History Characters / PersonOfInterestNorthernLights

->'''Played by:''' Camryn Manheim\\

->'''Played by:''' Jay O. Sanders\\

->'''Played by:''' Boris [=McGiver=]\\

->'''Played by:''' Nick Tarabay & Theodora Woolley\\

* {{Foil}}: Of all people, she's this to Greer and is basically what Greer could have become had he not flipped out in 1973, shot his treasonous superior, and left MI6.

* SubmissiveBadass: During a NotSoDifferent moment, Hersh acknowledges that people like him and Reese are more comfortable taking orders than giving them.

* PetTheDog: When he encounters Shaw in "4C," he seems genuinely concerned about her, and asks if her new boss is treating her okay.

!!!Known Associates and Partners

[[folder:Corwin]]
!!Alicia M. Corwin
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/corwin_alicia_9184.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[DontAskJustRun Run.]]"'']]
->'''Played by:''' Elizabeth Marvel\\
'''Introduced in:''' "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E11 Super]]"

-->''"Everything we did was to make the world a safer place, but we strayed from the path. I admit it. I have so many regrets, but it’s grown so big, and we’re so, so small. I don’t know who you are or how you know all this, but maybe you’re right. Maybe Nathan’s death, it is my fault. I saw the signs. I ignored them. Maybe I deserve this."''

A liaison between Ingram and the government while the Machine was being developed and a former member of the National Security Council. Corwin began living in hiding in a small town after Ingram's death.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Weeks]]
!!Denton L. Weeks
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weeks_denton_l__1529.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith You have no idea what you're getting into.]]"'']]
->'''Played by:''' Cotter Smith\\
'''Appeared in:''' "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E11 Super]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E01 The Contingency]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS02E02 Bad Code]]"

The official who commissioned the development of the Machine. He is in league with the Special Counsel.
----
* AmoralAttorney: He's one of the reasons why Harold and Nathan had The Machine black boxed. He also legalized the use of Palestinian Hanging, a torture method, on terrorist suspects.
* AssholeVictim: Considering the type of man Denton Weeks was, it's hard to mourn him.
* CharacterDeath: Root executes him.
* TheDragon: With respect to "Pennsylvania Two".
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He has a lover, which is how Root gets to him.
* DeathBySecretIdentity: He soon dies after finding out Finch is the one who actually built The Machine.
* {{Jerkass}}: Harold helps saves him but the guy turns on him and plans to bring him back to Northern Lights.
* [[KarmicDeath Karmic Torture]]: Root tortures him using a method that he authorized U.S. Intelligence officers to use on terrorists - and makes a point of showing him a copy of the document in which he did this during the proceedings.
* UngratefulBastard: He tries to kill Finch after being saved by him.
* YourCheatingHeart: According to Root, he had been cheating on his wife with another woman for several years.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Grice & Brooks]]
!!Devon Grice & Brooks
[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/poi_grice&brooks.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Grice (left) and Brooks (right).]]
->'''Played by:''' Nick Tarabay & Theodora Woolley\\
'''Appeared in:''' "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E07 Honor Among Thieves]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E12 Control-Alt-Delete]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E22 YHWH]]" (Grice only)

* ActionGirl: Brooks is no slouch in the combat department and is equal to her partner.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Grice is not a fan of the new arrangement regarding the introduction of Samaritan, and he even lets Shaw run free when they run into each other. Afterwards, he tries to destroy as much evidence of the meeting as possible.
* AntiHero: Professional counter-terrorism operatives with all that job entails, working to save America from international terrorist threats and keeping the existence of Northern Lights under wraps.
* BadassBeard: Grice has a somewhat modest one.
* BoomHeadshot: How Decima operatives kill Grice.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Control spares Grice's life after he lets Shaw escape, because this act shows he's not in the pay of Decima and she needs someone to help her investigate them.
* CharacterDeath: Grice, by Decima operatives while trying to prevent a non-existent terrorist attack on the Supreme Court.
* ColdSniper: Brooks breaks out a Nemesis Arms Vanquish to support Grice in cornering a suspect during "Control-Alt-Delete".
* TheComicallySerious: Grice says he's happy when he and Brooks get to investigate a terrorist threat themselves like they did under The Machine, but he [[DeadpanSnarker sure doesn't sound like it]].
-->''"Yep, just like the old days. I've never been happier."''
* EliteMook: They happen to be part of Control's personal detail.
* LastNameBasis: Brooks.
* ProfessionalKiller: Their job, as operators for the ISA.
* PunchClockVillain: In contrast to Grice, Brooks shares the late Hersh's principle of not questioning orders and doesn't really mind the recent changes at Northern Lights regarding Samaritan.
* RedOniBlueOni: Grice is Red, Brooks is Blue.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: They parallel the relationship between Reese and Shaw.
* WeaponOfChoice: The SIG-Sauer [=P229R=] for both of them, and the Nemesis Arms Vanquish take down sniper rifle for Brooks.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Brooks doesn't appear with Grice in "YHWH", and it's not known if she was killed as part of "The Correction" like Grice was.

