The crime drama's third season takes on a darker and edgier tone, as it opens with the Machine missing and completely self-governed. Root (Amy Acker) has been confined to an insane asylum but is in constant contact with the Machine, while Finch (Michael Emerson) finds himself in a position where he's no longer the Machine's sole human contact. Meanwhile, Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Shaw (Sarah Shahi) continue their work preventing crimes from happening with the help of their usual NYPD contact, Det. Fusco (Kevin Chapman); and Carter (Taraji P. Henson), who has been demoted from detective to a uniformed police officer, wages a very personal war against the corrupt police organization HR. At the same time, new threats against Team Machine come to light, including Vigilance--a watchdog group committed to exposing overreaching government surveillance methods--and Decima Technologies, who tried and failed to take control of the Machine in the previous season and are now going to extreme measures to bring another surveillance system called Samaritan online.