Person of Interest

Season 3

Liberty

1. Just before the end credits, during the Machine's assessment of Root's situation, one of the graph's node is labeled "Global Thermonuclear War", a reference to WarGames (1983).
2. In the horse carriage scene, Kevin Chapman was actually driving the carriage himself. This scene did not take place in Central Park, but was filmed in Harlem.
3. When Root answered The Machine's call, placed at the psychiatric hospital and got assigned as its Analogue Interface, her yellow rectangular face identifier got immediately changed from all yellow to yellow with black outlines, giving her a special identification to The Machine itself.
4. The episode takes place during "Fleet Week", an annual tradition where U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard ships returning from deployment dock in major cities' ports for a week. The sailors on board enjoy shore leave, while the ships are often open to the public, and military activities such as air shows take place. The tradition began in San Diego in the 1930's and has expanded to major ports on both coasts as well as in Hawaii. Fleet Week generally takes place in late May.
5. The episode features a number of familiar nicknames for sailors and Marines, including "squid" and "swab jockey" (for sailors) and "jarhead", "leatherneck" and "devil dog" (for Marines).
6. At one point, Shaw tells Finch that an operation has gone "pear-shaped". This is a traditionally British expression for a situation that has gone horribly wrong.
7. The sniper rifle Shaw takes from the Marine sniper and later uses in the pawnshop shootout is a RFB Kel-Tec RFB bullpup style 7.62 mm equipped with a flash suppressor, sniper scope and bipod.

Nothing to Hide

1. The date on the tombstone for Cal Beacher is April 5th 2013. At the end of last season's, "Trojan Horse," where Beecher was killed, was originally broadcast on April 4th 2013.

Lady Killer

1. While filming a scene in a rowboat with Sarah Shahi, Jim Caviezel almost fell out of the boat.
2. Warren Kole, who plays Ian Murphy, was the star on the short lived TV series Common Law (2012). Amy Acker (Root), was originally supposed to co-star in that series until she was replaced by Sonya Walger. (And Walger had co-starred with Michael Emerson on Lost (2004)).
3. Lakritz happens to be the German word for Licorice

Reasonable Doubt

1. Harold's line "Ms. Watkins has already proven herself practiced at the art of deception" is a paraphrase of a line from "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones.
2. When Shaw shows up for book club she says her name is Carmen. Carmen was Sarah Shahi's character's name in The L Word.

Razgovor

1. Razgovor is Russian for "conversation" or "dialogue."
2. The building explosion scene is stock footage from the opening of Lethal Weapon 3.
3. This is the 50th episode of "Person of Interest" to air.
4. Genrika's new school is named for Louise Fitzhugh, who wrote "Harriet the Spy" along with A.J. Quinnell, who wrote "Man on Fire." The lead character in "Man on Fire" is John Creasy, a cynical former CIA agent who is hired to rescue a young girl who has been kidnapped, only to find no one with whom he is working can be trusted, a situation similar to the one in which Shaw finds herself.
5. One of the tape recorders in Genrika's listening post is a Craig model 212. This same recorder was often used to deliver mission briefings to Jim Phelps in Mission Impossible.

Mors Praematura

1. "Mors Praematura" is Latin for "Premature Death."
2. Production of this episode was shut down for a day by the Mayor's office when numerous citizens called 911 to report men with automatic weapons in the area of 47th St. and 5th Ave. Reportedly, the day's shooting was ahead of schedule and the NYPD supervisors who are required to be on scene for any exterior shots involving firearms had not yet arrived, leading to the shut-down.
3. Peter Collier (Leslie Odom Jr.) is said to "have a thing for the American Revolution." He would later go on to originate the role of Founding Father Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical "Hamilton."
4. It is learned that Shaw was a U.S Marine. This is known by the USMC tattoo on her forearm.
5. Finch encloses Root in a Faraday cage. A Faraday cage is a structure of conductive metallic mesh designed to carry electrical energy away from whatever is contained within the cage. Constructed in a particular way, the cage can block mobile phone signals to the interior.
6. Shaw uses a thermal lance made from spaghetti wrapped tightly in aluminum foil and connected to an oxygen tank. A thermal lance is usually constructed using an iron tube filled with iron rods, which are burned using highly pressurized oxygen. They are often used to cut through metal requiring high temperatures, such as the iron bars Shaw cuts.
7. Raymond Chandler is an American novelist most notably known for writing crime and detective fiction. Finch referred to him once before while posing as a private investigator in "Identity Crisis".
8. Michael Emerson and Kirk Acevedo would later appear together on the sixth season of Arrow (2012).

