Burn Notice, Season 6, Episodes 17 & 18

I'm doing the final 2 episodes of the season together, because they really are just one big episode, split into 2 for the convenience of network TV. There's no to be continued at the end of Episode 17, but considering that one major character's life hangs in the balance as the credits roll, it probably should have.

After receiving that cryptic message at his brother's grave, Michael decides to follow up on it. He leaves Schmidt's house (Schmidt himself has already left the country, but did say that they could stay there for a while until they too departed Dodge) in the dead of the night. He finds himself at an out of the way all night diner. Seated at the counter is one solitary customer. Jason Bly, former CIA operative and now with CSS.

Bly offers Michael a deal of sorts. He's been tasked with CSS' investigation into Card's death, and he's worked out that Card wasn't the 'white knight' everyone thought he was. Riley's not much better, she will burn any and everyone if that's what it takes to get Michael. Bly can't do a whole lot for Michael, he killed a high ranking CIA officer, but he can maybe save his friends and family. Riley has already had Sugar thrown in a whole for his previous association with Michael and worse could await everyone else.

Michael tells Fiona about the offer and she rejects it immediately, and counsels continuing with their plan to get out.

Michael, Sam and Jesse go to a dock to arrange transport. The contact is acting suspiciously. By the time they work out that they've been made, the CIA are all over it. Jesse tries to run and gets caught. Sam is shot, Michael takes out the shooter and throws him into his car, and then gets out safely.

Back at Schmidt's, Sam was lying about being 'grazed'. It's a gut shot, and the bullet is still in him. They can't risk a hospital or even a doctor, so Fiona brings in her ex boyfriend, the EMT Campbell.

Sam's injury is one problem. The other is Jesse. They're confident that Jesse won't rat them out, but they also don't want to leave him to Riley's tender mercies. The CIA guy they took at the docks is a hardcase and won't crack.

Jesse knows all about interrogation. He used to work counter intelligence and he's been with Michael for a few years now. He initially gives them a long convoluted and dishonest story. That's when Riley lets one of her muscle men rough him up, but she knows she can't take it too far and Jesse still won't give them a damn thing. She offers him a deal. She'll clean his record and let him go free if he'll roll over. He won't. Jesse is the wrong person for them to have. He has no family and no real friends outside of the team. Eventually Riley offers him the classified file on the police informant that killed his mother, something that Jesse has been trying to get his eyes on since he was 9 years old. He still won't talk, but he's getting closer.

Back at the house, Campbell is unable to do a lot for Sam, although he has stopped the bleeding. Dean isn't talking. Michael lets him free himself and when he tries to make the inevitable call to Riley, traces it and gets a location. Dean tries to escape, takes Fiona out of the fight and has a gun on Michael, when Sam puts a gun on him and he stands down.

Michael uses one of his usual tricks to gas the building where Jesse is being held. Waits until everyone is out and then goes in for Jesse. Just before they leave, Jesse grabs the file and opens it. It's full of blank sheets of paper. Riley was trying to play him.

Bly contacts Michael and urges him to cooperate, because Riley will be madder than ever after his last stunt. Michael hangs up. If they can't get Sam proper medical attention he's going to die. Fiona says she knows a dirty doctor who may help. They all get into the car and drive. As the credits are about to roll, Sam loses consciousness.

Unsurprisingly Episode 18 opens with Fiona and Michael forcing Fiona's illegal doctor to operate on Sam. He can't exactly do the greatest job given the circumstances and lack of equipment, but he does give him a blood transfusion of Michael's blood (lucky that they were compatible) and gets the bullet out. Sam's not out of the woods and really should have proper hospitalisation, but at least now death is not imminent.

Michael and Maddie have a late night conversation about dealing with bad situations and what a picnic living with Frank Westen was. That's when she mentions that at least now the neighbour's dog has stopped barking so they can sleep. That triggers Michael's 'spider sense' and sure enough an assassination team is about to invade the house.

They fight off and take out the intruders. In the encounter, Michael sees a drug cartel tattoo on one of them. The logical conclusion is that drive by hatred and desperation Riley has done a deal with a drug cartel to take Michael out. It's a cartel that Michael went after for the CIA.

So they run to a hotel. They need to get a tracker on Riley to find out who she's working with in the cartel and see if Bly can trap her in it. They take Sam to the hospital and Michael creates a distraction. He actually rides a motorbike through the hospital, with Riley and her team in pursuit, while Jesse and Fiona break into Riley's car and bug it.

Riley shows her true colours by interrogating Sam and when he refuses to give her anything, shutting off his pain medication. I had some issues with this, not just because Riley is horrible. I already knew that. I can't believe that any doctor would allow this to happen. Hopefully I'm never hospitalised in Miami.

Bly and Michael trace Riley to a marina, where despite Bly's lack of belief that Riley is that off the rails, she's meeting with the drug cartel. He gets audio and vision of her, that will put her away. Then they encounter a marina guard who is with the cartel. They shoot him, but he throws a grenade into the car. Michael gets out, but Bly doesn't, the explosion kills him and destroys all the evidence.

