|
Missing info from: all episodes since “Nautilus” |
| Played by | Jim Caviezel Jack Davis (young John) |
| Name | John H. Tallis |
| Alias | John Reese Detective Stills John Rooney John Riley (more) |
| Nickname | The Man in the Suit (given By Carter) Wonderboy (By Fusco) The Big Lug (By Fusco & Root) Crockett (By Frankie Wells) Tall, Dark, and Deranged (By Fusco) Mr. Tall Dark and Fearsome (By Fusco) Captain America (By Shaw) Lurch (By Root) Our mutual friend (By Fusco) The bane of my existence (By Fusco) Mr. Happy (By Fusco) Mr. Fabulous (By Fusco) Partner (By Fusco) Helper Monkey (By Root) Angel of Death (by unknown man in Pilot) Mr. Sunshine (by Fusco) Detective Sunshine (by Fusco) Primary Asset (by The Machine)) Wilkes Booth (by Shaw) Poorly Socialised Guard Dog (By Shaw) Mr. Congeniality (By Fusco) |
| Intro ID | ID.008/2720.10 (opener in many episodes) ID.411/0106.15 (“If-Then-Else”) |
| Status | Deceased |
| Date of birth | May 4 (May1 by military records) |
| Date of death | November 13, 2015 |
| Social Security # | 380-00-0050 |
| Occupation | Freelance Private Investigator Central Intelligence Agency Operative (formerly) U.S. Army Sergeant (formerly) |
| Residence | Apartment 5A, 810 Baxter St., New York, NY, USA |
| Origin | Puyallup, Washington, USA |
| Family | Jessica Arndt - ex-girlfriend (deceased) Conor - father (deceased) Margaret - mother (deceased) Sophie - sister (deceased) |
| Affiliation | CIA (formerly) U.S. Army (formerly) The Machine |
| Associates | Harold Finch Joss Carter Lionel Fusco Sameen Shaw Root |
| First appearance | “Pilot” |
| Last appearance | “return 0” |
| Flashbacks | “Pilot” “Mission Creep” “Foe” “Blue Code” “Matsya Nyaya” “Many Happy Returns” “Prisoner's Dilemma” “The Devil's Share” “RAM” “Terra Incognita” “Truth Be Told” “return 0” |
| “ | I traveled the world looking for bad guys, but there were plenty of you right here all along. | ” |
— Reese | ||
John Reese is the alias of a former member of the U.S. Army and former CIA National Clandestine Service (NCS) Special Activities Division (SAD) operative who was hired by Harold Finch to stop future crimes using numbers generated by the Machine.
Reese operates under a series of aliases and cover identities, including John Rooney, John Warren, John Anderson, and two law-enforcement personas, an NYPD Detective called James Stills and a U.S. Marshal called Brad Jennings, used when he was able to acquire their badges. When Samaritan went online and actively started searching for Reese, the Machine created a new alias for him, John Riley, a narcotics detective with the NYPD. He is soon transferred to homicide at the same precinct as Detective Lionel Fusco, and became his partner. Reese is also known as "the Man in the Suit" or "guy in the suit" by law enforcement and criminals pursuing him.
About Him[]
Reese is first seen as a vagrant on the streets of New York City when Harold Finch finds and recruits him. Finch brings him into a different world, one where a mysterious Machine provides social security numbers of people who are either going to perpetrate or be victims of a violent crime.
He is then employed (unofficially) by Finch as a kind of vigilante, becoming Finch’s man on the ground to track down and stop the violent crimes that the Machine tells Finch about. Previously employed by the military and then the CIA, Reese was officially killed in action, but actually survived and as a man who’s not even technically alive, Reese is the perfect fit for Finch’s secretive operation.
His interests drinking and martial arts movies, at least prior to Finch picking him up off the street. After he begins working with Finch, he reverts back to his earlier interests – working out and guns. He is single, with no friends and no family. Before his recruitment into the CIA, he was in a relationship with Jessica Arndt, but he broke things off when he became a special-ops agent.
He works with Finch to track down the perpetrators and victims that the Machine spits out. Finch originally built the Machine for the government to detect terrorism, but it didn’t end up functioning precisely as designed as, in fact, it detected all premeditated violent crime, against regular civilians as well as nationally significant targets. The government wasn’t interested in ordinary people, however, so Finch took it upon himself to save the “irrelevant” citizens and he needs the military-trained Reese to actually carry out the missions.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
John was an adopted child that had no contact with his birth family, although whether or not they were alive is unknown (“Truth Be Told”). John was close with his adoptive father, Conor, and claims that when John was eight Conor tried to teach him how to drive and he damaged some neighbors' property (“Point of Origin”). It is mentioned that Conor was an Army soldier and died shortly after returning from his fourth combat tour in Vietnam when John was a child (“Lethe”). He went back into the refinery during a fire, something described as being "the gates of Hell" and gave his life to save four people. The death of his adoptive father in such a heroic way inspired John to save lives himself (“return 0”). John's adoptive mother, Margaret, also died and his claim that he had no siblings would suggest that he didn't have a chance to know his sister, Sophie, who may have died before he joined the family (“Truth Be Told”). John claims to be the one who kept the school bullies in line during his academic career (“Point of Origin”). At some point, he was forced to choose between jail or enlisting in the military because of a violent fight he was involved in as a young man. He opted for the military, and entered the Army shortly thereafter (“Liberty”).
Military Career[]
John H. Tallis, the name on his military records, rose to the rank of U.S. Army Sergeant, serving as both an infantryman and a Special Forces Soldier ("Green Beret").
He completed the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course (which designates him as a Green Beret), the U.S. Army Ranger School, and the Basic Airborne Course, and served in a U.S. Army Special Forces unit, as evidenced by the tabs and Shoulder Sleeve Insignia/unit patch he wore.
He is listed by the Army as M.I.A. and most of his military history is labeled as REDACTED in the Machine's databases (“Title Sequence/Season 1”), except for his date of rank (DOR) as sergeant (SGT) on 1998-09-15. His military personnel file confirms he is from Puyallup, Washington and enlisted at Fort Lewis, Washington. His Social Security number (SSN) is 380-00-0050 (“Many Happy Returns”).
Reese joined the Army on January 15, 1993. Over the next nine years, he served four short tours and one long tour of duty, including service in Afghanistan and Iraq. He appears to have been promoted to the rank of Sergeant on September 15, 1998 (“Title Sequence/Season 1”).
John with Jessica in Mexico (“Pilot”)
Reese left the Army in 2001, prior to a vacation in Mexico with his girlfriend of six months, Jessica Arndt. As the vacation is extended beyond the weekend, Reese surprises Jessica with the news. Moments later, the two witness a live television report about the attacks on the World Trade Center and Reese knows his service is far from over, prompting him to re-enlist (“Pilot”).
Jessica knew Reese as "John," yet it is not yet known what last name he went by during their relationship (“Mission Creep”).. However, photographs taken of him in uniform and the timeline of events leading him to adopt the alias John Reese suggest she knew his real name.
At some point while overseas, Reese was captured and tortured with electricity for sixteen hours for just his name. He never broke (“Foe”).
With the CIA[]
At some point in 2005, Reese joins the CIA as a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division (SAD) of CIA's National Clandestine Service (NCS) (“The Devil's Share”).
2006[]
On February 12, 2006, Reese runs into his former girlfriend Jessica at the airport and he tells her that he has found a new, secretive job. She tells him that she is engaged to a man named Peter Arndt, though she would wait for him if he told her to. After a silence, she turns and leaves, but moments later, Reese whispers, "Wait for me. Please." (“Mission Creep”).
Some time later, Reese first meets with his partner Kara Stanton in Hungary to interrogate two men about the whereabouts of a killer named Alim Nazir. This is presumably his first CIA operation.
Stanton promptly murders them, knowing that they helped Nazir flee the country after a hefty bribe. Reese, visibly shocked, is told to dispose of the gun and bodies. Stanton reminds him that he doesn't have any old friends, including Jessica, whom Stanton has photos of from the airport. Afterward, she assigns him the cover name 'Reese' (“Foe”).
2007[]
In Prague, Reese and Stanton kill an American traitor selling drone blueprints to two Chinese nationals, and kill the nationals as well. When Kara cracks a joke, Reese ignores it and she tells him to lighten up. She warns him that he'll have to accept the fact that he's a killer and that he might as well learn to love his work (“Prisoner's Dilemma”).
2008[]
Reese, Stanton, and their boss Mark Snow are operating illegally in New York City, holding a government employee captive after he tries to sell some software to the Chinese. When Reese is given permission to get some R&R, Stanton follows him to a bar and finds him meeting with Jessica's husband Peter. She gives him a lecture, telling him that they're no longer like other people, and Reese reluctantly leaves with her before Jessica can spot them (“Blue Code”).
2009[]
Reese and Stanton go to a bar in Paris and target a couple, with orders to kill them and Reese wonders why, but Kara isn't interested. As they watch the couple flirt, Kara suggests that Reese might play along with their own cover. Once the bar clears out, Kara shoots out the camera as Reese goes over to kill their targets, and after killing the couple, the two go back to their apartment to clean out any traces of their presence. Kara then tells Reese that they can take a break, however, when he says he's fine, Kara draws a gun on him and tells him to choose between being a boy scout or a killer. She reminds him that he chose this life and Reese then slams her into a wall, saying that he loves his work, and they kiss, with the implication that they slept together (“Prisoner's Dilemma”).
2010[]
Reese and Stanton meet with CIA operative Beale, who was the person that selected Reese for his position. Beale compliments Reese on his test scores before giving them their assignment, which is to investigate Paul Duncan who may be stealing from a co-operative project between the CIA and the Pentagon called "Desert Rain" which supplied light arms to the Afghan National Police and Army. The operation was being conducted without congressional approval.
He and Stanton question Duncan and search his accommodations. Reese shoots Duncan when he begins to demand they leave and Stanton uncovers the money under a false back in his briefcase. Stanton tells Reese that the real reason Beale chose him was that he had nothing to lose and nothing to go back to, with his adoptive family being dead and having walked away from Jessica without hesitation. John says he only walked away because he had to, and Stanton reinforces that they don't get to have normal lives (“Truth Be Told”).
Reese and Stanton are later assigned to follow Daniel Casey, a former government programmer on the run after being nearly killed for learning too many secrets about the Machine. A man named Rick Dillinger follows Casey, but the two are confronted by Reese and Stanton. Men who are working for Greer open fire on them and Dillinger is able to escape with Casey, but Reese and Stanton still are able to capture one of the wounded shooters.
Reese and Stanton torture their prisoner, who eventually manages to get up while still bound to his chair and jump out of a window to his death. Reese decides to look for Casey while Stanton goes after Casey's friend, Lester Strickland.
Following Dillinger's departure and eventual death, Casey is walking down the street and finishes a call when Reese confronts him at gunpoint. Casey turns around and begs for his life when Reese gets a call from Stanton. Reese purposely misses shooting him and lies to Stanton that Casey is dead, later telling Casey that he is not a traitor and doesn't deserve to die. Harold Finch, Dillinger's employer and Casey's protector, watches from his car and is amazed at Reese, considering him as a new partner (“RAM”).
Reese and Stanton are in Tétouan, Morocco interrogating a suspect. While Stanton is busy with the suspect, Reese receives a voicemail call from Jessica who sounds distraught. Reese calls her and says he'll see her within 24 hours. Later, Mark Snow and Alicia Corwin inform Reese and Stanton that they are being sent to China to retrieve a high profile computer virus stolen from the Pentagon by the Chinese. Reese is denied his request for leave, but as Stanton leaves the room, he receives another set of orders from Snow: retire Agent Stanton as soon as the mission is complete, then he can have all the "leave" he ever wants.
As Reese leaves, Kara notices him smiling, says that it's been a while and tells him that she needs him to be a killer (“Prisoner's Dilemma”). The pair arrive in Ordos and find the site where the program was found. Upon arrival, they discover the corpses of many software engineers and much of the building's servers emptied. Reese finds a survivor whom Stanton converses with in Chinese. He says that men had turned up shooting and had stolen the Machine. Upon hearing that, she promptly executes him and withholds what he'd said from Reese. (It is not clear if Reese knew Chinese at the time, or if, since then, he has learned Chinese or the meaning of what the man said.) With much of what they came for already taken, Reese and Stanton have no choice but to wait for their extraction at nightfall.
Meanwhile, they do find a laptop and take it, but they are confused as to what it is and what it holds and why it was left behind.
