History BurnNotice / TropesAToH

** Michael starts off as a superspy with a grudge and a strong desire to get back to work as a superspy so that he can serve his country. The longer he stays burned, the more disillusioned he becomes. When he ''finally'' gets back with the CIA in season six, it's only to save someone else, and by the end of the series, he's disavowed spy work entirely after experiencing the darker shades of gray of the spy world (and [[spoiler: the lack of effort to prevent it on the part of the CIA]].

* {{Homage}}: Simon is a modified version of [[Film/TheDarkKnight Heath Ledger's Joker]]. Simon's actor (Garrett Dillahunt) isn't playing him as a carbon copy, but it is impossible not to catch on to several cues: setting up bombs using store-bought incendiary ingredients, nuzzling his head against the barrel of a loaded gun being held by someone willing to pull the trigger, [[spoiler:the casual way he shoots Management's bodyguard and the way he laughs hysterically when his arch rival ultimately refuses to kill him.]]

--> '''Jesse''': Some guys can watch a dude smack his girlfriend around in a bar. Some guys can't.

* AbusiveParents: While there was some family love, Michael's father was not a good guy at all (a little scar next to Michael's eye is his biggest memory of him). It's mentioned that Frank Westen was the main reason Michael left for the army at 17, and why he rarely came home to visit before he got burned. While Michael loves his Mom, Madeline was also abused (while insisting they still had a decent household). These are some of the primary reasons behind all of their present day issues with each other.

--> '''Larry:''' Well it's nice to see you too, Michael, and Sam! I also see you... seriously, pal, we do twenty missions on three continents and this is how you greet me?
--> '''Michael:''' Well, that was before you [[FakingTheDead faked your own death]] and came back [[InLoveWithYourCarnage without a]] [[BloodKnight soul.]]

* AirVentPassageway: Mocked. Michael points out that air vents are a poor method of escape because most are far too small for adults to fit in. Only people with very small and slender frames (like Fiona in the season 4 premiere), can use them effectively.

-->'''Sam:''' No, Madeline, I DON'T want a beer!
-->'''Madeline:''' ''({{beat}})'' Okay. This ''is'' serious.

* AnalogyBackfire: Jesse tries to get Maddie excited about helping on a job (robbing a bank).
--> Jesse: What do you say, Mrs. Westen? Feel like playing Bonnie and Clyde?\\

** Veers into CMOF when Jesse takes the look in stride and again tries to get her excited again in typical guy fashion (including an attempt at a fist bump). Maddie ends up shaking his fist while Jesse comments to Michael that she's his partner in crime with a goofy smile on his face.

-->'''Michael''': ''(in voiceover)'' Some of history's greatest battles were sieges in which small armies took on much larger forces. Unfortunately, sieges don't make great stories because the smaller force won. They make the history books because the little guys fought well before they died.

** A lot of Michael's voice overs during the episodes tend to be like this

-->"There's a few things I'm good at. Tactical analysis, hand to hand combat, I'm a decent cook."

-->'''Mike''': Southern Nigeria isn't my favorite place in the world. It's unstable, it's corrupt, and the people there eat a lot of terrible-smelling preserved fish.

--> '''Mike:''' ''(on being a spy)'' You sign up for the lifestyle, or the chance to serve your country, or the millions of frequent-flyer miles.
** In the season 5 pilot, a rare non-{{RuleOFThree}} example:
--> '''Agent:''' How was the flight?\\

* TheArtifact: The opening narration refers to Fiona as "a trigger-happy ex-girlfriend." She hasn't been "ex" for a long time now.
** Odd when you consider that Sam went from "friend who's informing on you" to "friend who used to inform on you" in the middle of the first season.
** And as of the 6th season premiere, the ex part has finally been dropped and added Jessie as "...and a down and out spy you met along the way."

** [[spoiler: By the end of the series, however, the title makes sense again: Michael has ''willingly'' defied the CIA and has become disillusioned. Though he makes it out with his skin intact, it's only by making everyone think he's dead. As a result, he's effectively burned for the rest of his life: showing up on any intelligence radars means he'll be put down, hard, so he's out of the spy game just as he was at the beginning of the show, but this time, with no way back and more importantly, no desire to go back.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In "Breach of Faith", TheTeaser involves Fi and Jesse in a suspiciously Jamaica-like Bahamas, down to the very incorrect accents, and unlikely cars, and lack of the usual coral paint on what's supposedly a government building. Strangely, the police uniforms were more or less correct by default, but [[http://www.flickr.com/groups/jamaicanpolice/ most cops]] [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/scmikeburton/4702043726/ in the Caribbean]] [[http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000004/000441.htm use the same]] basic uniform in the first place. [[http://www.burnnoticelocations2.org/page23.html As it happens, it was all filmed in Florida]].

* AssholeVictim: The crew ends up blackmailing a Cayman Island banker to retrieve an obscene amount of money under threat of alerting some of his dangerous clients regarding some shady banking behavior. It escalates to the point where the guy has to use their help to fake his death and go on the run.
** Pretty much all of the villains are this. Michael's tactics are sometimes downright cruel, to the point where they have to be Asshole Victims in order to keep the protagonists sympathetic.
** Hell, half the fun of the series is watching professional spies utterly ruin the sleaziest and most assholish criminal scum in Miami.

