Person of Interest

Season 2

The Contingency

1. Bear joins the team. Played by a champion pure bred Belgian Malinois named Graubaer's Boker.
2. Caroline Turing shares her last name with Alan Turing; a mathematician, cryptanalyst, and the man considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. He created the Turing Machine, the model for modern computers.
3. When John speaks to the dog, he says, "Foei! Stil", which is Dutch for "quietly". He then says, "afliggen!", which means "lie down!".
4. Bear, the dog adopted by Reese, is a Belgian Malinois. Highly intelligent and easily trained, the Malinois is a working breed used for detection, protection, and search and rescue by police and the American military, where they are trained to respond to Dutch commands. Its slighter build makes the dog more agile and easier to carry than a German Shepherd or comparable breed. Bear was given his name because he ate Tao's bearer bonds, but was originally called "Butcher" by Byron.
5. First appearance of Leon Tao played by Ken Leung.
6. The phone booth used by Reese while bargaining with the machine says "New York Telephone. A Nynex Company". If the timeline on the show is supposed to match with the one off-screen, then the phone booth should have the Verizon logo, since Nynex was consolidated along with a group of other phone companies and emerged as the aforementioned corporation in the year 2000. On the other hand, just like "life" off-screen, companies are sometimes slow replacing equipment.

Bad Code

1. Root and Hanna were playing Oregon Trail on an Apple IIe computer. Oregon Trail was developed for the Minnesota Education Computing Consortium (MECC), and used by elementary schools to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.
2. Jonathan Nolan's wife suggested Amy Acker for the role of Root, as she was a big fan of Acker's from Angel. She noted that Acker can appear innocent, and at the same time be very slippery, which showed great depth as an actor.
3. One of the accounts that Root created for herself was in the name of Von Neuman. John Von Neuman is one of the founding figures in computer science.
4. The book Flowers for Algernon, which is a plot point in the story, was not chosen accidentally. That story is about a man with a low IQ who has brain surgery in attempt to boost his IQ. It succeeds beyond everyone's wildest dream, but it eventually produces unexpected consequences. At this point of the show Root is still an unknown figure, but her story line during the course of the show would begin to parallel the character in Flowers for Algernon.
5. Bad code, according to Root, is a person who is evil and can not change his or her nature. Finch later uses the term in the episode "Triggerman".
6. Relton, MD, the small town where Reese tracked down Root to Weeks' cottage, doesn't exist in real life. On Reese's map it was placed where there's actually a small historical town named St. Mary's City.
7. Contrary to what Root tells Denton Weeks, she did not set him up in a "Palestinian hanging" position, known as "strappado" or "reverse hanging." In this, the victim hands are tied behind their back, and then they are suspended from a high bar with their feet barely touching the ground. After fatigue sets in, the prisoner will inevitably fall forward, putting full body weight on his shoulders, and impairing breathing. The technique typically results in dislocated shoulders, and would not last more than an hour without rest, as it would likely result in death. Although it was used in 2003-2004 at Abu Ghraib Prison during CIA interrogations, this is not one of the US Government's approved "enhanced interrogation techniques." Torture, including the threat of death, generally elicits unreliable information, therefore the information Weeks tells Root about "the machine" is unlikely to be true.
8. In a flashback, young Root and her friend Hanna are shown playing the early computer game Oregon Trail at the library on the night Hanna is abducted. This game is also played by Young Sheldon (season three, episode 14) and later his sister Missy (season three, episode 17). Root does much better at the game than young Sheldon Cooper.
9. In this episode they believe Root was formerly known as Hannah, who went missing outside a library as a teen. In Angel, Amy Acker played a young woman who also disappeared from a library for many years.

