Person of Interest (TV Series)

Deus Ex Machina (2014)

Michael Emerson: Harold Finch

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Quotes 

• John Reese : [after Finch is shot]  First time's the worst, huh?

  Harold Finch : Why would you ever choose a career where this is an occupational hazard?

  John Reese : Well, I tried to quit, but some jackass told me I needed a purpose.

• [last lines] 

  Harold Finch : I take it your plan to stop Samaritan was unsuccessful.

  Root : Any chance we had of stopping it ended when we didn't kill the Congressman. This was never about winning. It's just about surviving.

  Decima Tech : [Cut to Decima lab]  Higher functions online, sir. Searching for targets now.

  John Greer : Good. Eliminate them all.

  Decima Tech : Yes, sir.

  Root : [V.O]  The Machine and I couldn't save the world. We had to settle for protecting the seven people who might be able to take it back. So we gave Samaritan a blind spot: seven key servers that hardcodes it to ignore seven, carefully crafted new identities. 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. We have to become these people now, and if we don't, they'll find us, and they'll kill us. I'm sorry, Harold. I know it's not enough. A lot of people are going to die. People who might have been able to help. Everything is changing. I don't know if it will ever get better... but it's going to get worse. But the Machine asked me to tell you something before we part. You once told John, the whole point of Pandora's Box is that once you've opened it, you can't close it again. She wanted me to remind you how the story ends. When everything is over and the worst has happened, there's still one thing left in Pandora's Box: hope.

  John Greer : [to Samaritan]  Good morning.

  Samaritan : [as individual words flashing on screen]  WHAT ARE YOUR COMMANDS?

  John Greer : I assure you, it's quite the other way around. The question is, what, my dear Samaritan, are your commands for us?

  Samaritan : CALCULATING RESPONSE.

• Harold Finch : It had to be a closed system. It was the only way to protect people's rights.

  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 : It's not a weapon.

  Peter Collier : What else would you call it?

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

  Peter Collier : And it never occurred to you the damage this thing could do, the lives it could destroy?

  Harold Finch : It occurred to me on day one, Mr. Collier, and every day since. If you're asking me if I feel at ease with what I've created, or whether it was the right or the wrong thing to do, I honestly don't know. But I designed the machine in part because I was worried, and I remain worried, about what someone else might build someone who wasn't worried.

  [looks at Greer] 

• 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.

• Harold Finch : Stop. I can help you. The questions you're asking, I know the answers.

  Peter Collier : Really? How do you know?

  Harold Finch : Because I built it.

  Peter Collier : You built it? One man is responsible for the most invasive surveillance technology in the world?

  Harold Finch : I'm good with computers.

• John Greer : What a piece of work is your Machine, Harold. "In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god." In 20 years time, life on earth will come to resemble the myths of the ancient Greeks. A pantheon of super intelligent beings will watch over us using human agents to meddle in our affairs.

  Harold Finch : Or they may simply destroy us all.

  John Greer : One could argue we've done a fair job of that ourselves. Besides, someone has to be in charge, but as you well know, gods are not easily born. In order to bring mine into being, I needed a Devil.

• Harold Finch : I'm willing to tell you whatever you want to know, but only if you agree to spare the lives of everyone else in this courtroom.

  Peter Collier : Well, before we release anybody, we need to hear your testimony first.

  Harold Finch : [Harold walks to the stand]  On September the 12th, 2001, I began coding in a complex surveillance system that would be known by many code names over the years, although I always just called it the machine.

• Harold Finch : By the time we turned it over to the government in 2009, the machine had helped stop 54 terrorist attacks, saving an estimated 4,000 lives. I don't know how many it's saved since.

  Peter Collier : So even though Northern Lights was shut down, your machine was still operational. Where is it now?

  Harold Finch : I'm afraid not even I know that.

  Peter Collier : Do you have access to it? Can we turn it off?

  Harold Finch : You have nothing to fear from my system, Mr. Collier, I assure you.

  Peter Collier : You'll forgive me if I don't take you at your word.

  Harold Finch : The machine's only output is a number. That's all the government ever gets, just a nudge to say, there's something you should look at here, and that's up to us to figure that out.

  Peter Collier : So it brands people as suspects, guilty until proven innocent!

  Harold Finch : No, not my intention.

  Peter Collier : THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!

• Peter Collier : Go ahead and kill me. Damage is already done. Everyone in the world heard the testimony in that courtroom tonight.

  John Greer : Mr. Collier, who do you think makes the equipment that you used to transmit? Your trial was broadcast to a single office on the other side of town where a handful of computers led you to believe that the whole world was watching. It's high time you and I had a talk about the true nature of Vigilance.

  Peter Collier : You don't know anything about us.

  John Greer : Oh, I know a great deal more than you think. After all, tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered. You didn't really believe this was a democracy, did you? Your grassroots movement has been meticulously planned from the beginning. In fact, I recruited you myself.

  Harold Finch : Decima created Vigilance? Why?

  John Greer : our machine did its job too well. I had remind Senator Garrison and his ilk of just how bad things could be. And what better way to remind them than a fresh atrocity on American soil?

  Peter Collier : What atrocity? In all our dealings, we never killed one innocent person.

  John Greer : [Ominous]  Not until now.