Burn Notice 5.17 - Acceptable Loss

Plot: We open with Michael and Maddy at Frank Westen's grave. Michael is not inclined to believe Anson's story about his father getting suspicious of Anson, but Madeline, oddly enough, is. Even stranger, she's wisely getting the hell out of the way until things are settled, opting to visit Nate in Daytona Beach.  Speaking of Anson, Barry managed to trace that money to a law firm in D.C. Mike and Fiona make their way in, but all they can make sense of is a picture of Vaughn in a file. Which means Mike has to get Pearce to approve a transfer of Vaughn out of Guantanamo. This after he told her he was sure there were no traces of the organization left. I'm surprised Pearce doesn't press harder on that.

While Pearce navigates that paperwork hell, Jesse has his own problems. His friend Ian has been helping an Indian diplomat smuggle uncut diamonds, and he's tired of it. He wants to bring this guy down before he retires. Having heard about Jesse's post-CIFA career, he thinks he and Mike are perfect for the job. Rather than let Ian barge ahead solo, Jesse agrees. The first plan - to present Jesse as a buyer - almost works. Sam and Fi abscond with the original buyer's duffle bag of cash, they manage to pass him off as someone who has his own jewelry shop for cutting the diamonds, they get him in the safe room with Yash. But the walls are reinforced, so no blasting your way in for a quick abduction. Fortunately, Ian has a new plan, but it involves getting Yash busted for murder. Specifically, Ian's murder. Well, he's dying of pancreatic cancer in six months, so why not.

In between helping plan all these shenanigans, Michael's been bargaining with Vaughn, who has added a mustache and I'd say about 15 pounds since we last saw him. Not what I'd expect for being in Guantanamo, but I guess Vaughn's a moderately resourceful guy. First he wants Scotch in exchange for his help. Then he wants immunity. Yeah, Michael's not that desperate, so he flips the script. He says he'll get Vaughn transferred to this prison - along with some of the people he ratted out for a reduced sentence. Oh, and Simon. That got Vaughn's attention, and he spills the beans. Anson is using the money to rebuild the organization, rather than to finance a retirement. Great Mike, you've given the bushy-eyebrowed bastard a chance to start the whole thing anew!

The Players: Anson (Evil Mastermind), Vaughn (The Man Who Burned Michael), Ian (The Client), Yash (Dirty Diplomat)

Quote of the Episode: Ian - 'I'm tired of living in a grey world.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? Jesse's car. Bad season for Jesse's car, between this and the damage it took in 5.5.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 0 (23 overall).

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (7 overall).

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

Other: Michael doesn't use an alias this week, but we did find out Vaughn's last name is Anderson, which is a little mundane. I don't know what I was expecting, but something more than that.

When Fi was trying to trap Yash's original buyer, and she caused that oncoming truck to swerve, I don't understand why the guy turned right, since it took him into the same street as the truck (it was swerving to its left). Why not swerve to your left, go around behind it?

When we were introduced to Pearce, she claimed she took her investigative style from her pit bull. Setting aside my concerns that - based on Charlie, who's half-pit - those dogs are dumb as hell, she's sure not showing much of that tenacity. One of the first questions Mike had to answer in that interview to be reinstated was whether he thought there was any trace left of the group that burned him. He said no. Now he's popping up and saying, "Never mind, they're still around, and I've thought so for awhile." And Pearce lets that drop because Mike plays the "I didn't want you to get hurt" card? Bullcrap. Pearce is a trained agent, she's been under fire, and even if he wound up cleared of Max' murder, it wasn't that long ago she thought Michael was responsible for that, and he was responsible for purposely keeping her in the dark about the progress he was making finding the real killer. He's helped her quite a bit, but I don't know if he should have earned that level of trust.

I do enjoy Michael's counteroffer to Vaughn. It might not be very nice, essentially promising that Simon will kill Vaughn horribly, but Vaughn brought it on himself, just like Management had at the end of Season 3, or Carla if Victor had managed to get her in Season 2. You ruin people's lives to make them your killing machines, don't be surprised if the machine decides to kill you.

I also liked the whole story with Ian. It wasn't subtle by any means, but his frustration with living in a world of shades, where horrible acts are excused in the name of diplomacy, contrasts nicely with Michael. Mike lives in that world. As (ugh) Anson pointed out, Mike probably ruins the lives of lots of innocent people by making them look bad at their jobs. He does it to save lives, but that's of precious little consolation to those people. I'm surprised we haven't seen an episode where someone who Michael ruined while serving a client comes back, demanding Michael help them. I mean someone generally decent, not a Brennan or Larry. Michael hasn't been at it as long as Ian, and he's likely seen more positive results of his work, so he isn't as sick of it, but give it time. It's another perspective on what he got from Paul in 4.7, that if you survive long enough, all you have are ghosts and memories, if you're lucky.

Which would play into the old arguments Fiona made about Michael needing to get out of this line of work. Which she hasn't been making lately. She has, however, been demanding Michael not compromise himself by working with Anson just to protect her. She's encouraging to step out of the grey, where he does awful things that hurt others to save her.