Burn Notice: Where There's Smoke by BJ

In "Where There’s Smoke," the women in Michael’s life face danger in very different ways, with somewhat surprising revelations along the way.

When Michael and Jesse need Madeline’s help to infiltrate a bank, they find she’s reluctant to help without a great deal of information. The two men work together to set her at ease, figuring she will only get a slap on the wrist. Madeline’s task is to set up an account at the bank, and the light a cigarette inside the safety deposit area and set the sensors and alarms off, thus giving Michael and Jesse time to acquire vital intel.

While Maddie’s smoking does set the alarm systems off, she is subsequently taken into custody. Michael worries that he might be compromised, but Madeline is able to wiggle out of any potential problems by turning her emotions on. Now that Michael and Jesse have the intel they need, they can put their plan into action.

Fiona and Sam are set to be security at a very exclusive luxury party. Businessman Christian and his wife, Sarah, are distantly professional and the husband explains that he’s worried that his company’s new project might be stolen. Fiona and Sam are tasked with watching over things so that nobody at the party gets near the new item—a very high-end battery.

Things don’t go quite according to plan. As Sam and Fiona are familiarizing themselves with the layout and information, Fiona spies some intruders moving in. She takes Sarah and hides in the bathroom, warning Sam of the impending trouble. But instead of the gunmen going for the battery, they make a beeline for the women, taking first Sarah, and then Fiona, who assures them her husband is quite wealthy.

The gunmen lay down such fire that Sam can only retreat for his own safety.

Sam calls in Jesse and Mike and asks for their help. The men are unsure if this is a targeted attack against Fi or a more generalized kidnapping attempt. In any event, they need more information before they can determine what individuals have the ladies and what they might want.

When a webcam call comes in from Sarah, Fiona is able to get a coded message to Michael and company that after a ransom is paid, the kidnappers plan to kill the ladies. This makes the situation all the more dire.

Fiona uses her cool under pressure to manipulate the kidnappers and gathers some items that could assist in their escape. She also convinces Sarah to role-play along with her and create some angst between them, to further distract the kidnappers.

It becomes clear that Christian has set up payment for his wife’s freedom, going directly against Michael’s orders. Michael and Jesse have a heated exchange, where Jesse learns Christian played him. Christian’s move has put both women in even more danger.

Fiona continues to use ingenuity and thinking outside the box to get the men the information they need to find her. She continues to bond with her captor, getting him to let his guard down. In a tense moment, she asks him to shoot her and get the act over with, but has rigged an explosion to pull his attention away. She gets the upper hand, just as Sam walks in and greets her.

Michael uses one of the kidnappers as leverage to get Sarah’s freedom. When the job is done, and Fiona is home safely, she and Michael share a passionate kiss, a non-verbal declaration of their feelings. Madeline gives Jesse some gentle advice about hiding his feelings for Fiona and explains gently that Michael and Fiona are in each other’s blood.

The episode ends with Jesse and Michael getting into the bank and discovering a Bible with a mysterious message, pointing to a man named Simon. While Jesse has no idea who this is, Michael knows Simon’s identity.

I found this episode to be a bit uneven. The build-up was great, but the episode lost momentum about two-thirds of the way through, and the payoff was quite unsatisfying for me. I felt that Christian and Sarah faded into the background too easily and that the ending was rather rushed.

The notion that Jesse has feelings for Fiona does add an interesting layer to the group dynamic and is not altogether shocking. I’d like to see this dealt with in a mature manner by all parties in future episodes.

I really enjoyed Madeline’s inclusion into the B storyline and loved that she has again been relied upon to think on her feet. Steven Culp as Christian was a delight to see on my TV again, but I felt he was a bit underused.

While "Where There’s Smoke" offered some thrills, it wasn’t one of my favorite episodes of the season.

Burn Notice: Past and Future Tense by BJ

I was very excited to see the previews for Past & Future Tense. Burt Reynolds with the Miami crew? How could that not be inspired casting and great fun? As expected, Burn Notice didn’t disappoint. This was a somewhat lighthearted and very thought-provoking episode that didn’t fail to satisfy.

Fiona, Michael, and Jesse are enjoying a quiet day at the beach, but it soon becomes clear that this is anything but. Jesse is watching his old boss’ wife on the beach. Marv, Jesse’s former boss, is at an international intelligence conference at a nearby hotel, and Jesse intends to make contact with him.

