Person of Interest (TV Series)

Aletheia (2014)

Michael Emerson: Harold Finch

Photos 

Quotes 

• Arthur Claypool : Your machine - is it wonderful?

  Harold Finch : Wonderful? Yes... and terrible. We saved good people and lost good people. In the end, I'm afraid we've only given the deck a shuffle.

  Arthur Claypool : Everything slides toward chaos. Your creation, it brings us poor souls a cupful of order. Your child is a dancing star.

  Harold Finch : It's not my child, it's a machine.

  Arthur Claypool : A false dichotomy. It's all electricity. Does it make you laugh? Does it make you weep?

  Harold Finch : Yes.

  Arthur Claypool : What's more human?

• Harold Finch : This plan feels rather reckless.

  Sameen Shaw : There's a time for a scalpel and a time for a hammer. It's hammer time.

• Harold Finch : Ms. Shaw, what's your situation?

  Sameen Shaw : Rock and a hard place. I'd take out Vigilance, but they're the only ones keeping Hersh out. I can probably handle an ISA tac team by myself, but no guarantees.

  Harold Finch : We need an escape route, but you have to be careful. I urge you to consider what Mr. Reese would do.

  Sameen Shaw : Brood.

  Harold Finch : As you've said, you're a hammer. Mr. Reese is a scalpel. This requires a bit more finesse.

  Sameen Shaw : Well, I've got finesse coming out of my ass, Harold.

• Arthur Claypool : Your machine - is it wonderful?

  Harold Finch : Wonderful... yes, and terrible. We saved good people and lost good people. In the end, I'm afraid we've only given the deck a shuffle.

• Harold Finch : Arthur, I need you to consider what may happen when that door opens, how Samaritan could be abused. End this. Destroy the drives.

  Arthur Claypool : No. This is life... or as close as we mortals come to saying, "Let there be light."

  Harold Finch : It is extraordinary, and it is beautiful. So are mushroom clouds, in their own ways. 155 Manhattan project scientists sent a petition to President Truman begging him not to use the bomb, but they had created a demon too great to resist.

  Arthur Claypool : Harold, this is knowledge. It's what we fought for. It'll just all be lost.

  Harold Finch : No, your knowledge will not be lost. Nathan and I used your ideas. We built it.

  Arthur Claypool : I was right. There was another project. It was you.

• Harold Finch : Welcome home.

  John Reese : I can't stay. I came back to protect you. You're someone the world can't afford to lose. But I lost a friend because of your machine. We trusted blindly, but I'm not so sure he cares who matters and who doesn't.

• Arthur Claypool : The government wanted an open system.

  Harold Finch : That the NSA could control targeting individuals at whim? But it's broken. So there's no reason to be scared.

  Arthur Claypool : No. Harold... meet Samaritan.

  [Opens his box, take out the drives, and sighs] 

  Arthur Claypool : AI - You always said it was impossible, and you were always right about everything.

  Harold Finch : There's something else.

  [Takes out a slip of paper and reads] 

  Harold Finch : "The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places".

  Arthur Claypool : That's my handwriting.

  Harold Finch : It's dated February 24, 2005. What does it mean?

  Arthur Claypool : I haven't the foggiest, but look at my penmanship. It's exquisite.

• Root : [on the phone]  I'm sorry I left without saying good-bye. Tell Shaw I was touched she came to look for me.

  Harold Finch : Where are you, Ms. Groves?

  Root : I wish you'd listened. We were supposed to help Claypool together. Then the drives would've never fallen into the wrong hands.

  Harold Finch : Arthur destroyed the drives.

  Root : Are you sure? The bank manager, Karen Wallace?

  Harold Finch : We lost track of her in the explosion.

  Root : No, Harold, they found her body stuffed in a closet. She was murdered just before you arrived.

  Harold Finch : Who was in the vault with us, then?

  Root : That's my problem now.

• Sameen Shaw : Why does Control want the drives to a broken program?

  Harold Finch : The program's only broken until somebody smart fixes it.

• Bank Manager : Your safe deposit box is just over here, Mr. Smoot.

  Sameen Shaw : [to Harold]  Who the hell is Rudiger Smoot?

  Harold Finch : It was a dare. Arthur said I couldn't create a false identity sound enough to open a bank account. The added challenge was the obviously fake name - Rudiger Smoot.

• Arthur Claypool : Harold. I did it. I solved it before they shut me down. Harold, Samaritan is alive.

  Harold Finch : ...Alive? It's not alive, Arthur.

  Arthur Claypool : The project broke me, but humans are broken from the moment of conception. Mutations, defects - it's all so wonderful. The chance of disaster. We fail, we learn, we fail. My program was too perfect.

  Harold Finch : You're talking about evolutionary algorithms, genetic programming

  Arthur Claypool : That day, Harold, I broke it. I forced it to delete bits of itself - its code, its blood - and then reboot. Rebirth Flailing in the dark. A loop, ten times a second, and after ten hours, Harold, 360,000 mutations, it would live or die trying, and it lived. It sparked. It stirred. For 30 seconds, it smiled... and then died.

  Harold Finch : And the next day the government shut you down. That's why you saved it.

  Arthur Claypool : Protecting my child.

• Harold Finch : These people outside - if they get your Samaritan, they will hurt it, imprison it, enslave it, and use it to enslave others. Is that the life that you would wish for your child?

  Arthur Claypool : [Looks at the drives]  Good-bye. I'll remember you.

  [Smashes them] 

• Diane Claypool : How lucky are we, Agent Hersh? I thought I was getting Arthur's broken toy, Samaritan, but you, Harold... I know who you are, what you've done for us, but since you stole my device, I've been worried its intel might dry up.

  Harold Finch : That's why you've done these terrible things to Arthur, obliterated his wife's identity, stolen her life all for a contingency, a plan B?

  Diane Claypool : But now you're here. A plan B might not be necessary. You can tell me where you hid my program.

  Harold Finch : I don't know. It moved itself. It doesn't answer to me anymore.

• Harold Finch : Arthur, what Control said - now, I need you to think very hard - was it true? Did you make a backup?

  Sameen Shaw : Save it, Harold. He's closed for business.

  Arthur Claypool : Of course I made a backup. It's just that that woman seemed quite dangerous, so I played the tumor card. It was a ruse, remembering to forget.

  Sameen Shaw : [smiles]  You're growing on me, Arthur.

  Arthur Claypool : Who are you?

• Peter Collier : You know, since we first crossed paths, I've tried to find information about you, but there is none.

  Harold Finch : I'm quite private.

  Peter Collier : As am I. I think we have a lot in common. I'd like to work together, make a deal. You don't have to die.

  Harold Finch : [Quotes]  Civil liberties cannot be forged in blood.

  Peter Collier : Violent revolt is an American value. Do you know the man you're protecting? We believe he's building a secret system, a system the government plans to put in place to spy on all of us. Now, he must be held accountable. And the world needs to know about this program. Either let us in, or we will blow the vault wide open.