4,000 sailors in town for the day on fleet week. They will learn that the Machine identified situation in which Salazar is involved is in part related to his recent activities off the coast of Africa, those activities for which others are highly interested without his knowledge. Written by Huggo
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The next number the machine dispenses is for Wayne Kruger, an Internet genius and head of a company called Life Trace, which allows people to find others through information readily available already on the web. However, Finch learns that Life Trace's primary goal, its money making venture, is as a data broker, selling the information it gathers to people who will pay for it. As Kruger prepares to make what is perhaps the biggest deal of his career, he wants to be as open and transparent as possible with his prospective clients... or so he says. Finch, Reese and Shaw also learn that there was a class action lawsuit against Kruger and Life Trace by people who were ultimately hurt by the information that was provided through the site. They believe Kruger is the target, as someone or some people, probably a coalition of those behind the lawsuit, want to expose Kruger in very public means for not being as open concerning his own life as he purports. They have to wade through the list of several hundred of those involved in the lawsuit to find who is targeting Kruger most vehemently. Meanwhile, Carter, in order to work days, decides to go into the trainer's program. As such, she receives a rookie partner, Officer Mike Laskey. Carter doesn't want Laskey to be an obstacle to her missions - to find Beecher's killer and assist Finch and the team whenever required - but she may have a different viewpoint when she learns more about Laskey's own motivations. Written by Huggo
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Open with Finch and Reese at the vet's office with Bear, who seems pretty sick. In the back Reese (with Bear, who has been faking illness) help save the doctor. The latest number is Vanessa Watkins, a prosecutor who has put some of the city's nastiest scumbags away. Her husband Jeremy is a defense attorney who has done just the opposite, getting clients off via technicalities. Jeremy is lost at sea. Reese watches Vanessa with best friend Nicole as Vanessa is arrested for murder. Finch says the threat is new, "and imminent." We see Vanessa's interrogation. The cop plays her phone call to the coast guard when she says Jeremy fell overboard. But police found gunshot residue on her hand and her gun and think she killed him for the $5 million life insurance and vacation home. Vanessa points out to the Detective, Cameron, that he doesn't have a body and calls for her attorney, a woman named Sarah. The plan is for Vanessa to be held in lockup overnight and Finch thinks that could be life-threatening. Finch calls Fusco and has him check on her. He finds Sarah knocked out cold in the interrogation room without her clothes. Vanessa has escaped. Cameron organizes the search for Vanessa, with Fusco helping pass info along to Finch. There is footage of her purchasing a ticket to Philadelphia and Finch notices she seems very aware she's on camera. Finch spots her picking an older man's pocket and Shaw finds it was a cell phone. Reese and Shaw follow Vanessa as she visits a drug dealer named Reverb that she put away for murder and trafficking. The see him give her a hug and we see that her conversation with a judge got him out early. Carter calls Finch with word that Cameron has them treating Vanessa as armed and dangerous, which seems strange under the circumstances. Reverb gives Vanessa a brick of cocaine. With the police en route Finch tells Reese and Shaw to leave the area. Police arrive and follow Vanessa into a building. Using the paired cell phone Finch is able to guide Carter to Vanessa's exact location. Carter reaches the roof just as Vanessa jumps onto a passing garbage truck. Carter tells Reese she believed Vanessa when she told her she didn't kill her husband. Carter thinks Cameron has a personal vendetta against Vanessa dating back to a case in which he was involved. Reese leaves and Carter runs into her partner, who was listening to the conversation. Finch sees that Nicole was hosting a book club that day. Shaw shows up pretending to be the friend of a woman who couldn't make it. Shaw excuses herself to go to the bathroom and jumps on Nicole's computer. She checks out Nicole's bank account and phone. It looks as if Nicole had been sleeping with Jeremy. Based on the file Fusco thinks the gun shot residue was planted on Vanessa by putting it on her cosmetics. Carter's partner asks her about Reese. He thinks she's "seeing someone new" and she doesn't correct him. Fusco finds out that Jeremy owed millions to a mobster. His only account not in the red was an organization called Innocence Now. Reese sees that Vanessa planted the cocaine on the police witness against her. While he watches the man's arrest Reese spots Vanessa nearby. He pops into her car and says they need to talk. Finch tells Carter they need to talk with Vanessa and figure out if she's guilty. Reese brings Vanessa to them and Finch asks her to make her case. Cameron shows his team a picture of Vanessa in the car with a "man in a suit." Vanessa found $50,000 in cash in the witnesses locker. She thinks he was paid to set her up. She tells them that if either of them dies under suspicious circumstances the life insurance policy won't be paid. She learned of his debt a few days before his death and that led to a fight. She again pleads that she didn't kill Jeremy. Fusco and Shaw attempt to get information about Innocence Now from a slow banker. He says Innocence Now had $20 million in its account, all of which was transferred that morning. Vanessa tells Carter that she has been having an affair with a doctor named Colin. But she had broken it off and they were on the yacht to rekindle their relationship. Vanessa tells Carter she loved Jeremy. And she had no idea he had been sleeping with Nicole. Carter and Finch agree that Vanessa didn't kill Jeremy. At this moment Fusco sends word that the Innocence Now account was cleaned out by Jeremy himself using a fake identity. Vanessa realizes that Jeremy framed her. The guys think she's in danger. Reese and Finch are able to send Cameron and his men on a wild goose chase to the other side of town. Reese takes Vanessa to the bus stop, giving her a gun so she'll feel safe. After spotting that Vanessa scratched up a picture of Jeremy, Carter and Finch start to piece things together. He finds a fake passport online. Vanessa had originally been in on the plot with Jeremy from the beginning. But now she knows he tried to frame her. Finch calls Reese to let him know. He jumps on the bus but Vanessa isn't there. We see Carter's partner meet with Terney. He's spying on her for him. Vanessa surprises Jeremy on the boat with gun drawn. While he tries to talk his way out of the situation Reese shows up. When she appears ready to kill Jeremy, Reese doesn't seem interested in stepping in. He puts a gun on the coffee table within Jeremy's reach and walks away. He unties the boat and walks down the dock. We hear two gunshots coming from the yacht.
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Open with Shaw stopping an organ donar van from being robbed. She and Finch discuss his bedside manner. Carter continues to track HR. She watches a meeting between Terney, Simmons and Yogorov. They are discussing an upcoming meeting that will include "the boss." Reese is waiting for Carter, and tells her he and Finch are very much aware of what she's been doing. Carter she won't make a move on HR without being able to bring down the boss. She thinks this upcoming meeting might be her chance to find the real head of the operation. The latest number is a green card number for a Russian immigrant named Genrika Zhriova. She lives in the Bronx but doesn't have much of a digital footprint. Shaw finds "Gen," who is a 10-year old girl. The grandfather she came to the states with died eight months ago and she's living with a third cousin who is taking care of her for the money. Gen tells Shaw she's "practicing" for a career in espionage. Reese follows Gen and, with help from Shaw, is able to stop several armed men from kidnapping her. We flashback to a 1993 car accident. The driver is dead but his young daughter named Samine has survived. In present day Shaw asks Gen if she knows why the men are after her. She doesn't know. While Carter gives Finch some info on Gen's apartment complex, her partner Laskey updates HR about her activity. She notices his new gun and confiscates it when he says he hasn't yet registered it ballistically. Gen peppers Shaw with questions, then helps them both escape the kidnappers by going to her secret hideout in the vents. She's been recording anybody suspicious she comes across, specifically trying to get rid of drug dealers. Some of her wires have been tampered with. Gen's grandfather was in the KGB, which is how she learned to tape people. Shaw tells Gen that she's always been emotionless. Gas is leaded into the vents, forcing them to run. Gen is taken and Shaw is knocked out. Back in '93 Samine talks to a firefighter while still trapped in the overturned car. She's pulled out and put in an ambulance. Back in present day Shaw is able to escape from her captor before being killed. But Gen is gone. They send her to a doctor while Reese heads after the lead kidnapper. Shaw pulls what looks like drugs out of the pocket of the man she took out. It doesn't appear she's going to the doctor. Carter follows Terney as he speaks with a truck driver. He calls Simmons, who says "the package has been delivered." Carter tells Laskey and tells him to cover for her. Shaw goes back to Gen's apartment and learns from the cousin that the Russians paid him to tell them about Gen's surveillance and not to report anything if she went missing. While closing in on the kidnappers' cell Reese walks into Carter. At the same time Finch goes through Gen's tapes and hears what sounds like Simmons. We see Terney pay the kidnapper and leave. Reese walks over and knocks the kidnapper unconscious. We see that Simmons has Gen tied to a chair. Back in '93 Samine is told that her father didn't make it. She seems to brush off this information, asking for a sandwich. In present day Shaw ignores Finch's pleas for her to get help. Though a combination of Gen's tapes and an interrogation of the kidnapper we learn that HR is now making designer drugs. They have joined forces with the Russians in order to convince the city's major drug dealers to start selling their product instead of other drugs. Reese and Carter agree they should go the DEA and use the tapes implicating HR to get Gen. Shaw is able to get Yogorov alone. She steals his blood to replace her own and demands he get HR on the phone. Yogorov calls Simmons who connects Shaw with Gen. Shaw shows up at Finch's place and asks for the tapes. Her plan is to meet Simmons and trade them for Gen. Reese gets through Simmons' ambush and gets him alone. The two begin to fight. Finch came up with a different plan, with Reese going for Simmons and Shaw using Terney's phone to find the drug lab. Reese gets the better of Simmons, but two cruisers arrive and he is forced to disappear. A shotgun-wielding Shaw shoots her way to Gen, then blows up the lab after they leave. Laskey asks Carter to join him for a beer, saying he's having trouble with somebody. They sit at the bar and he says he wants to know what's going on with all the secrets. She shows him a picture of him meeting with Simmons, saying she knew he was with HR from the first moment he arrived. The conversation turns tense and Carter takes out the crooked cop/bar owner, then turns the gun on Laskey. She tells him that the gun she used to kill his buddy was the one she'd taken off of him. To avoid a murder rap he must now work for her, not HR. Back in '93 the firefighters can't believe how emotionless Samine was when told of her father's death. In present day Shaw walks Gen to her brand new private school, being paid for by Finch. Gen gives Shaw her grandfather's prized KGB medal. At the last minute Shaw offers her an awkward hug. That night Shaw is awoken by Root. She hits with a stun gun and says "we're going to have some fun."