* WeCanRuleTogether: Greer offers her a position in Samaritan's new world. She tells him to Hell. This culminates in Samaritan eliminating her.

* {{Expy}}: She is essentially a Caucasian [[SuicideSquad Amanda Waller]]. But with all of the Batman Mythos in this series it probably was intentional.

* CorruptPolitician: Samaritan notes he constantly tries to push agendas through Congress that go against the Constitution.

** When meeting Finch, he calls him the "mysterious and powerful" man behind the scenes, basically the same role Special Counsel has played.

* CorruptPolitician: Samaritan notes he constantly tries to push agendas through congress that go against the Constitution.

* AntiHero: Type V.
* {{Badass}}: She can hold her own in a gunfight. During the Season 3 finale, she refuses to be cowered by a shotgun-wielding Peter Collier, and repeatedly calls him out on his methods while he is attempting to portray her counter-terrorist efforts as wrong.
** Returns to do some field work in Season 4, and apart from getting abducted by Reese and Root, performs as well as expected.
** Notable in that whenever the Machine calculates death percentages, Control ''always'' has the single lowest chance of dying.
** Even ''Grice'', himself an ISA hitman, admits this.
-->'''Grice:''' It takes some balls to run an off-the-books op at a quarantined address.

* {{Badass}}: Since he's Reese's EvilCounterpart, Hersh is a OneManArmy capable of taking down numerous foes while sustaining wounds that would incapacitate most people.

* {{Badass}}: Both of them are well-trained counter-terrorist operatives. Grice can give the formidable John Reese a hard time in a fist-fight, and Brooks is also a dab hand with a sniper rifle.

* FatalFlaw: Her pride, and her inability to wrap her head around the idea that [[WrongGenreSavvy The Machine and Samaritan are sentient]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet."'']]

* DefiantToTheEnd: She repeatedly calls out Collier in the Season 3 finale on his actions as a terrorist and isn't particularly scared when he levels a shotgun at her.
-->''"As a sworn officer of the US government, I can neither confirm nor deny anything pertaining to this matter. And I will say the ''same damn thing'' to every other question, until the moment you put that gun to my head and pull the trigger."''

* {{Foil}}: Of all people, she's this to Greer and is basically what Greer could have become had he not flipped out in 1973, shot his treasonous superior and left MI6.

** Greer is a NonActionBigBad due to his age and prefers to use his RedShirtArmy and a cerebral approach in destroying his enemies. Control however is a BadAssBureaucrat who has had weapons/tradecraft training and is willing to get her hands bloody alongside her EliteMook subordinates.

** Finch calls her out, too:

* LargeAndInCharge: A tall, heavyset woman who is in charge of northern lights.

* NervesOfSteel: Demonstrates these during the Season 3 finale. In the face of a shotgun wielding Peter Collier, she refuses to be cowered by the terrorist - unlike her colleagues, who panic and throw her to the wolves.

* ShoutOut: To the works on JohnLeCarre, where a man known as "Control" kept his identity secret while serving as the head of an intelligence organization.

* VillainousValor: Captured by Vigilance and placed before a KangarooCourt, she gives a defiant TheReasonYouSuckSpeech and refuses to implicate Harold Finch, in order to protect the Machine.

