Burn Notice (TV Series)

Hard Out (2011)

Jeffrey Donovan: Michael Westen

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  Low-tech explosives may be clumsy and unreliable, but their simplicity makes them almost impossible to trace. Sophisticated bombs, on the other hand, are more effective but require expertise and specialized components, which means the more lethal the bomb, the more you know about the man who wants you dead.

  Michael Westen : [comes in]  Any progress?

  Fiona Glenanne : [examining bomb photos]  All I know for sure is this guy is a master. A detonator wired to a depth finder. I'm a little jealous I didn't think of it myself.

  Michael Westen : [gets a yogurt from the fridge]  Jesse's contact did a chemical analysis of the C-4. It was stolen from a batch in the Soviet Union. In 1988.

  Fiona Glenanne : A dead end. So, what now?

  Michael Westen : Try accessing the U.S. counterterrorist databases, see if I can find something.

  Fiona Glenanne : Michael, you get caught breaking into Homeland Security, this bomb will be the least of your worries.

  Michael Westen : If I don't find out who framed me, I'm gonna spend my golden years in Guantanamo.

  Fiona Glenanne : I could call someone I used to know. He might be able to help.

  Michael Westen : Do I know him?

  Fiona Glenanne : No, but if you need this kind of information, he's the person to call.

• Sam Axe : Are you nuts? We're talking about robbing a weapons manufacturer! I mean, I expect crazy talk out of her, but you?

  Michael Westen : I don't like it, either, but we've hit a dead end finding out who built this bomb. Time's running out, Sam.

  Sam Axe : Well, can't you do some other favor for the guy, like mow his lawn or wash his plane?

  Fiona Glenanne : That's not how Armand works. If we want his help, we have to do as he asks.

  Sam Axe : That's funny. I heard the Devil works the same way.

• Michael Westen : Our new CIA assignment.

  Agent Pearce : Steve Cahill: lowlife who works as a go-between for bad guys around the globe. We want him.

  Michael Westen : You "want him," as in you want to extract him. Why?

  Agent Pearce : Anywhere Cahill goes, nastiness usually follows. If he's up to something, we'd like to know what it is.

  Michael Westen : Where do we find him?

  Agent Pearce : One of our agents heard him running his mouth in a Bangkok bar about some big powwow he's got on the Caribbean tomorrow. Our orders are to find out who he's meeting, record what it's about.

  Michael Westen : And we put a head bag on Cahill. How big's our team?

  Agent Pearce : [cheery]  You're looking at it. The brass wants to keep this on the way-down-low.

  Michael Westen : Agent Pearce, a snatch-and-grab like this takes at least three members: two for the target and one for the getaway.

  Agent Pearce : My bosses are willing to let me bring someone else in. The only catch is that they'd have to have a security clearance.

  [Michael gives a considered, then smiling expression] 

  Agent Pearce : Wait. You know somebody with a security clearance, don't you?

  Michael Westen : Yeah, but he's not gonna like this.

  [slide wipe to the docks with...] 

  Jesse Porter : I hope you appreciate this is my first day off since Christmas.

• Michael Westen : It's an in-an-out job in the Carribean. It's practically a vacation.

  Jesse Porter : Spoken like a man who has never taken a vacation.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  There's a reason that everyone from 17th-Century pirates to present-day drug smugglers have operated in the Caribbean:

  [camera rapidly pulls back from a boat to: "Somewhere in the Caribbean"] 

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  ... it's filled with tiny islands that are close to major ports but outside the reach of national laws. That said, the privacy that makes the islands great hiding places also makes them vulnerable. Your enemies may be able to hide from you, but you can hide from them just as easily.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Properly scouting a facility's security is a two-step process. Observing the outside will tell you about its physical defenses, but to get a complete picture of your target's manpower and security protocols, you need to get inside their walls, too.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  When you find yourself in a tough situation - like being outnumbered 20 to 1 on an island crawling with mercenaries - it's important to remember that the key to any battle is intelligence. It may be tempting to shoot first and ask questions later, but if you want to stay alive, you ask questions first.

• Fiona Glenanne : [about approaching woman in heels]  Michael, who is that?

  Michael Westen : [smiling]  That's Agent Pearce.

  Fiona Glenanne : I think you might have left out a few details when you described her.

  Agent Pearce : You must be Fiona. I read your file.

