1. The Machine ("Pilot")


"I could be a lot more help to you if you'd just tell me where you're getting these Numbers."

"I think their next target is Hansen, but I don't know for certain. Hell, I don't know anything for certain, because you won't tell me where you're getting your information!"


Finch was getting good at fielding questions about The Machine – especially after the fiasco that was Mr. Dillinger – but standing in Central Park and listening to Reese vent his frustration about Diane Hansen's complex case, he began to question his own resolve to keep the source of the Numbers a secret.

Dillinger had been, to put it mildly, a "loose cannon" for the brief duration of his employment, and Finch's instincts to not trust him with knowledge of The Machine was ultimately spot-on. However, he had also spent many sleepless nights in the weeks and months after Dillinger's death wondering if there were anything he could have done differently to prevent the needless loss of life. If Dillinger had known about The Machine – and more importantly, the lengths that the government would go to protect it – would he have thought twice about trying to sell that laptop to the Chinese?

Probably not. As Dillinger himself had so bluntly put it, he was a shark, drawn to any hint of blood in the water. If Finch had told him about The Machine, Dillinger probably would have spent more effort trying to undermine Finch's position in order to exploit its information. Not that any of those efforts would have done any good as far as accessing The Machine, but it certainly would have lead to Finch's demise.

Reese, on the other hand...

It hadn't taken much effort to recruit Dillinger – he was up for anything, so long as he got paid for it – but Reese had needed a considerable amount of convincing to even agree to take this one "try the job and see if this will be mutually beneficial before discussing long-term arrangements" Number. Reese didn't need – or want, for that matter – obscene amounts of money in a bank account. After being burned by the CIA, Reese just wanted to be sure that what he was doing was worthwhile on a deeper level.

And of course, there was the small fact that both Finch and The Machine had been ultimately responsible for how Reese's time in the CIA had ended. Reese had been an unwitting agent of The Machine, tracking down the traitors and terrorists it identified. But he had also, as Finch directly observed in the matter of Daniel Casey, been used to eliminated people whose knowledge of The Machine – or suspected knowledge – had been deemed a threat by The Powers That Be, regardless of if such a threat actually existed or not. Reese hadn't been fooled in Casey's case. Finch suspected he hadn't been fooled in a lot of cases, but the presence of either his partner or his handler had ensured his compliance. The fact that neither Kara nor Agent Snow had been present when Reese caught up with Casey had been very serendipitous.

If Reese hadn't had that suspicion when he and Kara were sent to retrieve that laptop – the same one that Finch had intended to send out into the world himself before Dillinger got involved and everything went completely sideways – he probably would have been killed right there in Ordos.

It probably would have been a more merciful fate than surviving Ordos only to return to the States and discover the woman he loved had been murdered in the meantime – a murder that he probably could have stopped had he not gone to Ordos in the first place – but that knowledge wouldn't have helped Finch's feelings of guilt any.

The Machine had exacted a heavy toll on Reese, and here he was working for it yet again, only this time with Finch as its proxy instead of the government. He deserved to know the truth about what he was getting into, given the risks.

Besides, Finch had promised Reese that he'd never lie to him.