Jack Bristow quotes from Alias

Jack

The only way SD-6 will let you live is if you destroy the life you've got.

Will

I understand that, but you can't think of another way than this?

Jack

Yes, I can think of a number of other ways. But they all involve your burial.

Will

Is that your idea of a joke? You're morbid, Jack.

Sydney

The idea that the CIA is willing to work with Irina Derevko is insane.

Jack

Worse, it's naive. Your mother didn't just conveniently turn herself in. This is all part of the manipulation.

Sydney

Well, she's their problem now. She's not yours. And she's not mine.

Sydney

She told me to pull the alarm.

Jack

Yes, and for all you know, that could've made things worse. Sydney, you're smarter than this. Your mother wants you to think she's your ally. That she can help you get what you want. Her intel might even be accurate once, twice, but the minute you start depending on her, she will gut you.

Jack

[Referring to Irina] Sydney, she is the enemy.

Sydney

And so is Sloane. And if the devil herself wants to help me bring him down, fine by me.

Irina

I've had a picture of your face in my mind for twenty years. I remember a loving husband, generous man, patriot. I may have been under orders to fabricate a life with you, but there were times when the illusion of our marriage was as powerful for me as it was for you. Especially when Sydney was born. Looking at you now, I see that illusion is finally gone.

Jack

I want to make something very clear to you. There are people here who believe you can repay the debt you owe this country through your continued cooperation. I am not one of them. And if Sydney in any way becomes victim to your endgame, I will kill you. She spent most of her life believing you were dead. She'll get used to it again. No matter what bond you try to forge with her.

Irina

You haven't told her what you did to her after I disappeared, have you?

Sydney

Dad... do you remember the Thanksgiving play I was in that year in school? Because I sort of do. I mean, I have an impression of it, but I can't remember, was I a pilgrim, or an Indian?

Sydney

What?

Jack

You were neither. You were a turkey. You were the only turkey that was spared to celebrate the harvest.

Jack

Irina Derevko gave you the operations manual for her syndicate. I would like you to tell me where you've hidden it.

Derevko is a great woman.

Jack

Morphine's not bad, either. Let me be clear. I've only given you enough to last five minutes. Cooperate and get all you want. Resist and you get none.

Vaughn

I saw de Souza. He told me that you hired him to rig those explosives.

Jack

Irina Derevko would eagerly destroy all of our lives.

Vaughn

I'm not a big fan, either. It still doesn't justify what you did.

Jack

You do good work, Agent Vaughn. But your consistent shortcoming - you should know this - is your naive sense of morality. Evil must be eliminated by whatever means necessary.

Sydney

I've seen the footage. Mom's briefing with her KGB handler. She was sent here for one specific purpose, to steal information from you about a project you were developing for the CIA. An operation to train children to be American spies. Project Christmas. Ever since Mom came back, you were afraid she'd figure out what you did to me. You weren't trying to protect me from her, you were trying to protect your secret. So the first opportunity you had, you set her up. In Madagascar.

Jack

Sydney, understand something--

Sydney

No, Dad, you understand something. You took away my choices in life. You programmed me to be a spy. I will never forgive you for this.

Jack

Please try to understand what I'm about to tell you, Sydney. After your mother left, I tested Project Christmas on you because I didn't want you to be a victim. I thought it was my responsibility to teach you how to think strategically, to see through people's lies, to be as strong as you could be in an environment where one mistake could cost you your life.

Sydney

Then you should've told me the truth before I ended up here.

Jack

Yes, you're right! I never intended you to lead a double life. I imagined recruiting you into the CIA after you finished college. But Sloane got to you first, and that is a mistake I will never live down.

Sydney

I'd like to believe you, but I don't trust anything you say.

Jack

I spent a decade with this woman and another twenty years analyzing how she could have deceived me for so long. Trust me when I tell you, I am protecting you.

Sydney

No, you're not. I think you loved Mom so much that when she left you, you lost your soul. You know what else I think? I think the kind of man who'd use his own daughter to frame her mother, who'd test psych experiments when she was six-years-old is the kind of man who looks at his daughter and sees his greatest mistake.

Jack

You can't honestly believe that.

Sydney

It's true, isn't it? If Mom hadn't fooled you, if you hadn't been so gullible, I never would have been born.

Sydney

Tell me you agree with me, that we have no choice in this.

Jack

Of course we have a choice. And it's a moment I never wanted you to face. To kill someone. I'm not talking about self-defense. I'm talking about premeditated murder. To be there when the door closes on him for the last time. Knowing you are responsible. That is something you never came close to considering before getting to know your mother.

More secrets have been revealed through pillow talk than through torture. If there's a prostitute or a stewardess out there you think may have heard you talking in your sleep, I need to know about it.

Jack

There is one way for you to verify if my nocturnal activities are a security risk, Ms. Kane, but somehow I think we'd both prefer the torture.

Irina

I don't imagine that means you've decided to trust me?

Jack

Our previous... dealings would indicate that your strategy here may be long-term. So for now, I trust that your behavior is predictable.

Irina

By "previous dealings" you mean our marriage? You know, technically, we may still be husband and wife.

Sydney

How long have you known about this?

Jack

I didn't tell you because it didn't concern you!

Sydney

If the Alliance thinks you're lying to them, they'll kill you. That concerns me!

Jack

What concerns me is having them suspect that you're my accomplice. That's why I kept you out of it.