 Tagline: You're Being Watched. The Person of Interest team suffers a devastating loss and confronts staggering challenges in the hit series’ most explosive season yet. Adapting to the evolution of The Machine, now completely self-governed and hidden from all, technical wizard Finch and ex-CIA operative Reese team with rogue agent Samantha Shaw to save lives and seek justice, but their missions now threaten to tear them apart. NYPD Detectives Carter and Fusco finally unravel the criminal police conspiracy “HR” – but at a tragic cost. And former enemy – and now highly-tuned confederate of The Machine – Root becomes an uneasy ally when the team learns a second surveillance apparatus to rival The Machine is on the verge of activation. The electrifying, 23-Episode Season Three is a must watch! Person of Interest continues to prove itself throughout its third season, culminating rather breathtakingly in an edge- of-your-seat finale that's as tense and thrilling as it is daring and game-changing. Not that the last leg of the season is the only thing worth watching. Over the full course of the series' latest run, Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman ratchet up the suspense and the stakes, inviting everything from betrayal to death, shock and awe to Harold Finch and John Reese's door. The intrigue is more intriguing, the social commentary more biting and timely, the character beats more affecting, the action fiercer and the fallout of every twist, turn and wrong move that much greater. It doesn't always amount to a better show, mind you -- the 23-episode haul features a bit too much filler and redundancy -- but the series remains one of the more addicting big-network dramas, episode after episode, week in and week out. (Or season by season, if Blu-ray binges are more your speed.) Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson only make it that much more enticing, as does a supporting cast that finally seems to be getting storylines worthy of their investment. Storyline: A billionaire software-genius named Harold Finch creates a Machine for the government that is designed to detect acts of terror before they can happen, by monitoring the entire world through every cell-phone, email and surveillance camera. Finch discovered that the machine sees everything, potential terrorist acts and violent crimes that involve ordinary people. When the government considered violent crimes between normal people "irrelevant", Finch built a back door into the system that gives him the social security number of a person involved in a future violent crime so he could act. Partnered with John Reese, an ex-CIA agent, the two work in secret to prevent violent crimes before they can happen. Eventually their activities lead to being hunted by the New York Police Department, CIA Agents in pursuit of Reese who was listed as dead, a computer hacker named Root who wants access to the Machine, and government officials who want to keep all knowledge of the Machine a complete secret. Written by Jones 3.01 Liberty – Reese, Finch, and Shaw work to save the life of a sailor named Jack Salazar who is inadvertently caught up in a diamond smuggling operation run by a Marine Special Forces Unit, due to the actions of a fellow officer. Meanwhile, Carter adapts to life as a uniformed police officer after being demoted due to being set up by HR previously, and is secretly keeping Carl Elias hidden in a secure basement. A troubled Root continues to receive counseling, and later reveals that she is still in contact with the Machine when she uses it to learn the unhealthy habits of her psychiatrist. 3.02 Nothing to Hide – Wayne Kruger is the owner of a business company known as Lifetrace, which specializes in revealing members' privacy on their profile pages and selling it to various organizations. Reese, Finch, and Shaw monitor Kruger's activities in the company, which is currently making a deal with another large retail company called Riverton, which is interested in purchasing Lifetrace data. Though the site is deemed harmless by Kruger, Finch discovers that there is a class-action suit against Kruger involving various victims of the site whose privacy has been eliminated. Members of the suit receive anonymous packages containing information on how to humiliate and attack Kruger in revenge for their lives being destroyed thanks to Lifetrace. One of these people is a Stu Sommers, a man whose daughter was stalked and killed by her ex-boyfriend after he used Lifetrace to follow her, and also because of Kruger and Lifetrace's incompetence and refusal to remove the daughter's profile. Sommers, a former engineer, uses his mechanical skills to hack the company's elevator and Kruger's car, causing both to go out of control and nearly kill Kruger. Reese and Finch take him to a safehouse, where he attempts to call his wife after she finds out about Kruger's affairs, which were publicly revealed in a sex tape during his own anniversary by another member of the suit. Finch learns that Peter Collier, the Riverton businessman who reviewed the company, has requested a meeting with Kruger and the executives. Kruger knocks out Finch and goes to the meeting, where he finds Sommers and Collier waiting for him, but no Riverton executive. Sommers takes Kruger's gun and attempts to kill him, but Reese intervenes and talks him out of doing so. Collier suddenly shoots Reese and Kruger, and reveals that he is the mastermind behind the suit against Kruger. He claims that he is part of an organization that has vowed to fight back against the abuse of people's online privacy, and executes Kruger before leaving. Shaw finds the wounded Reese, and later, Finch warns that Collier's attack on Kruger may just be the beginning. 