* [[NonActionBigBad Non Action]] [[TheManBehindTheMan Man Behind The Man]]: He never picks up a gun or even gets into a physical fight. That said, he isn't adverse to tense situations and remains ice cool.

!!Ross H. Garrison

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Defied. Greer thinks he's no longer needed, and wants to kill him, but Samaritan has further plans that include Garrison remaining alive. [[spoiler:He becomes one of the few recurring characters appearing in Season 5 to survive all the way to series' end.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[DontAskJustRun Run]]."'']]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Certain aspects of Corwin's role in the plot prior to her death have never been explained, due to the fact that she was mostly just there to set up Root and Decima. Why did she think that the Machine killed Nathan? What was her connection to Decima?

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weeks_denton_l__1529.jpg]][[caption-width-right:350:''"You have no idea what you're getting into."'']]

* AmoralAttorney: He's one of the reasons why Harold and Nathan had the machine black boxed. He also legalised the use of Palestinian Hanging, a torture method, on terrorist suspects.

* [[KarmicDeath Karmic Torture]]: Root tortures him using a method that he authorized US Intelligence officers to use on terrorists - and makes a point of showing him a copy of the document in which he did this during the proceedings.

[[folder:Grice]]
!!Devon Grice
->'''Played by:''' Nick Tarabay\\
'''Appeared in:''' "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E07 Honor Among Thieves]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E12 Control-Alt-Delete]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E22 YHWH]]"

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Not a fan of the new arrangement regarding the introduction of Samaritan, and he even lets Shaw run free when they run into each other. Afterwards, he tries to destroy as much evidence of the meeting as possible.
* AntiHero: A professional counter-terrorist operative with all that job entails but he works to save America from international terrorist threats.
* {{Badass}}: Like his comrades, he's a well trained counter-terrorist operative who can give the formidable John Reese a hard time in a fist-fight.
* BadassBeard: A somewhat modest one.
* BoomHeadshot: How Decima operatives killed him.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Control spares his life after he lets Shaw escape, because this act shows he's not in the pay of Decima and she needs someone to help her investigate them.
* CharacterDeath: By Decima operatives while trying to prevent a non-existent terrorist attack on the Supreme Court.
* TheComicallySerious: He says he's happy when he and Brooks get to investigate a terrorist threat themselves like they did under The Machine, but he [[DeadpanSnarker sure doesn't sound like it]].

* ProfessionalKiller: His job.
* RedOniBlueOni: The Red to Brooks' Blue.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: He and Brooks parallel the relationship between John and Sameen.
* WeaponOfChoice: SIG-Sauer [=P229R=]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brooks]]
!!Brooks
->'''Played by:''' Theodora Woolley\\
'''Appeared in:''' "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E07 Honor Among Thieves]]", "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E12 Control-Alt-Delete]]"

* ActionGirl: She's no slouch in the combat department and is equal to her partner.
* AntiHero: Like her partner. However, she doesn't really mind the recent changes at Northern Lights regarding Samaritan.
* {{Badass}}: Just like her partner, Brooks is a well trained counter-terrorist operative who is also a dab hand with a sniper rifle.
* ColdSniper: Breaks out a Nemesis Arms Vanquish to support Grice in cornering a suspect during "Control-Alt-Delete".
* EliteMook: Like most of the ISA operators but she's now part of Control's personal detail
* ProfessionalKiller: As a operator for the ISA, this is her job.
* PunchClockVillain: She shares the late Hersh's principle of not questioning orders.
* RedOniBlueOni: The Blue to Grice's Red.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Brooks and her partner reflect the relationship between Reese and Shaw.
* TheStoic: Compared to her partner.
* WeaponOfChoice: SIG-Sauer [=P229R=] and the Nemesis Arms Vanquish take down sniper rifle.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: She doesn't appear with Grice in "YHWH", and it's not known if she was killed as part of "The Correction" like Grice was.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: Not making the same mistake twice, the second time he goes up against Root, he shoots out the cameras before sneaking up on her and successfully gets the drop on her despite her analog interface giving her ImprobableAimingSkills.

-->''"They're an army unit that carries out black ops so dark, technically they don't exist."''
-->'''Reese'''

->'''Played By:''' Camryn Manheim

--> '''Grice''': It takes some balls to run an off-the-books op at a quarantined address.