* AxCrazy: Larry, one of Michael's old spy partners, is a complete psychopath who won't hesitate to kill anybody in his way.

* BadassBoast:
-->'''Madeline''' (being interrogated): "If my son wanted to kill you, ''you'd be '''dead'''. ''
** There's also this doozy from Michael:
-->'''Michael''' (after being by a rogue agent why she should trust him): Until he met me, [[spoiler:Anson Fullerton was running an international conspiracy with hundreds of operatives and billions of dollars.]] And then I swore to take him down. Now, [[spoiler:he's]] hiding in some spider hole under an assumed name and you're all he has left. So you go ask him if I keep my promises.

* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: Despite [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim Fiona's standard line]], very few enemies are actually directly killed by Team Westen - far more, however, [[InvokedTrope are set up in a position]] where their co-villains want to kill them due to them either fouling up the plan or being made to appear disloyal.

* BatmanGambit: Explicitly stated as a method of choice for spies. Michael falls for a few himself. Michael himself is remarkably proficient: he's responsible, by proxy, for the majority of the {{Karmic Death}}s on the show. WordOfGod talks about why this works so well for the team. In short, most of the time, Team Westen usually needs the villains (or whomever) to want to do something they don't want to do (show them their defenses, reveal the money, etc). So they manufacture a story and situation where the only logical choice is to do what they don't want to do.

* BattleCouple: According to Seymour, Michael and Fi are 'a smoking hot action couple'. Of course, Michael and Fiona say otherwise, but they might be protesting too much.

* BeardOfSorrow: In "Good Soldier", Michael adopts the persona of an alcoholic and stops shaving.

* BecomingTheMask: Michael notes that this is a very real danger with long term undercover missions. If you have to pretend to be an alcoholic ex-spy long enough, you end up becoming an alcoholic ex-spy.

-->'''Sam''':[[spoiler:You're not just helping them, you're one of them!]]\\

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler: "Evelyn" (Lucy Lawless)]]
** This trope is played with in case of [[spoiler: Victor. He prefers Michael to do the deed instead of letting The Management's goons get to him]].
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Michael is easily the most level-headed of the group, but aside from having a sore spot for abused children, the only time he has been willing to kill someone is when Sam, Fiona, Madeline or Nate are in trouble.
--> Michael: ''"Fiona is not my past!"''

* BitchInSheepsClothing: While Madeline may love her sons and put up with the trouble they get into, she is a horrible mother and person in general. Early on she tries to justify Frank smacking Mike around and openly blames Mike for leaving an abusive home. Rubbing salt in the wound she openly compares Mike to his abusive father. Yet blames him whenever he's forced to make a hard decision. And of course she is more than willing to manipulate Mike into doing what she wants. All while trying to portray herself as the strong woman who kept the family together.
** Then of course there's last season where [[spoiler: she dumped 99% of the blame for death of Mike's brother on him.]] And then Season 7 where she decided to rant about how Nate was always such a terrible son and person, going directly against Nate's actual characterization and how she treated him [[spoiler: [[SpeakIllOfTheDead up until his death.]]]] It's very hard to empathize with her, even though she ''is'' just as much a victim of Frank's abuse. Especially since she is in such denial about it. She tries to atone for it by taking care of Nate's son, making sure she doesn't make the same mistakes raising him like she did with Michael and Nate.

* BondOneLiner: Sam gets one ("Honey, I'm home.") to Fi after taking out a guy hard enough to break a hole into one side of a wall during a minor [[BigDamnHeroes Big Damn Heroes]] moment.

* BoundAndGagged: Fiona, almost exclusively.

* BoxingLesson: In the pilot.

* BreakTheCutie: In "Devil You Know", the FBI homes in on Madeline, showing her pictures of murders and acts of terrorism Michael has supposedly carried out. She never once gives Michael up, but at the end of the episode, Madeline believes that Michael's been either put in jail or killed.

* BrickJoke: Michael tries to convince Libyan operative Anwar to get the attention of Philip Cowan; one of his suggestions was having the head of the Libyan Secret Police send him a fruit basket. Fast forward to the end of the episode and we find out that's exactly what Anwar did.

--> "He's ''Michael Westen''! There are only ''four'' of us!"
* BriefAccentImitation: Michael does this on the fly when he needs to. One notable example has him talking to Fiona about the Irish cover ID he had when they met, dropping the accent when he mentions the need to [[BecomingTheMask put past cover [=IDs=] behind him.]]

* BulletproofHumanShield: Used by Michael in "Game Change."

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Barry.

* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Fiona does this to a drug dealer in "Neighborhood Watch"(4x05), injuring his hand in the process.
** Done earlier with Larry, when he's trying to kill a gagged Jack Yablonski. His hand gets injured as well.
* BurnerPhones: ''Everyone'' in the show uses burners constantly.[[note]]Ironically, the name of the show actually has nothing to do with burners--it refers to a notice sent to intelligence agencies stating that an operative has gone rogue and is not to be trusted.[[/note]] It's probably impossible to identify a single episode in the seven-season show that ''doesn't'' have at least one shot of someone throwing away a cell phone; as Madeline puts it, "You go through those things like toothpicks." In "Trust Me" (S2E3), the client-of-the-week is so short on cash that he asks if he can pay Michael in cell phones from his shop, and Michael grins, "Yeah, I can find a use for them."

