Burn Notice (TV Series)

Company Man (2011)

Jeffrey Donovan: Michael Westen

Photos 

Quotes 

• Michael Westen : [shaking Kessler's suicided body]  That's it? All this way? After all these years? That's it? *That's it*?

• Max : Glad you made it. I was beginning to wish I'd brought a magazine.

  Michael Westen : There was a guard change at the front entrance. Isn't knowing that supposed to be *your* job as senior field officer?

  ["Max" / "CIA officer"] 

  Max : Handling that, kind of your job as operative extraordinaire?

  Michael Westen : Oh, but that's not my title. Until my burn notice is officially lifted, I'm just a "civilian intelligence asset."

  ["Michael" / "CIA asset"] 

  Max : Just sayin', the way the boss talks about ya, I'd think handling a few government security guards would be a piece of cake. I think he's got a crush on you.

  Raines : [over comms]  I can hear you guys, you know. Your mics are live.

  ["Raines" / "The boss"] 

  Max : Just bustin' your chops, boss: I'm here with your favorite toy; I get jealous sometimes.

• Michael Westen : [voiceover]  One of the things you give up in intelligence is control over your own schedule. It's a little like being a doctor on call, only your emergencies tend to be thousands of miles away.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  The biggest obstacle you can face in an interrogation is yourself: when your own feelings, your own anger, your own desire for revenge are all that stand between you and the information you want. The stronger your feelings are, the hotter your hate burns, the more important it is to set it aside.

• [first lines] 

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  In the world of intelligence, taking down an entire covert network is the ultimate challenge. It's not something you can do alone.

  Michael Westen : [black-and-white flashback]  You.

  Raines : [black-and-white flashback]  Welcome back.

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  You need the resources of an entire intelligence agency behind you. You need solid intelligence that can point you in the right direction

  Michael Westen : [v.o. flashback]  That list is the key to destroying the people who burned me.

  Michael Westen : [narrative]  But that's just the starting point. You're not after an individual person; you're after dozens of people, all of them hiding, all of them with resources and skills, all of them fighting you by any means necessary. It's a gigantic jigsaw puzzle of information that requires months of research and analysis where one target leads to the next: a courier picked off the suburban street leads to a spy hiding out as a diplomat in a foreign embassy leads to a hardened group of armed assassins in another place entirely. Sometimes it's a surgical operation done with discrete teams that no one ever hears about; other times, it's all-out war; but one thing is always the same: with each piece of the puzzle, you find you understand your enemy more clearly, you penetrate the secrecy that shields people behind the scenes, working your way to the top of the network to the people pulling the strings. You keep fighting, trying to put that last piece of the puzzle in place, trying to find that last person who will give you the answers you're looking for.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  R.F.I.D. security is easy to get around with a device known in the trade as a "gecko" - complicated electronics, but a simple principle: any key can be copied, even a digital one.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  One of the most dangerous times for a spy is right after a job: your guard is down, which makes it a good time for attack by your enemies. Or, in some cases... your friends.

  Michael Westen : Fiona. Uh, Fiona. Fiona, don't you think we'd be more comfortable on the bed?

  Fiona Glenanne : [between kissing and stripping Michael]  What makes you think... that I care... if you're comfortable?

• Fiona Glenanne : My point is, we fought the people who burned you for a long time, Michael. Now they're on the run, the CIA, hunting the bastards down, and we're just out.

  Michael Westen : [softly]  I wish I could tell you, Fi. I really do.

  Fiona Glenanne : It's been six months now. Mysterious trips around the world... with Max. It just doesn't seem fair that he should get to have all the fun.

• Michael Westen : You know why they sent me in here?

  Hector Oaks : Yeah. Got a pretty good idea.

  Michael Westen : They dismantled the main camera, but... they usually have an extra one around here. Let's have a look.

  [Michael taps around the wall, opens the A.C. control panel, pulls out a fiber-optic camera and snaps it off] 

  Michael Westen : There we go. Now we can have some real privacy.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Intelligence agencies choose their foreign command centers with a few things in mind: you want a place that's near main roads, but not on them; it's best if the owner is on the payroll or is controllable in some other way; you want power for the computers, air conditioning for the meetings, and a generous late-checkout policy in case an operation goes wrong.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  When you're working under a cover I.D. overseas, it's all about the little things. The farther you are from home, the higher the stakes. That's why you study. You have to know every visa on your passport, every detail on every document, the entire history of the person you're claiming to be. It's true whether you're pretending to be a Russian spy on a foreign recruitment mission or a clueless American tourist with a bad rental car.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  When you're recruiting an asset from a hostile country, you pose as a citizen of one of your target's allies... Someone who would never help the United States, for example... might be perfectly happy to help a Russian.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  It's always a tense time right after you've made a pitch to recruit an asset on foreign soil: if they accept, you're in business; if they decline, you're in jail, which is why it's a good idea to have backup.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  Magicians and mind readers often use a technique known as "shotgunning"... in which you determine what your target is thinking by throwing a bunch of information at them and reading their reactions... It's effective for spies as well, but it's considerably harder to do with a gun pointed at you.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  The challenge of a good, large-scale field operation is to keep all parts coordinated while keeping them as separate as possible: field units are separate from transportation units, with the command unit separate from both. When things go right, they all work together as one big team... The problem with remote command centers is what happens when things go wrong:... anyone stuck in the command center is too far away to do anything about it.