Michael finds Marv in the bar area and enlists Marv’s help regarding Jesse, but Marv isn’t willing to go to bat for Jesse, even though he believes in his ex-employee’s innocence. As Michael, Fiona, and Jesse confer after this discussion, they eye a group of suspicious men, tagging them as a Russian team intending to kill someone. Michael suspects he may be the target, but isn’t sure. They need more intel.

Jesse and Fiona work together to kidnap one of the Russians, who breaks easily in the face of interrogation. He admits that they’re not after Michael, but are targeting a retired spy named Paul Anderson, who works at a bar.

Sam and Michael go to the bar and question a bartender, who quickly disappears, then pulls a gun on the duo. They’ve definitely found Paul! Paul is skeptical until the Russians show up at the bar. With a little fancy footwork, the trio is able to evade the Russians and hole up at Michael’s house.

Paul explains that he has information on congressman Bill Cowley, who is the keynote speaker at the convention. Paul outed himself on the Internet and has drawn very unwanted attention to himself. Paul explains that some files he needs are at his home, and he and Michael make plans to go there.

Meanwhile, Fiona is tasked with connecting with Marv. She flirts with him at the pool, explaining that they’d met at a past conference, and then invites him up to her room to chat about a program she’s created. Of course Marv takes the bait!

Fiona warns Jesse about the search for justice and answers, but Jesse isn’t receptive. He explains that he can’t walk away from this and that he won’t stop until he’s taken down whoever burned him.

Sam approaches the congressman and attempts to make contact, but the elected official brushes Sam off, muttering that he is only one constituent. What a charming individual! Sam calls Maddie and asks her to help out with the congressman.

When Michael and Paul approach his apartment, Michael is aware that the place will be under tight surveillance. But Michael has a plan—the Russian he took from the hotel initially is used as a decoy. Dressed only in briefs, and with an explosive belt around his waist, he could kill them all. Even though the standoff is very tense, the Russians are forced to put their weapons down and attend their comrade.

Paul takes a long time in his apartment and Michael has to go after him. Paul has forgotten the combination to his safe and needs to enlist Michael’s help. This brief pause is all the Russians need, and they go after Michael and Paul. Paul shows Michael documentation his has about a government cover-up of an event where over a dozen American soldiers were killed.

In a tense car chase, both Michael and Paul prove their methods have validity. They work well to evade and elude the kidnappers, first with speed and driving ability, and then by thinking on their feet.

Madeline approaches Congressman Cowley and pretends to be a friend from college who had an affair with him. She lets him know that he has to drive home alone to meet with Paul, and in the face of a PR nightmare, he complies.

Marv meets Fiona at her hotel room and he and Jesse have a confrontation. Marv lets Jesse know that he would like to believe his innocence. Jesse suspects that his burning was done by the people he was investigating, and he asks Marv to procure him some information. Marv reluctantly agrees.

The congressman arrives home to find Michael and Paul in his home. Michael explains that the Russian team is about to take Paul and suggests that the congressman organize protection for Paul. They present the paperwork that implicates the congressman in the cover-up. The congressman explains that he is actually clean, but Paul doesn’t believe it, and their confrontation quickly becomes physical, with Paul knocking the congressman out.

In mere minutes, it becomes clear that the Russians have arrived and the congressman is revived. He quickly comes around when he sees for himself that the Russian team has arrived. Michael uses the typical Russian black ops tactics to predict where they will strike, and gets the upper hand that way. He locks the team inside the house until they surrender.

When the Russians bluster after they’ve surrendered, Paul shoots and kills one of them. The congressman is understandably shocked, but Michael and Sam point out that he has very few options and needs to concoct a story about having killed the Russian. This ensures his compliance and will help Paul’s name to be restored.

Paul and Michael have an interesting chat about the spy business. Michael realizes that Paul’s memory may be failing. It is clear that Michael sees what he could become.

Marv gets the information Jesse needs to Fiona. Marv wants Fiona to understand that he believes Jesse and shows Fiona some evidence that shows that Jesse’s key card may have been duplicated. He suggests that someone with clearance could get some video footage of the person who burned Jesse. Fiona crumples the paper up as Marv leaves, but she is very shaken. The information on the bank is passed to Jesse.

Fiona and Michael have a heated confrontation, and Fiona explains that she destroyed evidence that would have led Jesse to Michael as the man who burned him. Michael tries to tell Fiona that the end result is worth it, but Fiona can’t handle lying to Jesse. Fiona tells Michael that he’s forgotten about the people and is now too focused on the ideals. She walks out, leaving him alone.

