History Awesome / BurnNotice

-->'''Maddie:''' Dammit! Don't tell me what to do! [{{beat}]] You can play your father in there, but not out here, Michael.

* One for the "bad" guys: Olivia Riley, Intelligence Expert, comes out of nowhere, blows into the situation, and [[OutGambitted Out-Gambits]] Team Westen at every turn, very nearly managing to bring them down - something no other antagonist, not even [[MagnificentBastard Anson]], has been able to do.

* Fiona ''finally, finally'' (apparently) killing Larry at the end of "Dead to Rights" only giving him enough time to [[OhCrap comprehend how screwed he was]]. And then, [[MagnificentBastard Anson]] making his grand debut by ''successfully blackmailing Michael''.

* In the season six opener, [[MagnificentBastard Anson]] sends a schizophrenic former soldier to Maddie Westen's house in an attempt to get Michael off his back. Team Westen sends Jesse and the Miami PD rescue her, but the soldier kills the cop who shows up before Jesse gets there. Jesse gets ambushed, disarmed, and held at gunpoint within minutes...only to be saved by Maddie, who shoots the soldier with a shotgun. Through the attic floor.

** First, when Sam is trying to break Milovan, Milovan stonewalls Sam, then gets the better of the interrogation by turning it around and starting to dissect Sam, accurately guessing Sam's military background, and smashing Sam's BerserkButton by talking trash about Sam's military service. Sam gets so furious that he briefly loses concentration and gets too close to the prisoner, and in about 2 seconds Milovan literally spits in Sam's eye, burns Sam with a lit cigarette, and then takes away Sam's gun. Thankfully Sam and company were smart enough to make sure that the gun was unloaded and only Sam's backup piece (which Milovan didn't know about and couldn't reach even if he did) was loaded, because otherwise in the span of a couple of seconds, despite being a prisoner for days and shackled during the entire incident, Milovan would have killed his captor.

** The moment Michael flips from panicked and angry ex-boyfriend to TranquilFury-fueled spy on a RoaringRampageOfRescue, accompanied by a musical sting. Hell, Michael's last words to Strickler is one of this troper's favorite lines in the entire series.
--->'''Michael''': Fiona's not my past.

* In "Turn and Burn" Michael walks into a situation where his client, a hostess [[spoiler: and undercover DEA agent]] who is being stalked by a cartel soldier is beating her and holding both Michael and the client at gunpoint, thinking from some phone records that they're sleeping together. The soldier is in a savage rage and close to shooting both of them. With a few sentences and [[RefugeInAudacity playing his role even harder]], Mike ends the conversation with the cartel soldier frantically apologizing to his "girlfriend" and arranging for a face-to-face meeting with the cartel boss himself.

* "Bad Breaks" is pretty much a whirlpool of awesome for everyone. The woman Sam's courting seems largely unfazed by his side job, Bly's return, [[spoiler:Michael using the baddie's tools and random stuff found in a bank office against them to the point that they think the bank is literally cursed, Sam's bluff as a scary underground criminal king pin, Michael's quiet little speech,[[note]]''"There's a place between life and death, it's amazing how long a man can linger there."''[[/note]] and Fi blowing up the truck and then sipping coffee.]]
* "Lesser Evil", the S2 finale. [[spoiler:Michael and Victor working together, Fi sniping Carla, Sam and Madeline blowing up Madeline's house ''by MacGyvering Christmas tree lights'' to make their escape, Madeline sending Sam back to save Michael, and Michael basically going "screw you" by jumping out of the chopper into the sea ''miles'' from Miami.]]
--> '''[[spoiler: Management]]''': You want out? There's the door! But you have no idea the kind of hell waiting if we stop protecting you!\\

'''Michael''': ...I'll take my chances. [[spoiler: (He jumps out of the helicopter.)]]
* Sam and Michael's reverse-interrogation of a diamond smuggler who kidnapped a little boy in 3x02, "Questions and Answers". [[spoiler: Sam plays a corrupt cop who enlists the kidnapper to "help him interrogate" a druggie who supposedly has information about a plan to double-cross the kidnapper. Michael is the druggie. The actual interrogation is one big masterful game of XanatosSpeedChess between Michael and Sam pretty much making the entire thing up on the spot, culminating in Michael "escaping" to save the boy and Sam [[MexicanStandoff tricking]] the kidnappers into shooting each other.]]
** That episode also had a Crowning Moment for the ''client'' (the boy's father, whom the kidnappers were trying to leverage into giving them info to pull off a heist): [[spoiler: The father has to set up a meeting with the kidnapper so that Sam and Mike can ID the guy. One glance in the wrong direction, and the kidnapper might realize he's being watched. The father, a civilian with NO training in withstanding forceful methods, takes a beating without slipping up. The only person he looks at is the kidnapper, and the determined look on his face as he looks him in the eye and tells him he's told no-one is downright inspiring. Michael's voice over even comments on it with a tone of respect. Some PapaWolf methods are subtler than others.]]

