Person of Interest (TV Series)

No Good Deed (2012)

Jacob Pitts: Henry L. Peck

Photos 

Quotes 

• Henry L. Peck : Please just listen. They've taken my job, ruined my life. Now I know why. This is the proof. These are six reports I wrote for the NSA, and six covert actions based on those reports. In each case, a single name gets added to what I wrote, and each time, that name turns out to be the key to stopping a major terrorist attack. Six for six. The only way to be that accurate is with illegal surveillance on a massive scale. Then there's this, "Sibilance" is an internal audit of the NSA intranet. It's totally routine; until they find signals hidden just beyond the Shannon limit. It should just be static, but there was data. Someone is sneaking just as much data out as the NSA is taking in. To scan through all that, you need an organization ten times our size. It's more than any human -

  [Sudden realization hits] 

  Henry L. Peck : Oh, my God, they actually built it. After 9/11, the government wanted a computer system, a machine, that could watch everyone and everything, catch terrorists before they strike. They tried with trailblazer, TIA, stellar wind. They - they all failed. But if I'm right, then someone really built the damn thing, and it's watching us right now.

  Lionel Fusco : [Just looks at him blankly]  Okay, you want a soda or something?

• Harold Finch : The answer to your question is yes. It exists. And it's watching us right now. I'm telling you this because you remind me a little of myself. And I know that, if I were you, I would keep asking until I knew the truth. So now you do. Now stop asking the question.

  Henry L. Peck : Where is it? How does it work? I mean, the servers alone...

  Harold Finch : I know how you feel. Your need to understand. But believe me, Mr. Peck, this is a mystery you do not want to solve. Knowing the answer has cost me something I value more than my own life.

  [Hands him a folder] 

  Harold Finch : Clean passport, plane tickets, a bank card to a well-funded account in your new name. Please, Mr. Peck, for your own sake, and quite frankly, for mine, go and live your life. Find some secrets of your own. And if you really need a mystery, I recommend the human heart.

  Henry L. Peck : How do you know all this?

  Harold Finch : Because I built it.

• Harold Finch : I suppose we can count our blessings Detective Fusco isn't the inquisitive type, but Peck's in more danger than ever.

  Henry L. Peck : [as Reese breaks into a parked taxi]  Seriously, who the hell *are* you?

  Harold Finch : All Henry Peck did was ask questions. He deserves a normal life. And if we have any hope of giving it to him, we have to destroy all that evidence and stop him from getting any more.

  Henry L. Peck : [dials his cell phone]  Yes, my name is Henry Peck. I'm an analyst with...

  John Reese : [grabs it]  Who'd you just call?

  Henry L. Peck : The Office of Special Counsel, the agency that protects whistleblowers.

  Harold Finch : Oh, I really wish you hadn't let him do that, Mr. Reese. The people who know about the Machine - one of them works for the Office of Special Counsel!

  Henry L. Peck : [Reese throws Peck's phone out the window]  What are you doing? Our own government is spying on us and they want to kill me to cover it up. I have to tell someone!

  John Reese : The people you called aren't who you think they are. There's no one to tell.

• Henry L. Peck : [On the phone]  Alicia, it's Henry Peck Uh, again. Listen, I really need to talk to you, so please just give me a call and we'll find a place to meet, okay?

  John Reese : Alicia. So who's Alicia? An ex-girlfriend? Or someone he wishes was a girlfriend?