The Equalizer Quotes

The Equalizer was a smartly written, acted, and directed show, despite some uneven episodes. The characters were intriguing and, especially in the case of McCall and Control, complex. They were certainly a lot of fun to watch.

 

Season One

 

1.01 Pilot

 

McCall: What's your problem?

 

***

Control: McCall, you've got to come in. Look, I've been keeping the wolves off of you. They're starting to call for your blood.

McCall: I am an old warhorse led out to pasture.

Control: You are the most dangerous man I have ever known.

McCall: Now you keep that thought.

Control: You've got too much information in your head. Places, names, dates, entire networks. You know, the other side would have a field day pulling that stuff out of you.

McCall: They could try.

Control: McCall! McCall! Wait a minute. Look, I know why you resigned. I didn't have to read the letter...We've got our own world, our own little shadow world, and you can't just walk away from it.

McCall: Just watch me.

Control: McCall, come back.

McCall: I cannot do that.

Control: You're too great a security risk for them to tolerate, you understand?

McCall: Then you take your best shot.

 

***

 

Brahms: I saw your ad. I thought I was the only who called you the Equalizer. Will you listen to me for once in your life, Robert? Get out of New York and go somewhere no one is scared of you.

McCall: Goodbye, Brahms.

Brahms: Sure. I'll cry at your funeral.

McCall: I'll be there.

 

1.03 The Defector

 

Radek: If she defects, I'll hunt her down and punish her...

McCall: What do you want?

Radek: You were a highly ranked American intelligence operative for over twenty years. Spend an hour with me. Just one hour answering some questions, and the girl is free.

McCall: Radek, you are in a very playful mood today.

 

1.04 The Lock Box

 

McCall: I'm looking for a girl.
Dana: Aren't we all?
McCall: Caldrin, I need a tour of the cesspool, so naturally I thought of you. Show it to me.
Dana: Am I supposed to be talking to you, McCall?
McCall: No, no, no. Apparently I am a threat to the security of this country.
Dana: Yeah, I thought I heard something about that.

 

***

 

McCall: I knew a man once. Some people called him a hero. And he fought, and he faced dangers. He had ideals. Those ideals led me into anything. You see, I didn't care about dying. I only cared about the cause - the cause was everything. And I fooled everybody. Everybody. They all thought that I was fearless which was false. I was so frightened of showing the slightest bit of myself, the smallest amount of affection. You see, Sam, I was as frightened then to the same degree as you are now, only in a different way. I was no hero. No hero. But then I suppose being a hero is not the most important thing, is it?

 

1.05 Lady Cop

 

McCall: I need just one to crumble, and the rest will fall.

 

***

 

McCall: Oh, you're getting old, McCall...thank God.

 

***

 

Braxton: You realize that you are pointing a gun at a New York City police officer?

McCall: Lucky me.

 

***

 

Control: You know, the last time that you invited me over here for a drink was right after Czechoslovakia. Now I hope this is not that bad.

McCall: I just needed to talk to an old friend, that's all.

Control: And I'm the best you could find, right?

McCall: Yeah, well. It is still there.

Control: What?

McCall: Oh, the...evil.

Control: McCall, it's not evil. It's a craft, it's cunning, it's an ability. But as long as the objective is sane, it is not evil.

McCall: Yeah, yeah...

Control: Are you all right?

McCall: Yeah, I'm all right.

 

1.15 Dead Drop

 

McCall: A mistake has been made.

Steve: There's been a lot of mistakes. I thought I had professionals.

McCall: Oh, you have - but they're not very good ones.

 

 

1.21 Unpunished Crimes

 

McCall: Sometimes boring is very stimulating.

 

***

 

McCall: No one was supposed to die!

 

1.22 Pretenders

 

Control: Maybe I'm getting too old to spot it, Robert.

McCall: Well, if you're getting too old, where does that leave me? Hmm?

Control: I owe you a drink.

McCall: Fine. You didn't answer my question.

Control: You didn't want an answer to that question.

