Burn Notice (TV Series)

Hot Spot (2009)

Jeffrey Donovan: Michael Westen

Photos 

Quotes 

• Michael Westen : [narration]  There are a couple of ways to make a car bullet resistant. $60,000 dollars worth of titanium siding will do the job. Or you can pick up a couple extra copies of the yellow pages from your local phone company. Most non-armor-piercing bullets will only penetrate a phone book to the depth of an inch or two. Behind a layer of steal, it's more like a 1/4 of an inch. Commercially available foam sealants will keep your tires rolling long enough to get you out of danger. For the windows, dual-layer high-density Plexiglas is your best bet. It's expensive, but bullet-proof glass is not the sort of thing you skimp on.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  The actual theft of a car isn't difficult. The hard part is selling it once you have it. Between the license, registration, tax records, and VIN numbers, it's surprisingly hard to turn a car into cash. The best approach is to start with clean paperwork on another car from out of state. Then match the stolen car to the clean paperwork. That means new VIN tags, and a new registration. And in case someone decides to check closely, some hydrochloric acid and a file will make the etched VIN number on the car chassis impossible to read.

• Michael Westen : [delivering thugs bound & gagged]  Do you like my going-away present?

  Felix Cole : You call this a present?

  Michael Westen : Yeah, they're alive.

• Michael Westen : I'm new to Miami, but are most people that stupid here?

• Carla : What do you think will happen to you if you don't deliver?

  Michael Westen : Same thing that will happen to you, I suppose.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  There's a reason armies wear uniforms, even though they make them easier to spot. Sometimes that's what you want. Uniforms suggest organization, power, and numbers. These, in turn, inspire fear. And as any good operative knows, there's no more effective weapon than fear.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  "Blitzkrieg," or "lightning war," was a strategy pioneered by the Germans in World War II. It refers to a fast attack designed to inspire fear and confusion, penetrating quickly behind enemy lines.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  Target selection is one of the least glamorous but most important elements in any strategy. You want to take out the people your opponent depends on - the ones his organization can't function without.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  There's an element of theater in any offensive campaign. It's not just about bullets and bodies - killing people usually creates more problems than it solves. It's about undermining your enemy's will to fight, destroying the morale of his troops, sending the message that fighting back is useless because the battle is already lost.

• Michael Westen : [admires Felix's car]  Nice car.

  [pauses] 

  Michael Westen : It's too bad, really.

  Felix Cole : What's too bad?

  Michael Westen : [narration]  Pepper grenades are used by anti-terrorist units to disable and stun. Not lethal, but a face full of pepper gas will keep you pretty busy.

  Michael Westen : No, no, no. Don't go anywhere. The party's just starting.

  Felix Cole : [Sam shoots out Felix's tires]  What the hell, man? No!

  Michael Westen : [narration]  Melting through the engine block of a car isn't hard if you know what you're doing. A few pounds of thermite in a coffee can and a fuse will do the trick and put on a pretty good show.

  [Fiona lights a thermite charge on the hood of Felix's car] 

  Michael Westen : Felix.

  [taunting] 

  Michael Westen : Felix. Felix, over here.

  [short pause] 

  Michael Westen : It's time for you to leave Miami.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  When you need to get into a building in a hurry, you can always count on a fire exit. Every building has them. It's just about knowing how to use them. The right shape charge will put a big enough dent in a steel door to disengage the lock, which can turn a fire exit into a convenient and unexpected entrance. A coil of detcord attached to a rubber mat will give you the explosion you need and allow you to point it wherever you need it to go. S.W.A.T. teams call it a hockey puck.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  Countless wars have been fought over misunderstanding - tragic mistakes, misperceptions that turn people against each other forever.

  Felix Cole : That's Corey's car. Let's do this.

  Michael Westen : [narration]  Of course, it's not so tragic when you're the one creating the misunderstanding.

• Michael Westen : [narration]  When you booby trap someone else's place, you put the trigger in the door or just inside so the odds of tripping it are much higher. If you rig your own place, the trigger has to be farther inside so you can safely enter. A trip wire is a quick and dirty version, but a contact plate under the rug is completely undetectable. Put a little accelerant on the walls... there's a reason they call it a firetrap.