Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
John Reese has lost his place in the world when Harold Finch recruits him for a secret operation in New York. Finch built the Machine, a surveillance system that predicts violence by combining information from cameras, communications and other records. The government wants warnings about terrorism; ordinary murders fall into its discarded, irrelevant category. Finch gives Reese the Social Security numbers of those people instead. A number does not explain whether someone is a victim or an attacker, so Reese must investigate before deciding whom to protect. His field skills and Finch’s access to information allow them to interrupt crimes that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Their work draws in two police officers with very different histories: Joss Carter investigates the mysterious vigilante, while Lionel Fusco is a corrupt cop Reese forces into helping. By the closing case, both are assisting him, and they discover that they have been working toward the same goal. Reese protects psychologist Caroline Turing from hired killers, taking her to a hotel where corrupt officers and federal investigators close in. The apparent rescue is a trap. Turing is actually the hacker Root, who arranged the threat against herself to draw Finch out. She kills Alicia Corwin, a woman demanding that Finch shut down the Machine, and takes Finch away. Reese appeals directly to a surveillance camera for help, then answers a ringing payphone.