 

Season Two

 

2.01 Prelude

 

Jenny Morrow (to McCall): You know, my father thought it was funny how there were these rumors going around that you were here doing this idealistic equalizer thing for people when he knew who you really were.

 

***

 

Scott McCall: Dad, did you really run that coup?

McCall: Nobody ran it. That was the trouble. It was out of control from the start.

 

***

 

McCall: Tell me, how far has the agency spread the news of my resignation?

Stock: Well, you know what the agency is like about embarrassments. It covers them up, but it never 'fesses up.

 

***

 

McCall: I never meant to work for people like that. Not intentionally. All right, listen to me. When I started out in this business, I was full of idealism. We were being pressed by our enemies, seeing that they were crossing all borders. Malaya, then Korea, Berlin, Cuba, Vietnam. Did you know that somewhere in the world today, there are helicopters dropping toys mined so that the little rebel children blow their hands off?

Scott: So you help murderers like Astiz?

McCall: Sometimes, in order to stop a fire, you have to create what we call a backfire. So we created fires and a lot of people were burned. Millions and millions of people were burned. And finally I couldn't take it anymore, so do you know what I did? I resigned. Illegally, because I was bound by a very firm contract.

Scott: But you still carry a gun don't you? You still throw people up against the wall. Are you sure you quit? Or have you just found new excuses for the same old kicks?

McCall: What do you know about the world, boy? And who the hell are you to even attempt to judge me?

 

***

 

Frank Morrow: McCall? Robert McCall. This is what you worked so hard for, huh? How do you like it?

 

***

 

Eric: Haven't you heard? McCall's trying to become a legend in his own time. He's a renegade...Give me your gun, McCall. Very slowly and left-handed. I want to see if it's really loaded with silver bullets.

 

***

 

McCall: Well, well. Control. Didn't bring your kill team with you?

Control: No, but I should have. It would improve my annual performance evaluation.

 

***

 

Control: This is a little nunc pro tunc. They're trying to stabilize. I mean, human rights are on the agenda, but it's going to take a little time.

McCall: Nunc pro tunc? Now as though then? Are you trying to justify all this by quoting a little law Latin to me? Is that what you whisper to yourself at night - nunc pro tunc - in order to get yourself asleep?

Control: You did for many a year!

McCall: I haven't slept for many a bloody year!

 

***

 

McCall (to Scott): The agents as good as I was command very high fees. And, of course, the smart ones parlay them in the marketplace when they smell a crisis brewing. So you see, there is quite a lot of money.

 

***

 

McCall (to Stoller): Think. Just think. What if there is a God?

 

***

 

Eric: You can't beat the whole agency, McCall. You'll never live to tell about it.

McCall: I doubt that, Eric. I really do doubt that.

 

2.03 A Community Of Civilized Men

 

McCall: The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Control: You remember Pamploma?

McCall: Gerhard Reichman?

Control: I mean after that. That's right, you left, didn't you? Well, I had the most miraculous five days you ever heard of. Susan joined me, and we went to see the bulls run. And I forgot who I was, Robert. I forgot what I was really there for. I almost signed up for matador school. I thought I could run away from all of it. And then Susan ran away from me. Two days later, I was back in Berlin chasing phantoms again. I could never watch another bull fight. I guess I haven't missed anything.

McCall: We missed everything.

Control: I know, Robert.

 

2.06 Nightscape

 

McCall: You asked me what I do for a living. I kill people. There is always one who wields the Sword of Damocles, a self-appointed god. That's me.

 

2.07 Counterfire

 

Control: Aw shucks. You see, I was hoping I'd get a chance to see how you look in stripes.

McCall: That was not one of your better jokes.

Control: All right, I guess it wasn't.

 

***

 

Control: Don't call me. I'm going to Bermuda.

McCall: You bloody hate Bermuda.

Control: I bloody hate this.

 

***

 

Marley: You'll get nothing out of me. Go to hell!

McCall: After you, sir. After you.