The Perfect Mark

1. In the doctor's office, Finch is asked to pick out a picture that relaxes him. He picked one with a flock of birds, a fascination he had in his youth with his father. He also uses types of birds for his surname.
2. Carsten Norgaard plays antiques dealer Sven "The Swede" Vanger in this episode. Brennan Brown appeared in the first two seasons as recurring character FBI Agent Donnelly. The two later co-starred in The Man in the High Castle (2015), where Brown played an antiques dealer.
3. The conman rattles off a list of potential punishments for himself to Reese and one of them is to put him in a 'well in your basement'. This is a reference to Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Endgame

1. Late in the episode, Carter discovers the judge she contacted is in league with HR. In response, she looks at him and says, "I'll spare you the Shakespeare quote." The quote she refers to is very likely "Et tu, Brute?" (And you, Brutus?) from Julius Caesar. In the play, Brutus, Caesar's great friend, betrays Caesar to his enemies, then participates in his murder in the Roman Senate. "Et tu, Brute" has become a common response to betrayal.
2. Shortly thereafter, Simmons responds with "To be or not to be, bitch." That quote, from Hamlet, begins one of Shakespeare's greatest soliloquies, about the decision Hamlet must make: to live and face the trouble he knows is coming, or to commit suicide and face the unknown, which may be even worse.
3. Endgame is a term used in chess, which refers to the final stage of a game, at which point most of the pieces are removed from the board. In the endgame, strategy changes, as the pawns (the weakest and smallest pieces on the chess board) who protected the king from checkmate, become less important as the king exercises his increasing power. Metaphorically, it is often used for the late revelation of a previously hidden major objective.
4. One of the last times Carter is seen from a security camera, her icon is yellow like John and Harold's. Up to this point it's been white.

The Crossing

1. The ambulance used to transport Quinn is the same one robbed by Shaw in "Razgovor".
2. In the scene where Carter and Reese kiss, this was an unscripted act from Jim Caviezel and you can see the surprise in Taraji P. Henson's face.
3. When Carter tells Finch that she has deduced that he is using a computer receiving government feeds to identify the people who need help, he confirms it and the Machine acknowledges her deduction by assigning her a yellow box.
4. The publicity campaign for the episode arc which includes this episode was designed to lead viewers to believe Lionel Fusco was going to die in this episode. To help keep the secret, an alternate ending was filmed in which Fusco catches the bullet. Creator Jonathan Nolan referred to their efforts as "the big lie."
5. At the precinct, Reese and Carter replay some of their dialog from when they first met. Later, Carter dies at the same spot where Finch's private security picked up Reese in the pilot.

The Devil's Share

1. The song "Hurt" was written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Here it is performed by Johnny Cash, recorded shortly before he passed away.
2. First episode to not have the intro with Finch talking about himself, the team, and the machine.

