'''Season 1, Episode 1''':
!Pilot

->''"When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different. Someone better. When that person is taken from you, what do you become then?"''
-->--'''John Reese'''

John Reese (Creator/JimCaviezel) is ex-special forces, ex-CIA, and currently, a depressed homeless drunk. An altercation on a subway brings him to the attention of Detective Carter (Creator/TarajiPHenson) of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and of Harold Finch (Creator/MichaelEmerson), a reclusive billionaire software genius who's got a job offer.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spying_on_diane_hanson.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Reese has eyes on Diane Hansen...]]

Finch knows about a woman who may need the help of a skilled operator. Reese isn't keen on the idea, until Finch gives him a demonstration of how it feels to sit by helplessly when someone needs help.

As it turns out, Finch knows a lot about people who need help. He designed and built the Machine, a secret government supercomputer that monitors and processes all the surveillance data in New York to spot terrorists before they have a chance to strike.

As a side effect, the Machine can also spot ordinary citizens who will be the victim -- or perpetrator -- of a violent crime, but the government considered that data "irrelevant" and it gets junked each night at midnight.

Racked by his conscience, Finch arranged for the "irrelevant" data to be sent to him in secret, in the form of a single social security number, so that he could do something to intervene. And to intervene properly, he needs a partner with certain skills, someone like Reese.

The current number is Diane Hanson (Creator/NatalieZea), an assistant district attorney (ADA) prosecuting a drug killing case. At first glance she seems to have stumbled onto a massive conspiracy involving a fellow ADA, Wheeler (Wolfgang Scheitinger), and corrupt cops, including Detective Lionel Fusco (Creator/KevinChapman).

Digging deeper, however, reveals that Diane is one of the conspiracy ringleaders and that they've set their sights on Wheeler, who's threatening to expose everything.

Fusco captures Reese and drives him out to the sticks, but he escapes and returns to New York in time to save Wheeler and his son from the hit-team of corrupt cops.

Reese and Finch expose Diane as the ringleader and use evidence of Fusco's misdeeds to recruit him as their inside man in the NYPD, while Detective Carter investigates the vigilante actions of a man "in a nice suit".

