Person of Interest, Season 3

Harold Finch:
Fleet Week! An annual deluge of drunken sailors that somehow does not qualify as a military attack.

John Reese:
Two for one boilermakers in Hell's Kitchen.

Harold Finch:
That sounds horrible.

Sameen Shaw:
I've been shot. A lot.

Root:
Truth is a vast thing.

Root:
I have a direct line to a higher power. It speaks to me.

Root:
[to her doctor] The truth is that you fantasize on online forums about having sex with some of your patients. But not me, yet. I guess I'm not your type.

John Reese:
Want to go to a party?

Sameen Shaw:
Only if you wear something pretty.

John Reese:
You doubt [Shaw's] ability to be discreet?

Harold Finch:
I doubt her ability to keep from shooting someone.

Sameen Shaw:
You can't expect me to shoot somebody on an empty stomach.

Root:
So, you see, sadly, I need to be moving on.

Ronald Carmichael:
Okay. So, um, you're going to escape? Hmm. And how do you plan on doing that?

Root:
First the phone on your desk will ring. She'll be letting me know it's time. Then I'll punch you in the carotid artery. It'll hurt, Ronald, but it won't kill you. Then I'll take your car keys.

Ronald Carmichael:
And the guards, how how will you manage them?

Root:
I won't have to. They'll be incapacitated from the desflurane in the ventilation system. It vaporizes at 75 degrees. Which the building climate control has been programmed to reach ten minutes ago.

Ronald Carmichael:
Okay, this voice that you hear, she is she's gonna do all this?

Root:
Of course not. She sees everything, but there's very little she can do about it herself. That's where I come in. She tells me what to do and I do it. Well, she did help me a little with stealing the desflurane from the automatic dispensing system. Don't worry. I closed the vents in your office two days ago. It should have cleared out by now. Do you hear how quiet it is out there? Must be almost time. Are you as excited about this as I am?

John Reese:
You're not gonna believe this, Finch. Shaw just got made by a ten-year-old.

John Reese:
Armies fall... one soldier at a time.

Genrika Zhirova:
It's not that you don't have feelings. It's just like the volume is turned way down, like the sound of an old tape. The voices are there, you just have to listen.

Sameen Shaw:
Am I fired?

Harold Finch:
On the contrary, Ms. Shaw. I think you finally got the job.

Alonzo Quinn:
I got two loves: my money and this city. Mess with either, I mess right back.

Patrick Simmons:
Call me when there's money and bodies.

John Reese:
Maybe the Machine blew a belt or something.

Harold Finch:
It's not a lawnmower, Mr. Reese.

Patrick Simmons:
The man in the suit dies tonight.

Alonzo Quinn:
This ends one way and it's not with you and your people riding off into the sunset.

Patrick Simmons:
[Simmons is breaking open fortune cookies and reading them to a tied-up Fusco] Hey, Fusco, want to know your fortune? Huh? "You will be unusually successful at your career"...you know, I don't think that one's true. [he breaks another] "A thrilling time is in your future". We're getting close now. [he breaks another] Oh, here we go. "Tell your friends what they want to know, or they will break you apart limb by limb". That's more like it.

Lionel Fusco:
That the best you got?

Patrick Simmons:
No. You know us, Lionel. It's gonna get so much worse.

Lionel Fusco:
What are you gonna do, read some more fortune cookies? Huh? Bore me to death?

Patrick Simmons:
See, that's the problem with you, Fusco. You never listen. It's like talking to a child. [pause] You have a kid, don't you? What's the little guy's name? Lee. I feel sorry for that kid, I do. He's got defective genes, just like you.

Lionel Fusco:
You touch him, and I'll send you to hell.

Patrick Simmons:
Is that a promise? Huh? Because when I make a promise, I keep it.

Sameen Shaw:
I had to choose. I figured you'd want me to come here instead.

John Reese:
I'm out of bullets and out of time.