After nightfall, Stanton marks the LZ with infra-red chem-lights. Reese has readied his gun to shoot her in the back, but lowers it at the last moment only for Stanton to turn and shoot him. She apologizes, saying she had orders from Snow and was told Reese had ties to terrorists. Reese who is wearing body armor, laughs, telling her he had the same orders and that they have been set up with the chem-lights actually marking a missile strike not an extraction. Reese then makes his escape, leaving Stanton standing in shock. Overhead, a UAV observes as an incoming cruise missile targets the beacons. The wounded Reese manages to escape the blast radius, and turns back to see the explosion supposedly killing his partner (“Matsya Nyaya”).
Post-CIA[]
John after returning to New Rochelle from Ordos.
In February, a wounded Reese, now sporting a beard, travels to New Rochelle, New York to look for Jessica. He discovers that she has died in a car accident two months prior to his arrival. Distraught, he breaks into the Arndt residence and watches one of the videos of Jessica and her husband Peter's wedding, realizing she had most likely been abused and murdered by him as car accidents make excellent cover-ups for murder. When Peter comes home, Reese confronts the man who he holds responsible for her death and attacks him. Unbeknownst to him, Finch has also been investigating Jessica, and presumably him, as part of the Contingency operations. Reese bumps into Finch's chair on the way out of the hospital where Jessica worked, but is not paying attention, unlike Finch, who double checks Reese against the soldier pictured in the file with Jessica (“Many Happy Returns”).
Reese later begins to live anonymously in a homeless encampment and is looked out for by a woman named Joan (“Risk”).
Meeting Finch and working the numbers[]
Deteriorating mentally and physically, a bearded, homeless Reese is attacked on a subway by a gang. Disarming and defeating them with no effort, Reese is taken into custody, where he meets Detective Joss Carter but he refuses to tell her his name. A man then arrives to collect Reese from the precinct after claiming to be his lawyer but not before Reese's prints have been run through the database, connecting him to several murders. Reese is taken to the Queensboro Bridge where he meets a mysterious man going under the name Harold Finch, who offers Reese the chance to stop crimes from happening. Though he refuses at first, Reese soon changes his mind when Finch forces him into experiencing a scenario where he'd be helpless to prevent a murder from happening.
As his first assignment, Reese watches Diane Hansen, an assistant district attorney and soon figures out that she is the leader of a group of corrupt cops that profit from drug dealing and murder. Later, Finch tells Reese of the Machine — a device Finch built for the government after 9/11, which detects terrorist activity as well as other 'irrelevant' crimes by using thousands of cameras and an advanced database. It would give them a list comprised of Social Security numbers, each belonging to a person involved in a violent crime - either the victim or the perpetrator. Reese is captured by Hansen's associates when spying on their meeting and knocked out, later waking up in the back of Detective Lionel Fusco's car on his way to Oyster Bay to be killed. Reese tells Fusco that he is going to let him live because he knows he is not like the other corrupt cops and he then sets off a smoke grenade, making the car crash. This allows Reese to escape and he pulls Fusco from the wreckage, then asks if he is wearing a bullet-proof vest before shooting him in the back and leaving him in the middle of nowhere as he returns to the city. Reese later killed Detective James Stills to prevent him from murdering Hansen's colleague, James Wheeler, and exposes Hansen in court by playing a recording of her ordering Stills to kill Wheeler. Upon the completion of his first case, Reese manages to recruit Detective Fusco, by threatening to expose him as a corrupt cop as Reese believes that he could be a useful asset (“Pilot”).
While working for Finch, Reese begins helping people on a regular basis and prevents several homicides, including that of a young girl who was presumed dead (“Ghosts”). He is reminded of himself when he is assigned to watch Joey Durban, a former soldier who has been caught up in armed robbery with several other military veterans. He becomes a member of the crew and takes part in a robbery at an evidence locker, before taking down the robbers, though he lets Joey escape to start a new life with his fiancee (“Mission Creep”).
Reese next helps Dr Megan Tillman, who he initially believed was being stalked by sexual predator, Andrew Benton but soon comes to realise is actually the other way around and Tillman is planning to kill Benton as revenge for him raping her sister and causing her to commit suicide. Fusco also comes to Reese for help as he is being threatened by the cartel for his actions with Stills and Reese uses this oppurtunity to take drugs from the cartel, then plant them on Benton to get him arrested intending to stop Tillman from killing him. Unfortunately, Benton gets released and Reese is captured by the cartel after Fusco tells them that he had taken their drugs, meaning he is unable to stop Tillman from kidnapping Benton. Reese threatens the cartel members into leaving him and Fusco alone by revealing to their leader that he knows he was involved in the killing of his superior's son, then leaves to track down Tillman. He finds her at a rest stop, where he convinces not to throw her life away and to let him handle Benton, who he takes to the house Tillman had rented and it is unclear whether he killed Benton or not (“Cura Te Ipsum”).
Reese later takes on the case of Zoe Morgan, a resourceful fixer who Reese is able to protect while posing as her driver and he quickly shows an attraction to her. He saves her life when one of her clients tries to have her killed and they look into the information that Zoe was attempting to cover up for them. They are later captured while investigating the murder of an employee at a pharmaceutical company and Zoe takes a deal to save herself, seemingly abandoning Reese to die. However, as she leaves, she kisses Reese and passes him a paper clip, which he uses to pick the lock on his handcuffs and escape. After the arrest of the company's CEO, Reese and Zoe go their separate ways, though there is an implication that they will meet again (“The Fix”).
Soon after, Reese is assigned to protect Charlie Burton, a mild mannered teacher who witnessed a murder carried out by the Russian mob. While they are running from the Russians, Charlie is shot and Reese is forced to hide out in a building controlled by Bulgarian drug dealers until Finch can find them a way out. As Reese spends time with Charlie, they begin to bond and Charlie's mannerisms remind Reese of Finch. They eventually escape the building after taking Laszlo Yogorov, the son of the leader of the Russian mob, hostage and get to the ferry, where Fusco is waiting to collect Charlie. As they near the port, Charlie points a gun at Reese, revealing that he is Carl Elias, the leader of a rival gang taking over the Russian territory in Brighton Beach. He forces Reese to tie himself up and shoots Laszlo in the leg to send a message, offering Reese a job in his organisation, but he refuses and Elias promises not to interfere with Reese's business if he does not interfere with him. After Elias leaves, Reese is left furious with himself for trusting him and questions how many people will die because he saved his life (“Witness”)
Later, Reese meets his match when he and Finch get the number of a former East German Stasi spy, Ulrich Kohl who is taking out members of his old team. Reese tries to protect Kohl's wife and her daughter from his vengeful rampage, but is caught by Kohl and tortured for her whereabouts. Kohl spends hours sticking needles into his nerves, though Reese does not give in and Kohl goes after his wife after discovering that he has a child. Reese tracks them down with Finch's help, but Kohl forces Reese to shoot him as he refuses to go back to prison and Reese stays with him as he dies (“Foe”).
As Reese takes on more cases regarding these persons of interest, he catches the attention of Detective Joss Carter, a homicide detective who Reese had met after the subway attack, and Reese contacts her several times to give her hints on cases that are connected to his work. However, she is hell bent on catching him and bringing him to justice for his past crimes, which makes things difficult when her number comes up and Reese has to protect her. He finds that a lot of people in Carter's life pose a threat to her and he takes out a gun-running murderer and an abusive husband to protect her. Despite this, Carter is shot by an informant on Elias's orders but Reese arrives in time to save her life. Fortunately, her injuries are minor as she was wearing a vest and Reese tells an injured Carter that he is not the enemy before walking away (“Get Carter”).
Reese soon becomes a target of the CIA, who believed him to be dead until they find the prints run on Reese by Carter and Agent Mark Snow arrives in New York to track him down. As Reese is protecting two sisters who had stolen money from some dangerous criminals, Carter begins helping Snow find Reese after Snow threatens her. Reese calls Carter to a hospital for help keeping the sisters safe, but she tells Snow of the meeting and Reese is shot twice by Snow's sniper. He manages to run and Carter, not trusting Snow after his attempt to kill Reese, helps him escape with Finch (“Number Crunch”).
A critically injured Reese is taken to Dr Farouk Madani by Finch and receives treatment for his wounds. He survives, but is left in a wheelchair for a while, meaning he is physically unable to help Finch when they are given the number of a building superintendent, so he temporarily takes up a support role and guides Finch through the mission (“Super”). Reese also begins to wonder about Finch and starts following him, observing a meeting between Finch and Will Ingram, allowing him to work out that Finch knew Will's father Nathan Ingram. After recovering from his injuries, Reese convinces Carter to help him and Finch as she starts to believe that they really are trying to save people and the two begin helping each other on cases. Reese also gives Fusco the task of following Finch, asking for any information he can dig up about him as his interest in Finch's past grows and Fusco finds the name Harold Wren (“Legacy”).
Reese and Finch later get the number of Scott Powell, a seemingly ordinary man and Reese shows signs of longing for his more conventional life while watching Powell. However, Powell is then framed for the assassinating a politican by a mysterious hacker and Reese attacks the vehicle taking him to the courthouse, rescuing Powell. He attempts to hide Powell from law enforcement, but they are attacked by a hitman working for the hacker who arranged the assassination and Reese relies on Finch to find them. They eventually find the person who hired the hacker and prove Powell's innocent, though the hacker escapes, leaving Powell's life in chaos. While helping Powell, Zoe Morgan returns to help Reese and their relationship wavers between friendly and romantic (“Root Cause”).
After this, Reese protects a young boy named Darren McGrady, who is trying to avenge his brothers death at the hands of a gang member, and he gets Carter to help him. Fusco also volunteers his services, stating that even he doesn't want to see a child get hurt, but Reese just walks away from him. Reese and Finch figure out that Darren's brother was killed on the orders of a local comic book shop owner, Andre, who also runs the gang. Reese stops Darren from taking revenge, but a shoot out ensues and Fusco takes a bullet while protecting Darren. He survives and Reese later drops Darren off with his new foster family, also ending his investigation into Finch after Fusco tells him that he can't find anymore information on Finch's real name and Will Ingram leaves town (“Wolf and Cub”).
As Fusco is recovering from his injury, Reese orders him to infiltrate the organisation of corrupt cops within the NYPD known as HR to find information on Elias, despite Fusco protesting that he is not a dirty cop anymore (“Blue Code”). Next, Reese is assigned to protect a stock trader who is caught up in a scam at his firm and framed for murder. To protect him, Reese takes him to the homeless camp he had lived in after Jessica's death, revealing more about his time on the streets as he notes that the months he spent there were the safest in his life. Reese and Finch soon find eveidence to get the people behind the scam arrested, though one of them gets away as HR intervenes (“Risk”).
Reese takes more of an interest in Carter's investigation into Elias when his father, Don Moretti is released from prison and he helps her stop Elias from kidnapping him. Meanwhile, his and Finch's most recent number turns out to be a baby girl named Laila, whose mother was murdered by a gang and she is now in danger. When Laila is taken by the gang, Reese is forced to ask Elias for help to track them down and he obliges, allowing Reese to save her, but he then locks Laila and Reese inside a refridgerated truck. He says he will let them both freeze to death if Reese doesn't tell him where Moretti is being kept and so Reese gives him the location to save Laila's life, leading to the shooting of Detective Szymanski by Elias's men. Reese later confronts Laila's father, who he believes hired the gang to kill Laila's mother and get rid of his secret child, but it is revealed that his wife was behind it and she is arrested by Carter. However, Carter refuses to forgive Reese for letting Elias take Moretti and causing Szymanski to get hurt, so she cuts ties with him (“Baby Blue”).
The FBI begin to pursue Reese after linking him to past crimes, dubbing him "the Man in the Suit", a name Carter intially used but Reese is able to avoid them for the most part. He has to focus on a case involving an identity thief, Jordan Hester, and Reese initially believes he is a drug dealer that had stolen the identity of an innocent woman. However, it is revealed that the woman is blackmailing the original Jordan, whose identity she has taken and forced him to take part in her drug operation. Reese stops her and helps Finch, who was drugged with ecstasy by the false Jordan while trying to protect her. Afterwards, Reese takes Finch back to the library and refuses to let Finch reveal more about his past while under the influence of the drugs, despite Reese wanting to know more about his employer (“Identity Crisis”).
