Person of Interest

Here we go. Now, can you see me?

Excellent. Next question.

Who am I?

You knew what we were building here.

This looks for plotters, schemers. We built it to stop terrorists before they could act.

If Congress knew about this machine you're building...

- ...you'd go to jail. - Don't suppose they'd let us be cell mates?

Knowledge is not my problem. Doing something with it...

...that's where you'd come in. Sooner or later, both of us will probably wind up dead.

If something ever happens, I have a contingency.

We have a new number. Caroline Turing.

She put the hit on herself.

She was trying to lure you out into the open.

She wasn't looking for me. She was looking for him.

So nice to finally meet you, Harold. You can call me Root.

He's in danger now. Because he was working for you.

So you're going to help me get him back.

Uncertainty. Romeo. Kilo.

Family. Alpha. Mike.

Reflections. Juliet. Oscar.

You look famished, Harold. What are you going to have?

No offense, but for a billionaire genius, you're lousy company.

Every system has a flaw. I'm pretty good at finding them.

You care about other people. That's your flaw.

So if you try to call out to that police officer, I won't shoot you.

I'll shoot someone else.

Please don't make me do that.

I get it. You're not talking because you don't know how much I already know.

I know enough.

Enough that you should try to learn what I want...

- ...and where we're going. - Where are we going?

The future, Harold.

Although I guess, thanks to you, we're already there.

Not that you let any of us know.

I don't know who you think I am...

- ...but you've made a mistake. - Don't treat me like them.

It must be like talking to ants to you.

They wouldn't grasp what you've done, even if you told them.

But I've been waiting for you my whole life.

And you and I share an understanding.

Do we?

You're a murderer and a thief.

My mom told me to follow my talents. And I'm good at what I do.

Except for this one time, when someone stopped me.

Someone who just knew what I was about to do.

How did you know, Harold? For months, that's what I couldn't figure out.

I don't believe in magic.

I knew the government spent years trying to build something...

...to protect its panicked little flock.

I also thought they'd never pull it off.

Because I didn't know about you.

Hmm. And you pulled it off, didn't you?

Something to watch over all of us.

My only question, Harold, is why it didn't protect you.

Taylor?

- Taylor! - He's out.

Studying with a friend.

Sure, John. Come on over. Make yourself at home.

Finch is gone.

And she took him.

- Who took him? - Turing. She wasn't a shrink.

She was lying to us. Real name is Root.

- At least that's what she goes by. - What could he have that she'd want?

Okay, I can file a missing persons.

Send Finch's pictures to sheriff's offices, the FBI.

You can't.

Finch went off the grid for a reason.

We have to find him on our own.

I have a lead.

But I need you chasing down every other angle.

Listen, when she took Finch, Root killed a former intelligence operative...

- ...named Alicia Corwin. - Okay.

I'll get myself assigned to the investigation.

Thank you.

What are you going to be doing?

I'm not sure. Math, I think.

Uncertainty. Romeo-Kilo.

Family. Alpha-Mike.

Reflections. Juliet-Oscar.

"I gave you a job, Mr. Reese. I never said it would be easy."

Come on, Finch. Help me find you.

Title and author's initials.

Uncertainty , RK.

Family , AM.

Reflections , JO.

Finch, you sly dog. The Dewey Decimal System.

That's how the machine gives you the Social Security numbers.

Hey, I ran that social. Guy's name is Leon Tao.

Got an MBA from NYU. No criminal record.

Fancy car with an anti-theft tracker, which I took the liberty of activating.

- I sent you the coordinates. - I got them.

You think this Mr. Tao is gonna help with the whereabouts of our four-eyed friend?

You almost sound concerned, Lionel.

I'm not sure I wanna find out what you're like without his direction.

Let's hope you don't have to.

You've gotta understand, this is...

You mind? Need a word with Leon, here.

He's all yours detective.

I'm looking for a friend of mine.

I have a source that says you might be able to help.

- Never seen either of them. - Take another look.

My source is never wrong.

I have never seen either of them before in my life, you understand?

You're not lying.