3.03 Lady Killer – When the Machine gives a number of Ian Murphy, a man suspected of being a stalker, Reese along with Shaw recruits Carter, Fusco and Zoe to investigate further into his background. But when they discover that Murphy has a son from a former lover who is now dead, they work to reunite the boy with his father and right the wrong set in motion by the boy's grandfather, who wanted Murphy dead after he didn't approve of him and saw him at his daughter's funeral. Meanwhile Root sets her escape plan in motion with the help of the Machine when government operative Hersh tracks her down. Finch arrives at the hospital and finds to his horror the hospital staff incapacitated and Root gone. 3.04 Reasonable Doubt – Reese and Finch's next number is that of Vanessa Watkins, a prominent New Yok lawyer who is accused of killing her husband Jeremy. The police are investigating her case, and they find a gun with her DNA on it. Vanessa escapes police custody, triggering a manhunt for her across New York. Carter tries to help her, but Vanessa says that no one can help her, though she insists that she didn't kill Jeremy before escaping. Finch investigates Jeremy's murder and learns that he owed a great deal of money to a gangster. Shaw attends a book club meeting with Vanessa's best friend Nicole, where she and Finch learn that Nicole and Jeremy were having an affair. Reese finds Vanessa and takes her to a safe house, where she is shocked to learn about Nicole and Jeremy's affair. Fusco and Shaw, meanwhile, go to the bank of a charity founded by Jeremy and Vanessa, where they learn that a recent payment was made for a yacht by Jeremy. Finch and Reese realize that Jeremy is alive and framed Vanessa for the murder. Reese takes Vanessa to a bus station to keep her safe, but Carter sees that Vanessa has defaced a picture of Jeremy earlier when she was asked if she loved him. They realize Vanessa lied and helped Jeremy fake his death, and she's out to kill him for framing her. Reese finds the two on their yacht, with Vanessa aiming a gun at Jeremy. Reese says that he is in the business of stopping bad things from happening to people, but he doesn't know if what's about to happen is a bad thing. He places another gun down for Jeremy, leaves the boat, and unties the anchoring rope from the dock. The episode ends as two gunshots are heard from the now-adrift boat, implying that Jeremy and Vanessa shot each other. 3.05 Razgovor – In a series of flashbacks to Shaw's childhood it is revealed she was in a car with her father when he died in a wreck, but that she showed a shocking lack of emotion over it. In the present, after Shaw saves another number, Finch begins expressing concern about Shaw's callous treatment of them. Their next number turns out to be a little Russian immigrant girl Genrika Zhirova, Gen for short, who is deeply interested in espionage and is living with an older cousin in a run-down apartment. Shaw ends up watching after Gen when men come to attack her and they start to bond. The team soon learns that Gen had been bugging the phones in her apartment building. Eventually, the men manage to abduct Gen and Shaw begins pursuing the captors. Meanwhile, Carter is continuing her investigation of HR and is following Terney when she runs into Reese who was unwittingly tracking Terney's phone to find out who was going after Gen. Finch learns that one of Gen's bugs overheard a conversation about HR planning with the Russian mob to introduce bath salts into New York City. Simmons of HR offers to return the girl if they will hand over the tapes and Shaw, determined to save Gen, wants to make the exchange. When Reese arrives at the exchange, Simmons reveals it was an ambush, but finds that his men have already been taken out and Shaw manages to save Gen. Elsewhere, Carter has been asked to meet her partner Laskey at a bar, where he confronts her about her work with Reese. Carter reveals she knows Laskey is with HR and after the bar owner, another dirty cop, attempts to shoot her she kills him with Laskey's gun and tells Laskey he will now work for her. The episode ends with Root arriving at Shaw's loft and abducting her. 3.06 Mors Praematura – While Shaw is abducted by Root, Finch and Reese get the number of Timothy Sloan, a real-estate investigator. Finch goes undercover as Sloan's assistant