Burn Notice 5.15 - Necessary Evil

Plot: Having discovered Anson's using an encrypted military radio, the next step is to bug it. Except, you can't. Well, Anson's piggybacking the signal off some nearby defense contractor, so Mike and Fi get themselves hired as window washers, stage an accident which gets them in an office, and get ahold of Anson's call logs that way. Making a veiled threat of lawsuits against the security guard seemed unnecessary. As it turns out, Anson's been calling one person regularly, and that person is Benny, aka Maddy's boyfriend. Hopes that Benny is merely someone Anson's observing because of his proximity to Michael fall apart when Fiona tails him and notes Benny's received some training in looking for tails (not enough to notice someone he already knows, though). Which means it's time for Michael to have an awkward conversation with Madeline.

While all that drama is taking place, Sam and Jesse are stuck carrying out a mission for the CIA. A weapons designer by the name of Resnick has gone missing, and it's feared he's turned traitor. Turns out he hasn't betrayed anyone. He's building a missile for a warlord named Kamba, because Kamba has his daughter as a hostage. Jesse and Sam are supposed to deliver some components for said missile, but then have to devise some way to get Resnick - and ultimately themselves - out of there without getting shot repeatedly. Or getting Resnick's daughter killed. Or letting Kamba escape with the missile. Oh, and the CIA wants the design specs for the missile, because of course they do.

Meanwhile, Madeline has set out to prove Michael is wrong about Benny, but has only succeeded in proving him right. So she bugs Benny's phone. And sure enough, he gets a call from Anson. Oh wait, Benny also received a package in the mail from Anson? Well, why doesn't he just open that up and - BOOM!

The Players: Benny (Madeline's Boyfriend), William Resnick (Hostage). Joseph Kamba (Lunatic Warlord)

Quote of the Episode: Sam - 'The last time I did a favor for the C.I.A., there were a few hiccups.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? Nope.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 1 (20 overall).

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (7 overall)

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (11 overall)

Other: No alias for Michael this week. I kind of like that he couldn't be directly involved with Kamba because of all his past work in sub-Saharan Africa. The odds he would run into someone who knows his face among this particular warlord's forces seems small, but there is a chance, and it's a nice nod to Michael's past history. Like how he knows Farsi, but not Spanish.

I'm not sure why Sam should care that he has detractors in the C.I.A. He was a Navy SEAL, who cares if the spooks don't like him? Besides, we know when Pearce says "detractors", she means Bailey and Manaro (the twits from Fall of Sam Axe and 5.6). The idea of doing something strictly in response to criticism from those buffoons is ridiculous.

That said, this mission did give us Jesse in big glasses and a sweater vest. Where such things are irritating on Anson, they're endearing on Jesse. And watching Sam try to simultaneously massage Kamba's ego and stoke his paranoia was fun. I think he needed to dial back the attitude at times, because he seemed to be pissing Kamba off too much. That might just be my inclination to not rile up a man with lots of armed guys at his beck and call.

The Benny situation has some good and bad to it. The good is I find it believable Anson could find someone he'd expect to be compatible with Madeline who he could use as a spy. He took a stint as her guest therapist, he's talked to her husband, he's studied Michael. If he's half as good as he claimed, he ought to have some idea of what she'd be looking for. It more believable to me than his assertion he can anticipate everything Michael will do. That Anson eliminates Benny when he becomes a liability (for various reasons) fits with Anson's previous actions to keep barriers between himself and threats, and to close off loose ends. It also suggests he has a wider network than might be suspected, because my guess is he had someone watching Benny who observed Mike and Fi sniffing around, and that's why he eliminated him. I'm not sure how he was funding this network, when he needed Michael to wipe his records because the CIA had a list of all his bank accounts.

The bad is, I don't care about Benny. He'd been around for awhile, but he's actually been on-screen for about 10 minutes, if that. I know Maddy was always excited to spend time with him, and so I sympathize with her, but I don't feel anything for Benny. The reveal that he regrets taking this job, regrets hurting Maddy, you can see what they're shooting for, that he wasn't a bad man, more a good one who made a bad decision. But I'm not sure it came soon enough. It does make me wonder, if Michael had confronted Benny with his suspicions, rather than telling Maddy and waiting for her to be convinced and bug the phone, would things have gone differently? Could they have saved Benny, and possibly gotten something useful from him? I doubt it. I expect Benny would have lied, and Michael wouldn't have had sufficient evidence Benny was working with Anson to press, and Anson would still have had time to kill Benny. Might have spared Maedline the gut-punch of watching Benny be blown to bits, though. I'm sure Anson did that on purpose.