8 Things to Expect from Person of Interest's Fourth Season

Only a couple weeks will have passed when Person of Interest's fourth season begins, but the circumstances for our heroes couldn't be more different.
The premiere (Tuesday at 10/9c on CBS) features Reese (Jim Caviezel), Finch (Michael Emerson) and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) living under the guise of their new aliases in order to avoid the roving eye of Samaritan. But it won't be long before at least a couple of the team members start itching to get the band back together.

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But do Reese & Co. even have the resources to do so? And does the rest of the team even want to resume their work? Keep reading for eight teases from the season premiere. Plus: Get the dirt on why Team Machine should be very afraid of guest-star Cara Buono.1. The team's day jobs are less than ideal. Although Finch might look the part of a professor, his new role involves a half-empty classroom and a department head breathing down his neck. Things aren't much better for Shaw, who is bored out of her mind hawking perfume at Bloomingdale's and, to a lesser extent Reese, who, despite having a job that still keeps him in the action, feels he isn't fulfilling his purpose. "We couldn't resist the fun... of having these guys utilize a different skill in a fish-out-of-water circumstance," executive producer Greg Plageman says. "It's particularly fun with Reese and Shaw, throwing operatives into roles that they're accustomed to or particularly happy with."2. Everyone's going to have be a little more scrappy. Once Reese and Shaw decide to scratch their world-saving itch, things get really tricky. "How in the world are they going to be able to operate and work on any numbers when another entity is watching you and could mean your imminent demise?" Plageman says. "The library is gone. As Finch says, there is no sanctuary. They have to find random places to meet. What we have to figure out going forward is guerilla tactics that our guys have to adopt."

Exclusive Person of Interest Video: Can Shaw handle her new day job?
3. But not everyone wants to play along. Finch has spent his office hours counting the number of lives he and his teammates have improved since they started doing their work. (Spoiler alert: The numbers don't look so good.) As such, Finch isn't chomping at the bit to get back to work. "Finch has come to a place of doubting the intentions of his creation," executive producer Jonathan Nolan teases. "Finch has been much more measured in his belief in what his creation is doing. He's a lot more conflicted about it and that conflict will be ongoing."
4. Root (Amy Acker) will continue to have (some of) the answers. Root spends much of the episode keeping tabs on Shaw, but she also pays a key visit to Finch, which just might shake him out of his funk. "Root intuitively understands that this is a cold war," Plageman says. "It's going to become a difficult season for Root in terms of her relationship to the Machine and trying to understand what they're supposed to be doing. She all along has been its acolyte and someone who has believed almost with a fervor in the Machine's guidance." As such, she becomes the mediator between the trigger-happy Reese and Shaw and the more cautious brainiac. "Root becomes the bridge between the two entities in terms of the necessity of trying to get Harold to acknowledge what Reese and Shaw are inevitably going to do," Plageman says.

5. Don't count the Machine out. While the number that the Machine eventually spits out provides a crucial element for the team's covert rebuilding process, the Machine also leaves Finch some completely new clues that offer a way forward for the team.

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6. Changes are coming for Fusco (Kevin Chapman) too. Although he may not be on Samaritan's hit list, Fusco will struggle with a murder that he thinks Reese ordinarily would have been able to prevent. And although we already knew Fusco was getting a new boss, that won't be the only change in the 8th Precinct. "All of our guys are going to find themselves in a different arena, some of them colliding with each other in interesting ways," Plageman says.
7. War of the Machines? Maybe not. Although Samaritan is clearly a threat, Plageman insists viewers shouldn't necessarily think of it as "evil." "It's not that we believe one machine is evil and one is not," he says. "I think the word indifferent is the scarier word here. [Samaritan] is a machine that's going to do what it's dictated to do. It's not necessarily out to get us, it's just that we may become collateral damage in what its ultimate goal is. Greer certainly has plans, but those are best-laid plans when it comes to an entity more intelligent than us."
8. But the team should be scared of Cara Buono. The guest star (previously seen on Mad Men and The Sopranos) will show exactly how deadly she is in the opening scene. But what is her game exactly? "In the same way that Root becomes a vessel to the Machine, Samaritan has a way of tapping operatives around the world in its own unique way," Plageman says. "Samaritan can see into people's personal lives and even detect personality disorders or certain individuals who can be coerced into doing things. We think Cara is a formidable opponent for our guys this year."
Person of Interest premieres Tuesday at 10/9c on CBS. Watch a clip from the premiere below:

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