The Best Special Agent Stuart Scola Quotes

Damian: I know y'all got a job to do, but this story gets old. Rich white guy gets shot, cops go nuts, start rounding up innocent Black men. The FBI gets involved.
Special: Okay. A United States congressman was murdered. This country is at a tipping point.
Damian: And yet five miles away in his own district, the murders of young Black men barely register, so forgive me if I'm not shedding any tears for this two-faced politician.

Special: What the hell's going on?
Special: What are you talking about?
Special: You and Tiff. It's clear you're not on the same page.
Special: That obvious, huh? She, uh, she used to work with Dixon. He was her training officer, and she loves the guy, so...
Special: Hmm. And you're not sold?
[he shrugs non-commitally]
Special: I mean, do you think he might be involved?
Special: He seems like a nice enough guy, but you never know, right?
Special: You know, when it's personal, it's easy to make a mistake you can't walk back from. Just keep an eye out for her. Okay?
Special: Goes without saying.
Special: I know. Wanted to say it anyway.

Special: What the hell are you thinking?
Roger: What are you talkin' about? He was shooting at us.
Special: I was in your line of fire, Palmer. You could've hit me.
Roger: But I didn't, so relax.
Frank: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, guys. Calm down. We got the bad guy. That's all that matters, okay?
Special: [leaving] Playing games, and you know it.
Roger: He's got a lousy attitude.
Special: No, he's a good guy and a good agent. Just doesn't like bullets whizzing by his head is all.

Mickey: Yes, I know Nicole Wyatt. Yes, I did send her flowers.
Special: So you admit you were stalking her
Mickey: I admit to energetically pursuing her.
Special: Same thing.
Mickey: Oh, I get it. You're one of these faux-feminist men whose mission in life is to save the huddled female masses from toxic masculinity, right?
Special: Nope, nope, just saying you can't really stalk someone in a good way. Sort of a paradox.
Special: Yeah, well, this is real life, and we got a dead body on our hands.
Mickey: Are you saying... Nicole is dead?
Special: Yeah, she was murdered last night.
Mickey: And you think that I... Look, I didn't kill Nicole. That's preposterous. I liked her. A lot.
Special: Where'd you go after the boat party last night?
Mickey: To my apartment. Midtown. 447 Fifth Avenue. Check the video, ask my doorman. Or ask my date. I believe her name was Celeste.
Special: All right. Let's assume that we believe you. That you're just some creepy old dude that likes to pursue women that don't wanna date you.
Mickey: Fair enough.
Special: What can you tell us about Nicole? Do you know anyone that might want to hurt her?
Mickey: No, like I said, she was great. She was very social. She was very generous.
Special: She was a pimp. Trafficked this kid for sex. Only 15.
Special: You seen her before?
Mickey: Uh... Yeah, she was... She was at the boat party. Okay, look. I knew that Nicole managed some younger models. I even slept with a few of them too. But they were all older than 22. Okay? That's my rule. I only sleep with women older than my daughter.
Special: How noble.
Mickey: There it is again. It's that virtue-signaling do-gooder thing. It's-it's a bad look, right? Just shooting you straight, bro.
Special: Appreciate that.
Special: Did Nicole ever mention she was having any problems? That someone, other than you, of course, was stalking or harassing her?
Mickey: No. But I did see something sort of suspicious the other day. Okay. As I was dropping off the flowers at her building... This is probably nothing... But there was a guy dressed entirely in black, sitting in an SUV on the corner of Chambers and Church. It reminded me of this character that Ryan Gosling played in this picture I just made, Hitman in Love.
Special: All right, we'll look into it. After we check out your alibi, of course. For your sake, I hope it's clean.
Special: For my sake, I hope it isn't.
Mickey: What the hell does that mean?
Special: Means there's this little part of me that hopes you're guilty. Just shooting you straight, bro.

Special: [listening to Jubal and Jess bicker] These two used to date, or what?
Sheryll: They used to work together back in the day.
Special: Guessing it wasn't a very pleasant experience.
Sheryll: Your boss follows facts, mine follows hunches.
Special: Tomato, to-mah-to, as long as they get it done, right?

Special: Thomas' alibi checks out. Security footage from the restaurant confirms that he was having dinner when Reed was shot.
Special: NYPD says Marcus Ervin was shot last night in Brooklyn around 10:00 p.m. while he was standing in the doorway of his ground-floor apartment after a rock came crashing through his window.
Special: Same M.O. as Reed.
Assistant: They run the ballistics yet?
Special: It's the same gun.
Special: All right, that's two murders within three hours.
Assistant: That we know of. We could be looking at a killing spree.