Lethe

1. In Greek mythology, Lethe was one of the rivers of Hades. It is also the Latin word for forget. The next episode is Alethia, Greek for truth or unforgetfulness.
2. In a flashback to Finch's youth, his father is in a police car. On the side of the car is Iowa State police/ District 11.District 11 of Iowa is Cedar Rapids, hometown of Michael Emerson.
3. The whistle trick that young Finch uses on the phone was explained in the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999). The whistle you got in a box of Caption Crunch cereal made the same tone that ATT long distance used. So using the whistle you could get free long distance anywhere in the world.
4. This episode has no intro.
5. Saul Rubinek who plays Arthur Claypool, also plays a character called Arthur in the series Warehouse 13 (2009) who also worked for the NSA.
6. At the episodes end PRISM is shown as one of the active systems. PRISM became public in June 2013.
7. The home address shown on both of the Claypools' drivers' licenses is "626 Ebbotts Place, Crofton MD". There actually is a short residential street in Crofton called Ebbotts Place, although the 626 street number is fictitious.
8. This is the first time the face of Control (Camryn Manheim) is shown.
9. At 27:33 when Finch, Shaw, Arthur and his wife Diane come out of the hospital room, a red box is briefly shown around Diane's face in the surveillance camera shot, indicating that she was a threat from the beginning.

Aletheia

1. The title "Aletheia" is a Greek word which, among other things, means "truth"
2. In the flashback to 1980, Harold gives his father the book "Eastern Birds" by Roger Tory Anderson.
3. In the flashback scene to his childhood, Finch is shown hacking into ARPANET, the once classified computer network that eventually evolved into the Internet.
4. Rüdiger Smoot is the name Claypool used for the fake identity he created. The name is a combination of two semi-famous mathematicians. Rüdiger Gamm was known as the German "human calculator," and Oliver R. Smoot, an MIT student, had a unit of measurement named after him.
5. When teenage Harold Finch used a whistle to scam the long distance charges it was known as Phreaking. It was discovered that the free whistles given out in Cap'n Crunch cereal boxes produced a 2600 Hz tone that when blown into the phone would reset the line and stop the timer. You could then use short bursts in pattern to dial the phone.
6. The name "Smoot" has particular significance to students of MIT, the alma mater of Arthur and Harold.
7. Collier quotes Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of Liberty needs to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." This quote was on the shirt Timothy McVeigh was wearing when he blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
8. A member of the Vigilance group, just before he pulls the pin on a grenade; recites a quote about liberty needing to be refreshed with the blood of patriots. This is the same quote recited by Jim Caviezel's character in Deja Vu (2006). A character which is, in many ways, the polar opposite of his character John Reese.

4C

1. The movie the passengers are watching is Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), which is about a man who is mistaken for a government spy.
2. The drug Shaw used on Hersh was scopolamine, a drug generally used for motion sickness, which in larger doses has been used as a truth serum. Hersh was easily able to identify it because of the recognizable, and unpleasant, side effects that accompany the dose he was given.
3. VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is a technology that enables communication and multimedia sessions to other parties via connection to the internet. Communication services (voice, fax, SMS, voice-messaging) are converted from analog audio signals into digital data that can be transmitted over the internet.
4. The Black Market Bazaar is likely based on the real-world Silk Road, an online narcotics marketplace shut down by the FBI in October 2013.
5. Owen refers to the law enforcement officers who entered his kitchen to detain him as "Marshals Crockett and Tubbs"; a reference to the 1980s crime drama series Miami Vice.
6. The Machine calculates the probability of Reese's death at over 26%. By contrast, it estimates the likelihood of the situation resolving itself at less than 1%.
7. Reese's flight lands at Fiumicino - Leonardo da Vinci Airport (IATA airport code: FCO), Rome's principal international airport. Rome is a common hub for flights to the Middle East and Balkan regions, such as Reese's onward flight to Istanbul. His flight departs on December 21, 2013 at 15:20 (3:20 pm in New York or 9:20 pm in Rome.)
8. While in the hold of the airplane, Owen says, "Don't tase me, bro," to John. This is what a University of Florida student shouted at police who forcibly removed him from a Senator John Kerry forum.
9. Lionel (Kevin Chapman), and Root (Amy Acker), do not appear in this episode.