--> David: ''"So what? You just snap your fingers and the dealers disappear?"''\\

-->'''Michael''': Where am I?\\

--->'''Madeline:''' What about me, Michael? All these years, and finally, I see what you do. You tell me I have to leave town at a minute's notice. I can't talk on the phone, we're being chased by men with guns. How am I supposed to deal with this?
--->'''Mike:''' All these years you wondered why I didn't come home, why I didn't call. ''This'' is why, Mom. I never ''wanted'' this for you. I'm ''sorry''.
--->'''Madeline:''' ''({{beat}}; somewhat mollified)'' Well, it still doesn't explain why you didn't write.

* CaptainObvious: The subtitles stray into this trope at points.
* CarChaseShootOut:
** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E1Pilot Pilot]]": Michael is fired from his job at the CIA in the middle of meeting a Nigerian underworld figure and flees on a stolen dirt bike with {{mooks}} chasing him in a car and firing at him. The pursuers screw up and crash into a market stall, and get surrounded by a crowd of angry and heavily armed bystanders, ending the chase.
** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E16LesserEvil Lesser Evil]]": Michael and Victor get into a car chase against some of Carla's [[TheMenInBlack suits]]. Michael fires behind them to discourage pursuit, resorting to firing ''under'' the other car to ricochet bullets up through the floorboards. The agent isn't discouraged, so Michael {{MacGyver|ing}}s a makeshift incendiary grenade out of [[AndSomeOtherStuff Some Other Stuff]] in his glovebox. The agent [[DeadlyDodging dodges into a pile of dirt]] and flips his car.
* CasualDangerDialogue: In "Split Decision" as Michael is being threatened by an arms dealer whom he has just given to the police.
-->'''Michael:''' "Dead, dead, dead, dead; yeah I know."
* CasualHighDrop: This is lampshaded when Michael's narration explains that only someone very badass or very desperate will jump off a building to avoid pursuit. If you do jump off and don't get seriously killed, you are usually in the clear since an average pursuer is not going to be badass or desperate enough to follow you. It is then subverted right after when we see that while Michael indeed escapes by jumping off the roof of a building, he ends up hurting his leg in the process.
* CatchPhrase: "I'll see what I can do."
** Hijacked by Madeline in "Neighborhood Watch": "He'll see what he can do."
** "Welcome to Miami," to a lesser extent.
** Also "better than he deserves". Usually when Michael's BatmanGambit ends up with the VillainOfTheWeek detained instead of killed.
** "I want my life back."
*** In an [[IronicEcho ironic twist]] in the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler:Simon - the man who actually committed all the crimes that were pinned on Michael to form the basis of his burn notice - uses this same phrase to express his dissatisfaction that Michael has been given the credit for ''his'' deeds.]]
** Larry has "Some people live, some people die." As well as "kiddo".
** Not really a "phrase", per se, but Michael often does his signature low whistle when he sees a really impressive office/gun collection for the first time.
** Fiona seems to be getting there with "I'll get my C-4."
** Jesse has one he tends to use in various covers where someone will say "It's not (denial/anger/etc)." and he'll just make a 'Oh really?' look and respond "It sounds like (denial/anger/etc) to me."
** Many of Michael's inner monologues begin with "As a spy...", with almost as many being followed up with "Of course..." to lampshade that something can go wrong, and most likely is in the given scenario.
* CaughtUpInARobbery: In "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E13BadBreaks Bad Breaks]]", Team Westen is hired to scare off a woman's stalker. When he turns up outside her workplace, Michael goes there and learns she's the assistant manager at a local bank, and that the MonsterOfTheWeek was stalking her as an excuse to case the place for a robbery that Michael, along with recurring antagonist Jason Bly, promptly get caught in. Unfortunately for the robbers, they're now up against an ex-CIA agent who's [[TheDreaded considered akin to the bogeyman]] by ''Russian Spetsnaz operators''...

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Fiona had a very thick Irish accent in the first episode. This was handwaved away when she said she was trying to blend in better in Miami. The reasons were... let's just say Gabrielle Anwar can better fake an American Accent. Her brother notices when he visits, and there's some LampshadeHanging.

* TheChessmaster: Par for the course of the average episode. Although the season 5 bad guy [[spoiler: Anson]] takes it to extremes that leave our own crew dumbfounded.
* ChewingTheScenery: Jeffrey Donovan acts his ass off with the ever-so-subtle (and occasionally, giant and sweeping) changes with every persona that he creates. Not to mention he and Creator/BruceCampbell have really good timing with each other.
** Part of it is perhaps the method that Matt Nix and Jeffrey Donovan use for all these covers. As Jeffrey mentioned in one interview, "They don't tell me what I'll be playing and I don't tell them how I'll play it." In other words, rather than trying to make Jeffrey remember a character, they allow him to act out the cover as fits the scene/his interpretation.
** And usually, the cover is some flavor of ''[[AxCrazy insane]]'', hence the scenery-heavy diet.
** One of the best examples of this trope, though, comes when Michael is being himself, not a cover identity, in "Do No Harm."
--> '''Michael:''' ''(to [[spoiler: Carla]])'' I WANT MY BROTHER OUT OF JAIL! I WANT ANSWERS!!! I want my LIFE BACK!

* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Jesse, who promised to "put a bullet through the guy who burned [him]". He does -- as part of a BatmanGambit to take out the guy with the gun to Michael's head.]]

* CityOfSpies

* CloakAndDagger
* ClosedCircle: Miami. You can count the number of times in total that Michael manages to leave it for a meaningful period of time with your fingers.
* ColdCash: [[AllThereInTheManual One of the ancillary webcasts]] explains why this is a ''bad'' idea.

* ColdSniper: All three are capable of either variant, but it usually ends up being Sam.

* ComedicSociopath: Fiona.

-->'''Fiona''': I wish our phone conversations were as flirty.
-->'''Michael''': She threatened to kill me.
-->'''Fiona''': I can do that.
* CompanionCube: In the [=S3=] summer finale, anyone else feel a stab of fear when [[spoiler:Mike asks Sam for the keys to the Buick?]]

* TheCon: Because of Michael Westen's dislike to assassinate people, he makes use of scams to make them face AFateWorseThanDeath. He's a bit of a hypocrite because if his marks get killed by other bad guys, that's fine. Sometimes, the VictimOfTheWeek having been the target of one of these by the VillainOfTheWeek is the reason they come asking Michael for help.

* ConMenHateGuns: Sometimes played straight (with white-collar crooks who often have hired muscle to do such unsavory deeds for them), but averted with others, as one con-man had a customized gun and was very willing to use it.

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Hilariously lampshaded in "Past and Future Tense", where Michael orders a Russian Spetsnaz team to surrender. When the leader doesn't comply, one of his men shouts that they're facing Michael Westen, and there's ''only'' four of them. All of the Russians except the leader immediately throw away their guns.

--> '''David''': "So, what, you just snap your fingers and the dealers disappear?"\\

-->'''Michael''': Where am I?
-->'''Fiona''': Miami.

* CoolShades: Lampshaded, even. Michael apparently got them from a guy he killed. Despite seeing them clearly broken at the start of "Do No Harm", he puts on an identical pair later in the episode. Or maybe a lens just got popped loose.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: To a certain extent, Nate Westen. Much like Michael, Nate was not exactly the model child or model citizen as an adult. However, Michael trusts him enough to let him handle pistols and protect Ma Westen against the more mundane thugs that might show up, and even brought him in on a job or two.

* DeathGlare: Larry gives great ones. They're very effective even when in a cover.

* DeconstructedTrope: So many, but the most prominent is that the show makes it clear that operatives and spies are very talented and skilled people, but they are not invincible. If you last long enough, you are just lucky with a little bit of skill (and the ability to work with people you don't like).

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Sugar. Occurs (in tandem with other influences) with Tyler Gray.

* DependingOnTheWriter: for the most part the characters are fairly consistent across the board, but it does depend on the writer whether in a single episode Michael and Fiona will actually act like an ex-spy and arms dealer or heroes who would never cross into the morally grey area. Their centers of morality and double standards do shift depending on whether its convenient for the writer.
* DepravedHomosexual: Psychopathic, lying killer Gilroy might have been heading in this direction. Hard to tell with him, what with the psychopathy and the lying making the line between this and TermsOfEndangerment hard to see. Sadly, we will never know - [[spoiler:What with him being blown up and all.]]

* DistractAndDisarm:
** [[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E1Pilot "Pilot"]]: Michael tells a man pointing a gun at him, "By the way, Vince, you're gonna have a hard time blowing my brains out with the safety on." When Vince looks at the gun to check, Michael wrestles the gun away from him, shooting Vince before saying: "What do you know, the safety ''was'' off! My mistake."
** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E12SeekAndDestroy Seek and Destroy]]": One of Michael's contacts, an ArmsDealer named Seymour, pulls a gun on him when he and Fiona gatecrash a party he's throwing to talk to him (after they {{curbstomp|Battle}} his bodyguard). Michael comments he has hollowpoints loaded, which causes the hapless Seymour to take the gun off him to try to figure out how Mike could tell. Michael immediately snatches the gun and puts Seymour in a headlock.
* DirtyBusiness: In the season two finale, [[spoiler:Michael is forced to kill an already-dying Victor so Management won't know he betrayed Carla; he is clearly very upset during and after]].

** Also explored in "Enemies Closer". Larry uses the operations that he and Michael ran in the past as a way to isolate Michael from Fiona. To paraphrase Fi, "How could you do those things/let those things happen." Michael acknowledges this later in the episode as well... but adds that ThePowerOfFriendship is letting him bury this dark side. This also adds additional insight into why Michael is so much of a pacifist at times - he is trying to redeem himself over some of the bad things he's done, participated in, or allowed to happen.

** This happens in episode 3x11, Friendly Fire - Fiona found a pair of handcuffs she apparently didn't realize Michael had.

