Party of Five (TV Series)

Where There's Smoke (1995)

Matthew Fox: Charlie Salinger

Quotes 

• Charlie Salinger : I got nothing else to say to you, Jule.

  Julia Salinger : Look, I know you're mad. I get that.

  Charlie Salinger : No, you don't, 'cause "mad" doesn't even come close.

  Julia Salinger : Will you just listen? I talked with the lawyer assigned to Griffin's case. He said that this whole thing will go away if Theo drops the grand theft charges.

  Charlie Salinger : Well, he's not going to do that.

  Julia Salinger : He will if you talk to him. I mean, if you explain that Griffin made a mistake...

  Charlie Salinger : [interrupting]  A mistake? Julia, he stole.

  Julia Salinger : Charlie, please! You don't know what's going on. You don't know how horrible Griffin's home life is.

  Charlie Salinger : I don't care! Okay? Julia, get a clue here! The guy is a loser!

  Julia Salinger : His dad let him spend the night in jail. Did you know that? He wouldn't even come down to the police station to visit him, and he woun't pay for a decent lawyer. You should see how his dad talks to him. If you saw that, maybe you'd understand and...

  Charlie Salinger : And what? I'd feel sorry for him and forget what he did?

  Julia Salinger : God, Charlie! Griffin could go to prison!

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah, well you know what? So could I! And I didn't do anything!

• [Kirsten enters the restaurant and sees Charlie carrying stuff] 

  Charlie Salinger : Sorry, we're closed.

  Kirsten Bennett : Too bad. I hear you're famous for your coffee.

  [she sees a piece of paper on the table] 

  Kirsten Bennett : You got a check?

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah. But only because they can't prove anything. It's half of what I should get, but it'll cover the repairs, so I guess I got away with it. Charlie Salinger, professional arsonist.

  Kirsten Bennett : I bought you a little present. I thought it might come in handy for your new line of work.

  [she shows him a bottle of gasoline] 

  Kirsten Bennett : I mean, I don't know what it means or what it says about me, or you, or us. But I had this revelation, in three parts.

  Charlie Salinger : Three parts?

  Kirsten Bennett : Bear with me. A. Okay, a part of me, I admit it, thought for a minute you might have done it, even though I know you didn't, and... and I know that that's absurd, but it didn't take long for me to get to B, which is, I realized I didn't care. It just... It didn't matter to me. And that's great. That's probably the way it should be.

  Charlie Salinger : [smiling]  You're not gonna start singing "Stand By Your Man," I hope.

  Kirsten Bennett : No

  [both chuckle] 

  Kirsten Bennett : But if you wanna rob a liquor store or something and you need somebody to keep the car running, now's your chance.

  Charlie Salinger : So, what happened to C?

  Kirsten Bennett : Well, C is just... I never knew being crazy about somebody means exactly that. It means you're crazy.

  [they lean on across the table and kiss] 

  Kirsten Bennett : I've never done it in a burned-out restaurant before. Have you?

  Charlie Salinger : [smiling]  Once, actually, but that was a long time ago.

  [both laugh, and they kiss again] 

• [Charlie, Kirsten and Claudia are waiting in the restaurant for Mr. Arbogast to finish the investigation of the cause of the fire] 

  Kirsten Bennett : What are they doing in there, anyway?

  Charlie Salinger : Planting evidence, with my luck.

  [he sees Mr. Arbogast approaching] 

  Charlie Salinger : Finally.

  Sam Arbogast : Mr. Salinger.

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah. Can we please get on with this now?

  Sam Arbogast : I'm afraid not. The fire marshal was wrong. It wasn't a short in the outlet.

  Charlie Salinger : Well, what was it?

  Sam Arbogast : Somebody left your coffee machine on. And, um, you were the last one here.

  Charlie Salinger : Well, it was, uh... It was 3 o'clock in the morning. I mean, I guess I just forgot.

  Kirsten Bennett : But that proves it was an accident. You don't intentionally burn down a building by leaving a coffeepot on.

  Sam Arbogast : Well, you do if you shove a box of paper up next to the heating element.

  Charlie Salinger : Paper? That was a box of menus. That does not prove anything.

  Sam Arbogast : Except... you shut off the water valve.

  Charlie Salinger : What?

  Sam Arbogast : You didn't shut off the machine, but you shut off the water valve so that there was no water in the urn to absorb the heat when you left the burner on.

  Charlie Salinger : No, I can explain that. That

  Kirsten Bennett : That's my fault.

  [Charlie looks at her, surprised] 

  Kirsten Bennett : I helped Charlie close up. And he showed me how to clean the coffee urn. But I... I guess I must have forgot to turn the water back on. And then I... I went home before Charlie did, so he didn't know. I feel so stupid!

  Charlie Salinger : [to Kirsten]  Hey. I mean. You didn't know. You didn't know.

• [Kirsten and Claudia are rearranging some paperwork in the backyard, and Charlie approaches them] 

  Charlie Salinger : You're not gonna believe this. Crack of dawn, I'm sitting there, right? And I should be getting a check. And that bastard Arbogast practically accused me of setting the fire. Me!

  Kirsten Bennett : What? Wait a minute. He said that?

  Charlie Salinger : Get this. He's been digging through my finances. And he found out about that loan I applied for after I took over

  Kirsten Bennett : Wait? What loan? You applied for a loan?

  Charlie Salinger : Yeah. Yeah. I told you that. We were tight making payroll. But I got turned down, and he said that was suspicious.

  Claudia Salinger : But I don't get it. What does that have to do with the fire?

  Charlie Salinger : Nothing. And then he starts going on about how I upped the insurance, which is totally ridiculous because we were under-insured in the first place.

  Kirsten Bennett : You upped the insurance? You didn't tell me about that.

  Charlie Salinger : I didn't tell you I bought new napkins either. It was no big deal. Only he tried to make it out like I set the fire so that I could collect the insurance. He's just stalling because he doesn't want to pay me what he owes me. Well, I set him straight. Man, can you believe that guy?

  [he leaves, and Kirsten stays thinking] 

• [Charlie goes to the insurance company, and reaches Mr. Arbogast] 

  Charlie Salinger : Mr. Arbogast.

  Sam Arbogast : You shouldn't be here, Mr. Salinger.

  Charlie Salinger : Do you have any idea how much your company's made off Salinger's in the past 15 years?

  Sam Arbogast : This is highly inappropiate.

  Charlie Salinger : Ninety-seven thousand, six hundred and forty-one dollars and twelve cents, for insurance.

  Sam Arbogast : I should not be talking to you without a lawyer present, please.

  Charlie Salinger : Only that doesn't mean anything, even though we've never filed a claim, not once. And now, now that we need it, now that we're entitled to half of what we paid you, you bend over backwards to find some way to make sure we don't get it.

  Sam Arbogast : We don't pay when circumstances are suspect, now please leave.

  Charlie Salinger : I used to have people who trusted me, and now they don't anymore because you accused me of something that I didn't do. And you've got nothing to back that up. But why should you give a damn about that?

  [looking at the office, and the employees] 

  Charlie Salinger : Just as long as you can save your company a few more dollars. I just want you to know something. That restaurant was my father's. And that doesn't mean anything to you, and you don't care, but if you had any idea how much it means to me, how it is the only thing that I have left of him, there is no way that you would accuse me of burning it down.

  [he turns around to leave] 

  Charlie Salinger : There's no way.