John Reese

John Reese is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the CBS crime drama television series Person of Interest.

Reese is portrayed by actor Jim Caviezel.

He works with billionaire Harold Finch to help residents of New York who are potentially involved in violent crime.

Reese is an intense, solitary man whose dry sense of humor emerges over time.

He speaks in a low, calm, and confident voice, despite the fact that people are almost always endangering him or the people he is helping.

Extremely skilled with a range of weapons and combat techniques due to his military experience, Reese possesses a level of determination that drives him to work with Finch to protect potential victims of violent crime.

Reese owns a dog named Bear, a Belgian Malinois who he rescued from white supremacists and sent to live with Finch to assure Finch's safety.

It is known that in 1993 John joined the U.S. Army to avoid a jail sentence, where he served as an Infantryman, Ranger and Special Forces operator within Delta Force, before being discharged as a Sergeant First Class after 12 years of service.

While he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington in 2001, John met Jessica Arndt, a nurse with whom he fell in love.

On a vacation to Mexico, he tells Jessica that he has left the Army just as they witnesses the Twin Towers fall on television and he decides his military career is far from over.

Eventually, John breaks up with Jessica and is recruited by the CIA.

Some time after that, they meet by chance in an airport, where a newly engaged Jessica gives John a final opportunity to save their relationship by asking him to ask her to wait for him; he is unable to do so.

John joins the CIA in 2005 and is recruited by the elite Special Activities Division of the CIA, by which time he is using the last name "Reese".

Born in Puyallup, Washington, Reese's real name is unknown; "John Reese" being a pseudonym he assumed at some time prior to late 2006, when he began service in the CIA.

According to his military records, John is in fact his first name, with a middle initial of H, while his last name begins with the letters TAL and ends with an S. He was born on May 1.

Little else is known about his early life.

He describes himself as having no friends and no family.

It is mentioned that his father served in the Army and died as a war hero after his fourth tour in Vietnam.

Sometime in 2006 he is partnered with Kara Stanton, and they are assigned to black ops activities by their handler, Mark Snow.

Although Reese demonstrates the skills necessary to conduct the missions to which he is assigned, he shows some hesitation to commit fully to them as he lacks the ruthlessness shown by Kara.

He gradually lets go of his inhibitions, becoming a cold-blooded killer.

Together, he and Kara participate in a number of successful missions, several of which illegally take place in the U.S., which Kara refers to as "enemy territory."

During this period Reese begins a relationship with Kara after a successful assassination.

On a break between missions, Reese, who has kept track of Jessica, meets her husband, Peter Arndt in a bar, but leaves before Peter can "introduce" Jessica to Reese.

In 2010, while on a mission in the Middle East, Reese receives a voice mail from Jessica asking him to call her.

Reese returns her call, telling her he will be with her in twenty-four hours, and to wait for him.

He requests leave but instead is sent to China on a top-secret mission by Snow.

Upon arrival in China, Reese and Stanton are briefed by Snow and a member of the National Security Council, Alicia Corwin.

Their mission is to enter an abandoned Chinese city and recover highly sensitive computer files on a laptop.

Unknown to one another, Snow tells each agent that the other has been compromised and is to be killed at the end of their mission.

Entering the city, Reese and Stanton find the workers where the laptop is believed to be kept newly dead of gunshot wounds, but they are able to safely recover the laptop.

Having completed their mission, Stanton summons their transportation with beacons, Reese contemplates killing her but decides against it.

However, before he can explain this to her, she turns and shoots Reese.

Badly injured, Reese makes his escape without shooting Stanton.

He realises Snow wants the laptop destroyed, not recovered and has acted to assure both operatives were eliminated and not risk them discovering the laptops files.

As he runs from the building, he watches it destroyed by air strike, he believes Stanton to have been killed as a result.

It's unclear how Reese found his way back to the U.S. but in February 2011, while his bullet wound is still healing, Reese goes to the hospital where Jessica works, hoping to see her.

Instead, he learns that she was killed in a car crash two months earlier.

From there he travels to her home in New York and breaks in.

He sits quietly, watching videos of Jessica while waiting for Peter to return home.