--> '''Control''': As a sworn officer of the US government, I can neither confirm nor deny anything pertaining to this matter. And I will say the ''same damn thing'' to every other question, until the moment you put that gun to my head and pull the trigger.

--> '''Control''': You want me to help Greer, the man who stole Samaritan from me?\\
'''Garrison''': Let's put your ego aside for a moment, shall we?\\
'''Control''': Ross, I know that Samaritan is an excellent Plan B. I just don't like having to pay for something that belongs to me in the first place.

--> '''Collier:''' Please, who built the Machine? How does it work? Where is it located?
--> '''Control:''' Honestly? ''[looks at Finch]'' I don't know.

* IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance: Control is one of the most powerful characters in the series. Or she would be if the artificial super intelligences weren't running the show.

--> '''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.

--> '''[[TheMole Shelly]]''': Samaritan will build a new world... a better world.
--> '''Control''': Too bad you won't live to see it. ''[DoubleTap]''

--> '''Control:''' You want to shoot me, because I had to tap a few phone calls, read a few emails, then you go right ahead. But you better turn that gun on yourself next, Mr. Collier, because you have broken just as many laws. And the only difference is, [[AtLeastIAdmitIt I didn't wrap myself up in the American flag, and try to convince people that I was a hero]].

* UnwittingPawn: Unknown to her, all her actions to take down Decima were planned by Greer and ultimately doomed her organization.

* WeaponOfChoice: A SIG-Sauer [=P229R=]. She puts it to very good use in "Aletheia".
** As of Season 4, she's switched to a Smith and Wesson M&P Compact, which she uses to murder an innocent man framed as an Islamist Extremist.

->'''Played By:''' Jay O. Sanders

* YouAreNumberSix: No real name given.

->'''Played By:''' Creator/JohnDoman

--> '''Garrison''': I had nothing to do with the development of Northern Lights. Damn thing was up and running when I was read in! I just got stuck with cleaning up the mess.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Defied. Greer thinks he's no longer needed, and wants to kill him, but Samaritan has further plans that include Garrison remaining alive.

->'''Played By:''' Boris [=McGiver=]

Special Counsel's (and later Control's) enforcer, a former member of the ISA.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Run."'']]
->'''Played By:''' Elizabeth Marvel

->'''Played By:''' Cotter Smith

->'''Played By:''' Nick Tarabay

->'''Played By:''' Theodora Woolley

'''BEWARE OF SPOILERS!''' To prevent the page from being whited out entirely, '''only spoilers from the current season (5) are whited out!'''

[[folder:Ross Garrison]]

[[folder:Alicia Corwin]]

[[folder:Denton Weeks]]

* KilledOffForReal: By Decima operatives while trying to prevent a non-existent terrorist attack on the Supreme Court.

'''BEWARE OF SPOILERS!''' To prevent the page from being whited out entirely, '''only spoilers from the current season (4) are whited out!'''

[[foldercontrol]]

* ThePurge: Decima Technologies [[spoiler:ends up wiping out a good chunk of their powerbase as part of "The Correction"]].

** Returns to do some field work in Season 4 - and, [[spoiler:apart from getting abducted by Reese and Root]], performs as well as expected.

* BerserkButton: Don't you ''dare'' get between her and stopping a terrorist attack. She will stop at nothing to end you. [[spoiler:Even if you are Samaritan.]]

* BlackAndGrayMorality: A ''very'' dark shade of grey. Yet, despite all of her actions, you can't help but wholeheartedly root for her when [[spoiler:she turns against [[EvilerThanThou Greer and Samaritan]].]]

* ControlFreak: Implied in the closing stages of Season 3, when her partners in running the Northern Lights organization suggest her reluctance in letting the Samaritan system in is because of this. But in Season 4, it's on full display during "Control-Alt-Delete", [[spoiler:where she clashes with a Decima/Samaritan asset who has the on and off switch to the access of Samaritan]].

* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:She ends her life black-bagged and tossed in a hole, the same fate she caused to so many]].