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Finch sends Reese to Shaw's place to check on her. He hasn't heard from her for eight hours and is concerned. Meanwhile Finch is undercover as an assistant to the latest number, an estate investigator named Timothy Sloan. Finch finds a box filled with pictures in the apartment of Sloan's most recent case, a hoarder named Marsha. Reese finds taser confetti and realized something terrible has happened to Shaw. Elsewhere Shaw wakes up with her hand tied to a steering wheel. Root tells the machine has given her a mission. Root makes references to a 1988 trip Root took with her father to a football game. Root says that if Shaw doesn't help her and the machine, innocent people will die. Shaw seems willing to help. Finch follows Sloan to the site of an old case involving a man named Jason Greenfield who died of a heroin overdose. Using some security camera footage Reese sees that Root is responsible for Shaw's disappearance. It turns out Jason was Sloan's foster brother and he's investigating what he believes to be Jason's murder. Sloan's parents fostered Jason after his parents burned down their house cooking meth. Jason had had an obsession with hacking. Sloan doesn't buy that Jason's cause of death was overdose, since he hadn't sold off any of his possessions. What was missing from Jason's place was any computer or tablet. He did find a badly damaged flashdrive in the microwave. Finch pops the drive into his laptop and is able to retrieve a scrap of an email. In it Jason references being in danger from "them" if he tries to leave. Sloan finds an address for a storage unit. Carter has Laskey continue making his HR payments and drop-offs. One is a Russian grocery that Laskey and his family have known his whole life. He and the owner are friends. Fusco tells Reese he's found evidence that Shaw is working with Root. Reese tells Finch it looks as if the women are partners, which Finch doesn't understand. Sloan learns that Jason and some other men had been visiting the storage unit at all hours. The day after Jason died those same people came by and emptied it out, scrubbing it with bleach. Using the name attached to the storage facility Finch locates another one that was rented the day Jason died. Root brings Shaw underground and has her blowtorch her way through a gate. Finch and Sloan break into the new storage unit and find it empty. Sloan and Shaw break into an apartment. A man comes out of the bathroom. After they team up to take him out Shaw realizes they're at a CIA pick-up site. Root calls the agency and makes arrangements to have herself picked up. Using black light Sloan and Finch find random letters and numbers written all over the walls of the storage unit. As Finch starts taking pictures they spot a strange sprinkler system and follow it with their eyes to a camera. The door slams shut and gasoline begins raining down on them. Moments before a flame sparks Reese breaks into the door and saves them. Finch thinks the code from the walls reminds him of the work of Peter Collier. Jason must have been involved with him some how. On a hacker site Finch finds reference to a well-respected hacker named Atlas 7 who had targeted government and military operations. This must have been Jason and how Collier found him. Finch says they need to find the key to decipher the code on the storage unit wall, likely something in Jason's apartment. Sloan begs Reese to let him help search Jason's place. Two agents arrive at the apartment and Shaw pretends to be the agent in charge of Root. She walks Root out covered with a hood and joins them. Simmons meets with Laskey and tells him the Russian grocer was skimming. Simmons has killed him and orders Laskey to bury the body. Shaw brings Root to an interrogation site. Sloan finds a history book Jason had hidden away in his apartment. It is a match and Finch starts working on it. At this moment men break into Jason's apartment and pull out Sloan. Reese follows them to the street and sees the men stick Sloan into a van. Collier is there. Finch tells Reese he's deciphered enough of the code to realize the plan is to kill Jason that night. He's not really dead. Jason is brought to the interrogation site and stuffed into a cell right next to Root. Root tells Jason she knows he cut a deal with the feds after getting freaked out by Collier's violent designs. Root proves to him she's an accomplished hacker herself and Jason opens up, telling her the CIA faked his death after he gave them information on Collier's crew, which is called Vigilance Root and Jason are transported together, with Shaw on the detail. Finch tells Reese that Collier went to the CIA and Collier wants to kill him for giving the organization up. The assassination is supposed to happen within the hour. Collier tells Sloan he knows too much about Vigilance to let him live. Collier asks about Reese and Finch, but Sloan doesn't know anything. Sloan is then told his brother is still alive, but only temporarily. Root picks her cuffs in the back of the transport vehicle, which Shaw is driving. She frees Jason as well and tells him to brace himself. With Reese watching from the street a man shoves a shopping cart filled with explosives in front of the truck. It crashes into a parked car and Shaw seems to be knocked out. Collier and his men jump out of their car with masks and guns. Root wakes up and kicks out the back door. She walks over to a folder she had planted the previous day and grabs an ear piece for the machine and a gun. She helps guide Jason through the gunfire. On the way Jason spots his brother. Root gives Jason access to several million dollars and a new identity. She tells him only that she's helping him because he's "necessary." After he leaves Root finds herself surrounded by Vigilance operatives. Shaw arrives to help her, then after taking out the men knocks Root unconscious. Reese has a standoff with Collier, who is able to escape by shooting Sloan in his femoral artery and forcing Reese to save him. Laskey tells Carter he's a Russian, one of 12 on the force. He tells her that HR is stockpiling cash. Laskey is shaken by having to bury a friend. Sloan thanks Reese and Finch for saving him and allowing him to see his brother, if only for a moment. Jason calls him through a secure data stream and they have a brief conversation. Reese and Finch decide this may only be the beginning of their issues with Vigilance. We see that Finch has secured Root in a library, preventing her from any electrical contact. He's effectively separated her from the machine. Root warns Finch that he's making "her" angry and it would be dangerous to upset such a powerful being. Finch responds that Root has no way of knowing whether she is in fact exactly where the machine would like her to be.
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Open with Finch visiting a hypnotist under an assumed name. He attempts to pair with the therapist's phone before the session begins but finds it blocked. Reese is watching this from across the street. The therapist's name is Hayden Price and he's the latest number. While clients are under hypnosis Price attempts to extract passwords and other sensitive information in order to steal from them. He's a con man. Finch's inability to pair with the phone means somebody else is looking at Price. Finch checks in with Root. She suggests that perhaps he's jealous of her relationship with the machine. Using a bug Shaw listens in Hayden's latest session and hears him extract information from various clients. We see Hayden with his girlfriend of a year Natalie, who works at an art gallery. The consensus is that he's not working her. We hear him tell her that his plan is for them to leave town in the near future. Reese and Shaw watch as Hayden cleverly grifts a man out of $50,000 by pretending to be shot during a money laundering scam. Hayden even cheats his accomplice in the scam out of his full cut. Carter meet with Quinn about Beecher's case. She says that the department file has been sealed and she suspects HR is involved. He offers to use his connections with them to help, but she declines. After Carter leaves Simmons sends Quinn a text asking whether Carter will be a problem for them. Finch wants Shaw to visit some of Hayden's clients. Meanwhile he goes back for another session. After the session Finch asks about Hayden's background and seems to pique his curiosity. Laskey meets with Simmons and Terney. They're having trouble with a money launder named Sven who is an antiques dealer known as The Swede. They want Laskey to babysit The Swede for one last deal, then kill him. Terney brings Laskey to an auction. Carter waits outside and sees Price arrive with Shaw & Reese following him. Price is The Swede's therapist. Inside we see The Swede buy a baseball card for $900,000. Terney tells Laskey he's to kill The Swede the following day. Carter follows The Swede to his shop and sees him dump the antique card into a cabinet as if it was worthless. She and Finch wonder about his connection to HR and why they want him dead at this particular time. Simmons learns that Price is a con man and tells somebody over the phone that they'll kill him along with the The Swede. Hayden tells Natalie it's time for their trip. The plan is to leave the following day. She agrees. Hayden prepared for his escape. He destroys his laptop and begins shredding documents. Two men come through the window of his apartment with assault rifles. Just before they kill him Reese and Shaw show up and kill the two assassins, who turn out to be cops. Price is brought to Finch's place. The two cops who tried to kill him were HR. Finch pretended to be Price's assistant and stashed Natalie in a hotel room. Hayden says he didn't know The Swede's money was HR's. He says he'll leave town but needs Natalie, "the only honest thing about me." Carter meets with Elias. He tells her The Swede is how HR cleans its money from the Russians. What happens is somebody with HR puts a bogus priceless antique up for auction. Then The Swede buys it, allowing them to clean their money through the auction house. He buys a baseball allegedly signed by Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and the rest of the Yankees for $4.4 million. But back in his shop he tosses it carelessly into a bin of cheap items. We see a kid go into The Swede's shop and buy the baseball he just purchased for $4.4 million out of his $5 bin. Carter tells Terney she's not letting him kill anybody the following day. He's supposed to call in sick and follow Simmons, taking pictures of his every move. Reese brings Price to see Natalie. Reese steps out and takes a call from Finch, who tells him he's found Price had faked emails from HR. He told him to purchase the wrong antique at auction. This means that the ball he just bought was the real deal. When Reese goes back into the room Natalie tells him Price escaped through the window. Carter visits The Swede. He pulls a shotgun on her but Fusco approaches from the back to save the day. They fake The Swede's death, planting blood to make it looks as if he's been shot in the head. Carter takes a picture and sends it to Laskey so he can tell Simmons he completed the hit. The Swede tells them that some kid bought the ball, which he had no idea was real. Simmons calls Laskey to tell him there was a mix-up at the auction and that he should hold off on killing The Swede. Laskey says it's too late. We see Price meet the kid who bought the ball on the street. He gives him $20 and walks away with the ball. Finch tapped Natalie's phone, allowing them to eavesdrop on a call with Price. When she threatens to go home he has to admit that he's a crook. He says he's going to change his ways and has made the final score he needs to change their lives. They agree to meet in an hour. Quinn meets with Simmons. He makes it clear that he needs to find the ball and suggests using the conman's girlfriend. Reese and Fusco intercept Price on his way to met Natalie and take the ball, which Fusco examines cursorily and believes to be real. Price gets a call from Terney who says he's got Natalie and if Price doesn't bring him the ball he'll kill her. Simmons tells Laskey and Terney the plan is to bring Price inside to verify the ball is real, while Laskey watches Natalie. After they verify the ball Natalie will be shot. Price arrives with the ball and Terney brings him in for verification. Carter and Shaw show up and free Natalie. Carter punches Laskey in the face so it will look like he was jumped by Reese. Inside the expert tells Terney the ball Price brought is a fake. Price seems shocked and swears to Terney that he has no reason to lie. Reese comes in with Shaw. They shoot two cops and knock Terney out. Price swears to Reese he thought the ball he had was real. Natalie calls Price to tell him she's been conning him the whole time. We see her buy the real ball from the kid for $100. Terney tells Simmons what happened. Simmons orders him to find Laskey and search the city for the ball. If he doesn't find it, Simmons says they're both dead. Finch brings Root a new collection of reading material. He tells her that he worries about her and her relationship with the machine. She responds that she's worried about him and tells him neither of them can "stop what's coming." She thinks the "future" that he started in on its way and she'll be the one to finish it. While Laskey shows Carter his work for the day Terney shows up with gun drawn. He tells Laskey the only choice is "we kill her or they kill us." Laskey pulls his gun to defend Carter and Terney shoots him. Carter draws as well and mortally wounds Terney. As he bleeds out Carter asks him to "be a cop" and tell her who Simmons reported to. Moments before dying he places a bloody finger on a picture of Quinn.