We’re reminded throughout the episode that Michael is a legend in spy circles, and this brought forth the old-school spy feel to the episode. The home truths he learns throughout the episode will resonate with him in the future. It took a fairly lighthearted episode and gave it an edge and depth that I hadn’t expected.

My one complaint was that the Jesse storyline appeared and reappeared and seemed a little random. While I did enjoy that thread, the transitions seemed a little jarring. While the casting of Richard Kind was lost in the Burt Reynolds hype, Richard, who played Marv, stole every scene he was in just as aptly as Mr. Reynolds did.

One thing I would have loved and felt that the viewer missed out on was a scene with Paul and Maddie and seeing the way Sharon Gless and Burt Reynolds could have played off each other in these roles.

All in all, I really enjoyed this episode and am intrigued to see how things progress in the future. Will Michael and Fiona be torn apart by the Jesse situation? Will Jesse find the answers he needs? Will Michael change in the face of working with Paul and Jesse? I can't wait to see what Matt Nix and company have in store for us!

Burn Notice: Entry Point by BJ

The voiceover for this week’s episode promised an intense roller coaster of a ride and Burn Notice delivered that in parts. Unfortunately, it was not the thrill ride from start to finish that I had expected and hoped for.

Michael and Jesse have worked well together thus-far, but they were tested this week as they have differing philosophies about interrogating Kendra. This just proves how different Michael and Jesse are at this juncture in their careers. Jesse has everything to lose and his pace is frenetic and rushed, his need for answers overwhelming patience. And while Michael methodically considers all angles before diving in, Jesse is unwilling to wait. Michael’s calmness is a great counterpoint, his assertion that he is the leader, not with yelled words, but with a tone of command, really shows how this character has benefited from having Jesse around.

Kendra has been an interesting character, her sarcasm and tough as nails exterior adding a layer to the character and story arc. Jesse and Michael’s interrogation of her brings more of the same. Kendra is hardcore, even bashing her head against the table repeatedly. She was both admirable and chilling when she went to such lengths to prove her point. But that shows where Kendra sees Jesse and Michael and the pecking order.

Sam isn’t warming to Jesse and only agrees to work with him when Michael cajoles him into it. This is a very good thing, as Fiona has a line on some work with a high-end forger, Buddy. Buddy has run afoul of a client and believes that he is being killed. He had to make two small items for his last client, a custom job.

When Michael and Fiona go to a warehouse, it explodes and they need to use some fancy footwork to get inside and discover what was so important that it needed to be destroyed rather than discovered. They determine that the client trying to kill Buddy is interested in stealing an antiquity.

They approach Mr. Blocklage, the sword’s owner, and attempt to warn him of the impeding theft, but he doesn’t take them seriously. Michael and Fiona are forced to take some files from the company. They quickly center on a suspect, but it seems too obvious.

When Buddy is set up to a meeting with Fiona that she did not organize, Michael and Fiona know the thief is ready to make a move on buddy—his second. They save the day by injuring Buddy and preventing him from entering a building wired to explode.

Kendra and Jesse spar verbally, with Kendra maintaining more control than she should. Jesse is more easily manipulated by his emotions than a man of his history should, and this could prove to be a weak link in the future.

Buddy is bumbling and wasn’t a character I warmed to or was interested in. This secondary story seemed to mesh less successfully than other episodes this season. As a result, I was much less engaged. Having said that, Alan Dale as Mr. Bocklage is a scene stealer!

While the antiquity angle was new and interesting, it felt a bit like Burn Notice trying to emulate White Collar and was not one of my favorite episodes of the season. I found myself missing the Kendra storyline when we were focusing on the Buddy sub story, and jarred by the intercuts to Kendra and Jesse. I also found myself missing Madeline and her sense of humor. This episode just fell flat to me.

While Burn Notice has grabbed and held my attention for much of the season, only parts of this episode worked for me.

Burn Notice: Fast Friends by BJ

At the end of “Friends and Enemies” Michael learned that he’d inadvertently contributed to the burning of another agent—Jesse. Working with Jesse brings Michael deeper into Vaughn’s web, but Michael has no choice. How can he live with the consequences of knowing he helped burn another operative?

Sam and Michael are clearly at odds over Michael’s working relationship with Vaughn. When Michael explains that he is compelled to work with Vaughn, Sam reluctantly comes on board.

When Michael meets with Vaughn, he learns that Jesse was released by the FBI. Michael is in possession of Jesse’s files. He is stunned when Vaughn casually mentions that Jesse will be sent some place remote. Michael insists that he be put in charge of Jesse and Vaughn agrees.