while Reese continues investigating Shaw's whereabouts. Sloan investigates the case of a man named Jason Greenfield, who apparently died of a heroin overdose. Sloan breaks into Jason's home, and Finch follows him inside to confront him. Sloan says that he and Jason were foster brothers, and Jason was a computer hacker. Sloan and Finch trace Jason's recent activities to a warehouse. Inside, they find cryptic messages on the walls, and Sloan sees a water pipe leaking. They realize that the place is meant to be burned down with them in it, and the door closes. Reese arrives in time to rescue them, and they take Sloan to a safe house. Finch, who had taken pictures of the messages, learns that they are used as a communication device between members of an organization which includes Peter Collier (from "Nothing to Hide"). Reese and Sloan go to Jason's house, where they are ambushed by Collier's men. Sloan is kidnapped. Shaw, meanwhile, reluctantly agrees to help Root get closer to the Machine. They first go to a sewer, where Shaw loosens a grille. Then, they head to a CIA pickup site where Root is taken by Shaw (posing as a CIA agent) and two other agents to a CIA black site. Jason, who is alive, is one of the people being held there along with a recently-entered Root. Jason tells Root about Collier's organization Vigilance, and blames himself for the death of Wayne Kruger (in "Nothing to Hide"), as he told them about him. Jason explains that he only told Vigilance to scare Kruger, but they killed him, leading him to desert the organization. Root says that she's there for Jason. The prisoners are loaded into a truck driven by Shaw, and Root breaks Jason out. They are intercepted by Vigilance soldiers, leading to a shootout. Reese arrives there and finds Shaw. Root takes Jason underground in the sewer that she and Shaw went to earlier, while Collier grabs Sloan and holds him at gunpoint. He gives Reese the option of pursuing him or saving Sloan, and shoots Sloan in the femoral artery before running off. Reese tends to Sloan's injuries and Collier escapes. Root, meanwhile, gives Jason money and information for a new home and identity in South America. She claims that she's just following orders before Jason leaves. Two Vigilance soldiers show up with guns, and Shaw shoots them dead. Root says that the mission is done, and Shaw punches her unconscious. Later, Finch begins keeping Root in the Library, and she tells him that the Machine will get angry at him for keeping her there. Finch questions why she hasn't considered that the Machine wants her there, and leaves, locking the door as she is left thinking. 3.07 The Perfect Mark – While Finch still keeps Root hostage, he who can't understand why the Machine is in contact with her, he is the first to make contact with their latest number, that of hypnotherapist Hayden Price. The fact that his credentials seem made up, and that the therapy session in which Finch has with him seems more like a fishing exercise to obtain answers to secret website questions, lead Finch to quickly come to the conclusion that Price is a con man, out to bilk his patients. However, he still believes that Price is the intended target. In following Price's world, Reese, Shaw and Finch unexpectedly intersect with Carter, who, with Laskey by her side, is still trying to find out the head of HR to bring them down. One of Price's clients is antiques dealer Sven Vanger, who they learn has been laundering money for HR in a somewhat creative manner. They have to find why Price's life may be in danger because of his connection to Sven and indirectly to HR. But Price's true profession begs the question that if he's conning someone, could someone in turn be conning him? 3.08 Endgame – Finch receives thirty-eight numbers from the Machine. They are all for New York police officers, four who are known to be within HR's ranks. Reese knows Carter's focus has been to bring down HR, which she can only do by finding out who the head of HR is. And he also learns from Fusco that things seem to be breaking down between HR and the Russians, led by Peter Yorgorov. Reese is worried that Carter, who has not told anyone that she's found out that Alonzo Quinn is the head of HR or that she was present at the shooting deaths of Officer Mike Laskey and Detective Raymond Terney, is orchestrating HR's downfall, hence the reason for the thirty-eight numbers. Carter implies as much to Reese. She also tells both Reese and Fusco that she needs to handle this issue on her own, despite their respective arguments that they can help. Carter decides to enlist those only on an as need be basis, but she has to be careful who she can and cannot trust, especially those outside her inner circle. Things take a turn when Finch receives more and more numbers which provide some indication of how deep and widespread the HR/Russian connection is, and how massive the fight is into which Carter is getting herself. 