Reese and Finch are alerted to Scott Powell; a dedicated family man and city construction project manager, who they find has been fired and out-of-work for eight months, a fact hidden from his family, and is now at a desperate financial limit; Finch and Carter discover Powell, who is attending a temp job at a fundraiser for Congressman Michael Delancey, has been secretly applying for a rifle weapon permit, and has been sending death threat emails to Delancey’s office.

Coming to the conclusion Powell is planning on assassinating Delancey, who was the congressman who advocated the budget cuts that cost Powell his job, Reese raises to intercept him, only for him and Finch to realize too late the truth of the subject – the emails and other incriminating information were remotely planted, and Reese fails to stop the real assassin from shooting Delancey, who later dies from his injuries, and successfully escaping. Powell is immediately arrested by the FBI, with a great deal of evidence planted to make him guilty.

Reese liberates Powell and together they escape into the city, pursued by the assassin. Finch, having to evacuate the hideout due to the unknown hacker responsible for framing Powell compromising his network, hires Zoe Morgan, a professional fixer and person of interest from “The Fix”, to discover that Peter Matheson, Delancey’s surviving chief of staff and business partner, hired the hacker to kill Delancey and frame Powell, all to cover up Matheson’s corrupt actions at the business he shared with Delancey.

Reese saves Powell from the assassin, and Finch acquires a recording of a conversation between Matheson and the hacker, exonerating Powell, who Finch arranges to get a new job for; saving his relationship with his family. Matheson is found dead, having apparently shot himself out of guilt, but Finch, when in contact with the hacker; referring to herself as “The Root”, admits she murdered him to tie up loose ends. Root acknowledges Finch, by name, as a worthy adversary.

“Root Cause” is the thirteenth episode of the first season of the American television series Person of Interest. It originally aired on CBS in the United States on February 2, 2012.

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