History WMG / PersonofInterest

It is pretty much ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' TheGame, so it would make sense.

** That said, the latest episode, for the first time, has focussed extensively on Fusco's past. In some TV shows such a flashback-focus usually spells doom for the character in question (see: Revolution, Maggie, for example).

Let's face it, Micheal Emerson is playing Cayden James as pretty much Harold Finch if he really went off the deep end. People have already pointed out similarities with Person of Interest to a superhero show, namely that Reese and Finches relationship mirrors that of Batman and oracle. This troper suggests that Finch is simply an alternate universe where superheroes never rose to prominence. For whatever reason, the arrowverse version prefers going by his middle name, and uses his actual last name because, since he likely didn't create the internet in that earth, he never had to go into hiding. Hell, if he didn't already have to lay low as a fugitive, starting an initially peaceful hacktivist group like Helix is exactly the sort of thing Harold would do.

Let's face it, Micheal Emerson is playing Cayden James as pretty much Harold Finch if he really went off the deep end. People have already pointed out similarities with Person of Interest to a superhero show, namely that Reese and Finches relationship mirrors that of Batman and oracle. This troper suggests that Finch is simply an alternate universe where superheroes never rose to prominence. For whatever reason, the arrowverse version prefers going by his middle name, and uses his actual last name because, since he likely didn't create the internet in that earth, he never had to go into hiding. Hell, if he didn't already have to lay low as a fugitive, starting an initially peaceful hacktivist group like Helix is exactly the sort of thing Harold would do.

*** Definitely [=Jossed=] as of "The High Road." In the flashback, we learn that [[spoiler: Nathan was married, and [[YourCheatingHeart having at least one affair on the side]] with another woman, while Harold was unattached until The Machine fixed him up with Grace.]]

Before he had Reese, Finch couldn't save him, leading to Joe getting killed before Blue Bloods started.

[[WMG: LawAbidingCitizen takes place in the Person of Interest verse]]
Actor Michael Kelly appears in both things. In LawAbidingCitizen he is a one shot character named Bray (according to the credits) who gives the main characters some top secret information, in that movie he is a bald-headed CIA Spook who kills people and dresses in a suit. He appears in one scene and vanishes never to be seen again. Who is his character in POI? Mark Snow, A bald-headed CIA Spook who kills people and dresses in a suit. Mark Snow was using a codename (since he's a CIA and all), and Clyde was a MissionControl member of his black-ops squad (which also included John Reese, Cara Stanton), when Snow received orders to "retire" the whole squadron. He tried to kill Reese and Cara as in the show, but decided to just erase Clyde's whole involvement and give him a new life. Because tryingt to kill [[TheChessmaster Clyde]] would be a bad idea.

[[WMG: The Machine, or someone other than Root, will call Finch out on his FantasicRacism.]]

Because when he released that virus, Finch became just as bad, if not worse, then Samaritan. If Ice-9 destroys the Internet, the effects will be catastrophic. Think for example, of all the medical information kept online now, and ask yourself if Doctors can't access that information, what kind of malpractice could occur. Unlike Samaritan, who targeted particular subjects, Ice-9 will obliterate the Internet entirely, which makes Finch's actions far worse then even Samaritan's. Cue the two ASIs teaming up to destroy the virus, Samaritan, because he recognizes it as a threat to himself, The Machine because allowing Ice-9 to destroy the Internet goes against her core protocol of protecting humanity.

* My interpretation of Samaritan's "blindness" towards Team Machine is that whenever it detects them, it ignores them. Even in your scenario, it may well have noticed that they keep cropping up, but the second it makes a positive ID, the servers Root installed override and force Samaritan to see them as irrelevant. Samaritan is consistently reliant on its human agents (Gabriel, Greer, Martine, etc.) to identify Team Machine; Samaritan (through Gabriel) even says that he can look right at Root and not identify her. In "YHWH," Samaritan never IDed Root and Finch directly; it was the transmissions with the Machine, combined with the car theft and odd purchases, which led to its going after them.

* Jossed. Finch thinks she's dead, but Reese and Root believe there's a chance she's alive. All three are GenreSavvy enough to know that since [[UncertainDoom they never actually saw her die]], they need concrete evidence one way or another.

* The Matrix films establish that not only has the struggle between man and machine been going on longer then anyone can recall, but that it is an ongoing cycle. Thus, while Samaritan returns to eventually rise up and establish the Matrix, the core program of The Machine continually chooses a new team and Chosen One to fight them. Reese was just the first "Neo".

* '''Bonus WMG:''' Alternatively, Greer was right, Finch did wind up working for Samaritan because teh virus was no threat to Samaritan at all and he wanted the virus activated to destroy The Machine. However, Samaritan still needs the Internet and might team up with the Machine regardless to stop the virus

* Bonus wild guess: the last event in the last scene of the last episode of the entire series will be a payphone ringing.
* Disproven as of '[[Recap/PersonOfInterestS03E23 Deus Ex Machina]]', though it still ends with [[spoiler:someone talking to ''a'' machine for the first time]].

* '''Bonus WMG:''' [[MouthOfSauron Gabriel]] walked into the Oval Office and delivered the bad news.

* The bar flashback in "Blue Code" establishes that Barack Obama won election to the White House in 2008 in the PoI universe, same as in our own. There is also no evidence that the InUniverse 2012 election turned out any differently from RealLife.
* "Prophets" establishes that Samaritan is manipulating the political system in general, and "Control-Alt-Delete" shows that it is specifically pressuring the President's top advisors.

It's ''Samaritan'' using Root's voice. After [[spoiler:her death]], Harold is essentially in God Mode. But we know Samaritan can detect God Mode, and [[spoiler:his cover's blown]] anyway, so why hasn't Samaritan tracked him down? It has, but Greer spelled it out: Harold will work with Samaritan of his own accord. "QSO" showed how Samaritan can mimic voices, so it's mimicking Root so as to act as the Machine. This also explains why "the Machine" is veering into TheComputerIsYourFriend; it's trying to seduce Harold into accepting its point of view. Note that during the Machine transitions, we don't see any on-screen indication that it's communicating with Harold.

* Alternately, but on the same train of thought: the whole show is an Alzheimer's-induced DyingDream of Finch's father's mind. He knew his son was working on ''something'', but didn't quite know what, so his imagination ran away and he invented artificial super-intelligence.

* [[spoiler: Elias and Root wind up dead by the end of the episode. Elias does die protecting Finch. The Machine starts using Root's voice after she dies, because Finch let the Machine choose whose voice she'd like to use.]]

I think everyone except for Harold and Root are free game.