Masquerade

1. At the beginning of the episode, Finch is briefing Reese by consulting clippings from Brazilian news sources. All the text in the news screens are very detailed accounts of the Brazilian characters background history. There is a very detailed account of Sofia's mother - Maria Campos - including a brief biography and even personal beliefs. The following pages show the political history of Hector, all referring Brazilian Political Parties that actually exist. In reading carefully, the screens even refer to the mayoral elections that actually took place in all Brazilian cities in 2012.
2. Sofia says to Lionel that he reminds her of her Uncle Jacopo, which is the name the servant (Luis Guzman) of Edmond Dantes (Jim Caviezel), in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).
3. All the news shown in a foreign language on Finch's screen are written in almost flawless Brazilian Portuguese.
4. In several moments Sofia calls her father Hector "pai". This is short for "papai", and is a very common way in which Brazilians refer to their fathers. Strictly speaking, it could be translated as "dad".
5. Fusco has Finch listed as "Mr. Good News" under his caller ID.
6. At one point Sofia nicknames Det Fusco as "Garanhão" - which literally translates as "Stallion". The meaning that Sofia offers - "Stud" - actually refers to the use of the word as a slang.
7. Finch is seen looking at an online article in The New York Ledger, which is the newspaper of choice for many fictional shows set in NYC.
8. After escaping the attackers at the nightclub, Reese takes Sofia back to the consulate and prepares a "Moqueca de Ovos" for her. This is basically an Egg Stew in which one of the main ingredients is an oil extracted from a coconut tree native to Brazil and Africa. The "azeite de dendê" is very difficult to source outside Brazil, and although it is very likely to be found in a Brazilian consulate pantry - it is very unlikely that Reese would have had access to it before that moment for practicing. Therefore, that could have been his very first attempt to prepare the dish.
9. Fusco uses a picture of his son as wallpaper on his phone.
10. At one point Fusco asks Sofia if she likes falafel. This was a subtle way by the writers to show that Fusco has no idea of her culture, as falafel is a dish from the Middle East.

Triggerman

1. When Finch questions Reese's desire to protect Riley he says he's "bad code," a reference to something Root said to Finch when she had kidnapped him.
2. Jonathan Tucker also acts as an Irish mob-goon in The Black Donnellys (2007).
3. In the scene when George, Riley, and Eddie Massey are discussing how to deal with Annie, there is a Staples "Easy" button visible behind George on the desk.

Bury the Lede

1. A "Lede" is a journalistic term for the opening paragraphs of a story. It is deliberately misspelled so that it won't be confused with the word "lead" (pronounced as "led"), a term used for the spacing between lines of text.
2. The $100,000 sports car Reese used for his date with Maxine is a 2012 Porsche Turbo S "SINISTER". The car was custom built for Jim Caviezel.
3. Gloria Votsis actually loves dogs and has a puggle dog named Bernie.

The High Road

1. Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, renowned for cracking safes at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, like the central character in this episode, grew up in Far Rockaway, where this episode is set.
2. The car Finch procured for Reese and Zoe is a Jaguar XF.
3. Finch talks about a break-in technique called "lock manipulation". Michael Emerson played Ben Linus in Lost, who was spent many episodes manipulating a character named "Locke".
4. David Denman and Dominic Fumusa appear again together in the movie "13 Hours".
5. In the flashback, Finch uses a Dell Latitude D610 notebook. Later in Reese's house he's watching Zoe and Connie Wyler via a Macbook Pro.

Critical

1. When John & Finch drop off Leon Tao, the building they are standing in front of is one of the oldest in NYC and connected with American History. In 1770, Samuel Fraunces, American patriot, resumed proprietorship of NYC's "Queen's Head Tavern", which housed a number of radical activities including meetings of the Sons of Liberty, the so-called New York Tea Party (1774), and meetings of the Provincial Congress of NY, which were attended at times by George Washington in the summer of 1776. Source: Fraunces Tavern Museum website.
2. Guest stars Sharon Leal as Dr. Madeleine Enright and Julian Sands as Alistair Wesley. These actors both have connections to shows about Kryptonian heroes. Leal has a recurring role on Supergirl (2015) as martian M'gann M'orzz, and Sands guest starred as the reincarnated Jor-El on Smallville (2001). POI star Jim Caviezel was briefly in talks to play Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns (2006).

Til Death

1. Michael Emerson, Brett Cullen, and Mark Pellegrino previously worked together in J.J. Abrams' hit series "Lost".
2. The nail gun used towards the end is not battery powered but actually a compressed air-powered DeWalt nailer that can be jerry-rigged to fire without the contact safety mechanism activated.

C.O.D.

1. The news article on the HR trials is signed by Maxine Angelis, the reporter who was after HR in S02E05 "Bury the Lede".
2. C.O.D. stands for "Cash On Delivery", payment at the time services are rendered or an item is delivered.
3. The working title for this episode was "Hack".
4. The GPS locations in the logs for Fermin Ordoñez's cab are the centers of intersections at W 116th St. & Manhattan Ave., W 110th St. & Broadway, W 75th St. & Columbus Ave., and E 72nd St. & 3rd Ave., all of which are locations around Central Park.
5. No "Estonian mafia" exists in reality.
6. Grifoni's new identity in Federal Witness Protection: Luke Carlotti, xxxx Sylmar Ct, Flagstaff, AZ.