After the Machine gives out five numbers, belonging to the heads of the five mafia families, Reese works with Carter to protect the Dons from Elias, who is looking to consolidate control of the city's underworld. Though he initially advocates for letting Elias take them out, Reese soon sees that there would be collateral damge after one of the Dons is killed by a car bomb on a busy street. Carter gets three of the remaining Dons to safety, but Elias kidnaps her son, Taylor, despite Reese's best efforts and demands she trade the Dons for his life. Reese promises Carter that he will save her son, then breaks into Elias's base, rescuing Taylor and Moretti as Finch gets rid of Elias's HR support, forcing him to surrender. Later, Reese gets Taylor back to Carter safely and she is deeply grateful, forgiving Reese for Szymanski's shooting (“Flesh and Blood”).
On his birthday, Reese comes across the case of a person of interest which Finch has been keeping a secret from him, worrying that it will bring back painful memories of Jessica's death. Sarah, the woman they are protecting, is on the run from her abusive husband, Brad Jennings, a U.S. Marshal and Reese is unable to keep normally calm demeanor as he furiously confronts Jennings by forcing his way into the Marshal's office and pointing a gun at him. He believes that by warning Jennings, he will leave his wife alone but is proven wrong when Sarah is arrested and taken by Jennings. Reese rejects Finch's help as he tracks them down to a motel and is able to save Sarah's life, before beating Jennings unconcious. Later, Carter pulls Reese over and tells him that she can't stand by and let him kill Jennings, but tells her to trust him to do the right thing as he drives away, delivering the husband to a Mexican prison after framing him for drug running. Upon his return, Finch's birthday present to Reese is revealed as a key to a large apartment, which becomes his home. At the end of this episode Carter figures out John's real name, John H. (...)s (which is known as John H. Tallis) and his SSN: 380-00-0050 and his birthday is shown to be on 05.01. (“Many Happy Returns”). Soon, Reese helps Finch protect an NSA analyst named Henry Peck, who has discovered the Machine and is being targeted by the government as a result. Reese takes out an ISA hit team, lead by Fox in order to keep Peck safe (“No Good Deed”).
Reese continues to use Fusco to gain information on HR, just as Finch gives him a new number: Caroline Turning, a psychotherapist with several high profile clients, who Fusco had discovered was being targeted by HR as a hired hit. To get access to her client list, Reese goes undercover as Turning's patient and is impressed when she is able to spot that he is ex-military after a short interaction, seeming to take a liking to her. Zoe returns again, having been called by Finch for assisstance after they realised how many of Turing's patients had dangerous secrets and she agrees to find out which client wants her dead. That night, Reese meets Turing on the street and saves her from HR hitmen, then leads her to a hotel to keep her safe but his movements are tracked by the FBI. They get a room and Reese comforts Turing as she begins to panic, then formulates a plan with Finch to escape by stealing a helicopter, but this proves impossible when the FBI arrive and begin searching the building.
Reese leads Turing through the hotel with help from Carter and Fusco to track their pursuers movements and they eventually get to the tunnels that will provide an escape route. Reese then sends Turing through to meet Finch while he holds off HR, but ends up cornered and nearly out of ammo as Patrick Simmons leads the HR forces after Turing. Though Carter and Fusco didn't know they were both working for Reese, they realise it after Carter suspects Fusco of working with the HR, and the two arrive to assist Reese together as he escapes Simmons and his men in the hotel parking garage. As they chase HR, Reese blows up their car with explosives he had stolen the detonator for, stunning Carter and Fusco as he then leaves to find Finch. However, Reese is shocked to learn that Turing had kidnapped him as she is really a dangerous hacker known as Root and asks the Machine for help in saving him (“Firewall”).
The Machine calls a payphone and Reese answers, being given a series of words that he doesn't understand the meaning of and he asks Carter to investigate the death of Alicia Corwin, who Root had murdered when she kidnapped Finch. Reese then heads to the library where he figures out that the words the Machine gave him correspond to the Dewey decimal system and is able to get the social security number of Leon Tao. Believing that Leon will lead him to Finch, Reese tracks him down and saves him from being murdered by the Aryan nation, who Leon had stolen money from. A frustrated Reese soon realises that Leon has no connection to Finch's disappearance and leaves him handcuffed to a cop car as he tries to find Root and Finch, however, Leon escapes police custody and is picked up by the Aryans, along with Fusco.
Reese saves Leon and Fusco, also gaining a dog who the Aryans had been using for intimidation, and tries to use Leon's accounting skills to track Root's financial activity, but she had covered her tracks too well. Angry at the Machine's refusal to help, Reese stops while being chased by the Aryans and threatens to let them kill him if it doesn't help, forcing it to give him a new number in order to save his life. Reese tells Leon to run while he takes their pursuers out, and he knocks out one man on a motorcycle, but he is outmatched by a huge Aryan gang member until Carter arrives to rescue him. Reese gets quite attached to the dog after it eats Leon's stolen bearer bonds, Reese gives him the name Bear (“The Contingency”).
Later, Reese decodes the number the Machine gave him and finds it belongs to Hanna Frey, a teenage girl from Texas who had been missing since 1991. He assumes that the girl is Root and enlists Carter to go to Texas with him in an effort to track her down, leaving Bear with Fusco. Their investigation in Texas leads them to a man named Trent Russell, who appears to be the person who kidnapped Hanna and they find that his wife had been receiving copies of Flowers for Algernon from Root for sixteen years. Reese uses a reciept in one of these books to trace Root's false identities until he finds a credit card used in Maryland hours earlier, but before he heads off to rescue Finch, Carter informs him that Hanna's body was found in the Russell's backyard and that Root was in fact Hanna's best friend, Samantha Groves.
Reese flies to Maryland and goes to the house belonging to Denton Weeks' girlfriend, as Fusco informed him that Weeks had worked with Corwin and had recently gone missing as well. At the house, he finds a phone with tap code on it, telling him to go to the train station, where he spots Finch but Root then goes to shoot an innocent bystander, so Finch tackles her and causes a panic as her gun goes off. In the chaos Reese gets to Finch as Root flees and later, a relieved Reese takes Finch back to the library, where he introduces Finch to Bear. He then receives a call from Root, thanking him for getting justice for Hanna, but Reese angrily warns her to never return (“Bad Code”).
Once Finch is back, he and Reese soon return to the numbers and Reese has to pose as a bodyguard for Sofia Campos, the spoiled daughter of a Brazilian diplomat. Initially, Reese is annoyed by Sofia's stuck up attitude and brattish behaviour, but as the threat to her becomes more real, he begins to feel sorry for her and they form a bond. After it is revealed that Sofia's boyfriend had set her up to be killed, Reese hangs him over the edge of a balcony as Sofia dumps him, before letting him be arrested. As they help Sofia, Reese also notices that Finch is struggling following his ordeal with Root and helps him face his fears of going outside by taking him for a drink (“Masquerade”). Next, Reese has to protect mob hitman Riley Cavanaugh and his girlfriend, Annie from a violent mob boss, who puts a bounty on their heads. During the mission, Reese takes issue with Finch's suggestion that they should focus on Annie as Riley's job makes him less worthy of their protection and after Riley dies while saving Annie, it proves to them both that people can change. Reese later confronted the hitman who had captured Annie and it is unclear what he did to him (“Triggerman”).
Shortly after, Reese and Finch are given the number of Maxine Angelis, a well known reporter working on a story about HR, who Reese awkwardly dates in order to get close to her and the case brings Reese back in contact with Zoe Morgan, after Finch enlists her to make Maxine more interested in Reese. However, it is revealed that Maxine is not in danger as her story about Christopher Zambrano has put him at risk as she claims he is the head of HR. Although he is innocent, this ultimately leads to his death and Reese helps a guilt-ridden Maxine atone for this mistake by finding the HR logbook, which allows the FBI to dismantle HR, but its leader manages to escape as does Officer Simmons (“Bury the Lede”). Reese meets with Zoe again on his next case as he asks her to pretend to be his wife when he goes undercover in the suburbs to watch his latest number, Graham Wyler, who is hiding from a gang of thieves he previously worked with. During their time in the suburbs, Reese bonds with Zoe over poker and blues music, and this may be the beginning of their casual sexual relationship. (“The High Road”).
Kara's return and the virus[]
Reese is eventually caught and arrested along with three other men by a team led by Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly while helping another person of interest (“Shadow Box”). With the help of Finch and Carter, Reese is eventually released from jail but kidnapped by his old partner Kara Stanton (“Prisoner's Dilemma”). Reese and Mark Snow are forced to run errands for Stanton while wearing rigged bomb vests, but Reese is eventually rescued and saved by Finch. Snow, meanwhile, catches up to Stanton and they both die when Snow's vest explodes (“Dead Reckoning”).
Reese and Finch eventually save the life of Sameen Shaw, a government assassin on the run after being betrayed by her employers, and Shaw eventually becomes part of their team (“Relevance”).
Reese eventually investigates Shaws partner Michael Cole, a ISA operative and runs into Shaw herself outside Cole's parent's house, where the two have a exchange of words, with Reese warning her not to endanger Cole's parents by revealing the truth about his death. After returning to the city, he and Finch start assisting Monica Jacobs, who was looking into illegal spying for the software company Rylatech, where she worked. After she is fired, Rease follows her and saves her from her assistant, Jerome, who refuses to tell her who she is working for, before he is shot by a sniper. Reese manages to protect Monica and brings her to Finch, who assists her in getting into Rylatech's network, but the network is hacked, forcing them to go into the Rylatech building themselves and access the server room to hack into their database. They realise that half of their senor level employees are involved in espionage and that they were using Rylatech's technology to spy on the country. After a small standoff with a few operatives, they are confronted by Martin Baxter, Rylatech's CEO who had sold out his company to prevent it from going bankrupt. After receiving a call, Martin kills himself, and the FBI look into Rylatech's technology. The following day, Reese bids Monica farewell and Finch informs him that he recognized the code that was similar to Stanton's virus. He also informed Reese that only small percentage of data went to the Chinese, with the rest going to a Private Intelligence Agency calling themselves Decima Technologies who Finch believes created the virus to infect his Machine ("Trojan Horse).
Working with Shaw and Carter's Death[]
The Machine finally gives out Reese's Social Security number after HR places a bounty on his head. He assists Carter in bringing HR leader Alonzo Quinn to FBI custody, and is arrested but eventually released from police custody by Carter. However, both Carter and Reese are shot by HR lieutenant Patrick Simmons with Carter dying in the arms of a wounded Reese (“The Crossing”).
Reese searches for Simmons (“The Devil's Share”)
Carter's death causes Reese to go on a vengeful hunt for Simmons and he brutally interrogates many HR associates in an attempt to find him. Reese finds Quinn after fighting his way through the U.S. Marshals guarding him and demands to know Simmons' location. Finch arrives and convinces Reese not to kill Quinn and Reese collapses from his prior injuries. He pulls the trigger on his gun, but finds that it's empty. Reese is eventually hospitalized and Shaw states that the doctor has declared Reese will be fine (“The Devil's Share”).
Leaving the team behind, Reese flees to Colorado and goes to a bar, returning to his habit of drinking and begins to ignore violent crimes. Fusco finds Reese at a bar to persuade him to return to New York. Reese refuses and tells Fusco to leave, but Fusco stays, pointing out that Reese was the key reason behind Fusco's stoppage of his bad habits, including drinking. Reese states how the work he's done is pointless and Fusco is appalled at how Reese could say such a thing. Fusco then challenges Reese to a fight and the two engage in a fistfight outside the bar in the rain. However, the police arrive and find the two (“Lethe”).
Reese and Fusco sit in a cell where an increasingly pessimistic Reese says how things will return to what they used to be, adding that Fusco will probably return to his corrupt ways. Fusco disagrees and angrily tells Reese that Carter "was a damn sight better than you" before revealing that he had already talked the Sheriff into letting them go. As he is leaving, Reese asks that Fusco thank Finch on his behalf, but is left concerned when Fusco reveals that he hasn't heard from Finch. Due to his worry for Finch, Reese decides to go back to New York, where he and Fusco save Finch from Vigilance during a bank raid. At the Library, Reese says that the only reason he came back is because Finch is too valuable a friend to lose and says that he can't continue to work for the Machine after it failed Carter, then leaves despite Finch's efforts to convince him to come back (“Aletheia”).
In an attempt to leave the team behind, Reese boards an international flight to Istanbul, but the flight is mysteriously switched to one to Rome. After he boards the plane and finds that an Air Marshal who was escorting Owen Matthews was knocked unconcious, Reese knows something is amiss. He suspects Finch of putting him on the plane in order to force him to help and calls Finch, but he denies it, leading both to realise that the Machine is acting on its own to get Reese back.