Provenance

1. According to Finch, Kelli (Jiao) Lin won a silver medal in gymnastics at the 2000 Summer Olympics. While it's not surprising that's fiction, as it turns out a Chinese athlete did win a Silver medal there but the winner was a man.
2. A picture of Mohamed Atta (of 9/11 infamy) is used as one of the international gang of thieves.
3. Chris Jackson, who plays the guard, Farrow, originated the role of George Washington in the Broadway musical "Hamilton". His co-star from that production, Leslie Odom Jr., plays Collier of the Vigilance organization, one of this season's antagonists who often makes references to the American Revolution.
4. The printer that's used is the Formlabs Form 2 or similar.

Last Call

1. The episode features members of the Templario drug cartel. Los Caballeros Templarios (The Knights Templar) were founded in 2011 the coastal state of Michoacán from the remnants of an earlier disbanded drug cartel. Using the model of the ancient Knights Templar, members of the cartel vow to fight or die for the cartel. They now control the drug trade in Michoacán and parts of surrounding states, as well has having considerable activity in the U.S.
2. The Templarios gang meets in a bar called "El Cetrero". It means "The Falconer" in Spanish.
3. According to the 911 call records, which were from two days previous, as well as the sheet Sandra signs to access the generator, the episode takes place on February 10, 2014.
4. Solano refers to texts that delete themselves. This may be a reference to the app Snapchat, which allows users to send images and video with text which remain on the recipients' phones for a limited period of time.
5. Introduction of "The Voice".
6. Root (Amy Acker) does not appear in this episode.

RAM

1. About halfway through the episode there is a location called 'Van Brunt Post'. Neil Jackson, who plays Rick Dillinger in this episode, plays Abraham Van Brunt in Sleepy Hollow.
2. It is from this point forward that Person of Interest morphs from being a crime drama to being a Science Fiction series. According to Gizmodo, "This past Tuesday night saw the season finale of Person of Interest, a show that premiered in 2011 as basically just a high-concept vigilante show. By the time it ended, it had transformed into one of the best science fiction series ever broadcast."
3. The government official Daniel Casey is whistle blowing to is named Ian Banks, this is a homage to science fiction writer Ian M. Banks. Banks wrote the Culture series which features a highly advanced artificial intelligence.
4. The end of the episode occurs on February 25, one week prior to the episode's original air date.
5. At the Nerdist Writers Panel in September 2014, Jonathan Nolan & Greg Plageman revealed that Lambert was originally scripted to die in the stand-off with Stanton at Strickland's office. It was even shot that way, but in the editing room, they re-cut it to ensure that he survived, because they enjoyed Julian Ovenden's performance.
6. Stanton uses a military tactical move by holding the hostage or prisoner in front of her, which is known as a human shield.
7. Finch notes that Daniel Casey attended "Cal Poly", where he majored in computer science. Cal Poly is the nickname for California State Polytechnic University, two of the 23 campuses in the California State University system. Cal Poly's campuses are located in Pomona and San Luis Obispo, and are known for their programs in engineering, agriculture and animal science. Cal Poly is also known for its annual Tournament of Roses Parade float, constructed at the Pomona campus's Rose Float unit by students from both campuses.
8. As a 'flashback' episode, this one starts with a misdirect that is done in several ways: Harold is speaking as he usually does to Reese except it isn't Reese, the usual flashback camera lens that alters the screen color is absent, and the timeline year isn't immediately given as it usually is. These same techniques of misdirection would be exploited throughout the entire first season of Jonathan Nolan's later project, Westworld.
9. Lionel Fusco (Kevin Chapman) does not appear in this episode.

