Burn Notice Review: Death and Destruction at Door #2

For four seasons Michael Westen has wanted to know the names of the people who burned him, and this week on Burn Notice that knowledge comes with a terrible choice. Michael and crew finally get their hands on the elusive “list” but soon find themselves up against more than they imagined. And as Michael contemplates walking away from the people who burned him, little brother Nate comes in town dragging his own baggage.

This week’s episode of Burn Notice starts off with a sullen Michael helping Sam pack for his flight to Santa Domingo. And before you think Sam’s back to his party boy, careless drunken party days (I totally miss those days of his) this is all a part of the set-up to get the list back. The list is being auctioned off in Santa Domingo, so Jessie and Sam are off to steal the list leaving a very unhappy Michael still on lockdown in Miami. Sam tries to cheer Michael up with the reminder that Mike’s brother Nate is coming back into town. Mike’s advised to just chill and enjoy the break…

But there is no break when you’re Michael Westen, and this time trouble comes on the heels of Nate Westen’s last minute trip to Miami. Turns out Nate’s here on a job to help some friends find their missing car. It’s a simple job, or seems so up until Mike and Nate arrive at Taylor’s car shop to find the two brothers tearing each other apart fighting. Turns out brother Billy has embroiled their car shop in a drug trafficking ring. But even better than that, one of the stolen cars was filled with heroin, property of drug kingpin Hector Rivera. Things just got serious. Michael tells Nate that he cannot under any circumstances take this job, but Nate ignores this advice. He wants to help his friends.

Since Nate is so determined to take this job, Michael agrees to help him and brings Fi on board as well. When Madelyn finds out that Nate is working a case with Michael she is noticeably upset and demands that Michael take care of his little brother. She actually threatens Michael that if Nate gets hurt she will put out the pit of her cigarette in Michael’s eye. Ouch!

A little digging and Michael finds that the crew who hit the Taylors’ shop is professional; this wasn’t a coincidence. Michael resurrects a past cover: Johnny the car thief. As Johnny, Michael manages to get the address of the car thief, blow the thief’s place up and convince drug lord Hector to let him find the still missing car. Hector agrees but takes Billy hostage as collateral and assigns his right hand man, Caleb, as Michael’s cheerleader/watcher. Michael and Caleb track down the thief who organized the heist and much to Michael’s surprise he finds out that Caleb knows the guy… and in fact hired him to steal the car. Poor thief will never get the chance to tell his story because Caleb kills him and then runs away.

In beautiful Santa Domingo, Jessie and Sam meet up with Walsh in order to get some hints on where he has stashed the list. Walsh is confident that anyone who tries to steal the list will fail because his security is “always moving.” This little hint leads Sam to correctly assume that Walsh has the list in constant rotation between his security team on motorcycles. In order to steal the list they’re going to have to intercept the pass-off, and lure the cyclist into a trap. This is no longer a two man job…

Back in Miami, Michael confronts Madelyn about being only concerned with Nate’s safety. “By the way, you have two sons,” he says. That is true, but only one of them is about to be a father. Yes, folks Nate’s about to be a daddy. And the reason he came to Miami to take this job is so that he can make some money for his family. Madelyn tells Michael that though they’ve never had a normal life, Nate seems to want a chance at one now. And Madelyn wants to make sure that he gets it. Michael tells her that he can’t do the job without Nathan, but that if he could he would.

Back to task, Michael and Nathan make a plan that will lead Hector to his stolen car on Caleb’s property. After Caleb tried to unsuccessfully pin the theft on Billy by putting the now drug-free car in Billy’s storage space, Nate steals the car and Michael and Nathan reassemble it in Caleb’s backyard. Michael, as Johnny, lures Hector to Caleb’s place where they find the car and a shocked Caleb. Caleb swears to Hector that he would never betray him, Hector tells him that he never will again. After everything’s over, Michael gets a call from Sam inviting him to Santa Domingo.

In Santa Domingo, the team successfully take out the security team and steal the list. But even then, the team are surprised about how deadly the information on the list could be. Sam warns Michael that “people are going to die if this gets out.” And although Sam and Jessie want to pass the list off to someone they can trust, Fiona urges Michael to use the list to take out the people who burned him one-by-one. The episode ends with Michael deep in thought as Sam asks, “What do you want to do?”

Wow. This episode totally rocked, and the ending is the perfect set-up for some major damage to come. What’s Mike gonna do? Is he going to follow Sam and Jessie’s advice and turn the list over to someone safe, thereby granting amnesty to the people who burned him? This plan is undoubtedly the safest for the team, but it’s probably the most agonizing for Michael whose sole mission these past few years has been to take down the people who burned him. The other option as laid out by Fi, is that Michael seek out and neutralize every bad guy (or girl) that’s on the list. With this plan, Michael is sure to be knocking on death’s door, because these are some deadly people and they won’t go down easy. Yes, it would be working for the greater good to put these guys out of commission but choosing this option would put everyone Michael loves in jeopardy. So, what’s it going to be…?

While it seems unlikely that Michael will let the bad guys go unpunished, even if he did try to walk away trouble always finds Michael Westen so stay tuned for more Burn Notice.

Season 4, Episode 15: Brotherly Love (originally aired December 2, 2010)

For more on Burn Notice, click here.

Thursdays at 10/9c on USA Network.

Images courtesy of USA Network.