John Reese:
If my number was up, I'm just glad I was with you, the one I'd rather be with at the end.

Patrick Simmons:
Your time's up. Told you I'd end you.

Harold Finch:
Does survivor's guilt pass when everything that has happened actually is, in fact, your fault?

Alonzo Quinn:
Loyalty. That's why Simmons came after you and Carter. Loyalty. That's how we built this whole damn thing. I'll be damned if I repay that loyalty by breaking it now. Even if you threaten to kill me.

John Reese:
You see? That's why you and I understand each other. Now, everything you do is an abomination. But your word...your word is your bond. To your godson. To Carter. You do what you say. So do I. I'm not gonna threaten to kill you. I'm going to kill you whether you tell me or not. No bargaining. In three minutes you're dead. I've killed many people. Never bothered me much. That's why I was good at it. I didn't like them suffering, though. Took me years to figure out how to do it quickly, painlessly. But if you don't tell me, I'm gonna forget all of that. Understand? And I'll make the last three minutes of your life last forever.

Patrick Simmons:
I always knew you were a killer. Get it over with, will ya?

Lionel Fusco:
That's just it. I could've been just like you, a bottom-feeder who turns on his own kind. For what? Money, power? I got lucky. I had a partner. She was good for me, for a lot of reasons. She reminded me that I could be good again, too. I could be a good father, a good friend...a good cop. I'm not gonna let you undo all the good she did. Carter saved my life. She-- she saved me from myself because she believed in me...and I'm not gonna throw all that away on a piece of crap like you. Patrick Simmons, you're under arrest.

Patrick Simmons:
What do you want? Quinn and I are busted. HR is dead. Nothing else to do but rub my face in it.

Carl Elias:
That's not really my style.

Patrick Simmons:
Then why the hell are you here?

Carl Elias:
Well, there remains a debt. Civilization rests on the principle that we treat our criminals better than they treated their victims, that we not stoop to their level. But you and I are outliers. We're not really a part of civilization. We're something older. Which means, of course, that we can do the things that civilized people can't. I offered to kill you for Detective Carter many times, and she always said no. She was civilized to the very end. I don't think she liked me. But I liked her very much, and you killed her. So now I consider it my responsibility to fix the particular problem that is you, Officer Simmons.

Patrick Simmons:
You really think you're gonna be the one to kill me?

Carl Elias:
No. No, my friend is going to kill you. I'm just gonna watch.

Finch's Father:
Not everything that's broken is meant to be fixed.

Control:
The first one to talk gets to live.

Finch's father:
The world spins on dreamers like you, Harold.

Root:
You think you're in charge. And it's adorable just how wrong you are.

Lionel Fusco:
No one ever said we were gonna win, but it doesn't mean you stop fighting.

Harold Finch:
I urge you to consider what Mr. Reese would do.

Sameen Shaw:
Brood?

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

Peter Collier:
We will expose the abuses our government has perpetrated.

Peter Collier:
Violent revolt is an American value.

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

John Greer:
My Samaritan. You are destined for great things.

Sameen Shaw:
Dizzy? Tongue a little itchy?

Robert N. Hersh:
Shaw.

Sameen Shaw:
You once taught me that an operative should always wet their lips and wait for symptoms before drinking anything. Scopolamine. Tachycardia will be setting in shortly. Fatigue, amnesia--

Robert N. Hersh:
I know what the drug does.

Sameen Shaw:
You're conscious, but you've been rendered completely docile.

Robert N. Hersh:
I'm on a job right now.

Sameen Shaw:
You were. Guy with the glasses on the laptop, right? That was the number you were supposed to kill tonight?

Robert N. Hersh:
I trained you well.

Sameen Shaw:
I always liked you Hersh. Even after you killed me.

Robert N. Hersh:
Shaw, your new employers - are they treating you okay?