- Then why the hell am I here? - I have no idea, dude. Truly.

You've got to be kidding me.

Let me guess. You're in some kind of trouble?

The life-threatening kind?

I can't believe it.

I'm the contingency. The backup.

- The what? - He didn't want me to find him...

...if anything went wrong. He just wanted me to keep rescuing people.

People like you.

So what is it? You pissed these guys off, somehow.

They were ready to kill you when I happened to walk in?

No. We were just talking.

No. You were right, detective.

Leon here stole a great deal of money from us.

And we'd just about done talking when you walked in.

Listen, I don't have time for this.

I need to find my friend. I'm going to take Leon and we're going to leave.

Leon stole more than enough, in fact, to make it worth us killing a cop.

So maybe we can make a deal. You leave Leon here with us...

...and you can keep looking for your friend.

You know, the guy that owned this badge probably would have made that deal.

But I'm not him.

So who are you?

The guy who shot him and stole his badge.

You coming or not, Leon?

Can you see me?

We're going to play hide and seek.

Ring my phone once for yes, twice for no. Do you understand?

Can you see me now?

- Thank you. - Sure. Enjoy.

- Hi, how are you? - Good.

How about now?

Really?

How many fingers?

Good.

Very good.

You're not gonna help me find him?

Dude, I already told you, I don't know your friend.

He programmed you to do this, didn't he?

- To keep giving me the numbers. - What numbers? Who're you talking to?

Wait, I just remembered. I don't care. I'm getting out of here.

Wait! Hey, my car!

Looks like we're walking.

What are you, ex-military? One of those Blackwater guys?

- Does it matter? - Look, you seem crazy, but highly capable.

I just need you to take me to my car.

- You owe me that much. - How do you figure?

When you butted in, we were in the middle of a negotiation.

Negotiations don't usually end in bullets.

Your friends in there were Aryan Brotherhood.

Something you should've thought of before you stole from them.

- By the way, how much did you take? - Eight million. Hey!

Look, I didn't plan on stealing, at least, not at first.

I had a legitimate job at Bear Sterns, then the recession hit and we all get axed.

So I take a job at this little start up. Took me six months to realize...

...I worked for the corporate arm of the Aryan nation...

...laundering profits from their meth business.

You wanna call that greedy? I call it payback.

Please, I gotta get out of town or I'm road kill. Take me to my car.

Not this car! What're you doing?

Keeping you safe. Like I said, I'm looking for my friend.

And I don't have time to babysit you.

Wait! Don't leave me here alone!

Don't worry. You're gonna have plenty of company.

I'm thinking about charging you overtime.

- Leon Tao. - He know anything about...

- ...the abduction of Mr. Vocabulary? - Afraid not.

He's about to have a run-in with the N.Y.P.D.

Make sure nothing happens to him in jail.

I'm sick of doing your dirty laundry. Go ask Carter.

Carter's busy working a murder investigation for me.

See? She gets the good case and I get stuck wasting my time with Leon.

Didn't you take an oath to protect and serve?

- Yeah. So? - So, go be a cop.

Yeah, Detective Carter. I need a rush on a ballistics report.

Victim's name is Corwin, first name Alicia.

We might have a disruption of our little project.

Alicia Corwin.

Last I heard, she's living off the grid in West Virginia.

Connected man like yourself, I'd imagined your sources would be better.

Someone shot her in New York yesterday.

- Who killed her? - That would be the question.

You realize that if even a whisper of what we've been up to gets out...

...you and I are gonna spend the rest of our lives in Guantanamo if we're lucky.

From now on, my group will handle security on this.

The N.Y.P.D investigation of Corwin's death, make sure it's a dead end.

Not a problem.

One more thing, Weeks.

Corwin had contact with an NSA analyst named Peck before she was killed.

We tried to bring Peck in, but he had assistance. Possibly one of ours.

Took out a three-man ISA unit by himself.

- Who is he? - I'll be sure and ask him...

...right before I kill him.

The driver's license Root had in Turing's name was real.

- You're sure? - Finch checked out her credentials.

I'm guessing someone at the DMV might've sold it to her off the books.