  Agent Pearce : [shakes hands]  As an employee of the U.S. government, I'm probably not supposed to say this, but... wow.

  Fiona Glenanne : Thanks. Michael told me almost everything about you.

  Agent Pearce : Oh? Well, I hope he was discreet.

  Fiona Glenanne : [chilly]  When it comes to his work, Michael takes discretion to a whole new level.

  Agent Pearce : Oh, that's just how we're trained. It used to bug the hell out of my fiancé.

  Fiona Glenanne : Your fiancé? How does he put up with it now? I could use some tips.

  Michael Westen : Her fiancé is, uh...

  Agent Pearce : [Max]  Dead. Eight years now.

  [Michael notes the official lie] 

  Fiona Glenanne : I-I'm sorry.

  Agent Pearce : That's okay. Michael, we should go. Thanks for letting me borrow him a few days.

  Fiona Glenanne : You're welcome.

  Agent Pearce : I'll take good care of him.

  [Michael chuckles nervously] 

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Destroying high-tech electronics with glorified camping equipment is tough but not impossible. The mix of nitrate and magnesium in a marine flare burns at over 3,000 degrees. With the right fuse, it'll turn an electrical system into a smoldering heap.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Getting stuck behind enemy lines is one of the hazards of being a spy. When it happens, you can either hide in the shadows and wait to get killed or you can march into the open and take your enemy head-on. It's a game of high risk, high reward. Play it right, and you might survive.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  When you're pretending to be on the same side as your enemy, it's critical to keep them from talking. The more the bad guys can compare notes, the more likely they'll second-guess your story. That's why you shut down as many forms of communication as you can. It won't make you any friends, but friends are a luxury when you're trying to stay alive.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  The quickest way to turn a security force's attention away from an outside attack is to make them thick there's an even bigger threat *inside* their facility. If you know which employees will be out of town, you can send a care package filed with metallic sodium to an empty office... Then all you have to do is set off the company's sprinkler system with a smoke bomb. If you do it right, the sodium will react with the water, and you've got the distraction you need.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Spies have long known it's a good idea to bring along a fast-acting drug when you're targeting someone for extraction. In the earliest days of espionage, that meant a rag soaked in chloroform or ether, but now it's usually a syringe of propofol. It works quicker and has fewer side effects but shares one downside with its predecessors: you still have to get close to your target to administer the dose.

  [Jesse, following closely, steps on a twig. Cahill looks around] 

  Steve Cahill : [pulling a gun]  Who the hell-!

  [Michael tackles Cahill from the right] 

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  That's why it never hurts to attack from two angles.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  As a general rule, spies prefer to steal information quietly. It's a lot easier to pay off an informant, hack a computer, or crack a safe than it is to grab something from someone who's armed and angry. But like any job, some days are just harder than others.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  When you're being interrogated in the field, it's not about holding out. Field interrogations tend to be quick and dirty and often end with a bullet to the head. The key to surviving is a good offense... When you take a swing to save your life, you swing for the fences.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  For a spy, getting someone to lie for you serves a number of purposes. it's less about the lie itself, no matter how useful it is. It's about how it changes your relationship with your target... Once a guy lies for you, for better or for worse, your fates are tied together.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  LIke good defense attorneys, spies know the facts don't always matter as much as how you sell them. Only, when lawyers lose a case, they get an appeal; when spies lose a case, they get a shallow grave.

• Suited Man : Sorry. No guns on the chopper.

  Miles Vanderwaal : We'll bring our guns if we damn well please. Unless you want to take them, of course.

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  Disarming people by force is bloody and unpleasant. Sometimes it's easier to put on a smile and just ask.

  Michael Westen : Company policy, Vanderwaal.

  Miles Vanderwaal : Then make an exception.

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  Sometimes it's easier to put on a smile and just ask.

  Michael Westen : [chuckling]  It's a corporate chopper. It's overweight as it is. Come on. It's time to celebrate. Pop the champagne, *Commander*! Come on. Let's go.

  [Vanderwaal looks around] 

  Miles Vanderwaal : [to his men]  Okay.

  Suited Man : Gentlemen...

  Miles Vanderwaal : No one mentioned you boys from The Pyramid Group were wired so tight.

  Jesse Porter : That's 'cause they're CIA. We all are, actually.

  Miles Vanderwaal : Son of a bitch.

  [Agent Pearce takes down Vanderwaal with a knee to the gut and elbows to the back] 

  Agent Pearce : How's that for something you can feel, Mr. Vanderwaal?

