140 Fun Facts About Person of Interest

On which US network did Person of Interest air?

It ran from September 2011 to June 2016.

Who created the series?

His brother Christopher directed the Dark Knight films the two co-wrote.

Who plays reclusive billionaire Harold Finch?

Emerson had just finished playing Ben Linus on Lost.

Who plays John Reese?

Caviezel did most of his own stunts, drawing on childhood martial arts and adult boxing.

What does the Machine give Finch to identify a person of interest?

It never says whether that person is the victim or the perpetrator.

Which agency did Reese work for before Finch found him?

Before that he was a US Army Special Forces soldier.

What term does the government use for the crimes Finch chooses to act on?

The Machine was built to delete that list every night at midnight.

How many episodes did the series run?

Five seasons, the last a shortened 13-episode run in 2016.

How many seasons were there?

The final season was a midseason replacement of just 13 episodes.

Which historical event prompted Finch to build the Machine?

Ingram brought him the news while he was working on a new program.

Who plays Detective Carter?

She left the show in season 3 and went on to play Cookie Lyon on Fox.

Who plays Detective Lionel Fusco?

Chapman had been a doorman and stand-up comedian before acting.

Who plays the hacker Root?

From the 100th episode she also voiced the Machine.

Who plays Sameen Shaw?

Shahi joined as a recurring character in season 2 and became a regular in season 3.

What is Root's real name?

Her friends call her Sam; only her mother's death sent her out of Texas.

What does the Machine eventually make Root?

It picks her while she is locked in a psychiatric hospital by Finch.

What breed of dog is Bear?

Reese rescues him from Aryan Nationalists who used him as an attack dog.

Which type of animal supplies Finch's aliases such as Wren, Crow and Swift?

Harold Wren is the one he uses most, including at IFT with Nathan Ingram.

What nickname does law enforcement give Reese?

Reese's real name is never revealed; John Reese is itself an alias.

What is HR?

Its true leader turns out to be a political fixer in the mayor's office.

Who is the head of HR?

Clarke Peters, best known from The Wire, plays him.

Who kills Carter?

Elias later has Simmons murdered in his hospital bed as payback.

Which crime boss does Enrico Colantoni play?

Elias first appears as a mild-mannered schoolteacher on the run.

What alias is Elias using when Reese first protects him?

Reese only realises the schoolteacher is the mob heir once they escape the Russians.

Whose illegitimate son is Elias?

Elias eventually has his father's car blown up from prison.

Which crime family boss is Elias's nemesis for the underworld?

Elias wants to purge Brighton Beach of the Russian mob.

Which Black Panther actor plays gang leader Dominic Besson?

Sterling K. Brown is also in the show, as Carter's boyfriend Cal Beecher.

Who plays Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in building the Machine?

Ingram and Finch met at MIT.

How does Nathan Ingram die?

Finch survives the same blast, which leaves him with his limp and rigid neck.

What was the government's codename for the Machine project?

Control ran the ISA operation that handled the relevant numbers.

For how much did Ingram's company sell the Machine to the government?

Denton Weeks was dismayed to find the price so low.

What was the name of Ingram's company?

Finch worked there disguised as an ordinary employee.

Who plays Finch's fiancée Grace?

Preston is married to Emerson in real life.

What is Grace's profession?

Finch quietly makes sure she always has work through his business connections.

Where does Finch find Grace in the series finale?

He had arranged a new life for her there in season 3.

What is Reese's cover job in seasons 4 and 5?

As Detective John Riley he joins the 8th Precinct's homicide task force.

Where does the team set up its season 4 hideout?

The Machine leads Finch to the disused Interborough Rapid Transit station.

What was the team's base for the first three seasons?

Its shelves are covered in photos of every number the team has worked.

What is Samaritan?

Unlike the Machine it is an open system that can be pointed at targets.

Which company acquires and runs Samaritan?

It was originally a private intelligence firm chasing the Machine.

Who developed Samaritan's original code?

Claypool was an MIT classmate of Finch and Ingram; Congress killed his project when the Machine came first.

Who plays Greer, the head of Decima?

He is the real-life uncle of the series creator.

What is the actor who plays Greer's family link to the show's creator?

He also played a Wayne Enterprises board member in Batman Begins for nephew Christopher.

Which British intelligence agency did Greer once serve?

He also had a stint in the British Army.

What is Vigilance?

Greer reveals he created it himself to justify Samaritan.

Which Hamilton star plays Vigilance leader Peter Collier?

Collier's real name is Peter Brandt.

Who is revealed to have secretly created Vigilance?

He wanted an atrocity to sell Samaritan to the government.

Who plays Control, the head of the ISA's Machine operation?

Control ends up an uneasy puppet at the head of Samaritan.

Which Machine-related episode gives Reese and Root full administrative access?

The season 2 finale ends with a payphone calling Root.

Where had the Machine been kept, as Root and Finch discover in the season 2 finale?

It had already moved itself, using code Finch hid to let it protect itself.

Which Chinese city was the source of the stolen Machine-code laptop?

Reese and his CIA partner were sent to retrieve it; Greer's and Chinese teams were also after it.