* DivideAndConquer: Team Westen's primary tactic when dealing with groups of baddies is to try and get half of them to believe that the other half is double crossing them.

---> '''Michael:''' "I'll take a hardware store over a gun any day. Guns make you stupid. Better to fight your wars with duct tape. Duct tape makes you smart!"

* DoubleAgent: Sam, who was supposed to inform the FBI on Michael, but instead only tells them what Michael wants him to tell them. The agents involved got reassigned about halfway through the first season, letting Sam off the hook.

* DownerEnding: "Acceptable Loss". The client story succeeds as usual (the bad guy gets caught) but [[spoiler: to do so, the client - one of Jesse's friends - lets himself be murdered in order to do so. No one on Team Westen is very happy with the plan but the client was going to do so in order to allow the bad guy get caught so they help only to ensure that his sacrifice is not in vain.]]
** [[spoiler: The only reason they go along with it at all is because the client has pancreatic cancer - he has very little time left, almost all of which will be ''very'' painful.]]
** [[spoiler: "Shock Wave". Something of a WhamEpisode, as once again, the bad guy gets shot before revealing something. Also, Nate.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:Gilroy, after being built up over season 3.5 as an EvilCounterpart to Michael, gets shot and then blown up by the prisoner he was hired to free.]]

-->'''Madeline:''' You missed your father's funeral by eight years.\\

* ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler:We get Victor's backstory in the season 2 finale, which combined with the EnemyMine setup of the episode makes him much, much more sympathetic... right before Mike is forced to ShootTheDog.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Did they ever. Over seven seasons. (Although not 100% happy- see BittersweetEnding above.)

* EngineeredPublicConfession

* EstablishingShot: Generally done in a hyperkinetic way with stock Florida footage cut rapidly together, often with the show's trademark freezeframe.

* EvilCounterpart: Victor is, as Sam describes him, like Michael "but with rabies." Brennen is Mike's ''amoral'' counterpart. Gilroy is Michael's psychopathic counterpart. Larry is Michael's EvilMentor. Simon is Michael's [[ShadowArchetype dark reflection]]. Carla and Kendra are Michael's dark female counterparts. You may be noticing a theme here.
** Of these, Victor and Simon play this trope straightest for Michael, since many of the others (particularly Brennen) do not show the same type of skills (particularly physical) as Michael, but rather an equal but somewhat different intelligence.
** Charles is Sam's evil counterpart - TheCasanova type who seduces rich women, but unlike Sam, has them killed after he steals their money.
*** And his name is an obvious play on Sam's default alias, Chuck Finley.

* EvilIsEasy: The violent solutions to Michael's problems would seem to be a lot simpler than the subtle, Machiavellian plots he throws into motion. Not as clean for the gang or fun for the audience, of course.
** Subverted by frequently illustrating or explaining that while shooting the BigBad in his first appearance might be easier in the short term, it usually causes more problems in the long term, such as police response or vengeful gangsters. Typically, the client of the week asks Michael WhyDontYouJustShootHim, to which Michael gives fairly rational reasons why it's a bad idea.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: The burn notice is the only thing that keeps Michael in Miami. WordOfGod is that because of the way the shows production process is set up, shooting outside of the Miami area is inconvenient to the point of impossibility (though they have shot in the Bahamas for a couple of scenes in season four, involving Fiona and Jesse, but not Michael). Therefore, it is doubtful the burn notice will ever be taken out of play.
** At one point, Michael was willing to risk it and got a cover ID from an old friend (a former contact who only showed up in two episodes, the first and hers as a client) to go to Washington; story contrivances had the people Michael wanted to see come to him right before he was going to get on the plane, thereby keeping him in Miami.
** He got out of Miami for the Season 4 premiere, but it's rather obviously still filmed in South Florida. In any case, after one trip to an undisclosed private holding facility and a generic jungle location, it's back to Miami in time for the first commercial break.
** As of the season 4 finale, it looks like this is [[spoiler: averted and Michael is back in!]]

-->'''Sam''': You think your daughter would want you to get yourself killed?
-->'''Claude''': That is exactly what my friends said when they convinced me not to go to the prison, to demand Veronique's release. That is how they convinced me not to go to the newspapers. I failed her once. I will not fail her again.
-->'''Sam''': You were not responsible...
-->'''Claude''': ''I was a '''coward'''''! I will not leave, until Jean-Pierre Duman is returned to Haiti, to face what he has done.
-->'''Michael''': ''(v.o.)'' Working covert ops, you learn to exploit weakness. You manipulate greed, fear, pride, to make people do what you want. But when you're dealing with true believers, those weaknesses aren't there. All you can do is help, or get out of the way.
* FalseFalseAlarm: In one episode Michael and his accomplice, disguised as janitors, set off the metal detector with an industrial vacuum cleaner (hiding the guns) and the bomb-sniffing dog with fertilizer (hiding the bomb).
** In "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS3E3EndRun End Run]]", Michael has to steal something from a secure office with limited resources. So, disguised as a janitor, he steals a bottle of whiskey out of one of the desks to make it look like he's drunk, then breaks the alarmed office window and steals the MacGuffin, then cuts himself to make it look to the guards like he was drunk on duty and fell into the window. He then gets them not to call the police by spinning a sob story about how if he loses his job he can't make child support and [[TakingTheKids his ex is going to take the kids to the other side of the country]].