3.09 The Crossing – Part 2 of the "HR" story arc. After capturing Alonzo Quinn in the previous episode, Reese and Carter are trekking across town to bring him to the FBI. Officer Simmons alerts both HR and several criminal groups of Reese's identity, so his means of getting across the city are limited. After fighting several thugs and corrupt police officers working for HR, the trio breaks into the city morgue. Meanwhile, Fusco gets caught by HR while relaying information to Carter and is tortured by Simmons. After refusing to give the location of a safe deposit box with evidence against HR in it, Simmons sends one of his men to kill Fusco's son. Shaw breaks into Fusco's house and saves the child. Eventually, Fusco frees himself by breaking his own thumb to get out of handcuffs and kills the HR cop interrogating him. Holing up in the morgue, Reese and Carter bond and Reese surprisingly shows his true feelings for her by kissing her. Suddenly, a group of HR cops infiltrates the morgue and shut off the power, trapping Reese, Carter and Quinn, who is unconscious, in the room. Reese distracts Carter and leaves to fight the corrupt cops, to Carter's chagrin. Reese manages to kill all but one of the HR cops, and leads the final one out onto the street. Finch organizes for two honest policemen to arrest Reese as a means of escape from HR. During this time, Carter breaks free of the room and manages to bring Quinn to FBI Headquarters in Lower Manhattan. The episode skips forward to a news report revealing that Quinn was charged with multiple offenses and HR was disbanded with the exception of a few rogue officers, one of the few being Simmons. It skips forward once again to Carter walking up the steps of her station's entrance (now once again promoted to detective), but is stopped by Reese. The two talk, and Reese speaks his gratitude that Carter was with him in the morgue. Finch is parked down the street and is waiting for Reese, but a payphone starts ringing. Finch freezes to go answer it, and Simmons suddenly appears from down the street and shoots at Reese and Carter, hitting Reese in the shoulder and chest and Carter in the heart. Simmons is shot by Carter as she falls, but he is only wounded and escapes. With both of them severely injured, Reese holds Carter in his arms as she survives her last seconds. She makes Reese promise to take care of her son, and dies. Reese attempts to hold back tears as Finch stares on in shock and the payphone continues to ring for an eerily long time. 3.10 The Devil's Share – Flashbacks in this episode illuminate Finch's dealing with survivor's guilt which likely is the impetus to add the backdoor to the Machine, Reese's time doing wetwork, Shaw's former life as a surgeon striving for technical excellence while completely indifferent to the people she helped, and Fusco's recounting of exacting vigilante-style justice to a crook that slipped through the system (the devil's share). The race is on to get to Simmons before he can make his escape. Reese starts sliding into his old, dark ways while also sliding towards death from wounds dealt by Simmons in the last episode. Finch, Fusco, and Shaw go to an HR attorney to get information on Quinn's whereabouts so they can question him for Simmons' plan, but the Russians have killed him, shortly after Reese was able to get the information. The team turns to Root, who is able to get her knowledge from the all-seeing Machine. She joins them at the FBI safehouse and helps hold off the Russians. Reese gets Simmons' location and is just about to kill Quinn when Finch reminds him that killing Quinn now would destroy Carter's legacy of bringing him down legally, and he collapses. The team, minus Fusco who stays with Quinn until FBI backup can arrive, get Reese to medical care. Fusco finds the note that Reese dropped, and goes after Simmons. After a brutal fistfight, Fusco emotionally refuses to kill Simmons as he might have in the past but takes him into custody, citing Carter's influence for turning his life around. Finch and Shaw return to the library, and Root, despite having opportunity to flee, returns to her cell, and Finch thanks her for helping him in saving his friend Reese. Ultimately, Elias has Simmons murdered in the hospital. 3.11 Lethe – After Carter's death and the war with HR, Reese leaves the POI team and heads for Colorado, where his father had lived. Meanwhile, the Machine provides a new number to Harold, who at first is reluctant, but eventually accepts it on Root's insistence. The number belongs to Arthur Claypool, Harold's close friend during his days at MIT. Claypool has been diagnosed with a brain tumor and is being monitored at the hospital. Shaw disguises herself as a doctor to get close to Arthur, who is kept under Secret Service protection as he inadvertently spills some top secret information about a project called Samaritan. Flashbacks to Harold's teenage life are shown, where the initial idea for creating the Machine emerges in response to his father's memory loss. Arthur's wife tells Shaw that Arthur works for the NSA, and Collier's group Vigilance tries to abduct him. Shaw, Harold, Arthur