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Open with somebody robbing a truck. We hear a phone conversation where somebody complains that "they think they can steal from me?" Finch tells Reese the machine spit out 38 numbers. All of them are cops, possibly all members of HR. Fusco brings Reese to the crime scene from the beginning of the show. A truck driver speaking Russian says he was robbed and his truck filled with office supplies was stolen. Fusco tells Reese that Yogorov uses office supply trucks to move his drugs. Dirty cops with HR are supposed to be protecting those trucks. Finch suspects that Yogorov is blaming HR for the lost shipment. Two days earlier Carter met with Quinn, who asked her about Terney and Laskey. She talks about losing her partner and says she's moving on from Cal's murder. During the conversation she pairs his cell phone. Quinn speaks with Simmons on the phone. He talks about the conversation with Carter, but tells Simmons to still keep an eye on her. Quinn wants Simmons to get Yogorov to agree to a new price. Carter hears the whole thing. With Carter listening, Simmons sells Yogorov there is a 10 percent increase in the cost of protecting his shipments. Yogorov turns him down and makes reference to killing Cal. Simmons tells the officer with him, Mitchell, he's got a new assignment. We see Mitchell sitting across the street of Carter's place. She walks in her door and finds Reese waiting for her. She wants him to leave Mitchell alone and tells him she needs to finish the Cal investigation without his help. She references knowing that he and Finch will be following her closely, but after Reese leaves she makes sure her phone can't be traced. We flash back to 2005 and Carter's first day on the job after leaving the academy. Before leaving for her first shift she talks to Paul, the father of her child. He's back after two years and wants to see their son. He has a checkered history and she tells him to get help before seeing either of them. In present day Carter and Fusco talk about Laskey's death. She isn't telling him she was there, and Fusco thinks a third person was there. Yogorov finds a bullet in his dinner. He and his men rush to the kitchen and find Elias at the stove. His men disarm Yogorov and Elias tells him he can't pass up a chance to see HR suffer. Elias leaves Yogorov a file and leaves. From his car Elias calls Carter. He tells he "Yogorov got the package." He wishes her the best of luck. Shaw shows up with a bag full of weapons, having helped Carter out without telling Finch and Reese. We see the truck heist from the opening. It contained $12.8 million in drugs and Carter was the one behind the theft. In present day Reese and Finch watch the video via surveillance cameras. Finch doesn't think any of the HR cops were capable of the crime, and Reese thinks it was a woman. Shaw shows up and lets them know it was Carter. Finch and Reese are both concerned with Carter now being in danger if HR finds out it was her. Yogorov calls Quinn. Despite Quinn assuring him that HR was not to blame, Yogorov tells him that if he doesn't return his drugs he'll be going after his organization. Carter, who is listening, smiles. Reese goes to Carter's place and see she's figured out the head of HR. Finch also knows it is Quinn. They realize Quinn ordered Cal's death and that this is personal for Carter. Carter is on top of a high building watching Quinn's office through a high-powered rifle. She takes several shots at him, but none make contact. Quinn orders Simmons to go after Yogorov's crew. All all-out war is coming and Finch tells Reese he likes HR's chances. We see HR placing all of Yogorov's higher-ups in cuffs. Carter shows up at Yogorov's door. She tells him he needs to let her arrest him if he wants to live. Back in '05 Carter arrives at home to find Paul sitting on the couch with Taylor. The sitter takes Taylor upstairs and Carter discusses with Paul the way each has handled serving. He says he's won't get help and she demands he leave, putting her hand on her weapons when he knocks over a lamp. In present day Carter brings in Yogorov under a fake name on a DUI. She shows him a picture of Cal, as well as photos of him and his crew meeting with HR. She wants Quinn's head but he won't rat. She responds his only way to save his brother's life is Quinn going down. He quickly changes his tune. Carter gives Fusco a key to a safety deposit box with all of her evidence on HR. She tells him she's about to bust Quinn and wants him to make it public if anything happens to her. She gives him the slip when he tells her he wants to help. Reese and Shaw arrive at a standoff between the Russians and HR cops. Just prior to the Russians being executed the FBI arrives on scene. The FBI had been tipped off that corrupts cops were going to kill some mobsters and they find the drugs in one of the trunks. Fusco calls Reese and tells him that she's on her own. Carter calls a judge at home and asks for an emergency arrest warrant. He tells her to come over, then picks up his phone and calls Quinn. Back in '08 Paul goes to see now-detective Carter at work. He shows her that he's getting help and is working on finding purpose in his life. He gives her his number. In present day Carter calls Paul before driving to see the judge. Taylor is with him and she thanks Paul for being there. She talks to Taylor and apologizes for having been so secretive the past eight months. Carter gets to the judge's home. He takes her to a back room and finds Quinn and Simmons. There is plastic on the floor. Simmons puts his gun to her head and she begins to talk about her plan. She says she thought she could do this alone, but realized she needed help. Finch was listening through Quinn's cell phone and Reese shoots his way thought the patio door. Carter takes Quinn out the front door and with Reese's help is able to take get him off-site. Simmons goes to the dashboard camera of a cruiser out front and gets a picture of Reese. The plan is to send it to every dirty cop and criminal in the city: The man in the suit dies tonight.
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Open with Simmons assuring the judge they will find Reese, as well as Carter's evidence on HR. Simmons then shoots him, convinced he would have talked. The order has gone out that Reese is to be killed. Finch picks up a pay phone and gets the next number. Reese and Carter get on the subway with Quinn to tak him to the federal building. Fusco tucks his son into bed and tells him about being entrusted with some important information. He walks into the hall and finds Shaw waiting for him. She tells him Reese is in trouble and they need his help. Finch calls Reese on the subway and lets him know he is the machine's next number. HR has a bounty on Reese's head and the city's bad guys are after him. A group of tuffs walk towards them from the next car. Reese and Carter are able to dispatch these men easily but Quinn destroys Reese's phone. The subway lines in that area have been shutdown. Quinn promises them they're going to die. Finch lets Shaw that he's lost touch with Reese. She reminds him that the machine talks to Root. There are two spots where Reese and Carter can get into Manhattan, but HR will be guarding them both. Finch wants Shaw and Fusco to split up and go to each. Finch goes to see Root. They talk about her relationship to the machine and she guesses that Reese is in trouble. She offers to help Reese get out of his jam in exchange for her freedom. Finch isn't interested. Reese and Carter's plan is to get into Manhattan on an ambulance. Carter is in the back with Quinn, while Reese rides shotgun in a uniform with the regular driver. They nearly get through the HR roadblock unmolested, but Simmons spots a bloody handprint on the back of the ambulance. Reese grabs the wheel and they have to ram the last few cars to get through, with Fusco shooting an HR officer in the process. After they're through Simmons finds Fusco and knocks him out. Finch decides Shaw should help Fusco, since he's by himself. We see Simmons has brought Fusco to a fortune cookie factory. He knows Fusco has the key to Carter's evidence against HR and they want to know the location of the safety deposit box. Fusco declines and they start beating on him. Reese and Carter are spotted by a group of gangsters. They break through a gate and find themselves in the city morgue. Shaw pops in on an HR officer in his car. She hands him a grenade and removes the pin, telling him if he doesn't tell her where Fusco is being held she'll kill him. He responds that crossing Simmons would be much worse, as he'll kill his entire family. She leaves. Carter and Reese decide that with minimal ammo theire best bet is to hide out their until morning. They drug Quinn and stick him one of the body drawers. Fusco's fingers are broken but he still won't talk. Simmons then threatens to kill Fusco's son if he doesn't tell him what he needs to know. Fusco then tells them the key goes to a box at a bank. Simmons gets a call that the gangsters figured out Reese is in the morgue and HR is on the scene. Reese and Carter exchange war stories and scars. He asks what her closest call was and she says giving birth to her son, which required an emergency c-section. Reese pulls out a bullet and says he was close to taking his own life when she came into his life. He tells her what she meants to him and the two kiss. Finch cuts in to tell Reese that HR knows they're at the morgue. The place is surrounded and HR is locking down the building. HR arrives at the morgue. They replace the security guard at the front desk and disable the building's power. Several officers begin a search. Finch brings Root breakfast, telling her he may not return. She tells him it must be hard for him to lose Reese and says she can still stop what is about to happen to him. He again declines. She says she hopes one day he'll be able to trust him. Simmons calls the officer guarding Fusco. He says Fusco lied about the bank. Both Fusco and his son will be killed. Reese tricks Carter into checking on something on the other side of the room, then leaves via a ventilation duct. His plan is to distract the cops and let Carter escape. Through the door Carter tells him she doesn't like the plan and warns him not to get hurt. We cut back to Fusco. The phone is handed to him so he can say his good-byes before his son is shot. Fusco tearfully tells him to close his eyes and says everything will be okay. He hears a shot, but it was Shaw killing the HR officer to save Fusco's son. She tells him she had to make a choice and figured he'd want her to save his son. This means Fusco is on his own. The officer prepares to kill Fusco, but at the last minute Fusco is able to slip is cuff and strangle the man. Finch arrives at the morgue. He tases the HR guy at the desk and gets into the system. We see Reese take out three officers, brining a fourth with him out of the building. Finch is lets Carter know the coast is now clear and she leaves with Quinn. Just before Reese is shot by that fourth HR cop he is grabbed by several officers who place him in cuffs. Finch was able to report a man with a gun and get two clean officers to arrest him, thereby saving Reese's life. Finch lets First thing the following morning Carter walks Quinn to the federal building. We see him processed. Finch pays Carter a visit as she walks into the station. She's back to being a detective. She says she's figured out that Finch has some kind of machine that lets him figure out who is going to be in trouble. He asks her to help get Reese out of custody. Shaw pops into the back of Fusco's car. Fusco's son is okay and he thanks Shaw for helping to have him. Carter and Reese walk out of the prison together. She's happy they have Quinn but there is still no word on Simmons' location. Reese assures her they'll get him and we see Finch has arrived. Reese says if his number had been up he was happy he would have taken his last breathe with her. The pay phone next to Finch begins to ring. Suddenly Simmons walks out of the shadows he shoots Reese and then Carter. Carter is able to get off a shot, sending Simmons running. Reese is hurt but Carter is mortally wounded. With her last breaths she makes Reese promise to look in on her son. The episode ends with Carter dying in Reese's arms.
