Person of Interest Trivia
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139 free Person of Interest trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Person of Interest trivia quiz covers all 103 episodes of Jonathan Nolan's CBS series, from the pilot's subway brawl to the ringing payphone at the end of "return 0". The easy questions are ones any regular viewer can handle: who plays Finch and Reese, what the Machine hands out, which network aired it, and the name of the team's Belgian Malinois. The harder end is for people who remember the numbers. It asks about Northern Lights and the Ordos laptop, HR and Alonzo Quinn, Elias's war with the Russians and the Brotherhood, Root's origin in Bishop, Texas, Shaw's first episode, Carter's last one, God Mode, the ferry bombing that killed Nathan Ingram, Samaritan and Decima, Vigilance's kangaroo court, the chess games and simulations of "If-Then-Else", simulation 6,741, the 300 PlayStations, ICE-9, and how the finale plays out. There are also questions on the people behind the show: Nolan and his uncle John, J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, composer Ramin Djawadi, and the cast's other work from Lost to Empire. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its season and character lists, individual episodes and the cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our FBI and cybersecurity quizzes next.
30 of 139 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which US network did Person of Interest air?
CBS
Person of Interest aired on CBS for five seasons, from September 2011 to June 2016.
Q 02Who created the series?
Jonathan Nolan
Jonathan Nolan created it; his brother Christopher directed the Dark Knight films the two co-wrote.
Q 03Who plays reclusive billionaire Harold Finch?
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson plays Harold Finch, the reclusive billionaire who built the Machine and recruits Reese in the pilot.
Q 04Who plays John Reese?
Jim Caviezel
Jim Caviezel plays John Reese, the homeless ex-operative Finch recruits in the pilot; Caviezel also starred in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).
Q 05What does the Machine give Finch to identify a person of interest?
A Social Security number
The Machine gives Finch only a Social Security number, never saying whether that person will be the victim or the perpetrator.
Q 06Which agency did Reese work for before Finch found him?
The CIA
Before that he was a US Army Special Forces soldier.
Q 07In Person of Interest, the government labels the everyday murders Finch chooses to act on with what term?
Irrelevant
The 'irrelevant' list covers numbers deemed unimportant to national security — the everyday threats the government ignores and Finch takes on.
Q 08How many episodes did the series run?
103
Person of Interest ran 103 episodes; the final season, aired in 2016, was a shortened 13-episode run.
Q 09Which historical event prompted Finch to build the Machine?
The September 11 attacks
Finch built the Machine after the September 11 attacks, to sift surveillance data for future terror plots, with Nathan Ingram as its public face.
Q 10Who plays Detective Carter?
Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson plays Detective Joss Carter, the dogged NYPD cop who hunts and then allies with Reese; she left during season 3.
Q 11Who plays Detective Lionel Fusco?
Kevin Chapman
Kevin Chapman plays Lionel Fusco, the corrupt detective who becomes a loyal ally; Chapman had earlier appeared in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003).
Q 12Who plays the hacker Root?
Amy Acker
Amy Acker plays Root, the hacker who debuts in season 1 and grows from antagonist into one of Finch's closest allies.
Q 13Who plays Sameen Shaw?
Sarah Shahi
Shahi joined as a recurring character in season 2 and became a regular in season 3.
Q 14What is Root's real name?
Q 21Who kills Carter?
Patrick Simmons
Elias later has Simmons murdered in his hospital bed as payback.
Q 22Which crime boss does Enrico Colantoni play?
Carl Elias
Enrico Colantoni plays Carl Elias, the mob heir who first appears as a mild schoolteacher on the run from the Russian mob.
Q 23What alias is Elias using when Reese first protects him?
Charlie Burton
Elias poses as schoolteacher Charlie Burton; Reese only realises the man he saved from the Russians is the mob heir at the end of the episode.
Whose illegitimate son is Elias?
Samantha Groves
Her friends call her Sam; only her mother's death sent her out of Texas.
Q 15What does the Machine eventually make Root?
Its analog interface
The Machine makes Root its analog interface, first contacting her while Finch has her confined in a psychiatric hospital after season 2.
Q 16What breed of dog is Bear?
Belgian Malinois
Bear is a Belgian Malinois trained to Dutch commands, a former attack dog who becomes the team's loyal guard.
Q 17Which type of animal supplies Finch's aliases such as Wren, Crow and Swift?
Birds
Finch's aliases are all birds — Wren, Crow, Swift, and Finch itself; Harold Wren is the one he used while working alongside Nathan Ingram.
Q 18What nickname does law enforcement give Reese?
The Man in the Suit
Police and the press call Reese 'the Man in the Suit'; Detective Carter spends much of season 1 trying to identify him.
Q 19What is HR?
A network of corrupt cops and officials
A network of corrupt cops and officials whose true leader turns out to be a political fixer in the mayor's office.
Q 20Who is the head of HR?
Alonzo Quinn
Alonzo Quinn, the mayor's political fixer, is HR's hidden boss; Clarke Peters, best known from The Wire, plays him.
Don Gianni Moretti's
Elias is the illegitimate son of Don Gianni Moretti; in 'Flesh and Blood' Elias has his father killed.
Q 25In which season 1 episode does Elias first appear on screen?
Witness
Elias debuts in 'Witness', the seventh episode, hiding as a schoolteacher whom Reese must protect from the Russian mob in Brighton Beach.
Q 26Which Black Panther actor plays gang leader Dominic Besson?
Winston Duke
Winston Duke, later M'Baku in Black Panther, plays Dominic, the ambitious gang leader who challenges Elias in season 4.
Q 27Who plays Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in building the Machine?
Brett Cullen
Brett Cullen plays Nathan Ingram, Finch's friend from MIT who served as the Machine's public face and handed it to the government.
Q 28How does Nathan Ingram die?
In a ferry bombing
Ingram dies in the 2010 ferry bombing; Finch survives the same blast, which leaves him with his limp and rigid neck.
Q 29What was the government's codename for the Machine project?
Northern Lights
The Machine program's codename was Northern Lights; Control ran the ISA operation that acted on its relevant numbers.
Q 30For how much did Ingram's company sell the Machine to the government?
One dollar
Ingram's firm handed the Machine to the government for a token one dollar, as season 1 flashbacks show.