Who was Reese's CIA partner, presumed dead after the China mission?

She resurfaces working for Decima.

Which House of Cards actor plays CIA agent Mark Snow?

Snow tells Carter that Reese killed his own partner.

How did Reese's girlfriend Jessica really die?

Peter Arndt staged a car crash to cover it up.

Where was Jessica living when she dated Reese before 2001?

They were on holiday in Mexico when the September 11 news broke.

What was Shaw's medical background before the ISA?

Superiors faulted her lack of feeling for patients.

In which episode does Shaw first appear?

Nolan directed it himself; it follows Shaw and her partner Cole working the relevant numbers.

What condition does Shaw claim to have in her first appearance?

She also cites alexithymia, an inability to express emotions.

Where was Root raised?

Freeport, Texas is Nathan Ingram's birthplace.

Which computer game was young Sam Groves finishing when her friend Hanna vanished?

She saw Hanna get into Trent Russell's car and was called a liar by the librarian.

Which Justified actress plays Barbara, the librarian who covered for Hanna's killer?

Barbara later married the killer, Trent Russell.

Under what alias does Root first meet Finch face to face?

She put a hit on herself through HR so the Machine would spit out her number.

Whom does Root shoot dead in the season 1 finale?

Corwin had just cornered Finch to demand he shut the Machine down.

What does Root say she wants to do with the Machine when she kidnaps Finch?

She sees it as a perfect intelligence and people as bad code.

Where does Reese first meet Bear?

Bear understands commands in Dutch.

Which Lost actor plays Leon Tao, the recurring get-rich-quick number?

Tao is a three-time person of interest with forensic accounting skills.

Who plays fixer Zoe Morgan?

Turco played April O'Neil in two Ninja Turtles films.

Which nicknames does Fusco give Reese and Finch?

Shaw is Looney Tunes and Root is Cocoa Puffs.

In which episode does Fusco finally learn the Machine exists?

It is the season 5 episode that also reunites Root and Shaw.

What does Fusco do to free himself when HR tortures him in season 3?

He then kills Detective Petersen and saves the safe deposit box evidence.

Which episode is Carter's last as a regular?

She returns as a hallucination in season 4's "Terra Incognita".

What does Fusco refuse to do to Simmons after their fistfight in "The Devil's Share"?

He cites Carter's influence for turning his life around; Elias's man does the killing instead.

Which member of Team Machine is a former Marine?

Reese was Army Special Forces, not a Marine.

Where did Carter serve as an Army interrogator?

She passed the bar in 2004 but chose police work over law.

What is the name of Carter's son?

Elias has him kidnapped to force her to hand over the mob dons.

Which precinct is home to Carter and Fusco's homicide task force?

Fusco came from the 51st Precinct vice squad.

What game does Finch teach the Machine in the "If-Then-Else" flashbacks?

He tells it that people who treat life as a game deserve to lose.

Who shoots Shaw at the end of "If-Then-Else"?

Shaw had just kissed Root and stepped out of the elevator to hit an override button.

Why was Shaw written out in the middle of season 4?

Shahi called the exit temporary, and the season 4 finale confirmed Shaw was alive.

What survival odds does the Machine give the team's chosen plan in "If-Then-Else"?

The odds climb to 22.48% once Shaw arrives with explosives.

Which Glitch Mob track scores the simulations in "If-Then-Else"?

The episode title itself is a nod to programming syntax.

What has Samaritan attacked at the start of "If-Then-Else"?

The team heads to the exchange to restart the market.

What does the title "6,741" refer to?

The whole episode turns out to be one of thousands of Samaritan simulations.

What does the team steal to give the Machine enough storage in "B.S.O.D."?

Reese keeps them from overheating with liquid nitrogen.

What does the Machine spread itself across in "YHWH"?

Samaritan's power surges are meant to fry the boxes on the poles.

What is Samaritan's "Correction"?

Control assumes it is a terrorist attack on the Supreme Court and gets it wrong.

What is the name of the virus Finch weaponises against Samaritan?

It will also destroy the Machine and much of the world's computing.

Where does Finch upload the virus in ".exe"?

He infiltrates the NSA there and is captured before he can activate it.

How does Greer die?

Reese and Shaw get the Machine inside in time to save Finch.

Who kills Root?

Shaw recognises his gun in the finale and later hunts him down.

Whose voice does the Machine adopt in the final episodes?

Amy Acker had already been voicing the Machine since the 100th episode.

What is the title of the series finale?

It aired on June 21, 2016, and was written by Nolan and Denise Thé.

What does the finale's title mean in programming terms?

Nolan said he had never written a happy ending, and this was not one either.

Where does Samaritan hide the copy of itself that is immune to the virus?

Reese and Finch bluff their way in claiming to carry a nuclear weapon.

How does Reese die in the finale?

Finch had locked him in the vault, but the Machine sent Reese to the real antenna.

Where was Samaritan trying to upload itself in the finale?

The Machine's own copy goes up too and destroys it in orbit.

What does Shaw hear at the very end of the series?

It mirrors the way Reese first got a call from the Machine in season 1.

Which senator takes the blame for the Machine program in the finale?

