Every season of Person of Interest ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Person of Interest!

When the social security number of a young prosecutor comes up, Reese and Finch work together to figure out if their person of interest is the victim or perpetrator.

Pilot

Reese and Finch question the machine's reliability when they are asked to investigate a teenager who was killed years earlier; Finch remembers the origin of the machine.

Ghosts

Reese goes undercover to find the threat surrounding the next person on Finch's list: a young army veteran named Joey Durban.

Mission Creep

Reese and Finch get some help from Detective Fusco  as they surveil their latest POI, Dr. Megan Tillman, while she’s on call and after hours to unravel the threat surrounding the promising young physician.

Cura Te Ipsum

Reese and Finch have the added challenge of investigating a Person of Interest who wants nothing to do with their brand of vigilante justice.

Judgement

Reese becomes romantically involved with the newest Person of Interest: an attractive woman who isn't all that she seems.

The Fix

The Machine identifies a school teacher who witnessed a mob hit as their next POI and Reese and Finch rush to save his life.

Witness

When Reese and Finch discover that their latest POI has connections to Cold War Soviet espionage circles, they quickly learn how covert ops were handled in a world before The Machine.

Reese and Finch’s game of cat and mouse with Detective Carter becomes infinitely more complicated when The Machine declares that she is their newest POI.

Get Carter

As Detective Carter deals with the fallout from her recent encounter with Reese and Finch, The Machine ups the ante for the duo by giving them four Social Security numbers instead of one.

Number Crunch

Reese is confined to a wheelchair recovering from his gunshot wound, but Finch sets him up in an apartment where he’s to keep an eye on the Super, who is their latest POI. Also, Finch approaches Carter and gives her a POI to show her what they do.

Super

When Carter finally comes face-to-face with Reese, he urges her to join forces to help with their latest POI, a scrappy young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who turned her life around and became a lawyer.

Legacy

The Machine gives Reese and Finch the number of a down-and-out man who has been pushed too far, and they're forced to turn to former Person of Interest, Zoe Morgan, for help.

Root Cause

The Machine identifies Darren, a teenager whose brother was just murdered, as the next POI. Meanwhile, Finch is growing concerned that the son of his former business partner is dangerously close to finding out about the Machine.

Wolf and Cub

Reese discovers there’s more to the story after he infiltrates a smuggling ring to get close to his latest POI.

Blue Code

The Machine leads Reese and Finch to Wall Street when a sharp young trader at a major investment bank becomes embroiled in a multi-million dollar financial scam.

Risk

When The Machine spits out the number of a 6-month-old baby, Reese and Finch turn into overly protective parents – with an arsenal at their disposal. Meanwhile, when Elias resurfaces, Detective Carter begins to question her new allegiance with Reese and Finch

Baby Blue

The Machine's latest number presents a unique challenge for Reese and Finch since the person has virtually no digital footprint - and appears to be leading a double life.

Identity Crisis

When The Machine spits out five numbers, naming the Don of each of New York’s crime families, Reese and Finch suspect Elias is planning to eliminate his competition.

Flesh and Blood

Reese goes undercover as an armored car company employee, and faces memories from his past with the CIA.

Matsya Nyaya

Finch gives Reese his birthday off so that his partner doesn't have to face a Number that is tied to Reese's past.

Many Happy Returns

The newest POI’s curiosity could spell his doom when he finds himself embroiled in a dark government conspiracy – one that Finch is all too familiar with. Meanwhile, Reese uncovers something revealing about Finch’s past.

No Good Deed

As the clock ticks down, Reese winds up trapped with his POI in the most heavily surveilled part of the city, forced to rely on the help of Finch, Carter and Fusco to fend off the FBI, corrupt cops and a slew of old foes.

Firewall

With Finch missing – kidnapped by his hacker nemesis, Root, Reese enlists Detectives Carter and Fusco to get his friend back, Meanwhile, The Machine never sleeps, disseminating a new number to Reese.

The Contingency

The Machine delivers the number of a cold case that leads Reese ever closer to catching up with Finch and his kidnapper, Root.

Bad Code

With Finch back in the Library, Reese returns to field work, only to face his toughest case yet – protecting the privileged daughter of a Brazilian diplomat.

Masquerade

When The Machine gives them the number of a mob enforcer whose life becomes endangered, Reese and Finch must decide whether to intervene or allow karma to balance the scales of justice. Meanwhile, Finch seeks aid from an unlikely source.

