Burn Notice, Season 3

Michael:
Just because you can escape, doesn't mean you should.

Fiona:
Patricia, I want you to try something. It's a relaxation exercise I do in situations like this. I want you to close your eyes and breathe deep. Picture a peaceful mountain stream, can you do that? Now picture yourself drowning the kidnapper in the stream. You're taking a rock from the stream and raising it above your head, and with tremendous force you're bringing-

Michael:
Fi!

Detective Paxson:
Well, if you get the urge to destroy evidence, stop by; we'll be waiting for you.

Fiona:
Was that flirting or does she hate you?

Michael:
I am not her type.

Madeline:
So what you're saying is, Michael's missing his own birthday party?!

Fiona:
He's busy!

Madeline:
Busy. Busy being shot at or busy getting blown up?! Doesn't he ever take a day off? ...I mean, you know, a little consideration is all I'm asking! I'm making an effort, so should he!

Fiona:
He seems to be making progress.

Madeline:
Don't fool yourself, honey. Loving Michael is always trench warfare.

Fiona:
Getting shot sounds noble until it actually happens to you. Don't volunteer for it unless it's absolutely necessary.

Michael:
[Voiceover] To tail someone, you need both skill and instinct. You need skill because the driving is tough; you can't get too close and you can't drift too far away. You can't go too fast or too slow. You need instinct because every turn, every lane change, every bridge raises the risk of being seen. Anyone can be trained to follow a car, but it takes good instincts to know when it's time to stop following.

Brennen:
One more thing. While you're in there, phone a friend, write an email, update your facebook status. I honestly don't care, as long as you remember what really matters here. I don't get what I want, and your brother dies.

Brennan:
You're not this good. Nobody is this good!

Michael:
Yes, I am.

Fiona:
So, Randall's off to party in Cancún with my client's money.

Michael:
Look at the bright side, Fi: you weren't killed.

Fiona:
Oh, please. If a nuisance like Randall can kill me then I deserve it.

Michael:
[Voiceover] When you're being followed by the police, it's important to remember that having cops around is a problem for criminals, but it's an even bigger problem for a detective trying to remain inconspicuous on a stakeout.

Michael:
[Voiceover] Finding a way into a criminal organization is about observing social dynamics. You start with a target. You're looking for just the right person to approach. People in the inner circle are usually too tough to go after. Anyone with real power is bound to be cautious. Drivers and bodyguards are easier, but they usually don't have real access. You want someone with enough juice to be hungry for more; someone desperate to make a move. In short, you're looking for a frustrated middle manager.

Michael:
[Voiceover] To the educated eye, a prison tat tells a story: where you did time, why you did time, and who you did it with. It's a little like a job resumé for criminals.

Sam:
You ask me, there's something wrong with the world when we don't hang traitors anymore. It doesn't seem right.

Michael:
Why can't you be with me on this?

Fiona:
Talking to you is like talking to Spencer. You're both so focused on one thing it clouds everything else. It's a crazy way to live, Michael.

Michael:
I am like Spencer. We both see the world in a certain way and we both have skills to make it a better place. That's not a bad thing. I don't want to keep talking about this, so let me be straight with you. This job, what we just did, saving American lives. This is the type of work I was made for, Fi. It's what my old job gave me the chance to do every single day, so no. Getting back in isn't just a way to survive to protect the people I love. It's what I want. And if you truly care about me you should damn well want for me what I want for myself.

Fiona:
If that's what you want. I'll be with you. I'll be with you.

Michael:
Wow. That's like two days worth of yogurt.

Fiona:
Either that's a brilliantly disguised bomb or somebody knows the way to your heart.

Fiona:
I know a guy, goes by Beck. He might be able to help. He's made a lot of money for some very powerful people over there. If there's a Ukrainian in town, he'll be able to fill you in.

Michael:
Based in Miami?

Fiona:
Mmhmm. Started as local gangster, went big time. He hijacks cargo and ships it. Like FedEx, the Kalashnikov set. He's about as connected as a Miami hustler who can't speak Russian can get.

Michael:
Think you can get me a meeting?

Fiona:
You might not want me as your go-between. I may have intercepted a couple of his shipments once. Sparkling new P-90s, Michael. They deserved a good home.

Madeline:
Sam, let me remind you you're sleeping in my guestroom. All right, you call me or God as my witness I will smother you in your sleep.

Sam:
All right, all right! We'll call!