and his wife escape to a hotel, where Harold talks to Arthur to get more information about Samaritan. Arthur describes his involvement in the creation of an AI-like the Machine and his project shutdown. Fusco finds Reese in Colorado, where he tries to persuade Reese to come home before they fight outside the bar. As Arthur talks with Finch, he remembers that he buried his wife two years earlier, and the woman pretending to be Arthur's wife reveals herself as Control. Her agents led by Hersh barge into the room and capture Shaw, Arthur, and Harold. Control threatens to kill either Arthur or Harold - whoever does not give up the location of his respective Machine. The episode ends with the Machine analyzing threats to its assets and itself, along with Arthur's machine, Samaritan, having its status changed from "Deactivated" to "Unknown". 3.12 Aletheia – This continues from the previous episode where Harold, Shaw and Arthur are held captive by Control for information. Shaw is deemed to be not useful and is about to be killed, when Root comes guns blazing and gets them out of there. But Root is shot and captured by Control. Meanwhile it is revealed that Arthur had made a copy of Samaritan before it was destroyed. He stored it in a bank locker. But as they go to get it, Vigilance comes and Harold locks himself, Arthur and the bank manager in the vault. Shaw gets a bomb ready to get everyone out. Inside the vault Harold reveals to Arthur that The Machine exists and convinces him to destroy Samaritan so that it won't fall into wrong hands. Vigilance breaks through the vault and captures everyone including Shaw, but they are saved by Reese and Lionel. The Machine guides Root to escape from Control after having been tortured. She is later shown in a South East Asian restaurant. Root also calls Harold to tell him that the Samaritan drives are not destroyed because the bank manager was murdered and replaced and she had swapped the drives. Later the "bank manager" is shown handing over the drives to Greer from Decima Technologies, saying that he has great plans for Samaritan (just after shooting the "bank manager" through the heart). 3.13 4C – Reese boards a last minute plane to Istanbul, hoping to leave New York and his recent past behind him, but the Machine has other ideas. Reese quickly realizes the Machine has intentionally placed him on this flight to ensure that Owen, a critical witness in a major international drug trafficking case, arrives safely at his destination. Stealing a WiFi-enabled cell phone to contact Finch, the pair discover that Owen is a person of interest who blurs the line between ‘relevant’ and ‘irrelevant’ – but everyone seems to want him dead. With some help from a friendly flight attendant, Reese manages to help Owen escape two cartel hit men and a burly ISA agent onboard before breaking into the cockpit and subduing the final assassin, with Finch taking control of the plane remotely to land it safely. The ordeal helps Reese realize that despite his issues with the Machine’s way of doing things, there is no one better than him at this particular job. 3.14 Provenance – Our heroes are given the number for a POI named Kelly Lin, whom they originally believe to be an accomplished event planner but turns out to be a former Chinese Olympic gymnast turned high-end thief. Shaw interferes with Kelly’s plan to steal a Gutenberg Bible and detains her, only to learn that Kelly was forced into the life of crime by a group of Czech extortionists who kidnapped her daughter, Kai. Cyril, her point of contact with the Czechs, informs her that she’ll never see her daughter again if she can’t procure the Bible for him, so our heroes agree to help Kelly steal the Bible and save her daughter. Unfortunately, the Gutenberg Bible has been moved inside a state-of-the-art security complex in the financial district, so Finch and the team have to get creative in order to break in. He enlists Zoe’s help to get Reese, Shaw, and Kelly inside, and then uses all the technology at his disposal to help them get past the building’s impressive security systems. Reese acts as a decoy, gets arrested, and then escapes with the help of Fusco, while Shaw and Kelly locate the Bible and manage to escape in the nick of time. Kelly brings the Bible to Cyril, who refuses to honor their agreement and demands that she continue working for him. He calls his counterparts in Prague to threaten Kelly’s daughter again, but is surprised when Reese answers on the other end, takes out the Czech extortionists, and rescues Kai. 3.15 Last Call – When the number of Sandra, a 911 operator, comes up, Harold goes undercover at the 911 call-center. Later a child is kidnapped and the call is specifically routed to Sandra and she is ordered to delete an earlier day's 911 call logs, in return for the child's life. Meanwhile the case overlaps with one of the murder cases with which Fusco was helping a rookie detective. It turns out that a woman was killed by her married ex-boyfriend and boss, and the family hired a cleaner to