Reese learns that the Machine placed him on the flight to protect Matthews, who is a programmer associated with an online drug market and Finch learns that Owen is a relevant number due to connections with the ISA. Reese reluctantly protects Owen from numerous assassins and connects with a flight attendant named Holly, who helps him distract the rest of the passengers. After Reese stops an assassin from crashing the plane, Finch remotely pilots it and the plane finally lands safely in Rome. There, Reese leaves Holly, after getting her number, then meets with Finch and agrees to rejoin the team (“4C”).
Reese's personality returns to its old form rather quickly upon returning to the team as they help Kelli Lin, a thief who is being forced to steal expensive art by a gang who are holding her daughter hostage. The team plans to help Kelli steal the Guttenberg Bible in order to get the gang off her back and Reese provides a distraction by purposefully getting caught breaking into the security company holding the bible, so Shaw and Kelli can get in unnoticed. Fusco pretends to arrest Reese, then takes him to the airport, where he catches a private plane to Prague, then rescues Kelli's daughter and brings the girl back to New York, reuniting her with her mother. However, Reese still remembers Carter and honors her by pouring a drink for the team's "missing member" during a celebration of the completion of another case later that night (“Provenance”).
Battles with Decima and Vigilance[]
Having returned to New York, Reese helps Finch run surveillance on Sandra Nicholson, a 911 Trainee Supervisor and Finch goes undercover as a 911 Call Center employee. Reese and Shaw head over to rescue Aaron, a young boy who's the target of a kidnapping, when he calls Sandra, who directs the police to the same location. However, both the team and the police arrive too late as the kidnappers have heard Aaron's low battery signal and located him. When Finch brings up the footage of the kidnapping, Reese realises that the kidnappers are not ex-military, based on their lack of tactics, and identifies them as Templarios, a Mexican kidnapping gang, based on the ring on a gang-member's hand. Reese calls Fusco and the detective confirms that the Templarios hang out at El Certero, a local bar, so Reese goes into the bar and spots Solano, wearing the ring. The other Templarios come over and Reese advises them to let him through, but when they refuse, Reese admits that he was hoping they'd choose the hard way.
Shaw arrives at the bar as Reese finishes knocking out the last one and they turn to Solano, who tells them that the caller pays him anonymously and there's nothing more he can tell them. Reese watches as Shaw grabs a pair of pliers and demands to know where they're keeping Aaron, forcing him to give them the information. Then, Reese and Shaw proceed to the location where the Templarios are holding Aaron and, using a suit as a decoy, befuddle the gang members long enough to take down a few of them. Reese identifies the bomb on Aaron, and as he prepares to charge in, Shaw delays him, saying that she'll clear the way. She starts taking them down one by one, while Reese starts defusing the bomb and tries to distract Aaron by talking about baseball. He cuts the last wire with just seconds to spare, just as Shaw takes out the last Templario. Later, he and Shaw join Finch at a park where and he thanks them for their help, just as the mysterious caller who had orchestrated the kidnapping calls up Finch via the relay. They look around but can't see the man and after hanging up, Finch tells Reese and Shaw that the call was of no consequence, while discarding the battery of the relay phone, to prevent tracking (“Last Call”).
Reese then helps Finch when both Finch and Root independently receive the number of Cyrus Wells, a janitor who has retinal access to Maxwell Limited, a front for the NSA, which has a micro-processor on its premises which can run Samaritan, a rival AI built by Arthur Claypool and in Decima's possession. At Cyrus's apartment, Reese fights off Decima agents who storm the building as Root gets Cyrus to safety and Shaw takes out a sniper in another building. Later, Reese recieves a call from Root and says that he doesn't trust her to take care of Cyrus, but she brushes this off, telling him not to worry. Reese is frustrated when Decima cut off Root's connection to the Machine and ambush her, allowing them to capture Cyrus, despite Reese's attempt to help them. Finch sends Reese and Fusco to the building where Cyrus works and they intercept Decima as they use Cyrus to access the room where the chip is stored. Reese and Fusco arrive just as Cyrus is about to be executed and they shoot at the Decima agents, but Cyrus runs away from them as he is afraid of guns. Root arrives to help, so Reese and Fusco provide cover while she successfully rescues Cyrus by walking through the fire fight unarmed and taking a bullet in the shoulder. Once Cyrus is safe, Reese goes for the chip, however, he is too late as they have already lost the chip to Decima (“Root Path (/)”).
Some time later, Reese and Finch evaluate a new number, Maria Martinez by looking through her records and activities, finding out she works for a charity in Iraq. After Finch gets a call from Root, who is following Greer in a subway station, Reese leaves the Library and sits with Shaw at a diner where Maria and her associate are meeting. The man Maria is talking to mentions something about his brother being released, and Finch identifies the man as Jamal Risha, brother of Omar Risha, who was recently detained at JFK airport under accusations of terrorist activities. Jamal, meanwhile, gives Maria an envelope, which Reese suspects of having a bomb inside and Reese says he'll follow Jamal while Shaw decides to go after Maria. However, Shaw discovers that the envelope contained a GPS tracker, which Maria planted on the car of a UN official and they learn that Maria is trying to get Omar out of custody after it was alleged that he is a terrorist.
He and Finch later pose as international officials and meet with Rene LaPointe - a French diplomat who Maria was secretly watching and had placed the GPS tracker underneath his car. At his office. Finch requests that LaPointe allow them to look at the paperwork naming Omar a terrorist and LaPointe agrees to let them do so, but only in his office. He says the letter is from the Ministry of the Interior, which Reese points out is full of corrupt people and LaPointe responds by saying that two terrorists also posing as translators were caught in Kentucky. Finch takes it into consideration and thanks LaPointe for his time before leaving, but neither he nor Reese fully trust LaPointe.
Later, two members of the French Foreign Legion attack Maria at her apartment, causing Reese and Shaw to intervene, with Reese tackling one man out of a window. Maria is taken to Finch's safe house and after hearing about Omar's situation, Reese suggests that they have Omar meet with his lawyer, implying that Finch can pose as one. They realise the reason Omar was detained was because of his knowledge about missing generators from Iraq and that Maria's boss Ken Davis is behind the attempts on Maria because she tried to have him released. When Omar is about to be deported, Reese poses as a truck driver, knocking out the other guard and driving Omar to safety, just as Shaw reports to Finch that Maria is headed off to LaPointe's office and they both know she will almost certainly die. Reese, Fusco, and Omar arrive at the building posing as firefighters after receiving a smoke call that was started by Shaw. They enter the building, but are confronted by more hitmen, so Shaw fires another smoke grenade in the building and it blinds the men who are taken down by Reese and Fusco. They manage to rescue Maria and after her case concludes, Finch tells Reese, in the Library, that Davis hasn't been heard from and could be anywhere (“Allegiance”).
Shortly after, Reese and Shaw are watching their latest number, Leona Wainwright, who Finch says works at the office of personnel management for the Federal government and is living in Washington D.C. Leona gets in a taxi and Reece gets out to approach the taxi Leona got into, only to find a man pointing a gun to her head, so he pulls his gun as he moves to intervene. However, when he gets close, the man reveals a grenade and the car explodes, knocking Reese back and killing Leona. After this, Reese and Shaw dejectedly return to the Library, where they conclude that the man who killed Leona was Vigilance and want to investigate but Finch announces that they got a new number, Matthew Reed. He assigns Reese and Shaw to Westchester under the aliases Frank Mercer and Betty Harris while Finch and Fusco go to D.C. to investigate Vigilance, which annoys Shaw.
When Reese and Shaw arrive at East Springs High School in Westchester, they are horrified to realise that a high school reunion is taking place and they are posing as alumni as they shadow Matthew. Once there, Reese gets slapped by three different women which Shaw explains that is because Frank had given a promise ring to the brunette (the first woman to slap him), then had an affair with a blonde (the second girl), only to have another affair with a redhead (the third girl), whose mother he seduced. While Shaw approaches Matthew, Reese befriends a stoner known as Toke, who gives him information on Reed and tells him that Reed was suspected of killing his girlfriend, Claire, during their senior year but her death was ruled a suicide. Reese leaves in order to call Fusco to ask for the police report on Claire's death, when the bowling alley's lights suddenly turn off and the TV screens switch to images from Claire's death, causing Matthew to leave, appearing frightened. Reese and Shaw get the room next to Matthew that night and keep an eye on him, with both of them revealing the arsenal that they packed.
During the dance the next day, Reese asks Toke if he's seen any suspicious activity and Toke points out his classmate Phil's increase in height and masculinity, making Reese suspicious. He follows Phil into the kitchen where they begin to fight and Phil says "they told me you were fast" causing Reese to wonder who sent him. Reese grabs a cleaver and gets the upper hand, but Toke then walks in and Phil grabs him, threatening to kill him unless Reese drops his weapon. Reese does but then throws a plate immediately afterwards, hitting Toke's leg and tripping him, allowing Reese to quickly throw a can at Phil, which knocks him out. He searches Phil and finds a picture of himself and Shaw on him, then he tries to interrogate him, but Phil dies, having consumed cyanide and Reese realises Phil is a Vigilance member. He places Phil's body in a cooler, pointing out that Phil was sent to observe them, just as Shaw realises that Matthew isn't the one being tortured over Claire's death as her best friend Doug is the one being terrorized, meaning Matthew is the perpetrator. It was then revealed that Doug accidentally killed Claire and after convincing Matthew to spare Doug, they get attacked by Vigilance, with Doug getting shot in the leg. Reese and Shaw ultimately defeat the Vigilance soldiers while keeping Matthew alive and Doug alive, though they were both later arrested (“Most Likely To...”).
While Reese and Shaw were helping Matthew, Vigilance exposed the Machine's existence to the worls, causing public outcry and the government cut ties with it to avoid a scandal. While the two are having breakfast in a diner, they watch the breaking news involving the leaking of the the "Northern Lights" program, but seem unconcerned as non-relevenat numbers are still coming, proven as Reese and Shaw then stop two men from killing each other in the alley. As they go to leave, Root pulls up on a motorcycle and recruits Shaw to help her with relevant numbers, telling Reese that Finch will call soon to tell him to come to D.C. and he does just as they drive off. Reese gets to D.C. and Finch tells him the Machine produced the number of one congressman Roger McCourt: head of the House of Rules Committee and an outspoken opponent of the government's surveillance system, which could imply that Samaritan wants him dead. Seeing how lax McCourt's security is, Reese shoots at him in the street, causing him to get a Secret Service security detail and Reese kidnaps the agent, so he can pose as a Secret Service agent assigned to the congressman in order to keep an eye on him and assess the possible threats.
Soon, Reese discovered Decima agents following McCourt and has to kidnap McCourt after they expose his identity and Reese takes him to one of Finch's safehouses. They are attacked by Decima again but Shaw arrives to save them and they end up hiding out in an empty house in the suburbs, with a Decima agent named Zachary, who they have captured. Later, it becomes apparent that Decima wasn't trying to kill McCourt- rather they were trying to protect him from Reese and company as they realise that McCourt made a deal with Greer to help bring Samaritan online. Thus, the Machine, having felt gravely threatened for the first time, produced a number for the Team to kill off rather than to protect. Reese was ready to go through with the Machine's plan, believing that if killing McCourt would save lives it was worth it but Finch tried to persuade them against such an act arguing that if they start taking kill orders from the Machine, they are no better than Decima and even Shaw opposed the idea. He eventually decided against killing McCourt and they were able to escape as police raided the house to save McCourt, though Shaw was shot in the leg and Finch disappeared as they returned to New York (“Death Benefit”).
Some time later, Shaw and Reese are seen to be freelancing as Shaw prevents a store from being robbed and Reese tells her to be careful because of her injury. As they walk down the street, Root appears and stops them form being seen by a group of Samaritan agents, informing them that Samaritan has full control of New York. While she tries to guide them through the streets away from the prying eyes of Samaritan, they receive a number and Reese refuses to go further until the Machine tells them who it is, endangering his own life to force it to give them a name, which turns out to be Grace as, in an effort to locate Finch, Samaritan has targeted his closest living connection. Shaw and Reese arrive at Grace's apartment just in time to save her from a Decima operative posing as a driver and Reese identifies himself as Detective Stills, as he had already introduced himself to Grace as such while investigating Finch. To protect Grace, Reese takes her to the eighth precinct, where she realises that he and Shaw aren't cops and attempts to leave, but Root then tells them that the building has been encircled by Decima agents. Grace is forced to trust the team and Root manages to create a distraction for them to drive her away, but they are attacked and Reese is unable to save Grace as she is taken.
