CURA TE IPSUM
Harold Finch: "If you'd like a raise, Mr. Reese, all you have to do is ask."
Not particularly, no. What he needs is a field partner, to make sure at least one person will be up and fresh when something happens, but he guesses that's not something he can exactly ask for. It's not Finch's fault that he's physically limited – like everyone else – and hiring just any stranger is not on the table.
John Reese: "Had to make a pit stop."
Some things simply aren't told out loud, especially if it was a dead end. Finch will figure it out.
John Reese: "Guy likes to mark his own territory."
Something John doesn't really understand, even if he does know why people like Benton do it. Personally he keeps his place neat, rather impersonal – did it even before the army, the CIA... Even if he had a few personal things, which he doesn't, he certainly wouldn't put his own face everywhere in the flat. It's distasteful, and definitely a giveaway of what matters to Benton.
John Reese: "He's not the first person who's tried to kill me."
What matters is that Fusco didn't succeed, and, more than that, that the corrupt cop hadn't really wanted to succeed to begin with. It doesn't mean he won't try again, certainly, but John can work with that. He wouldn't get anywhere if he got angry at all the people who tried to kill him at one point or another.
Harold Finch: "Your detective is a nice pet to keep, Mr. Reese, but sooner or later... he'll bite you back."
Of course he will. Or at least, he'll try. But the reason Finch hired John is to deal with the things the older man can't do himself. Securing assets, and making sure they don't turn on him, is part of those things. It's a lot like what Finch does with John himself, and sometimes, John wonders how often the secretive man thinks about the fact that he could bite him too.
John Reese: "Lots of crooked cops in this town, Lionel. It's not gonna be hard to find another one just as useful as you... with less baggage."
He doesn't intend to do that, of course. But he will, if he needs to. And it's better to keep the cop in the dark as to how much he doesn't care about what happens to him. It's better to let him think there is a danger, if he doesn't play by John's rules. Because that danger is still a potentiality.
John Reese: "Finch, she's a doctor who saves lives. She doesn't know what it's like to take one. It'll destroy her."
It didn't destroy him, not really. But that's because saving someone has always been at the cost of someone else's life for him – perhaps there hadn't been anything to destroy to begin with. He'd started that way. She hasn't.
Megan Tillman: "And then I saw him a month ago. And it all came back."
When John saw Peter Arndt again, he beat him senseless and abandoned him in a Mexican prison. But he guesses he can't say that out loud, can he?
Harold Finch: "I will refrain from asking how you know that."
Despite all he knows, Finch is so innocent sometimes, it's almost cute. Of course John knows how to get rid of a body with lye. That used to be part of his job.
Lionel Fusco: "You're supposed to take them out."
He's not supposed to do anything – he didn't make a promise, now, did he? And also, these words prove one more thing to John: the detective still hasn't understood who he is. He doesn't kill lightly. Never did, never will. He kills when there is no other choice – when the other choice is worse.
John Reese: "He's being released. Why?"
He knows the answer already, of course. He has seen it happen too many times, long ago, when he sported the same badge Fusco does. But even if he knows, it still baffles him.
Lionel Fusco: "What's stopping me right now from making some noise, getting you arrested?"
Probably the fact that Fusco will end up in jail too if he does. That is, if John doesn't kill him before that – not that he would, but, Fusco can't be certain of that.
John Reese: "I told you, you're not the only dirty cop in town. I called in a favor. It's time for a change of scenery. You're gonna be doing something else for me. And, Lionel... Don't do this again."
Because he's not willing to kill the man doesn't mean he won't do it, if he is left no other choice. Besides, Fusco is hardly an innocent. He might be worth a second chance, and John is alright with letting him have a third, to let the lesson sink in, but he won't get a fourth.
John Reese: "I know all about Andrew Benton. I know all about you, Megan."
He doesn't know "all" about either of them. But he does know what matters here, and that's enough.
Megan Tillman: "Is that what happened to you?"
No. he never had that most important part to begin with. There was nothing to be broken in him. But there had been just enough to be revealed by that first kill. Though, honestly, the medication hadn't helped matters, in the end.
John Reese: "She gets to keep her memory of you."
His own brother didn't get to keep his memory of John.
Harold Finch: "What are you gonna do with him?"
John wonders if Finch will ask him not to do it, if he doesn't answer. He wonders if the man is the kind of man who can't condone murder, but doesn't feel particularly guilty if he can pretend that he didn't know. The older man had been about to let Megan Tillman pursue her revenge, thinking the world would be better off without Benton, after all. The only reason he hadn't was because John had pointed out that even if the doctor deserved closure, even if Benton deserved to be killed, Megan Tillman would have become her own victim too. But perhaps Finch had simply not thought of it, and hadn't expected John to care.
John Reese: "But the truth is... People don't really change, do they?"
People will always stay themselves, even if they can change, in a way. They stay true to their own potential, as much in evil as in good. They can decide to be better, or allow themselves to be worse, but they don't change. Especially not if they aren't willing to.
John Reese: "Which do you think I'll regret more- letting you live or letting you die? Andrew... Help me make a good decision."
It's not really a demand. John just wants for the man to feel the terror, because he does know what he'll be doing with Andrew Benton. He won't let him live, and he won't let him die. He'll leave the man to rot in jail – even if not for the crimes he has committed. Next to Peter Arndt. For the rest of his life. Andrew Benton won't be dead, and he won't be alive either. He'll be a prisoner.