erase the final 911 call she made. When Fusco 'convinces' the family to terminate the contract, the cleaner decides to kill both the child and Sandra. Reese and Shaw save the child from kidnappers and a bomb, while Harold traps the assassin who came after Sandra. The team is never able to find the real cleaner, who calls Finch to threaten him. 3.16 RAM – In 2010, Harold was working with a man called Dillinger, an ex-Blackwater mercenary who performed the same duties currently performed by Reese. Their current number is Daniel Casey, a hacker who tests computer security systems. They soon find out that multiple parties are attempting to eliminate Casey, including Reese and Stanton (secretly arranged by Control). Dillinger saves Casey and brings him to Harold, who realizes Casey's last job was to find a way to access the Machine. Although Casey failed, he learned enough to warrant Control and Special Counsel to want him dead and his laptop destroyed. Dillinger turns on Finch and steals the laptop from him to sell on the black market. The sale is busted by another agent of Special Counsel (revealed to be Shaw) who kills Dillinger, but fails to stop one of the buyers from escaping with the laptop. Casey is captured by Reese, who decides to let him live against his orders, providing him with safe passage to Canada. Control traces the laptop to China, and orders that Reese and Stanton are sent after the laptop and destroyed along with it. In the present day, Root finds Casey in Alaska and tells him to go to Cartagena, Colombia and seek out Jason Greenfield, her number from "Mors Praematura". 3.17 "/" Root Path – The Machine orders Root on several tasks such as helping a convict escape and using him to impersonate someone and obtain a secret note. Then she and Harold's team coincidentally reach the same person, a janitor. It later turns out that NSA had built the fastest computer chip and the janitor was one of the 15 people who had access to the development lab. This makes both Decima and Vigilance come after him. Whilst Harold and his team had to protect the janitor, Root had to stop the chip from falling into Decima's hands. They are able to save the janitor, but Decima gets the chip. 3.18 Allegiance – The team receives the number of Maria Martinez, an engineer working for the international energy company HydralCorp. They follow her and learn that she is working to clear the name of Omar Risha, a man from Iraq suspected of being a terrorist. Shaw, Fusco and Reese save Maria from an assassination attempt and learn from her that Omar was her translator in Iraq and saved her from a terrorist ambush during the shipment of six generators; the generators went missing and Omar learned about their disappearance, being targeted for it and on the run, soon being deported back to Iraq, where he is bound to be killed. Finch meets with Omar and learns that the generators were shipped elsewhere and that HydralCorp's corrupt CEO Ken Davis is responsible. Maria and Shaw, meanwhile, discover that Davis has created a false report of Omar's terrorist accusations, and that French United Nations diplomat Rene Lapointe has the papers approving Omar's asylum in the US in his office. Maria escapes from Shaw and goes to get them. Knowing that she is in deep trouble, Finch sends Reese, Fusco and Omar to break into the UN building and save Maria. They stop Greek diplomat Christos Sevon from killing Maria and reunite with Omar. The episode periodically shows Root's new mission of following Decima head Greer; she takes Bear with her to spy on him, where it is revealed that Davis had the generators shipped to the US so Greer can power Samaritan; Greer has Davis killed and leaves, and Root follows him, using Bear's sense of smell to evade Greer's counter-surveillance tactics. Greer waits for her at an empty lot and talks with her about his motives, offering her a position on his team. Root wonders why he's negotiating, but Greer's men appear and point their guns at her. Greer calls the meeting a draw and leaves, allowing her to do so as well. She looks on. 3.19 Most Likely To... – The team witness their new number, Leona Wainwright being killed by a car bomb. She was working for the government managing security clearances; Finch deduces from cell phone information that she was killed by Vigilance. Their next number, prosecutor Matthew Reed, comes soon after, and Reese and Shaw are dispatched to a high school reunion in Westchester. They manage to prevent the planned murder from happening, even while fending off an ambush by Vigilance. Meanwhile, Finch and Fusco go to Washington, D.C. to find out why Leona was targeted, but Vigilance beats them to it, and Peter Collier obtains classified documents about the Machine, which he leaks to the press. Senator Ross Garrison publicly denies existence of the Machine, while ordering Control to shut the program down. However, it is revealed that the Machine responded by redirecting the relevant numbers to Root instead. 