** Also, Michael and [[spoiler: Beck]] are this by the end of "The Hunter."

* FiveSecondForeShadowing: Michael finding out that his apartment is rigged to explode right as he gets home.

--> When you're a covert operative and you have to do X, it's a pretty good idea to make sure that you Y and don't Z, in order to avoid problems like A, B, and C. ''(*Camera follows someone from Team Westen setting the plan into motion.*)'' Of course, none of that matters if [[SpannerInTheWorks someone else unexpectedly does D.]] ''(*Someone else immediately does D and the whole plan blows up in their faces.*)''

* FoeRomanceSubtext: A lot of people read into this with Tricia Helfer's flirty portrayal as Carla, and in an interview the question was even asked to the actress. But Detective Paxson is acknowledged in universe.
-->'''Fiona:''' "Was that flirting or does she hate you?"\\

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In 3x01, "Friends and Family", Michael helps his old friend, Harlan, kidnap a Very Bad Man so they can covertly ship him back to his home country to be tried. Madeline says she hopes Michael doesn't get Harlan killed. Subverted [[spoiler:when they kidnap the guy, and Harlan kills him and points the gun at Michael. Turns out he's working for the Bad Guy's partners, who didn't want to risk him testifying against them. Harlan plans to turn Michael over for the reward and blame him for the kill. Michael would be given a mock trial and executed. Double subverted when Michael escapes, incapacitates Harlan, and hands him over to the Venezuelans, presumably to undergo the same fate he had planned for Michael.]]

* FootnoteFever: See the FunWithSubtitles entry further down the page.

* ForeignCussWord: Michael speaks close to a dozen languages with some degree of fluency ([[RuleOfFunny except Spanish]]) so this crops up quite a bit.
** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E4OldFriends Old Friends]]": Michael spots a Czech [[FormerRegimePersonnel former Soviet bloc]] assassin scoping him out at a bar, and after picking a BarBrawl as an excuse to get near him, punches him in the throat and hisses something at him in Czech. The subtitles translate it as "Welcome to Miami [=ASS***=]".
** "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS2E4Comrades Comrades]]": Ivan, a {{Mafiya}} human trafficker, describes Fiona to Michael (undercover as Ivan's cellmate in a faked secret prison) as "a little сука" ("bitch").
** PlayedForLaughs in "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS3E13EnemiesCloser Enemies Closer]]", where it's confirmed Michael doesn't speak Spanish. He twice gets texts to the phone of a dead ''sicario'' and has first Fi, then Dead Larry tell him the all-purpose Latin American insult ''pendejo'' is "like 'idiot', but ruder".

* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Regularly. Michael points out that knocking someone out and putting their prints on the gun can be explained away by any decent lawyer. Prints on the trigger assembly, however...

* FriendsRentControl: Michael's rather large apartment in Miami only sets him back $200 a month, mainly because it's a mostly unfurnished storage unit next door to a nightclub. Michael can and has slept through air raids, so he isn't bothered by the noise.
* FriendshipMoment: Many, many between Michael, Sam, and Fiona. Stop and sniffle for a few minutes in "Long Way Back" when [[spoiler:Sam doesn't even need to be asked to get Fiona back at all costs, saying he'll get her out of there no matter what - and, of course, appending that statement by telling Michael never to tell Fiona he said that.]]

* FriendToAllChildren: The one guaranteed way to get Michael to take a job is to have a child be in danger. Foes who know this sometimes take advantage. Likewise, hurting a kid will also make Fi's.

** Unfortunately, season 7 seems to have discarded the subtitles altogether.

* GambitPileup: Some episodes emphasize that Michael really has no idea what is going on and who is messing with him.
-->''There's a reason they call the spy trade "The {{Hall of Mirrors}}." You can never know for sure whether you're in control or you're being played. But if you do it long enough you'll [[XanatosSpeedChess learn to trust your instincts.]]''

---> ''"In the spy game, the worst thing that can happen is to not know who the players are, what the rules are, and what's going on."''

* GambitRoulette: Pops up in Season 4 episode "Breach of Faith" - while Michael was doing the best he could with what he had, his entire escape plan could've been utterly derailed by only one of any number of variables such as [[spoiler: the incriminating cash not being in a safe right in the building they were in, the safe in question not being a '''floor''' safe (and thus having weak sides), the SWAT team trying and successfully getting audio and/or visual feeds inside the office, the VillainOfTheWeek not having a gun pointed at Team Westen and Friends as the SWAT team breached the office, or the {{Villain of the Week}}'s assistant not finding her conscience and turning against her former boss. He, in narration, is fully aware of how lucky he is]].

* GodzillaThreshold: Not quite a "end of the world" scenario but Sam and Barry were trapped at a mansion with a villainous SWAT team ready to slaughter them (it involved a black market arms deal that went very wrong). Sam tried all sorts of alternate tactics to get them out and to safety, and everything failed. The bad guys were going to try an explosive breach, so Sam reluctantly [[IncendiaryExponent broke the gas line]] and hid in an iron bathtub with Barry.