Fiona is as reluctant as Sam, warning Michael of the dangers involved. Fiona proves she, too, is on board when she helps Michael stage a break in so that Michael can track phone records and discover who Jesse has been calling. Fiona stages an explosion, pulling the security guard away from their scent.

Michael, Sam, and Fiona track Jesse to a meeting and help him to escape a trap. They break up the meeting by engineering an explosion, and Jesse gets away. When Michael approaches Vaughn for help, he tersely tells Michael to handle the Vaughn situation on his own. He doesn’t have long to wait. Jesse appears, asking Michael for help.

And so their adventure together begins…

When Jesse and Michael have partnered up, Jesse confesses that there is someone after him, a character named Kahn. They agree to try to set Kahn up, with Michael using Jesse as a leverage point. Kahn isn’t easily swayed and Michael needs to use Jesse again to gain Kahn’s trust. In a dramatic shootout, Michael manages to sway Kahn when he “saves the day.” and Kahn’s life.

After this stunt, Kahn agrees to work with Michael to transport some weapons and eventually to eliminate Jesse. Kahn falls easily into line, though his lieutenant is a bit more skeptical. Soon, the lieutenant is under control and everything seems to go according to plan.

There is a high-speed chase and Kahn and his cronies are arrested. They seem to be taken care of, and the case has ended. Or has it?

The next day, Michael is unable to reach Jesse, and he and Fiona realize that things don’t seem to be adding up. Then, Michael realizes that Kahn is out of jail and Jesse is being tortured. Fiona and Michael put their heads together and devise a way to save Jesse, relying on his intellect and instincts, and hoping Jesse’s instincts will serve them all well. Jesse performs more than admirably and Kahn and his lieutenant helpfully eliminate each other.

Vaughn offers to help Michael get information out of Jesse, and the implication is clear that the timeline is tight. Michael won’t have any problem finding Jesse—he’s Madeline’s new renter. And he isn’t giving up his quest to find out who burned him. When Jesse finds who burned him, he’s vowed to kill him.

This was another absorbing and very intriguing episode. The idea of the threesome becoming a four-person team changes the dynamics in all sorts of ways, and I’m very interested to see where the show goes with this new development. The episode was another strong one, full of character development and tense action.

The tension was broken with a great comic scene. Madeline has texted Michael and Sam, sending them a message that she needs help. When they arrive, they find her slumped unmoving in a chair, but she is only listening to headphones. There is no actual danger, she is just converting the garage into an apartment.

By Michael taking some initiative with Jesse, he can control the situation with Jesse and help him, much as Fiona and Sam did with Michael in the early days of his burning. The parallels between the two situations are handled deftly.

Seeing the newly burned Jesse brought interesting character development to Michael. I couldn’t help but hearken back to the early days of the series and the constant adrenaline rush of “what now” that we saw in the very early episodes. The contrast of Michael having friends nearby when he was burned and Jesse having to seek out help added an interesting layer to the story.

Sam and Michael are on opposite ends of the scale here; Michael’s responsibility warring with Sam’s desire to guard the status quo. I have a feeling we may see Sam’s reticence show up in later episodes.

We don’t know how, or even if, Jesse will fit into the team. That is all left very much up in the air. There is an interesting connection and chemistry between Fiona and Jesse, Jesse and Madeline, and Jesse and Michael and Sam.

Is it Thursday yet? I’m ready to return to Miami!

Burn Notice: "Friends and Enemies " by BJ

Photo by Glenn Watson, USA Network

At the very end of last season, we learned that Michael Westen had been removed from federal custody and had been placed in a very luxurious home. He was sitting in a chair, apparently bruised and battered, but fine otherwise. Who kidnapped him? What will be his fate? Had a new player joined the mix?

Matt Nix and company gave us a thrilling, edge-of-your-seat season finale with “Devil You Know” in March and the reruns from USA Network have served only to whet my appetite for more. USA skillfully runs marathons of the previous season before the new season opener, and that builds suspense wonderfully! I was very eager to see where the show would go after such a tantalizing cliffhanger.

“Friends and Enemies” was well worth the wait!

The episode opens right when “Devil You Know” ended. Michael is in a chair in a richly-appointed room. He has just regained consciousness and is taking stock of his surroundings. As he assesses the situation, a new player walks in, The genial Vaughn reveals to Michael that he needs his help. This kinder and gentler new player seems to want to gain Michael’s help with offers of food and by freely sharing information. Vaughn explains that Management is safe and Simon is locked away. He offers Michael a file to read, and when Michael is done, Vaughn proposes that they join forces.