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Finch visits Reese in the hospital, then attends Carter's funeral. There is a manhunt for Simmons and Shaw is doing her part to try and flush him out. Simmons purchases a fake Canadian passport, followed by Reese ambushing the men he bought it from.
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We open with Shaw calling Finch and them talking about the fact there hasn't been a number for a while. Reese left as soon as he recovered and Finch hasn't heard from him. We see that Finch seems to be ignoring the machine. Reese is in Colorado. He orders a drink in a bar and completely ignores a man being pummeled outside. Root asks Finch for a specific book. She tells him that he's been ignoring the machine and shows him numbers from three books. Finch is shocked that she seems to somehow still be communicating with the machine. Shaw arrives and Finch reluctantly gives her the new number. It's an IT consultant named Arthur Claypool. Finch seems to have a reaction to the name. Shaw goes to a hospital and poses as a doctor. There is no record of him in the hospital's system, but Finch finds his credit card has been used in the gift shop there. Finch hacks the hospital's files and sees he has a terminal brain tumor. Shaw talks to Claypool, who is battling issues with his memory. Stuff comes and goes, he tells her. Shaw sees that Claypool has a secret service security detail and wonders who exactly this man is. We flash back to 1969. A young Finch works with his father on the car. His father seems to be having memory issues and we see a glimpse of Finch's enormous intellect. A woman visits Claypool in the hospital. Based on her face Finch confirms that it is his wife of 20 years, Diane. Claypool doesn't seem to remember her. Shaw hears him make reference to clearance and a program called Samaritan. Shaw takes Diane aside in the break room and learns that Claypool worked for the NSA. She tells him that Claypool never told her anything about his work and that she keeps coming back just in case he'll remember her. Shaw walks to the hallway and finds that Claypool has been taken from his room to radiology. She finds him in a scan and sees a sodium pentothal in trash can. A woman is asking him questions about "who has them" to which Claypool answers "Rudy." Shaw chases her away and is grabbed by Claypool's security. Back in 1971 we see that Finch's father is suffering through the early stages of dementia. Finch is trying to build a machine he hopes will help replace his father's memory. In present day Shaw is locked in a conference room. Finch travels to the hospital to help her from a car in the parking lot. One of the secret service agents comes in and interrogates her. We cut to Reese discovering Fusco spying on him in the bar. Reese says if he's going to stay he needs to drink with him. Shaw tells the agent he should be worried about the people after Claypool. The agent, who has been eating his lunch, falls to the ground unconscious. She grabs his gun and calls Finch. Finch realizes they're dealing with Vigilance, simultaneously seeing Collier and his minions get out of a truck. Shaw rushes to Claypool's room and tells Diane he needs to bring her and Claypool to safety. Finch walks in and we can see that he and Claypool know one another. In 1979 we see Finch and his buddies hanging out. He's able to hack a pay phone and get it to call Europe. A police car pulls up and tells Finch there is something going on with his father. Shaw and Finch bring Shaw and Claypool out of the hospital. Finch and Claypool attended MIT together. Shaw has to shoot their way out of the building. Finch and Shaw take the Claypools to a safe house. He asks him about Samaritan and initially Claypool has trouble recalling. Later in the evening Claypool describes Samaritan, making it sound almost identical to the machine. Back in 1979 the police officer tells Finch that his father wandered off and perhaps needs additional care. Finch's father wants his father to leave him, and Finch responds he'll find a way to bring information to him. Claypool tells Finch that Samaritan was shut down weeks before he got it to work. Several other comparable programs were also closed at the same time. We learn that Reese is at his father's bar. Reese tells Fusco that Carter's death proved to him that no matter what they do in life it's all basically pointless. Fusco responds by saying he wants to fight. The two exchange a few blows outside before a cop break it up. Claypool has a moment of clarity and remembers that his wife died several years ago. Diane says "go" into her sleeve and several people break down the door and grab shaw. One of them is Hersh. He refers to Diane as "ma'am" and we realize she is Control, Shaw's former boss. Control points a gun at Shaw and Claypool and says that the one who tells her what she wants to know about their machine will be the one who gets to live.
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We open with Control demanding answers from Finch, Shaw and Claypool. Just as she prepares to have Shaw killed, bullets start coming through the wall, killing some of Control's henchmen. It is Root, blasting through with the help of a handgun and the machine. Root, Finch, Shaw and Claypool are almost out the door when Hersh shoots Root in the back. She's injured and must be left behind. We flash back to 1979 and a young Finch preparing to send his father to a facility that will be able to care for him. He promises to continue working on the device he thinks will help him with his memory problems. In present day Finch tells Shaw that Control wants Claypool's broken drives because they can still be used. Finch and Claypool reminisce about MIT and Claypool tells him he did, in fact, make a back-up for his machine, Samaritan. Finch think finding Samaritan is the best way to ensure Claypool's safety. Root has been locked in a secure cell away from technology. Control knows that Root has found a way inside the machine and wants the access. Root thinks it would be irresponsible and tells her nothing. Control pulls out a hypodermic and injects her with it. Reese wakes up in a prison cell with Fusco following their fight. It seems they'll be there for a while. Claypool brings Finch and Shaw to a bank where he has a safe deposit box. He's hidden the key in his medic alert necklace. Root come to and is told that she's been given a combination of drugs that will take her body on a kind of roller coaster. It can only happen a few more times before her heart explodes. Root still isn't talking. Shaw spots members of Vigilance in the bank working on destroying security cameras with lasers. The pull out weapons and put everybody on the ground. SWAT teams arrive, led by Hersh, and Shaw tells Finch he needs to get out of the vault. He realizes it's too late and closes the vault behind him. Reese tells Fusco he thinks all they were doing was "delaying the inevitable." Fusco's upset that Reese seems to be giving up on Carter's legacy. They are released and Reese tells Fusco to tell Finch "thanks for the job." Fusco responds that he hasn't heard from Finch recently and is concerned. Shaw tells Finch that she's considering taking out Vigilance, but they are keeping Hersh at bay. He tells her to think about exercising finesse. Hersh calls Collier and threatens to wipe out his organization if they don't surrender. Collier doesn't think Hersh is letting them live either way and says exposing corruption is worth dying for. Inside Claypool's box and pulls out a box that contains his back-up for Samaritan. It contains a famous quote Claypool wrote in 2005, but he isn't sure what it means. Root is struggling and is calling out for help from the machine. Root tells her there is no username or password, that she herself is the interface. Control brings her a phone and asks how Root uses the machine. Root says "she uses me" and refers to the machine as a friend. Control threatens to remove a bone in the skull that allows sound to travel from the ears to the brain and begins cutting. Claypool's note was dated one day prior to the program being shut down. He thinks this means Samaritan is alive. Back in 1980 Finch is struggling with his machine. In an attempt to add more power he hacks into the US Government. Claypool says he was the one who broke his machine, in order to reboot it and give it a chance to either live or die. It "lived" for 30 seconds before being shut down by the government. Collier calls Finch inside the vault. He thinks Claypool needs to be held accountable and his program exposed. They are going to blow up the vault door. Shaw tells Finch that when the explosion happens she'll be able to get into the vault via a sewer and bring them to safety. Control has left Root with only one good ear and threatens to do the same to her other if she doesn't cooperate. Root responds that the machine has been communicating with her via Morse code over the cell phone using a frequency that can't be heard by people over 40. It allowed Root to steal a knife in Control's pocket. Root lunges towards her. Finch warns Claypool that is program could be abused and asks him to destroy Samaritan. When Claypool hesitates Finch tells him "we built it" and that it is "wonderful and terrible." Finch eventually succeeds in convincing Claypool to destroy it. Vigilance blows the door and Shaw set off her device. Finch and Claypool wake up and are taken to safety by Shaw. A gun fight ensues in the bank lobby. When Shaw turns her back to take out a guy she finds Shaw and Claypool being held at gunpoint by Collier. Collier asks for the drives and Claypool and says he's destroyed it. Collier wants to take Claypool and orders Shaw and Finch to be killed. At this point Reese and Fusco show up to save the day. Finch, Shaw, Fusco and Claypool jump into the sewer. When Control won't tell Root anything, Root asks the machine for help asking questions. Through Root, the machine tells Control she guards the only thing Control loves, something which exists in Massachusetts and that the machines sees everyone at anytime. She warns Control to stop following her. Finch sit by Claypool's bed. Claypool says he's glad Finch was the one to build the machine. Claypool tells Finch he's disappearing via his memories. Root calls Finch and indicates that the bank manager who was in vault with them was a plant and she switched out Claypool's drive with a fake. Finch gives Claypool the phone and machine shows him video of some of his greatest memories, including his wife and photographs with him and Finch at MIT as students. In 1980 Finch visits his father in the home. He warns him that the government will come to see him and tells him his son did terrible things. Finch tells him not to believe them. But his father no longer remembers him, or much of anything. He asks his father to name a bird in the tree, he doesn't remember. Finch sees a government vehicle arrive and leaves his father's bird guide with him and leaves quickly. Reese tells Finch he came to protect him, but he's not staying. He doesn't think the machine cares who matters and who doesn't and is there to say good-bye. Reese leaves. In the end we flash to the banker who stole the actual Samaritan drive giving it to Greer. Greer asks if she has told anyone about the drives or accessed any of it. She says no and Greer kills her.
