Burn Notice, Season 4, Episode 18

Finally found out what Vaughn's real issue with Michael's list is. If it goes public or winds up with the government then his whole covert mission and involvement with Simon and Management is blown open, and he and everyone else on the list go down.

So the result of that is that he and whatever he can muster are coming for Michael with all guns blazing and he tells Michael that until he gets that list and can destroy it or bury it then he, his friends and his family are all fair game. Nate doesn't appear in this episode, nor does Barry, but they would have been included in that threat.

They have to outmanoeuvre Vaughn before he can mobilise and they go at it from two angles. One is to get Maddie and Sam to work the congressman they saved from the Russian death squad and see if they can get him to shut down Vaughn, the carrot there is that doing so could very well make him the most powerful man in US intelligence.

Plan B is to put the list somewhere even Vaughn will have trouble getting to it, and a heavily guarded  nuclear waste plant seems like the ideal location. Only problem with that is that Vaughn anticipated it.

The ensuing chase cuts Michael, Fiona and Jesse off from Sam and Maddie. Jesse also gets some rebar through his leg. My initial thought was 'damn lucky it didn't pierce a major artery'. Fiona echoed it seconds later by pointing out that he would have been dead if it had gone through the femoral artery. They manage to hole up in a hotel, but they're pinned down and trapped in there. People on that list are prepared to help Vaughn take Westen out and get the list. We also say goodbye to an old friend, Michael is forced to blow up the Charger to try and escape. It's a tough old car, but I don't think even it can survive that, although I kind of hope it does. Sticks out like a sore thumb, but its given good service and it isn't any more noticeable than Fiona's electric blue sports Hyundai.

The congressman dithers and dallies and Vaughn gets Maddie as another bargaining chip against Michael, while Sam tries to convince the guy to do the right thing.

Fiona and Michael pledge their true love and are preparing to detonate an explosive device that will probably kill them, but it will also ensure that Vaughn will never get his hands on the list. That's when the cavalry arrives with Sam. The congressman did the right thing and called in the army to act against Vaughn. I have to hand it to Vaughn even with a gun in his face he still bravadoes it out with a 'do you know who I am?' kind of attitude.

Just after he's been led away to more than likely face charges of treason and probably never see the light of day again Michael is approached by a clean shaven, broad shouldered individual in a dark suit. He can't say who he is or where he's taking Michael, but he strongly suggests that the former spy accompany him.

We don't know exactly how much time elapses, but Michael is next seen in the back of a car with blacked out windows, facing the man who took him away and one other. They're clearly CIA. They don't say anything, but their manner and the way they dress may as well have them wearing large signs on top of their heads with red flashing lights. The car stops and just before Michael exits, he's handed an overcoat, suggesting that wherever they are is rather colder than Miami.

Michael stares at the building in front of him as he puts on the coat and then a man emerges. I didn't recognise him, but Michael knew him. He smiles, offers Michael his hand and says, 'Welcome back!'
The camera pans up and out, we see the exterior of the building and a street or two away the distinctive shape of The White House. They may have to change the opening of the show to 'My name is Michael Westen. I'm a spy.'

This is the last one I'll do for a while before moving onto Season 5, which from memory is very good and has one the nastiest villains in the whole run.

It's almost Christmas, and that and New Year will kind of get in the way, plus I'll be watching cricket and tennis and won't have as much time to post the write ups.

I'd also like to undertake a special little project like I did last year with the Disney films. More on that when it happens, but I hope people will like it.

Burn Notice, Season 4, Episode 16

In the end they decide to do the right thing with the list and give it to the government in the form of Marv. It makes sense. Marv may work for the very organisation that burned Michael and Jesse and in many ways created Simon, but he's a straight shooter and will do the right thing with the information. He also went out of his way to get the money that bought them the list, so it is only fitting that he get it.

Marv and Michael meet for the first time and Marv makes no secret of the fact that he doesn't like Michael. He's read the doctored file and believed it. Michael does point out that it's lies, but Marv brings up things like Fiona and Sam's past and that all makes it more believable. Despite his personal feelings Marv does agree to take receipt of the list. Even more so after he puts Michael on a polygraph and Michael begins the interrogation with the words: 'My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy...'

Neither Fiona or Maddie are happy about Michael possibly getting his old job back, but Fiona clings to the hope that once his name is cleared, his feelings for her will rise to the fore and he'll turn it down. Having lived through it once, Maddie fears that Michael will disappear like he did before. He was gone for a decade then, and it took 3 months before she even knew he was still alive.

While that's happening with Michael, Sam is trying to help a friend of his in the force. He was accused of going bad and disappearing with drugs from a bust. Michael believes he was crooked, Sam doesn't.

He meets with the man's wife and his former partner and manages to get a lead. Michael goes along for the ride and when the drug dealer they want to talk to runs, they know they're onto something.

It turns out that Sam's friend wasn't crooked, his partner was and now he's getting away with it. He even arranged to his have friend killed to hide his own wrong doings.

Because the partner didn't do the job himself and never saw the body it's not all that hard to make the partner believe his old friend is still alive. He panics and tries every trick in the book to make it all go away. Jesse and Fiona impersonate internal affairs. Sam has alerted the real internal affairs to what's going on and promises to deliver them a crooked cop. Michael's shoulder injury appears to have healed, because he dives off a boat just as it's about to be blown up and suffers no ill effects afterwards.

Once that's all wrapped up it's time to meet Marv and give him the list. Marv is accompanied by 'Homeland Security' and at the last moment begs them not to give him the list, he was threatened, his wife was threatened. That's when they open fire and kill Marv, as they drive away Michael sees Tyler Brennan (listed as part time spy, full time sociopath) in the back of the car. Jesse asks who it is, and Michael replies; 'Our worst nightmare.'. Brennan is bad, and he's evil, but I think Simon is more dangerous.