Burn Notice 2.5 - Scatter Point

Plot: The P.O. Box pays off! All Sam's hangovers from working Harvey Gunderson were worth it! After trailing Carla's secretary, Michael now knows where Carla set up shop. The question is how to get past her security of guys disguised as maintenance people. While Michael tries to sort that out, he finds himself approached by Trevor. Trevor has worked as the wheelman for a particular group of criminals in the past, and that group is ready to pull another job. Problem: Trevor is out on parole, and promised his son he had gone straight. Which means no heists. Bigger Problem: His boss does not take "No" for an answer, though "dead" is an acceptable excuse.

Michael attempts to get the job called off by getting the crew's safecracker arrested (Gilbert has a tendency to drink and drive). When that fails, he gets Trevor to present him as a replacement, so he can figure out what the job is and shut it down that way. But Timo is a bit of a control freak, which means he doesn't like sharing details, and if he calls you, you better drop whatever you're doing, even if it's infiltrating Carla's building.

Also, Sam finds himself in a tricky situation when Veronica asks him to marry her. Except Sam's already married. Sort of. Has been since the '70s, actually. Good luck, Sammy.

The Players: Trevor (The Client), C.J. (The Hustler), Gilbert (The Safe Cracker), Kandi (The Muscle), Timo (The Boss)

Quote of the Episode:  'You know what your boy needs more than a promise? He needs his dad!' - Michael.

Does Fiona blow anything up? She gets to blow up the crew's base of operations. Don't worry, no one was inside. That was the point.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 1 (11) overall.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 6 (6 overall). Sam's been pushing the Annoying Guy shtick pretty hard this season, and it finally came back to bite him. Oh well, it was for a good cause.

Michael Fake Laugh Count: 0 (4 overall). This week Mikey's lake of laughter seems to have been a choice of cover identity. Perhaps people find jovial safecrackers untrustworthy?

Other: Mike keeps the cover name simple this week. "Joseph". Guess nobody really needed to know last names anyway.

 - Fi really screwed Sam over this week. She stood there and let Gilbert hit him repeatedly, and I'm not asking for her to break her cover as "Fifi" and tase the guy, but she could have yelled to get the cops' attention a little sooner. Though to that end, we have to throw some boos the way of the police, who were unaware of the fistfight going on not 20 meters away from them. Great peripheral awareness.

 - Then, of course, there was her poor advice to Sam, though to be fair, I'm not sure "I love you, but both I and the lady I married in the '70s have been too lazy to have our union annulled, so I can't marry you" is the sort of thing words can fix. Still, she enjoyed him getting pummeled far too much. At least she felt about about Veronica kicking Sam out of her life. Or maybe she was just worried Sam was going to try and kill her. We haven't seen Sam truly angry yet, you know? Fi, yes, Michael, to a lesser extent, but Sam, not so much. Grumpy, but not enraged.

 - The Timo/Trevor plot isn't one of my favorites, but I do like how Michael uses Timo's control freak tendencies. Timo won't just tell him everything he'd need to know to stop the job, but his patterns tell Michael enough. Trevor is always supposed to park the getaway vehicles within a half-mile of the job, Timo will tell "Joseph" what kind of safe it is, it all adds up without Timo even realizing it.

  - The bad guys are taking care of each other a lot this season. Ivan ending up in a dumpster last week, Kandi getting to Timo this week, Zeke didn't look like he was in for happy days when his partners closed that door in "Trust Me". The only times I can think of it happening in Season 1 were "Fight or Flight", when the cartel became convinced Alvara DeSantos was squealing to the feds, and "Broken Rules", when Diego Cruz took the bomb meant for Ernie, and used it to blow up his boss Concha instead. Not sure what to make of it. I guess I should wait until the end of the season, see if it's a trend.

 - Somewhat related to that, Trevor says he heard about Michael from some guy he met in prison, who had a con broken up by Michael. Which person you think that was? There have been several. There was Quentin (1.2, "Identity), possibly Lawrence Henderson (1.8, "Wanted Man") but I think he had the cash to avoid real jail. I doubt Zeke went to jail, but even if he did, could Trevor have gotten out so recently he'd have a chance to meet Zeke and learn his tale of woe? So, smart money is on Quentin then.

 - With the reveal at the end of the episode that Carla's moved her base, and left Michael a mocking gift in her place, I'm left wondering: did she know what he was up to all along, or was she unaware until the security monitors caught his first, aborted attempt to get in? I think we're meant to think it's the latter, because all the photos of him on that electronic picture book are of that attempt, with nothing from his hours of surveillance there or at her p.o. box. Still, considering how closely they were watching him while he was getting Nefzi to counterfeit those security cards, it's hard to believe she'd pull back entirely. I suppose she could be arrogant enough to not care what he does when he isn't working for her, believing herself too powerful for him to hurt, but she seems smarter than that.

Next week, Michael's back to square one in his pursuit of Carla.