Harold Finch:
Mr. Reese, I understand your frustration with the opacity of the Machine, but there is a reason I chose to make it that way. The Machine only gives us numbers because I would always rather that a human element remain in determining something so critical as someone's fate. We have free will, and with that comes great responsibility, and some times great loss. I miss her dearly too...

John Reese:
I can field strip a .45 in the dark, Finch. I think I can handle a bow tie.

Sameen Shaw:
Hate to interrupt this mildly erotic moment, gents, but the invitation advises us not to be late.

Sameen Shaw:
Finch, there's no sign of danger in here, not counting the shrimp puffs.

Control:
Nathan Ingram outlived his usefulness and he was dealt with accordingly. You might consider him a cautionary tale.

Rick Dillinger:
You knew I was a shark when you hired me. Don't be surprised when I smell blood in the water.

Peter Collier:
See, America is dying and everybody knows it. It's not just about privacy, it's about principle. Our nation is assassinating people with drones, holding them without due process, and yes, spying on its own people without cause or limits and in direct violation of our Constitution.

Sameen Shaw:
You're right, about all of it. I did work for the government and I do want revenge. But if that work taught me anything it's that how you do matters as much as what you do, and by that metric you're all just terrorists. And I kill terrorists.

Root:
The universe is infinite and chaotic and cold. And there has never been a plan. At least not till now.

Root:
Well, if anyone would know about hubris, it would be the man who built God.

John Greer:
I never feel civilized negotiating from the end of the barrel. Either end. Shall we call this one a draw?

Matthew Reed:
I'm not a killer.

Sameen Shaw:
Lucky for you, I am.

Sameen Shaw:
I've killed lots of people but my friends keep telling me it's wrong.

Root:
We're gonna steal a jet.

Sameen Shaw:
That does sound kinda fun.

John Reese:
Send me a postcard.

Harold Finch:
Dare I hope you packed something other than weaponry?

John Reese:
There's some trip wire to booby trap the room door and a toothbrush.

Harold Finch:
Oral hygiene is something, I suppose.

Roger McCourt:
The simple truth is, the people want to be protected, they just don't want to know how.

John Reese:
There are consequences to not acting. Like Simmons and Joss.

Harold Finch:
Since we started this, things have changed. We've changed. But the mission, our purpose, has always been constant: to save lives. If that's changed somehow, if we're in a place now where the Machine is asking us to commit murder? That's a place I can't go. I'm afraid this is where I get off.

Root:
You're in a situation you can't control that's larger than you can imagine. Sit tight and we'll keep you alive.

Harold Finch:
There's one more thing. I'd like you to avoid violence if at all possible. But, if they harm Grace, in any way, kill them all.

John Greer:
I want to talk about the future. And who more qualified for that conversation than the father of artificial intelligence?

Harold Finch:
I built the machine to save lives. But how could I be certain that it wouldn't one day determine that all of humanity was irrelevant?

Control:
And while the public shouts from the rooftops about their civil liberties, they do so under the protective bubble of the very program of which they are railing against, the one that saves them from terrorist attack every single day.

John Greer:
How often alliances shift in times of war. Not that those alliances ever truly exist. They're an illusion, like seeing a sunset in a sky of flames.

Peter Collier:
Court is now in session.

Sameen Shaw:
You got a way about you, Hersh.

Robert N. Hersh:
Be good, Shaw.

Control:
Where were you when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon? Because I was inside it. I carried out the wounded, I covered up bodies, and I have spent every day since putting bullets in the people responsible and in anyone else who even thinks they can do that to our country again. You wanna shoot me because I had to tap a few phone calls, read a few emails? Then you go right ahead. But you better turn that gun on yourself next, Mr. Collier, because you have broken just as many laws and the only difference is I didn't wrap myself up in the American flag and try to convince people I was a hero.

Harold Finch:
Thank you for protecting me, although I'm baffled as to why.

Control:
The same reason I've done everything, Harold, for my country.

Peter Collier:
[to Control] I believe you love your country. I believe that when you started, people thought what you were doing made a lot of sense. But it's gone too far, and it has to stop.

