PERSON OF INTEREST’s David Slack Teases ‘The Contingency’

Where’s Finch? Viewers of PERSON OF INTEREST have been wondering all summer where he went after Root kidnapped him, and co-executive producer David Slack teased that particular storyline “will not be easily resolved” when the show returns tonight.

“We like to take the show in surprising places,” Slack said. “[Executive producers] Greg [Plageman] and Jonah [Nolan] like to keep the audience guessing. Any opportunity to do series television that is out of the routine is fun. We also, if we’re going to do something like have Finch get kidnapped, it can’t be a flash in the pan. It should be real and come at a cost. It going to be something that there will be ramifications that ripple through the season.”

Yep, you read that right…this is going to play out for a long time.

“Certainly this is not the sort of thing that any of our characters or anyone on our staff takes lightly,” Slack teased. “We like our characters to have a memory and impact them going forward. It definitely will come at a cost.”

So, while other PERSON OF INTEREST baddies have certainly made their marks felt on the series, Slack said the writers are finding a certain delight in writing Root.

“Oh, I think she’s a great character,” he gushed. “Amy Acker plays her and does a fantastic job and we’re a big fan of genius. Root has very interesting ideas of Finch and what he’s done. She has her own opinions on that, and I think it will be very interesting for the audience to watch that unfold.”

And with Finch MIA, it’s up to Reese to try and figure out where to go from here.

“So now something has happened, Finch has been taken, and we can see what the contingency [plan] is,” Slack said. “And I can say it has a lot to do with that payphone ringing at the end of season 1. And the contingency doesn’t just involve Finch, but it involves the machine and how it reacts when Finch isn’t available.”

In fact, viewers will actually get to know more about that mysterious machine, as the producers move forward with their intention for it to become a bigger player in the show.

“You will see in the premiere the machine do things we have not seen it do before,” Slack teased. One of the things you can expect to witness? “The machine’s earliest memory.”

But of course, as Reese attempts to locate Finch, he has a few other tools at his disposal — Carter and Fusco, who finally found out in the season finale that the other was secretly working with Finch/Reese, too.

“It’s very interesting because that veil is dropped, they both know they’re on the same side,” Slack said. “I think it deepens their relationship and makes it more complex. It’s one thing when you’re doing something illegal privately, but as soon as you and your partner are both involved in something, there’s something of safety in numbers and also a little more risk because there’s one more person who knows. We’ve worked out a really terrific arc for them for the season that makes their relationship a lot more interesting.”

Though things are out in the open, don’t expect things to be perfect between Reese, Carter and Fusco.

“They were annoyed [Finch and Reese didn’t fill them in] and that hasn’t necessarily gone away,” Slack noted. “When we come back, they’ll be noticing there are distinct differences in how Reese interacts with Carter and Fusco. Much to Fusco’s annoyance, he realizes Carter gets treated better than he does.”

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PERSON OF INTEREST returns tonight on CBS at 9 PM.

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