Reese flees with Root and Shaw to New Jersey, out of Samaritan's sight and Root finds a dock that Decima is using where she thinks Grace is being held and Reese insists they go back for her. At the dock, they find a ship loaded with Samaritan servers and a dead crew, but Root uses a Decima agent's tablet to find the place where Grace is being held, sending Reese and Shaw to save her. However, they arrive too late as Grace has been moved but are just in time to listen to Greer's demands - that they bring him Finch in exchange for Grace. Reese and Shaw are left hopeless until they find Finch sitting outside of Grace's apartment, though Reese is worried when he agrees to Greer's terms to be taken captive in exchange for Grace. Reese tried to dissuade Finch to no avail and is shocked as Finch orders him to "kill them all" if Grace is hurt by Decima, but Reese and Shaw still take Finch to the bridge, where he trades himself to Decima. After the exchange, they take Grace home and Reese informs her that she has been accepted for a job in Italy, advising her to start afresh. Later, Reese and Shaw meet with Root, who shows him the Samaritan servers she took, announcing that they now have a way to fight back (“Beta”).
After Samaritan's beta test ends, Reese and Shaw continue to search for Finch by unsuccessfully chasing down Decima agents, who all kill themselves rather than be captured. After one agent throws himself off a building, Root arrives and takes them to a van which hides several Samaritan servers along with her hackers Daizo, Jason Greenfield, and Daniel Casey, who recognises Reese from their encounter in 2010, but Reese assures Casey that he is retired. After Root sends Shaw to surveil a hotel, where Control and other key people of the government are due to meet, she and Reese enter a coffee shop to monitor a man, who turns out to be a Vigilance member. They confront him and he shoots at them, but Reese takes him out, allowing them to discover that Vigilance has uploaded a Stuxnet virus into the power grid which is set to create a blackout. Reese then orders Root to tell him what she and the hackers are up to, but she only gives him vague answers, before recieving information from the Machine, causing her to send Reese to Shaw's aid - who finds out that Control and her company are the victims in this case due to the insurgence of Vigilance. He arrives in time to save her from Vigilance soldiers who had her cornered, and they then meet Hersh, who Root tells them to work with to find Finch after finding out that the Machine produced Greer's number, putting Finch in imminent danger. Reese and Shaw negotiate a truce with Hersh, then go to an empty office building where Finch was kept hostage by Greer only to find a TV monitor setup by Collier, broadcasting the kangaroo-court he helped orchestrate with Finch, Greer and Control on trial (“A House Divided”).
Amidst the chaos of the blackout, the three set out to find the courthouse where Collier is keeping Finch and the others hostage. After receiving a call from Root, Shaw realises that she is going on a suicide mission alone, so Reese sends her to help Root. Disguising themselves as Vigilance members, who are running amok in the streets, Reese and Hersh trick one of them to disclosing the location of the courthouse and get back up as Fusco arrives with Bear. Upon arriving at the courthouse, they discover six Vigilance members already shot dead, which later turns out to be part of Decima's plan. A shootout ensues in the courthouse and Hersh discovers a bomb set to explode once the power comes back on, as Reese goes after Finch who was about be executed by Jeremy Lambert alongside Collier. Although Reese managed to prevent Lambert from killing Finch, Hersh was unable to diffuse to bomb which exploded, taking the lives of a number of reporters and police officers. Once back in the Library, Reese tends to Finch's wounds when Root calls them to inform them that Samaritan could not be defeated since any chances of stopping it vanished when they failed to kill the congressman. As she tells them about the new identities the Machine created for them, Reese and Finch are seen vacating the Library and parting ways (“Deus Ex Machina”).
Samaritan and going into hiding[]
Reese and Finch meet (Panopticon)
With Samaritan online, Reese is known as John Riley who is an NYPD detective working undercover for narcotics and he meets with Finch (now known as Harold Whistler) in a public park to talk about resuming their work, much to Finch's dismay. Against Finch's wishes Reese begins investigating when the Machine gives him a new number, Ali Hasan, who is being threatened by a new gang called "the Brotherhood" to create them a secure, private communications network. After Hasan unsuccessfully tries to kill one of the gang members, Link, by creating a cellphone bomb, he tells Reese and Fusco about the Brotherhood's threats, just as they call to tell him they have his son and will kill him if he does not complete the network. With the help of Elias, Reese finds the address to the house where the Brotherhood is keeping Hasan's son along with their supply of heroin and with aid from Shaw as well as Elias, Reese is able to save Hasan's son. Later, it is seen that Reese has been promoted to a homicide detective and he reluctantly takes the desk opposite to Fusco where Carter used to sit (“Panopticon”).
Soon, Reese once again meets a reluctant Finch to discuss a new number Claire Mahoney and he manages to bring Finch into a fold as they both begin to track her. In Claire's apartment, Reese recovers her hard drive and encounters a man claiming to be her father, who voices his concerns over her safety, so Reese promises to contact him if he finds information on Claire. Later, Reese discovers Claire standing in the middle of the road and saves her from being hit by a car, but she tells him that he got in her way. They then see the man claiming to be Claire's father arriving at the scene, but Claire denies that the man is her father, explaining that he is dead, so Reese fights off the impersonator and his cohort, letting Claire escape in the process. Finch discovers that Claire, and others like her, are part of a scavenger hunt and stumbles onto the shocking discovery that the source is Samaritan, which is using the game as a recruitment process. They discover that Claire is after digital documents that would incriminate a private military organization called Silverpool for war crimes. Reese and Shaw were able to save Claire from the Silverpool's men but could not stop her from being recruited by Samaritan (“Nautilus”).
Reese soon encounters problems with his cover identity as he comes under scrutiny from his Captain for his excessive use of fire arms and diverting attention away from his active cases. As Fusco is sent to deal with the latest number, Reese is forced to stay in the precinct and closes two cases, impressing his Captain. Reaslising that one of his cases is related to the number Fusco and Shaw are working, Reese is able to assist Fusco with the number and save his life. However, his cover as a homicide detective gets increasingly disruptive to the more unrestricted routine he was previously accustomed to. Next, he works closely with DEA agent Erica Lennox when siblings Malcolm and Tracie Booker are targeted by the Brotherhood and its leader, Dominic, because Malcolm stole their money after a botched heroin deal with the Armenians. Reese and Lennox bring the kids to a safe house and try to obtain the location where Malcolm hid the money, but Reese finds out that Lennox is the mole in the DEA and works with with the Brotherhood, leading the gang to their location. Reese and Fusco engage in a gun fight when they discover that Malcolm has given himself up to the Brotherhood and Reese manages to save him by showing Link a photo where Shaw threatens to burn down their heroin stash, forcing Link to let them go in exchange for the heroin (“Brotherhood”).
Being involved in a lot of questionable shooting incidents, Reese is temporarily assigned to desk duty and forced attend mandatory sessions with a psychologist, Dr Iris Campbell. She isn't fooled when he makes up a story about a cop he knew dying in the line of duty and refuses to sign him off for active duty. Reese is frustrated as this means he cannot help Root and Shaw as they protect a young man attempting to prove that Samaritan rigged the election for New York governor and he ends up actually opening up to Dr Campbell during their second session. He also helps Shaw knock out and abduct the number in order to save his life as Root occupies Samaritans forces inside a hotel (“Prophets”).
Once he is back on field duty, Finch assigns Reese to investigate a new number, insurance officer Walter Dang, who is posing as a detective on his own investigation on the apparent suicide of Abel Mindler- the brother of his co worker Elena Mindler. Dang finds himself in trouble during his investigations into Abel's death but is saved by Reese, who brings Dang to the precinct. While Reese and Fusco mull over Dang being a fake cop, he slips away and is almost kidnapped by Elias's right hand man, "Scarface", but Reese saves him. Reese visits Elias to ask what Dang is mixed up in and it turns out that Abel was transporting rifles that use high-explosive rounds for someone named "the Armorer" who wants the location of the truck the rifles are stashed in, which is on Abel's phone that Dang has. Later, Reese takes Dang to retrieve Abel's phone, which holds the location of the truck, and Dang reveals that he only started pretending to be a cop out of admiration for "the Man in the Suit" who he realises is Reese. After Dang is kidnapped by the Armorer's men, Reese and Fusco track them down with help from Elias and a gun fight ensues. With Elias and his men backing them up, they take out the Armourer and Dang takes a bullet for Reese during the fight, with Reese showing his gratitude later by announcing that Dang had assissted the NYPD in solving Abel's murderer in front of Dang's co-workers (“Pretenders”).
Death[]
After a copy of Samaritan is uploaded to a satellite, Reese and the Machine trick Finch onto the wrong rooftop while Reese sacrifices himself to upload a copy of the Machine to destroy Samaritan. Reese tells Finch that he'd spent so long trying to save the world that when he went to work for Finch, saving one life at a time didn't seem like enough to him. However, Reese explains that he has come to realize that saving one life- if its the right life- can make a real difference. Reese and the Machine are able to get Finch to leave as Reese single-handedly holds off Samaritan agents with the help of the dying Machine in God Mode. Reese is eventually gunned down, but not before the Machine's copy uploads to Samaritan's satellite. As the Samaritan three surviving agents approach the dying Reese, a cruise missile fired by Samaritan as a countermeasure destroys the building they are on, killing Reese and the agents. Reese's sacrifice enables the Machine to finally destroy Samaritan and Finch honors his sacrifice by returning to his fiancée and a normal life.
Later, a grave in a military graveyard is shown, with the name "John Tal...", implying to be Reese's resting place.(“return 0”).
Appearance[]
John is tall man, standing at around 6"2 or 6"3, with blue eyes, graying dark hair, usually cut short (though he is shown to have let it grow out while living on the streets) and typically clean shaven. His preferred attire is a black suit with a white shirt but he has been seen to wear different coloured suits at times and when not working for Finch, or trying to go unnoticed, he dons a black leather jacket and casual clothes. John is considered to be attractive and this is noted on several occasions ("Bad Code"), ("Relevance"), ("Provenance"), ("A More Perfect Union"), etc, and he has been known to use his looks to accomplish his goals when necessary.
Personality[]
Reese is intense, focused, and level-headed in dangerous situations. Reese has a dry, dark sense of humor toward the criminals he has to deal with. When he chooses a cause, he is incredibly loyal to it. Reese’s demeanor is so calm as to be inscrutable. Although Finch knows more about him than he knows about Finch, he has almost as many aliases as Finch.
Reese has been successful at stopping many murders and solving many "cases". He is a wounded man, but he trusts Finch almost implicitly, although this doesn't stop him from spying on Finch early on during their work, so he can learn more about his mysterious friend.
Reese has been shot and wounded numerous times, and he shows physical and mental fortitude and genuine care for the people he is helping. He has thanked Finch several times for giving him a job and said that he "believes everyone deserves a second chance". It's clear he views this job as his second chance and is grateful. There are also many references to the fact that Reese craves a more conventional life as he wants a family, but he knows that can never be.
Reese feels quite differently for those who have demonstrated moral weakness. Though left open to interpretation, it is suggested, but later proved unlikely, that Reese may have talked a sexual predator into committing suicide (“Cura Te Ipsum”). He has also shown a great deal of dislike towards men who abuse their wives, which is most prominent in “Many Happy Returns” where Reese takes an active interest in stopping Marshall Jennings pursuing his wife. There was a point in the episode where both Finch and Carter feared that Reese's anger would get the better of him and he would kill Jennings, but in the end, Jennings was framed and imprisoned in a Mexican jail.
After the completion of another case in which Finch is kidnapped and drugged with ecstasy, a drugged Finch expresses his willingness to answer the questions that Reese has about his employer's past, but Reese refuses to take advantage of Finch's state to satisfy his own curiosity (“Identity Crisis”).
While strapped into one of Kara Stanton's bomb vests, Reese is greatly concerned with keeping bystanders safe should the bomb be triggered. He considers sacrificing himself when abandoned by Stanton while the bomb is armed. He is also distressed by Mark Snow's ruthless treatment of guards they have to neutralize while infiltrating a DoD cyber-security installation (“Dead Reckoning”).
Reese states that he has no problem with murdering criminals, but feels that their deaths should be quick and painless (“The Devil's Share”). During his time in the CIA, it was clear that Reese was unlike most of the other operatives employed by them - often questioning his partner, Kara Stanton, about the reasons behind carrying out executions. This nature of his has been exemplified when he spares Daniel Casey, telling him that he stared at the eyes of traitors and that he is not one of them. Finch overhears the conversation which is most likely what prompts him to recruit Reese in the future (“RAM”).