Triggerman

Reese must protect an investigative journalist through surreptitious means to avoid becoming part of her story.

Bury the Lede

Reese goes undercover in an idyllic neighborhood when The Machine’s latest number sends him to the suburbs.

The High Road

The Machine gives Finch and Reese the number of a brilliant surgeon, but they soon discover that a resourceful third party has raised the stakes for this POI, forcing them to turn to an unlikely source for help.

Critical

The team is spread thin when a husband and wife’s numbers both come up

Til Death

When the machine names a New York cabdriver as a person of interest, any of his passengers could be a part of the impending crime.

C.O.D.

As the FBI pursues "the man in the suit," Reese is even more determined to protect the latest person of interest after learning she is the sister of a soldier who was killed in action.

Shadow Box

Finch goes under cover to protect a youth who reminds him of himself; Carter goes on a dangerous mission for the FBI.

2πR

Carter tries to help Reese by engaging in mental warfare with the FBI; Reese has encounters with old and new enemies; Detective Fusco must protect supermodel Karolina Kurkova, the latest person of interest.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Reese is abducted by a former acquaintance planning a massive and potentially deadly act of cyber-warfare.

Dead Reckoning

Finch and Reese meet their match: a tech billionaire whose curiosity and endless resources could expose their identities and ruin their efforts to save his life.

One Percent

As Reese and Finch try to save a hotel maid's life, they encounter a litany of suspects; Detective Carter considers a significant offer from the FBI.

Booked Solid

A lethal government operative who tracks and stops terrorist threats before they occur finds herself on the run – and the new focus of Reese and Finch's attention. However, their pursuit proves to be their most formidable when they discover that her remarkable skill set equals their own.

Relevance

As Finch and Reese try to protect six people simultaneously, clues lead them to a coastal town; when a storm forces Finch and Reese to seek shelter in a police station with a group of locals, they realize a killer may be in their midst.

Proteus

Finch and Reese head to Atlantic City to protect the latest person of interest, an elderly gambler; Carter tries to clear another detective's name.

All In

Finch infiltrates a tech corporation to gather intel on an executive whose number has come up; Carter questions Beecher's integrity.

Trojan Horse

When a person of interest is poisoned, Finch and Reese only have 24 hours to identify the toxin and find the person responsible; Detective Fusco's past catches up to him.

In Extremis

When a virus causes the machine to malfunction, numbers are issued irregularly; the team searches for an extremely elusive tech millionaire.

Zero Day

Finch and Reese team up with unexpected allies as they race to fix the machine; as Detective Carter tries to apprehend Cal Beecher's murderer, she finds herself up against HR -- a criminal organization.

God Mode

The Machine, now completely self-governed with its whereabouts unknown, resumes giving Finch its "irrelevant" numbers for people in danger, which include a U.S. naval officer in town for Fleet Week. However, with so many sailors flooding the streets of New York City, finding the officer in time presents an even bigger challenge for Reese and Shaw.

Liberty

The number comes up for an Internet entrepreneur in the business of eliminating people's privacy, but finds his own being rapidly stripped away. As his life spirals out of control, Reese tries to protect him while Finch calls on Shaw, Carter and Fusco for help finding whoever is after him.

Nothing to Hide

The team suspects the latest number to be a potential stalker/ killer. Root plots her escape from the institution and gives her psychiatrist a big surprise.

Lady Killer

The team must figure out if a prominent lawyer orchestrated the murder of her husband or if she is being framed; Carter is spotted with Reese by her new partner.

Reasonable Doubt

Shaw must stay close to a 10-year-old girl with highly developed surveillance skills when she is identified by the machine; Carter's mission could be exposed.

Razgovor

After being freed from her confinement to the psych ward, Root needs Shaw's help with a directive from the machine; Finch and Reese look into a mild-mannered investigator.

Mors Praematura

The team is met with surprises during an investigation into a hypnotherapist; an antiquities dealer has ties to a crime organization.

The Perfect Mark

The machine gives Finch 38 numbers at once; information about Carter's past is revealed.

Endgame

The battle to bring a crime organization to justice reaches a new level; Reese's number comes up in the machine.

The Crossing

As the POI team seeks justice for Carter’s murder, Finch realizes one of his team members may go one step too far in order to end the war with HR. Also, The Machine gives out the number for NYPD Officer Patrick Simmons, one of the crime organization’s key players.

