Claudette Wyms quotes from The Shield

Claudette

I got a dead drug dealer, I got a suspect, who's probably skipped town and the only person who can shed any light on it is a uncooperative cop with a bad rap. You want me to let his case just slip away son?

Claudette

[ in the Barn's interrogation room.] You heard about Shane. What he did to his pregnant wife, his young son. He wrote a note.

Claudette

[reading] "I guess enough painkillers can make even the worst kind of hurt go away. The thing you need to know is that Mara was innocent, and Jackson was innocent. They didn't know what they were drinking, and their last moments together were happy ones. They left the way I first found them, perfect and innocent. They were innocent; they're in heaven now, and we'll always be a family. [Pauses] The guilty ones are me and Vic. Vic led, but I kept following. I don't think one's worse than the other, but we made each other into something worse than our individual selves. I wish I'd never met him. I see it all now, there's no apologies I can make, no explanations I can give. I was who I was, and I can't be that person anymore. I can't let myself..."

Claudette

We think this is where he was when we came in, because it stops there. All those busts...all those confessions you got in this room, illegal or otherwise...all the drugs you got off the street tonight for ICE...you must be very proud of yourself.

Claudette

This is what the hero left on his way out the door.

Claudette

[to Vic] You can go now.

Dutch

[about a dead body] Christ, you don't see a rack like that everyday

Claudette

You wanna give them a squeeze?

Claudette

Right now Vic Mackey may look like a mighty big catch to you. Do the smart thing, son. Cut bait.

David

It doesn't bother you, the things that he does?

Claudette

I don't judge other cops.

David

Mackey's not a cop. He's Al Capone with a badge.

Claudette

Al Capone made money by giving people what they wanted. What people want these days is to make it to their cars without getting mugged. Come home from work and see their stereo is still there. Hear about some murder in the barrio, find out the next day the police caught the guy. If having all those things means some cop roughed up some nigger or some spic in the ghetto...well, as far as most people are concerned it's don't ask, don't tell.

Dutch

What the hell am I supposed to talk to Shane Vendrell about all day?

Claudette

It's good to shake things up once in a while.

Dutch

I don't want to shake things up, I want my partner back.

Claudette

Aren't you sweet. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Dutch

You're gonna miss me too, right?

Claudette

I learned some interesting things.

Dutch

So did I. You were a classical dancer when you were a teenager?

Claudette

Okay, my father is now off-limits to you. Where is he?

Dutch

How could you not share that?

Claudette

I only studied nine months.

Dutch

In Paris!

Claudette

Here, do your thing with these and stop stalking me.

Dutch

[reading what Sean wrote on the board] Detective Wagenbach craves respect, fantasizes about being well liked, yet shows no outward manifestation of his low self-esteem. Feels ignored, unappreciated, inadequate with women.

Ah, it's just off some first impressions, but I'll stand by it.

Claudette

Maybe you'd like to read my palms too.

Dutch

Let me draw you a picture, Sean. This is your aunt’s house. This is the porch. And this, this is the crawlspace Pasadena PD just dug two bodies out of. How many more are we gonna find, Sean? Five? Ten?

[scoffing] 17.

Claudette

17?

Shane

[watching on TV with the entire force, all in shock] Jesus Christ.

That's just under the crawl space, you know? The other ones I dumped. I ran out of room under my aunt's house.

Dutch

It's pathetic.

What is?

Dutch

How typical you are. Soon as you're caught, you try to be special.

I killed 22 people. 23, if you wanna count the hunting accident back in Rockford. Oh, I'm special, all right.

Dutch

If you're so special, how come a lowly civil servant like me just caught you?

Aceveda

Come with me.

Claudette

What's the matter?

Aceveda

Someone leaked the 911 tapes.

Claudette

Shit!

Aceveda

It's all over the press. We got a situation brewing.

Claudette

Bad?

Aceveda

When we get there you should do all the talking. Coming from you, a plea for peace will sound more...

Claudette

Black?

Dutch

That was some slide. Impact dragged him 75 feet.

Claudette

Maybe you wanna call Guiness.

Dutch

Nah. Record's something like over 30 miles. This isn't even a footnote.

Claudette

Should I be worried about you?

Dutch

Not about me. Maybe about the rest of humanity... bunch of sociopathic little narcissists out for ourselves. Begging... stealing... lying... screwing... raping... killing our babies. Whatever it takes to have a good time and save our own asses. I can't even believe in an old woman who's too sick to feed herself, and it's not sad... it's not some big surprise. It's just nature. We're animals... nothing more. And ya' know what? I'm learning to be OK with that.

Claudette

[about Dutch closing a murder case] Nice job.

Dutch

Don't sound so surprised.

Claudette

Well, I was just worried about you for a little while.

Dutch

Should've had more faith in me.

Aceveda

Nice work.

Dutch

[smugly] I know.

Aceveda

I'm glad.

Dutch

You should be. I break cases nobody else in this division can. I deserve a little more damn respect than I've been getting around here lately. You wanted me to close a case without incident? I did it. [throws his coat over his shoulder, and struts off cockily]

Aceveda

I guess he's back.

Claudette

I guess so.

Vic

I've got a team member in the Burn Unit, the guy who did it out on the street and you think now is a good time to screw with my family.

Claudette

I think Armadillo went to your house looking for you Vic. Lucky your wife and kids didn't end up in the Burn Ward.

Vic

My family's off limits.

Claudette

You tell that to Armadillo.

Vic

I'm telling you!

Vic

[sees Claudette staring at him] Yeah?

Claudette

Just reading the newspaper. Have you?

Vic

Lakers cut it pretty close last night.

Claudette

They're not the only ones.