* GoodCopBadCop: Played with. Team Westen captures an assassin, and she says they can't torture her, which she demonstrates by slamming her own head into the table. Jesse stops her, and Mike angrily drags him out of the room. Jesse says he did the right thing...and Mike calmly agrees. Then they paint Jesse as the underappreciated, vulnerable, malleable "good cop" and use it to manipulate the assassin.
* GoneHorriblyRight: In "Brother In Arms," they're trying to convince the people running a Russian black site that it's compromised and about to be raided by the CIA, to convince them to transfer a prisoner. Instead, they end up [[spoiler: calling in a squad of commandos for reinforcements!]]

* GoToAlias: Sam always uses the name "Chuck Finley" when he needs an alias for the [[VillainOfTheWeek Job of the Week]]. Except when he needs to pretend to be one of the ''bad'' guys, when he goes by "Ian Finley" instead.

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Michael engages Carla in a brief conversation in Arabic at one point. Subverted in that he did it just to discover what sort of regional accent she had (Kurdish!) in hopes of figuring out more about her background.
** In one episode, Michael actually ''can't'' read Spanish and so Fi and Larry ([[RunningGag yes, dead Larry]]) have to translate for him. They end up translating things the same way.
*** And they don't just translate it with the same meaning, but ''word for word'' the same: ''pendejo''="like idiot but ruder." They also both giggle during the translation as they find the translation funny.
* GroinAttack: Fiona shoots a thug in the crotch with a shotgun (It was only a [[{{Pun}} beanbag]]) in episode 5x04 "No Good Deed" after he had been tossing Sam and Jesse around.
** A smart call since the thug was played by the 7', 500lb guest star [[Wrestling/BigShow Big Show]].
* GildedCage: Miami, FL, is a beautiful city. Too bad Michael is stuck there by his government after he got burned.

* TheHandler: Michael gets a new one [[OnceASeason per season]].

-->'''Fiona''': Tricia, 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... picture yourself [[BreadEggsMilkSquick 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!

* HeDidntMakeIt: In the final season episode "Brothers In Arms," Burke, the man Michael went on the mission to take down, sacrifices himself to allow Michael to rescue a woman from the Russian FSB. After the wall explodes and Michael brings out the woman in a fireman's carry, Jessie asks him where Burke is. "He didn't make it."
** Invoked by Gilroy when he tells Michael that thief Claude didn't make it from his injury. His injury was a [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness broken ankle]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Simon pretty much straight-up tells Michael that this will be his ultimate fate.
** And Mike gets [[WhatTheHellHero called out on this]] by Sam and Pearce at least a couple times in Season 6 - he was ready to ''burn spies'' and ''betray his own nation'' to get Fiona back and stop Anson, and another time he ''pulled a gun on Sam'' (who was unarmed), and had to be talked down by Pearce, who convinced Mike that he was too emotionally involved to maintain the composure he would need to apprehend Anson.
** And he begins to succumb to this in Season 7, where he outright [[spoiler:joins James' organization]].

* HeroicSacrifice: One client of the week offered to sacrifice himself to ensure the villain of the week goes down for his murder, after failing to catch him for his actual crimes of smuggling via diplomatic immunity (more justified than usual, in that the client was dying anyway of pancreatic cancer).

* [[HeroStoleMyBike Hero Stole My Car]]: Michael does this so often, he sets "rules" for himself: he will always try to return the car "reasonably intact," and if stolen from a workplace during working hours, the car will be returned by 5:00 PM if at all possible.

* HiddenSupplies: Whenever things get a little tough Michael and co. have random supply spots with guns, explosives and other spy gear. Almost goes sour when Detective Paxson gains wind of where one of these spots are.
--> "Spies hide guns like squirrels hide acorns."
** And then lampshaded in 4x02 when someone renting out Maddie's garage finds one of Michael's old detonators.

* HilariousOuttakes: most of them courtesy of Creator/BruceCampbell.

* HonorBeforeReason: Jesse.

* HyperAwareness: Played straight in the pilot. In season 5, it's played with hard - Michael spends the first couple of episodes suffering from what he calls post-operation paranoia; he starts seeing things everywhere.

** In one episode, Sam and Barry are discussing people who only use one name, and Sam says "Spider-Man" as an example. Bruce Campbell has a cameo in all three of the Sam Raimi Franchise/SpiderMan movies.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: In Season Two's "Truth and Reconciliation", fugitive Jean-Pierre Duman tries to explain to his father (Creator/ClarenceWilliamsIII) that Michael is there to help them, not expose them, adding that Michael knew all about their past actions in Haiti... then realizes that he is describing a secret agent trying to entrap them. His father's DeathGlare is truly terrifying.

-->'''Michael''' (after being by a rogue angent why she should trust him): Until he met me, Anson Fullerton was running an international conspiracy with hundreds of operatives and billions of dollars. And then I swore to take him down. Now, he's hiding in some spider hole under an assumed name and you're all he has left. So you go ask him if I keep my promises.

** [[spoiler:Sam uses duct tape to draw an enemy's fire away from him. He also gets the chance to bring back this gem: "You know spies...a bunch of bitchy little girls."]]

