The series revolves around a computer program for the federal government known as "The Machine" that is capable of collating all sources of information to predict terrorist acts and to identify people planning them.
A team, consisting of John Reese, Harold Finch and Sameen Shaw follow "irrelevant" crimes: lesser level of priority for the government.
In the episode, the team must save a political pollster as it appears he intends to commit a crime after his forecast is proven to be false.
According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by an estimated 9.40 million household viewers and gained a 1.5/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49.
After shooting a scam artist who tried to commit suicide by cop, Reese (Jim Caviezel) is forced by Internal Affairs to attend therapy with Dr. Iris Campbell (Wrenn Schmidt).
Finch assigns Shaw (Sarah Shahi) to investigate their new number, Simon Lee (Jason Ritter), political pollster and member of New York Governor James Murray's reelection campaign.
Shaw follows Simon to the New York State Board of Elections where she is joined by Root (Amy Acker), who is there due to the Machine.
An employee who was fired shows up with a gun, intent to kill the Election Commissioner but Shaw stops him by shooting him in the knees.
However, this gives Root a realization: Samaritan itself rigged the elections by erasing data and intends to kill Simon to tie up loose ends.
As they watch Dawson giving a speech on television, Greer and Martine discuss Samaritan's plans to gain political control.
In its original American broadcast, "Prophets" was seen by an estimated 9.40 million household viewers and gained a 1.5/5 ratings share among adults aged 18–49, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Either way though, not only was this episode inventive and action-packed, but it gave us a glimpse of some of Samaritan's larger steps toward full domination - involving controllable politicians.
"[5] Sean McKenna of TV Fanatic gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5 and wrote "There really is so much going on in the hour that manages to bring about that suspense, mystery, humor, drama and focus on characters, all while mixing the big stories with the small.