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Reese is in the airport on his way to Turkey. His fight is oversold and there appears to be something wonky with the airline's computer. He is switched to a First Class flight to Rome. Using another passenger's phone the machine appears to direct Reese to a certain passenger's seat. Reese finds a Federal Marshal unconscious in the forward lavatory minus his sidearm. Reese calls Finch to ask why he's sent him on another mission. Finch assures him that he is not responsible; he has not gotten a new numbers. Reese assumes the machine has gone rogue. Reese tells Finch he is not accepting the mission. Reese tells the other Marshal what happened to his partner but he does nothing more than tells Reese to mind his business. Reese leaves and the Marshal stands, but immediately passes out. A man appears from the rear of the plane and stabs the man they were transporting in the thigh. Reese knocks that man out and pulls the needle from the transportee. He sees the word "Lanceros" tattooed on his arm of the unconscious assailant. Reese sits down next to the transportee, whose name is Owen. Reese calls Finch with info about Owen and the cartel hire who tried to kill him. Finch says the law enforcement community is looking for a mysterious person called The Sphinx, who developed a black market e-bay. Owen worked for a company that hosted the Sphinx's site, which is why people may think he knows something. Owen tells Reese he's on his way to testify, but assures him he's a nobody. Reese doesn't think a trained killer would go after someone who doesn't know anything. Finch meets with Shaw and updates her about Reese. He wants her to visit her former colleagues ISA, as he thinks Owen may be relevant to national security. Finch tells Reese about Owen potentially being a relevant number. After Reese hangs up he pushes Owen and finds out that the Sphinx asked for him personally and that he set up the black market site himself. Owen thinks the site cuts out the middleman in drug transactions, stopping people from killing each other. He thinks Sphinx is a visionary. Finch calls with word the hit man's boss is a kingpin named Harnandez who is one of the bazaar's largest suppliers. Finch still isn't sure why this makes Owen an issue for national security. Reese has a nervous flight attendant help him, giving her the remote for the stun belt Owen is wearing. When two other assassins posing as a honeymooning couple go after Owen, Reese is able to stop them without alarming the rest of the passengers. Shaw visits the ISA's travel agency front. She recognizes the man up front as Foster. She thinks he played a role in her partner being killed and roughs him up a little before calling in a favor. She asks him why Owen is relevant to national security. He gives her only a number. Finch tells Reese the second two assassins were part of the Israeli MDMA market. Shaw tells Reese that her replacement with ISA is on the plane. Reese manages to knock out the ISA agent with a cane, but when he turns around sees that Owen is missing. Reese finds Owen in a tiny closet and quickly renders him unconscious. He brings Owen to the cargo hold. While on a call with Finch, Owen admits that he is the Sphinx. The ISA agent comes down to join them. Shaw approaches Hersh at a restaurant. She drugs him and asks him about the ISA operative on Reese's flight. Hersh says the plan is to take out Sphinx since they had a financial interest in the bazaar they don't want made public. He passes out as Shaw leaves. Reese and the ISA agent fight. Reese eventually takes him out with help from Owen. Finch tells Reese that Hernandez has ordered Owen taken out by any means necessary. The other flight attendant on the flight takes out the two pilots and putting on a parachute, gets behind the controls and begins to steer the plane downwards. Reese breaks down the cockpit door and takes out the assassin. While Reese fights the man Finch is able to take control and remotely land the plan. At the Rome airport Reese gives Owen the address of a safe house and tells him to wait for Finch's call. He's out of business. It sounds like Reese might be going back to work. After Reese has a brief cocktails date with the helpful flight attendant, he is joined by Finch who explains why he made the machine the way he did and they talk about Carter. Reese confirms that he'll be flying back to New York with Finch and getting back to work.
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Open with footage of someone stealing items from a museum. Reese has returned to the team. Finch tells both he and Shaw they have a new number, Kelly Lin. They think she may be a spy, though she's working as a professional event planner. Her latest job is a huge event at the Met. Finch has gotten Shaw on the list and will be bringing Reese as his guest. Shaw runs into Lin at the event and makes some small-talk. Somebody sets off dry ice smoke bombs which forces the crowd to scatter. A person in ninja garb grabs a priceless codex and heads out. Shaw chases the person down and the two fight. Hall pulls off the mask and we see it is Lin, who is able to run off. Shaw is able to talk her way back into the gallery to "get her bag." She takes Lin's bag, which contains her computer. An Interpol agent named Bouchard tells the police he's been following Lin for years. He says she's extremely dangerous. Finch looks at the GPS on Lin's tablet and finds a bar she's recently been to. At the bar we see Lin give a man named Cyril the stolen item. Cyril tells Lin she's not done yet. Her last job "is a masterpiece." He adds that she has plenty to lose. Finch looks up the name Jiao, which is what Bouchard used to describe Lin. She was an Olympic medalist in gymnastics who for some reason turned to crime. Inside Lin's apartment Shaw finds a location marked on a map. She also finds info on the Gutenberg Bible, which is one day from leaving New York for a world tour. Shaw finds Lin at the location and the two of them point guns at each other. Shaw prevented Lin from disabling a passing car. Lin tells her "now it's too late." The phone rings and Lin tells Cyril she didn't get the Bible. He says his associates don't take kindly to people who don't pay their debts and sends her live video of Lin's daughter. Finch and Shaw sit down with Lin, who tells them her pregnancy ended her career. She had to steal to feed her newborn and ended up getting caught by criminals who forced her to keep working to pay her debt. She thinks Cyril is responsible for the deaths the Bouchard is attributing to her. She gives Finch the named of the security facility, Symmetric, where the Bible is now being held. Finch thinks they need to help her grab it. Finch, Shaw, Reese and Lin analyze Symmetric's building where the Bible is being held. Fusco calls Bouchard and tells them he has a lead on Lin, giving him an apartment to sit on. Fusco grabs some prints from one of the Symmetric guards. Finch finds that Cyril is part of an organized extortion ring. Bouchard approaches Lin and promises her that he'll be right behind her, regardless of her next move. He then calls someone at Symmetric and tells them to heighten security around the Bible. They move it to a central location, which is exactly what Finch was hoping Symmetric would do. Reese meet with someone from Symmetric, pretending to need a classified piece of nuclear technology protected. This allows him to get into the building, where he knocks out the man in the elevator. Reese gets caught, which opens a short window while Symmetric's security is being rebooted. Lin is able to use her gymnastics background to avoid floor sensors and get into the area housing the Bible. She and Shaw grab it and escape, just before Bouchard and Symmetric security personnel arrive. Shaw grabs Bouchard and throws him in a car with Finch. Finch tells him what they've done with the Bible. Lin gives Cyril the Bible, telling him "I'm out" and asks for her daughter. Bouchard and Finch are listening from the car on the street as Cyril tells her she's not finished yet. As Cyril looks at the video he sees his men beaten and Lin's daughter set free. It is Reese. Cyril pulls a gun but Shaw shoots him down before he can hurt Lin. Fusco and his men rush in to make the arrest. Bouchard meets with Lin in her holding facility. He wants to extradite her to Europe, but since she recovered the Bible and took down Cyril's ring he's not going to do anything. He leaves behind a key to her cuffs. Lin and her daughter are reunited.
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The latest number is Sandra Nicholson, 911 emergency hotline supervisor. Finch is posing undercover as one of the operators, while Reese and Shaw wait nearby to help with calls. Fusco looks into Sandra for Finch, but finds only a sealed juvenile record. Fusco has become sought after for his advice and makes a point to help a young cop named Jake with a murder. A child named Aaron calls Sandra to saw men are breaking into his apartment. He hides in the closet but they find him. One of them men calls Sandra on her cell phone and says if she doesn't do what they ask they'll kill Aaron. The caller proves he's serious by giving Sandra her address. The rules are that she is not allowed to contact the police or disconnect the phone. Shaw and Reese arrive at Aaron's apartment just after he was taken away. Finch is able to access a web cam so Reese and Shaw can see the kidnappers. Reese thinks they are from a Mexican cartel. Finch finds the GPS signal from the caller and Shaw goes after it. Fusco gives Reese a possible hangout for the cartel. Fusco and Jake go to the office of their victim, a top young executive named Tara. They meet with her co-worker and the heads of the company, CFO Gina and her husband Ron, the CEO. Sandra is instructed by the caller to shut down the call center's back-up generator. It becomes clear the caller can see her. Finch sees this and begins searching the camera feeds. Sandra goes to the generator area and starts to sign in using "HELP ME." But the caller sees this somehow and references a Joseph from her past. Sandra shuts down the generator and is sent to the server room. She's told to delete every 911 call from two days earlier. She doesn't want to do it. At this moment Shaw finds the car with the caller's GPS coordinates. She finds nothing more than two tethered cell phones sitting in the back seat. The drive had been paid to drive the "phone relay" around town. Finch figures out that the caller has placed a small web cam on Sandra's headset. He mutes her cell phone and walks into the server room. Finch tells Sandra about the web cam and tells her to delay while he figures out which specific call the caller wants to delete. She tells the caller she needs to get the admin code from the head of IT to be able to delete all the calls at once. Finch stays behind to look at the calls. Jake gets a map of places Tara visited recently. Nothing jumps out to Fusco. Finch calls Fusco and tells him he needs help figuring out which specific 911 call the caller is looking at. He's narrowed the calls to 312 possibilities and sends half to Fusco. Sandra steals the fob from the head of IT. Fusco finds a call that stands out. He thinks it's related to Jake's case. It's a woman talking about having an affair and saying that somebody hurt her. Fusco calls Finch and suggests he try and access Tara's voicemail. Tara returns to the room, but accidentally looks at Finch. The caller realizes she has somebody helping her and sets off a bomb in a parking garage. The caller says a similar bomb is on Aaron and gives her 15 minutes to delete the calls. Finch asks Sandra about her juvenile records. She tells him about Joseph, a boy who died while she was babysitting him as a teen. She was found innocent but has never stopped feeling guilty. Sandra says she is going to delete the calls. The driver gives Shaw a description of a Latino with a slick suit and piercings. Reese finds this guy at the bar Fusco suggested. He enters the bar and finds himself up against a large group of cartel members. Fusco and Jake ask Tara's bosses why she had a burner phone. One of the two calls was made to Ron, referencing an affair. They also have carpet fibers linking Tara's body to Ron. Gina admits to trying to eliminate the evidence of what her husband did to Tara, but has no way to call off the hit. Reese fights his way through a gang of cartel members just as Shaw arrive. The cartel man with the piercings doesn't want to talk, so Shaw pulls out some pliers. Finch traces the calls to an office tower. Shaw and Reese have just arrived themselves. Sandra is about to press "yes" to delete all of the calls. But the caller interrupts her and says the people who hired him have spoken to the police so he no longer cares about the mission. But he is still going to eliminate loose ends like Aaron and Sandra. He cuts the power and Finch arrives and suggests they take a different exit. Reese and Shaw get to the room where Aaron is being held. His bomb has only two minutes left on the timer. Shaw holds off the cartel guys while Reese works on the detonator. With second remaining Reese is able to cut the proper wire. Sandra and Finch manage to take out the man coming to kill her, but it turns out to be another employee of the caller. Jake solves his case. He and Fusco seem to be a good team. Finch and Sandra meet and he shows her that Aaron is alive and well. Finch gets a call from the caller. He says he'll leave Aaron and Sandra alone, but plans to come after Finch. Finch says nothing to Reese and Shaw.