Root Path

1. The title of this episode, "/", is a symbol which means "Root Path" for UNIX-like systems.
2. The name Root uses for her FBI credentials is "Augusta A. King". Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was a 19th century mathematician, who worked on an early theory for creating a computing device (the Analytical Engine).
3. Both Harold and Root are speaking in the opening credits.
4. Root uses cayenne pepper poured in hot oil to aerosolize the capsaicin (irritant) in the chile, creating instant tear gas. The Chinese used this method to fight off enemies more than two thousand years ago.
5. Root refers to Reese as Shaw's "Australopithecine co-worker." Australopithecus is the last stage of pre-erect development of early homo sapiens as well as several other hominids. It is one of two primate references Root uses regarding Reese.
6. Root tells Harold, "The machine offered me a job. She never said it would be easy." This is almost identical to what Harold previously tells John: "When I offered you a job, I never said it would be easy."
7. Root uses the alias Augusta A. King on her FBI badge. King, also known as Ada Lovelace, was a British mathematician known for her work on early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.
8. According to the receipt Root picks up, the episode takes place on March 11, 2014.

Allegiance

1. Reese's comment about the second shot always being more accurate refers to what's called a cold bore shot which is the first round through a firearm, usually a sniper rifle. Essentially the first shot warms the metal and deposits carbon in the barrel which impacts the flight path of subsequent rounds. Snipers are trained though for this, and skilled snipers can be as accurate with each shot.
2. This episode features Algerian members of the French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère). Founded in 1831, the FFL comprises units of foreign nationals willing to fight for the French government, often in Africa. Units often come from former colonial principalities, such as the Algerians in this episode. Algeria, a former French colony in North Africa, was the first FFL base, from which the FFL was used to maintain France's colonial interests in the region as late as the 1960s. The FFL has a long romantic history as a place for wronged Victorian men to find their honor that is at odds with its actual early intent to use local troops to keep colonized nations under control.
3. Nowruz takes place on or near the spring equinox (in late March) and is also known as Persian New Year. It is celebrated in many places that were formerly under Persian cultural influence, such as Iran, Afghanistan, Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq on March 20. Its literal meaning is "New Day".
4. The UN by treaty and agreement, is considered to be international territory, but with the permission of the Secretary General, US law enforcement could be brought in although where any prosecution would take place would be of great debate.
5. The Person of Interest for this episode is Maria Martinez. At the end of Person of Interest: Root Path (2014), the machine displays a set of threat analyses. Maria Martinez is listed in this set as a "subject".
6. Finch uses the alias "Mr. Kingfisher", another bird reference, when he and Reese pose as Omar's lawyers.
7. This episode takes place during the week of March 17th. This is assumed because the date at the end takes place on March 20th.

Most Likely to...

1. The school's external structure is the same as that seen in the film Grosse Pointe Blank.
2. One of the books Finch used to learn about safecracking is Wayne B. Yeager's book "Techniques of Safecracking".
3. The high school reunion happened on March 28-30, 2014.

Death Benefit

1. The scene in the art museum where Senator Garrison meets John Greer, the triptych painting they are standing in front of is "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by early Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), and it is located in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. The only Bosch painting in the National Gallery of Art is, "Death and the Miser."
2. The dilemma that Finch, Reese and Shaw face, whether to let McCourt live, causing the deaths of many, or to kill McCourt and potentially save many lives, is known in the field of Ethics as the Trolley Problem. The question is, you see a train speeding towards five people, who will surely be killed if the train continues, but can switch the train to a side track, on which there is only one person. In this case, is it ethical to switch the track, saving five lives for the price of one, or to let it continue, killing five, but saving the one.
3. The opera Finch was listening to, and which the Congressman was to attend, is Il Trovatore (The Troubador) by Giuseppe Verdi. The opera was first performed in 1853, and is most famous for its easily-recognizable "Anvil Chorus", which is among the best known excerpts from any opera, and frequently used in film, television and advertising.
4. Congressman McCourt buys the homeless man a meal at Ocean Grill, a seafood restaurant on the Upper West Side in New York. The restaurant's name is visible on the doors.
5. McCourt foreshadows his "bait and switch" early in the episode when he convinces the union leader to trust him even though he appears to be switching sides on an issue.