Sam:
That guy is more afraid of Checik than he is of us. We're going to have to squeeze him harder.

Fiona:
If by squeeze you mean choke...

Sam:
He can't talk if he can't breathe, Fi.

Fiona:
He can whisper. I have good hearing.

Fiona:
You don't even know this Strickler. What makes you think he has this kind of clout?

Michael:
Well that's what I need to figure out. Can we talk about something else?

Fiona:
No. We're cooking at my place, I get to choose the topic of conversation. You seriously think he's going to wave his magical spy wand and get you back in?

Michael:
It's a little more complicated than that, Fi.

Fiona:
Well, in my experience, if something seems to good to be true, it's best to shoot it just in case.

Michael:
[speaking to 13-year-old boy, Joey, in Fiona's apartment] You're going to tell us your mom's name at some point. Unless you're planning on living here.

Fiona:
I don't recommend it. I can only cook a few things and the air conditioning is iffy.

Michael:
I told the kid I would help. If you want to sit this one out, you can.

Sam:
No, no. I get it. Little kid, abusive dad, it kind of hits home, so I'll give you that one. But when the time comes to rescue a bunch of rich women trapped in a brewery, you better step up. So she's in there with Fiona?

Michael:
Yeah. The idea was that she'd feel more comfortable talking to a woman.

Sam:
I'm not sure if Fi counts, Mike.

April Luna:
What can you do that the police can't?

Michael:
You'd be surprised.

Fiona:
[after having faked being killed in a shootout] Nice fall, Shakespeare.

Sam:
Oh, you should talk. You looked like you got hit by an arrow.

Fiona:
What are you talking about? A 9 mil at this range?

Fiona:
Michael, I know I said I would go along with you on this job, but I don't want you to work with Strickler. Not now, not ever. I can't help you with this.

Michael:
It's a two person job. I need you.

Fiona:
I've seen the site. You can handle yourself. I'm not worried about that, I'm worried about you. Working with someone like Strickler, it changes you, little by little.

Michael:
He's the only one that can get me back in. What do you want me to do?

Fiona:
You do what you have to do. I understand. I just can't stay here in Miami and watch. [walks out of the apartment]

Michael:
Fi. Fi! Fiona!

Michael:
[Voiceover] There's no greater luxury in the field than working with a friend you rely on. When you find someone you can trust absolutely, you want them on every operation you do, and nothing hurts worse than losing a friend to bullets, politics or something personal. But when you have to work alone again, you lock those feelings away and do the job at hand, because as every spy knows, there's time to think about what you've lost after the mission is over.

Michael:
[V.O.] When you work as a covert operative, there's no line between who you are and what you do. You are who you need to be for the operation. It makes you effective, it keeps things simple. But when you spend so much time living with someone else, sometimes the people you care about most begin to wonder who you really are.

Michael:
You never told them?!

Fiona:
No, Michael. Not even a Glenanne would forgive me for working with an American spy. Everyone at home still thinks you're from Kilkenny.

Strickler:
You don't get to have the job and the girl! She doesn't fit into your future, our future! So why don't you do yourself a favor and forget the past?!

Michael:
Fiona is not my past. [shoots him]

Michael:
Sam, if anything happens to me-

Sam:
Oh, I'm finishing this, brother. I'm getting Fi out of there no matter what. Just don't tell her I said that.

Michael:
[V.O.] When you realize that an operation is compromised, that your enemies are on the move, you're on the clock. You have to move as fast as you can to contain the damage and harden your defenses before it's too late. Sometimes you make it in time, and sometimes you don't. When you work in intelligence, the worst feeling in the world is knowing nothing. Being caught in something you don't begin to understand, because it's not the enemy you see that gets you. It's the one you don't.

Sam:
Operation unburn Michael Westen is officially off.

Michael:
[Voiceover] The day that the cell phone call log was invented should be celebrated as a national holiday for spies. Even a cautious cell phone user who uses dialback systems or switches phones often, leaves behind a lot of information you can use.

Fiona:
Still going through that thing?

Michael:
Strickler used this phone. Chances are he used it to talk to whoever it is that's torching hotel rooms to say hello to me.

Fiona:
Have you considered turning this over to Homeland Security? They get paid for this sort of thing, you know.

Michael:
For all I know he could be working for Homeland Security.

Fiona:
What are you worried about? So your mom becomes friends with the county records lady. So what?

