Burn Notice Review: Hell Falls on Miami, Part I

This week’s episode of Burn Notice was nothing short of perfection as Michael Westen and crew managed to kick up a dust storm around them, bring down an army, and become legends among men. I want to personally thank everyone who had anything to do with these episodes of Burn Notice because this is by far the most fulfilling season finale that I have seen in a long time. Now this is going to take a while to go over, but the ending is well worth it.

Part One:
We begin this week with Tyler Brennan, thief and all around bad guy, who last week managed to steal the list from Michael and is now dangling it over his head like one big, sharpened ax. It seems that although Brennan has been out of touch, he has still been keeping tabs on Michael. So, when Michael steals the list from Walsh and then contacts Jessie’s former handler Marv to trade it for reinstatement, Brennan finds the perfect opportunity for a money making venture. He threatens Marv into handing over the list and Michael’s recorded confessions about Vaughn and his “secret society.” And so, it is with this that Brennan comes back and offers Michael the opportunity he wouldn’t dare take himself… to kill everyone who helped burn him.

Actually, he doesn’t so much as offer Michael as he threatens him to cooperate. Brennan tells Michael that every day at 5 a.m., he, Brennan, is the only thing that keeps that list from being sent to Vaughn. If Michael doesn’t cooperate, Brennan will allow the e-mail to Vaughn who will then want Michael and all his acquaintances dead. Faced with no other options, Michael agrees

But it seems that Brennan is not happy with the company Michael keeps and tells Michael that he’ll be going at it alone, Sam and Fiona aren’t “invited to this party.” To help Michael with his task, Brennan has brought in Larry, another spy who, without Michael’s love of humanity, is more than eager to start tearing apart everyone put in front of him. Upon seeing Michael’s hesitance to go around killing people, Larry is disappointed and a little bit hurt. The Michael he knew wouldn’t give a second thought to what he was being asked to do; in fact, he says, Michael should be just as eager as Larry is to make the people who burned him pay. But, far from altruistic means, Larry has his own agenda; while he seems to be Brennan’s lapdog, he’s just biding his time with until he can steal the list for himself.

So far this week, Jessie has been sitting out, not because he is uneager to face the man who killed his former handler and friend, but because Michael and Sam correctly think it would be a bad idea. Jessie is torn up about Marv’s death and wants revenge against Brennan for the murder of his friend. Dealings with Brennan need to be handled delicately, and this is beyond Jessie at the moment. Jessie is left to deal with Marv’s former employers and he leads them to believe that Marv had gone rogue. He feels guilty about this and wants to call Marv’s family, but Madelyn tells him that sometimes the “truth can hurt as much as help.” Jessie, remembering his mother’s murder, tells Madelyn that above all the “truth matters. “

Fiona and Sam spend their time this week trying to track down Brennan, where’s he’s staying, and where he’s hidden the list. By tracing Larry’s phone calls they find that Brennan’s phone has a specialized hi-tech call scrambler. The only person capable of such a hi-tech device is a guy name Alfredo. With a little torture they learn that Alfredo also sold and installed a wall safe. Fi and Sam get the address of the safe and stake out the empty hotel Brennan is using as a base. Unfortunately though, Brennan has the place all wired up for security so breaking in without being noticed is impossible. Jessie is called and the three prepare for a long, uncomfortable stakeout.

Michael and Larry handle their first assignment quickly; while Michael talks Brennan into kidnapping their target instead of killing him, Larry quickly takes the decision out of his hands and throws a bomb in the guy’s car. While Larry finds this hilarious, Michael is outraged. For most of this episode Larry has been talking about Michael as if he’s this cold and brutal killing machine. Having known Michael beyond the scope of the series it kind of makes you wonder whether Brennan is right. Whether somewhere deep inside Michael there is something that makes these words true. Larry accuses Michael of “bottling up all your darkness that makes you who you are.” Now, we don’t know Michael from the Larry-era, when he was a hard-core spy, so now one must wonder, is there a part of Michael Westen that is as dark as Larry says. If somewhere deep inside of Michael there is a darkness that is waiting to take him over. I don’t want to believe it, but the fact is that Michael was a spy. As Larry says, they lived by the creed “no kids, no families,” so Michael had to cut everyone out of his life for a very longtime. He sent his mom postcards full of lies, and kept Fiona on the outer bounds of his life keeping himself shut off from everyone who loves him. And this is completely understandable as in this line of work your vulnerabilities can get you killed. So Michael, alone in a dangerous job with nutsos like Larry, maybe there was a part of him that gave into that darkness. But whatever the case, I’m sure that the Michael Westen pre-burn notice is not the same one we see today.

So, anyway, Michael tells Larry about Brennan’s safe, and the two make a plan to hijack Brennan and take the list. But Larry’s form of hijacking isn’t the same as Michael’s. As soon as Mike and Larry meet up with Brennan, Larry kills Brennan which of course means at 5 a.m. the next morning the audio would be going to Vaughn. This is exactly what Larry wants because now it makes Michael vulnerable and Larry tells him you “need me to survive.” Larry is, of course, mistaken as all Michael really needs is the scope of a gun welded by Sam and holding Larry hostage. And it is here where Michael informs Larry of the difference between the two of them. Larry could go ahead and shoot Michael, which of course means Larry would then be dead, or he could let Michael, who he needs, go and keep his life. Whereas Michael would die for what and who he believes in; Larry wouldn’t die for a thing so he lets Michael go.

At the end of this part of the two part finale, Michael and crew and Madelyn meet up in Madelyn’s garage where Fiona is drilling through Brennan’s safe to get the jump drive that contains the list. Madelyn tells Jessie that she called Marv’s family and told them that their father died a hero, this relieves him. Fiona asks Michael why they never discuss a future together until they’re in danger of death. Everybody decides to get a good night’s sleep to prepare for the upcoming siege.

Part II of the Burn Notice season finale coming soon!

Season 4, Episode 17: Out of the Fire (originally aired December 16, 2010)

For more on Burn Notice, click here.

Thursdays at 10/9c on USA Network.

Images courtesy of USA Network.