Burn Notice Review: Who’s Burning Whom?

Burn Notice returns for its fourth season and the premiere episode starts with mystery, rides on adrenaline, and closes with sweet irony.

At the end of last season, a bound and hooded Michael Westen was taken captive and held in an unfamiliar location. Season four picks up when he comes to and finds himself face-to face with an unknown gentleman. This man is Vaughn, and he is, in effect, Michael’s new partner. Because Michael saved the life of Management, he is being recruited to help on another matter. Vaughn works for a company of spies, contracted by the government to stop assassination/war for hire. He sort of reminds me of a panther. Sure he looks beautiful (this is a comment on his bearing, not his looks) but at any moment he could strike out and kill you dead. This, along with his pleasant demeanor, is probably useful in his operations; in fact he makes it seem that Michael has a choice. This is sweet considering that Vaughn’s company engineered Michael’s Burn Notice so that he would be free to work with them.

Michael agrees, and is set free to return home to the people who didn’t know if he was dead or alive. Madeline is relieved that her son is home alive, but Michael is surprised by Fiona’s reaction. After a brief hug, Fiona gets straight back to work putting together guns which she quickly gathers and leaves. A confused Michael follows.

While Michael was gone Fiona and Sam took on a case. Their client, Winston, is in trouble with a biker gang. When they arrive at Winston’s house, they find three angry bikers tearing up his front yard while Winston looks on fearfully from his house. Michael, Sam, and Fiona arrive on the scene and Michael decides to bluff the bikers. He grabs big guns, shoots them in the air and since his guns are bigger, he wins. Hunter, the biker Winston originally crossed, promises retribution.

When they return to the house, Michael is pouting. He seems disappointed and upset that Sam and Fiona have moved on without him. Fiona, seeing this attitude responds first with anger and then, frustrated, pulls him close for a kiss. When Fiona asks Michael where he was, Michael informs her of his new job with Vaughn. Fiona looks disgusted by this.

As the first step into finding the people behind the war for hire plot, Michael and Vaughn decide to follow the weapon trail. This trail leads them to the guerrilla camp of Gregory Hart, an illegal weapons dealer. While Gregory doesn’t know who is paying his checks, this visit is not completely useless because in this tent Michael finds a file that suggests Hart is the subject of a federal investigation. This proves to be true and Michael’s next assignment is to steal the file information.

In the case with Winston, Michael and crew decide that the best way to protect Winston is to make his well-being in the best interest of the bikers. The best way to do this is to make it look like Winston is a member of the Breakers, that he is mixed up in their gun-running trade. By playing with the accounts, signing over Winston’s assets to the club, they make it look as though Winston is involved in the financial transactions of the group. The point of this being that if Winston (who appears to be a gun-runner for the group) turns up dead this opens the Breakers up for an investigation by the FTA. And they really wouldn’t want this. Big Ed, the leader of the Breakers, reluctantly agrees and calls off the hit on Winston.

At the end of the episode, Michael moves forward in his plan to steal the information on Gregory Hart. With fake ids, he slips into the counterintelligence agency and downloads the file from a computer. All things go smoothly, until he escapes. As he and Fiona are about to drive away, they see unmarked cars arrive at the front of the building. FBI agents swarm the building and a man in handcuffs is being led away. His name is Jesse Porter; he was tasked with protecting those files. Because Michael stole them, he has failed. The Feds decide not to prosecute Jesse… they Blacklist him instead. Michael Westen has just helped burn a spy. Ouch.

All in all, I have to say, loved this episode. This is a great way to start the season. I love the addition of Vaughn, and can’t wait to see what Jesse will bring to the story. One of my favorite scenes in this episode is when Michael confides in his mother about some of the things he is accused of. This is a moment of true honesty, and he tells Madeline that he’s afraid he will become one of the bad guys. He’s afraid that after a while he will become another Simon. And the look in his eyes, the emptiness, is shattering. It completely draws you in. He seems like a broken man. I love this because Michael is now the one who needs protection. And it’s his mother, with whom he’s had a strained history, that gives it to him. Well done.

By the way, loved Coby Bell (Jesse) in The Game and I’m so glad to see him here. Yay!

Next Week: Jesse wants help to find out who burned him.

Season 4, Episode 1: Friends and Enemies (Originally aired June 3, 2010)

For more on Burn Notice, click here.

Thursdays at 9/8c on USA

Photographs courtesy of USA Network, Justin Stephens, Nigel Parry and Glenn Watson.