FOE

John Reese: "Relax, Finch. It's just tea. I haven't guessed your favorite color yet."

Besides, this kind of personal knowledge is particularly useless. John might be getting closer to knowing Finch, but he still doesn't know a thing about Finch.

John Reese: "Spycraft 101. This is an alias. I've used dozens of them."

"Reese" is one, for example, and Finch knows that. Most aliases don't even mean anything. They're just shells, with a name and your face. Then there are the ones who matter, those that have a history... John has a bunch of them, too, and each one is another wound in his side.

John Reese: "If it was anything like the ones I used to bury, IDs, weapons, definitely money."

He still has stashes all over the country, actually. But he can't use any of these IDs, now. The CIA would notice immediately. And the two or three identities he has that aren't linked to the Agency... He can't touch them either. It would be too dangerous.

Kara Stanton: "No, you're not. The ID NCS gave you didn't pass muster, so you're nobody, which means I get to name you."

Ah, well. It's not like he's losing his true name, here. It's not like he has a real name left to lose, either.

Kara Stanton: "We know about the ex-girlfriend."

If that's all she knows about, he doesn't feel particularly threatened. He never tried to hide Jessica, after all. And the people he keeps to himself... It's not like he'd ever get near them again.

Kara Stanton: "Like I told you, you never go back."

He doesn't have anything to go back to.

Agent Heinlein: "And he will kill again. I don't know who you are or how you know to be here, but this is just the beginning."

The guy is good at being silent, but is he a good fighter too? And, that aside... Isn't it always so?

John Reese: "The car crash. She died in '87, the same year he disappeared. And I know a staged accident when I see it."

It's enough to want revenge. Some people, like himself, don't care much about what happens to them, but what happens to the people they care for... Whoever Ulrich Kohl is – someone who wants to end those who ended him, or someone who wants to end those who ended his wife – he is here for revenge. Perhaps just like John did with Peter Arndt.

John Reese: "She was his wife, and she betrayed him. To a man like Kohl, that makes her just as much a target."

If Kohl isn't like John. If he is... But John won't take the chance.

German Embassy liaison: "Stop. We have diplomatic immunity."

Yeah, right. Because diplomatic immunity ever saved someone from physical assault.

John Reese: "What's your plan, Kohl, hmm? You gonna kill her, too... Your own wife? You don't have a plan, do you?"

He's almost certain, by now, that Ulrich Kohl is the same as him. Able to do a lot of things... But not to plan the murder of an innocent. Maybe to pass himself off as the bad guy... Obviously to leave a trail of bodies of those he considers responsible for an innocent's death... But not to plan ahead the murder of the woman he did all this for. The problem being that even so, John can't be sure of what Kohl will do when he'll be face to face with Anja Kohl. Even if he didn't plan to kill her... He's almost sure that Kohl is like him. Only almost.

Ulrich Kohl: "They all laughed at me when I learned to use these needles. They didn't laugh for long."

He isn't laughing.

Ulrich Kohl: "I don't care for your name."

Refreshing, in a way – if he wasn't about to be tortured, that is. Torturers who want your name usually use it as a way to break you, to show you they can even get your name. Even if it doesn't matter to your – or their – mission.

CIA agent: "We sent all of our intel in the pouch to Langley last week."

The intel, maybe. But not all the facts. And certainly not all they got on the man. He can tell when someone's not telling the truth – even if he can't always tell you what part they're keeping quiet about.

Ulrich Kohl: "Nobody enjoys taking life."

Wrong. Some people do. But John can tell it's not Kohl's case. Just like it isn't his. But Kohl won't hesitate, if he has to. Just like John wouldn't.

Ulrich Kohl: "They said, 'your country needs you'."

No matter the country, no matter the era. And perhaps, it is true. Their countries needed them, or whoever else agreed to do the deed. It doesn't change the fact that, in the end, they are making killers out of soldiers – John can't help but think that, in his case, they just allowed him to be the monster he already was.

Ulrich Kohl: "Even the blackest heart still beats."

John doubts that Kohl has the blackest heart in the world, but he doesn't say anything. There are worst monsters out there – people who enjoy being monsters – than the two of them. Then again, perhaps these people don't have a heart to begin with. Perhaps it's the fact that John and Kohl decided to do what they did, even when they don't enjoy it, that makes their hearts black.

John Reese: "You're not a monster to her yet. It's too late for you and me, but she could have a normal life."

To disappear in the darkness... He made that decision more than once. Leaving Jessica is one of these. And while it didn't give her a good life, he's not foolish enough to think she would have had a better life with him. Different, surely, but not better. Jessica never became Anja, because he left beforehand.

John Reese: "Fusco, untie me."

Of course, the corrupt detective could take the opportunity to get rid of him... This is probably the last test, then. What will Fusco do?

Ulrich Kohl: "I wouldn't have hurt her. I never had a tomorrow."

He was right about Kohl, then. They are the same.

John Reese: "How did you know I'd shoot?"

John had known he'd shoot, of course. He does what's necessary. He kills when there is no other choice. He doesn't hesitate – but Kohl couldn't know that, and if John had hesitated, he'd have seen that Kohl's weapon wasn't loaded. Kohl would be alive.

Ulrich Kohl: "They took everything I had. But part of me survived. It was... Her."

John wonders what that says about him. He doesn't have a child, him, and they still took everything from him... But at the same time, they never went and told what remained of his family, of his friends, what he had become for them. Unlike Kohl, the memories of him remained in a few people's minds, untainted by the CIA – of course, it doesn't mean these memories are good for all that...

John Reese: "You didn't even question them."

He's not questioning the killings, he realizes. Just the way it went down. Perhaps he does fit here.

Kara Stanton: "Anonymous source – Very reliable."

Obviously. Because "anonymous" and "reliable" rhyme together.

John Reese: "I always thought I'd die in a place that didn't know my name."

Maybe not even his alias. Under a name that didn't know his place. Because he doesn't have much of a real name, not anymore. Anja Kohl, at least, knows where her husband lies, even if it's not under his own name.

Harold Finch: "I thought we already were."

Maybe, but for two dead men, they sure do tend to influence the lives of many people.