Trama

Reese and Finch's game of cat and mouse with Detective Carter becomes infinitely more complicated when The Machine declares that she is their newest POI.

Reese is dismayed to learn that the next number that the machine dispenses is someone that he respects and admires: Detective Carter. In the process, he and Finch learn more about her, including that she is a single mother and a war veteran. They are however unaware of how her military life has affected her police work. As a principled and clean cop, Carter has many enemies, both inside and outside the force. Reese and Finch believe that the attempt on her life that the machine sees will come from one of three sources. The first is the current primary case on which she is working, where one of her snitches, a young black man named Ronny Middleton, is gunned down in a drive-by, with the suspected killer being a gun runner by the name of Hector Alvarez. The second is the chronic domestic abuse case of Mr. and Mrs. Kovach, the latter who, at the last minute, always comes to her husband's defense. Carter is worried that Mrs. Kovach won't be able to defend him the next time he beats her since she will have died by his hands. And the third is her and Reese's old friend Elias, who may be worried that Carter will want to close the forty year old case by his capture or death. Reese knows that he needs to take a risk by getting closer to Carter than usual, so relies on Fusco more than ever.—Huggo

When the machine gives the number of Carter, Finch and Reese research her life and find that she is a veteran of war and a single mother. She has many enemies in the criminal world and inside the police force since she is not corrupt. They discuss and believe that one of the present cases she is working with may be the responsible for the hit. The main suspect is the criminal Hector Alvarez, who had killed Ronnie Middleton that was a witness of one of his crimes. The second possibility is the middle-aged man Mr. Kovach, who is an abusive husband and always beats her and she does not accuse him. The third possibility is the powerful Elias. Reese need to use Finch and Fusco to help him to protect Carter.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Flashback to 2006: A captured man named Yusuf (Anthony Azizi) being interrogated by the U.S. military. He's not talking, and the soldier says he'll have to get his boss. His boss is Detective Carter.

In present day Carter tells Mrs. Kovach (Jennifer Laura Thompson), a victim of severe domestic abuse that she needs to report her husband before she ends up dead.

Carter meets with Elias' biological father, Moretti (Mark Margolis), who is in prison. She tries to convince him that Elias will be able to get to him but he doesn't seem interested. Moretti points out it seems like she might be in trouble as well.

Carter recognizes a drive-by victim (Ronnie Middleton) as somebody who recently ID'd an area thug Hector Alvarez as a shooter. Middleton later recanted his story, however, and never testified. A local business owner who sold Middleton a soda says he's drop by and give her his story.

Finch calls Reese and tells him the machine has spit out Carter's name.

Reese listens in on Carter's conversation with her son Taylor (Kwoade Cross). Finch places a video bug in her car, along with a GPS tracker.

Carter pays Hector (Jason Manuel Olazábal) a visit. He says last night he was with his girlfriend Monica.

Finch looks at Carter's bio with Reese and they realize that she has made hundred of enemies over the years. Hector, Kovach (the abusive husband) and Elias are atop the list.

Finch gives Fusco a bobble head with a camera and instructs him to point it towards Carter's desk. He wants Fusco to ask around and see if anybody is targeting Carter.

Carter grabs one of her regular CIs and asks about Elias and the Middleton drive-by. He's going to look into it.

A former partner of Fusco tells him that Elias is bringing organized crime back to City Hall. Carter is getting in people's way and is bad for business. Permission apparently has been given for her to be killed, as long as it looks "clean."

Carter pays the store owner another visit when he never shows. All he'll say is that Hector has been in his store a few times buying beer and condoms. Outside she sees Hector, who makes veiled threats to both her son and the store owner.

Fusco tells Reese what he learned about Carter being taken out.

Carter meets with the hulking Kovach (Flint Beverage) and warns him to keep his hands off his wife. He threatens to shoot her if she comes after him and Reese thinks this is their best suspect.

In another flashback to Carter is interrogating Yusuf. He's responsible for providing explosive vests that have been used by terrorists to kill soldiers. He says he can't tell her anything because of what will happen to him and his family.

Carter and Fusco figure out that Hector probably has a girlfriend on the side who lives near that store.

Reese blows the door off of Hector's body shop with a specialized weapon, and walks in through the breech with his weapon blazing with less-than-lethal rounds which incapacitate the gang inside. He grabs a bunch of guns and steals a car. He tells them if he sees Hector again he'll close down his shop.

Back to Carter and Yusuf. She convinces him the best way to protect his family is to help her. She references losing somebody special to her and it changing her. Yusuf agrees to take her to the locations of the explosives "for our children."

Carter goes back to see her CI with Fusco. He tells her he thinks Hector has a stripper on the side.

Carter introduces the girlfriend Monica to the stripper Hector has also been seeing, and shuts the two excitable Latinas in a room together. They get into an altercation before they realize that Hector has been cheating on the both of them.

Another officer tells Carter about the person who shot up Hector's shop, and that Hector has apparently disappeared.

Reese thinks he's protected Carter from Hector, but Finch isn't so sure. Reese thinks Carter is one of their most important cases.

Hector's women tells them that Hector went out the night of Middleton's murder. He changed his shirt that night and she tells them they can have it. They also give her a likely location for Hector. Mrs. Kovach calls Carter and says her husband has a gun and is about to kill her.

Carter and Fusco go the Kovach house and find the man has been incapacitated by someone, trussed up and dangling from the ceiling in the hall. Reese calls Mrs. Kovach's phone and asks to speak with Carter. He says she's in trouble.

We see that Elias (Enrico Colantoni, who we first met in the guise of Charlie Burton in "Witness (2011)") is delivering flowers to Carter's desk, where he also takes a quick look at some of her files.

Carter later reads the card on the flowers, which are condolences for her death.

Reese has managed to get himself into the police team that is going into Hector's hideout. Reese follows Carter when she walks around toward the back. Hector tries to flee by running Carter over, but she shoots him through the windshield and gets him in cuffs.

Reese follows Carter after work. Finch points out that despite Hector and Kovach being neutralized he still isn't sure. Carter meets with her CI. He says he found Elias, who told him it "either you or me." He shoots her twice in the chest, but before he can finish her off Reese takes him out.

While lying on the ground Carter flashes back to being congratulated on finding the explosives. But the other soldiers led by Sgt. Harris (Ed Moran) say Yusuf never made it back and that "accidents happen." They say it's going to be a long war and she's all alone.

It seems Carter was hit in the vest. From the shadows Reese tells her that he understands that she's going to continue to go after him, but she's not alone.

Reese finds the corrupt Captain who Fusco had met with earlier and tells him to make sure everyone knows permission to go after Carter has been revoked.

Carter and her son eat together. While Finch takes the camera out of her car he finds a photograph of an officer she keeps in the car. Reese listens as she tells Taylor "we have each other."