John Reese chooses an alias whenever situations require him to get in direct contact with a person of interest.
Though his real last name is unknown (only the last letter, "s", is shown when Det. Carter reads his file in “Many Happy Returns”), his military records suggest his real first name is John. "John Reese" is an alias given to him by Kara Stanton. Finch, Carter, Fusco, Darren McGrady, Mark Snow, Alistair Wesley, and Sameen Shaw know him as John Reese.
| Image | Episode | Name | Occupation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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“Pilot” | James J. Manzione | n/a | ||
| Name on a fake driver's licence provided by Finch. | |||||
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“Ghosts”, “Wolf and Cub”, “Many Happy Returns”, “No Good Deed”, “The Contingency”, “Bad Code”, “Endgame”, “Beta” | Detective Stills | Police officer, Organized Crime | ||
| Reese took the badge off Stills in the course of rescuing a boy that was about to be killed. Reese later shot Stills during a stand off using Fusco's gun. (“Pilot”) He has used this identity multiple times to gain access to crime scenes or people. | |||||
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“Mission Creep” | Tony Miller | Former Military | ||
| Poses as a former soldier looking for a job in order to get into Sam Latimer's gang and closer to Joey Durban. | |||||
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“The Fix” | John | Chauffeur | ||
| Placed undercover by Finch as a personal driver at Callahan Car Service to keep an eye on Zoe Morgan. | |||||
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“Super” | John Hayes | Tenant | ||
| Uses this alias to move into an apartment where Ernie Trask, a new person of interest works as a super. | |||||
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“Legacy” | John Friel | Ex-Convict | ||
| Finch created an arrest report to support Reese's cover identity when he goes to see Andrea Gutierrez. Born February 4, 1937, 5' 10" tall. Arrested for aggravated murder (top code 125.26) on February 1, 1984. | |||||
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“Risk”, “No Good Deed”, “Firewall”, “Critical”, “Zero Day” | John Rooney | Asset Manager, Consultant | ||
| Chooses this alias whenever a formal cover is needed. Reese first used the alias when he protected Adam Saunders at his financial firm. John Rooney is a single-digit millionaire. (“One Percent”) | |||||
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“Matsya Nyaya” | John Gordon (Johnny) | Armored truck security | ||
| Finch placed Reese undercover as a trainee at Grayling Armored Services to keep an eye on Tommy Clay, whose number was produced by the Machine. | |||||
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“Masquerade” | John Randall | Bodyguard | ||
| Reese's alias for his job as a bodyguard for Sofia Campos, the spoiled daughter of a Brazilian diplomat who needed protection because she partied with the wrong people. Finch had to buy a security company and a credit bureau in order for Reese to pass the embassy's background check. | |||||
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“Bury the Lede” | John Anderson | Actuary | ||
| Pretending to look for a relationship, Finch put a fake profile of Reese on a dating website and arranged for him to date Maxine Angelis, an investigative journalist who was working on a story about the man in a suit and found herself in danger after publishing another story about HR. | |||||
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“The High Road” | John Campbell | Private security specialist | ||
| Businessman who sells private security systems. He is married to wife Zoe and drives a fancy car. Finch invented this alias for Reese in order to let him get close to a new person of interest, a family man with a shady past who lives in the suburbs. | |||||
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“Shadow Box”, “Proteus” | Marshal Jennings | U.S. Marshal | ||
| Reese took the star off of Marshal Brad Jennings before he delivered him to Torreón penitentiary. He first uses the alias when Abby Monroe's number came up. (“Shadow Box”) He took on this identity again to investigate a string of murders leading to an elusive serial killer. (“Proteus”). | |||||
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“Prisoner's Dilemma” | John Warren | Investment banker | ||
Reese's only clean cover identity and the one that most closely matches his real past. | |||||
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“One Percent”, “Lady Killer”, “4C”, “Provenance” | John Wiley | Hedge fund manager | ||
| Valued over at over 100 million dollars, he bought letters handwritten by Albert Einstein for 10 million dollars at a charity auction to introduce himself to a very wealthy person of interest. (“One Percent”). He used the alias again to meet Bruce Wellington to discuss the purchase of a privately owned Picasso, while allowing Zoe and Shaw to break into his house and help a person of interest to find his son. (“Lady Killer”) When another number came up, John Wiley would help a troubled mother to steal a high value item to protect her daughter from Czech criminals. Also, used to purchased plane tickets. (“4C”) | |||||
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“Booked Solid” | John | Bellhop | ||
| A bellhop who has worked at Hotel Lutetia in Paris for two years and started a job at the Coronet Hotel to protect a maid in trouble. | |||||
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“Most Likely To...” | Frank Mercer | Mattress King | ||
| Assumed the identity of a former classmate of Matthew Reed's at their high school reunion. Hailing from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Frank was quite a mattress king when he gave one girl a promise ring, then slept with her best friend before having a fling with another girl whose mother he seduced. At their school reunion, as a result, all three women slapped "Frank" in the face. Meanwhile, the real Frank was sent on an all-expenses-paid vacation to Aruba by Finch. | |||||
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“Panopticon”, “Nautilus”, “Brotherhood”, “Prophets”, “Pretenders”, “The Devil You Know” | John Riley | Detective | ||
| John, along with the team, was forced to take on a new identity to hide from Samaritan. | |||||
Trivia
Unlike most of Finch's aliases, Reese's cover names can be linked to existing persons or characters.
- James J. Manzione was a crew member (rigging gaffer) at the set of “Pilot”.
- John Hayes was the screenwriter for Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. The episode “Super” has many references to that movie.