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We open in 2010 with Finch working with Reese's predecessor, a man named Dillinger. Finch doesn't seem to love Dillinger's attitude, which includes unnecessary killings and sleeping with attractive female numbers. The next number is Daniel Casey a freelance hacker who works for security teams. He recently cancelled his phone and hasn't made any bank transactions. Dillinger goes to see a man named Strickland, one of Casey's former bosses. He brings up Casey's name in a very direct way, which Finch doesn't like. After Dillinger leaves Strickland calls Casey to asks what kind of trouble he's in. He mentions having gotten a visit from a man and woman who asked about him. There is a meeting coming up and Strickland mentions a "package." Finch thinks this could be a fake ID. Finch directs Dillinger to a hotel. He spots the couple sitting outside. It is Reese and Stanton. Finch tells him Reese is CIA. Reese and Stanton talk about the fact Casey has stolen state secrets. They are planning to kill him. Reese notices Dillinger. Casey leaves the hotel and Dillinger watches as Reese plants a bug in his pocket. Banks meets with someone from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Casey says he has proof of government crimes and wants protection. Casey asks for proof, gets spooked and leaves by himself. The guy was an imposter. Outside Casey runs into both Dillinger and Reese. Reese disarms Dillinger and Stanton puts Casey in a car. A shootout with the man who met with Casey begins. They are chased off, but Dillinger grabs Casey in the confusion. Reese realizes the CIA may be selling them a bogus story that Casey is a traitor. Casey tells Dillinger he was approached by the government to break into an advanced system. Finch gets agitated and tells Dillinger to move Casey to safety immediately. Dillinger brings Casey to Finch's HQ. In DC we see a meeting between Control and Special Counsel. She's upset he dropped the ball with Casey and they discuss getting Northern Lights online. Nathan Ingram's name comes up and Control warns him to get the "mess" taken care of. Reese interviews the guy who was with the fake SSCI agent. Finch speaks with Casey alone. He's impressed with Finch and tells him about the work he'd been doing. He was working on a complex system and was able to find a brief backdoor in. He managed to steal a few lines of code and only escaped when a car accident killed the government agents who were sent to kill him. Dillinger planted a bug in the room and listens to this secretly. Greer meets with the fake SSCI agent, who updates him on the situation. He says the only person with any value to them is Casey. Finch tells Casey he recognized the piece of code he has. Finch has arranged to sell the laptop on the black market. The plan is to get him out of the country and Finch has given him a fake ID. Casey promises not to reveal anything about Harold should he be caught. Reese interrupts Stanton's torture to say he doesn't think it's working. During the conversation the man jumps out of the window. Reese reaffirms that he's sticking to the plan of acquiring Casey and killing him. Dillinger turns on Finch, saying he's lined up a Chinese buyer for the laptop. He's taking the plane they had planned for Casey and tells him to get lost. Casey calls Strickland looking for the fake passport, who invites him to come by the office, but unfortunately Stanton is with Strickland. Finch gets himself to a car and calls Casey, who is on his way to Strickland. They hang up and Reese shows up to grab Casey. Reese asks who he was talking to but Casey doesn't give Finch up. At this point Control's men burst into Strickland's office. Stanton kills most of them and Strickland dies. Rees lies to Stanton, pretending to kill Casey. While Finch listens, Reese tells him he doesn't think he's a traitor and gives him a way out. Stanton tells Reese they've been reassigned. Finch finds Dillinger. He asks Finch for more info about the laptop, believing the code is related to the numbers. When none is forthcoming he walks away. Dillinger is killed by one of General Counsel's agents while selling the laptop to the Chinese. A buyer got away. We see that it was Shaw who killed Dillinger and the Chinese men. Finch buries Dillinger in the park. We see that Greer followed the laptop to China. Shaw tells Control and the Special Counsel that if they had called her in sooner no one would have got away. In present day Root finds Casey. She tells him he's going to Columbia and that he has a "higher calling."
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The next number the Machine dispenses to Finch and the team belongs to Cyrus Wells, a custodian. His current blue collar job belies the fact that he has an MBA and was once a multimillionaire. What they also quickly learn is that the person who may figuratively pull the trigger on Cyrus, the target, is Root. Finch learns directly from Root that she has her own Machine-driven mission with Cyrus, her tasks (unlike Finch's) are laid out for her by the Machine immediately before she is to carry them out. All Root knows is that her overall goal is to protect the Machine, most specifically now from a competing Machine, namely Samaritan, which is close to being functional. Finch and Root will have to figure out if their Machine-driven tasks are incompatible, especially as Root has demonstrated in the past that the death of someone like Cyrus is acceptable collateral damage. They both have to figure out who truly is after Cyrus and what his role in getting Samaritan functional is. Root also ...
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The latest number the Machine dispenses is for Maria Martinez, a professional engineer working for Hydral Corp, a private energy company owned by a man named Ken Davis, her boss. Her latest jobs have been in reconstruction projects in third world countries, most recently replacing multimillion dollar generators in Iraq. The team originally believes that she is the perpetrator, a terrorist (which would be contrary to the purpose of the number regardless), as she seems to be interested in getting Omar Risha, another possible terrorist, into the country from Iraq, where he is currently being held in high security detention. She is tracking a man named Rene Lapointe, a French diplomat stationed at the UN, who is the high commissioner for refugees. As such, Lapointe, Maria's seeming-intended target, is responsible for reviewing and thus approving or denying Omar's asylum request. The team changes their perspective on Maria when it seems that she is only trying to convince Lapointe to ...
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Reese, Shaw and Finch are too late for their latest number, Leona Wainwright, as she is killed in front of Reese and Shaw's eyes. They know that Leona was killed by Vigilance for information she would have had unwittingly with regard to the Machine as a federal government employee. Finch decides to take Fusco to Washington DC to see if they can discover what information Vigilance wants, which is probably housed somewhere in Leona's physical or virtual office. Their problem is that the FBI is also involved in the investigation, which means that the Bureau has first access to all relevant information regarding the case. Root is getting her own information from the Machine as to Vigilance's involvement with Leona's death and what they will do to obtain whatever information they are looking for. Leona's death also causes nerves to rise within the politicos in the know, that nervousness which funnels its way to Control. Meanwhile, Reese and Shaw feel like they are being punished by Finch ...
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News of Northern Lights has hit the media, meaning that the team's work has become more difficult if only because of the public eye on what is happening. While Shaw heads off with Root on her next assignment, Reese heads to Washington DC to reunite with Finch for their next number, that belonging to Illinois Congressman Roger McCourt. Finch's initial guess is that they are heading into uncharted territory as he believes that McCourt is not only the target or the perpetrator of an individual crime, but also that his number is related to terrorism or national security regarding Decima trying to get Samaritan up and running, which, if happens, means the end of their own lives. McCourt sits on the Rules Committee which controls legislation. He has been an outspoken opponent of government surveillance, and thus could be a target for Decima as opposed to Vigilance. They learn that McCourt likes to see himself as a deal maker, one where all sides end up happy. When Reese eventually learns ...
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Finch has gone into hiding since he was unwilling to kill to protect himself and the team solely to prevent Samaritan from being activated, which Decima has now been able to do in a beta test. They all know that the team is the first on Decima's hit list, with Finch at the top of that list. Decima's task is made all the more easy by Samaritan, which, in its current state, has capabilities equal to the Machine. However, Samaritan will only get more sophisticated as it learns from what it sees. Even though Finch is no longer around, Reese still believes they should assist whoever the Machine identifies as a target or perpetrator of a violent crime, even at the risk of their own lives now that they have to avoid any camera in the five boroughs. That next person is Grace Hendricks, Finch's ex-fiancée, who Greer believes is the only person who can help him get to Finch, if only in a trade. The questions become whether Reese, Shaw and Root can protect Grace from Decima while protecting ...
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Decima has completed its beta test of Samaritan and has now shut it down temporarily as Greer has to get the politicos, namely Garrison, to buy into the need to purchase it in the name of national security. Greer needs this to happen as they require the government feeds for Samaritan to operate properly. With Finch now being held by Greer and Decima, Reese believes that their first priority should be to retrieve him. However, Root, in her continuing contact with the Machine, convinces Reese and Shaw that the Machine is telling her that Finch, for the time being, is safe, and that they have to deal with the next number. As the Machine does not have an overall picture of what will happen, it provides five numbers for the team to investigate on its behalf. Some of those numbers are for people familiar to the team, which gives them a good idea if these numbers are the targets or the perpetrators. The fifth number is one who they have to do some digging to discover the person's identity. ...
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Having taken over the power system causing a blackout, Collier and Vigilance have managed to capture all the people they feel need to be brought to justice for creating and/or operating the ever knowing surveillance system, the only one of which he knows by name being the government's Northern Lights project. Among those they have captured and have placed on trial, with a live video feed going out to the entire world, are Finch, Control, Senator Garrison and Greer. Those on trial seem to be standing in solidarity against Collier's judgment even before the facts come to light. However, that solidarity may break down based on insider information one of the accused has. Meanwhile, Reese has an unlikely ally in the form of Hersh, both of who are looking for the secret location of the trial to free their respective bosses. And Shaw is assisting Root in trying to locate and shut down Samaritan, needing to pose as Decima to do so. But Shaw only has a small part of the picture as Root does ...
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With Samaritan up and running, it is a new reality for Reese, Finch, Shaw, Root and even Bear, who are on Samaritan's top five most wanted list, and thus are in hiding of sorts. Finch's Machine has manufactured undercover "day" jobs for each, Finch's which is close to his own mentality, while Reese and Shaw's are somewhat more surprising for different reasons. Root tries to explain to Shaw that these jobs, however inappropriate they may seem on the surface, were chosen by the Machine for a reason. When the Machine contacts Reese and Shaw with a new number, Reese is prepared to continue with their old work. Logistically it is a little more difficult for Shaw to take time away from her day job. But Finch is a little more difficult to convince, he believing that their work with the Machine has resulted in more direct deaths than the number of lives that they have saved. Regardless, they all realize that if they do go back into business, the likelihood that Samaritan will find them will ...
