Burn Notice, Season 2, Episode 6

In tracking Carla down to a base of operations Michael ticked her off, and the result is that she assigned a handler to him; Victor (Stargate SG1's Michael Shanks). The two do not like each other and Michael lets; Victor know in no uncertain terms that he will not tolerate too much before things get nasty. One of the more interesting uses of a chess piece as a potentially lethal weapon.

With Sam being homeless, Michael sees an opportunity to get him out of the warehouse and look after Maddie at the same time and has his mother host Sam. When Sam first arrives at the house he finds what he thinks is an intruder, but is in actuality Ricky, Michael's childhood friend.

Ricky becomes the client. Since running with Michael he's straightened himself out and is working as a financial advisor for a hip hop mogul (played by actual hip hop artist Method Man. I guess it's not as silly as the characters name of Sweet Valentine), said mogul is being ripped off by another manager and trying to blame it on Ricky. Ricky offers Michael $10,000 to help out. Even though you know Michael will take on the job he won't accept the money at the end. (No idea how he pays his bills or even covers costs on the jobs he does. I guess it's all part of knight in shining armour part he's trying to play).

Richy's one of those characters I;m not mad about in shows like Burn Notice. He's got history with Michael and they were close as kids, yet we've never heard about him before and I'm betting we'll never see him again. The convenient reunion. Overused and it's lazy writing.

Michael decides to rip off the embezzler and expose him in the process, but has to play a money launderer to do it and that provides another opportunity to give Barry the money launderer a guest spot. Aside from the main cast, Barry was one of the show's best and probably longest running guest actors.

Michael pulls it off, but Victor nearly derails it and shows that until Michael can find a way to get rid of him he is going to be a constant thorn in his side. He's also a loose cannon who thinks nothing of collateral damage as long as the job gets done.

I was wondering if Sam and Maddie may take their relationship to another level when he was 'babysitting' her, but they didn't, and in many ways I like that. She also knew what he was doing and why he was living there, too. He moves out into a place of his own by the end of the episode.

This one ends with the hook for the next episode being that Michael has helped Victor, and by extension Carla, get their hands on a powerful Russian sniper rifle for reasons unknown.