Shadow Box

1. A shadow box is an enclosed glass-front case containing objects of personal significance, in this case military photo, medals, awards, badge of rank. To shadow box is an exercise used in the training for combat sports, fighting against an invisible opponent.

2 Pi R

1. This episode is the first during which Finch is forced to stop a violent crime from occurring without Reese's help. It is also the first episode without any scenes of or in the Library.
2. LOST Easter egg: In this episode, Finch refers to "Mrs. Bentham" as the teacher he is substituting for. In season 5 of LOST, John Locke used the alias "Jeremy Bentham", and was also a substitute teacher in season 6.
3. The story Harold tells about Karl Gauss is an oft told (though unproven) anecdote about Gauss being a math virtuoso as a young child. Gauss was punished by being required to add all the numbers from 1 to 100. He returned the correct solution to the teacher within minutes.
4. At around 36 minutes, Caleb tells Finch that he'd "stand up on the desk for you." This is a reference to Dead Poets Society where students salute an inspirational teacher by standing on their desks and recite "Oh captain my captain," referring to a Walt Whitman poem.
5. The principal reprimands Harold for showing the students the shortcut to the assigned problem. This is comical because most math teachers who assigned this problem as punishment would be aware of the Gauss anecdote and understand that the shortcut was the point of the assignment.
6. When Harold Finch (Michael Emerson) hacked Caleb Phipps' (Luke Kleintank) school records, one of them included a "bubble test" in which he filled in the bubbles to say, "Waste of time".
7. The episode's title "2 pi r" is the formula used to find the circumference of a circle.
8. Harold pulls Caleb's paper out of the trash can, which contains Gauss' complete solution and the answer to the assigned problem: (100+1) x 100 / 2 = 5,050. Pairwise, from beginning to end, every combination equals 101 and there are 50 pairs.
9. Harold writes a hint for the students on the chalkboard to shortcut the unnecessary work of adding one number at a time. The hint is (100+1) x 100, which is part of Gauss' solution.
10. The working title for this episode was "Above Average."
11. In Season 4, Episode 9 ("The Devil You Know") Dominic mentions a teacher who taught that everything is contained in a circle, suggesting he was one of the students in the class in this episode.
12. This is the first episode to show little to no action sequences.

Prisoner's Dilemma

1. Prisoner's dilemma is a component of game theory that analyzes a situation in which multiple isolated prisoners must select between options whose outcome depends on the simultaneous choice made by the others.
2. When the FBI investigates the apartment belonging to "John Warren." There is a diploma on the wall from Central Washington University.

Dead Reckoning

1. Greer is played by John Nolan, who is the uncle of show runner Jonathan Nolan and Batman director Christopher Nolan.
2. This is the first appearance of John Greer.
3. The video game at the start of this episode is Far Cry 3.
4. Greer said that Kara Stanton attended Annapolis. Annapolis is the home of the United States Naval Academy.
5. After Mark Snow (Michael Kelly) and Kara Stanton (Annie Parisse) explode in the car at the end of this episode, the name seen on the piece of paper right before it burns is "Harold Finch".

One Percent

1. Pierce's watch is a Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon ($1.5 million) and his car is a 2012 McLaren MP4-12C ($230,000).
2. According to Finch, Logan Pierce attended Caltech. Caltech is the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, a private, highly-selective university which strongly emphasizes mathematics, science, engineering and technology. It has affiliations with NASA, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the U.S. Geological Survey, and hosts the nation's leading earthquake research program. Its campus is frequency used as a television location, and its rival is Finch's alma mater, MIT.
3. A "LAMP Stack" stands for Linux operating system, Apache web server, MySql database, and PHP programming language, four open-source technologies commonly part on a web architecture.
4. Reese chases Logan on a Ducati Diavel AMG Special Edition motorcycle.
5. Logan Pierce, and his friendczar.com is supposed to remind the viewer of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
6. The title of this episode is a reference to the "one percent" of Americans, who control the majority of wealth and economic power. The recent Occupy Wall Street protests campaigned for more political representation of the 99% of Americans versus this one percent.