It quickly becomes clear that this case is tied to Simon and the over arcing thread of what powerful terrorist worked with Simon to wreak havoc on Miami last season. Michael fingers Gregory Hart, the arms dealer and kingpin, who has a base in South America, as the financier.

Hart clearly has some high-powered employers, and Michael and Vaughn barely escape a drone attack that kills Hart, who expects his fate. Hart goes down without giving Michael and Vaughn any concrete information, though Michael spies a file on Hart’s desk before all hell breaks loose.

Michael and Vaughn fly back to the States, where Michael is reunited with his mother, who reveals that she hasn’t seen Fiona recently. And when he finds Fiona, he realizes she and Sam are in the middle of an op, a job they took without him. A lawyer named Winston has crossed a biker gang and they’ve targeted him for death. Just like that, Michael is tossed head first into the operation. There is something to be said about routine, or for what passes for routine in the Burn Notice world!

Michael jumps right in with guns literally blazing. In a tense standoff, the bikers back down. Michael quickly devises a plan to lay a paper trail to implicate Winston in the gang’s business. His death would bring far too much attention to the gang’s not-so-legal activities.

The case culminates in a car versus motorcycle chase with guns blazing and biker versus biker, Fiona saving the day by bringing reinforcement bikers, and Sam saving the day with some fantastic driving.

At the end of the episode, Michael enters a secured facility and collects some information for Vaughn. He and Fiona sit helpless as a counterintelligence agent named Jesse Porter goes down for this and is taken away by federal agents. Michael later learns that this act burned Porter’s file and that the man is in federal custody.

Is Michael recruiting for Management now, or is this just part of the Simon end game? Has Michael become his worst enemy? The pieces should start coming together next week.

Sharon Gless was a standout in this episode. Madeline’s usual high energy manner was tamed, toned down, the chinks in her emotional armor clearly visible. Michael’s time missing clearly wore on her. Madeline looked shaken to the core by all that had happened. Her attempt to get things back to normal by offering Michael a sandwich were both sad and touching.

Their final scene where Michael confided his own self doubts to his mother was incredibly done and shows the raw power and chemistry of Jeffrey Donovan and Sharon Gless. The emotion in Michael’s eyes and the need for Madeline to watch over her son were so powerfully moving. Her whispered assurances that he is nothing like Simon and the faith she has in her child were easily the deepest moment of the episode, and one of the deepest in the series thus far. Jeffrey Donovan and Sharon Gless brought so much understated emotion to this scene, and it showed.

The emotionally charged scene where Michael accuses Fiona of just moving on was brilliantly done. His shock and feelings of betrayal were illustrated very clearly. Gabrielle Anwar shows Fiona’s explosion in every jerky movement, in every word Fiona spits out. Her anger and anguish over Michael’s fate jumps off the screen. The way her emotions ebb and flow, from protective, to annoyed, to worried, to tender underscore Fiona’s conflicting feelings about Michael. I hope this will be revisited in future episodes.

The cinematography and scene change when Michael and Vaughn went to South America was great. While it was mildly jarring seeing a different skyline, it grabbed and refocused my attention. Music is used wonderfully to extend and amplify the sense of urgency and drama in these moments. With Miami as such a feature of the normal everyday storyline, setting the scene for the change in location was skillfully done and added greatly to the atmosphere.

Vaughn is a new kind of “ally,” one who appears to be very multi-layered. The initial friendliness and warmth quickly gave way to a steel will. Michael’s mild surprise when Vaughn handed him a weapon in South America was great—understated shock. This could prove to be a very different sort of business arrangement and give Michael some of his professional equilibrium back.

The contrast between baby-faced and meek Winston, the honed Michael and the scruffy and more dangerous looking Sam added an interesting dynamic. I enjoyed Rich Sommer as Winston.

Fiona was wonderfully used in this episode. Her interactions with the bikers were fantastic and completely in character. I never felt that Sam stood out in this episode, but I didn’t miss that aspect too much.

I wasn’t quite sure what we’d get with “Friends and Enemies,” and I was very happy with the result! The adrenaline rush was non-stop, the characters all worked well together, and the unfolding storylines have my complete attention. The addition of new player Vaughn and the hint and tease of Jesse Porter’s storyline have me intrigued. This “Simon” arc is still fresh for me and is unfolding at a steady pace. Is it next Thursday yet? Bring on more Burn Notice! I’m hooked!