In recapping this show every week, I often neglect to mention (except in passing) what is arguably the most important component of the Reese-Finch partnership: The Machine itself. We know more or less how it came to be (NSA-funded project headed by the presumed deceased Nathan Ingram) and how it's used by Finch to prevent crime in NYC.
But remember that The Machine is constantly being used by the government to scan for terrorists (and people pirating movies, probably). As efficiently as Ingram and Finch designed it and as streamlined as the NSA's protocols might be, an undertaking this massive is bound to draw attention.
And now it has.
We start off in 2009. It's the night before Ingram and Finch are to turn The Machine over to the government, but Ingram is concerned about both it and Finch, who he feels has given too much of his life to the project. Though not enough, apparently. I mean, he hasn't gotten his limp yet.
Back to the present, and Reese is still tailing Finch, even as he takes a call from Fusco about an upcoming meeting of the secret police group known as "HR." It's a hushed conversation, since Fusco's at work. Can't he take his call in the hallway like every other cube monkey?
Interlude: Some NSA dude named Gibbons is thanking one Henry Peck for "saving their asses." Peck, it turns out, is the Number of the Week and a financial analyst for Decker North & Associates. Problem is, Reese knows from following Finch that he didn't get the Number in the office. And he wants to know how the information is passed along..."in case something happens to him." Finch relays the old adage about curiosity and the cat. You know, how the cat wants curiosity's grapes but ended up getting its paw stuck in a jar of golden eggs. Or something.
Reese tries to charm his way into the financial building, only to realize it's a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, not a Swedish boat, as I originally assumed). Peck, in spite of having the same name as the EPA guy from Ghostbusters, is actually a spy. After A-Teaming a hardwired camera into a coffee machine, they determine he's an intelligence analyst. They also learn they aren't the only ones watching him.
Somebody plants drugs in Peck's apartment, which has the attendant effect of getting him put on leave by the NSA. The analyst is talking to someone named "Alicia" (you don't suppose...) by phone and also keen to get hold of the aforementioned Gibbons, who is the NSA's Deputy Director, though he's not returning calls. And it isn't until Reese drives off an assassin in Peck's apartment and Finch eavesdrops on Peck's call to Gibbons's daughter's cell phone that he realizes Peck suspects the existence of The Machine, and his life is now in danger.
Back in 2009, Ingram meets with...dun dun daaa...Alicia Corwin. Recall that she was his NSA contact. Alicia's feeling a little squirrelly about the handoff while they discuss the particulars: facility, transport, how any names divulged will end up in the hands of "the right people." Ingram screws up and says there are eight people with knowledge of the machine when there should be only seven. Who's the other person? His wife? Daughter? Michael Jackson? IS THAT WHY THEY KILLED HIM?