by Jonathan Bredemeyer
Burn Notice (S05E14)
In short: Michael's revenge for an old friend's death isn't a sweet enough distraction from being forced to betray his country... especially using his shiny, new clearance.
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| Photo by: Robert Zuckerman/USA Network |
Michael is celebrating and remorsing the fact that his security clearance went through. It's good because Michael is getting back into deep black ops, but bad because Anson wants him to do his dirty work inside the CIA by loading a virus that will remove all traces of him. Setting up a meet with Anson to plant a tracker on his car, Michael, Sam, and Fi try to determine where he lives to get the dirt he has on Fi. [Loads of bikinis this episode...] Fi ends up rolling around under cars in between stoplights, but she gets it done.
Michael's mom shows up at the loft with the news that Michael's best friend Andre has been shot and killed. He heads over to Andre's brother's (Ricky) place to express his condolences. Apparently, Andre has just gotten out of jail. [what a guy.] Apparently, the cops aren't looking into Andre's murder, but Ricky convinces Michael to follow up on calls from a blocked number on Andre's cellphone.
Meanwhile, Sam and Fi are following Anson. They trail him to an apartment building... and are very excited to know 'where the bastard sleeps.'
Jesse, Ricky, and Michael track down Andre's callers, and try to bluff their way in as utility people. This backfires as they take gunfire from the front door. Jesse chases a girl out the back whom Ricky recognizes as Dolly, a convicted felon. They take her along for questioning... Ricky and Michael learn that Dolly told Andre who killed a gang leader. Dion (the killer) discovered Andre knew and killed him for it, so Michael decides to go after him, like Andre was apparently doing. After stashing Dolly at Michael's mom's, Ricky sets up a buy with Dion using his stolen cash. Jesse objects, but then requires himself to take control, claiming Michael is too emotional.
At the meetup at Dion's place, Dion pretends to be remorseful over Andre's death when greeting Ricky, but it's pretty fake. Jesse, playing the gun's seller, pulls out a Desert Eagle from his jacket and then claims it's the smallest thing he's selling. Pushing Dion by calling him 'not ready,' Jesse [who's an awful salesman] gets Dion to agree to a meet with his supplier and a demo.
Fi and Sam are still tailing Anson, and need a way to determine which unit is his. Sam gives a fake presentation on green energy at a college campus to recruit students to document all the tenants in the building under the guise of a renewable energy study.
Prepping for the supplier meeting, Jesse is not happy that Michael wants to play the supplier. Apparently, he doesn't have time to be mad about that since Fi (who they were counting on for the firepower they just advertised to the gang leader) doesn't have the firepower Jesse claimed. She does know where one of her suppliers keeps his stash though... so they create the logical plan: sneak in, do the demonstration, and sneak out.
Jesse and Michael are inside with Dion demo-ing the 'goods,' while Sam and Fi hang around outside to watch for surprises. As they demo the guns, an unexpected visitor shows up and tries to crash the party, but Sam and Fi intercept him at the gate and haul him from his truck. To explain this, Michael claims it's part of the demo... and has Dion blow it up with an RPG. Apparently that seals the deal.
As time passes, Dion tries to stall to buy time to find Dolly. The team decides to talk to Dion and accelerate his schedule. While meeting with Dion, Michael and Jesse hear that Dion's guys have found Dolly and are about to shoot her in the head. Fi and Ricky, who were listening rush off to find her, get to her just in time to watch her die from overdosing.
Now with all the loose ends tied up, Dion wants Michael to become his new weapons dealer. Michael tries to sell Ricky on a plan to get him out of town, but he doesn't like it. As Fi tries to deliver Ricky's going-out-of-town package, Fi sees he's made a bomb and takes him back to Michael... at gunpoint.
Outside the meeting spot, Ricky will not give up the location of the bomb to the team. After some convincing from Michael, Ricky finally cooperates and gives up the location. He and Fi head down to 'tweak' the bomb, rather than defuse it. They reconfigure it to sound bigger than it is.
In the meeting, Dion is explaining the gang's new business model when Michael interrupts and asks for a meeting outside, while Jesse takes over the 'presentation' to display the new guns. Outside, Michael tricks Dion into calling the number that triggers the bomb, with Jesse and the rest of the gang still inside. The bomb creates a ruckus but does no real damage, and Jesse convinces everyone that Dion was behind it, as he walked out right before it went off.
Michael and Ricky have a private moment with Dion and reveal the new situation to him. He tries to buy his way out, but Ricky demands he confess to Andre's murder and cut a deal with the cops. Dion decides to cut a deal with the cops, and Michael and Ricky go to Andre's funeral.
Michael meets with Anson at the same time that Fi and Sam break into his apartment. As Michael tries to negotiate an end to Anson's demands, Sam and Fi turn up nothing at the apartment except an antenna that tells them how Anson is sending out information. This doesn't help Michael's predicament of still having to release the virus on the CIA's network, which he does...
Best Line of the Episode:
Jesse: "Uh huh, except that's crazy..."
New Spy Lessons:
- Top secret clearance is just the beginning. SCI is the most trust the government can give you, and is the ability to do real harm.
- Stoplights are one of the worst places to approach a target trained in surveillance.
- The preferred method of communication used by people involved in illegal activity is the burner phone.
- College campuses are a great place to find a highly intelligent and enthusiastic workforce.
- Spies sometimes find themselves selling things they don't actually own. To close the deal, you just need a believable story and a lot of confidence.
- Spies know convincing people to take action when they don't want to is half the battle. The hard part is getting them to do it on your schedule.
- You get used to the idea that today's enemy could be tomorrow's friend. Unfortunately, it also works the other way around.
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