• [in an improvised firefight in an enemy compound] 

  Max : Is this seriously how you do things?

  Michael Westen : When I have to!

  Max : How are you still alive?

  Michael Westen : That's a good question! I eat a lot of yogurt!

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  The most vulnerable system in any reinforced structure is typically ventilation. Holes that let in air can also let in other things, like the explosive cores of concussion grenades for example. They're a high-quality explosive and quite effective. Of course, you have to get them in place without blowing your hands off.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  As a spy, your job is intelligence... Whether you're after national-security secrets or operational information about the people who destroyed your life, the job is the same... There's no greater satisfaction than that moment when you finally get the answers you're looking for... and nothing is harder to take than having those answers forever taken away.

• Michael Westen : [narrative]  A well-trained police force knows that first priority when arriving at a scene is to establish a perimeter and lock down the area. You let them do that and, chances are, you're not getting out... That's why it's important to make sure that they have a higher priority, like dealing with a more urgent threat. If you've got enough ammunition and a good oscillating fan, you can keep them busy dealing with your gun while you're busy getting away.

• Michael Westen : So this is how it ends: a body on the ground.

  Max : Yeah, but he put a bullet in his own head and not yours.

  Sam Axe : Hey, I'll drink to that! Mike, you won! The people that burned you - the whole damn network - it's done! To new beginnings!

  [Sam, Max, and Fi cross beer-bottle necks together. Fi and Sam looks over to Michael] 

  Sam Axe : Mike, uh, you're... kinda leaving us hanging here.

  [Michael snaps out of his trance and crosses his bottle with the rest and they drink] 

• [last lines] 

  Michael Westen : I had a chance to finally get some answers, make sense out of the last four years, and that chance ended up in a body bag.

  Madeline Westen : You know, all those years I lived with your father, I used to think through millions of ways that I could confront him; everything that I wanted to say. And all of a sudden, he drops dead. That's it. You know, people talk about "closure", but I don't buy it. Somebody blasts a hole in your life, it tends to stay open.

  Michael Westen : It does, doesn't it.

  Madeline Westen : [chuckles]  So, what do you do now?

  Michael Westen : Now? Things go back to normal, I guess.

  Madeline Westen : "Normal"?

  Madeline Westen : [laughing]  What exactly is "normal"?

  Michael Westen : [smiles]  I have no idea.

  Madeline Westen : Here's an idea: why don't you fix the Charger?

  Michael Westen : This? Oh no. No, no. This is *beyond* saving.

  Madeline Westen : *Nothing* is beyond saving if you work at it. Nothing. Besides, then I could have my garage back. Want anything?

  [Michael shakes his head no. Madeline leaves. Michael lifts a corner of the tarp covering the Charger, then whips it off quickly like an adhesive bandage] 

• Sam Axe : Hey, come on back. I've got a surprise for ya.

  [Michael follows Sam out of the house. Michael's face is the edge of a beautifully executed cross-wipe transition from the kitchen to the garage] 

  Sam Axe : Okay, Mikey, three guesses what it is.

  Michael Westen : Is it- is it my car?

  Sam Axe : Ah. Give the man a prize. Now, the, uh, roof looks kind of like a tin can mauled by a grizzly bear, but the power train and the engine are still ticking, so I think it's salvageable.

  Michael Westen : Sam...

  Jesse Porter : [walks in]  Mikey.

  Michael Westen : Jesse?

  Jesse Porter : Nothing says "Welcome home" like 4,000 pounds of mangled steel, right? I wanted to take the tarp off. Sam wanted to let you do it yourself. You know, more of a dramatic unveiling.

  Michael Westen : What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in CIFA in D.C.?

  Jesse Porter : [to Sam]  I thought you told him. You didn't tell him? I thought you told him.

  Sam Axe : I didn't have time! I just saw him!

  Michael Westen : I was, but now I'm, um... now I'm not. I quit.

  Michael Westen : [incredulous]  You quit?

  Jesse Porter : I quit. You know what it is? After everything I went through with you guys, helpin' all those people, I just- I can't do the government thing anymore, man. It's too much red tape. I just- it's harder than you think, going back. You'll see.

  Sam Axe : He's got a fancy job with a private security firm down here. Big money.

  Jesse Porter : Well, the money's all right. It's not bad. Actually helped me get this bad boy out of impound, so...

  Michael Westen : Uh... thanks.

  Jesse Porter : [pause]  Sam said the car had some sentimental value, said it belonged to your dad.

  [Mike and Sam exchange looks of "You shared that?" and "What?"] 

  Jesse Porter : Um, please tell me that you *want* the car, 'cause it was actually a huge pain in my ass to get it here.

  Michael Westen : This... is great.

  Jesse Porter : Things are heating up at work, so don't expect any more favors. Enjoy this one.

  Sam Axe : Well, aren't you gonna unwrap it?

  [Mike's cellphone rings] 

• Max : What's going on here? Do we have a plan?

  Michael Westen : A plan? No. I got some tactical goals and a rough approach.