3.20 Death Benefit – The new number is Congressman Roger McCourt, a self-described dealmaker; the team is initially baffled, since he has no enemies and there seems to be no danger to his life at all. They eventually discover a connection to Decima: McCourt admits agreeing to help Decima with favorable legislation in the Congress (granting Decima access to government surveillance feeds), while Decima gives him insider stock trading tips. Reese concludes that they are meant to be the danger, as the Machine wants them to kill McCourt in order to prevent Decima killing many more people. Harold is disturbed at this conclusion, and leaves the team, not wishing to participate in an assassination. McCourt is left alive, and proceeds with Decima's plan. Greer also approaches a reluctant Senator Garrison, offering him a 24-hour beta test of their machine. Meanwhile, Root is travelling across the country, dealing with various relevant threats. 3.21 Beta – With Finch having disappeared, Decima initiates their plan with Samaritan, and when unable to find Finch, they look for his closest connection and the number received is that of Finch's fiancee Grace. The Machine also provides Grace's number as a result, and Reese, Shaw and Root work to protect her while evading Decima, who use Samaritan to spy on them within the range of New York. Grace is eventually kidnapped and interviewed by Greer, who reveals his extensive knowledge of her and begins asking about her life with Finch. When he implies that Finch lied to her, Grace snaps and firmly tells Greer that Finch would never lie as Grace gave him her unbreakable trust. When the team manages to locate Decima's current HQ, Greer takes Grace and tells Reese and Shaw that they can get Grace back in exchange for giving them Finch. Finch agrees to the deal, and at Jefferson Bridge, Grace is blindfolded and brought to Reese and crew while Finch is taken by Decima. Reese later gives Grace an envelope, saying that she has been accepted for a job in Italy. Greer, meanwhile, finally meets Finch in person and sits down with him to talk. 3.22 A House Divided – In a series of flashbacks to 2010, the narrative reveals the backstory on Collier, the face of Vigilance. His brother had been falsely accused of terrorist activities, held without trial, and had committed suicide as a result. The Machine's latest numbers include Control, Senator Garrison, a presidential assistant, and a seemingly unconcerned Greer. Vigilance kidnaps them, along with Finch, and the episode ends with Vigilance about to conduct a private trial of their detainees, while Reese and Shaw, along with Hersh (joining forces after a tense confrontation) watch from a closed-circuit TV screen set up for their benefit. Meanwhile, Root has discovered the location of the Samaritan system. 3.23 Deus Ex Machina – Collier continues his trial of the people rounded up in the previous episode. Flashbacks show how Collier was recruited by Vigilance. Reese and Hersh search for the venue of the trial. Root and Shaw smuggle servers into the Samaritan array. Fusco deals with a diversion created by Vigilance. The presidential assistant is put on the stand, and Collier kills him after he becomes defiant. The Senator refuses to identify his superior, but inadvertently gives away that he reports to Control. The Senator is spared. Control refuses to confirm or deny anything. Just as Collier is about to kill her, Finch stands up and confesses that he is the author of The Machine. With a Vigilance command post now compromised, Collier takes Finch, Greer, Control and the senator away to a nearby rooftop. In an ensuing gunfight, Collier is wounded. Greer explains to Collier that he and his Decima team were the creators of Vigilance, to provide a "devil" for Samaritan to justify itself, and that it was he himself who recruited Collier. He then kills Collier, and is about to kill Finch just as Reese arrives. In this gunfight, Harold takes a shoulder wound, but is rescued by Reese. Greer is able to flee. Meanwhile, Hersh has been wounded in another gunfight, in the "trial" building. He discovers a booby-trapped bomb, and is unable to disengage it before it explodes, killing him and arriving police officers as well as anyone left inside the building from the trial. The principals all escape, but Samaritan has now been brought online and is fully operational. Root advises the team that they must abandon their library home and assume new identities. The servers that Root and Shaw had installed contain code that falsely report the team dead, and hides any information about their new identities. As the team heads off in different directions, and the remaining Vigilance team members are killed on the streets, Samaritan asks Greer for instructions. Greer turns it around and asks Samaritan what it wants his team to do. The episode ends with the Samaritan screen displaying, "Calculating response." ------------------------------Trivia:
IMDb Rating (11/23/14): 8.4/10 from 83,620 users IMDb Rating (12/22/13): 8.3/10 from 62,949 users
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