Person of Interest (TV Series)

Prisoner's Dilemma (2013)

Taraji P. Henson: Detective Jocelyn 'Joss' Carter

Photos 

Quotes 

• Detective Joss Carter : Why did you leave the military?

  John Reese : It was time.

  Detective Joss Carter : Yeah, but a lot of people who felt that way wound up re-enlisting right after 9/11, but not you.

  John Reese : There's a point where if you stay a soldier any longer, you won't know how to be anything else.

• Detective Joss Carter : Do you have any enemies?

  John Reese : Well, I'm pretty sure the guy behind that mirror isn't a fan.

• Detective Joss Carter : Ever been in love?

  John Reese : Once. Allison West. There's your answer, by the way.

  Detective Joss Carter : To what?

  John Reese : Why I left the military. When the planes hit the towers, I was with Ally in a hotel room in Niagara Falls. I had just gotten out of the service. But as we sat together on that bed, watching it all go down, I knew I had to go back. And I looked at her. She was quiet, trying to be strong. I don't know, I - maybe I was scared. But when I looked at her, I saw this whole other life. A life I knew I'd never have if I went back. So I stayed.

  Detective Joss Carter : What happened?

  John Reese : I was an idiot. Let her slip away. I instantly regretted it, but it was too late. It's funny how the choices you make change who you become. Pick one path or the other. Hear an explosion at a bank and try to help, and suddenly -

  [Holds up his cuffed hands] 

  John Reese : All these years later I still wonder if I had re-upped when the towers came down who would I be now?

• John Reese : I just want to say thank you. I couldn't have got through this without a friend to talk to.

  Detective Joss Carter : So was any of it true?

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : [Appears behind them]  Oh, I sincerely doubt that. Congratulations, Carter. You just caught the man in a suit. Drop your gun. Hands in the air. It's over, John. Got your bracelets, Carter? Put them on your friend here. See? I told you we'd catch him. But I'm afraid that's the last collar you'll ever make. I trusted you, Carter, and you threw it away along with a very promising career.

  John Reese : [to Carter]  I'm sorry. It was my fault.

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Actually, John, it's not. This little game you two have been playing, you didn't give it away. She did.

• Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Is the earpiece not working?

  Detective Joss Carter : I'm building rapport. That's how you get good intel. Would you rather I waterboarded him?

• Harold Finch : It's a nice office, isn't it?

  Detective Joss Carter : When you cook up a cover, you don't mess around.

  Harold Finch : John Warren is our friend's clean cover. We never use it for work. It's the most complete identity that John has, and it most closely matches the details of his true past. But John Warren is still an illusion, the incomplete footprint of a man who doesn't exist. If we make a mistake, or if Donnelly spots a single flaw, we and the work that we do will be in very grave jeopardy.

• John Reese : [after John is released]  Looking for someone?

  Detective Joss Carter : No one in particular.

  John Reese : Fusco didn't want to celebrate my release?

  Detective Joss Carter : Finch has him tied up with something.

• Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Everything he's said checks out.

  Detective Joss Carter : So you think we might be digging in the wrong spot?

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : No. To catch this man, Carter, I'd dig all the way to China.

• Detective Joss Carter : No backup? You're going it alone, huh?

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Well, Carter, I don't know who to trust anymore. When the man in a suit - when John here slipped away the first time, I knew he had a mole, somebody on the inside. And then when his fingerprints went missing and his DNA got switched, I was forced to consider it might be you. And I'll admit, you played a pretty good game until I put him in the yard alone. And that's when I saw it in your eyes. Genuine concern. How did he turn you, Carter? What was your price?

  Detective Joss Carter : No price. Just helping a friend.

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Then you've been played for a fool. Recruited as an asset by a private intelligence...

  Detective Joss Carter : You don't understand, Donnelly, he's a good man. We're helping people.

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : Oh, God. Is that what he told you? Wake up, Carter. Your friend is nothing more or less than a highly trained murderer. You don't wind up with that job by accident. He chose that life. He chose to become the monster he is. And now you've made your choice too.

• Detective Joss Carter : What the hell happened to you? You used to be good police. Ever since this thing started, you've been bending the rules

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : I believe that this country is under attack by an invisible enemy.

  Detective Joss Carter : This is not right, Donnelly. You are over the line!

  Special Agent Nicholas Donnelly : I will do whatever I have to do.