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Reese is getting buried under the paperwork in his undercover identity as Fusco's partner, and Shaw is adjusting to her new undercover identity as a street level criminal. As such, Reese foists off dealing with the latest number to Finch, who still is hesitant to continue such work. Finch decides at least to start the process if only because the number is akin to someone like him. She is college sophomore Claire Mahoney, a seemingly brilliant young woman with an analytical mind. However, her life seems to have fallen off the rails in the past year, ditching her college studies and having recently purchased a firearm. As Finch tails her, he believes that she is involved in some deadly code breaking game/puzzle, the puzzle which always involves the figure of a nautilus. In addition to tailing her, Finch also tries to figure out who set up the puzzle and what its purpose is. Eventually Reese, Shaw, Root, Fusco and Bear get involved in helping Finch to varying degrees. What they ...
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Finch recruits Fusco to stick close to the latest POI, a professional "wingman", but learning how to approach women soon becomes the least of his worries. Meanwhile, Reese must find a way to play by the rules at his new day job as the Machine sends Finch and Root on a mysterious errand.
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The next numbers the Machine provides are for fourteen year old Malcolm Booker, and his eight year old sister, Tracie Booker, who are in foster care as their mother is incarcerated on an illegal weapons conviction. Reese, who is tasked with finding them, quickly learns that they are the intended targets, as they stole $500,000 in drug money from the Brotherhood, a gang led by the unknown Dominic. Reese knows of the Brotherhood because he helped put one of the gang's higher ups, Link, in jail, Link who is now out. The DEA are interested in the case, their head agent being Erica Lennox, who decides to work in conjunction with Reese as she knows there is a mole in the DEA working for the Brotherhood. When Reese and Lennox eventually find Malcolm and Tracie, they learn the reason why they stole the money. However Malcolm has hidden the money and refuses to give it back. Reese and Lennox have to try and protect Malcolm and Tracie from the Brotherhood, all the while trying to get them to ...
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Because of his penchant for gunfire, Reese is placed under mandatory therapy and surveillance by Internal Affairs. He may find it difficult to lie to the therapist, Dr. Iris Campbell, about his undercover life. As Reese is preoccupied with these matters as well as the mountain of paperwork from those shootings, Finch assigns the next number to Shaw. That number belongs to Simon Lee, a pollster for Governor James Murray, who is seeking reelection. Lee is seen as a wunderkind, who knows how to predict poll numbers accurately, he having done so for ten straight elections for his winning side. On election day, he has Murray at a 52/48 edge over his competitor, Michelle Perez. However, the election results do not match his poll numbers. In searching, Lee has found voter fraud which he is intent on reporting to authorities. However, Finch, Shaw and Root discover who was behind that voter fraud, and as such know that Lee's life is in danger if he continues on his quest to report this ...
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Finch tasks Shaw with making contact with their next number, mild mannered and slightly bumbling Walter Dang, an agent with Witherton Insurance. But as Finch is called away mid-case, Shaw takes his place as the compute support, while Reese and Fusco take over duties of following Dang. They will find that his life truly is as Clark Kent as he attempts to be Superman. He is secretly investigating the death of Abel Mindler, the truck driver brother of his co-worker Elena Mindler, who he sees as his Lois Lane. He is not working on this investigation for insurance purposes, but because of his interest in Elena, and secretly wanting to shed his Clark Kent life to replace "the man in the suit" he had heard about so frequently on the police scanners a few years ago. Abel's death was deemed suicide, but as a truck driver, was involved in some illegal smuggling. They will have to protect Dang against those who are after what they believe Dang knows about the whereabouts of the highly illegal ...
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Finch and Root have to deal with the next threat by Samaritan through its appointed New York Governor Nicholas Dawson. He has funneled $12 million into a fraudulent charity, OTPS, led by a man named Jared Wilkins. OTPS has no online or public electronic presence. So Finch and Root have to discover what OTPS is a front for, and what Wilkins' story is. Meanwhile, Shaw is tasked with being the lead tail on the next number, that belonging to Tomas Koroa, a Spanish-American wine dealer who travels the world for his job. He uses his good looks and suave charm to his advantage, those assets which are not lost even on Shaw. The team believes he is the target until they catch him in a high stakes smash and grab, the modus operandi which is key to the Hole in the Wall gang, who have eluded Interpol for years. In the gang's history, only one member of the gang has ever been captured, Marko Jevdice, who was eventually killed. Shaw, using her street criminal cover, infiltrates the gang for their ...
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With Root's help, Shaw is able to elude Martine, but not before some collateral damage is done to what is now Shaw's former place of work. Unlike Root, Shaw is unable at this time to get a new identity from the Machine, meaning that Shaw has to go into hiding. On the flip side, Greer and Martine have to figure out why Samaritan is/was unable to identify Shaw as they still track her, which they hope will lead to Finch and the rest of the team. With Shaw and Root preoccupied with their immediate task of making their way back to Finch's headquarters using all the camera free zones, Reese is in charge of protecting their next number, namely the team's old friend, Carl Elias. Despite Elias' illegal dealings, they know that they have to protect him against the Brotherhood as Elias has at least maintained order in the criminal world, which the Brotherhood would not do in Elias' place. It seems as if the Brotherhood is able to get to some of Elias' men. The question mark on both sides is a ...
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While Finch and Root keep Shaw confined for their collective safeties, Reese deals with their next number. However, he quickly learns that Samaritan has taken over handling not only this situation, which it does with its own form of vigilante justice, but of all other potentially violent or deadly situations in New York City. Despite it doing so to show the Machine its power, Samaritan's actions raises the discussion among Finch, Root and Shaw if what it is actually doing and can do is a good thing. However, that discussion is quelled by what Samaritan decides to do next. The team ultimately learns that Samaritan's actions are primarily to bring the Machine out into the open, specifically for the two to convene for a summit. Finch as the Machine's creator and Root as the one who speaks directly to the Machine are the two who have the most say as to what the Machine will do besides the Machine herself in this situation.
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The first act following the Machine and Samaritan's cold war summit, which ended in a standoff, is that Samaritan starts to take the market down by crashing the New York Stock Exchange. Samaritan's plan entails a few small rebounds to prevent the fail-safe system from kicking in. Reese, Finch, Root and Fusco know that the best way to combat this take down is not to deal with anything on the market floor, where the minority of trades are actually made, but to deal with the server in the Exchange's basement, the server which processes the vast majority of trades. Shaw is not with them as she still needs to hide from Samaritan's cameras. As such, Shaw has her own task off site. Both the foursome and Shaw's tasks end up not being as straightforward as they would have liked, each placed in a precariously life threatening situation. Root has to wait for the Machine to evaluate all the possible options for success before moving. The question becomes if there is not one option which has a ...
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Samaritan has identified a four man terrorist cell located in Detroit, Michigan. At the White House, Control is heading the mission to eliminate the four in the cell. But when she learns that Samaritan is hiding some information from her concerning one of the four - information which she later learns is irrelevant to the actual case - Control changes the focus of the mission to learn the nature of that hidden information before disposing of the four terrorists. But in her effort to discover that information, she finds that she is thwarted time and time again. Samaritan itself and its human operatives in the form of Greer and Travers seems to be part of the blocks. As such, she may find that she is being left in the dark of many of the goings-on of Samaritan. But other external forces also seem to be working against her, those external forces which may know more about the thought process of Samaritan than her.
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Reese and Root head upstate to Maple, New York as the vehicle Shaw was last seen in was spotted entering the town. Upon their arrival, they see Maple as a stereotypical perfect small American town... perhaps a little too perfect on the surface. As they track the movement of that vehicle, which is still in Maple, everything points to the answers they are looking for and hopefully a still alive Shaw lying within the town's major manufacturing plant, which had just been purchased by a company called Carrow and repurposed, which in turn has brought renewed prosperity to the town. Who is behind Carrow and its public face, Ms. Leslie Thompson, and what they are manufacturing may at least provide an answer as to why Shaw was brought to Maple. Meanwhile, Fusco is tasked with overseeing the Machine's latest number, Albert Weiss, a hardware store sales associate. He is a sad looking sack of a man who Fusco is certain is the target. Fusco notices that a familiar face has also placed Weiss under ...
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Feeling a bit battered by the recent goings-on directed by Samaritan, Finch and Reese have hit a backlog of numbers, many of which have already resolved themselves badly in the team's absence, now with only three outstanding missing persons cases. With Root off trying to find information on Shaw on her own, they decide that they will no longer involve Fusco in not wanting anyone else but who started as their original two person team to get hurt in the process of the work. Finch also has to deal with "Harold Whistler" being called for jury duty, something that Finch feels he at least has to make an appearance at in not wanting to draw attention to himself to Samaritan. Despite Finch's best efforts, he is unable to get himself off from actual jury duty, being called to sit on the trial of Chad Bryson, charged with the murder of his wife, Caroline Mills, the CEO of Infinince Telecommunications, which is developing revolutionary new wireless technology. The prosecution's claim is that ...
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Reese tries to protect a software programmer with a mysterious second life, but it's unclear from which side of her life the threat is coming. Meanwhile, Claire, a young hacker whom Finch had tried to protect from Samaritan, reaches out to him for aid.
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The next number Finch and Reese receive from the Machine is not a social security number but rather the college student number for Harper Rose, who, on the surface, is just a typical college student. They believe her number came up because she works at an on-campus medical marijuana dispensary, the job she got through her stoner slacker boyfriend, Trey Wender. Because the dispensary borders on being illegal - its legality depending on the jurisdiction involved - it is a cash only business with many banks refusing to accept the money, in their judgment being illegally obtained. As such, they believe Harper is the target in what happens to the cash on the premises. They know Harper is in trouble when they learn that the Brotherhood has gone into the security business, being the service that transports the money, but that the Mexican drug cartel is also interested in seeing the business shut down as cutting into their own profits. A secondary number comes up, which adds to the complexity...
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Reese and Finch try to protect a psychologist whose unorthodox methods for helping his patients find closure could cost him dearly. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal Finch fragile state in days following bombing that killed his best friend, Nathan Ingram.
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The next number from the Machine that Reese is tasked with tracking is Frankie Wells, who just arrived in the city four days ago from Florida. Her new job as a hostess at an illegal gambling club masks her true mission as a bounty hunter of nabbing Ray Pratt, the club's operator. Ray skipped bail three months ago on charges of conspiracy to commit several crimes in conjunction with gambling and prostitution mogul, Carlton Worthy. A familiar face pops up into Ray's life, she who adds a level of complexity to Frankie capturing Ray, and to Reese fully discovering why Frankie's number came up. A second number the Machine dispenses is for Beth Bridges, the woman that Finch met in Hong Kong. Finch has long been working on a secret project which involves Beth, as she gets unwittingly involved with Greer and Samaritan. As Beth's number came up immediately as he sat down with her in their latest meeting, Finch, initially believing that her life is in danger because of her involvement with ...
