Yes, I'm back and so are Michael Westen and his merry band of mayhem makers.
I honestly don't remember this episode at all. I can remember one line, but I could have seen that on a previously on Burn Notice thing at the start to bring people up to speed if they missed an episode or two or can't remember what happened.
If you can remember when last we saw our intrepid hero the CIA had welcomed him back with open arms.
Yeah...well...sort of...not really.
Michael is working with the CIA and performing covert missions for them, but he's not actually on their payroll as such, he does what they tell him and under their auspices, but he's not really a CIA operative (which he never was from what he said at the start of the very first episode, he was a sort of go between). He performs his work with a fast talking smoothie by the name of Max (Melrose Place's Grant Show). I kind of like Max, I really hope he doesn't turn out to be evil. He gets totally thrown when things don't go according to the CIA's 'carefully' thought out plans, but he keeps on going and he can think on his feet, he just doesn't dance as fast as Michael, Sam, Fi and Jesse do.
Understandably Fi and Sam, Fi in particular, are a little bit put out by the kink Michael working for the CIA puts in their lifestyles. Fi spends her time whining and Sam is back living at Maddie's place and managed to find what was left of Michael's Charger and put it back together again. The engine works, but the body is going to need a whole lot of work before it's anything like roadworthy.
Much to Michael's surprise, and possibly chagrin, Jesse quit the CIA after he got back in. He found a job working private security. He preferred field work and while he doesn't agree with Sam that he pulls down big bucks, I am betting it pays better than driving a desk for the CIA.
Mostly what Michael does with Max is track down the people behind the organisation that burned Michael, this is important to the Agency, because it had tentacles inside the CIA itself, and possibly still does.
They go after a character called Kessler, he's holed in Venezuela and his guard detail is headed up by a Russian trained Cuban. Because Michael can't speak Spanish (I know he never learned because he hates Miami, but he spends a lot of time south of the border, so really should consider it) he has to pose as a Russian. They didn't want to subtitle everything, so the Russian Michael is pretending to be has to speak English. Unfortunately this means Russian accented English. I think I've spoken about Jeffrey Donovan and accents before. He does a number of extremely impressively authentic sounding US dialects, but once we move out of the continental United States we're in trouble. His British and Irish accents are dreadful and if anything his Russian one tops them. I kept expecting him to ask questions about moose and squirrel (a little Rocky and Bullwinkle reference there for those old enough to remember them).
He insisted on bringing Sam and Fi (or as the CIA called them 'the former SEAL and the girl') along for this one. I really didn't take to Fi this time. She whined her way through the entire episode. She whined about Michael working for the CIA and not spending a lot of time with her or letting her in on a lot of what he does. She whined about the travel arrangements with the CIA, the fact that they weren't calling the shots, the accommodation...Please Fiona, give it a rest! Admittedly Sam was rather put out when he was informed that he couldn't use Chuck Finley as his alias, but mostly he kept his mouth shut and got on with business.
Unfortunately Kessler killed himself before they could get him, so Michael really hadn't gained anything, but all indications are that Max had relocated to Miami and that was where they were running things from now on. Someone at the CIA must have decided that 'the former SEAL and the girl' were useful.
A nice way to introduce Michael's new life and involve Sam and Fiona at the same time. Of course being based in Miami means that Maddie and Jesse will also get plenty of screen time.
Roll on Season 5!
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