Reese continues to spend time trying to learn more about Finch and his personal life, tailing him to see if he can learn anything. He watches Finch answer a pay phone and check his cell phone before calling Reese and revealing that he has been given a new POI: Henry Peck (Jacob Pitts), a chartered financial analyst, who Reese and Finch find is actually undercover; he is a security analyst for the NSA, and a very good NOC operator. Shortly after Reese begins to survey him, Peck is targeted by an unknown group and his life is destroyed; he is first framed for drug possession and loses his job, and soon after, assassins are sent to hunt him down. Ultimately, Finch and Reese find out that Peck is being targeted by the government; he uncovered some anomalies in some of his past security reports and, unknowingly, discovered the existence of the Machine, and his inquiries into the cause of these anomalies has resulted in the government members who know about the Machine sending black ops assassins from the Intelligence Support Activity, "an obscure army unit that does black ops so dark, technically they don't exist", to silence Peck. Reese saves Peck a number of times from the 3-man assassination team, while Peck continually manages to give him the slip thanks to his NSA training. Peck, while in NYPD protective custody, finally realizes that the Machine really does exist, and hopes to find someone he can tell his discoveries to. Reese sneaks him out of the police station and, after being attacked by an assassin (Marc Menchaca), who he kills, loses Peck again. The next day, Peck arranges a meeting with a reporter, but Finch shows up instead. Finch answers some of his questions about the Machine, but suggests that he stop looking for answers, and then offers him an escape with a new identity. It is unclear what Peck decided, but Finch ends the conversation by telling Peck that Finch was the one who built the Machine. In a series of flashbacks to 2009, Nathan Ingram is ready to deliver the Machine's hardware to his government contact, Alicia Corwin (Elizabeth Marvel). Alicia confirms with Nathan that only seven people in the world know about the Machine, although Finch, unknown to Alicia, makes it eight. Nathan, while talking with Finch, expresses concern about the morality of the way the Machine operates, and asks about making a backdoor entry in the Machine for the irrelevant threats in case the Machine is ever abused, which Finch claims is impossible as it could compromise the system's security. Ultimately, Nathan starts developing a contingency program alone; he hacks Finch's code and accesses the irrelevant list, hoping to help the people who show up as irrelevant. The very first POI is Anna Sanders, who Nathan appears to choose to help save her life. Reese eventually tracks down Finch's former fiancé, Grace (Carrie Preston); and comes to know that their relationship ended when Finch "died" in an accident two years ago. Finch, aware of Reese's efforts, tells Reese that he had to leave Grace for her own protection: if the government ever came to know that he created the Machine, Grace's safety would have been put in jeopardy. Reese subsequently gains a new appreciation of Finch's privacy. With a flashback to the conversation between Finch and Peck, all of which has been recorded by Alicia, including Finch's admittance to building the Machine.
Air Date: May 10, 2012
Written by David Slack and directed by Stephen Williams.