Person of Interest (TV Series)

God Mode (2013)

Michael Emerson: Harold Finch

Photos 

Quotes 

• Root : C'mon Harold, time to meet God.

  Harold Finch : Please don't set your expectations too high.

• Root : I thought you said I wouldn't enjoy this, Harold. Sadly, though, if my access to the machine only lasts 24 hours, it's time to go. Your friend John's been keeping up with us. How is that?

  Harold Finch : I don't know...

  Root : I wasn't asking you, Harold.

• Root : [the facility where the Machine was supposed to be is empty]  Where is it?

  Harold Finch : I'm sorry. You said you wanted to set the machine free. I already did.

  Root : [Turns away from him]  Where are you? Please talk to me!

  [Turns back to Harold, angry] 

  Root : You lied to me. I believed you. I believed in you.

  Harold Finch : Ms. Groves...

  Root : My name is ROOT.

  [Turns her gun at him, only to shot as Reese and Shaw arrive] 

  John Reese : Harold. Are you okay?

  [Looks at the empty room] 

  John Reese : Is this what you expected?

  Harold Finch : It's what I hoped.

• Special Counsel : I always knew there was someone behind Ingram. Like a black hole. Invisible, but powerful. So tell me, where did you move the machine?

  Harold Finch : It moved itself.

  Special Counsel : But who controls it?

  Harold Finch : As of now, it controls itself.

  Special Counsel : The numbers, will they continue to come to us?

  Harold Finch : That will be up to the machine.

  Special Counsel : If they don't start up again, the country is defenseless.

  Harold Finch : No, just less well-defended. I think we both understand that what's at stake here has moved beyond simply defending the country.

  Special Counsel : Has it? You built the machine for us to use to protect people. We do, very well. Don't fight us. Help us recover it or rebuild it. You can dictate your terms. You have my word.

  Harold Finch : You gave my friend your word. And you killed him.

• Root : We want to know about Northern Lights.

  Lawrence Szilard : I have no idea what you're talking about. I have nothing to say.

  Root : Your daughter, Christine. In LA, where you hid her. Such a shame if people running Northern Lights got a hold of her.

  Harold Finch : Please, there's no need for that.

  [to Lawrence] 

  Harold Finch : I can tell you how it began. You were approached by a woman named Alicia Corwin.

  Lawrence Szilard : She was killed last year.

  Root : Such a tragedy.

  Lawrence Szilard : All of my colleagues on that project died in suspicious circumstances in the past two years. As far as I know, I'm the last one alive.

  Harold Finch : And you're the last person who can tell us about Northern Lights.

• John Reese : Finch, you think we'll ever get another number?

  Harold Finch : I don't know. Mr. Reese, I owe you an explanation. And an apology. Three years ago, when I put the code out there to free the machine, I had no idea what path it would take or what unintended consequences it might have. I never intended to hurt anyone, but I accepted that someone might get hurt. I always worried that events that I had set in motion may have... changed things for you.

  John Reese : My life changed when I kept my mouth shut at an airport terminal seven years ago. You didn't have anything to do with that. You lost a friend. You did what you had to do.

• Harold Finch : I know you've been looking for the machine. Nathan, if you're trying to get back in to access the irrelevant numbers...

  Nathan Ingram : It won't work, I know. You locked me out. You were always the better engineer. But I do have one advantage over you. I am the face of IFT, which means when I call a reporter to meet me for coffee, he'll be there.

  Harold Finch : What are you going to do, Nathan?

  Nathan Ingram : I'm going to tell them what we did. What we built.

  Harold Finch : No, you can't do that!

  Nathan Ingram : Why? Because the government will shut it down? Because of the greater good? I'm sick of hearing it.

  Harold Finch : No, it's not just that anymore. I've been looking into this. I think the government may be killing them. The engineers that Corwin had reassemble the machine after we shipped it off? There have been accidents, disappearances. The head of the project, a man named Lawrence Szilard, went missing last month.

  Nathan Ingram : Harold, you have been running so long, it's rattled you. Alicia isn't going to have me bumped off.

  Harold Finch : It might be out of her control.

• John Reese : You didn't do this yourself?

  Harold Finch : I couldn't. I'd locked myself out. The machine was designed to accept alterations in its programming only as a response to an attack. I knew that sooner or later someone would try to take it over, but I didn't know who. So I made sure that when they did they'd do it with my code.

  John Reese : You hid a virus within a virus.

  Harold Finch : I realized that the people Nathan and I had entrusted the machine to were the wrong people and that the only way to protect it would be to teach it to protect itself. I didn't want to involve you in this business, Mr. Reese, because I had hoped that, if I hadn't returned, you would continue what we had started.

• Lawrence Szilard : We were contracted to build a structure. It had to be hidden in plain sight and have power for 50,000 people. At first, you know, I said, "That's a joke. What about a nuclear reactor?" The next day, I was given specs for a nuclear reprocessing facility and the army corps of engineers as a work force. And then it started to arrive. Disguised as radioactive material to evade scrutiny. We were just told to - to plug it in. They would take care of the rest, but I've always been the curious type.

  Harold Finch : So you took a look at the data.

  Lawrence Szilard : Just the I/O. The rest was encrypted. But what I saw... it was like a glimpse of the future. Elegant, intuitive. Practically alive.

  [Turns to Root] 

  Lawrence Szilard : It's speaking to you right now, isn't it?

• Harold Finch : We gave the government the ultimate power. If they know you've called a journalist, they won't take any chances. They'll kill you and anybody else they think might know about it.

  Nathan Ingram : You've never trusted anyone. Not me, not the machine. Have you even told your fiancee your real name yet?

  Harold Finch : ...I'm waiting for the right moment. Nathan, please, tell me what I can do to stop you.

  Nathan Ingram : Give me back the irrelevant list. You could even help me.

  Harold Finch : What, you and me sitting here, trying to rescue them one at a time?

  Nathan Ingram : Someone's number's on that thing right now. It's gonna be erased at midnight. Maybe - maybe we can help them.

  Harold Finch : I'm not trying to help them. I'm trying to help you.