Booked Solid

1. Reese's conversation with Hersh ("All I want to know is who you work for." "But that would be telling.") is a reference to the opening sequence in episodes of The Prisoner (1967).
2. The restaurant recommended by Finch with "the best rib-eye in town," The Grant, is where Annie Delaney (Liza J. Bennett) worked in Person of Interest: Triggerman (2012).
3. As John enters one of the hitman's hotel room, Finch tells him that the room is registered under the name, "Peter Krieg." This is the name of Jeremy Irons' character in Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995) before it's revealed to be an alias.
4. Booked Solid is the term used to describe a hotel or restaurant that has no reservations available for the time or date requested.
5. During the fight scene between Hersh and Reese, when reese gets the upper hand and disassembles Hersh's weapon, the magazine that is discarded clearly shows it to be an airsoft replica.
6. Interesting Factoids revealed: The first public cell phone call was made from the New York Hilton in 1973.A rumor that the Martini was invented at the Knickerbocker
7. Amy Acker was not credited for her appearance here, nor was she listed in the cast credits. This was likely to prevent spoiling the ending revelation that Miss May is Root in disguise.

Relevance

1. Only episode to be written and directed by Jonathan Nolan, the younger brother of Christopher Nolan.
2. The Machine uses yellow boxes for those that know about The Machine, white for those that are innocents, etc. Shaw and Cole are in blue because they are government agents acting on relevant targets.
3. This is the first appearance of Sameen Shaw (Sarah Shahi), who becomes one of the main characters. She originally worked for the "Intelligence Support Activity". For some reason they did not want to use the name of a real agency.

Proteus

1. The story structure is similar to that of the Agatha Christie story "And Then There Were None" (people trapped on a remote island, prey to a killer in their midst). The name "Owen Island" is a nod to the absentee hosts in the novel, Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen (i.e. "unknown").
2. The episode's title; "Proteus" likely refers to the ancient Greek sea god of the same name. Proteus is said to represent the unpredictable and changeable nature of water; the god himself was often said to frequently change forms.

All In

1. After Finch starts explaining Baccarat to Reese, Reese replies, "Please Finch, I was an international spy. I know how to play Baccarat." This is a nod to James Bond's favorite casino game.
2. Fourth and final appearance of Leon Tao (Ken Leung).
3. "All in" is a term used in poker when a player bets all the chips he/she has on their hand. It is often used when an individual or group has risked everything they have on the outcome of an event.

Trojan Horse

1. Shaw for the second time is boxed in Blue by the machine.
2. The news article about Monica Jacobs was published by the New York Journal. This is the paper that Maxine Angelis, the person of interest from Person of Interest: Bury the Lede (2012), works for.
3. Greer uses a Huawei M835 smartphone.

In Extremis

1. Dennis Boutsikaris plays a character that has been poisoned and is trying to find who is responsible. In the same year, he also plays a character on Elementary (2012) in Elementary: Possibility Two (2013) that has been poisoned and asks Holmes to find the person responsible.
2. Dr. Nelson was poisoned with polonium, a radioactive element. Similar to uranium, it is also highly toxic, and can kill through exposure or ingestion.
3. Since the pilot, John has not killed anyone, but he kills Cochran by lethal poisoning identical to how he had poisoned Dr, Nelson.

Zero Day

1. Harold tells Root that the machine restarts itself "1.618 seconds later". 1.618 is the first four digits of the mathematical Golden Ratio.
2. This episode's opening narration is distorted and difficult to understand, in relation to the plotline of the virus that is affecting The Machine.
3. The machine names Ernest Thornhill, which is a nod to the classic Alfred Hitchcock film North by Northwest (1959). Finch and Reese learn that the machine has given them the number of an Ernest Thornhill, a person they soon realize does not exist. In "North By Northwest," Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant) is attempting to track down a man named Kaplan, a person he eventually learns does not exist. The plane that bombs Thornhill's car also follows a similar trajectory as the plane that stalks Roger O. Thornhill in the field.

God Mode

1. Jonathan Nolan, executive producer and creator, and Greg Plageman, executive producer, are shown in the final scene, as hospital orderlies.
2. A character, Lawrence Szilard, is a reference to a physicist Leo Szilard.
3. When John Reese informed Sameen Shaw about The Machine, the color of rectangular indicator on her face became yellow, which was previously of indigo color, given that she was affiliated with Indigo division of the Control. But once she was informed of the machine, it changed its identification color for her, making her upgrade on the level same as John, Finch and Root, who have same yellow identification rectangle indicator on their face in The Machine's camera.