Burn Notice 4.11 - Blind Spot

Plot: We start with Michael handing Jesse all the information Vaughn gave him about John Barrett - the man Jesse's been after - presented as some old Pentagon file a buddy of Sam's had. Jesse is ecstatic and wants to go to Barrett immediately. Michael prefers to call Barrett, tell him they have Simon's Bible, and let Barrett come to them. They go with Michael's plan.

While all that's happening, Sam and Fiona are trying to help Emily get her money back. See, Emily's husband died not too long ago, and in her grieving, she met a seemingly wonderful man named Charles. Who got ahold of her personal information and stole all her money. The private investigators she's hired have been worthless, one concluding Charles is a swell guy. Because bros stick together, amirite? Oh, did I forget to mention, Charles fled the UK because some of his marks turned up dead if they pressed the issue?

Anyway, Sam approaches Charles as Chuck, a fellow swindler, and after a rocky start, manages to buddy up to him. Which gives him the chance to drug Charles' drinks so he blacks out. Then it's a matter of convincing him he went on wild spending sprees the night before, and hoping a panicky Charles leads them to the money. During all this Mike and Jesse have a trap set for what they assume will be Barrett's attempt to steal the Bible. They do catch someone, but it's a waiting game until someone calls to check in. So Michael agrees to wait while Jesse helps Fi trail Charles to his money manager, Martin. Which leads to an awkward moment where Martin's security gets suspicious and Fi makes out with Jesse to throw them off.

Charles having his money kept by a lawyer is a complication, but not an insurmountable one. Chuck claims to have been followed and had his accounts swindled, and Charles finds the bug he was supposed to in his car. Fortunately, Chuck knows a dirty cop (Mike), who can sort these things. For a lot of money, which Charles balks at. Then Martin gets wind of Emily's attempts to get her money, and Fi has to rush off to save her from gunmen. At this point, the stakes are raised, so it's time for Charles to have one more blackout. Only this time when he wakes up, it looks like he got a little cross with Emily. Now he's ready to pay the dirty cop, even if it means taking Martin's money to do it. Emily gets her money back, Charles is on the run from Martin, and Mike got a call from Barrett. He's in Miami. With a caravan of black SUVs. And 15 armed guys. Oh well, no big deal, the 4 of them can handle some schmucks with machine guns right? It's barely 4-to-1 odds, no prob -

Oh, never mind. See, Marv and Jesse had another chat. Marv found footage from a camera down the street from their building. It caught Michael fleeing the premises. And Jesse's explaining all this to Fi, as he points a gun at her.

The Players: John Barrett (Drake Technologies CEO?Merchant of Death), Emily (The Client), Charles Archer (Sleazy Womanizer), Martin (Charles' Lawyer/Dirty Money Manager)

Quote of the Episode: Fiona - 'His name is Charles. You need a new cover I.D.' Sam - 'Sorry Fi, I don't think so. Chuck Finley is forever.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? Yes. She blows a door off its hinges, using it as a weapon to drop one of Martin's guys.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 11 (28 overall). OK, I couldn't keep perfect track. There were too many montages of he and Chaz drinking where I couldn't tell if Sam had a new drink or not. I guessed that if Charles was getting a new one, so was Sam.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (8 overall)

Michael Fake Laugh Count: 0 (2 overall)

Other: Michael's alias this week was "Brooks". I think he would have had a fake laugh if he got to interact with Charles a little more. That 'Great idea! Fugitives escape all the time!' bit was sort of begging for it.

Sam and Mike both got to do exaggerated British accents this week. I liked Mike's better, since it was angry and mocking, and thus, hilarious.

This is a weird episode, tonally. There's all this tension throughout. Maddy is starting to crack from having to keep secrets from Jesse, even if she does tend to the melodrama. There's the looming threat of John Barrett (played by Robert Patrick). There's Fiona, who gets very heated about Charles, to the point she nearly tries to kill him during Sam's initial approach. And when Sam stops her, she takes a swing at him. There's also the fact that either Charles is a murderer, or Martin is on their behalf.

And yet, the plan is to make Charles think he got blackout drunk and did stupid stuff. It's silly. Chuck telling Charles, 'If you don't remember the French DJ, tell me you at least remember the Brazilian chicks from the afterparty?' It defangs Charles, because he looks like such a buffoon. I suppose it's critical that's he such a swine the rest of the time, so that you never feel bad for him. Any time he's coherent he's berating people, calling women "bitches", talking about how one of his "prospects" is a widow who just won a settlement in court against a chemical company that killed her son. He's thoroughly loathsome, but also pathetic.

Then, of course, you get the surprise reveal at the end that Jesse learned the truth. Probably a good thing Mike was too caught up in his Barrett stuff to talk Maddy out of her trip to Tampa. Not that I imagine he would have tried. I thought it was odd to see Fiona cry and plead. She didn't do that even when Thomas O'Neill - bloodthirsty hooligan of episode 3.9 - threatened to take a hammer to her teeth. I guess because she liked Jesse, felt bad about what they'd done to him. Maybe she didn't want her death on his conscience. Or she figured she had this coming, and there wasn't any getting out of it, and the realization of that hurt. Fi didn't get Jesse burned, no, and she's criticized Michael for how he's handled Jesse more than anyone. But she never actually broke ranks with Michael. All she had to do was tell Jesse the truth, tell him why Michael did it. Or hell, take up Vaughn's offer from two episodes ago. Give Vaughn the book code, Jesse gets reinstated. Assuming you believe Vaughn as a man who keeps his promises, which, yeah, that's iffy. Point is, she's had no end of opportunities to come clean to Jesse, and she ultimately sided with Michael, so that makes her - and Sam, and Maddy - complicit in the whole thing.

If Jesse decides to bring down the thunder, Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp style, it'll be hard to root against him.