Season 3, Episode 15:
Last Call
Harold goes undercover at a 911 call center to watch the team's latest number, one of the center's supervisors. When that supervisor gets a 911 call from a kidnapper who demands that she follow his commands on pain of his hostage dying, Team Machine must track down the hostage before either the hostage dies or the kidnapper gets what he wants and then kills the number.
Tropes present in this episode include
- And Your Little Dog, Too!
- Batman Gambit: The hitman was waiting by the alternate exit, knowing that Sandra wouldn't evacuate with her colleagues. It was actually Finch who stopped her from doing that, implying that the villain had sent his killer new instructions on realising his 'good counterpart' was involved.
- Being Personal Isn't Professional: The Voice assures Finch at the end of the episode that he's not the type who cares about exacting petty revenge once the job is over, and won't harm Sandra or Aaron. Finch, on the other hand, is another story entirely.
- Being Watched:
- Sandra freaks out when the villain tells her off for starting to write HELP on the security guard's sign-on sheet. Finch works out she has a tiny webcam attached to her headset.
- The moment Shaw hands Finch the cut-out phones, the Voice calls one of them so he can speak to Finch.
- Bomb Disposal: With the requisite (albeit non-verbal) Wire Dilemma.
- The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: Sandra thinks this when the Voice first lets her know she's Being Watched.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The Voice does return as promised, in Season Five.
- Consummate Professional: Sandra is about to delete the calls when the villain tells her not to bother as his clients have been arrested, so he therefore has no reason to go through with his Evil Plan. Unfortunately he also believes in Leave No Witnesses.
- Continuity Nod: Fusco can't look at a sealed juvenile record, as the backlash over HR means the NYPD is under increased scrutiny.
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: And Reese is glad they chose the hard way.
- Electrified Bathtub: Finch gets the villain's final mook to surrender by threatening to drop a sparking electrical cable into the pool of water he's standing in.
- Empty Elevator: The Templarios open up the moment the lift doors open to reveal a suit...on a coat hanger.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The people who hired the villain are shocked to find he's kidnapped a child.
- Evil Counterpart: Shaw describes the Ghost to Finch as "...you, if you were evil."
- Faux Affably Evil: The Voice"Because I asked nicely. I can be more emphatic, but people tend to get hurt when that happens."
- The Fixer: The villain has been hired to cover the tracks of a homicide. A husband murdered his mistress, but knows she made a 911 call first.
- The Spook: The Big Bad of the episode is only shown as a voice on a cell phone. He doesn't even give an alias to be addressed by. Shaw lampshades how he's essentially following Finch's playbook.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Shaw tossing the bloody pliers onto the dashboard.
- Hey, Wait!: The IT guy when Sandra steals the fob.
- Hope Spot: Every time Team Machine think they've tracked down the Voice, only to find another cut-out.
- Irrevocable Order: Subverted; the couple who hired the villain don't know how to contact him to cancel the job, but he does so anyway on finding out they've been arrested.
- Just in Time
- Sandra gets the call to stop just as she's about to delete the calls.
- Reese defuses the bomb with two seconds to go.
- Make an Example of Them: The villain sets off a bomb on finding that Sandra is being helped by Finch.
- Mission Control: Yes, Finch has had some prior experience in this sort of thing.
- My Greatest Failure: Sandra, the 911 supervisor, considers herself to be responsible for the death of a child she knew in her youth. That's why she's willing to cooperate to save the kidnapped child.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Team Machine have to find out which call is the one the villain really wants deleted.
- Not so Dire: Finch's first 911 call involves a car being vandalized by...squirrels? Shaw and Reese snark accordingly.
- Oh, Crap!: Finch and Sandra when the latter accidentally catches him on the camera on her headset, letting the villain know she's tried to get help.
- Percussive Therapy: Implied when Sandra knocks out the hitman.
- Pet the Dog: A throw-away line has Finch telling Fusco his sincerest congratulations on becoming a NYPD Lieutenant and that he deserves it.
- Race Against the Clock: The kid is strapped to a bomb which will go off in fifteen minutes if Sandra hasn't finished deleting the calls.
- The Real Heroes: Finch notes that Sandra is his own counterpart (a good one this time), taking calls to help those in need.
- Running Gag: Shaw puts a Punk in the Trunk while Reese has another Battle Discretion Shot Bar Brawl.
- Sadistic Choice
- Shout-Out:
- On seeing how many 911 calls were made in the past two days, the Voice quips, "New York New York, it's a wonderful town."
- The final words of the villain are "Be seeing you" as per The Prisoner.
- Shown Their Work: Finch uses 'amperage' instead of the usual 'volts' when threatening the hitman with an Electrified Bathtub.
- So Much for Stealth: The kidnappers find the kid when they hear the low battery warning on his phone.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Fusco doesn't take kindly to everyone asking his advice. But he unbends enough to help the rookie with his case.
- Torture Always Works: The leader of the kidnapping gang keeps his Dissonant Serenity even after seeing Reese slug his way through his gang. He's prepared to die rather than give up what he knows, until Shaw fetches the pliers.
- Bond One-Liner: "We managed to pry it out of him."
- Trapped in a Sinking Car: Sandra talks a woman out of this situation, showing her calm response to a crisis before the real crisis hits and the audience sees her fear.
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: When Sandra expresses skepticism over whether the kidnapping is real, the Voice offers to drop a body part over at her address, which he proceeds to give.
- The Voice: Who as Shaw points out, is also The Ghost.
- We Will Meet Again: And worse, the villain knows what Finch looks like, while Team Machine knows nothing about the villain.
- Working the Same Case: Fusco tries to decline working with Team Machine due to needing to help a rookie on the homicide task force with a case - which turns out to be the case that the blackmailer is trying to destroy evidence for with his scheme.
