My recaps/reviews always have some spoilers. You have been warned.
Last night, at long last Burn Notice returned to USA Networks. I have been waiting for this moment since Micheal rolled the Caddy into the trailer truck. I was not disappointed with the return of this show by any stretch of the imagination.
The episode begins right where last season ended. Michael in the trailer truck. He does not know who is behind his Burn Notice (That is what they call getting fired by the spy business, watch season 1 on Hulu to get caught up, you will be doing yourself a big favor. So while Michael is waiting to see what happens to him he does everything that a spy would do while waiting out the situation. Finally when he starts looking for a way to escape Michael hears gunshots, and explosions and is finally let out of the trailer. Once out he finds a warzone, a burning plane, many dead guys all around and one man tied up and trying to escape. Michael gets a call from the mysterious Carla and the game is on. They are not going to meet until Michael performs a task with a man who was supposed to do a job for Carla and her people. The poor guy is Jimmy, a computer security specialist who did a job for some really nasty people. Carla’s people want Jimmy to hack into the computer of the Security Company and steal their data. Jimmy is afraid and refused so Carla’s people kidnapped Jimmy’s family. It is now Michael’s job to convince Jimmy to do the job and help him get it done or Jimmy will never see his family again.
Michael may be a hardened spy but he does have a soft spot for people in trouble. This goes against all of his training to think of people as assets. There is a point where Carla’s people breaks into Michael’s mother’s house and plant a phone in the Charger (Michael’s bad ass car that his father left him when he died.) Michael makes a call and is talking with Jimmy’s daughter. She is six. Michael has to help Jimmy get the job done.
Michael returns to his loft apartment to find that Sam has moved in. Sam is even wearing Michael’s clothes. I’m pretty sure that Sam didn’t figure on Michael coming back. Sam is quickly recruited into helping Michael on this job and Fiona shows up as well and she is angry because Michael texted her to come to the apartment right away. She’s mad because he didn’t start by saying that he was alive. Michael also didn’t tell his mother that he was alive yet either, but Michael’s mom is pretty meddlesome so instead of following Michael’s advice she comes home and calls Michael on the secure phone. She needs Michael to come to the house because there is a terrible tragedy. That tragedy is the death of her coffee pot from 1967 and a fridge full of food that went bad after a blown fuse. It is during this visit that Michael gets the phone from the Charger and talks to Jimmy’s daughter.
The job is when things get interesting. Michael has Jimmy introduce him to the head honcho at the security company. Michael also puts on a fake accent (which to me sounded great) and gets an audience with the main guy at the security company (mercenary). Michael dismisses Jimmy and he and Ryder (bad guy) head upstairs to discuss a problem that Michael is having in Africa (cover story). While upstairs the security team makes Sam and Fiona who are doing surveillance on the roof across the street. Michael is force to go and check them out with he security guys.
This was a pretty sweet scene because as Michael is doing the voiceover about how a team knows each other’s moves and how they don’t need to communicate directly with what they need to do Sam is totally confused and waves a sandwich wrapper out the window. Michael yells gun and grabs the security guys gun and starts shooting at Sam and Fiona. Sam is still confused by Fiona fires back. I love the voice overs on this show. I know that some people do not like hearing voice overs but for me the narration that Michael gives along with what is happening on the screen is perfectly laid out. Sometimes what he is saying is what is happening and sometimes it is the complete opposite which makes it pretty funny.
So now Michael has his cover firmly established and gets another audience with Ryder. He goes in and basically badgers Ryder with security flaws in their system, all the while Michael is plotting out the room and the possible security holes. Then Michael draws the floor plan from memory. He gets Fiona to get them in a floor above the security company and then he and Jimmy need to go in and get the data.
Okay, I was following everything fine till Michael and Jimmy get into the secure room. They have a wool comforter and thermal blanket to shield themselves from the motion and heat sensors. Then Michael drills a hole into the computer room. So how does Jimmy actually connect to the computer? This I missed and can’t figure out how they got a usb cable to a usb plug in the vault. But they do and Jimmy cracks the computer and downloads the information just as Ryder returns to the building. Then Jimmy raises his hands in triumph at getting the data and sets off the alarm. Michael however has a Plan B and completely frags the place. He and Jimmy repel out the window and take off.
So now Michael needs to get Ryder off his back and get the data to Carla and get Jimmy’s family back to him. Michael gets the guns that were used in the double homicide form the beginning of the episode and plants them on Ryder and his guys as he has lured them to a small harbor to come and kill Jimmy.
I love how Michael plans things out for example try and follow this. Jimmy calls 911 at the beginning of the episode when his family is kidnapped and two guys are killed. Michael gets Carla to give him the guns used in that homicide. Michael lures Ryder to come kill Jimmy. He has Jimmy use the cell phone that he used to call 911 on the kidnapping/double homicide from earlier knowing that the phone is being monitored. Jimmy calls Ryder to come get him and the data. Ryder appears with his team. The guns get planted on Ryder’s vehicles and a boat gets blown up to simulate Jimmy’s death. But this happens as the cops arrive and pick up Ryder for the double homicide from earlier.
Jimmy is reunited with his family and Michael has performed the deed for Carla. So now they will meet. But of course this doesn’t come off as planned. Carla is at a bar and Sam goes and hits on her. She is doing a crossword puzzle and even gives Sam a playful smile on her way to a car. Once in the car she calls Michael. She tells them that she met Michael already or at least she met Sam. Michael rushes over to the crossword puzzle to find a message that says “Enjoy the Puzzle, I’ll see you soon.”
Overall the episode was awesome. There was great dialogue between Michael, Sam, Fiona, and Michael’s mother. Michael and Fiona finally have the talk and come to the conclusion that they should not be together. Michael’s brother is absent form the episode. I wonder if he will continue to be on the show or not. Again the voice overs are awesome.
Here is what TV Squad had to say.
Watched it and loved it ! I agree, it did not disappoint. I am already looking forward to next weeks episode.
Jennifer,
Out of all the shows on USA this is my favorite with PSYCH as a close second. I even like In Plain Sight but not as much as BN and PSYCH. This was a great season premiere episode and I had a great time watching it. The one thing I didn’t point out was the cool scene where Fiona is shooting at Michael from the speeding car. Very cool scene
Burn Notice looks like a great TV series. Saw a preview last week when I was traveling, but haven’t been able to catch it yet, thanks for the writeup!
Sharon,
I’d go and check out season 1 on hulu.com. that will get you all caught up.