TRIGGERMAN
John Reese: "Good to know the Irish mob is still alive and kicking."
Hear the sarcasm. John dislikes the Irish mob more than any other mafia – both out of principle, his dad was Irish, and out of personal grief. The only good news was that Massey had been a small player, back when O'Connor had the biggest part of the Irish mob under his thumb. Unlikely to recognize John, to realize who was right under his nose.
Annie Delaney: "All right? You just killed George Massey's son."
Oh yeah, John knows how that usually ended, when you killed the boss' family. He may or may not have done something of the kind, in another life. Which might have led him into WITSEC, with a couple of other things – like dismantling the whole Irish mob.
Harold Finch: "I think there's a distinction to be made."
True, John has always killed for something – for his country, for protection, for the people – and it – almost – always was in some kind of official capacity. But it's still cold-blooded murder. The only question, in the end – the potential difference between John and Riley – is whether or not Riley would be able to be more than just a killer.
John Reese: "I can call Fusco."
There's no point saying it out loud. But it doesn't change the fact that Finch is having problems, and they need alternatives.
Harold Finch: "460 Eckford. And it's trigonometry."
Great, maths. It's not that he can't do it, but he isn't overly interested in the process when the calculations have already been done. What he needs right now is the answer, not the procedure.
John Reese: "It wasn't personal."
It really wasn't. Riley Cavanaugh had been targeted by his former colleagues, hunted down, and some had already started shooting at him. So of course, when John had appeared out of nowhere, he'd concluded he was one of Massey's goons. That was a logical, understandable act of defense.
Lionel Fusco: "A million."
Wow. More than John Sullivan got, but that might have to do with him having destroyed Peter O'Connor's mob and funds at the time, on top of having killed his nephew. Had the man had access to more funds, well.
John Reese: "But she doesn't know about Sean. Do you really think you can run away from that?"
Of course he can. John did it, after all – Jessica, and even worst, Claire. So many secrets. So many things he never told either of them – then his secrets, some of them at least, taken out of him like bad teeth, leaving the two of them to deal with the spill of blood. So yes, Riley can run away from telling the truth, from the facts of his crimes. But the thing is – the things John never told Jessica, the things he kept from Claire – John chose to leave instead. There is no version of this story where you can both keep the truth a secret and stay with the ones you are lying to, not for long.
John Reese: "More like on my back."
Carter would be offended to hear anyone speaking of her as in anyone's pocket. And she really isn't – they are working on a fragile bridge of trust in each other's motives. If they didn't, he would still be trying to evade her. Them working together, having her hounding his steps and decisions... he doesn't really mind, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. After all, it's helping, right now.
Riley Cavanaugh: "Go! Take care of Annie!"
John suddenly has a suspicion: Riley is planning to die here. There's no other reason for him to want and stay behind instead, not when he saw how efficient John can be.
Annie Delaney: "We can't leave him."
Riley might want to die – might believe he has to – but John can force him to live – to get back to Annie, to sort through his shit. If John gets there fast enough.
John Reese: "But you did. You gave him the strength to walk away from the only life he knew, to be better. He said you were the best thing that ever happened to him."
He knows the feeling – but him... John, him, didn't walk away for long. He didn't think it was the best for Jessica, so he left again. And now, she's dead.
John Reese: "Even killers."
He believes it, and yet. You can change, but not entirely. John still kills, even nowadays. But he guesses, indeed, that at least he does it much less often, he has access to more possibilities. He only kills when he doesn't see a better outcome out of the situations created by others, against others. Unlike before, he isn't only a killer – that's better than nothing.
Ochoa: "You can have the money."
Ah. Some kind of intelligence, still. The threat has been assessed, the money has been considered less important than the man's life. So many of his fellow bounty hunters would be too greedy, too arrogant to reach that conclusion, but the man did. Sadly, that's not John's goal. For all that the man can assess an immediate threat, he either didn't react to Elias' claim on that bounty, or he didn't keep updated. Either way, John doesn't want someone like that in his city – so the bounty hunter will make a beautiful present for the FBI. He checked: they already have a file on him, they just didn't know where to look for him.