Relationships[]
- Harold Finch: During their first meeting, Reese was suspicious of Finch and distrusted him due to his strange methods, believing him to be "a bored rich guy" and Reese refused to work with him ("Pilot"). However, Finch soon convinced Reese that he was trying to do good and so Reese decided to work with him, but remained wary as he knew very little about his employer, resulting in Reese having him followed in an attempt to learn more about him. Over time, Reese grew to like and trust Finch after discovering more about him and they became close. As such, Reese was very concerned when Finch was taken by Root, going to great lengths to track him down and afterwards becoming very protective over Finch, ("The Contingency"), ("Bad Code"). Reese has credited Finch with saving his life by giving him a purpose and therefor, feels indebted to him for this.
- Joss Carter: Reese and Carter had a rocky beginning to their relationship as she was hunting him down due to his activities as "the man in the suit", but Reese always respected her for her devotion to her job and determination to do what was right, at one point saying that she saved his life after their first meeting. Reese made contact with her several times during her pursuit of him and as a result was lured into a trap by Mark Snow, which Carter saved him from. This leads to them working together and Reese appears to enjoy having a partnership with her, though he does keep some distance because of her recent attempts to apprehend him. Their bond grows as they help protect the numbers and they become friends as well as colleagues. As Carter became obsessed with stopping HR, Reese began to worry about her and advised her to be careful many times, offering his help ("Endgame"). Reese forgoes his own safety when his number comes up in order to help Carter take down HR and while hiding from them, they end up kissing, implying a romantic interest, however, Carter is killed shortly after ("The Crossing"). Reese is devastated by this and he ignores his own injuries in order to get revenge as he goes on a rampage ("The Devil's Share"), then leaving the team briefly as Carter's death caused him to lose faith in the Machine and the mission ("Lethe"), ("Aletheia"), ("4C"). Losing Carter had a profound effect on Reese and he never fully got over it, as seen when he had an halluncination of her over a year later, during which he realised he had not been as open with her as he had thought ("Terra Incognita").
- Lionel Fusco: Reese and Fusco also had a rough early relationship, after Fusco attempted to kill Reese on the order of Detective Stills and Reese shot Fusco in the back, though he knew Fusco was wearing a vest. After this, Reese treated Fusco fairly badly as he blackmailed him into working for him and showed little concern when he was threatened by a cartel ("Cura Te Ipsum"). He then forced Fusco to go back to being a corrupt cop in order to get information, despite Fusco insisting he had changed ("Blue Code") and left Fusco to bury the body of a man he had killed, leading Fusco to be blackmailed by HR. However, Reese later came to see Fusco as more than just an asset and though Reese still tended to give Fusco demeaning tasks, he eventually acknowledged him as a friend ("The Contingency"). Their bond grew when Reese was assigned to be Fusco's partner when disguised as a police detective ("Panopticon") and he started to trust him more, but still refused to tell him the truth about the Machine to protect him, which caused friction between the two until Reese told him the truth ("Sotto Voce"). Anyway, when Fusco was to be executed in the final episode, besides Reese, and said than he always knew than he would be the cause of his death, didn't regret his work with him, and even thanked him for helping him to redeem himself (“return 0”).
- Sameen Shaw: After Shaw's number came up, Reese was assigned to protect her, which was made difficult by her shooting him as he offered his help. He later saved her life and got her to agree to go with him, but Shaw still mistrusted him and refused to be protected ("Relevance"). Eventually, they do end up working together as Shaw joins the team, and though Reese admires her skills, he is wary of her impulsive and violent nature, contrasting with his own calm and cautious methods. Shaw soon proves to be a valuable asset and Reese relies on her for back up on many occasions while protecting numbers, with the two developing a mutual respect. As Reese leaves the team after Carter's death, he trusts Shaw enough to leave her as Finch's sole protector and asset, something he would have been unlikely to do before. When Shaw is taken by Samaritan, Reese never doubts the fact that she is alive and joins Root in attempting to rescue her, ("Control-Alt-Delete"), ("M.I.A") though their mission proves pointless and Reese later talks to his therapist about how much losing his friend has affected him ("Guilty"). Later, following Root's death, Reese seems to be able to understand that Shaw is grieving, even though she doesn't show the traditional signs ("Synecdoche").
- Root: Initially, Reese meets Root while she is under the guise of a psychotherapist named Caroline Turing and he seems to take a liking to her when he poses as a patient, later going to great lengths to keep her safe from HR. However, when it is revealed that Root was only using him to get to Finch and that she had kidnapped him, Reese sees her as a threat and even after he saves Finch from her, he shows a deep anger towards Root, threatening her to never come back. When she does return, Reese becomes very protective of Finch and desperately tries to track them down when she takes him again. After Root begins communicating with the Machine, Reese still doesn't trust her and is annoyed when she messes up a mission to protect a number ("Root Path (/)"). Despite this, he is later forced to trust her as Samaritan becomes more of a threat and has to follow her direction when Finch goes missing ("Beta") but he is easily frustrated by her cryptic instructions and tries to force her to tell him what the Machine is planning ("A House Divided"). This uneasy cooperation eventually develops as Reese comes to rely on Root as part of the team, especially after Shaw is taken by Samaritan ("M.I.A") and he later insists on going back for her after they lose contact while trying to proctect the Machine ("B.S.O.D"). When Root is killed, Reese shows some sadness at her death and attends her funeral alongside Fusco ("Synecdoche").
- Bear: Reese has an affinity with dogs and is quickly able to spot that Bear does not respect his Aryan Brotherhood owner, so easily gets him to turn on them by using Dutch commands. After this, Reese adopts Bear and gives him that name as he states "he doesn't look like a Butcher", keeping him in the library to Finch's annoyance ("The Contingency"), ("Bad Code") . Reese uses Bear on several missions and though Bear is said to be Reese's dog, he spends a lot of time with Shaw, Fusco and Finch.
- The Machine: At first, Reese sees the Machine as a tool and does not think much of it, but when Finch is kidnapped he is forced to rely on it and becomes frustrated when it sends him to help a random number ("The Contingency"). In "God Mode", Reese is granted full administrative access to the Machine for twenty-four hours and uses this to his full advntage, and also shows total trust when folllwing its instructions. However, after it fails to warn the team about Carter's death, Reese loses faith in it and believes that it cannot be trusted, completely turning his back on it as he thinks it is out for its own agenda ("The Devil's Share"), ("Aletheia"). Despite later returning to the team, Reese is always wary of the Machine's newfound sentience and cryptic methods, but continues to listen when Root relays its plans ("A House Divided") and he is willing to go along with its suggestion to kill Congressman Roger McCourt to stop Samaritan in "Death Benefit". Reese enters 'god mode' again while protecting Elias and holding off Samaritan's soldiers at the electrical substation, demonstrating that his stance has softened. Later, Reese is able to trust the Machine again and goes to great lengths to protect it when it is compressed into a briefcase, even convincing Finch not to give up on it, showing his renewed faith ("B.S.O.D"). In his final moments, Reese enters 'god mode' one last time to fight off Samaritans agents and, as a vision, the Machine stays with him until the end ("Return 0").
- Carl Elias: Reese and Elias had a complicated relationship, as Reese had bonded with Elias when he was protecting him from the Russian mob and was left shocked by his betrayal, later angrily questioning whether he should not have saved Elias ("Witness"). While Elias was trying to dominate the city's underworld, there was a level of animosity between him and Reese, though Reese always believed that Elias had some honour. After Elias was arrested, he continued to show Reese respect and Reese relied on his help while he was in prison ("Prisoner's Dilemma"). When Elias was being threatened by rival gang leader Dominic, Reese went to great lengths to save him on two occasions, ("The Devil You Know"), ("Asylum") with the latter resulting in him being tortured. Later, Reese helped keep Elias safe from Samaritan and depended on him to help protect Finch ("The Day the World Went Away"). Elias is one of the few characters to always address Reese as "John", as this was how he introduced himself when they first met.
- Zoe Morgan: Reese meets Zoe while working undercover to protect her after her number had come up and seemed to have some attraction to her. They bonded when Zoe told Reese about her past and they later kissed, though this was a ploy to help him escape ("The Fix"). Reese and Finch enlisted Zoe's help on several occasions during which she often flirted with Reese, even asking him to go for a drink in "Root Cause" and they became closer when they posed as a married couple to protect a number, playing cards together late into the night ("The High Road"). At some point this turned into a casual sexual relationship, which was confirmed in "Booked Solid" when Reese got them the penthouse suite at a hotel and in "Lady Killer" when Shaw asked Reese how long they had been "special friends" which he did not deny. They lose contact when Reese has to go undercover to hide from Samaritan, though they were still friendly when they met up again in "Guilty", though Reese rejected Zoe's suggestion that they spend the night together. Despite this, Reese and Zoe were able to work well together while trying to help a number some time later ("Search and Destroy"). Zoe consistently calls Reese by his first name throughout their interactions and is one of the few characters to do so.
- Jessica Arndt: Reese had relationship with Jessica while he was stationed in Mexico in 2001, though her mother did not approve as she believed Jessica was miserable whenever Reese was deployed and Jessica lied to her about being with him at times ("Pilot"), ("Many Happy Returns"). A few months into their relationship, Reese decided to leave the military so he could be with her but after 9/11, he reeenlisted and broke up with Jessica, despite her insistence that she would wait for him and the fact he was deeply in love with her. They met again at an airport in 2006 when Jessica was engaged but he didn't tell her how he felt, even though she said she still wanted to be with him. Reese kept tabs on Jessica for the next few years, until she called him for help in 2010, but he was unable to get to her before she is killed by her abusive husband ("Matsya Nyaya"), ("Many Happy Returns"). Losing Jessica mentally destroys Reese and after taking revenge on her husband, he becomes homeless and suicidal, before being found by Finch.
- Kara Stanton: Kara was Reese's partner when he worked for the CIA and gave him the code name Reese after their first meeting in 2006 ("Foe"). Reese and Kara worked together for several years, killing enemies of the CIA and although Reese was always uncomfortable with assassinations, Kara enjoyed it which unsettled him ("Prisoner's Dilemma"). In 2009, Reese and Kara begin a sexual relationship, though it is unclear how long this lasted or if it was just one time. When Reese was ordered to kill Kara by Agent Snow in 2010, he considered going through with it, pointing a gun at her but he ultimately decided not to, though Kara had no qualms about shooting him ("Matsya Nyaya"). Reese then left Kara to die in air strike and did not learn that she was still alive until she returned in 2012, holding him and Snow captive by putting them in bomb vests. It is not clear if Reese learned of Kara's death, but by that point he probably would not have cared.
- Iris Campbell: Iris Campbell was assigned to be Reese's therapist while he was undercover as Detective John Riley ("Prophets") and initally he tried to fool her to clearing him for active duty by lying, though she saw through this. After Shaw's disappearance, Reese opened up to Iris about losing his friend and talked to her about Carter's death as well, becoming far more honest with her during their sessions ("Guilty"). Eventually, Reese felt comfortable enough to tell Iris that he wasn't really a cop and offered some details of his past, but when she started avoiding him after this, he feared he had scared her. However, Iris then told him that she couldn't continue to treat him because she had feelings for him and Reese kissed her ("Skip"). They began a relationship, but Reese worried that she might be hurt because of him and ordered her to leave town as the battle with Samaritan became more intense, begging her to trust him, which she did ("Asylum"). When it became safe again, Reese continued seeing Iris, even meeting her parents, but ultimately he decided that he could not be with her as he had too many secrets and did not want to drag her into his world, so he broke things off ("Truth Be Told").
- Leon Tao: Reese was given Leon's number by the Machine while he was searching for Finch and was annoyed by what he deemed to be an unimportant task, so he tried to get rid of Leon, but ended up having to save him from the Aryan Brotherhood ("The Contingency"). Reese and Finch encountered Leon a few more times as he continued to get into trouble, and later began using him to help with certain missions, e.g. ("Relevance"). At one point, Reese entrusted Leon with watching Bear while he was otherwise occupied.
Skills and Talents[]
- Marksmanship: Reese is skilled with any kind of firearm, including shotguns, rifles, submachine guns, sidearms, and even grenade launchers. He shows his skill regularly as he usually shoots hostiles in the shoulder or kneecap to incapacitate them without killing them. He's also skilled enough to use a sniper rifle to blow the front hood off of a car, forcing it to crash.
