History Recap / PersonOfInterestS03E11

* RealityEnsues: Shaw is a formidable former government assassin who can deal with almost all threats to Harold and Arthur. However, when a numerically superior force who have had the same training as her go up against her (Control's security detail), she is easily outnumbered and taken out of play.

->'''Arthur''': After [[TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] the government had everyone and their cat try to build a system that could [[SinisterSurveillance watch everything]].\\

* WhamEpisode

--> '''Arthur''': I remember Diane. Diane is dead. I buried her two years ago.

->'''Arthur''': After [[TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] the government had everyone and their the cat try to build a system that could [[SinisterSurveillance watch everything]].\\

* WeNeedADistraction: Finch has to restrain Shaw's enthusiasm in this area. "I'm sure there are ways to get to Claypool that do not involve any [[IncinedaryExponent form of combustion!]]"

* WhatTheHellHero: Root gives one to Finch about his deliberately ignoring messages from the Machine. No explanation was given as to how ''she'' got Arthur's number without leaving the Faraday cage.

* ExactWords: Reese tells Fusco to sit at the bar. He didn't say anything about drinking alcohol, so Fusco orders water - because he's now a teetotaler.

* IdiotBall: Was it so hard for Arthur to say that his wife was dead?
** He just didn't remember it at the time, which confused him because Diane's face didn't match the one in his memory.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Someone spikes the Chinese food of the Secret Service detail.
* TenMinuteRetirement: Finch debates quitting after Carter dies and Reese runs off to Colorado. Only the prospect of [[SociopathicHero Shaw]] running around without supervision stops him.

* TeenGenius: Harold

* OhCrap: Shaw's face is priceless when she figures out who "Diane Claypool" really is.

->'''Arthur''': After [[TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] the government had everyone under the cat try to build a system that could [[SinisterSurveillance watch everything]].\\

* ActorAllusion: Like Creator/MichaelEmerson, Finch is originally from rural Iowa.

* WhatTheHellHero: Root gives one to Finch about his deliberately ignoring messages from the Machine. No explanation was given as to how ''she'' got Arthur's number without leaving the Faraday cage.
* YouLookFamiliar: The actor who plays Finch's father previously played a fraudulent foster parent in [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS01E12 an episode of season 1]].

-->'''Arthur''': After [[TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] the government had everyone under the cat try to build a system that could [[SinisterSurveillance watch everything]].
-->'''Harold''': It came to you as well.
-->'''Arthur''': Yes. I told them the only way they could achieve what they wanted was to build something that not only watched but understood what it was watching.
-->'''Harold''': An [[ArtificialIntelligence A.I.]]
-->'''Arthur''': I know you always said artificial intelligence was a fool's errand, Harold... I was ''this'' close.

** In the Bayesean probability tree The Machine is constructing at the end of the episode, there is [[FreezeFrameBonus a yellow box that reads "RETASKING ANALOG INTERFACE."]] [[spoiler:In the [[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E12 next episode]], Root rescues Finch, Arthur, and Shaw from Control.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: Root gives one to Finch about his deliberately ignoring messages from the Machine. No explanation was given as to how ''she'' got Arthur's number without leaving the Faraday cage. [[spoiler:The next episode revealed that Root can hear messages from the Machine at a frequency many people can't hear, and knows how to pick simple locks like the one on the Faraday cage.]]

* RememberedTooLate