Burn Notice Review: The One Thing Mike Can’t Fix

I would like to start this week’s episode review of Burn Notice by saying this: Wow.

Now I’ve had my issues with this season’s episodes starting with, but not limited to, the addition of Anson as yet another puppeteer mastermind which in my mind is one mind too many (now, make that two). Luckily this week’s episode is not Anson-centric as it offers a true and candid look into the life of a double agent, and the cost of what it means to sacrifice for a good cause. And if this episode doesn’t necessarily qualify for a knighthood of TV drama, it’s pretty close. This week on Burn Notice the gang, headed by Jesse, take on a diplomatic bad guy leading up to a stand-off that just might change everything. Also, Michael teams up with bad boy Vaughn once again to get the intel on Anson.

We start off this week’s episode with Mike and Madelyn at the grave of Mike’s father. Last week, we learned that Mike’s father died to protect him. Now this may come as a complete surprise because last we heard, Papa Westen was a scumbag who beat his wife and didn’t care much for his kids, so the idea of giving up his life to protect Michael seems pretty far-fetched. Michael also isn’t really buying this idea, but Mama Madelyn seems to think it fits as she tells Mike that though his father was a bad man, “he had his moments.”

But Mike has other things to worry about; they’ve finally managed to get a track on some of Anson’s money. Thanks to Barry, Mike now knows that Anson’s been funneling money through a law firm in D.C. Fi and Mike head to D.C, infiltrate the law firm, and snoop through the files. Mike and Fi don’t manage to get anything on Anson but looking through they do see that their dear old friend Vaughn is a client. That can’t be good, although a part of me squeals inside because, of all the former Mike enemies, he is my favorite, and he’s been sorely missed.

Mike goes to Pierce and asks to have Vaughn flown into the U.S. from his cushy place in Guantanamo. Pierce isn’t loving the idea, but she trusts Michael so the request is granted under the caution that she better not regret it in the end. Mike goes to visit Vaughn and hands him the decoded file they found at the law firm. Mike needs his help to read it, but Vaughn has his price: he wants full immunity and a release from prison. Mike tells Vaughn that he doesn’t have that kind of pull, but after looking at the file Vaughn tells Mike that with everything he stands to lose he needs to do it.

While Mike’s dealing with Vaughn, Jesse gets a client this week. A former friend of his, Ian, has been working for a foreign diplomat and is now about to retire. But before he retires, Ian wants one thing: to take his boss down. Ian’s boss, Yash, under the protection of diplomatic immunity, has been transporting blood diamonds into the country and selling them off to the highest bidder. Ian, working as an agent of the government, has been helping him and largely turning a blind eye to his illegal dealings, but now he’s had enough. Ian tells Jesse that he hates protecting Yash who is responsible for the massacre of innocent people. The government won’t listen but Ian’s hoping that Jesse will. Jesse cautions Ian that he could be jailed or worse if he chooses to take this on. Ian doesn’t care and tells Jesse that he needs to do the right thing.

Jesse and Sam make a plan that Jesse will be introduced to Yash, via Ian, as a potential buyer. Jesse and Ian will meet with Yash at his home to complete the deal. While Yash is distracted, Jesse will hold him while Ian gives him a dose of a sedative. Mike and Jesse will then steal all the evidence they need to take Yash down. But there’s a kink in their plan. Their exit strategy won’t work. So Fi and Sam have to get a message to Jesse to stop the plan. To do that, they put a bomb under his car. Not so subtle, but effective. The deal’s blown, much like Jesse’s car, and the gang bails out of there.

In a look back at what went wrong with the mission, Mike tells Ian that he would have done the same and they had no choice but to abort. Mike and Jesse are ready to wipe their hands of Yash, but Ian is intent on bringing him down. He has another plan and tells Mike and Jesse that if they can’t get Yash on smuggling charges, they can get him on murder, his murder. Diplomatic immunity won’t cover that. Jesse and Mike are horrified by this idea and refuse Ian’s suggestion. But Ian is determined and he tells the guys that he has pancreatic cancer and has six months to live. He just wants to do one good thing before he dies. He tells the guys that he’s been thinking about what sort of legacy he’ll leave behind. If he has to die, he wants to take Yash with him to do one thing right in this world…

Okay, this scene straight up broke my heart. I mean, no way, no way, no way. This can’t happen. Isn’t Michael supposed to always have a plan that’s perfect and pulls together right at the end? There is no need to go to such drastic measures, is there? And all this time I’m arguing with myself shows how Burn Notice really set this episode up as a success. Vaughn said it earlier in the episode: Michael Westen is the can do boy who can do anything. We’ve spent the past five seasons seeing Michael face and overtake the impossible, is this really the limit?

Of course we’ve seen in the past where things have not always turned out favorably for Michael. But I’ve never seen it go to this degree and it is so very powerful. Seeing how far Ian will go to try to rectify the wrongs he has helped to shield is a very stark reminder of the dangerous territory Mike and the gang walk every single day. The longer you straddle the line between good and bad, the more extreme the measure to get you off the fence. Mike has been off and on the grid of good/evil; sure he’s always had a good reason to do what he does, but for a while Michael’s wondered which side he’s really on. Some day there’s going to be reckoning, and at this moment that seems a chilling thought.

Ian tells Mike that he’s tired of living in a grey world. He wants to do one thing right. Seeing Ian’s determination, Jesse agrees to help him. Michael reluctantly agrees as well.

Jesse meets up with Yash and tells him that he found out Ian is the one who planted a bomb in the car. Jesse says that Ian’s plan was to take out both Ian and Jesse (known to Yash as Mr. Ray) so he can steal the money and the diamonds. Yash calls up Ian in a meeting and confronts him about Jesse’s suspicions, Ian fake freaks out and ‘shoots’ (with rubber bullets,) drops the gun with Jesse (who hides it in his jacket) and goes on the run with an armed Yash following. Yash catches up with Ian outside the house and forces him to stop, Ian turns around appearing to draw a weapon and Yash shoots him. Ian calls Yash over to him and utters his last words “got you.” Sam and Mike are watching down the block and have come prepared. They had already called a domestic disturbance in on the house next door, so when Yash shoots Ian the police are quick to arrive and find Yash still standing over Ian’s body. The police officers check him, he’s dead. Yash claims self defense and tells the police Ian was going to shoot him, just like he shot the man lying in his office. The police don’t find a gun on Ian, just like they won’t find a body in the office. Jesse’s made his way out of the house and joins Sam and Mike outside somberly, they watch Yash’s arrest.

Back to Vaughn, Michael meets up with Pierce who asks what’s going on with him and Vaughn. Mike tells her that he was right, there was more to his burn notice than what they thought and now he’s looking into it. Pierce wants more information, but Mike refuses to tell her saying that the last person he told, Max, was killed. Mike moves to Vaughn and gives him that document, which is not his release papers but instead the transfer paper for three of his former ‘friends’ who he turned on for a lesser sentence. In the face of that threat, Vaughn gladly offers up the information. The file that Mike gave Vaughn was the infrastructure of the organization that burned Mike. Anson has been working on rebuilding the organization, and from the looks of things it might be too late for Michael to stop it.

On next week’s episode of Burn Notice, Eric Roberts guest stars as the team faces what could be the end.

Burn Notice season 5, Episode 17: “Acceptable Loss” (original airdate December 8, 2011)

Burn Notice airs Thursdays at 10/9c on USA Network.

Images courtesy of Giovanni Rufino/USA Network.