Michael:
You just never know how things are going to go! She's an asset. Things can get very complicated.

Fiona:
I was an asset of yours once.

Michael:
And things got complicated and people got hurt.

Fiona:
True. In my experience, people get hurt and things get complicated no matter what you do.

Fiona:
I'm working on a listening device for your meeting with Ryan later. Would you care to join me?

Michael:
I would love to.

Fiona:
You know, after the other day I never did get the chance to say- well, not that I have any doubt in my mind that I would have saved myself eventually, and I still think that your tactical approach was a little iffy, but you and Sam, you did come back for me. You gave up a lot to come back for me, whether I needed it or not.

Michael:
You're welcome, Fi.

[Silence; they nearly kiss]

Fiona:
Watch it. You're getting solder on my transmitter.

Michael:
[As cover ID Alex, to arguing thugs] Girls, girls, girls, don't fight; you're both pretty.

Gilroy:
I had to see you in action and I have to say you've lived up to your reputation. Such panache! Love the suit, who are you wearing?

Michael:
You know, you're awfully confident I won't shoot you right here. Don't be.

Rincon:
Go to hell!

Michael:
Come with me!

Fiona:
Those are some grade A sons of bitches in there. [looks through the glove compartment] Where's your gun, Sam?

Sam:
I moved it, Fi, for your own good. Look, if it'll make you feel any better, I think your trick with the bug gave us something we can use.

Fiona:
Yeah, if we can use it to bludgeon Lynch to death I'll feel much better.

Sam:
One step at a time, Fi.

Fiona:
Ooh he called him a 'pendejo', it's like idiot but ruder.

Michael:
Leave no trace. Leave no teeth.

Larry:
(laughing) Oh, that's good. That's a bumper sticker! I love that!

Larry:
You ever had one of these Cuban coffees? Cortadito! Fun to drink, fun to say.

Larry:
Michael Westen back in action? I wouldn't miss it.

Fiona:
You know, some guys take girls to the beach, concerts, farmers' markets. Ugly Polish military intelligence offices, not so much.

Michael:
Believe me, I'd rather be at a farmers' market than bribing a bureaucrat to tell me what's on a spy plane.

Fiona:
I have an idea. [Michael nods for her to continue] Instead of working with Gilroy the psychopath, instead of sneaking around to try and figure out what he wants to steal from the plane, shoot him and be done with it!

Michael:
I considered it.

[Sam is undercover as a Miami Police Department CSU tech, at the site of a fashion designer's killing.]

Sam:
Looks like murder... [takes out a pair of sunglasses and puts them on] ...is in style this season.

[Later, under the same circumstances]

Sam:
Looks like the killer's plan... [takes out the sunglasses again and puts them on] ...is coming apart at the seams.

Fiona:
For your sake, Michael, I hoped you were dead. I can put up with a lot, but four calls without so much as a text back?! That just puts me right to the edge!

Gabriel:
I think you'll recognize this, it's your file from Interpol. Tell me something, why does a nice Catholic girl with no apparent interest in politics, no history of violence, decide to join the IRA and blow up cars all over Belfast?

Fiona:
We didn't have girls soccer?

Simon:
I want my life back!

Michael:
Fine. It's yours. Take it.

Michael:
[V.O.] Work in intelligence long enough, you hang on to phone numbers. No matter who your enemy is there's a chance you'll need them tomorrow. Churchill and Stalin weren't chummy in 1941, but once the Nazis marched on Moscow they got past their differences.

Sam:
It's funny. You never really know a car until you drive it through a wall.

Agent Callahan:
Look at the file! You saw it already! Everything's there! It's documented!

Madeline:
And these are all lies!

Callahan:
I saw it with my own eyes! I saw your son attack a police officer, Mrs. Westen! He nearly killed a man! Your son shot at me! He tried to kill me! You live in a fantasy world, lady! You have no idea who your son really is!

Madeline:
I know this: if Michael wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. I know exactly who my son is!

Simon:
It's only a matter of time, now, until you're just like me. [laughs] Just like me. Just...like...me.

Agent Callahan:
Are you going to pay for your son's mistakes?

Madeline:
He paid for mine...

Fiona:
Third degree burns prevent acne but it doesn't mean you set your head on fire.

Madeline:
[To Michael's friend Harlan who has just shown up at the house] So. Harlan. Tell me about yourself. What do you do? Do you destroy houses, too?