Special: You're not gonna believe this. Maynard's alibi checks out.
Special: Both he and Chris Wallace are on camera at the Sunshine Diner this morning. They couldn't have been at the robbery in Brooklyn.
Assistant: Yeah, well, ballistics tells the same story. The guns found at the salvage yard were not a match to the gun that killed Howard, but they were a match to the bullets recovered from the three locations in Queens.
Special: But the guys from this morning's robbery, they had the same clothes, the same animal masks, even the same crescent tattoo on the wrist.
Assistant: They're copycats.
Special: So these guys who killed Howard are still running around out there.
Assistant: Yeah.

Damian: You think I killed Logan Reed?
Special: You stood outside his house last week with a gun yelling that he needed to disappear, so, yeah.
Damian: I admit I got carried away with that, but I didn't mean what I said. I don't even own a gun.
Special: All right, let's try this again. Maybe this time don't treat us like idiots.
Damian: [he's shown a camera still with said gun circled] Come on, man. I took that gun off a kid at the rally. He was a hothead. I don't stand for violence.
Special: Except for when you're making death threats.
Special: Or someone throws a brick through the congressman's window.
Damian: The hothead did that. It's a good thing I took away his gun.
Special: You give it back to him?
Damian: I got rid of it at a gun buyback. I got the receipt, if it helps.

Special: We got the shooter, saved a life. Maybe two.
Special: Yeah. I know. I'm supposed to feel good. What DHS was doing was wrong... in my book, at least, and... I still went over there and I used their information.
Special: *We* still ran over there and used the information.
Special: Yeah. We didn't have a choice. But that is such crap... 'cause we do... have a choice. And today we chose to do what was convenient. I guess what I mean is that... you don't get to pick and choose when to have integrity; when to stand up for what's right, you know? When to be the kind of Black woman you want to be.
Special: Look, I get it. I do. And the truth is that sometimes there's a cost to victory. But that doesn't mean that it's not a victory.

Roger: What do you want?
Special: We're gonna need you to come with us.
Roger: Now is not a good time.
Special: We're not asking.
[noticing Palmer's hand in his coat pocket and drawing his gun]
Special: You need to put your hands where I can see 'em.
[Palmer looks around at his fellow cops]
Special: I said hands, Palmer! Put your hands where I can see them! Trust me, you do not want to give me a reason to shoot you.
[Palmer puts his hands up; cuffing him]
Special: Roger Palmer, you're under arrest for the murders of Howard Kirkland and Detective Kyle Webb.
Roger: I don't know what you're talking about.
Special: We found the stolen money from yesterday's robbery in your attic, traces of Webb's blood on a shirt in your bathroom.
Roger: There's been a mistake. I was working yesterday morning.
Special: Really? 'Cause your partner said you came in late. You had a personal thing to take care of?
Special: Looks like your alibi just went to hell, too.

Assistant: So, that school bus and 26 grade-school kids just went missing in Westchester County.
Special: How does a school bus go missing?
Assistant: Unclear, but it never arrived at Taft Elementary, and all the cell phones on board went dark at 7:41. We sent a chopper to aid with the search, but so far, nothing.
Special: Well, those buses are tracked. What about the GPS transponder?
Assistant: Disabled, also at 7:41.
Special: So, a mass kidnapping?
Assistant: Could be a kidnapping. Could be a domestic terror attack. It also could be an isolated event or a first salvo. Right now, we have to consider all possibilities.

Agent: Hey, guys, I got something you wanna see. I think the copycats may have just slipped up. I went over hidden camera video from the Brooklyn robbery. I found a detail that doesn't fit the original M.O.
Special: [seeing one of the robbers touch his ear] Well, wait a second. That's acoustic tubing. He's wearing an earpiece.
Agent: Yeah, I think I know what he's listening to. These guys got out of there right before the cops showed up, so I synced up the timecodes to this audio.
Special: [listening] That's police dispatch.
Special: These guys have a police scanner?
Special: Yeah, except that's an encrypted channel. You can't pick that up on a regular old scanner. You have to have a dedicated police radio.
Special: Are you saying these guys might be cops?
Special: That's a pretty serious accusation. Do we have any proof beyond the theory that they had access to the robbery case files?
Agent: Nothing specific.
Special: But if you think about it, some of the details of the prior robberies were only known to the police.
Special: Okay, start checking the logs. Find out which cops had access to the robbery case files. Dig into each of them.
Special: Uh, should I loop in Detective Dixon?
Special: No, let's keep this internal for now. If the cops are involved, we don't wanna tip off the wrong person. We need to wall off NYPD until we are absolutely certain.
Assistant: That might be tough. What do I tell the NYPD rep in the JOC?
Special: Keep any reference to cops as suspects out of the JOC. For now, they are simply robbers until we can prove otherwise.