Burn Notice 5.10 - Army of One

Plot: Picking up where the last episode left of, Mike and Sam rush to the warehouse Lucien told them about. They make it past the first round of alarms, but sadly not the second, and the killer escapes after torching most of his stuff. At least we get to see his face. And at least Mike got a partially burned up computer. But with Pearce insisting Michael give her his files, he needs to get something off the computer fast. Sam knows a guy, but they aren't buddies. Tasing was involved, and with Fiona along, tasing is involved again. Also ankle bracelets, because Dixon's under house arrest.

As for Michael, he and Madeline have been roped into helping Jesse with a security gig. Michael is supposed to be a tech guy helping Holcomb perform some corporate espionage on a billionaire. Turns out his idea of espionage involves taking hostages and demanding bank codes at gunpoint. Michael needs their eyes off him so he can dismantle their group, and to that end, concocts a maintenance guy named James Marsden. Who just so happens to be an ex-Army Ranger. Fiona must have convinced Mike to watch Under Siege recently. With a lot of help from Maddy (and a little help from Jesse), Mike pulls it off, and gets his files to Pearce by her deadline. And as a bonus for that, he learns she has a name to place with the face we saw, Tavian Korzha.

The Players: Lucien (The Lead to Max' Killer), Tavian Korzha (The Man Who Killed Max and Framed Michael), Dixon (Sam's "Friend"), Holcomb (Project Manager)

Quote of the Episode: Maddy - 'Michael, what are you doing?' Mike - 'Putting blood on my shirt.' Maddy - 'That can't be sanitary.' Mike - 'I need to look like I'm fatally wounded. I'd prefer not to use a bullet.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? No.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 0 (11 overall).

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (7 overall).

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (5 overall).

Other: Michael had an alias this week, Matt Graham! Not the most creative name ever, but what the hell.

That grenade seemed over-powered. I mean, that was a big explosion at the end. It would certainly keep Holcomb's promise to kill all the hostages if they caused trouble, but again, do grenades pack that much punch?

I liked how the security guard backs Michael up on his plan to get people out through the fence. He needed a vote of confidence from someone in the group. Too bad the guy lost his nerve part way. Actually, all the people doubting Michael and shouting seemed pretty realistic. He might have gotten more obedience if he'd gone the "bad guy" route and barked orders while waving a gun. Once the hostages thought they had some wiggle room, they started getting mouthy.

It didn't make a lot of sense to me that "Matt's" reason why he would kill all the hostages was that he wasn't going back to prison.  If you killed nearly two dozen people, I'm pretty sure you'd get the death penalty, and you think Holcomb would realize that. But maybe he didn't care. He felt the walls closing in, so screw it, let this guy stain his hands. Worst comes to worst, Holcomb can say he didn't kill anybody at the trial, pin it on "Matt".

Jesse doesn't ever do subtle with his performances. He's always over the top, always yelling or acting the fool. That's not a complaint, I love it. His 'Better yet, call the President of the United States,' line was just ridiculous, but by that point, the guy in the tower was probably ready to do anything to make Jesse go away. It does scare me to think it might be that easy to divert a plane. Wear a nice suit, flash some official looking identification, yell a lot, and voila!

I'm curious how Sam will fix the problem he and Fiona created for Dixon. Somehow I don't see Sam admitting to abduction, and I'm not sure what his other options are. Dixon was under house arrest, Dixon left the house, he's in trouble. Eh, maybe Sam can put on a nice suit and yell a lot about national security. That'll probably work.