- Hand-to-hand combat: Reese is highly trained in close-quarters battle and hand-to-hand combat. He was able to defeat a gang of punks on a subway with little to no effort. He mostly uses these skills in certain emergency situations, such as when a person of interest is about to be taken hostage. His skills are advanced enough that only a few people have been able to fight him for significant periods of time. His fighting style appears to be mix of Krav Maga and Wing Chun.
- Indomitable will/High tolerance for pain: Reese has an unbreakable will and a remarkably high threshold for pain. He was once tortured with electricity in Kandahar for sixteen hours simply for refusing to give his captors his name. When former Stasi agent Ulrich Kohl was looking for his wife, he tortured Reese by punching needles into specific nerves on his body, such as the humerus, and Reese never cracked. (“Foe”) In addition, after Carter's death, he went on a one-man search for her killer, even though critically wounded from gunshot wounds (“The Devil's Share”). In one incident, while in a gunfight, he is struck in the armoured vest and simply stops for a moment before continuing to fight.
- Strategist/Tactician: Reese is shown to be intelligent, and he can quickly come up with tactics and strategies to subdue his opponents with ease. He has also been shown to be able to identify former military personnel by their tactics. Not surprisingly, he can quote from Sun-Tzu's The Art of War (“Wolf and Cub”).
- Pickpocketing: Reese has been shown to be able to pickpocket people to determine who they are or grab keys to information. He lifted the wallets from three other candidates for a bodyguard job, thus showing them to be incompetent (“Masquerade”).
- Lock picking: Reese is skilled at lock picking and surreptitious entry as shown when he was able to get out of the restraints on a chair when Zoe Morgan discretely passed him a paperclip (“The Fix”).
- Surveillance: As a part of his job, Reese regularly spies on persons of interest by cloning their phones, hacking their emails, and following them from afar.
- Espionage: Reese is good at blending in and "hiding in plain sight." He has been able to go undercover in more than one situation and play a convincing role, such as in when he went undercover as a new driver for the fixer he was following (“The Fix”).
- Interrogation: Reese knows how to get people to talk. In order to get information about a kidnapping, he captured one member of a gang and threw him in the trunk of his car and drove around an open track recklessly. When he captured another member, he untied the first member's hands and offered him a burger if he could get their boss' name from the second member, which he did (“Judgment”).
- Weapons Maintenance: Reese is shown to be accurizing or cleaning multiple weapons through the series, including handguns, automatic rifles, and even bolt action marksman rifles.
Awards and Decorations[]
“Pilot” and “Many Happy Returns” both offer a glimpse of Reese's uniform. The following are the awards and decorations visible on it, in order of precedence:
| Combat Infantryman Badge | |||||
| 1st Row | Bronze Star Medal with "V" device for Valor | ||||
| 2nd Row | Purple Heart | Meritorious Service Medal | |||
| 3rd Row | Joint Service Commendation Medal | Army Commendation Medal | Joint Service Achievement Medal | ||
| 4th Row | Army Achievement Medal | Good Conduct Medal with bronze clasp with loops (numerous awards) | National Defense Service Medal | ||
| 5th Row | Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal | Southwest Asia Service Medal with two Bronze Service Star devices | Armed Forces Service Medal | ||
| 6th Row | Humanitarian Service Medal | Army Service Ribbon | Overseas Service Ribbon | ||
| 7th Row | Multinational Force and Observers Medal | Kuwait Liberation Medal (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) | Kuwait Liberation Medal (Government of Kuwait) | ||
Right chest:
- 1st Special Forces Regiment distinctive unit insignia (DUI)
- Army Meritorious Unit Commendation
- Reese's name plate
Left sleeve:
- Special Forces Tab (Special Forces qualified: i.e., successfully completed the U.S. Army Special Forces Qualification Course)
- Ranger Tab (Ranger qualified: i.e., successfully completed the U.S. Army Ranger School)
- Special Forces shoulder sleeve insignia (SSI) (Note: The "Airborne Tab" is authorized and worn as an integral part of the SSI)
Notes[]
- The U.S. Army Special Forces (popularly known as the "Green Berets") have a prominent history with recent distinguished service, including Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among other areas of operations.
- To apply to the U.S. Army Special Forces, a Soldier must be at least 20 years old. According to the Machine, Reese joined the military on January 15, 1993, though the ribbons on his uniform show that he joined the military a few years earlier (either 1989 or 1990). It is likely that he previously served with an infantry unit prior to attending assessment and selection for Special Forces.
- John's uniform shows the green leaders identification insignia that is issued to senior non-commissioned officers (NCOs) on Special Forces teams.
- One of his medals is the Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia), awarded between January 17, 1991 and February 28, 1991. From this, it can be inferred that Reese served during Operation Desert Storm.
- John's unit in Tikrit, Iraq used Belgian Malinois dogs. They only use Dutch commands and John knows some of those commands (“The Contingency”).
- John is also tagged as "Primary Asset" by The Machine (“If-Then-Else”) (“YHWH”) (“SNAFU”).
- The CIA's SAD was renamed and restructured into SAC since 2005, but people sometimes still use “SAD” informally to refer to what is now SAC. It is considered the CIA’s Tier One paramilitary unit, and within SAC, the Special Operations Group (SOG) is its elite Tier One element.
Quotes[]
- "Wait for me. Please."- John Reese, to Jessica Arndt
- Reese: Try not to die.
- Fusco: Yeah, I love you too.
- "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not shooting at you." - John Reese
- The Machine: "Can you hear me?"
- John: "Hell yeah."
- Finch: I offered you a job, Mr. Reese. I didn't say it would be easy.
- "I can field strip a 45. upside down and in the dark, I think I can handle a bow tie." - John Reese
- "...saving one life at a time seemed a bit anticlimactic. Then I realized, sometimes one life - if it's the right life... is enough."-John Reese
- Finch: "I urge you to consider what Mr Reese would do."
- Shaw: "Brood?"
- “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
Trivia[]
- Reese can speak fluent Spanish (“Cura Te Ipsum”) and seems to understand some Chinese, Russian and Dutch (“Matsya Nyaya”) (“Masquerade”) (“The Contingency”).
- Reese’s main motorcycle is a Triumph Street Triple 675. Other motorcycles John uses can be seen in this list here.
- Reese's weapon of choice is a SIG-Sauer P226R, but occasionally he uses a Kriss Vector, or a Coharie Arms CA-415. In Ordos, he uses a Jericho 941 RPSL Semi-Compact, and an MP-7. As a detective of the NYPD, he is sometimes seen using a Glock 17 along with a Glock 26 as a backup weapon (“Prophets”) (“Terra Incognita”). Detective Fusco and some NYPD officers are also armed with the Glock 17. In reality, the Glock 19 is the only Glock approved for onduty carry by NYPD officers.
- Reese has used a Kershaw Tanto Blur (Model 1670TBLKST) in Season 1 and Season 3.
- Reese has shown to be an expert in hand-to-hand combat and self-defense.
- Reese writes with his left hand (“Pilot”) (“Panopticon”). He displays a certain level of ambidexterity while handling weapons, efficiently switching the grip to the hand that provides tactical advantage, e.g., to his left hand just before securing a right turn.
- Finch supplies Reese with fake identities: 6 cover identities (a glimpse of a Canadian passport), and driver licenses from South Carolina, Alabama, Illinois, and 2 from New York (“Pilot”).
- Reese uses the badge and name of both Detective James Stills and Marshal Brad Jennings several times. He also uses a police uniform in “No Good Deed” and full SWAT gear in “Get Carter” as he plans to intervene in a possible assassination attempt on Detective Carter during a police raid. He again uses SWAT gear (this time not NYPD, but FBI version though) in "Aletheia" along with Fusco to rescue Finch, Shaw and Claypool from the Vigilance terrorists.
- Reese tells Adam Saunders that the four months he lived in anonymity in a homeless encampment were the safest of his life (“Risk”).
- For his birthday in 2012, Finch gives Reese an apartment at 810 Baxter Street, Apartment 5A (“Many Happy Returns”).
- The prefix in his Social Security number (380) suggests that Reese received his SSN from Michigan.
- It is established that John Reese is originally from Puyallup, Washington, which is 95 miles away from Mount Vernon, Washington, the real life birthplace of Jim Caviezel, who portrays Reese.
- Reese wears a Resco Patriot RDP09P-BL watch.
- Reese knows how to play baccarat. (“All In”) He also knows how to play Xiangqi, a game of strategy sometimes called "Chinese Chess" (“Many Happy Returns”).
- Reese was one of The Machine's admins when he and Root were in 'God Mode' for 24 hours. (“God Mode”)
- Reese indicated he could fly a helicopter in “Firewall”.
- Reese implies in “Booked Solid” that he has experience in "disappearing" foreign diplomats from the penthouse suits of hotels, presumably during his time with the CIA.
- Reese retrieves and collects guns from illegal sources he encounters in the course of his work. He explains that although Finch can get him whatever he wants, legally purchased weapons would be too easy for the authorities to trace back to him and Finch.
- Just like Jack Salazar, Reese enlisted in the Army in order to avoid jail (“Liberty”).
- Reese is an expert at lock picking and picking pockets.
- Reese and Root are the only two characters to use what Root terms God Mode where they are guided by the Machine in their actions. While Root is almost constantly in God Mode, Reese has been put in it three times, including for his last battle (“God Mode”) (“YHWH”) (“return 0”).
- Reese tells Shaw and Fusco that he once considered joining the Secret Service but they work around the clock, have no choice in who they protect and the threats never stop coming. Fusco points out that he's basically doing the same job now after Reese explains himself (“Synecdoche”).
- Reese is claustrophobic as realized by Shaw when they had to climb up a shoot into Fort Meade. When asked about it, Reese tells Shaw to "remember what happened to that fat German kid in Willy Wonka (“.exe”).
- It's indicated in “return 0” that Reese's foster father sacrificing himself to save four others in Vietnam is what inspired him to take such a heroic path. The Machine, in the form of Root, revisits this moment when trying to understand the value of human life and watches him with sympathy as it does so.
- In his final battle with Samaritan's agents, Reese is guided by the Machine in picking targets. In their final moments, Reese and the Machine fight together to protect others with the Machine at one point putting its hand on Reese's shoulder in a gesture of solidarity.
- Reese was killed in 3 separate simulations: First, in If-Then-Else, when he used a grenade to kill himself and several Samaritan agents. The second was in 6,741, when, Shaw shot him behind his back and left him to die. The third was in .exe, where is revealed that he killed himself after losing his purpose to live. All those deaths could be a presage for Reese's death at the end of the series.
- In "God Mode", it is revealed that Reese gives away (presumably to charity) ninety percent of what Finch pays him.
Nicknames and Aliases[]
- Main article: John Reese/Aliases
With John H being his real name, as it is the one which appears in his army file (“Many Happy Returns”), he often uses the name to introduce himself to people he is involved with. Joss Carter, Zoe Morgan, Carl Elias and Mark Snow only refer to him as John while Finch usually calls him "Mr. Reese".
- Before he meets Carter formally for the first time, she refers to him as "the man in a suit".
- The nickname "man in a suit" is first mentioned by Detective Kane in “Pilot”. It is being used throughout the series when characters, for example Nicholas Donnelly, refer to Reese.
- Fusco occasionally calls him by various nicknames. (“Many Happy Returns”) He has only called Reese by his first name three times (“Bury the Lede”) (“Prisoner's Dilemma”) (“Endgame”) and as "Reese" several times in “The Devil's Share”.
- When he was working undercover with a person of interest, Tommy Clay, he was nicknamed Johnny (“Matsya Nyaya”).
- Among all aliases, the identity "John Warren" is the only clean one and the one that is most close to Reese's real past. He has only used this alias once so far (“Prisoner's Dilemma”).
- Finch created an arrest report to support Reese's cover identity when he goes to see Andrea Gutierrez. Born February 4, 1937, 5' 10" tall. Arrested for aggravated murder (top code 125.26) on February 1, 1984 (“Legacy”).
- In the pilot, the Forensic Tech asks Carter if John is the "Angel of Death". (“Pilot”)
- In order to hide from Samaritan, the Machine created a completely new alias for Reese, John Riley.
- John Riley's SSN is 498-00-3145.
- His real SSN (380-00-0050) can be seen in Finch's list from Pilot.
