Burn Notice, Season 3, Episode 16

This is it, the season finale. It was almost as if all of Season 3 had been building towards this moment.

The seeds of this episode were sewn at the end of Season 2 when Michael first encountered Management and this episode itself is a springboard into Season 4. I don't know what series creator Matt Nix had in mind when he first came up with Burn Notice, but thinking about how many questions this episode answers and what it introduces, it seems reasonable to think it was at least a 4 season story arc.

Michael finds himself on the run from the police, which has shades of the season opener, and has to use everything he has to get away, eventually hot wiring a jet ski and making his escape over the water.

Fiona and Sam provide support and send word to Maddie to get out of town.

She's packing, making sure to include a shotgun, when there's a knock at the door and it's two men from the government. I can't remember where they said they were from. I don't think it was FBI, because the two guys that Sam and Michael meet with from time to time seem to be the only FBI agents operating in Miami. They were probably CIA, but didn't actually say so.

When trying to threaten and pressure Maddie didn't work, as it was never going to, they start to present images and reports from Michael's file which indicate that he did some pretty bad things. Sam's concerned that Maddie will crack, but Fiona trusts her to hang tough, which she does, ringing Michael and telling him to come home right away, which is code for stay away, it was what she did when his father went on a bender.

Simon lures Michael out into the open and then to a TV store. He's killed the owner and rigged the screens to show images of Michael's 'atrocities' on a loop. It turns out that all those things in Michael's file, the things that got him burned, they were Simon's doing and he was doing it for Management. They want Michael big time. Once he'd served his purpose they tossed him in a South American hell hole.

Simon was played by Garrett Dillahunt. Dillahunt plays an unhinged psychopath very well. I first saw him as John Henry in Sarah Connor: The Terminator Chronicles, but after that I started seeing him everywhere, like in this episode of Burn Notice.

What Simon wants is to take out Management, why Michael should help him with this is because he's rigged a bomb up in a hotel, which is timed to go off at a certain time. Fiona and Sam pressure every bomb maker and gun dealer that Fiona can think of to find the bomb. They disarm it and render it useless, but by that stage Management is on his way to Miami.

Michael tries to warn him, but Simon is one step ahead. Michael actually uses Management to help him take Simon out of the picture, but he's not dead and until he is, he's going to be a problem.

Michael is arrested, but released on orders from very high up and in one of the show's classic cliffhanger endings is taken somewhere unspecified and when the bag is removed from his head finds himself in a sumptuously furnished room.

I think Simon will be Season 4's Big Bad, that is when Michael gets out of wherever Management have him.

Note: I'm heading off on holiday next week and will be away for a month or so. I hope to start Season 4 when I get back.

Burn Notice, Season 3, Episode 1

Episode 1 of Burn Notice's 3rd season continues the tradition started at the end of Season 1 by picking up where the final episode of the previous season ended (they didn't do this the entire way through the show's run, though).

Michael swims the five miles back to Miami Beach, losing his shoes, socks and shirt in the process and winds up on the beach, exhausted. He's almost immediately spotted by police who give chase. I'm not exactly sure why or why Michael ran. It's not normal for someone to land on the beach wearing a singlet and suit slacks, but it's also not illegal. He does make it worse by running and appropriating a tourist t-shirt and pair of cheap sunglasses though. I still think it was overkill to have a bunch of armed cops and squad cars apprehend him, however.

There is an indication when he breaks into a hotel utility closet and uses the switchboard to make a call to Fiona that Management have withdrawn their protection and they tipped off the police that he was involved in the incident at the marina, which wound up with 2 dead people (Carla and Victor) and a large disturbance.

Whatever the reason Michael finds himself in the local city prison wearing a stylish orange jumpsuit. Sam visits and says that he's doing the best to get him out, including using his own contacts in law enforcement, but the lack of id (the CIA got rid of all that when they burned him) isn't helping matters. Management have sent his sunglasses back (he left them in the helicopter when he jumped out) and a card wishing him good luck. He's definitely going to need it.

Bail comes in the form of Harlan, a former Special Forces friend of Michael's from his days in the middle east. Michael is quite rightly suspicious of this guy, but he does let his guard down remarkably quickly, which is a common criticism of mine with the show. The character of Michael is far too trusting a lot of the time, especially considering his background in covert operations, where lying has been elevated to an art form.

In addition to helping Harlan out with a case he's taken on involving a young Mexican girl who has a cartel attempting to take over her family's land, he's also got to deal with a pissed off Maddie. The bomb that Sam improvised gutted the front half of her house. Interestingly enough the rooms there are gutted, yet the facade doesn't look to have been damaged at all, including the plants, some of which should have been burned by the explosion. Sam's spending a lot of time at Maddie's helping her fix the damage and romancing the 39 year old daughter of her neighbour, who lets him drive around in the shiny red Buick.

