Person of Interest (TV Series)

Pilot (2011)

Michael Emerson: Harold Finch

Photos 

Quotes 

• Harold Finch : You have a decision to make.

  John Reese : The machine gave you another number.

  Harold Finch : The numbers never stop coming. You should know that up front.

  John Reese : Why me?

  Harold Finch : I've been watching you for a long time, John. We have more in common than you might think. The world thinks we're both dead, for starters.

  John Reese : You programmed the machine to delete those irrelevant numbers. Now you're trying to save them. What changed your mind?

  Harold Finch : Let's just say you're not the only one that's lost someone. If you wanna leave, I'll give you enough money to get as far as you need. Disappear.

  John Reese : And if I stay?

  Harold Finch : Sooner or later both of us will probably wind up dead. Actually dead this time. I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it.

• John Reese : You don't know anything about me.

  Harold Finch : I know exactly everything about you, Mr. Reese. I know about the work you used to do for the government. I know about the doubts you came to have about that work. I know that the government, along with everybody else, thinks you're dead. I know you've spent the last couple of months trying to drink yourself to death. I know you're contemplating more efficient ways to do it. So you see, knowledge is not my problem. Doing something with that knowledge... That's where you'd come in. And you can call me Mr. Finch. I think you and I can help one another. I don't think you need a psychiatrist or a support group, or pills...

  John Reese : What do I need?

  Harold Finch : You need a purpose. More specifically, you need a job.

• Harold Finch : About that... I don't like firearms.

  John Reese : Neither do I. But if someone's going to have them, I'd rather it be me.

• John Reese : Where's the machine now?

  Harold Finch : What, the drives? Who knows? Government facility somewhere. But the machine?

  [Looks at a nearby camera] 

  Harold Finch : The machine is everywhere. Watching us with 10,000 eyes. Listening with a million ears.

  John Reese : You gave yourself a way to communicate with it?

  Harold Finch : I was building the government a tool of unimaginable power. I thought maybe an off switch would come in handy. So I built myself a back door into it.

  John Reese : To access the irrelevant list.

  Harold Finch : Just a social security number.If anyone ever found out, I'd lose access so... nine digits, that's all we get.

  John Reese : And we have no idea why it picked Diane Hansen.

  Harold Finch : It wouldn't be steering us toward her if it wasn't seeing *something*.

  John Reese : But I don't know if I can protect Hansen. I can't see the whole picture.

  Harold Finch : I offered you a job, Mr. Reese. I never said it would be easy.

• Harold Finch : Eight million people. You know what they all have in common? None of them knows what happens next. Someone is murdered in New York City every 18 hours. At the end of the day, one of these people will be gone...

  John Reese : Bad things happen to people every day. You can't stop them.

  Harold Finch : What if you could?

• Harold Finch : When the towers came down, you were in a hotel in Mexico. I was here. I was working. Didn't even know about the attacks until that evening. You see, Mr. Reese, until that day, I had spent the better part of my life making myself very rich. Suddenly all that money didn't seem to amount to much.

  [pauses, then continues the story] 

  Harold Finch : After the attacks, the government gave itself the power to read every email, listen to every cell phone, but they needed something that could sort through it all, something that could pick the terrorists out of the general population before they could act. The public wanted to be protected. They just didn't want to know how they were being protected. So when they finally got a system that worked, they kept it secret.

  John Reese : So how do you know about it?

  Harold Finch : I built it.

• John Reese : What is this place?

  Harold Finch : The decline of Western civilization. The city closed half its libraries.

  [Disdainful] 

  Harold Finch : Budget cuts. This building was sold to a bank that I control, which promptly declared bankruptcy. So the property's in a kind of limbo. It doesn't exist.

  John Reese : Neither do you. I did a little digging.

  Harold Finch : I recognize, Mr. Reese, that there's a disparity between how much I know about you and how much you know about me. I know you'll be trying to close that gap as quickly as possible. But I should tell you... I'm a really private person.

• Harold Finch : This recording is three years old. A woman murdered in this room by her husband. For the insurance. You were too late for her. Just like you were too late for your friend Jessica. You were halfway around the world when she was killed.

  John Reese : What the hell do you know about it?

  Harold Finch : It's the truth. You left the government because they lied to you... I never will. I think all you ever wanted to do was protect people.

  John Reese : [Looks tape recorder]  NSA or FISA. Government. But you're not government.

  Harold Finch : No, I'm not. I guess you could call me a concerned third party. You couldn't have saved this woman... Or your friend. But you could have if you had have known in time. And that's the other thing I'm offering you, a chance to be there in time.

• Harold Finch : Knowledge is not my problem. Doing something with that knowledge is where you come in. You can call me Mr. Finch.

• Harold Finch : [Gives Reese a bunch of cards]  Credit cards. Six cover identities. Funds to be replenished through a proxy corporation. Just like when you were with the agency.

  John Reese : When I was with the agency, I knew who was picking up the tab.

• Harold Finch : I'm a really private person.