* Third season episode, "Shot in the Dark". First, [[spoiler: Michael manages to convince a car thief that one of the previous owners is trying to kill both of them.]] Next, [[spoiler: he talks the thief into hiring a couple of mercenaries, helpfully played by Sam and Fiona. Then, they wear and set off a bunch of exploding blood packs to make the thief think the non-existent killers just offed all three of them - and he's next.]] Finally, [[spoiler: when the thief and his gangster brother return to the scene of the "crime", Michael is there pretending to be a priest, worried sick about the now-hysterical thief's mental breakdown. Cue the thief bolting out of the mission accusing random people (Sam and Fi incognito, of course) of being the killers he hired.]]

* In "Long Way Back", the S3 half-finale, there's [[spoiler: Michael's distraction of O'Neill by driving the Buick off a roof; Michael shooting Strickler twice in what seems like the blink of an eye; and Sam and Michael's RoaringRampageOfRevenge to get Fiona back.]]
** The moment Michael flips from panicked and angry ex-boyfriend to TranquilFury-fueled spy on a RoaringRampageOfRescue, accompanied by a musical sting. [[spoiler: Hell, Michael's last words to Strickler is one of this troper's favorite lines in the entire series.]]
--->'''Michael''': [[spoiler: Fiona's not my past.]]

* And in "Devil You Know", the S3 finale, we have [[spoiler: Michael escaping from the city-wide manhunt; Fiona and Sam defusing a bomb together; Michael saving Management's ass; and Madeline ''bitchslapping an FBI agent.'']] Maddie's moment in particular manages to be awesome, heartwarming, and nightmare fuel all in one:

* At the end of "Blind Spot", [[spoiler:Sam casually tells the mark, Charles, that he's been drugging him and stringing him along to get his money. Then he tells him that he's told the mark's money manager-who the mark recently pissed off and threatened to blackmail-where Charles is. Then he kicks Charles out of the limo they're in, leaving him stranded in the middle of Miami with no money, no one to turn to, and someone gunning for him.]]

* [[spoiler:Jesse's EleventhHourRanger moment]] in "Guilty as Charged", [[spoiler: shooting Michael through the shoulder to save his life]].
** And in the following episode, "Eyes Open", [[spoiler:his CuttingTheKnot moment when he blows up a MadBomber who was about to try and go out in a blaze of glory, to save the cops who he would've killed along with himself. Then he does an UnflinchingWalk.]]
--->'''Jesse:''' [[spoiler:Sometimes you got to put the rabid dog down.]]

** Let's not forget about Nate Westen in the A-plot either -- first hotwiring and driving off with a stolen [[CoolCar '69 GTO]] [[BigDamnHeroes just in time]] to keep both Michael and the [[VictimOfTheWeek Client of the Week]] from being executed, '''then''' [[spoiler: disassembling said car, and ''reassembling it, piece by piece, right in the VillainOfTheWeek's own backyard'' in order to [[FramingTheGuiltyParty frame the guilty party]]]]. Badass takes on many different forms.

** Sam getting not one, but TWO BigDamnHeroes moments. First, when he [[spoiler: has a sniper sight on Larry, allowing Michael to get away and daring Larry to make a move]]. Second, when [[spoiler: he brings the cavalry (at least a battalion of armed forced guys) to the abandoned hotel where Fi and Michael are about to make a suicide attempt at an escape, Jesse is badly injured, and Maddie is being held hostage by Vaughn. He then punches out Vaughn, which someone has needed to do all season]].
** Maddie [[spoiler: blackmailing Congressman Cowley again]] and then later, [[spoiler: spitting in Vaughn's face]].
*** Can't forget [[spoiler: her attempt to sacrifice herself so her son won't come save her, lying about her condition]].
** Fiona's [[spoiler: suicide run to be with Michael when she thinks they're both going to be killed by Vaughn's men]].
** Jesse, [[spoiler: on a leg that was impaled by a rebar, pulling a Last Stand with Michael and Fiona]].
** For this troper, the most awesome part of the episode is when the hotel's phone rings. [[spoiler: There stands Michael, Jesse and Fi trapped with about three guns between them. Outside stands an army of special forces with millions of dollars of equipment backing them up. Jesse's slowly bleeding out, and Vaughn is calling to let them know exactly how screwed they are. Michael's answer? "Bay View Hotel, how may I direct your call?"]]

