Person of Interest Trivia
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137 free Person of Interest trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Person of Interest trivia quiz covers all 103 episodes of Jonathan Nolan's CBS series, from the pilot's subway brawl to the ringing payphone at the end of "return 0". The easy questions are ones any regular viewer can handle: who plays Finch and Reese, what the Machine hands out, which network aired it, and the name of the team's Belgian Malinois. The harder end is for people who remember the numbers. It asks about Northern Lights and the Ordos laptop, HR and Alonzo Quinn, Elias's war with the Russians and the Brotherhood, Root's origin in Bishop, Texas, Shaw's first episode, Carter's last one, God Mode, the ferry bombing that killed Nathan Ingram, Samaritan and Decima, Vigilance's kangaroo court, the chess games and simulations of "If-Then-Else", simulation 6,741, the 300 PlayStations, ICE-9, and how the finale plays out. There are also questions on the people behind the show: Nolan and his uncle John, J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot, composer Ramin Djawadi, and the cast's other work from Lost to Empire. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for the series, its season and character lists, individual episodes and the cast before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our FBI and cybersecurity quizzes next.
30 of 137 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which four words open Finch's narration over the title sequence of Person of Interest's first season?
You are being watched
You are being watched, Finch warns, before admitting that the secret machine spying on everyone is one he built himself.
Q 02Which 2008 superhero film did Person of Interest creator Jonathan Nolan co-write with his brother?
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight; Nolan has said the show grew out of his years on the Batman films, which left no room for the small stories of rescuing ordinary people.
Q 03Who plays reclusive billionaire Harold Finch?
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson plays Harold Finch, the reclusive billionaire who built the Machine and recruits Reese in the pilot.
Q 04Who plays John Reese?
Jim Caviezel
Jim Caviezel plays John Reese, the homeless ex-operative Finch recruits in the pilot; Caviezel also starred in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).
Q 05What does the Machine give Finch to identify a person of interest?
A Social Security number
The Machine gives Finch only a Social Security number, never saying whether that person will be the victim or the perpetrator.
Q 06Under which New York bridge does Finch first meet Reese in the Person of Interest pilot?
The Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge; Finch has Reese pulled out of police custody and driven there, then recites the man's own secrets to him before offering a job.
Q 07In Person of Interest, the government labels the everyday murders Finch chooses to act on with what term?
Irrelevant
Irrelevant, the government's word for violent crimes too small to threaten the nation; Finch accepted that view himself until his partner's death changed his mind.
Q 08Which body part does Reese usually shoot in Person of Interest?
Kneecaps
Kneecaps: Reese shoots with enough control to pick his spot, and he prefers to leave a gunman wounded rather than dead.
Q 09Which historical event prompted Finch to build the Machine?
The September 11 attacks
Finch built the Machine after the September 11 attacks, to sift surveillance data for future terror plots, with Nathan Ingram as its public face.
Q 10Who plays Detective Carter?
Taraji P. Henson
Taraji P. Henson plays Detective Carter, the dogged NYPD cop who hunts and then allies with Reese; she left during season 3.
Q 11Who plays Detective Lionel Fusco?
Kevin Chapman
Kevin Chapman plays Lionel Fusco, the corrupt detective who becomes a loyal ally; Chapman had earlier appeared in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003).
Q 12Who plays the hacker Root?
Amy Acker
Amy Acker plays Root, the hacker who debuts in season 1 and grows from antagonist into one of Finch's closest allies.
Q 13Who plays Sameen Shaw?
Sarah Shahi
Sarah Shahi plays Sameen Shaw, a government assassin who joins Finch's team after her own employers try to have her killed.
Q 21Who plays crime boss Carl Elias in Person of Interest?
Enrico Colantoni
Enrico Colantoni plays Carl Elias, the mob heir who first appears as a mild schoolteacher on the run from the Russian mob.
Q 22What alias is Elias using when Reese first protects him?
Charlie Burton
Elias poses as schoolteacher Charlie Burton; Reese only realises the man he saved from the Russians is the mob heir at the end of the episode.
Q 23Whose illegitimate son is Elias?
Don Gianni Moretti's
Elias is Don Gianni Moretti's illegitimate son; in 'Flesh and Blood' he phones his father, then has him killed by a car bomb.
Q 14What is Root's real name?
Samantha Groves
Samantha Groves; years after a friend's abductor went unpunished in her hometown, she used her hacking skills to set him up to be killed.
Q 15What breed of dog is Bear?
Belgian Malinois
Bear is a Belgian Malinois with military training, and he was being used as an attack dog before he became the team's loyal guard.
Q 16In Person of Interest, the Machine's creator takes the surnames of his cover identities from what?
Birds
Birds: Wren, Crow and Swift are all covers, and so is Finch itself, since the show never reveals his real surname.
Q 17What nickname does law enforcement give Reese?
The Man in the Suit
The Man in the Suit was the only description police could get from those who saw him; Detective Carter spends much of season 1 trying to identify him.
Q 18In Person of Interest, what is HR?
A network of corrupt cops and officials
A network of corrupt cops and officials whose true leader turns out to be a political fixer in the mayor's office.
Q 19Who is the head of HR?
Alonzo Quinn
Alonzo Quinn, the mayor's chief of staff, ran HR unseen until Carter recorded his confession and arrested him in season 3.
Q 20Who kills Detective Carter in Person of Interest?
Patrick Simmons
Patrick Simmons, HR's second-in-command, shoots her; Elias later has him killed in his hospital bed as payback.
Q 24In which season 1 episode of Person of Interest does Elias first appear on screen?
Witness
Elias debuts in 'Witness', the seventh episode, hiding as a schoolteacher whom Reese must protect from the Russian mob in Brighton Beach.
Q 25Which Black Panther actor plays gang leader Dominic Besson?
Winston Duke
Winston Duke, later M'Baku in Black Panther, plays Dominic, the ambitious gang leader who challenges Elias in season 4.
Q 26Who plays Nathan Ingram, Finch's partner in building the Machine?
Brett Cullen
Brett Cullen plays Nathan Ingram, who secretly built a back door into the Machine to save ordinary people after Finch refused to.
Q 27How does Nathan Ingram die?
In a ferry bombing
Ingram dies in a ferry bombing in 2010; Finch survives the same blast, which leaves him with a permanent limp and neck injuries.
Q 28What was the government's codename for the Machine project?
Northern Lights
Northern Lights was the program's codename; when leaked documents exposed it in season 3, a senator ordered it shut down.
Q 29For how much did Ingram's company sell the Machine to the government?
One dollar
One dollar: the invoice, marked only as 'services', is what later sets Ingram's son digging into his father's secret work.
Q 30What was the name of Ingram's company?
IFT
Ingram's company was IFT, where Finch worked under the alias Harold Wren as a seemingly ordinary engineer.