Burn Notice 5.12 - Dead to Rights

Plot: Pearce has Mike in custody, and will doubtlessly be hauling him to some secret detention facility where she can torture him mercilessly. Fortunately, Sam and Jesse put their necks on the line to get everyone the news about Tavian Korzha. Pearce reluctantly wires Michael and lets him go talk to Tavian, who promptly confesses he killed Max. Michael then stupidly reveals he's wearing a wire, and Tavian hurls himself off a building rather than tell Mike anything else. Smooth work there, Westen.

After a lengthy debriefing, Michael is cleared and released, only to be ambushed at home by. . . Dead Larry! Seems Larry was extradited to an Albanian prison, but used up the last of his funds to buy his way out. So he's broke, and Michael's gonna help him make some cash by planting documents in the British consulate. They'll get in because Larry found himself a psychiatrist named Anson who works for the government, who can get access to the necessary security codes. Mike does manage to slip Anson a knife so he can escape and contact Sam. There's not a lot Sam and Fi can do, though, because they can't get in. The guards won't budge, and Larry has access to the security cameras. He's also more hostile to Michael than usual, and Anson fears he might really kill Mike. So Fiona plants some explosives on a window, lures Larry over with some seemingly pointless rifle fire, and blows him to hell.

Then the rest of the building explodes. Michael's OK, the guards are not. While Fiona grapples with how that could have happened, the Anson strolls in their front door. Turns out Anson is the last member of the people who burned Michael. And now that he can pin bombing a consulate on Fiona, Michael's going to do whatever Anson wants.

The Players: Tavian (The Man Who Killed Max), Larry (Unfriendly Ghost), Anson (Useful Kidnapee)

Quote of the Episode: Larry - 'Hey. Understand something, Michael. You know, I've let you skate a few times just because of old times' sake, and I always looked upon you like a son. That ended when you sent me to prison. Now you don't wanna get shot in the neck, you do what I say. And then you cross your fingers. . . because Daddy is in one of those moods.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? Larry. But not the consulate, seriously, don't say stuff like that out loud! Who cares if Anson says he has other evidence? Make him prove it! Call the little bastard's bluff!

Sam Axe Drink Count: 0 (14 overall).

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (7 overall). Larry did call him a gasbag, though. Words hurt.

Michael Fake Laugh Count: 0 (9 overall).

Other: Larry neglected to give Michael's "idiot helper" character a name.

Last week, I didn't understand why Sam told Tavian that Homeland Security had been alerted and he was trapped. This week, I don't understand why Michael told him about the wire. Why do these people think it's a good idea to back a professional killer into a corner? Maybe if Mike had strung him along a little further, he'd have known to watch out for Anson.

I shouldn't be impressed that Michael could sit there with a straight face and tell Pearce she "owed" it to him to let him approach Tavian, but I am. You have done nothing but lie to her for weeks, Michael. She ought to pistol whip you just on principle.

How is it that Pearce could hear about the suspicious warehouse fire in episode 5.10, within a few hours of its occurrence, no less, but she had no idea there was an alert out about a Romanian killer? Or was Jesse really vague in his tip to Homeland Security? Even so, I can't believe something like that wouldn't have gotten her attention.

Larry was a lot less cordial, and lot meaner this time. I mean, he's always contemptuous of Sam, but beyond that, he at least pretends to try and work together, put on his happy face. He was more like Brennan this time, not working with Michael out of any buddy-buddy feelings, just seeing Michael as a potentially useful asset. One he'd like to put the screws to, but an asset nonetheless. He's also showing his age a bit. I don't know if that was a deliberate makeup decision (since he had been in an Albanian prison for 9 months), of if it's just Tim Matheson getting older. I know Larry was gonna have to go eventually. He was too deadly to keep popping up without it getting lethal, so if he isn't going to retire or stay in prison, then he had to die. And I'm sure Fiona enjoyed blowing him up, and Larry was so smug to her right beforehand, I enjoyed it, too.

Personally, I thought last season was a good way to wrap things up, with Michael no longer trying to hamstring Larry's murderous schemes covertly, asserting the gap between them, and surviving because of his friends (which wouldn't happen for Larry because he doesn't have any). If they were gonna kill him, I'd rather Sam got to do it. Partially because Fiona got to kill Carla, and it's not fair Sam never gets to kill any of the Big Bads.

More because if Larry had died in Season 4, he couldn't have been brought back to help usher in Anson. Look, I really hate Anson. Mostly because I hate these sorts of villains. The ones who always know what you're going to do, no matter how inventive or imbecilic it is, because they are a master of the human psyche, so they will introduce variable X, and you will do Z (rather than Q or 47), and then this will happen, just as they planned. I just don't buy it, I don't care than Anson really is a psychiatrist, and that he's studied Michael, and talked to both his parents. I think people's brains are wired so that they're too unpredictable. Sometimes we do things you'd never expect us to, for no reason you could discern at the time.

Anyway, the net result of my hating the sort of character Anson represents, is that I start to hate everything about him. I considered using his blithe dismissal of the woman he claimed was his wife (who he then killed) as the quote of the episode, but I hadn't written it down. because I was too busy writing down how he was a little shit. I hate his eyebrows, I hate his stupid vest he wears to meet them on the beach, I hate his smugness, I want him off the show, five minutes ago.

The final six weeks of this season are not going to be a jolly time.