** [[spoiler:Sam uses duct tape to draw an enemy's fire away from him.]]

* GroinAttack: Fiona shoots a thug in the crotch with a shotgun (It was only a [[IncrediblyLamePun beanbag]]) in episode 5x04 "No Good Deed" after he had been tossing Sam and Jesse around.

* FreezeFrameIntroduction: THe show goes into freeze frame every time a new character is introduced, complete with an amusing caption explaining their role.

** 4x06 has Sam and Michael share a beer with Jesse in acknowledgement that he's become a part of the team and earned their trust that he can handle himself.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: This was a full-on punch, actually. Sam and Michael had a major difference of opinion about how to go on with a mission that got rather personal to Michael. Sam stood in his way and exchanged a few hits with him in an effort to calm him down.
** Made especially poignant by that “Dammit Mikey, I don’t want to have to do this” look on Sam’s face when he has to punch Mike. ''Damn'' good acting on Bruce Campbell's part.
** Played straight when Maddie slaps him[[spoiler: for not telling her that her boyfriend and therapist were both plants to spy on him]]. Considering how frequently he shrugs off fairly serious beatings, his look of shock and pain really hits home.
** An Armor Piercing Speech variety comes from Agent Pearce when [[spoiler: she points out that in Michael's relentless pursue of Anson, he just ''drew'' a gun on Sam who is unarmed.]]

** In "Out of the Fire", one expects [[spoiler:Larry to advocate the KillEmAll philosophy. One does ''not'' expect him to carry it out on his partner, Brennen.]]

* EvilMentor: (Dead) Larry Sizemore, Michael's former mentor, who faked his own death in Bosnia and is now a PsychoForHire ProfessionalKiller whose solution to ''[[MurderIsTheBestSolution everything]]'' is [[KillEmAll Kill 'Em All]]. Larry also likes to give a NotSoDifferentRemark in regards to himself and Michael. Particularly notable in the season 4 finale when Larry wonders where all the darkness and anger Michael had went. On par for being the evil mentor, Larry also laments that Michael is losing those things that made him do bad things with a smile and so good at his job.

* BerserkButton: Michael frequently talks about the need to stay emotionally detached, but frequently he takes clients solely because kids are involved. It's a sore spot for him. It's happened no less than 8 times.
--> '''Madeline''': For two little kids getting smacked around by their father? Michael would take on the entire Chinese army.
** He's also got one in Fiona. When [[spoiler:Fiona is kidnapped by O'Neill]] in "Long Way Back", Michael goes ''nuclear'', going so far as to [[spoiler:shoot a man who may have been able to get him back in at the CIA.]]
** Sam and Fiona also have berserk buttons when kids are involved. Generally, it's a bad plan to threaten children around Team Westen.
---> '''Sam:''' "He's smacking his wife and kids around. I'll [[GolfClubbing plant a nine-iron in his skull]] if it helps."
** Fiona lampshades another one of hers in "Hot Property" (although it was hinted earlier, in "Hot Spot"):
--->'''Fiona:''' I've got a thing for lost little sisters.
** To an extent, Sam also has a thing about serious betrayals of friendship or messing with his friends. He will stand by and help his friends even if it means getting into trouble himself. For him, a friend in need is his highest priority and he'll try very hard not to screw over his friends. There are many examples, subtle and otherwise, but it's a large part of "Breach of Faith" and "Dead or Alive".

** In "Partners In Crime", Michael tries to obtain information on his burn notice from Polish Intelligence and he tries to approach a local member by pretending to be a Russian spy out to bribe him for useless facts. The Polish spy pretends to fall for Michael's faked bribery long enough to go someplace private, draws a gun on Michael, and makes clear that he's a hard-core patriot (he's half-Russian and has had to struggle with proving it all of his life, [[BerserkButton so Mike just made him a bit angry]]) and he's going to interrogate Michael for intel [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique in a very painful fashion]] and then eliminate him. [[BigDamnHeroes Fiona ends up having to save Mike's ass as a result]].

** In the third season's midseason finale, [[spoiler:Michael had everything good to go but was ratted out to the VillainOfTheWeek by Strickler, and Fiona was taken. Michael showed that when [[BerserkButton sufficiently motivated]], he will shoot to kill and go in guns blazing.]]

* DesignatedGirlFight: Fiona and Mike meet a female mark at a pool, and Mike is wearing a swimsuit while the women are wearing bikinis. After the meeting, the mark accidentally pushes Fi's BerserkButton. Catfight ensues.
* DestructoNookie

* FriendToAllChildren: The one guaranteed way to get Michael to take a job is to have a child be in danger. Foes who know this sometimes take advantage. Likewise, hurting a kid is Fi's BerserkButton.
** Used against Michael at one point, by a woman pretending to be the wife of a man who ran away with their kid; actually an assassin who knew Michael's BerserkButton and [[BatmanGambit used it to get him to do her field work]].
** Omar and his gang in "Friendly Fire".

** Notably, in 4x05, Jesse is never in the same room as Sugar (a drug dealer) likely because the three knows that Jesse would as soon arrest Sugar as work with him (which the plan requires).