 

2.08 The Line

 

McCall: Don't do anything you won't live to regret.

 

***

 

McCall: My services come with a very high price. But you see, I've already paid it.

 

2.11 Heartstrings

 

Kostmayer: Ever get that feeling in the pit of the stomach when you know you're going in?

McCall: Always.

 

2.12 High Performance

 

Kostmayer: You don't have any more to go on than the police, and they wrote her off.

McCall: Kostmayer, I know.

Kostmayer: Yeah, you usually do.

 

***

 

Kostmayer: What's the matter?

McCall: Acrophobia. Fear of heights. It's stupid, but there it is...

Kostmayer: Wait a minute, we parachuted into Trieste. Now how'd you do that?

McCall: Barely. Anyway, I shut my eyes.

 

2.13 Beyond Control

 

Control: I know what I'm doing here, Robert.

McCall: Famous last words. The motto of any suicide mission.

 

 ***

 

Kostmayer: Did you find out what's wrong with Control?

McCall: Well, partly. Mind you, trying to get the full truth out of him is like taking  hold of mercury.

 

***

 

McCall: We better get into position for the night.

Kostmayer: Don't tell me, I know. I get the bird's eye view up here, and you get the bucket seats in the Jag.

McCall: Well, naturally. Benefits, you see, of age and seniority. Bracing up here, isn't it?

Kostmayer: Good night, McCall.

McCall: Good night, my dear fellow.

 

***

 

McCall (to Control): Meanwhile, we need to revise what we laughingly call our strategy.

 

2.15 Memories Of Manon (Part 1)

 

Kostmayer: Nice decor. Nobody'd ever know you went to Yale Law.

Bump: Hey, go easy. I don't want to lose my standing in the community.

 

***

 

Bump: So what's going down, McCall?

McCall: It's a small operation. Comes under the category of diversion and psychological warfare.

Bump: You've come to the right man. Like I always say, why break a dude's kneecaps when you can mess with his mind?

 

***

 

McCall: Yvette, I realize you don't know who I am, but I know who you are. I was a friend of your mother's. A long time ago.

Yvette: McCall. I know who you are. I remember my mother used to talk about you before she died. Strange...she thought I'd meet you some day. I don't know why...Were you in love with her?

McCall: You are very direct, just as she was.

Yvette: Sorry, I don't mean to pry.

McCall: No, no...

Yvette: It's just that, some of the things she said, I think she loved you once. Very much.

McCall: She trusted me once, very much. You must do the same now.

Yvette: I will. Because she did.

 

***

 

McCall: You do have the right to remain silent, but I think I should warn you, if you exercise that right, I will kill you.

Slackman: You can't get away with this.

McCall: Watch me.

 

2.16 Memories Of Manon (Part 2)

 

Kostmayer: You saw what happened out there. I'm lucky to be alive.

McCall: You were supposed to protect her.

Kostmayer: I don't need this. First I get shot in the back, then you dump a lot of grief on me. You can stick it, McCall. Count me out.

 

***

 

Kostmayer:  Keep it up and your memory lapse will be permanent.

 

***

 

McCall: I don't know. For the first time in my life, I can't put the pieces together.

Kostmayer: What do you mean?

McCall: I've always been able to compartmentalize everything. Now the walls are down, I don't know how to be a cold professional, concentrating only on the infinite details of the job in hand and still feel what I'm feeling inside.

 

***

 

Kostmayer: You told me something once that I've never forgotten. You said the most powerful man you ever knew had an iron will and a broken heart.

McCall: Did I say that? I must've been really drunk at the time.

Kostmayer: You were. You also said that man was your father.

 

***

 

Marcel: I know all about you. The big gambler, willing to risk anyone on one throw of the dice.

McCall: You know very little about me. I only risk everything on one throw when I only have one throw left to risk.

Marcel: Is that why everyone around you dies? Manon told me...

McCall: She told you what?

Marcel: That you were burned out. That all you could feel was danger.

McCall: Is that what she thought? Well, she was wrong, wasn't she? Because I walked away just as she did.

