Pursuing his burn notice, Michael confronts a banker from the Cayman Islands, only to learn that that man is dead and he's talking to an assassin. Locally, he is confronted by a Haitian man whose daughter died was tortured to death in prison by a prison official who is now living in Miami under an assumed name; the man wants Michael's help delivering that fugitive to justice.
- Accent Relapse: "Gustavo", the Latin American banker, right after Michael outs him as an imposter. Then he lunges at Michael with a switchblade.
- Armor-Piercing Response:
- Laurent, a grieving father, manages to shut Michael up several times.Laurent: You know nothing of my daughter, you do not deserve to speak her name. They said you were an honorable man. They lied.
- Michael gets one off himself:Maddie: What are you doing that's so important that you couldn't do thatnote with me?
Michael: I'm helping a father get justice for his murdered daughter.
Maddie: ...Well, if you need any help with that, you let me know.
- Laurent, a grieving father, manages to shut Michael up several times.
- Bluff the Impostor: Micheal notes in his voice-over that if someone is asking for information, it's basic security to do this to ensure they're who they say they are and it's a pretty good tactic:Michael: Gustavo, we talked about this on the phone. I'm giving you eight thousand dollars for a file. Part of what that money buys is privacy.
Contact: (with accent) I don't care what I said on the phone. You don't tell me what I want to know, you don't get this file. Eight thousand, no eight thousand.
Michael: The deal I made with Gustavo was for ten thousand dollars, not eight thousand dollars. He was very clear about that number. And we never talked on the phone. You wanna tell me who you are?
Contact: (smiles and drops the accent) I can explain. (pulls a knife on Michael) - Break the Haughty: Duman is yelling threats through the tape over his mouth as Sam wrestles him into the trunk of his car. Sam tells him not to strain his voice, since he'll need to speak up when he stands trial in Haiti. Duman's expression melts into abject terror just before Sam slams the trunk lid down.
- Bribe Backfire: Michael explains that backfire is a built-in risk to any bribe:Michael: (narrating) There's no way to shop around, so you usually overpay for whatever information you're after. There's no money-back guarantee if the information's bad. And, of course, the only thing that you know for sure is that you're handing your money to a thief and a liar.
- The Bus Came Back: Sam's two FBI guys come back to help (unofficially) with the Duman family.
- Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome:Michael: (narrating) Most people have a hard time letting go of their past. The same guy who will burn a village to the ground without a thought often won't throw away an old tie because it reminds him of his high school graduation. If you know what you're doing, you can hang him with that necktie.
- The Determinator: Claude.Michael: (narrating) 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.
- Doom It Yourself: Frank Westen worked on Maddy's car, too (Which we've never seen because she parks it at a friend's place and never uses it). When some kids steal the tape deck, the car won't start. Michael pulls a huge mass of wires out from under the dash and sighs.
- The Dreaded: After Fiona reports back with the information Michael needs:Michael: Not too much damage done, I hope?
Fiona: Oh no, I didn't have to lift a finger. My reputation precedes me, apparently. - Enemy Mine: FBI Agents Lane and Harris are not kindly disposed towards either Michael or Sam, but they hate their current assignment so much (surveilling the elderly grandmother of South Florida's biggest drug smuggler) that they jump at Sam's offer to help them catch an international fugitive with both hands.
- Exact Words: Laurent agreed that he understood it was better that he go home. He never agreed to actually go home.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Jean-Pierre tries to explain to his father (Clarence Williams III) 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 Death Glare is truly terrifying.
- Good Feels Good:
- Michael, reporting success to Maddie:Maddie: Did you get your guy? The guy that killed the girl?
Michael: Uh... yeah. Yeah, I did.
Maddie: Good for you, sweetheart. - Also, the FBI Agents are noticeably more friendly and upbeat when Sam reports that Duman has been returned to Haiti to face justice.
- Michael, reporting success to Maddie:
- Handwave: Why have we never seen Maddy's car before? She parks it somewhere else.
- It's All About Me:Michael: (narrating) Spend time with corrupt, homicidal, Third World political figures, and you hear a lot of self-pity. What kind of man throws his political enemies in prison and tortures them to death? Generally it's a guy who feels so sorry for himself that he feels justified doing anything. Killers, by and large, are whining losers... but that doesn't make them any less dangerous.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The son gets returned to Haiti to face justice. The father? Gets ratted out by his son, providing the feds the info they need to go after him.
- Le Parkour: The guy Michael's chasing jumps off a roof to the ground, then scales a wall to another building, then leaps roof to roof via an AC unit before finally jumping a razor-wire topped fence.
- My Greatest Failure: Whenever Michael or Sam try to tell Claude that his deceased daughter would not want him to risk his own life:Claude: That is what my friends told me when they convinced me not to go to the prison! That is what they told me when I wanted to go to the newspapers! I failed her before. I swore I would not fail her again.
Sam: You were not responsible-
Claude: I WAS A COWARD! - Oh, Crap!: Michael (and Sam over the wire) have this reaction when they learn Papa Duman is actually alive and not dead like almost everyone thinks (the son states they buried another man in his place). It doesn't take long for Michael's cover to get blown after that since Papa was Properly Paranoid and did his own digging.
- The Reveal: The person behind the disastrous end to Carla's operation? Victor.
- Spoiled Brat:Michael: (narrating) Spend enough time in international hotspots, and you'll learn that many of the worst monsters on earth are just spoiled rich kids. Murderers come in many different shapes and sizes, but they tend to drink the same brands of champagne.
- Shout-Out: The title refers to the Truth and Reconciliation trials of South Africa, whose purpose wasn't to inflict retribution, but to expose the truth of apartheid crimes.
- A similar organization, the "National Truth and Justice Commission", was created in Haiti in 1995 to impose accountability for crimes committed from 1991 to 1994, by the military dictatorship that had ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