** Averted in Season 4. [[spoiler:She's left dumbstruck in horror as Greer reveals that the terrorist attack on the Supreme Court was actually a masquerade to test her loyalty and she's failed. She dragged off to parts unknown without a word.]]
* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler:The Season 4 final. She's determined to stop Samaritan from carrying out a terrorist attack and finds evidence that Samaritan is planning to attack the Supreme Court. It was all a SecretTestOfCharacter. Samaritan's agents kill Grice and Schiffman. She gets captured.]]
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: How the Machine gets her to back down, telling Control the address of the only thing she's loved, and telling her that the Machine protects both it and her. [[spoiler: Turns out she has a daughter named Julia, whom she loves dearly]].

* FateWorseThanDeath: What Samaritan deals her. [[spoiler:She's to spend her remaining days in a dark, forgotten hole in the ground wasting away from hunger and starvation until she finally dies.]]
* {{Foil}}: Of all people, she's this to Greer and is basically what Greer could have become [[spoiler: had he not flipped out in 1973, shot his treasonous superior and left MI6]] .
** Control is a fanatical arch-patriot who loves her country dearly and is willing to get blood on her hands in keeping it safe from threats foreign and domestic. Greer loathes nation states with a passion and has dedicated the rest of his life to destroying them by [[spoiler: creating a global government under the Samaritan A.I]].
** Control epitomizes GoodIsNotNice but ultimately means well. Greer in contrast is AffablyEvil and barely bats an eyelid when engaging in murder, betrayal and screwing over the opposition in the pursuit of [[spoiler: world domination]].
** Both of them are professional spymasters, who are competent at their jobs and ruthless to anyone who gets in the way of completing their missions. Control however mostly focuses on counter-terrorism while Greer initially does his job in the pursuit of gathering useful intel, money [[spoiler: and later facilitating the activities of Samaritan.]]

** Control may be a zealot but she's diligent at her job, prefers to verify that the relevant numbers she gets are clear and present dangers to America's national security and encourages this to some degree among her subordinates. Greer in contrast now follows [[spoiler: orders from a megalomaniac A.I without question]].

** [[spoiler:HeelFaceDoorSlam]]: [[spoiler: Greer and Samaritan thoroughly [[OutGambitted out-gambit]] her as a result.]]

* IronicEcho: She tells Greer she'll black-bag him and toss him in a dark pit, and the last thing he'll hear before being forgotten there is her voice saying he belongs there. [[spoiler:She ends up on the receiving end of this exact same sequence of events moments afterwards]].

* LesserOfTwoEvils: [[spoiler:In "YHWH", she realizes that getting information from The Machine, as slippery and cryptic as it was, is ''infinitely'' better than [[AiIsACrapshoot Samaritan]] is.]]
** [[spoiler: She herself is this when compared to Samaritan and Greer.]]

* MoralityPet: Her [[spoiler:daughter, Julia]].

** To Greer. Like him, she doesn't mind killing civilians in her work. But her justifications are different. The first is initially to prevent knowledge of Research from leaking out. The second is if she deems it in the national interest such as in the case of [[spoiler:the Irrelevant framed as a terrorist in Control-Alt-Delete]].
* NotSoStoic: When torturing [[spoiler:Samaritan ISA mole Shelly]], she finds out about Samaritan's imminent [[BerserkButton terrorist attack]]. She proceeds to brutally pistol-whip her, screaming while doing so.

* OutGambitted: Greer [[spoiler: plays her like a fiddle and not only anticipates her every move, but uses her actions to seal her fate]].

--> [[spoiler: '''[[TheMole Shelly]]''']]: Samaritan will build a new world... a better world.

** She is on high alert in Season 4 after arguing with Samaritan operative Travers, and picks out their attempt at listening in on her satellite phone conversation with [[spoiler: Grice]].

** In Season 4, this trope is fully in play. [[spoiler:She has to murder an innocent man to prevent Samaritan from thinking she has caught on to the fact it has been framing irrelevants as threats to US national security.]]
* UnwittingPawn: Unknown to her, all her [[spoiler:actions to take down Decima were planned by Greer and ultimately doomed her organization]].

** As of Season 4, she's switched to a Smith and Wesson M&P Compact [[spoiler: which she uses to murder an innocent man framed as an Islamist Extremist.]]
* WeCanRuleTogether: Greer offers her a position in Samaritan's new world. She tells him to Hell. [[spoiler:This culminates in Samaritan eliminating her]].