Marcel: Do you think so? This life you've created, it's all you've got left. And now Yvette's caught up in it too.

McCall: What are you trying to prove?

Marcel: You know, McCall, I think in a way Manon never got over you.

 

***

 

McCall: I didn't learn the art of fatherhood until it was far, far too late.

 

***

 

Control: Understand that I valued Manon's trust just as I've valued yours all these years.

 

***

 

Control: "The saddest words of tongue and pen..."

McCall: "...to know the things that might have been."

 

2.17 Solo

 

McCall: ...let me tell you something about my business. After a certain number of years, some of us acquire a certain animal instinct, and those of us who do acquire it survive, and those who don't usually die.

 

***

 

Sara Magee: When are you going to stop? Doing the work that you do?

McCall: Oh, I don't know. When the books are balanced, I suppose.

Sara: You're too hard on yourself. You are way too hard.

 

2.19 Coal Black Soul

 

McCall: Now that is patently an untruth, is it not?

 

***

Stephanie Davis (to McCall): Helping others is what makes people like you and me tick.

 

2.20 First Light

 

Control: Robert, you buried me in that hearing today.

McCall: I simply told the truth.

Control: Yes, I know. That's what buried me. Now I want to know what you intend to say tomorrow. How do you propose to undo the damage you have already done?

McCall: Well, I hadn't really thought about it. Do you have any suggestions?

 

2.21 Hand And Glove

 

McCall (to Scott): Do you think the day will ever come when we can communicate without drawing blood?

Scott: Maybe.

McCall: Maybe.

 

***

 

McCall: I need your keys.

Scott: You're going to drive my car?

McCall: Yes, I'm going to drive your car. What do you want me to do, walk?

Scott: No, I just don't see you in my car.

 

***

 

Scott: Where are you going?

McCall: I'm going to take a little stroll in the woods. With blueprints. That's logical, isn't it?

Scott: Yeah. Good luck!

 

***

 

Deborah Whitten: You know, your father is an incredible man, Scott.

Scott: Yeah, well, he'd be a little more incredible if he'd wear his bullet-proof vest once in a while.

 

2.22 Re-Entry

 

Kostmayer: Boy, the park looks great this time of year, doesn't it? All covered with snow, lights twinkling in the distance...

McCall: Mickey, have you called me out on the coldest night of the year just to tell me the park looks great? [Mickey hands him an envelope.] All right, what's that, fan mail?

Kostmayer: From the president of the club.

McCall: No, no way.

Kostmayer: You didn't even look at it.

McCall: I don't have to look at it. I know what's inside of it from experience. Mickey, it is bad enough, Control following me around like the hound of the Baskervilles without him getting you to do his dirty work for him.

Kostmayer: He thought I might have a better chance of talking you into it.

McCall: Mickey, my dear fellow, there's no one I would rather have covering my back when all hell breaks loose, but diplomacy is not your strong point, is it?

Kostmayer: You're telling me.

McCall: I'm going on vacation anyway.

Kostmayer: Vacation? What do you need a vacation for, McCall? You're retired.

McCall: You think what I do is called retirement?

Kostmayer: Do you make money doing what you do?

McCall: No.

Kostmayer: Do you have to put up with bureaucratic baloney day in, day out?

McCall: No.

Kostmayer: Do you keep regular office hours?

McCall: No.

Kostmayer: You're retired, McCall.

McCall: I'm still going on vacation.

Kostmayer: Fine by me. I'll just tell Control you already left.

McCall: All right, do that.

Kostmayer: As a matter of fact, you should go where I went on my last vacation. Perfect place, beautiful beaches, fantastic food. You're really going to love it.

McCall: Where was that?

Kostmayer: Beirut.

 

Season Three

 

3.01 Blood And Wine (Part 1)

 

Bagler (to McCall): Drop your pants, Bobby! Join us!

 

***

 

McCall: Tomorrow, I rise from the dead.

