JUDGEMENT
Harold Finch: "No question is ever innocent from you."
Of course some questions from him are innocent. Though John won't promise this one is, or that he will not carefully remember or analyze the answer. Later on.
John Reese: "He lost the woman he loved. Probably threw himself into his work to cope."
John knows what he's talking about – but with Jessica, he didn't have a job left to throw himself in. Not until now.
John Reese: "Looks like he's got quite a collection of enemies."
He knows the feeling. But unlike the judge's, John's enemies don't have anything to threaten him with, nor do they know where to find him – or that he's even alive.
Harold Finch: "The machine did not send us the wrong number. If it says that Judge Gates is in danger, then he is."
He doesn't deny that, but it doesn't negate the threat on the son for all that. And maybe, maybe the data the Machine worked on was ambiguous to begin with. What if the SP-9 never specified which Gates was the target, or at least not next to an electronic device? What if... Finch's Machine sees a lot, John realizes, but it can't see absolutely everything. Moreover, the way it has to communicate the irrelevant numbers to its creator is restrictive. He'll have to be careful in how they interpret the numbers, in what the Machine considers enough info to prevent maybe more than one death.
John Reese: "You have two questions right now. Who are you and where is my son? Which one do you want to focus on?"
The answer is always the second one. Now he'll just have to hope the first question – to which he can't answer – won't distract the judge. That the man's desire to know everything won't stop him from accomplishing the one thing that matters.
Samuel Gates Sr: "They said no cops, no FBI."
They always do, and the judge should know better. Yet even if he doesn't, it's not important. John's not the former anymore, hasn't been in a long time. As for the latter, John used to be a federal agent, yes... Only the kind of federal agent more likely to put a bullet in your head than to arrest you.
Harold Finch: "I want to save that boy as much as you do, but remember, Mr. Reese – we don't need a judge asking questions about who we are and what we do."
Perhaps, but the crusade Finch is on? It needs priorities. What matters more? Their own safety, or the survival of the innocents? John will do the best he can to ensure the former, but not at the cost of the latter. Besides, Finch can always hire someone else if John gets compromised. It's not as if he doesn't know how to keep secrets.
Lionel Fusco: "All I know right now is you pissed off real police, my friend. She's not going to stop till she got you."
Yeah, he knows that kind of cops. It makes him laugh whenever they pretend it's not personal.
Samuel Gates Sr: "You don't know that."
Of course he does. And the judge knows it just as much, with the job he's doing. Professional kidnappers don't do things halfway. Samuel Gates might pretend he doesn't know, because it's his son's life on the line, and such things tend to make you hope hopeless things, but John won't. Pretending won't bring the boy back.
Samuel Gates Sr: "Yeah? Well, maybe you're not enough. Maybe I should call those officers back and tell them the truth."
And here comes the moment the distressed parent tries to back off, to ask someone else for help – destroying everything the professional has tried to do, and not giving the other professionals enough time to intervene. It's too late to go to the police now, there isn't enough time left for them to be able to do anything. But it's alright. The judge only wants someone to blame if things don't go well. John won't let that happen... And even if it does, well. It's not as if he can't take the blame.
John Reese: "The longest it's ever taken me to break someone is 16 hours. You don't look like you're going to set a record. Want to talk?"
He's not going to torture the man himself. He will make him hurt, yes, but that's hardly torture, considering what happens in the field, out there – Kara was the one handling the torture. John, himself, prefers to keep it... cleaner. You don't need to go to extreme physical lengths to get something out of a common lowlife.
Samuel Gates Sr: "You had your chance. I'm not playing games with my son's life."
He isn't either. But what the judge obviously doesn't realize is that there isn't such a thing as one chance a player, in that kind of game. That you need to bring your effort to an end, because there won't be another solution. At least, not one with a happy ending.
Drost: "I've got a family. You going to kill them too? Because he will."
John won't let it come to that. But there's no point promising such a thing, because obviously, the man is too afraid of his boss to believe he is more than able to take him on. He doesn't have time for pointless persuasion. So he'll get the intel another way.
Jarek Koska: "The operation's burned. Shoot them all."
The number of times someone said this about him... He's still here, though.
John Reese: "You don't need to say anything. I'd prefer it actually."
Keeping a secret is sometimes more helpful than trying to repay a debt.
Harold Finch: "Try the eggs Benedict, Mr Reese. I've had them many times."
Good. Finch seems to have realized that while telling John this might reveal something about him, it's not like the operative will be able to use that info to nefarious ends – he has more efficient ways to murder someone than poisoning their eggs Benedict. Maybe Finch won't let him know about who he is, but that doesn't mean he can't know him, as a person.