Burn Notice 4.6 - Entry Point

Plot: Michael's captured the assassin, Kendra, and they've converted some abandoned home into an interrogation chamber. But Kendra's proving rather resistant to their threats. She also demonstrated her brain is pretty resistant to blunt force trauma. Time for a new strategy, and that strategy is to let her believe Jesse is some weak, harried lackey she can manipulate. In theory, while she thinks she's leading him by the nose, he'll be extracting useful information from her.

Jesse and Sam are going to have to handle that angle, because Fi drags Michael into another job. Buddy creates knockoffs of just about anything you can imagine, but his last client tried to kill him after Buddy finished making two onyx lionheads. Turns out those match the ones set in a sword that belonged to Alexander the Great, so Buddy's client - believed to be notorious antiquities thief Mr. Slippery - is planning to heist the sword.

Fi and Mike run into some difficulties when the sword's new owner, Mr. Bocklage, doesn't want their help, but they keep nosing around. It doesn't make a lot of sense offhand, they offered to help, and Bocklage shot them down. Let his sword get stolen. But Mr. Slippery does have a reputation for leaving lots of corpses behind when jobs don't go as planned. I guess you can't take the chance that happens.

Fiona and Michael think they find Mr. Slippery, and figure how how he'll pull the heist, only to find they've been temporarily outflanked. They do capture the thief, and Buddy is spared.

Meanwhile, Jesse's been busy with Kendra. She admits that Kassar (or "Cobra), was a paid job, in return for Jesse telling her he's working for a private security company. Then Kendra offers to pay Jesse, in exchange for being set free. This gives Barry an (unseen) opportunity to try and backtrace who paid her. It doesn't work, but they do convince Kendra her accounts were drained by that same employer, which enrages her to the point she imparts some key information.

She wasn't here just to kill Kassar. There was a three-man team meant to steal something from a local bank, but they botched the attempt. Which means whatever they were trying to steal was important to the people who hired Kendra, which makes them the people Jesse and Vaughn (through Michael) are trying to locate.

The Players: Buddy (The Client), Mr. Bocklage (About to be Robbed/Reluctant Client), Andrew Deans (Mr. Slippery?), Selena (Mr. Slippery)

Quote of the Episode: Kendra - 'I'm never going to answer your questions. But I think its cute that you haven't figured that out yet.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? No. Mr. Slippery gets to do most the exploding, between nearly scattering Buddy across the pier, blowing up her own lair, to taking out Deans and his car, Selena to to have all the fun. To make matters worse, Michael sacrificed Fi's bag as a delivery system for an explosive.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 4 (13 overall). So Sam's finally above 2 drinks per episode. Took him a third of the season to get there.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (8 overall).

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (1 overall).

Other: Michael used two aliases. He was "Randy" when he wanted to investigate the firebombed lair of Mr. Slippery. And I can't hear that name without thinking of the Tabula Rasa Buffy episode. "Randy? Randy Giles?! Why not just name me Horny Giles, or Desperate-for-a-Shag Giles!?" Hee hee. Anyway, When he and Fi approach Bocklage as security consultants, he's "Scott Miller".

I didn't care much about the theft plot. Buddy was a bit too dorky for someone fearing for his life, and I figured if they stayed out of it, Mr. Slippery could probably heist the sword without needing to kill anyone. Oh no, some rich guy got his toy taken away! Boo hoo. Maybe if there'd been more time to explore possible candidates, so we could treat it as a mystery to solve. "Who is Mr. Slippery?" and all that. But they basically lock on Deans until he gets killed, by which point the episode is nearly over.

Now the whole thing between Jesse and Kendra, that was fun. I'm guessing Navi Rawat (who plays Kendra), didn't actually slam her head onto that metal table. At least, I hope she didn't, because it sounded like it would have really hurt. You can take commitment to a role too far. Either way, she sold it, and it makes Kendra kind of terrifying. Even Michael had to take a step back from that.

And Coby Bell plays Jesse off that so well. Kendra always staring, calculating, maintaining eye contact, and Jesse's constantly averting his eyes, losing his temper, then apologizing for it afterward. There's a point, right before Kendra offers to pay for her freedom, where I noted I couldn't tell if Jesse was legitimately frustrated, or just playing at it. You'd figure it's an act, but it has to be fatiguing, making an appearance of trying to interrogate this woman, knowing you have to fail, so she'll get cocky and leave an opening. After awhile, wouldn't you start to wonder if she really was playing you, if she's that good? You'd just want to be done with the whole thing.

The camerawork helps, too. Once it's just Jesse and Kendra, the camera hangs a lot closer. Even though Jesse's standing up, looking down at Kendra, but his body language and the way the camera shoots him eliminates most of the sense of power that might come with that. It gets up closer to him than it does to her, highlighting every broken eye contact, every mumbled apology, every sign of doubt he has. There's still the underlying fact that he's supposed to be playing her, and the camera looks up at him to reflect that, but it blunts to go along with the role he's playing. The camera stays at eye level with kendra, it rarely looks down at her, because you aren't supposed to feel in charge. You're supposed to be worried about Jesse being alone in there with her. Also, it hangs back a little from Kendra, like it's wary of her. Or, taken another way, the trap is baited, and they're waiting for her to step into it of her own volition.

I especially like how, when she makes the money offer, Jesse mumbles "300 grand" to himself, and Kendra nods eagerly, and even leans forward in her chair. She's trying to be cool, but she can barely contain her excitement at the prospect of getting out (and probably killing Jesse the first chance she gets).