Burn Notice 1.11 - Loose Ends

Plot: We open the episode learning that Michael's spending his days doing inverted shirtless crunches to pass the time. When he's not giving Sam grief about his bucket of fried chicken. Seems Mikey is a little stressed about Philip Cowan coming to Miami, but no worries, Cowan has sent him a text, specifying a meeting time. Which Cowan doesn't keep because Sam came along as backup. Well what do you expect after you tried to kill him, Phil? Trust? Cowan instead leaves an insipid greeting card with a newspaper clipping related to one of Michael's old jobs inside. This leads to a back and forth through the episode of Michael and Cowan leaving coded messages for each other about times to meet, because Michael keeps getting roped into Sam's job.

Gillian and Melissa work at SXG, and Melissa's having an affair. Gillian let her boyfriend in a few times to visit, but he stole some files, and now he's blackmailing them into signing for some shipments he wants brought into the country (drugs). Except it's more complicated than that, and even with Fi charging Sam an exorbitant amount for her help, they do need Michael to unravel all this, especially once Melissa and her partner have a breif conversation with an RPG, and Sam winds up a prisoner of the real trouble. But Michael might be a little too busy dodging the people who cut his conversation with Cowan short.

The second half of the episode sees Michael trying to deal with multiple problems at once. He has to help Fi escape the drug dealers. He has to keep away from the people pursuing him, and protect his mother from them, and figure out who the drug dealers are, and once he's done that, he has to save Sam, which means keeping Harrick from killing Sam until he can mount the rescue. And if he can survive all that, he may just get some answers about his burn notice.

The Players: Philip Cowan (The Man Who Burned Michael), Gillian (The Client), Melissa (The Other Client), Ray Wagoner (Hustler), Kent (The Husband), Harrick (heroin Importer), Barry (Money Launderer), Carmelo (Heroin Dealer - 2nd Biggest)

Quote of the Episode: Madeline - 'We're your family. You need to trust us.' Michael - 'When would I have learned to do that?'

Does Fiona blow anything up? She gets to blow up a gangplank, and at least some of the rusted hulk it lead to.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 4 (35 overall)

Sam Getting Hit Count: 6 (10 overall). He even lost a tooth. On the good news, it taught us what Green Berets do: Beat up people tied to chairs. Or maybe that's what ex-Green Berets do.

Mike's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (11 overall)

Other: The one thing that comes through in this episode is when Michael has time to think about what might be coming, he becomes a huge asshole to everyone. He gives Sam grief about the chicken, about being asked to help Sam (never mind Sam always helps Michael) gives Sam crap about being shot at on what was supposed to be an easy job (Gillian: 'He tried to kill you.' Michael: 'Happens all the time. Especially for part-time help on easy jobs. *pointed look at Sam*). Michael's remarkably unsympathetic to Gillian after her near miss with a car bomb. Yes, he's the one who saved her, but she's clearly in shock, and he's just cold about it. He threatens Barry if he doesn't help Michael get in touch with heroin dealers, regardless of Barry's (entirely reasonable) desire to stay away from drug dealers.

As you can see from the quote of the episode, he's a real peach to his mom as well, and that continues throughout the episode, though at least she gets a couple of good lines in on him (Get yourself some furniture. I didn't raise you to live in a warehouse and eat off a bench!) When he it comes time to act, or when there's no time to think, that's when he behaves better. It could be the true reflection of him as a person, how he acts when there's no time to spend putting the defenses he's built into place.

It's interesting, because he basically says he doesn't trust Maddy or Nate, and it's certainly true to a point. He keeps refusing to explain what's going on, why people are calling Madeline, why he's giving Nate a gun, who is after him. He impresses upon them that they need to do what he says, but won't tell them why. Nate rolls with it, partially because he's lived a life where he can't or won't always explain why people are looking for him, but Madeline's not used to it, which causes friction. But it seems as though it would be much easier for Michael to just explain what he knows to her. Who is she going to tell? There's a lack of trust, and yet, he still feels compelled to protect them. Maybe because he's responsible for them being in danger, since it's him the mysterious people are after, but it could be some basic warmth towards them, even if he doesn't like physical contact (he shies away from Madeline at one point). You can care for someone without trusting them, though it's entirely possible he's behaving like this to try and keep from caring about them. It's easier to travel the world and do his "spy thing", if he has nothing to go back home to. His comment that the clean cellphones are for emergencies only, because they 'want to keep communication to a minimum' was telling.

Of course, none of the guys in this show are able to express their feelings. When Mike tries to thank Nate, he's told not to try talking like that, because he's bad at it. Sam has a hard time thanking Mike for saving his life. It's always the intended recipient sparing the person from having to say it.

On a completely different note, when Michael and Fi make explosives together, I'm reminded of the pottery scene from Ghost. Which is not something I'd want to be reminded of, but that's how it goes sometimes. Clearly Fiona enjoys it as an activity for couples, and Michael's smile indicates he's enjoying himself, too.

When the boat explodes, I like that Jeffery Donovan went with the badass "ignore the explosion behind you " approach, while Bruce Campbell totally sold it by flinging his arms and getting a real surprised look on his face.

That concludes Season 1. Next week, Season 2 begins, and Michael finds out he's not going to find out as much as he hoped about his burn notice.