I felt this episode was a perfect chance to bring back Lucy and get her to check out Harlan's story, but China Chow may have been busy, Barry the money launderer does appear so that he can created a believable background for Michael to get an in with Rufino, the bad guy. Michael portrays himself as a snivelling functionary for another organisation and to prove his cover even allows Rufino's vicious 2IC Falcone (played by professional villain Jeff Kober, I can't ever remember seeing him play a good guy) to dislocate his shoulder.

As I suspected once they get Rufino, Harlan turns and kills the guy. He also tried to kill Michael. He apparently holds a grudge from the Special Forces days when he was largely used as the fetch and carry guy. Michael gets the better of him and leaves him for his enemies.

I liked the brief case that they inserted knives into. That was very reminiscent of the one carried by James Bond in From Russia with Love, although that one also had rods of ammunition, belts of gold sovereigns and a bomb that went off if anyone tried to open it without the correct combination.

Harlan is just the first of many that will come for Michael Westen now that Management no longer have his back.

Burn Notice, Season 2, Episode 16

Whatever other issues I have with Burn Notice, and they really are few and far between, they pull out all stops with their season finales.

Unlike last season this was largely done in the one episode and there's so much going on that you find yourself wondering how they fit it all into 40 - 45 minutes of TV.

It turns out that both Carla and Victor have something in common with Michael. They both claim to be burned agents. We get very little detail about Carla, but Victor is more forthcoming.

This may be attributed to him being tied to a chair while Fiona is armed with a shotgun packing bean bag rounds (they won't kill, but they hurt like hell) when they ask him questions.

Victor claims that Carla killed his family to get him to work for her organisation. It's never given a name it's just referred to as Management. He could of course be lying, but no one thinks he is. It fits with Carla. This of course makes Michael worry for Maddie. Victor effectively becomes his client and they determine to go after Carla and Management. Victor has a dossier on Carla, but they'll have to go through her people to get to it.

Sam had instructions to take Maddie to Orlando and keep her safe there. I was hoping Sam could get her to go for it. Would have been great fun to see her and Sam avoiding Carla's people at Disneyworld. She refuses to leave, especially because Michael is in danger. Maddie's a walking contradiction. She does everything to keep fit, including popping her many pills, yet she smokes like a chimney. Even when Sam comes to pick her up, she's exercising to a workout video with lit cigarette firmly between lips.

Sam employs some of Michael's ingenuity and uses a set of Christmas lights as an incendiary device that temporarily disables the hit squad Carla sent after Maddie. This lets them take the neighbours highly visible bright red Buick. Maddie refuses to go outside of Miami and tells Sam to go help Michael, she figures that if they can find her amongst all the other peroxide blonde retirees in Miami then they're welcome to try, and she has a point. Maddie would be able to hide in plain sight better than anyone else on Team Michael Westen.

While I'm on the subject of visible cars Michael should really ditch the Charger. I know the idea is that it's identified with him, but that's part of it's problem. It stands out. It's as much part of him now as the Winchester's Impala or General Lee with the Duke boys. Fiona's penchant for high performance sports cars is also highly visible, but she switches them around pretty regularly.

He unveiled a new skill during a chase. While Victor was driving he was able to shoot at a pursuer, but ricochet the bullets off the ground so that they came up through the floorboards at the other driver, now that takes talent.

We also see a major difference between Michael and Victor. It's a possible weakness, although I'm sure Michael sees it as a strength. Michael doesn't like killing people and will do what he can to avoid that. Victor doesn't enjoy it, but he sees it as a natural consequence of him staying alive, largely he stays alive so he can take revenge on Carla and whoever she works for.

Carla does manage to shoot Victor and thinks she has Michael trapped, even if he won't do what she says she can blow up the boat he's on. As he points out she'll have fun trying to explain that to whoever she answers to, but her rejoinder is at least she'll still be alive. Those turned out to famous last words because just after she said them Fiona shot her. Someone got their wish.

Realising that they were all done for if he didn't act, Michael was forced to kill Victor (at his own request. I kind of felt sorry for the guy, too) and told Fiona and Sam to get the hell out. He boarded the helicopter containing Management.

Management turned out to be some unnamed old guy in a nice suit, who claimed that if he wanted them to back off they would, but he'd regret it. They had been keeping all the enemies he built up over the years away from him and his life, if they didn't provide that protection his life was going to get very interesting. I can see that makes some sort of sense, but Larry's still alive and he would have stepped on a lot more toes than Michael ever did, admittedly he's a stone killer and usually leaves a trail of dead bodies behind.

Michael says he'll take his chances, jumps out the helicopter and starts swimming for Miami.

There is not a snowflake's chance in hell Management are going to leave Michael alone.