Beta

1. The family and baby pictures in Greer's folder about Grace are Carrie Preston's own.
2. The funeral scene was filmed in Little Italy, at the original St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.
3. Finch used another bird alias, Harold Martin, when he was with Grace.
4. Anance (or Ananke), the name listed on the cargo bill, refers to the Greek primeval goddess (Protogenos) of inevitability, compulsion and necessity. In a famous quote, MIT mathematician and computer scientist Norbert Wiener made Ananke the personification of scientific determinism.
5. Grace sees a flyer about Detective James Stills who has been missing since September 22, 2011; this is the date of the pilot episode of "Person of Interest." In that episode, Reese kills Stills with Fusco's gun, and then makes Fusco bury him at the location he had intended to bury Reese.
6. On board the ship, the brand name on the case of wine in the mess room is "Les Lèvres", French for "the lips".
7. Mount Vernon, New York, where Reese and Shaw meet Root in the end, is also the name of Jim Caviezel's place of birth in Washington.

A House Divided

1. The weapon that Niall Jacobs uses in the bakery is a FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon manufactured in Belgium and very popular with law enforcement agencies around the world, especially the U.S. Secret Service. The FN P90 holds 50 rounds of ammunition. With the video of the bakery shootout slowed to 25% of its original speed, the viewer can count exactly 50 bullets having been fired before Reese shoots the gunman.
2. Greer refers to Finch as "the father of artificial intelligence," however in reality, a computer scientist named John McCarthy is known as the father of AI.

Deus Ex Machina

1. Of the seven identities hidden and protected from Samaritan - Finch, Reese, Shaw, Root, and Root's hacker team, each with a dedicated rack-mount server for the task - Detective Lionel Fusco was not one.
2. All blackout scenes were shot during the day with special effects added during post production. In old film vernacular, these are known as "day for night" shots, and can be identified by the actors' shadows.
3. Control cites the 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to move the "trial" along. The sixth amendment sets out the rights of the accused in a criminal trial. They include the right to be informed of the charges against them as well as the right to a speedy trial, the right to an impartial jury of one's peers, the right to counsel, and the right to confront one's accuser.
4. Collier responds to Control that he, "knows the Bill of Rights." The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit government and establish states' rights. In the scene in the storage container, the Bill of Rights appears on the back wall, written in ink visible only in black light.
5. At the end of the episode, Root's voice-over references Pandora's Box. The Greek myth of Pandora's Box tells the tale of an unopened box (sometimes a jar) that contains all the miseries of the world. It remains closed until the curious Pandora, the first woman on earth, opens it, releasing its contents. She quickly closes the box, leaving one small being, hope, behind. Pandora's box has become a metaphor for actions that have significant, negative and unexpected consequences, or which will cause nothing but trouble.
6. FBI Agent Adams, while undercover with Vigilance, refers to "doxxing" a Senator. Doxxing (also spelled doxing) is the practice of using internet resources to research and publish material from databases, social media and/or hacking in order to identify an individual. The practice has been used by law enforcement and the media, but originated with hackers and cyber-bullies whose intention was to harass or embarrass their targets.
7. The courthouse is the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank on Chambers Street.
8. Hersh's autopsy report is dated April 16, 2014. He died on April 15, 2014.
9. At the end, as the library is being searched, several photos spill from a file; all of them are people whose numbers Finch received at some point. Among them are Wayne Kruger (Person of Interest: Nothing to Hide (2013)), Fermin Ordoñez (Person of Interest: C.O.D. (2012)), Patrick Simmons (Person of Interest: The Devil's Share (2013)), Ian Murphy (Person of Interest: Lady Killer (2013)), and Joss Carter (Person of Interest: Get Carter (2011)).
10. Root says, "When the whole world is watched, filed, indexed, numbered, the only way to disappear is to appear, hiding our true identities inside a seemingly ordinary life. You're not a free man anymore, Harold. You're just a number." This is very similar to a couple of quotes from The Prisoner (1967). Number 6 says, "I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered." Number 6 also says, "I am not a number. I am a free man." Prior to appearing in "Person of Interest" John Reese, Jim Caviezel played Number 6 in The Prisoner (2009).