For once surrounding the pile of papers, photos and data on the bench in the loft actually made sense. Sam observed that Anson Fullerton, the last undiscovered member and founder of the organization that burned Michael Weston, was merely gathering all the pieces that the government didn't find and putting them all back together. Fiona told him that she knew what would happen to her but "you can't let him do this." Mike said that he was going to confront Anson with this today. Fiona jumped in, agreeing to go with; but, Mike told her she could back him up with a sniper rifle across the street. She warned him that she wasn't just going to just prevent him from getting shot, "if Anson doesn't back up his plans I'm going to end this, blackmail or no blackmail. Understood?" Anson was a bit taken back and stunned to see Michael show up in the parking garage of the DIA, right next to his car. His biggest mistake was to play dumb, to which Michael began bouncing him from one car to the other saying: "I know you're trying to rebuild the organization that burned me… that ends today!" Anson retorted "you're in no position to make threats Michael, I'm serious" and Fiona put a bullet in a windshield next to his head. For a moment he moved and held Mike's hands while arguing but Michael soon had him pinned with his head in Fiona's sights. What happened next only makes sense in the writers mind for it was neither logical, made sense or was in any way compelling enough to have Michael pull him out of Fiona's sights at the last minute before she fired. [Not the first time Nix has needed an argument or plot twist so merely 'pretended' it was there.] But that what he did and incredibly Anson said "we'll pretend this never happened." Michael told him "this isn't over" and he responded "It will be, very soon." Just as you would expect, back at the loft Fiona was in a rage, literally screaming "there is no happy ending." Sam yelled at them both to shut up because he had found a building Anson had purchased where he might be storing weapons in Tampa. Mike had a CIA job he need to talk to Pearce about and Fiona went with Sam to find the buildings thinking it might contain some of the explosives that would tie Anson to the bombing that he was blaming Fi for.
Pearce put Mike in charge of an official CIA team for the first time since he was burned. It was a rendition op on
Reed Perkins who freelances for hostile middle-east governments finding assets willing to spy on the US. He was coming to town and Mike was supposed to grab him using a team which was down in the firing range that very moment. He was introduced to:
Nick Carnahan, on loan from special forces –
"it's nice to meet you sir";
Rebecca Lang, CIA –
"Pleasure, looking forward to working with you"; and,
Ryan Pewterbaugh, CIA –
"I ran stateside support for some of your operations in the '90s, heard about your burn notice, it was a raw deal." Perkins landed and got in the SUV with his security team. The plan was to use several vehicles, timed just right, to cut him off and capture him. Mike notice that Rebecca looked nervous but when he asked her a simple question she threw it back in his face about not being able to work with women. At the last minute, another car backed up right in front of Ryan, causing him to flip his car and loose Perkins. Next, there was the obligatory whining and threats from Pierce wringing her hands about failure; but Mike's plan "B" involved having Jesse attend the conference as a disgruntled spy so Perkins would attempt to "recruit him." Then they could sneak a gun onto Perkins' plane which Jesse could use to help extract him on the other end. Jesse roved around the conference booths acting disgruntled and desperate and it wasn't long before Perkins targeted him, knowing that he had been with the Counter Intelligence Field Activity Agency (CIFA). They went to the penthouse to talk and Jesse let the guy talk him into considering the deal; but, he said,
"I don't want to do it in the country." Pearce arranged to keep Perkins' security guards busy while Rebecca and Mike rappelled into the hanger and planted a gun for Jesse to use in the plane.
Sam and Fiona did discover that even though the building looked abandoned there was some power draw. Fiona told him
"I don't do charts" and he retorted
"look miss no-attention-span, there is a spike in the morning and another around lunch, probably from a microwave." Sam told her
"no explosives, right?" and she retorted
"I don't just blow things up, I do have other skills… go get a truck." Sam and Fiona ran heavy chains from the truck to some pipes running into the wall of the building. Its "couple thousand pounds of torque" pulled down the wall which let Sam get the drop on the "caretaker," Jake. Fiona chided him for not asking questions about what he was guarding and he argued
"have you met that Anson guy? I didn't have much of a choice." Sam discovered a manifest for
"RDX explosives and high pressure armor piercing rounds" which they hoped would link Anson to the bombing and free Fiona. Jake told them that Anson had warned against removing anything from the building, but they said they would protect him because they WERE going to take the stuff to the police, he had no other choice. However, when he exited the door with a handcart of C4 and RDX, the keypad began beeping. They told him to run but he said:
"I think I know how to work a keypad jackass" – just before the building blew up. Sam called Mike to warn him; but Mike was at that minute beginning a meeting with Anson. Anson greeted him with
"did you just get some news about a building blowing up? I did." Then he gave Mike a thumb drive and demanded that he put it in agent Pearce's laptop – he was trying to make Mike burn Pearce and her team.