John Doman, from The Wire, plays him.

Who directed the pilot?

Nolan wrote it and directed just one episode of the series himself.

How many US viewers watched the pilot?

CBS said it tested higher than any drama pilot in 15 years and moved CSI to make room.

Which long-running show did CBS move to make room for the series?

CSI had held Thursday for more than a decade.

Who is Reese's first person of interest in the pilot?

She turns out to be the perpetrator, running a ring of corrupt cops.

Whose murder does Reese use to blackmail Fusco in the pilot?

Reese makes Fusco hide the body of the corrupt cops' leader.

Which J. J. Abrams company co-produced the show?

Kilter Films is Nolan's own company; Warner Bros. Television owned the show.

Who composed the show's music?

He was scoring Game of Thrones at the same time.

Why was the series cancelled after season 5, according to Wikipedia?

Most of the ad revenue went to Warner Bros., which owned the show.

Which People's Choice Award did the show win in 2012?

It won Favorite TV Crime Drama in 2016.

Which HBO series did Nolan co-create after Person of Interest?

He co-created it with Lisa Joy; Djawadi scored that too.

Which Nolan short story did his brother Christopher adapt into a 2000 film?

Jonathan got an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.

Which 2024 video-game adaptation did Nolan direct the first episodes of?

Djawadi scored it, reuniting the composer with Nolan again.

Emerson is best known for which Lost character?

He won a Supporting Actor Emmy for the role.

Which 2004 horror film features Emerson as Zep Hindle?

He was the orderly caught in Jigsaw's game.

Reese's actor is best known for playing Jesus in which 2004 film?

He also played Edmond Dantès in The Count of Monte Cristo.

Which CBS series did Reese's actor sign on to lead, then leave, after the show ended?

David Boreanaz replaced him.

Acker first found fame as Fred Burkle on which series?

She won a 2003 Saturn Award for the role.

From which episode did Acker start voicing the Machine?

In the finale she also appears as the Machine's visual form.

On which USA Network mediation drama did Shahi star just before joining the show?

She played mediator Kate Reed.

Which Fox drama made Henson a Golden Globe winner after she left the show?

She played Cookie Lyon from 2015 to 2020.

For which David Fincher film was Henson Oscar-nominated?

She played the caretaker Queenie.

Chapman played Freddie Cork on which Showtime series?

Fittingly, season 4's gang is also called the Brotherhood.

On which teen-detective series did Colantoni play the heroine's father?

He also played Mathesar in Galaxy Quest.

Turco played April O'Neil in which film franchise?

She appeared in the second and third live-action films.

Which two composer credits does Djawadi share with Nolan besides this show?

He won both his Emmys for Game of Thrones.

Where did the show premiere in the UK?

Australia got it first, on Nine Network, three days after the US premiere.

Which Machine-planted alias buys up New York payphone companies in "Zero Day"?

The Machine created him to protect itself.

Where does Reese send abusive husband Brad to make him disappear in "Many Happy Returns"?

It is implied he did the same to Jessica's husband, Peter Arndt.

What was the last thing Finch did to the Machine's memory every night in early flashbacks?

He was afraid of its ever-expanding capabilities.

Which trio of former numbers forms a second Machine team in Washington?

They save the President in "Synecdoche".

Whose number comes up in "Synecdoche"?

Shaw worries about why Samaritan did not intervene.

What does Control do to Root while torturing her in "Aletheia"?

Root's later cochlear implant becomes a plot point in the finale.

What kind of game is mathematician Claire Mahoney solving in season 4's second episode?

Samaritan was running the game to recruit gifted minds.

Whom does Reese hallucinate while dying of hypothermia in "Terra Incognita"?

Henson returned as a guest star for the episode.

Which future This Is Us star played Cal Beecher, the narcotics detective Carter dates?

Beecher was Alonzo Quinn's godson but knew nothing of HR, and HR had him murdered.

What was Martine Rousseau's job before she became a Samaritan operative?

Cara Buono played the psychotic Decima agent who shot Shaw in 'If-Then-Else'.

Who plays Jeremy Lambert, Greer's right-hand man at Decima?

Oakes Fegley played Gabriel Hayward, the boy who serves as Samaritan's analog interface.

Under what cover name does Reese see therapist Iris Campbell after police shootings?

Wrenn Schmidt played Iris, who was assigned to him while he posed as an NYPD detective.

Which NSA deputy director commissioned the Machine's development?

Cotter Smith played him; Jacob Pitts's Henry Peck was the NSA analyst who stumbled on the Machine's existence.

Who plays Bruce Moran, Elias's accountant and boyhood friend?

He tries to hold Elias's empire together while the boss recovers; David Valcin played enforcer Anthony 'Scarface' Marconi.

Which rookie officer and Russian-mob mole is installed as Carter's partner after her demotion?

Brian Wiles played the HR-affiliated rookie; Al Sapienza's Terney was the HR detective who crossed Carter's path.

Who plays Dominic's right-hand man Link Cordell in the Brotherhood storyline?

Jessica Pimentel played Floyd, another of Dominic's lieutenants who often stood in for Link.