* Maddie's entire bravura performance in "Bloodlines". Not only does she successfully convince the Yakuza hostage that she's a fellow victim and nurse, she [[spoiler: does so while being smacked around by Michael in full Frank-Westen impression and successfully stages an "escape" to get the Yakuza to lead Team Westen to his hideout]]. Maddie is starting to put everyone else to shame with her dedication to the job.
** At the end, she even manages to get him to [[spoiler: tell her the address of the warehouse and the password to enter, and then Mike gives her a gun to cover him with after she reveals that she was tricking him]]. Her smile as she says "I think I can handle that." is the icing on the cake.

* Even though [[spoiler: he's revealed to be a DirtyCoward in the end]], James's operative Ben has one utterly darkly awesome moment. In "Bitter Pill," the team captures the terrorist who poisoned a diplomat, and are trying to get him to give up the antidote. Ben reveals that he has no interest in playing nice by ''injecting the man with his own poison'' to motivate him. Sure it's disturbing just how quickly he's willing to stoop to such a thing. But it's also ridiculously badass.
* [[spoiler: "This one's for my boys."]]
* Michael and the team working together to secure their futures. After all the arguing and disagreements, they put aside their differences to make things right and take down James successfully.

* And in "Devil You Know", the S3 finale, we have [[spoiler: Michael escaping from the city-wide manhunt; Fiona and Sam defusing a bomb together; Michael saving Management's ass; and Madeline ''bitchslapping an FBI agent.'']]

--->'''Bly:''' How can you tell?
--->'''Fiona:''' Because I know explosions. And I know Michael.

** Heck, you know it's going to be awesome when it starts with Fi running out of a cloud of smoke in slo-mo and sliding across the floor on her knees to get in a low blow with improvised weapons. The fact that it was Gabrielle Anwar doing it in full view and not a stunt double makes it even better since it adds a more visceral feel to the fight due to the lack of quick cuts.

* Madeline's "interrogation" of the pilot in "The Hunter". Guy withstands all of Sam's experience and Fiona's threats, but facing a very angry mom who [[BewareTheNiceOnes never, ever raises her voice]] and offers him a cigarette? Madeline walks back with the information they need. Sam and Fi's dumbfounded looks when she walks calmly back into the kitchen (while they're still arguing over how to break the guy) would be epic enough, but her follow-up line just pushes it over into CrowningMomentOfAwesome:

-->'''Jesse''': ''(Adamantly)'' '''[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Yeah. They are.]]'''

-->'''Riley''': These people aren't your family, Jesse.

* An OffscreenMomentOfAwesome for a villain in 4x03, "Made Man." Team Westen needs to bring down a mob boss named Tony, so they convince the boss they've got an army to back him up, so he goes after his rival Gio. They ambush the rival's car, and Tony gets out and confronts Gio and three of his bodyguards. Midway through the confrontation, the "army" packs up and drives off, leaving Tony standing there alone facing down four men with guns and strong opinions. The scene ends with [[BolivianArmyEnding Tony raising his weapon and opening fire in a blaze of enraged defiance.]] And at the end of the episode, it is said that Tony was arrested for killing Gio, meaning that he ''survived'' a gunfight with four armed opponents by himself with no vehicle, backup, or cover.
* Natalie the thief finally getting caught.
-->'''Fiona''': Clean yourself up. You look like hell.

** Sam ''taking a police officer hostage'' to get him to where he needs to be to FrameTheGuiltyParty, all out of loyalty to a fallen friend.

-->'''Michael''': You never heard of me because I've never been caught. I've never been caught because I'm careful. That means if a junkie loser comes to me with a deal, I'm smart enough to kill him before he starts jawing off. Just like when a dirty cop comes to me with a deal, that dirty cop doesn't get to walk away! ("Tosses lighter into a ring of gasoline, surrounding the pair within a wall of fire.")

** Really, the only downside to this and other incredibly cool scenes the team put on during the course of a job, is that, as Michael states later in the episode, the stunts sometimes work a little ''too'' well on the mark, rendering them paranoid or awestruck depending on circumstance. Still, you don't want to pass up the opportunity to show off your awseome acting chops while on the job!

** [[spoiler: Hell, Michael's last words to Strickler is one of this troper's favorite lines in the entire series.]]