GHOSTS (1.02)

Reese takes the case of Teresa Whitiker (Valentina de Angelis), a girl who supposedly died with her family two years previously. Reviewing the evidence, Reese finds the crime scene was staged to look like a murder-suicide. He deduces that Teresa's family was killed by a hitman, and that there is still a price on her head. He follows leads back to Solmick (Michael Medeiros), the original contract killer, who admits he let Teresa live because he refuses to kill children. Meanwhile, Detective Carter starts investigating Reese, using his fingerprints to access his file, only to discover it has been redacted. Using information given to him by Reese, Finch manages to locate Teresa, but they are interrupted by the arrival of another hitman (Ritchie Coster). Reese intervenes in time to save them, leaving Teresa in the care of Carter. When asked about Reese, Teresa claims the experience was too traumatic to recall anything. (The episode is interjected with flashbacks of Finch and his partner at the founding of "The Machine".) Finch is concerned that if the public ever found out about it, he would be forced to shut it down. At the end, a memorial bust of Finch's partner (Brett Cullen) is shown in his offices.

Air Date: September 29, 2011
Written by Greg Plageman & Jonathan Nolan and directed by Richard J. Lewis.

PILOT (1.01)

 
John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former CIA agent and Army Special Forces soldier-turned homeless alcoholic, has a struggle with a group of hot-headed teenagers on the subway. After this, he is extracted from police custody, before Homicide Detective Joss Carter (Taraji P. Henson) can confront him on his links to previous killings discovered through analysis of his fingerprints on the police system. Reese is brought to a mysterious and somewhat secretive billionaire, Harold Finch (Michael Emerson), who is the creator of the next-generation software, "The Machine". After 9/11, Finch developed a computer program that can sift though enormous amounts of data, looking for patterns of behavior or activity that would predict another attack. It also provided information about individuals who could be in danger; it can predict the identity of a person involved in a premeditated crime that will happen at some point in the future – however, Finch's back-door link to the Machine only provides the Social Security number of the person, and offers no clues to their involvement or when the crime will take place. Finch, who needs to do something to help these people, enlists Reese to aid him in preventing these crimes. Finch offers Reese a job to do this, as well as give Reese a purpose following the death of his girlfriend, Jessica (Susan Misner) (which is the source of his depression). The first on his list is Diane Hansen (Natalie Zea), an Assistant District Attorney currently working on a major prosecution of a prominent drug killing. Reese agrees to help and begins by watching her. Reese soon learns that Hansen is not the victim, but the perpetrator, running a ring of corrupt police officers and planning to kill a fellow DA, Wheeler (Brian d'Arcy James). After blackmailing one of the corrupt officers, Detective Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman), into being his source of information inside the NYPD, Reese reveals Hansen's corruption to an open court, kills the leader of the corrupt gang of cops, and links Fusco to the crime to ensure his future cooperation. Having previously rejected Finch's offer of work, Reese recants and agrees to continue preventing violent crimes.

Air Date: September 22, 2011
Written by Jonathan Nolan and directed by David Semel.