On Person of Interest, we left off with Reese, Finch and Root on the hunt for Shaw who they believe is still alive. We also got a look into the life of Control and her ignorance with Samaritan's involvement on certain dangerous situations.

The New Number:

Finch goes to Fusco in search of his help and Fusco agrees to help despite the captain asking about Reese's whereabouts.

Fusco heads to their new number, Albert Weiss, a sales associate at Prime Hardware in Jersey. Fusco sees Detective Silva also watching Weiss, but she spots him and heads over. Weiss' name comes up on a few cold missing person cases on the witness list. They wait it out to see what kind of danger he's in.

Fusco and Silva gather what they know about Weiss. One of the missing persons is Silva's witness and she's looking for what happened. Fusco discovers that 100 pounds of lye was stolen from Weiss' hardware store a few years ago and they think he may be killing people despite his frail state of mind. They believe he's getting paid by gangs to get rid of people. They go to look for him.

Fusco and Silva find Weiss at a classy restaurant. They believe that Weiss is going to kill someone there, but Fusco gets a call from Finch who tells him about a gang member named Marcus Young, Weiss' possible target. He's a waiter and they see Weiss follow him into the kitchen. He's about to attack Marcus but Fusco catches him and puts him under arrest. When they're alone and Weiss sees Marcus getting away, he slams his head on the table to make it look as if Fusco beat him.

At the precinct, Weiss is freed and Fusco cannot go within 100 feet of him or he'll get suspended. He meets with Finch who gives him an address where Weiss may be. Finch also tells Fusco that things aren't looking good with Shaw.

Silva tells Fusco that Marcus is not a gang member, instead he is a witness to a gang crime who won't testify. They reveal to Marcus that Weiss was hired to kill him and tells Fusco to take him somewhere safe while she goes to find Weiss.

Silva goes to Weiss' address. The house is in bad shape but she manages to find the missing lye containers. She gets into a gun fight with Weiss and he gets away.

Silva argues with Fusco about letting Weiss get away. He explains to her that Weiss has killed other cops who have gotten in the way of his work but Silva is stubborn and wants to go after him anyway.

Silva goes home where Weiss is waiting, but Fusco and Silva were expecting him and kill Weiss before he gets the chance to kill them.

Fusco finds out that Weiss was Silva's first kill and will go to counseling.

Next Week: The team focuses on saving numbers again. Finch gets jury duty, only to find that their new number is also on his jury, but someone is killing members in order to fix the results of their case.

The Search for Shaw:

Root and Reese follow Finch's coordinates to the town of Maple, New York and are waiting to see where it leads them without blowing their covers.

Reese and Root show up at the local police department asking to see surveillance tapes. He agrees to show them the tapes on a count of Root's good looks. She navigates through the computers and Reese notices the station's heavy artillery. He tells an officer about some kids spraying graffiti on some patrol cars and he runs out while Reese takes a closer look at the weaponry.

Root notices that a section of the tapes have been corrupted. She asks to see the back-ups in storage and the officer hits on her and grabs her butt, but she twists his arm.

Reese gathers a few weapons and hears the officer struggle in the distance. He goes to root where he sees the officer on the floor. She shows him the footage of the white truck that they're looking for, finding that it never left Maple and Shaw could still be there.

Reese and Root check in to a hotel with the officer tied up and in a body bag. Finch finds the truck abandoned car lot.

Reese and Root find the lot and see a drunken attendant who lost everything he had. He's watching television where he sees a news brief of a man who just won the lottery. They find the abandoned truck but Shaw isn't in there. They find a medical drill and saw and know that Shaw was in there at some point. They find a neurosurgeon who explains that he didn't work on anyone but did receive a call for someone asking for help but they hung up without him getting any more information.

Reese and Root find out that the town was once on a downfall with the mayor framed for corruption and taking his own life. Now things have been going well and they believe something is up with a new factory executive director Leslie Thompson and they go to speak with her. The doctor tries to warn them that if they start asking questions about the factory then they'll end up dead like everyone else, but Reese tells him not to worry, discovering that Samaritan owns the factory now.

Reese and Root go to the town's gathering for Founder's Day where they see the lot attendant arrested for shooting the lottery winner. They believe that Samaritan is playing with the lives of Maple's citizens.

They have Thompson tied up and try to get information about Shaw. She reveals that she is only following email instructions. Reese doesn't believe her and is ready to let Root try but Finch speaks with her instead. Finch finds out that Samaritan is using Maple as an ant farm to study human behavior. Root still doesn't believe Thompson and threatens her despite Finch's plea. Thompson reveals that she saw Shaw being taken into the factory and she can help them get inside.

Reese and Root show up at the factory and Thompson gets them in. There, they find tracking devices that Samaritan will use to keep tabs on everyone.

Reese and Root blow their way into the lab where they find a woman name Delia Jones instead of Shaw, realizing that they followed the wrong trail. They take Delia with them and leave the factory.

Finch tells Reese that Maple's factory was closed and the town will collapse once again. Finch talks to Root who's still struggling with Shaw. Root asks the machine (a camera in the streets) for help and a payphone rings. Finch answers and hears a set of words with the first letter of each word spelling "STOP," thinking the machine is telling them to stop looking. Root tells Finch goodbye.

We see Shaw in a hospital bed at Samaritan headquarters with John Greer who has a plan for her.

image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INfphoto.com