  Agent Pearce : [handing files to Suited Man]  Get these to the top brass at the NSA. Shouldn't be hard for them to find our leak.

  Agent Pearce : [to Michael]  Anybody ever tell you your brand of espionage is hell on the nerves?

  Michael Westen : [with upward inflection]  All the time.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  To hit a facility directly, you just need a gun and the willingness to use it. Less-bloody approaches require fewer bullets but more planning... and more recruiting.

  Madeline Westen : You want me to do *what?*!

  Sam Axe : All you gotta do is tell them that your car broke down. Ask to use the john, toss the doodad in the trash, and split. Easy peasy, no big deal.

  Madeline Westen : No big deal? You're asking me to plant a bomb, Sam!

  Fiona Glenanne : It's a smoke bomb, timed to go off after everybody leaves. Nobody gets hurt... you know, except us if you say no.

  Madeline Westen : Who's this guy who wants you to rob a-a-a weapons company?

  Madeline Westen : Don't bother. Fi hasn't been too forthcoming about this Armand guy.

  Madeline Westen : You want me to get anywhere near this, you better start talking, honey.

  Fiona Glenanne : [sighs]  Armand got me out of Ireland when nobody else could: passport, visa, cash. But his help wasn't free.

  Madeline Westen : What does that mean: "wasn't free"?

  Fiona Glenanne : Well, my price for my ticket to the U.S. was lookout duty on a job in Belfast. Turns out that job was a kidnapping.

  Madeline Westen : Okay. Who was kidnapped? Jesus.

  Fiona Glenanne : Not an angel... but nobody who'd done any harm to me. I-I didn't know until after.

  Fiona Glenanne : [inhales deeply]  Armand kept his word. He always does.

  Sam Axe : Look, the point is, if we're gonna find out who framed Mike for murder, we got to heist that place, Maddy.

  Fiona Glenanne : And we'd like to do it without killing anyone, so...

  Madeline Westen : So, fine. I'll do it.

• Michael Westen : Sorry I'm late. Pearce and I had a... debrief at the Agency.

  Fiona Glenanne : It's fine. How was your mission?

  Michael Westen : It was, uh, rough. I mean, it worked out, but, uh...

  Fiona Glenanne : [finishes for him]  You can't talk about it. Whatever. The lead on your bomber.

  Michael Westen : [Michael takes the envelope]  How'd the job go?

  Fiona Glenanne : Does it matter? You got what you needed.

  Michael Westen : [leans in, concerned]  Fi... what's going on? Did something happen with Armand?

  Fiona Glenanne : Ohh. Now you're full of questions. A lot happened with Armand. Years ago back in Ireland in the bad, old days.

  Michael Westen : Were you and he, uh...

  Fiona Glenanne : Yes, we were, Michael. Until I found out that he had "paid" to meet me by doing a favor for some of my associates. He killed a British customs agent, if you're curious. Quite a romantic gesture, don't you think?

  Michael Westen : I didn't know that, Fiona.

  Fiona Glenanne : No. You didn't. Ignorance is bliss.

• [last lines] 

  Madeline Westen : Oh, there they are. Hi!

  [Madeline chuckles] 

  Madeline Westen : Benny, may I introduce my son, Michael?

  Benny : Michael.

  Madeline Westen : And he very special lady, Fiona.

  Benny : My pleasure.

  Benny : [to Madeline about her chair]  Here, let me get that for you.

  Madeline Westen : Oh, thank you.

  Benny : Mm hmm.

  Madeline Westen : Dinner is my treat. Benny actually sat through an entire stretching class with me today, so I owe him.

  Benny : It was a blast - in a "I hope we never have to do it again" kind of way.

  [Benny laughs] 

  Madeline Westen : I knew it. You are so bad!

  Benny : Michael, your mom has told me so much about you.

  Fiona Glenanne : Well, I took the liberty of ordering some wine. May I?

  Benny : Please.

  [both chuckle] 

  Benny : How about a toast from the young lovebirds? What do you say?

  Madeline Westen : [raising her glass]  Yes. Michael, a toast.

  [Fiona holds up her glass and looks at Michael sternly] 

  Michael Westen : To supportive partners.

  Fiona Glenanne : Ohh. Supportive partners.

  Madeline Westen , Benny : Supportive partners.

  [Michael and Fi wait a moment, then drink]