The Devil's Share

Flashbacks to Finch’s adolescence provide insight into his creation of The Machine. Also, the team receives the number of an already dying man, and Reese leaves the POI team behind in the aftermath of the war with the crime organization, HR.

Lethe

Multiple enemies converge on the POI team as they protect a dying man whose number has come up. They struggle to keep their enemies at bay but without Reese, who has left them and their mission behind following the tragic war with HR, being down one man could have catastrophic repercussions for the team.

Aletheia

Reese boards an international flight in an attempt to put the team and the past behind him, but is angered when he realizes his travel plans have been manipulated.

Reese rejoins Finch in New York, but when the team receives the number of a highly skilled antiquities thief, a surprising turn of events finds them planning a heist which could land them all in jail.

Provenance

Finch goes undercover in an emergency call center to protect a 911 operator, but it soon becomes clear that the threat reaches further than the team could have anticipated.

Last Call

The secrets of Finch’s operation before he enlisted Reese are revealed, including shocking ties to present-day events.

The Machine assigns Root to seek out a janitor with a mysterious past, but when her very presence puts his life in danger, Finch also receives his number.

Finch and Reese must delve into the murky waters of international politics when they are given the number of a former government contractor who is stalking a UN diplomat. Also, an enemy attempts to gain an upper hand on Root.

Allegiance

Reese and Shaw pose as alumni at a high school reunion in order to keep eyes on the latest POI. Meanwhile, Finch and Fusco travel to Washington, D.C., to investigate the motivations behind Vigilance’s latest attack.

Most Likely To...

Reese poses as a Secret Service agent to get close to the latest POI, a U.S. congressman who may hold the key to derailing Decima’s plans to bring a second Machine online.

Death Benefit

As Decima uses Samaritan’s feeds to hunt Reese and Shaw, Greer exploits Finch’s greatest weakness in an attempt to lure him out of hiding: his love for his former fiancée, Grace Hendricks.

Beta

When an unknown entity prevents The Machine from seeing the full picture of an impending catastrophic event, it sends the team five separate numbers to help them piece together the bigger picture. Meanwhile, Root’s team of hackers arrives in New York.

A House Divided

The team takes desperate action in its race to prevent the malevolent AI program Samaritan from coming online and making them its first targets. Meanwhile, the months-long battle with the anti-surveillance terrorist group Vigilance comes to a shocking conclusion.

Deus Ex Machina

Forced to take on new identities provided by Root, the team members try to adapt to their new lives. However, some find it hard to ignore The Machine's numbers, which puts them all at risk of being detected by Samaritan.

Panopticon

Despite not wanting to help with the new numbers, Finch's interest is piqued when the newest person of interest turns out to be a brilliant college student involved with a mysterious scavenger hunt.

Nautilus

Finch recruits Fusco to stick close to the latest POI, a professional 'wingman', but learning how to approach women soon becomes the least of his worries. Reese must find a way to play by the rules at his new day job. The Machine sends Finch and Root on a mysterious errand.

Wingman

Reese's cover job as a detective at the NYPD becomes complicated when the young brother and sister he's protecting become targets of a gang investigation.

Brotherhood

While Reese is forced to go to counseling for his violent tendencies, Root, Shaw and Finch try to help a new POI.

Prophets

Reese, Shaw and Fusco must protect a unassuming office worker who stumbles into a dangerous conspiracy while moonlighting as fake detective. Finch travels to Hong Kong as part of his academic cover identity.

Pretenders

Shaw joins a team of international thieves in order to keep tabs on the latest POI, but an unexpected turn of events puts her in danger of being detected by Samaritan.  Also, Finch and Root undertake a dangerous sabotage mission.

Honor Among Thieves

Reese volunteers as an NYPD police academy instructor in order to keep an eye on a talented young officer whose suspicious actions make him question her motives. Meanwhile, Martine – armed with information from Samaritan – hunts a member of the team.

Point of Origin

Reese must save Elias from the Brotherhood. He can't get any help from Root or Shaw since Shaw's cover is blown and Root is escorting her to underground.

The Devil You Know

Samaritan shows its power by erasing crime from the city for a day in an attempt to force The Machine out of hiding.

The Cold War

Samaritan launches a cyber-attack on the stock exchange, forcing the team to risk their lives in a desperate mission to stop a global economic catastrophe.