 

***

 

Haydn: Do you believe in God, McCall?

McCall: ...I tell you one thing I do believe in. I believe in justice, both in this world and the next.

 

3.05 Encounter In A Closed Room

 

McCall: What's your interest?

Control: That you disassociate yourself.

McCall:  Oh, disassociate. I do miss the jargon.

 

***

 

Alice: Well, that was a smooth entry.

McCall: As far as you're concerned, I had a key.

Alice: I didn't see a key. Want to show it to me?

McCall: No.

 

3.06-07 Mission: McCall

 

Dyson: I left the Company to become a collector. The only thing I refuse to collect is people. People I leave entirely alone. McCall, on the other hand, seems obsessed with them. That's why he's suffering right now.

 

***

 

Control: You can believe this - you make one wrong move, it could be the end of Robert McCall.

Dyson: Now that is a warning I will take very seriously indeed.

 

***

 

Dyson: You're a sentimentalist, Robert.

McCall: ...We have to find something to replace what we lost.

 

***

 

Control: You think I don't care about your father? Your father and I were covering each other's backs and saving each other's lives before you were born!

 

***

 

Dyson (to Control): Unfortunately, you have a credibility problem.

 

***

 

Kostmayer (to Control): If you keep it up, I'm going to have to gag you and about the only thing I can use right now is my sock.

 

***

 

Control: You have more potential than that. You're the son of Robert McCall.

 

3.08 Shadow Play

 

McCall (while filling a flask): Look, just under a couple of weeks ago, I had three nasty pieces of metal dug out of my back, and I reckon that it is my time to opt out. Now at the moment, Mr. Gage, you are wasting that precious time of mine.

 

***

 

Gage: Why not let me help you clear your name?

Control: What name?

 

***

 

McCall: ...if covert activity is without any morality whatsoever, then the war is over, and we've lost it.

 

3.11 Christmas Presence

 

Gage: Six years old?

McCall: You find this amusing do you, Harley?

Gage: What are you going to do now? Go out and slay his imaginary dragons for him?

McCall: You think what I do is a joke, don't you?

Gage: No, I don't, McCall.

McCall: Yes, you do. And maybe you're right. Maybe most of it is.

Gage: Hey, come on, it's your business. Whatever turns you on.

McCall: Harley Gage, you spend most of your time with your head well and truly buried in the sand, don't you? Why don't you just take it out for five minutes and look at the world around you? I tell you what, you go and meet this boy.

 

3.14 Video Games

 

Mason: How did you know I wouldn't kill him, Mr. McCall?

McCall: Because there isn't enough hate in you, Mr. Mason.

 

3.16 The Mystery Of Manon (Part 1)

 

Jimmy: My grandfather used to say everybody's got a totem animal that stands for who you are. And when you see your animal die, you better look out 'cause you're next.

McCall: Absolutely. I don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Jimmy: I think your animal is a wolf, Robert.

 

***

 

Control: A lot of old agents have taken the same way out. He's not the first. He won't be the last.

 

***

 

McCall: I have been listening to your program, because I could not sleep. You're all fools. That wolf was the only living thing in this city. The traffic did not kill him. He killed himself, because he couldn't stand the cage any longer. The tundra you gave him was cement. And the northern lights you gave him were an ugly neon glow. You took the pack away from him, and the only choice he had was to  die.

 

***

 

McCall: What the hell are you doing here?

Control: I was trying to call. All I got was your answering machine.

McCall: Well, the main reason for that machine is to take calls I don't want.

 

***

 

Control: How do you suggest we proceed?

McCall: Same as before. I'll be in charge.

 

***

 

McCall (to Control): You know, it occurred to me recently that the only evidence I have for that came from you. And you have lied consistently over the years.

 

***

 

Control: Do you mind if I interrupt your brilliant soliloquy for just a moment?

McCall: Yes. I mind. Oh, I do mind.

 

3.20 Regrets Only

 

McCall: My divorce was twelve years and three months ago next week.