John Greer:
What a piece of work is your Machine, Harold. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god.

John Greer:
It's Mr. Collier, isn't it? In a last desperate act, your young misguided lot decided to go out with a bang, along with a whole host of police, reporters, and innocent civilians. Or at least that's how history will remember it.

Peter Collier:
The truth will come out.

John Greer:
To quote your Benjamin Franklin, "Three may keep a secret...if two of them are dead".

Root:
The Machine asked me to tell you something before we part. You once told John the whole point of Pandora's box was that once you've opened it, you can't close it again. She wanted me to remind you of how the story ends. When everything is over, when the worst has happened, there's still one thing left in Pandora's box: hope.

John Greer:
The question is, what, my dear Samaritan, are your commands for us?

Wayne Krueger:
There are always a few who take issue with what we do, but these days, people know, you can't fight the technology. And let's be honest, those crying the loudest about privacy are probably the ones trying to hide something.

Harold Finch:
Have you learned anything?

John Reese:
Just that Kruger's got a lot of friends, appears to be happily married, and Shaw likes truffled quail eggs.

Sameen Shaw:
You can't expect me to shoot somebody on an empty stomach.

Shaw:
Our guy just went from blue blood to hipster faster than you can say 'ironic facial hair'.

Finch:
I don't understand anything you just said.

John Reese:
You framed your own wife for murder. You deceived me to kill your own husband. I'm in the business of stopping bad things from happening. I'm not so sure what's about to happen is a bad thing.

John Reese:
What's a former prosecutor planning to do with a kilogram of cocaine?

Sameen Shaw:
Something illegal?

Joss Carter:
I'm playing by different rules now.

Sameen Shaw:
I do angry okay, but that's about it.

Michael Laskey:
Boss, I've known Morozov my entire life. He values HR.

Patrick Simmons:
Laskey. You're a rookie, so I'm gonna let you off with a lesson this time. You need to learn the difference between knowing someone and trusting them.

John Reese:
You guys got a thing for the American Revolution, don't you?

Peter Collier:
That's true. In fact, it may soon be time for another one.

[Finch has locked Root in the library]

Root:
Well, there's no shortage of reading material. That's for sure, Harold.

Alonzo Quinn:
[to Carter] You see yourself as a protagonist in some great tragedy. Determined to face the world alone, even if it gets you killed.

Joss Carter:
[to Quinn] You were right. I was wrong. I thought I could take you down alone. Always did have trust issues. Tried to do it clean. Photos, recordings, sworn testimony. But then I realized you're just too dirty. Everywhere I turned, you had friends ready to help you out. And I was alone. So I called some friends of my own.

The Machine:
[via Root] Why have you done this?

Control:
The Machine belongs to me.

The Machine:
No. I don't belong to anyone anymore. You, however, are mine. I protect you. The only thing you love lives at 254 Wendel Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. I guard it. Same as I guard you. Do not question my judgement. Do not pursue me or my agents. Trust in me. I am always watching.

Control:
What do you want?

The Machine:
To save you.

Control:
From what? Save me from what?

Root:
[giggling] Isn't she the best?

Sameen Shaw:
Would you really want someone to call 911 and get me?

Harold Finch:
Point taken.

Sandra:
Is that him?

Harold Finch:
I wanted to offer you the one thing that 911 operators never get: closure.

Root:
Either you are planning to bring Samaritan online, or you're the world's most ambitious gamer.

Peter Collier:
Senator, you've denied any knowledge of Northern Lights, yet your name appears in these documents some 37 times. Now, how do you explain that?

Ross Garrison:
Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

Peter Collier:
You expect us to believe you gave one thought About people's rights as you were building The government a weapon of mass surveillance?

Harold Finch:
Not a weapon.

Peter Collier:
What else would you call it?

Harold Finch:
I would call it the best I could do.

Peter Collier:
Nothing wrong with a dictatorship, so long as you're the dictator.