Burn Notice: Potently Underwhelming

Confession: I, being a perpetual optimist, eagerly hit play on the Burn Notice season 2 finale in all it’s DVR’ed glory with the notion in my brain that maybe, for the first time ever, its writers, producers, and assorted Powers That Be would allow an entire episode to revolve around the generally intriguing “Who Burned Michael” mystery that week in and week out takes a back seat to the seemingly bottomless supply of clients who need a helping freakin’ hand.  Couldn’t the months of stakeouts, betrayals, crossword puzzles, and homemade x-ray machines culminated in one grand adventure without an insidiously been there, done that kidnapping story?  Sadly, the answer is a resounding no.

Things start out with momentum to spare: Carla is back in the flesh, there’s a sniper’s nest prepped and ready to take out an unknown ferry passenger, and Sam is living the sweet life, abusing room service and staking out Carla’s visits to the pool.  Nice work, if you can get it.  But before you can say “overadherence to formula,” any grand schemes in motion are left to gather moss, because Fiona’s boyfriend met somebody who needs Mike’s help.  Groan.  Seems there’s a Venezuelan oil heiress marked for abduction and only our Mr. Westen can do something about it.  He proceeds to, for the 83^rd time this season, get hired by the baddies to create doubt and dismantle the op from the outside in.  At least it provides a few golden moments as Mike portrays a perpetually drunk bodyguard who has an ill-timed conversion experience, leading to a furiously Bible thumpin’ monologue that would make Jules Winfield (Google if necessary) proud.

That bit of business aside, it’s time to put all the pieces together and prevent the grand sniping, right?  Not so much.  The season instead ends on a rather anticlimactic and somewhat quizzical note with Mike beating Carla to the scene of the forthcoming crime in a snazzy motorcycle chase only to, while making a quick detour to his loft, learn that the trigger man was blown up in his own home.  Sensing a similar fate in his immediate future, Mike takes a flying leap in just enough time for an explosion to graze his heels instead of frying his face.  Fade to black and see ya next winter.

They call that a cliffhanger?  Does anyone believe that Mike will be significantly hurt or even moderately phased?  I suppose the possibility of someone higher on the food chain trying to subvert Carla’s op could be intriguing.  It’s just hard to care knowing that, unless the writers rock the boat, Michael Westen will remain a man divided between revealing the big picture and helping the little guy, and each episode will continue to give a little bit of both, but not enough of either.

For another opinion on this episode, check out Good Soldier by Cameron Cubbison.

 

Burn Notice returns this winter on USA

Photograph courtesy of IMDbPro