- At the end of the episode "Identity Crisis", when Reese tells an MDMA intoxicated Finch "good night, Finch", he leaves. Finch says as Reese is out of earshot: "Good night, Nathan." Finch was attributing John's taking care of him reminiscent of his friend, Nathan Ingram.
Notable victims[]
In “SNAFU”, it is revealed that Reese is responsible for 62 deaths and disappearances. However, Reese does not always kill his victims, preferring to disable them through limb wounds unless the situation forces him to use deadly force. Another tactic that he uses, as revealed in “Many Happy Returns”, is to plant drugs on people and imprison them in the Torreón Penitentiary, causing people to permanently disappear without actually killing them.
HR[]
- Lionel Fusco - Shot four times in the back by Reese after Reese confirms that Fusco is wearing his bulletproof vest (“Pilot”).
- Louis Azarello - Held hostage by Reese while rescuing James Wheeler (“Pilot”).
- Doyle - Shot in the leg by Reese while rescuing James Wheeler (“Pilot”).
- James Stills - Shot dead by Reese while rescuing James Wheeler (“Pilot”).
- Ian Davidson - Shot from behind by Reese to save Lionel Fusco (“Blue Code”).
- Jablonski - Blown up by Reese (“Firewall”).
- One of Jablonski's men - Blown up by Reese (“Firewall”).
- Leonard Pitt - Knocked unconscious by Reese to protect Maxine Angelis (“Bury the Lede”).
- Craig Bogle - Shot in the shoulder by Reese to save Maxine Angelis (“Bury the Lede”).
- Patrick Simmons - Engaged in a brutal brawl with Simmons, but left before either man could definitively win (“Razgovor”).
- Multiple unnamed HR members
Organized Crime[]
- Anton O'Mara - Beaten up by Reese in a confrontation on the subway. Later robbed by Reese for a bag of weapons (“Pilot”).
- Anton O'Mara's Gang - Beaten up by Reese in a confrontation on the subway. Later kneecapped and robbed by Reese for a bag of weapons (“Pilot”).
- IRS - Shot in the leg and side by Reese to save Harold Finch and Theresa Whitaker (“Ghosts”).
- Diaz - Beaten up and robbed by Reese. Beaten up again by Reese after kidnapping and trying to kill him (“Cura Te Ipsum”).
- Two Toreros Cartel soldiers - Beaten up and robbed by Reese. Beaten up again by Reese after kidnapping and trying to kill him (“Cura Te Ipsum”).
- Leon Turski - Thrown down the stairs and kidnapped by Reese, held captive in a hot car trunk and tormented for information (“Judgment”).
- Drost - Shot in the arm and kidnapped by Reese, held captive in a hot car trunk and beaten for information by Leon Turski on Reese's behalf (“Judgment”).
- Two SP-9 gangsters - Shot in the leg and arm by Reese while saving Judge Samuel Gates and his son (“Judgment”).
- Jarek Koska - Shot in the leg and arm by Reese while saving Judge Samuel Gates and his son (“Judgment”).
- Samuel Douglas - Killed by Reese with his own lethal injection (“The Fix”).
- Bottlecap - Shot in the chest by Reese to save Joss Carter (“Get Carter”).
- Dayne - Shot dead by Reese to protect Wendy McNally and Paula Vasquez (“Number Crunch”).
- Gage - Head bashed in with an air dryer by Reese (“Root Cause”).
- Five members of Andre Wilcox's gang - Shot non-fatally by Reese with beanbag rounds to save Darren McGrady (“Wolf and Cub”).
- Brick - Shot non-fatally by Reese with a beanbag round to save Darren McGrady (“Wolf and Cub”).
- Andre Wilcox - Shot non-fatally by Reese with two beanbag rounds to save Darren McGrady (“Wolf and Cub”).
- Neil Vargas - Shot in the chest by Reese to save Michael Cahill (“Blue Code”).
- At least two of Vargas' men - Shot and wounded by Reese to save Michael Cahill (“Blue Code”).
- Four of Elias's assassins - Two shot by Reese to save Adam Saunders, (“Risk”), and two shot by Reese while saving Gianni Moretti (“Baby Blue”).
- Doug Rasmussen - Punched in the face by Reese to stop him from escaping (“Risk”).
- One East European gangster - Shot in the kneecap by Reese while rescuing Leila Smith (“Baby Blue”).
- One Mexican gangster - Shot in the kneecap by Reese while rescuing Leila Smith (“Baby Blue”).
- Milos - Shot in the head by Reese while rescuing Leila Smith (“Baby Blue”).
- One of Elias' men - Shot dead by Reese while trying to stop the abduction of Taylor Carter (“Flesh and Blood”).
- Two of Elias' safehouse guards - Shot dead by Reese while rescuing Taylor Carter and Gianni Moretti (“Flesh and Blood”).
- Two of Tommy Clay's robbery crew - Shot in the arm by Reese while trying to stop an armored truck robbery (“Matsya Nyaya”).
- Byron - Thrown out of a window by Reese while Byron was chasing him and Leon Tao (“The Contingency”).
- Six Aryan Brotherhood members - Beaten up by Reese while they were chasing him and Leon Tao (“The Contingency”).
- Jack Hughes - Dangled over a balcony by Reese for trying to kill Sofia Campos (“Masquerade”).
- Four Irish mobsters - Killed by Reese in a shootout while rescuing Annie Delaney (“Triggerman”).
- Ochoa (assumed) - Presumably killed by Reese in revenge for the murder of Riley Cavanaugh (“Triggerman”).
- Chris Vaughn's two accomplices - One choked unconscious and the other shot in the leg by Reese to save Graham Wyler (“The High Road”)
- Daniel Burnside - Punched and shot in the leg by Reese to save Graham Wyler (“The High Road”).
- Chris Vaughn - Knocked unconscious by Reese (“The High Road”).
- Sabrina Drake's hitman - Shot in the arm and foot by Reese with a nailgun and then knocked unconscious (“Til Death”).
- Five Estonian mobsters - Beaten up by Reese as they chased after him and Fermin Ordoñez (“C.O.D.”).
- Three of Rudko Petrovic's hitmen - One shot in the leg by Reese and kicked in the face to protect Mira Dobrica, one choked unconscious by Reese, and one shot in the shoulder and knocked unconscious by Reese (“Booked Solid”).
- Ethan Mattson - Knocked out twice by Reese, once with a paddle, after Mattson attacked Reese for discovering that he was a drug smuggler (“Proteus”).
- Nigerian fraudster - Knocked unconscious by Reese to save Leon Tao (“All In”).
- Darien Makris' henchmen - Two knocked unconscious by Reese and one shot in the arm (“All In”).
- Two unnamed gangsters - Shot by Shaw and Reese to rescue the Kidnapped Man (“God Mode”).
- Garcia - Subdued by Reese and thrown off of a subway train (“The Crossing”).
- Multiple unnamed Trinitarios - Subdued by Reese and thrown off of a subway train (“The Crossing”). Knocked unconscious by Reese and Dani Silva while arresting Alex Ortiz (“Point of Origin”).
- One unnamed Lancero - Knocked unconscious by Reese to protect Owen Matthews (“4C”).
- Two unnamed ex-Mossad agents - Attacked by Reese to save Owen Matthews, stabbing one in the hand and knocking him out while the other was knocked out by Holly. Subsequently drugged them both with sleeping pills to keep them unconscious (“4C”).
- Carlos - Knocked out by Reese with a fire extinguisher to keep him from crashing a plane full of people to kill Owen Matthews (“4C”)
- Several unnamed Czech extortionists in Prague - Beaten up by Reese to rescue Kai Lin (“Provenance”).
- Multiple unnamed Templarios - Several beaten up by Reese at their bar to reach Solano. Two shot in the leg by Reese while rescuing Aaron Hollander (“Last Call”). Several killed in a shootout with Reese and Fusco in the 8th Precinct (“Sotto Voce”).
- Three unnamed criminals - Shot in the kneecaps by Reese within one month while working as Detective John Riley (“Wingman”).
- Drug dealer - Shot in the kneecap by Reese from on top of a double decker bus in order to keep him from escaping (“Wingman”).
- Ricky - Shot from behind by Reese to save Elias (“The Devil You Know”).
- Tim Rollins - Engaged in a brutal fight and thrown out of a window by Reese, but pulled up, knocked unconscious and arrested to stand trial for his crimes (“Guilty”).
- Ray Pratt - Shot in the leg by Reese to save Harper Rose (“Skip”).
The Government[]
- Fox - Stabbed in the throat by Reese while trying to assassinate Henry Peck (“No Good Deed”).
- Three ISA assassins (“No Good Deed”) (“The Contingency”) (“Relevance”)
- Hersh - Stabbed in the abdomen by Reese, but allowed by Reese to leave and seek medical attention (“Booked Solid”).
- Indigo 6A - Knocked unconscious by Reese to save Owen Matthews. Later stabbed in the arm and the leg and burned in the face with a makeshift flamethrower by Reese during a brutal fight (“4C”).
Vigilance[]
- Niall Jacobs - Shot and wounded by Reese after Jacobs began shooting up a bakery when caught uploading a Stuxnet variant (“A House Divided”).
- Multiple unnamed Vigilance members
The Brotherhood[]
- Link Cordell - Assaulted by Reese while rescuing Ben Hasan (“Panopticon”).
- Several of the Armorer's goons - Shot by Reese alongside Fusco and Scarface (“Pretenders”).
- Floyd - Shot non-fatally by Reese while being guided by the Machine in God Mode (“YHWH”).
- Multiple unnamed members of The Brotherhood
Team Samaritan[]
- One French Legionnaire - Shot in the leg by Reese (“Allegiance”).
- Jeremy Lambert - Shot in the arm by Reese to save Harold Finch (“Deus Ex Machina”).
- Zachary - Knife thrown into his back by Reese (“.exe”).
- Samaritan's last copy (caused) - Copy of the Machine uploaded by Reese to a Russian satellite, allowing it to destroy Samaritan's last copy (“return 0”).
- Dozens of unnamed Decima/Samaritan operatives
Other[]
- Paul Duncan - Shot by Reese as a traitor during Reese's time as a CIA operative (“Truth Be Told”).
- Peter Arndt - Either killed by Reese in revenge for the death of Jessica Arndt or imprisoned in Torreón Penitentiary (“Many Happy Returns”).
- Andrew Benton - Possibly killed by Reese or imprisoned in Torreón Penitentiary to protect Megan Tillman (“Cura Te Ipsum”) (“Many Happy Returns”).
- Mark Lawson's driver - Shot by Reese while rescuing Zoe Morgan (“The Fix”).
- Mark Lawson - Tasered by Reese while rescuing Zoe Morgan (“The Fix”).
- Ulrich Kohl - Shot by Reese to save Anja; purposefully goaded into doing so by Kohl (“Foe”).
- Rick Morris - Shoved out of a window by Reese to protect Lily Thornton; unknown if he survived his injuries or not (“Super”).
- Alonso Garcia - Attacked by Reese to save Andrea Gutierrez, but beaten due to Reese's previous gunshot wounds. Attacked a second time by Reese, causing Alonso to run out into traffic and be killed (“Legacy”).
- Dominic Galuska - Knocked out by Reese and framed for drinking and making a death threat against one of his parolees (“Legacy”).
- Wendell Lentz - Knocked out by Reese to save Andrea Gutierrez (“Legacy”).
- Chris Scollard - Shot in the shoulder by Reese to save Andrea Gutierrez (“Legacy”).
- Brad Jennings - Apprehended by Reese, framed as a drug dealer, and imprisoned in Torreón Penitentiary (“Many Happy Returns”).
- Derek Fowler - Knocked unconscious by Reese after repeatedly harassing him and then catching Reese at Mira Dobrica's locker (“Booked Solid”).
- Vincent Cochran - Poisoned with polonium by Reese (“In Extremis”).
- Jilted Man - Shot in the arm by Reese to stop him from killing his ex-girlfriend Katie on her wedding day (“God Mode”).
- Bruce Wellington - Knocked unconscious by Reese to keep him from calling security (“Lady Killer”).
- Jeremy Watkins (caused) - Purposefully left the Watkins couple to kill each other, providing the unarmed Jeremy with a gun (“Reasonable Doubt”).
- Vanessa Watkins (caused) - Purposefully left the Watkins couple to kill each other, providing the unarmed Jeremy with a gun (“Reasonable Doubt”).
- Douglas Rogers - Shot in the kneecap by Reese while stopping him from committing suicide (“Prophets”).
- Gil - Shot dead by Reese in self-defense (“Terra Incognita”).
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