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The next number Finch and Reese receive from the Machine belongs to Sulaiman Khan, the founder and CEO of Castellum, which he started as a garage business but which is now the leading computer security company in the world with their anti-virus software pre-installed in eighty-six percent of the world's network devices. Khan is under attack electronically as his computer system has been hacked, revealing to the world that he embezzled from the company, which he denies as planted information. All the sensitive information from his devices has also been released, which further threatens both his professional and personal relationships. Because of the thoroughness of the attack specifically against Khan but which left Castellum virtually untouched leads Finch and Reese to the conclusion that it was orchestrated by Samaritan. Khan himself also comes to a conclusion that the attack was from an artificial intelligence, although he will have troubles convincing anyone of that fact, and ...
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The next number the team receives from the Machine belongs to twenty-something Chase Patterson. Reese volunteers to be the lead. He decides to exclude totally the rest of the team from the case when he learns that Chase was involved in a homicide seven years ago, that investigation which was led by Carter - her first as detective - and which is still unsolved. He makes this decision to feel closer to Carter. In that homicide, Chase's entire wealthy family was murdered, with Chase, a recovering junkie, being the prime suspect, the thought being that he wanted drug money. Carter, however, did not believe Chase to be the perpetrator. Chase escaped to Paris during the investigation, only now to return seven years later. In trying to solve that cold case on Carter's behalf, Reese follows many of the same paths Carter did. As such, Reese remembers back to a stakeout where he and Carter, alone, talked about their lives. During the process, Carter's spirit is never far from Reese, which may ...
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The gangland war between Dominic/The Brotherhood and Elias is ramping up, with four of the Brotherhood found murdered without the Machine foreseeing that happening. The next numbers the Machine does dispense are for Elias and Dominic themselves. Reese and Fusco take the lead on this issue, which includes finding out why the Machine didn't see the deaths happening. But the more important issue is how Dominic and Elias' seeming battle will emerge from the other side, i.e. if either will still be standing. Meanwhile, Root receives a message implying that Shaw is still alive. Despite both she and Finch realizing that it may be a trap, they still pursue the lead on the scant possibility that she still is alive and needs their help. Finch is a reluctant participant, but feels he has to follow Root, who takes some extraordinary measures to prove her determination in finding Shaw. In the end, they may have to make some tough decisions in seeing which is the higher priority between Shaw's life...
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Finch and Root are on a mission to save the Machine, after she gave herself up to Samaritan on her own volition to save Root and more specifically Finch. As Samaritan tries to complete its own mission in destroying the Machine while making what it sees as necessary corrections to the world order, Finch and Root have the difficult task of locating the Machine, who has been silent of late. When Finch and Root do hear from the Machine again, she sends them on a scavenger hunt without them knowing what all the pieces are supposed to accomplish. Finch and Root are without Reese who too has been silent. Finch has another difficult choice to make when he does eventually get an indirect message from Reese. Little do Finch and Root know that there is someone else who is trying to destroy Samaritan, albeit working on a different motive. Meanwhile, Dominic is holding Elias, Reese and Fusco hostage as he tries to negotiate the same deal Elias seemed to have with Reese, Finch and Fusco. Some may ...
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Reese and Finch rush to resuscitate what is left of the Machine's source code; Root fights for her life after being targeted by Samaritan...
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The Machine experiences a glitch during rebooting, supplying Reese and Fusco with the numbers of dozens of people not actually involved in crimes, while also locking Finch and Root out after identifying them as threats based on past violent behavior.
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In light of his recent downtime and advice from others, Reese explores the option of moving to the next step in his relationship with Iris, however knowing that he cannot divulge the true nature of his work to her, at least not yet. As the numbers from the Machine become more steady, he may have a clearer picture if he can maintain a work/life balance at this time. That next number belongs to Alex Duncan, a computer security expert working for a consulting company. As Reese infiltrates Alex's work life and learns his story including whether he is the victim or perpetrator, Reese will find that his own CIA past is mixed up in Alex's goings-on, most specifically with his old boss, Terence Beale. Reese has to figure out how to deal with this case in light of the fact that Beale and the CIA believe him to be dead, yet he is still committed to his work in helping the victim in this and any other case. Meanwhile, the Machine has placed Root in the undercover position of a courier driver. ...
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Shaw is able to escape from Greer and his men, using a known method for her friends to find her, all the while eluding Greer and Samaritan. When Shaw is reunited with her friends who believe it best not to take her back to the safe "house" or divulge the location of the Machine to her, it is not all a happy reunion. While Reese wants to be careful believing that Samaritan might have turned her, they are all aware that a microchip has been implanted in her skull, the chip probably some method of control over her. Even when Root is able to extract the chip from her skull, Shaw knows that something is still not quite right with her. Finch is able to decipher for what the chip was meant to accomplish. All these items together truly do make Shaw a risk to the team.
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The team is divided in their efforts. Finch has set up a confined simulation to see how the Machine would fare against Samaritan in an open battle, the process largely excluding Root. Beyond that exclusion, Root and Finch have a philosophical disagreement on how best to handle the outcome of the simulation, most specifically if Finch needs to make changes to the Machine's coding so that she can better protect herself. Fusco has been menacingly approached by Bruce Moran, an associate of Elias'. Moran, who had been underground since Elias' death four months ago, is looking for answers from the people he thinks are in the know, Fusco only the most visible. They have to decide how much to divulge to Moran for his and their own good. With those three occupied, Reese is left largely on his own to deal with the latest number, that belong to Ethan Garvin, a sound analyst for ShotSeeker, a company that produced and administers a program used by the NYPD that monitors false alarm sounds, most ...
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Reese is given the assignment as lead in dealing with the latest number by the Machine, it a number for a marriage license, that of heiress Phoebe Turner, whose father, Kent Turner, owns a $1 billion horse breeding/racing business, and Will O'Brien, a relatively poor public defender. Finch's initial thought is that Will is the intended target as someone, perhaps Kent, probably does not want him to get his hands on any of the Turners' vast wealth. The best way to deny the perpetrator's intention is to make sure that the wedding proceeds as planned, which means the team infiltrating the wedding. While Finch devises a way for Reese to use his masculine good looks in getting an invite, Finch decides to assist in also being at the wedding, masquerading as one of Will's relatives from Ireland. Finch probably wishes that he did more research into "Uncle Ralph" before choosing this identity as his way in. They will find that the situation is more complex as one of Phoebe's bridesmaids is ...
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Fusco is in the hospital, recovering. Root goes undercover as the new producer of "Mysterious Transmissions" in her attempt to save a new number, Warren. She finds out her new boss has intercepted a secret message that he wants to announce live during his radio show. The message is from Samaritan, that kills Warren and makes it look like a suicide. Samaritan is next onto Root. Harold makes an interesting discovery that helps Root send a message to Shaw. But Shaw cannot tell the difference between reality and simulations anymore.
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Shaw plans and executes an escape from Samaritan's operatives. Mr. Reese is following an international business man named Ko who's getting sick. Things get worse when Ko dies as he may have been infected with a mysterious virus. As a result, Mr. Reese and Harold get trapped in a hospital trying to find the person who may be responsible for Ko's death as well as preventing an outbreak. From the subway, Root helps them identify the perpetrator. However, a third player comes around, Jeff, who's given a tough choice by an operative of Samaritan. Fusco reaches out to Elias to help him dig deeper into the dead bodies from the tunnel.
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Reese is leading the surveillance on the latest number, 24-hour locksmith Terry Easton. When Reese sees Terry clandestinely breaking into an investment firm, he finds an obviously scared Terry inside with a bomb strapped to his wrist, which Reese is able to dismantle. Reese will learn that Terry's wife Carla is being held hostage by whoever forced Terry to do the break-in by strapping that bomb to his wrist, that person vowing to kill Carla if Terry doesn't comply. Based on voice recognition of the messages left by that person to Terry's cell phone, Finch knows that the person behind what is happening is a mastermind criminal nicknamed The Voice, his identity still unknown. Because of The Voice's deep criminal history, Finch believes he has to call in specialized assistance to find out who The Voice is and what his end game with Terry is. While Reese brings Terry into the precinct for safe keeping, he finds that the precinct is abuzz with activity, including a Hispanic gang called the...
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Feeling like his time is near, Finch hopes to get some answers directly from the Machine before he locks her down, while in the process not wanting his friends to die on his behalf. Finch continues to have philosophical differences with Root about giving the Machine the tools to defend herself, those which were not the rules he wanted when he created her. Finch may have subconsciously predetermined his fate when the next number provided by the Machine is his, meaning that his cover as college professor has been blown. Regardless of Finch's feelings on the matter, his friends intend to protect him to their own deaths if that's what it takes, as in Reese's words Finch is just the next in the latest of numbers he was hired to save. Also on board until the end is Elias, who has seen his friends killed by Samaritan. Finch may make some decisions about the Machine based on what happens as Greer and Samaritan's legion track him. And Reese believes he has come to the true reason why Finch's ...
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The team are faced with a dramatic challenge & have to be one step ahead of the secret service when the machine gives them the number of the President of United States. Meanwhile, Harold separates himself from the team and considers taking drastic action to combat Samaritan to avenge his friends' deaths.
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Finch goes on a mission to destroy Samaritan by unleashing the most dangerous computer virus known on it. In the process, Finch and the Machine continue to discuss in balance if she has done more good or bad. She provides him with simulations of what would have happened to several different people if she had never existed. Finch will also learn if the Machine has truly learned that self-preservation is the top priority. He too will find how much collateral damage he is willing to exact in the process. Meanwhile, Reese and Shaw receive the next number from the Machine, that belonging to an alias for Greer. What they believe his number means is that the showdowns between he and Finch and thus between Samaritan and the Machine are imminent. But most importantly, they know in following the leads to Greer, they will also find Finch. Those leads take them back to Washington DC, most specifically the offices of the National Security Agency (NSA). They may be without the services of the ...
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Shaw visits Root's grave to say her final goodbyes. Mr. Reese and Lionel are given the rough edge tongue by the police chief, who figures out that John is in fact the man in a suit. The police arrest them and are ready to make them disappear forever. However, they are interrupted by Mr. Finch's arrival. The team splits in two, Lionel and Shaw who remain with the the Machine int order to protect it, while Mr. Reese and Mr. Finch attempt to destroy Samaritan's back-up servers. Mr. Finch says his final goodbye to his friend, Mr. Reese. Wounded by a gunshot, he starts hallucinating Root, while Mr. Reese sacrifices himself. Shaw finally avenges Root's death.
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