 

***

 

Pete: It's been a week, Robert. I haven't seen you this quiet in years.

McCall: Well, a person's gotta have time to sit and think sometimes.

Pete: What about Susan Foxworth?

McCall: You know, Pete, you really do have one very aggravating habit...

Pete: It's called reading your mind.

McCall: Precisely. I don't think I like it.

Pete: I don't mean to pry. It's just that you are one of the best men I have ever known, and it hurts to see you so lonely.

McCall: I am not lonely.

Pete: You were attracted to her. Look, she's completely free now...

McCall: So what do you want me to do? Drag her back into my world?

Pete: Take my word for it, I don't think she'll mind. Why don't you give her a call...

McCall: What would be the point anyway?

Pete: The point would be some warmth and friendship in your life.

McCall: Yeah. Followed by an inevitable farewell. Don't think either of us would like that very much.

 

3.22 Always A Lady

 

Kostmayer: McCall doesn't shoot from the hip. He weighs the facts.

 

***

 

Kostmayer: He blamed himself for what happened, didn't he?

Control: Of course he did. You know Robert.

 

***

 

Meredith Browning (to McCall): I've learned to sell myself to the highest bidder, just like you sold yourself to the Company...They're sending you back to South America. What woman will you take this time? Whose life will you risk? They own you, Robert, body and soul.

 

***

 

Control: Robert, we have known each other for thirty years. I lie, and I manipulate. Duplicity is coin of the realm in this damned business, but I have never, ever set up one of my  own agents.

 

***

 

McCall: When a friendship dies, where do you go to say goodbye?

Season Four

 

4.01 The Last Campaign

 

Psychiatrist: Well, let's start with your personal history. Can you tell me something about your last job?

McCall: Yes, certainly. I worked for an international network of spies.

***

McCall: Sterno, you are brilliant. A positive genius.

Sterno: Robert, actually, I'm a little hungry.

***

Dr. Wolff: A social conscience can be a burden, you know.

McCall: I know. Don't I know.

 

4.07 The Making Of A Martyr

 

McCall: A vigilante places himself above the law. I work and live within the law, and you know that. And you know damn well that I am no vigilante.

 

***

 

McCall (to Sgt. Alice Shepard): I'm about to kiss my first cop.

 

***

 

McCall: You actually want that man to kill you.

Sylvia Thornton: Isn't there something you'd be willing to die for, Robert?

McCall: Yes, indeed. There's a number of things I'd probably be willing to die for, but I would not throw my hands up in the air and walk straight into my grave!

 

***

 

Kostmayer: C'mon, McCall, you know that everyone who owns a gun isn't a nut. You...have more guns than the National Guard.

McCall: The irony is not lost upon me. Mickey, I have been a soldier for thirty years. Guns are the tools of my trade. And I'm stuck with them. The point is, it's too late for me now. But is it too late for the country?

 

4.09 The Visitation

 

McCall: Say good night, Mickey.

Kostmayer: Good night, Mickey.

 

***

 

Lauren Demeter: You'll never change, will you?

McCall: Well, probably not.

 

***

 

Lauren Demeter (to McCall): You were the only one with an ounce of compassion. The rest tore across the country and killed the very people I tried to heal...

 

4.10 Past Imperfect

 

McCall: I have been there. They cost me my wife, a baby daughter, and they damn near cost me my only son. They own my soul. Nothing matters to the Company. Nothing at all - except their own dirty games. They try to make you believe that what you are doing for them is the most important thing in the world, even more important than your own life. They're pretty good at that, aren't they?

 

***

 

Jimmy: Every time I put on a good shirt something happens.

 

***

 

McCall: The Company continuously perverts the truth, and in the end only the Company has a choice.

Control: ...All right, all right, maybe I am not the original nice guy.

McCall: Oh, I'm sure that's what Judas must have said!

Control: I am no Judas, Robert.

 

***

 

McCall: It is not the principle with which I disagree but the method...It may well be one day you are forced to pay the same price that you exact from others.

Control: I already have, old son.