Finch takes the wounded Reese to the morgue where he pays a morgue assistant (Ramsey Faragallah) to suture Reese's wounds. While Reese is in a wheelchair, Finch rents an apartment for him. The building's super, Ernest Trask (David Zayas) is the newest number. Trask has bought a gun from a pawn shop and Finch discovers photos of one of the tenants, Lily Thornton (Kellie Barrett), in his office, leading them to conclude that Trask is stalking Lily. Finch follows Lily home and Reese assumes that Trask is going after Lily's boyfriend, Rick (Bill Heck). He confronts Trask, who reveals that Rick is the one stalking Lily. Finch, Trask, and Reese rush to Lily's apartment and in the resulting confrontation, Rick is thrown out of out a window. Meanwhile, Carter attempts to contact Finch. Finch agrees to meet her and offers her the number of Derek Watson, another person of interest, as a show of good faith. As a result, Carter prevents Watson from killing a banker; Finch reveals that this is his purpose. Flashbacks of Finch and his partner, Nathan Ingram, are shown throughout the episode which describe the inner workings of the Machine and show the tensions with the NSA over constitutional rights, as well as attempts by Nathan's NSA contact, Denton Weeks (Cotter Smith), to seize control of it. In the final flashback, the Machine names Nathan as a person of interest.
Air Date: January 12, 2012
Written by David Slack and directed by Stephen Williams.