Michael tells Fiona and Jesse to get the guards attention and then he dives into the water and swims for the boat. The drug lord and Riley are surprised when the boat starts heading into open water and go to investigate. The wheelhouse appears to be deserted, but the boat is underway and the coast guard are approaching. Michael takes out the drug lord, then he and Riley pull guns on each other.

Michael wants Riley to confess, if she doesn't he's willing to let the coast guard open fire and destroy the boat. Yes, it will kill him, but it will also killed Riley and it will mean that nothing more will happen to Maddie, Fiona, Sam and Jesse. There were things that Riley didn't know about Michael Westen. He's rarely ever out of a plan. He has nerves of steel. He is willing to die if it means his friends and family are okay. He doesn't have a lot to lose. Finally, he's more than a little crazy. Riley cracks.

When senior CIA members die and are found to be corrupt, and I haven't even mentioned Bly's involvement in it all, investigations have to be held and wheels have to turn. Everyone finds themselves in government custody. After 3 weeks, Fiona is taken from her cell to a helicopter deck. She sees Michael dressed in a suit and giving orders, with a nod of his head the guard releases Fiona, and lets her go to him. He made a deal. If he works as the CIA's puppet they leave everyone else alone.

Because Michael had said in Panama after Card went down and they were through all of this, he was out, Fiona accuses him of getting what he wanted and lying to her. She knows this is unfair. Michael had no other option.

It's a pretty good ending and a nice springboard into the 7th and final season. Season 6 had a rocky start, while it tried to finish off Season 5, but once Nate was killed the show kicked into overdrive, and some of the high points of the entire show were in Season 6, especially when they were being chased by Riley. Had they had to end the show in this season, they could have tweaked the ending a bit and had Michael and Fiona walking off into the sunset. As it is they got a shortened 7th season to actually end it properly.

Burn Notice, Season 6, Episode 13

Once Card is dead, another Big Bad bites the dust, and the show has to reboot itself again. 

Alerted by the sound of the shot, Sam runs into the room. He sees Gray and Card dead and notes that Card's gun was holstered, so comes to the right conclusion that Michael shot an unarmed man. Over the past season or two, Sam developed this squeamish side, where he had an issue with anyone shooting someone who wasn't able to shoot back. It wasn't in evidence earlier, and maybe this was because he never found himself in the position of having to make that moral choice. However Sam ran with Michael when he was still creating the legend of Michael Westen Baddest Spy in the World, and surely they must have had to make a few hard decisions then that involved collateral damage. Leaving Card alive would have ultimately caused more deaths down the track. On the other hand Sam could be concerned that Michael has just dropped himself and everyone connected with him in the poo. It just didn't read that way. Besides Team Westen is regularly getting themselves into and out of bad situations, it's a way of life for them.

Because Card had a team on site to take out Gray, the CIA are not long in coming and they lock everything in and around the hotel down. The person calling the shots is Olivia Riley. She is the worst nightmare of someone whose just shot a senior CIA agent to death. She's a competent Bly, Paxson on steroids. Pearce once described herself as a pit bull when she was on the scent of someone. Riley makes her look like a lapdog.

Michael and Sam split. Michael does a 'Die Hard' and makes his way out of the hotel via the lift well, then crashes a car through the back wall of the carpark. He was actually rather lucky that he didn't take Fiona and Jesse out in the process, as well as total Fiona's Hyundai. Sam is trying to make it out in plain sight, posing as a hotel employee. He gives Riley the Chuck Finley alias, but she knows who he is and about his association with her target, so takes him into custody.

Maddie doesn't escape either. The CIA send an agent and police officer to pressure her and let her know that she's being watched. She's the wrong little old lady to tangle with, and almost immediately begins watching them as closely as they watch her.

Sam does what he can to throw Riley and her team off the scent, while Michael, Jesse and Fiona visit his storage unit and arm up. Riley just misses them there, but they're counting on her taking the bait to rescue Sam. Riley's true colours come out at the marina, which Michael, Fiona and Jesse had wired up to create some fairly harmless, but attention grabbing explosions to get Sam back. She orders her team to defuse the bombs and belittles them when one suggests that maybe they should wait for bomb disposal. She'll throw anyone under the bus if it means getting her man. Michael uses himself as bait to expose Riley, Jesse and Fiona get the drop on her and order her to tell her people to stand down.

Michael takes Riley to a remote location and leaves her there. It will take her about an hour to walk back to the nearest road. She says that she'll track him to the ends of the earth if she has to, Michael glibly replies that he'll be waiting.

Michael meets with Maddie at a pre arranged location by the shore. He said it was his father's old fishing spot on the phone, but that was in case anyone was listening in. Frank Westen never struck me as the fishing type from what I heard about him. This incident has decided her against moving, she thinks she'll be needed in Maimi, and now she's sticking around. Shame that Michael and his crew may not be able to do the same thing.