If-Then-Else

Control, who oversees the handling of relevant numbers for the government, begins to question the methods and intentions of the Samaritan program. Also, alarming news reports of a pair of vigilantes rampaging through the Northeast begin to surface.

Control-Alt-Delete

Root and Reese investigate a small town in upstate New York that holds the key to Shaw's location... and whether she's dead or alive.

M.I.A.

When the Machine arranges for Finch to sit on the jury of a murder trial, he begins to suspect that a fellow juror is set to rig the proceedings. Meanwhile, Reese begins to open up to the department’s therapist.

Guilty

Reese tries to protect a software programmer with a mysterious second life, but it’s unclear which side of her life the threat is coming from. Meanwhile, Claire, a young hacker whom Finch tried to protect from Samaritan, reaches out to him for aid.

Reese and Finch must protect Harper, a street-smart grifter, when her plan to steal cash from a medical marijuana dispensary goes up in smoke.

Blunt

Reese and Finch try to protect a psychologist whose unorthodox methods for helping his patients find closure could cost him dearly. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal Finch’s fragile state in the days following the bombing that killed his best friend, Nathan Ingram.

Karma

Reese must protect a bounty hunter who refuses to allow the potential threat to her life sway her from the relentless pursuit of her target. Also, Finch tries to set the plan he began in Shanghai in motion.

Skip

Reese and Finch scramble to protect a software CEO when his behavior becomes increasingly erratic following a hacker attack that reveals all his secrets and unravels his life.

Search and Destroy

Reese finds himself on a dangerous personal journey when he takes on a homicide case Detective Carter was never able to close.

Terra Incognita

Reese and Fusco get caught in the war between the two newest POIs, rival crime bosses Elias and Dominic. Also, a tantalizing clue to Shaw’s whereabouts leads Finch and Root into a possible trap, and Control goes rogue to uncover the true intentions of the Samaritan program.

Asylum

Finch and Root race to save The Machine, which has been located by the rival AI, Samaritan. Also, Reese is caught in the middle of the final showdown between rival crime bosses Elias and Dominic.

YHWH

Reese and Finch attempt to rescue the Machine’s source code before it deteriorates beyond repair. Also, Root fights for her life against an onslaught of Samaritan’s agents and Fusco is faced with hard questions following the deaths of Dominic and Elias.

B.S.O.D.

The Machine experiences a glitch during rebooting, supplying Reese and Fusco with the numbers of dozens of people not actually involved in crimes, while also locking Finch and Root out after identifying them as threats based on past violent behavior.

SNAFU

Reese’s cover could be blown when he realizes the latest POI has ties to his old CIA colleague, Kara Stanton.

Truth Be Told

Shaw escapes her captors, but the team is unsure of her mental state when she begins to act paranoid and reckless.

6,741

Reese protects an NYPD analyst whose investigation into a software glitch has drawn the attention of Samaritan. Also, Reese and Fusco are threatened by an ally of Elias’s, who is looking to avenge his friend’s death.

ShotSeeker

The Machine sends Reese and Finch to a wedding to protect a pair of POIs before their nuptials. Also, Fusco becomes angry at being kept in the dark by the team and takes it upon himself to investigate a string of missing person reports.

A More Perfect Union

Root goes undercover at a radio station to protect the host of a conspiracy theory show who stumbles upon information that could get him killed. Also, Samaritan’s agents try to convince a member of the team that their goals are noble.

Reese and Finch become trapped in a hospital that becomes ground zero for a deadly viral outbreak. Also, Samaritan’s newest recruit has second thoughts and Shaw continues to struggle with reality.

Reassortment

The mysterious criminal mastermind known as “The Voice” returns and traps Reese and Fusco in their own precinct with several armed gang members and the latest POI. Also, Root makes a shocking discovery.

Sotto Voce

Finch’s number comes up when a fatal error blows his cover identity and sets off a deadly series of escalating encounters with Samaritan’s operatives.

The Day the World Went Away

John Reese, former CIA paramilitary operative, is presumed dead and teams up with reclusive billionaire Finch to prevent violent crimes in New York City by initiating their own type of justice. With the special training that Reese has had in Covert Operations and Finch's genius software inventing mind, the two are a perfect match for the job that they have to complete. With the help of surveillance equipment, they work "outside the law" and get the right criminal behind bars. 

The Best Seasons of Person of Interest

The Best Seasons of Person of Interest

Season 5

Season 3

Season 4

Season 2

Season 1