The Contingency

Season	Episode
2	1
Air date	September 27, 2012
Running time	44:04
Production code	2J7201
Written by	Denise Thé; Jonathan Nolan
Directed by	Richard J. Lewis
Viewers	14.28M
ID(s) from Intro	Nonstandard Intro
POI; Leon Tao
	Flashbacks; Harold Finch

Episode Overview

Summary

POI

Cast and Characters

Crew

← Season 1 Person of Interest — Season 2 (Flashbacks in parentheses) Season 3 →
201 “The Contingency” (Finch)	209 “C.O.D.”	217 “Proteus”
202 “Bad Code” (Root)	210 “Shadow Box”	218 “All In”
203 “Masquerade”	211 “2πR”	219 “Trojan Horse”
204 “Triggerman”	212 “Prisoner's Dilemma” (Reese)	220 “In Extremis” (Fusco)
205 “Bury the Lede”	213 “Dead Reckoning” (Stanton)	221 “Zero Day” (Finch/Ingram)
206 “The High Road” (Finch)	214 “One Percent” (Finch/Ingram)	222 “God Mode” (Finch/Hersh)
207 “Critical”	215 “Booked Solid”
208 “Til Death” (Finch)	216 “Relevance”

“	Come on, Finch. Help me find you.	”
— Reese

Season Premiere. "The Contingency" is the first episode of season 2, and the 24th produced hour of Person of Interest. It originally aired on September 27, 2012.

Synopsis

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.

Origin of the Title

Main Plot Points

Reese continues his search for Finch but gets frustrated when The Machine refuses to help. He eventually manages to negotiate with the Machine and invites Carter
Root takes Finch hostage and goes on a quest with him
Root's past, future plan as well as her reason to kidnap Finch is touched upon
The contingency plan is revealed
Alicia Corwin's murder ^{(“Firewall”)} is investigated
The method the Machine has been using to generate numbers is revealed
Denton Weeks's personal life is touched upon
Leon Tao, Bear and Hersh are introduced

Flashbacks

The events surround the contingency plan are explained
The Machine's relationship with Finch is revealed and touched upon

Episode Notes

Bear, the dog adopted by Reese, is a Belgian Malinois. Highly intelligent and easily trained, the Malinois is a working breed used for detection, protection, and search and rescue by police and the American military, where they are trained to respond to Dutch commands. Its slighter build makes the dog more agile and easier to carry than a German Shepherd or comparable breed. Bear was given his name because he ate Tao's bearer bonds, but was originally called "Butcher" by Byron.

Communicating the Numbers

The seemingly random words the Machine uses to communicate social security numbers correspond to the Dewey Decimal System (DDS) numbers on books in Finch's library. The Dewey Decimal System was developed in 1876 as a hierarchical system to classify and organize books in broad categories.
The words themselves are individual codes leading Finch and Reese to the correct books: the first word (Uncertainty) is the title keyword, and the second and third words (Alpha/Mike, from the NATO phonetic alphabet) correspond to the initials of the writer. With three books side-by-side, the DDS numbers form the social security number.
The first number given to Reese was: Uncertainty/Romeo/Kilo (006), Family/Alpha/Mike (013), Reflections/Juliet/Oscar (062). However, Leon Tao's social security number is 013-00-6062; the first two parts of the number were transposed by the Machine. Later, the machine generates Ayacucho/Golf/Papa (498), Deterministic/Hotel/Sierra (003), Camera/Sierra/Kilo (145), forming Hanna Frey's social security number. This time, the numbers are transmitted sequentially. Jonathan Nolan explained that the words for Leon's social sounded more mysterious when they were transposed. He also noted the production can only use cleared (non-existent) social security numbers.

Production Notes

The phone booth used by Reese while bargaining with the machine says "New York Telephone. A Nynex Company". If the timeline on the show is supposed to match with the one off-screen, then the phone booth should have the Verizon logo since Nynex was consolidated along with a group of other phone companies and emerged as the aforementioned corporation in the year 2000. On the other hand, just like "life" off-screen, companies are sometimes slow replacing equipment.

Bloopers and Continuity Errors

The conversation that the Machine notes as Day 161 (June 10, 2002) occurs in 2007 as shown in “Ghosts”, although a different flashback in that episode showed a conversation that occurred on this day.
Root takes Finch to a diner in Wilmington Delaware but the insignia on the police officer that enters is from New Jersey.

Phone-booth — Antiquated Phone Enclosure/Pedestal or "Phone Booth"

Leon's handcuffs were often missing during the scenes in the stairway and on the roof.
In the last hand that Finch plays at the blackjack table his hand is an 8 and 7 to which he hits a Jack. The computer shows his hand as a King and a 5 before the Jack. Both variations equal 25.
The scene in which the Machine finds Finch through a webcam at a coffee shop shows a man using Microsoft Word 2007, though the scene happens in 2002.

Trivia

The episode misuses the word contingency. A contingency is an anticipated problematic event, preparation for which is a contingency plan. Used correctly, the contingency would be Finch's kidnapping. Reese's continuing to help the POI would be the contingency plan, much like Reese's ever present Plan B.
The Social Security Number Reese received for Leon Tao (013-00-6062) is the same as Finch had for Leila Smith in “Baby Blue”.
This is the first episode in which Finch and Reese don't see each other since they met in the Pilot.
"The Contingency" contains several allusions to the 1988 film "Midnight Run". Leon Tao closely mirrors Charles Grodin's film character, a trouble-making accountant who embezzled millions from his Mob employers. When Reese and Leon find themselves without transportation after Leon's car is towed, Reese announces, "Looks like we're walking." This mirrors the final line of Midnight Run where Robert DeNiro's character finds he is unable to get a ride from the airport and announces to no one in particular: "Looks like I'm walking".

Quotes

Main article: The Contingency/Memorable quotes

Episode Opening

The episode begins with a series of brief flashbacks to key scenes from the first season which revisit what happened previously:

"You knew what we were building here. This thing looks for plotters, schemers. We built it to stop terrorists before they could act." (Finch) ^{(“Ghosts”)}

Alicia Corwin: "If Congress knew about this machine you're building, you would go to jail."
Nathan Ingram: "I don't suppose they'd let us be cell-mates." ^{(“Super”)}

"Knowledge is not my problem. Doing something with that knowledge, that's where you'd come in." (Finch) ^{(“Pilot”)}

"Sooner or later, both of us will probably wind up dead." (Finch) ^{(“Pilot”)}

"If something ever happens, I have a ...contingency." (Finch) ^{(“No Good Deed”)}

"We got a new number, Caroline Turing." (Finch) ^{(“Firewall”)}

Zoe Morgan: "She put the hit on herself. She was trying to lure you out into the open."
Reese: "She wasn't looking for me. She was looking for him." ^{(“Firewall”)}

"So nice to finally meet you, Harold. You can call me Root." (Root) ^{(“Firewall”)}

"He's in danger now, because he was working for you, so you're gonna help me get him back." (Reese) ^{(“Firewall”)}