Sunday, May 3, 2015

Burn Notice, Season 7, Episode 9



I'm not sure if watching so many of these back to back has affected me or not, but I had very little interest in the main story of this episode. I'll cover it here just to get it out of the way.

James wants Michael and Co to ensure that a prominent middle eastern reformer is not assassinated while in Miami. They protect the target from gunmen, but not before he's been poisoned. This then sparks a chase to find the poisoner, because they can't reverse engineer an antidote. The whole mess gets resolved, but not before James' expert on middle eastern affairs throws Fiona under the bus by leaving her in a burning factory. Michael rescues her, and I don't think the relationship with Carlos will survive, because Michael and Fiona are definitely back on after this.

What interested me more were peripheral things to do with James. Firstly he rounded up Michael and the other 3 by having them met at their places of residence or about their daily business and taking them to a place of his choosing. So the job he wanted them to do wasn't really about a choice, it was about doing it or else. While what he does seems altruistic, his strong arm methods put Sam, Jesse and Fiona offside and even have Michael asking questions.

He also has Maddy under surveillance and makes threats against her and Charlie by turning up at her house. If he wants to lose Michael this is the way to do it.

Lastly the real James comes out at the end of the episode when he finds out what his man did with Fiona at the factory. His special forces training is all about not leaving anyone behind. Sam's said it about his SEAL days more than once and so has Michael about his own special forces experiences. James is cut from the same cloth, but he takes action that neither Sam or Michael approve of, and that's to shoot the transgressor dead without any hesitation whatsoever. He's too much judge, jury and executioner and like Simon and Card, he's not dealing with a full deck.

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