* WrongGenreSavvy: Despite being in the know about the true nature of Research, she behaves like she lives in a post 9/11 espionage drama rather than a PostCyberPunk ScienceFiction show. However, over time, she begins to catch on. Unfortunately, she doesn't catch on fast enough; in "[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS04E22 YHWH]]", Greer takes full advantage of and misdirects her by planting the idea [[spoiler:that his organization is planning an act of terror targeting the U.S. Supreme Court]]. It's all a lie [[spoiler:to buy time for the assets under his and Samaritan's command to decapitate what is left of her power and take her down]].

* AmbiguouslyEvil: Not a fan of the new arrangement regarding [[spoiler:the introduction of Samaritan]] and he even lets [[spoiler:Shaw]] run free when they run into each other. Afterwards, he tries to destroy as much evidence of the meeting as possible.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:How Decima operatives killed him.]]

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:By Decima operatives while trying to prevent a non-existent terrorist attack on the Supreme Court.]]

* AntiHero: Like her partner. However, she doesn't really mind the recent changes at Northern Lights [[spoiler: regarding Samaritan]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: She doesn't appear with Grice in "YHWH", and it's not known if [[spoiler:she was killed as part of "The Correction" like Grice was]].

* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: The late Special Counsel who oversaw their field operations masqueraded as the head of the RealLife Office Of Special Counsel, the people who conduct their field work are officially from the CIA and ISA and their entity known as "Research" belongs to the NSA.
* EliteMook: They fulfill this role in the ''Person Of Interest'' universe. Only Reese, Shaw and Root have been able to take them on in combat effectively and at times have been bested by them due to superior numbers. Notable instances include:

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness / YouKnowTooMuch: Does this to any employees who wish to leave the program. They also performed this on many of the personnel who were involved with initially setting up The Machine.

* MyCountryRightOrWrong:
--> '''Finch:''' Thank you for protecting me, although I am baffled as to why.
--> '''Control:''' The same reason I've done everything. For my country.

* NotSoStoic: When torturing [[spoiler: Samaritan ISA mole Shelly]], she finds out about Samaritan's imminent [[BerserkButton terrorist attack]]. She proceeds to brutally pistol-whip her, screaming while doing so.

* FatalFlaw: Her pride, and her inability to wrap her head around the idea that [[spoiler: The Machine and Samaritan are sentient]].

* NotSoDifferent: Invokes this when meeting Shaw. She agrees entirely.

* CorruptPolitician: Samaritan notes he constantly tries to push agendas through congress that go against the constitution.

* AssassinOutClassin: Gets subjected to this by Reese when the latter runs him through non-lethally with a carving knife. Later suffers a more severe experience when going up against Root.

* {{Badass}}: Since he's Reese's EvilCounterpart. Hersh is a OneManArmy capable of taking down numerous foes while sustaining wounds that would incapacitate most people.

* TheComicallySerious: He doesn't have a lot of funny moments, but the few he does have mostly revolve around him doing ridiculous things completely stone-faced. From his plan to get into prison to kill Reese (shoot his gun into the air ten feet away from some cops), his insistence that he and Shaw are even because he killed her but she drugged him non-lethally, and his method of securing transportation for Shaw during a blackout by shooting his gun into the air and scaring a kid off his bike.

* ImplacableMan: Like the Terminator, even if he's grievously wounded, it will barely slow him down. For one, he is shot in the back, strangles the Decima agent who did so, and then he takes out another hit squad. He only dies because he's in the same room as Decima's building-busting bomb when it goes off.

* HeWhoFightsMonster: They regard all their actions as NecessaryEvil to stop terrorism, yet allow the ferry bombing to go ahead just to kill one man who threatened their secret.

* VillainBall: Their policy of killing anyone who might expose them has a tendency to backfire. Killing Shaw's partner turned their best agent against them. Control ordering Stanton and Reese's death also backfires in the long run. And Special Counsel points out that if they'd kept Nathan Ingram alive, he could have helped them get back the Machine after it went rogue.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Does this to any employees who wish to leave the program. They also performed this on many of the personnel who were involved with initially setting up The Machine.