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!! Tropes present in this episode:
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diane_hanson_string_theory.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A photo of Diane Hanson on Finch's peg board at the Library.]]
* AccidentalPervert: When Finch first tries to recruit Reese to protect the VictimOfTheWeek, an attractive female attorney, Reese states flatly that either she's Finch's ex-wife or he's a StalkerWithACrush. He's wrong.
* AnswerCut: To the page quote; we cut to Reese as a drunken bum. Subverted though in that the entire series is about what Reese becomes after losing everything.
* BadassInANiceSuit: Reese's suit is mentioned a couple of times by witnesses, though he hasn't yet earned his "[[PersonWithTheClothing Man in the Suit]]" moniker.
* BaitAndSwitch: The POI appears to be the [[DamselInDistress intended victim]], whereas she's actually the ringleader of the gang!
* BallisticDiscount: Reese needs firepower, so he robs the crooks he fought in the subway, remembering how Anton said he was getting more guns.
* BerserkButton: When Finch mentions Jessica, Reese lays hands on him and demands to know how he knew about her.
* BigDamnHeroes: What Finch is offering Reese a chance to become.
-->'''Finch:''' You couldn't have saved this woman... [[TheLostLenore Or your friend.]] But you could have if you had have known in time. And that's the other thing I'm offering you, a chance to be there in time.
* BlackSite: Finch creates one by buying up an abandoned library using a bank that then declares bankruptcy. "So the property is in a kind of limbo -- it doesn't exist."
* BrainsAndBrawn: Finch recruits Reese specifically to do all the heavy lifting he couldn't.
* BrutalHonesty: In the end, Finch tells Reese that if they keep working together, it'll probably eventually kill them both.
-->'''Finch:''' I said I'd tell you the truth. Didn't say you'd like it.
* BulletProofVest: Reese checks that Fusco is wearing a vest, then [[MakeItLookLikeAStruggle shoots him with his own gun to reinforce his cover]] with his fellow corrupt police.
* ButtMonkey:
** The thugs Reese beats up in the subway. He shows up a second time, kneecaps them all with a gun held by one of their own people, then steals the guns they were intending to buy.
** Fusco's RunningGag of this trope starts here -- Reese escapes from his custody ''telling him that he's going to do so beforehand'', crashes his car, shoots him InTheBack, steals his gun and uses it to shoot his boss, then gives him the job of burying Stills body. Oh, and he's working for Reese now.
* CatchPhrase: Finch describes himself as "a concerned third party".
* ChekhovsGunman: No pun intended. Anton, one of the thugs who Reese beats up in the teaser, comes back later as Reese's source for firearms.
* ComeAlone: Subverted; Hansen going alone to a meeting in a deserted alley seems reckless, until we discover she's actually part of the conspiracy.
* DangerTakesABackseat: Reese having his final meeting with Fusco. Of course, Fusco already knows how dangerous Reese can be in the backseat.
* DareToBeBadass: More like a Dare to Be Badass Again, from Finch to Reese.
-->'''Finch''': You couldn't have saved this woman. Or your friend. But you could have if you had known in time. And that's the other thing I'm offering you. A chance to ''be there in time.'' ''[hands Reese a picture of the first Number of the series]'' It's not too late for her. You could help me stop what's about to happen. The question is, will you?
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Finch thinks Reese is this.
* DirectorsCut: The first season DVD release includes the "full length" version of this episode, from which about a half hour needed to be cut to get it down to broadcast length.
* DirtyCop: Fusco is part of a gang of them.
* DisposingOfABody: Oyster Bay
* DoggedNiceGuy: Wheeler is this to Hansen.
* DrivenToSuicide: Finch implies Reese is close to this. Much more explicit in [[http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/Person_of_Interest_1x01_-_Pilot.pdf the original script]], which opens with Reese about to jump off a bridge. He stops when he sees fireworks in the distance, and the next scene is of him on the subway.
* DrowningMySorrows: Reese is attempting to do just that when Finch finds him.
* TheDulcineaEffect: Likely invoked by Finch, given what's implied to have happened to Jessica. The first POI is a woman of Jessica's age, and he later plays a tape recording of a woman being murdered [[RefusalOfTheCall when Reese refuses to become involved]]. Defied in that the POI isn't the victim but the ''perpetrator'', so Reese is so completely sandbagged when he tried to crash what he thought was her murder that he gets himself caught and nearly killed.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Finch has a limousine and a couple of bodyguards when meeting with Reese, as befits a reclusive billionaire. After the pilot however Finch is shown to prefer anonymity as protection, so they don't show up again. It's possible he wants to present a certain image to Reese when recruiting him. Or it could be because for all the information he's gathered, he doesn't know how stable Reese is.
** The library used in this episode was a real vacant library building, not the set seen in every other episode (including flashbacks).
** When appearing from the Machine's POV, Reese has a yellow box framing him, indicating knowledge of the Machine before Finch actually tells him about it.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: Diane is exposed as the ringleader when Reese swaps evidence from one of her cases for a recording of her and Stills plotting Wheeler's murder and she plays it in court.
* EvilAllAlong: Hansen.
* EvilIsPetty: Finch has a recording of a woman who was murdered by her husband for the insurance.
* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: Reese cuts his hair and shaves his stubble, greatly confusing Anton when he runs into him again. It's not quite an example of this trope as he doesn't decide to take Finch's offer until shortly after, apparently just doing it because his picture has appeared on television as a wanted man.
* FailedASpotCheck: Lampshaded by Reese; because Fusco and his pals failed to search him, [[OhCrap he still has a hand grenade]].
* {{Flashback}}: To Reese with his girlfriend, Jessica, well before the events of the series. He resigned from the military, but re-enlisted after 9/11.
* ForeverWar: "The numbers never stop coming."
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Carter's sympathetic approach to Reese makes sense when we later discover she and her ex-husband are both returned veterans.
