Burn Notice: Double Booked

“Slippery slopes can be fun, like waterslides.”  That’s what Larry (Tim Matheson, who also directs this episode)-a former spy associate of Michael’s thought dead-tells Michael early on in the latest episode of USA’s Burn Notice as part of his recruitment speech.  Like Michael, Larry is an ex-spy turned freelancer, though he puts his skills to use antithetically to Michael: Whereas Michael uses his training to help people, Larry uses it to kill them.  This endeavor is what Larry hopes to co-opt Michael into doing.

The target is Jeannie, a cancer nurse who married one of her rich patients, but actually out of love, not greed.  After recovering for a spell, the patient is in a coma and bound for death.  Larry’s anonymous hirer wants Jeannie dead before the patient, and Larry brings the job to Michael as a test, the deal being that if Michael does this job, Larry will work with him in the future on profitable gigs.  Michael accepts the contract to take out Jeannie so that he can make sure the operation fails.  He enlists Fiona to help him find out who wants Jeannie dead so that they can blackmail him and get the job called off.  The proceedings get complicated when Michael discovers that he and Larry aren’t the only ones who were hired to kill Jeannie.  Michael also works with Sam to track down Carla’s assassin, who Michael was previously forced to steal a specialized sniper rifle for.

This is one of the best-written and most intricately plotted episodes of the whole show.  The plot-complete with an awesome mini car chase-moves fast and turns often.  There’s a darker edge to this episode that comes from killer Larry and the nasty edge Matheson brings to the part.  He’s an effective doppelganger for Michael, showing what Michael could have become if he had made a couple of different choices along the way.

A worthy respite from the darkness of the episode is provided by Madeline (Sharon Gless), who guilts Michael into attending home therapy sessions with her and one of those New Age shrinks.  Besides serving as a showcase for some genuinely funny banter between Michael and Madeline, this subplot also provides a bit of fascinating insight into how and why Michael joined the military in the first place.

Jeffrey Donovan has never been better or seemed more comfortable as Michael, and Sam, Fiona, and Madeline are all given just the right amount of screen time.  Everything seems well set up for next week’s season finale.

One final bonus of the episode is a bit of nostalgia of sorts, brought about by the presence of guest star Zachery Ty Bryan, who played one of the kids on Home Improvement, but seems to have all but fallen off the face of the earth in the last few years.   

For another opinion on this episode, check out Back From Summer Vacation by Paul Secrest.

 

Thursdays at 10/9C, USA

Photographs courtesy of IMDbPro