A person of interest (POI) is an individual who will be involved in a violent crime. The Machine, without indicating whether the individual is the victim or the perpetrator, supplies the POI's Social Security number to Reese and Finch, who study their background and attempt to prevent the violent crime from occurring.
Since Season 1, the intro has provided some scenes from the episode. Starting with “Masquerade”, an ID is shown with the person of interest.
In “Synecdoche”, it's revealed that the Machine has recruited three former POIs to the cause of preventing violent crime via the numbers. Both Team Machine and this second team speculate that there could be even more people recruited to the cause by the Machine that they don't know about.
Irrelevant Numbers[]
Season 1[]
- Main article: Irrelevant Numbers (Season 1)
Notable numbers:
- Joey Durban (“Mission Creep”)
- Zoe Morgan (“The Fix”)
- Carl Elias (“Witness”)
- Joss Carter (“Get Carter”)
- Gianni Moretti (“Baby Blue”)
- Caroline Turing (“Firewall”)
Season 2[]
- Main article: Irrelevant Numbers (Season 2)
Notable numbers:
- Leon Tao (“The Contingency”) (“Critical”) (“All In”)
- Nicholas Donnelly (“Prisoner's Dilemma”)
- Kara Stanton (“Dead Reckoning”)
- Logan Pierce (“One Percent”)
- Sameen Shaw (“Relevance”)
- Cal Beecher (“Trojan Horse”)
- Ernest Thornhill (“Zero Day”)
Season 3[]
- Main article: Irrelevant Numbers (Season 3)
Notable Numbers:
- Jason Greenfield (“Mors Praematura”)
- Alonzo Quinn (“Endgame”)
- John Reese (“The Crossing”)
- Patrick Simmons (“The Devil's Share”)
- Arthur Claypool (“Lethe”) (“Aletheia”)
- Daniel Casey (“RAM”)
- Cyrus Wells (“Root Path (/)”)
- Peter Collier (“Most Likely To...”)
- Roger McCourt (“Death Benefit”)
- Grace Hendricks (“Beta”)
- Control (“A House Divided”) (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- Ross Garrison (“A House Divided”) (“Deus Ex Machina”)
- John Greer (“A House Divided”) (“Deus Ex Machina”)
Season 4[]
- Main article: Irrelevant Numbers (Season 4)
Notable Numbers:
- Claire Mahoney (“Nautilus”)
- Simon Lee (“Prophets”)
- Dani Silva (“Point of Origin”)
- Carl Elias (“The Devil You Know”) (“Asylum”) (“YHWH”)
- Harper Rose (“Blunt”)
- Sulaiman Khan (“Search and Destroy”)
- Dominic (“Asylum”) (“YHWH”)
Season 5[]
- Main article: Irrelevant Numbers (Season 5)
Notable Numbers:
- Jeff Blackwell (“SNAFU”)
- Terry Easton (“Sotto Voce”)
- Harold Finch (“The Day the World Went Away”) (“Synecdoche”)
- John Reese (as John Riley) (“Synecdoche”)
- Philip Hayes (“.exe”)
Relevant Numbers[]
- Main article: Relevant Numbers
Numbers produced by the Machine after determining that those individuals would pose a threat to national security.
Notable Numbers[]
- Yusuf (“Get Carter”)
- Gordon Kurzweil (“Super”)
- Carlson (“No Good Deed”)
- Daniel Aquino (“Relevance”)
- Ahnaz Bekhti (“Relevance”)
- James Mercer (“Relevance”)
- Asif (“God Mode”)
- Owen Matthews (“4C”)
- Peter Collier (“Most Likely To...”)
- Marko Jevtic (“Honor Among Thieves”)
- Yasin Said (“Control-Alt-Delete”)
- Massoud Shammar (“Control-Alt-Delete”)
- Tariq Al Juhani (“Control-Alt-Delete”)
- Hussain Ashoor (“Control-Alt-Delete”)
- The President of the United States (“Synecdoche”)
Other Numbers[]
- Main article: Other Numbers
Persons of Interest who either appeared in a flashback or in a side arc providing background information relevant to the main event.
Origin of Term[]
The term "person of interest" is used by law enforcement in the United States and Canada. The original term identifies a person that has been identified as a possible suspect in a crime, a witness to a crime, or someone who may have information helpful to investigators. It does not mean a person who will be involved in a crime in the future.