-->'''Carter:''' Yeah, making that transition back can be tough. Some guys I knew got a little lost, needed a little help adjusting. You need some help? Of course, some other guys I knew, they'd done so many evil things, they felt like they needed the punishment.
* FrameUp: Reese and Finch suspect that Diane is being targeted for digging into the frame-up of her client. Turns out, she's the one doing the framing.
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Reese shoots Stills with Fusco's gun, so he can {{blackmail}} him into being his FriendOnTheForce.
* GangstaStyle: Deconstructed by Reese, who points out to a thug that holding his gun sideways will just cause the shell casing to eject into his face. [[PreemptiveDeclaration Then demonstrates it.]] ''Then [[CurbStompBattle one-shots]] [[OneManArmy every thug in the room]] -- '''[[JustAFleshWound in the thighs]]''' -- and [[KleptomaniacHero steals their arsenal]].''
-->"Take you, for instance. You're holding that thing sideways. You can't aim it, and two, it'll eject a shell casing right into your face. See?" '''''([[Awesome/PersonOfInterest BLAM!]])'''''
* GrievousHarmWithABody: When one of Finch's bodyguards tries to stop him leaving, Reese expertly slams the man into the bodyguard behind him.
* HappyFlashback: Reese and Jessica in Mexico. Until his TenMinuteRetirement is interrupted by 9/11.
* HumanShield: Stills tries this out against Reese in the climax. Unfortunately for him, he was ''severely'' outclassed.
* IronicEcho:
** "You're gonna be here for a long, long time."
** Hansen's "I can take care of myself. You know that."
** When Stills demands to know who Reese is, he repeats Finch's line about being a concerned third party.
** "I said I'd give you a job/tell you the truth. I didn't say it would be easy/you'd like it."
* {{Jerkass}}: Detective Stills.
* KobayashiMaru: Reese is tied to a bed and hears someone screaming for help in the next room. He breaks free, busts through the door... and finds Finch with recorded audio.
* KneeCapping: The start of a RunningGag.
* TheLostLenore: By all accounts, the death of Jessica drove Reese into becoming a [[CrazyHomelessPeople Crazy Homeless Guy]], and the mention of her name gets him angrier than ever.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: Having found out there's outstanding international murder warrants on Reese, Carter rushes out of the building to stop him, but Finch's men have already taken Reese away.
* MeaningfulEcho: In the director's cut, describing Finch as "good with computers": first by Reese when Finch provides him with a bluejack-equipped phone, and later quoted by Finch when he tells Reese that he built an artificial intelligence.
* MexicanStandoff: With {{Human Shield}}s!
* MinionWithAnFInEvil: Reese decides to let Fusco live -- pulling him out of the car wreck and only shooting him in the vest -- because he's not particularly greedy or evil, just loyal to the wrong people.
** InformedAbility: Although, given how matter of factly Fusco accepts his orders to kill a complete stranger and dispose of the body, and that he is absolutely committed to doing so - no wavering or reluctance displayed, in fact he seems utterly gleeful about the task - you do have to wonder if this is his first time acting as the gang's hit man.
* {{Montage}}: Reese showing how he's going to gather information on the POI.
* MoodWhiplash: The opening scene has [[HappyFlashback Reese in bed with Jessica]], which cuts directly to Reese as he is now, a homeless bum with BeardOfSorrow.
* MuggingTheMonster: Let this be a lesson to you, kiddies: don't try and mug a homeless man on the subway, because he might be an ex-CIA hitman.
* MultipleIdentityIDs: Finch supplies Reese with various fake passports and credit cards.
* MysteriousEmployer: Finch, who acknowledges that Reese will be aiming to remove the mystery as soon as possible.
* OffhandBackhand: Reese and Stills are in the above-mentioned MexicanStandoff, and one of Stills' mooks comes out of the stairwell behind Reese to see what's going on. Reese kneecaps him without even looking.
* OhCrap: Stills gets this once he realises his [[AndYourLittleDogToo threat to kill Reese's friends and family]] isn't going to work:
--> '''Stills:''' I think I'll kill you and your friend here. Make it look like you killed each other. Then, just because you pissed me off, I'm going to kill your family. And all your friends.\\
'''Reese:''' I don't have any friends. I don't have any family left either. I went around the world looking for bad guys. But there were plenty of you right here all along.\\
'''Stills:''' ''[swallows, visibly shaken]''
* PhraseCatcher: Finch being "good with computers". It appears twice in the director's cut, turning the second instance into an MeaningfulEcho.
* PreemptiveDeclaration: Reese not only tells Fusco he's going to escape, but that Fusco will be working for him from now on. Fusco bursts out laughing...until Reese pulls out a grenade.
* ProphecyTwist: The POI is the perp, not the victim.
* PunkInTheTrunk: Stills hauls an ex-con out of his trunk, intending he be the patsy for Wheeler's murder. In LaserGuidedKarma, he ends up dead in Fusco's trunk.
* SmashToBlack: Stills buttstroking Reese.
* SoundOnlyDeath: Reese and Stills firing on each other. Reese wins.
* SpookySilentLibrary: Finch has set up his base in one.
* StringTheory: At the Library, Finch has a print-out of Social Security Numbers on a pegboard, with strings relating the numbers to photos, newspaper clippings and other documents.
* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Detective Carter. It doesn't stop her from running Reese's fingerprints.
* TitleDrop: In a news report, though it's not one of the numbers who is described as a "person of interest", but rather Reese himself.
* WakeUpFighting: Anton gets a shock when the sleeping wino grabs his hand as he's trying to lift his bottle of booze.
* WalkAndTalk:
** Finch walks through Central Park while [[TheReveal telling Reese about the Machine]], so he can't be overheard by bystanders.
** Subverted when Finch is briefing Reese on his new 'job' while walking through a crowded street, then suddenly reveals the object of their conversation is standing a few feet away.
* WouldHurtAChild: Stills comments how they will have to kill the target's son so there are no witnesses.
* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: Until Reese looks at the wallet he stole from one of the criminals and finds a police badge. "I do ''now''."
* YouRemindMeOfX: Possibly an InvokedTrope by Finch, as Diane Hansen has a resemblance to TheLostLenore Jessica, whom Reese was unable to save.
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