"That elite CIA team you've been running, they're going to be my new starting lineup because you're going to burn them for me." Mike told him no; but, again with barely believable and contrived dialog, Anson promised that both He and Jesse would walk away and Fiona wouldn't have to go to jail forever. Mike took the chip midst spooky music. None of the other three were at all happy with what Mike told them back at the loft; but, now it was Mike who wasn't listening to any of their arguments. He told them
"we have one more day… I'm not giving up." Fi told him
"Pearce deserves better."
Sam's police buddy refused to go up to Tampa and help and Fiona blustered that they were just wasting their time. They had plenty of evidence against Anson back at the loft, she said, so took off and left Sam stranded. He called mike who was at that time in the command vehicle waiting for his op with Jesse to go down. Sam told him he needed to get to Fi immediately so Mike faked an emergency with his mother and told Pearce he'd be back in an hour, plenty of time to finish the op. At the loft Fiona was packing up all the evidence they had on Anson. She told Mike that she had seen Anson's warehouse and mentioned the over pressured armor piercing rounds. She still was unable to get through to Mike, and really didn't like Mike rationalizing that
"if I have to plant this thing, If I have to burn them, I will find a way to fix it." He had no response to her
"how many people will you destroy if you can't"; so, he handcuffed her to the cage in his loft and went back to his operation. Anson called when he got back to nag him to plant the chip and let him know he was watching. He tried to bargain but Anson told him
"time for bargaining is over. Cheer up, at the end of this you'll look like the only operative who wasn't on the take." Mike distracted Pearce and actually did plant the chip in her laptop! He went to assist the extraction and saw Rebecca using a 380-auto which, he was told, carried two clips of over-pressured, teflon-coated rounds. Immediately he called an audible and told them to stand-down while he went to check Rebecca's things. While he was finding a detonator in her bag, she sneaked up behind him, but he drew on her and they had a discussion in a stand-off. She admitted that she was working with Anson the whole time
"you know Anson once he gets his claws in you, that's it." Mike said
"you sabotaged that first operation, and it's your ammunition in Anson's warehouse. And this (the detonator), you were going to blow up the plane, Reed and Jesse." She revealed that
"Anson knows you… that you would play along, plant the card then find some way to undo the damage. A couple of corpses make that a lot harder." She fled thinking that Michael would see Jesse killed anyway. Instead, Michael called to Pearce to kill Rebeccas com link because she was a traitor and that the rest of them should wait for him to blow the plane then keep them pinned down with gunfire. Mike took a security car in to "rescue" Jesse and Perkins from the gunfire then knocked Perkins out and told Jesse to
"deliver this son-of-a-bitch to Pearce and destroy her laptop. Nobody is getting burned today, got it?"
When Mike got back to the loft to get Fi and run, Sam was there handcuffed in her place having been cold-cocked. He said that Fi had traded places with him and had gone to the federal building to turn herself in. She had said that she didn't want to run, this was the only way to end it and left him a note. Without reading the note, Mike streaked off after her. Anson called with Rebecca in his car. Mike told him
"well it's over, one way or the other it's over. I'll see you in hell." There was a traffic jam just outside of the courthouse so Mike had to run toward Fi in slow motion calling her name while he watched her arrested. The words of her letter were read in a melancholy tone:
"Even before I knew your real name, I loved you. Before I should have, I trusted you; because, I've always known your heart. You do what's right no matter the cost to you. And I've learned that when you love a spy you have to be willing to make that sacrifice too. Sometimes your job has made it hard to be with you but it's never shaken my faith in you. I can't let you ruin anyone's life to save mine. I have to force you to tell what you know. If you don't, you won't be the man I love. Do the right thing. I love you Michael. Forever."
