Burn Notice Friendly Fire

Fiona whined at Michael Weston about never coming to 4-star hotels for anything except surveillance as he looked from the balcony trying to spot Mason Gilroy who M was supposed to meet in the comparatively safe pool area… but, this was Gilroy! M said that Gilroy was a freelance psychopath who was planning something big in Miami and the only way to stop it was to be in the middle of it. Gilroy revealed to M that "an associate" once told him that the associate and MW were a lot alike. “You know him," Gilroy said, "oh that’s right… you shot him!” He said that when the CIA agent took notice of Strickler’s business after he had been shot, "I had to kill him because, I was Strickler’s business.” M had to quickly explain that he had been at the scene for the same reason – “I was Strickler’s business too.” Calmly Gilroy said he would need to get to know M better before they could work together, "and your little girlfriend up there!” As they looked up at Fiona, someone in the next building over shot the bottle next to her causing her to pout. Back with Sam, he was moving out of Madeline’s spare room and into "Miss" Reynolds when he was visited by an “old friend,” Mack, who required a haymaker to the jaw – or two. Sam told M that Mack was also a S.E.A.L. and that they had a falling out. Of course, nosey Madeline crept into the doorway to eavesdrop. Rather than tell M why he was acting that way, Sam decided to just go listen to what help Mack thought he wanted. Mack revealed that he worked for Houston PD on child abduction cases. He had built a case against a true predator named Rincon, but had been suspended after Rincon’s apartment blew up when they went to get him and two of his S.W.A.T. team were killed. The brass closed the case, claiming Rincon was dead; but, Mack had traced him to Miami. Sam basically agreed without saying it, and when Mack raised his beer bottle to toast mimicked Ms habit by making Mack “air-clink” his beer bottle.  Instead of clinking Sam suggested it might be a three person job and Mack said, "we could use a third man if you know one.”  Sam said, “I do but I wouldn’t call her that to her face.”

 

When Madeline did her usual busy-body routine, Sam told her in no uncertain terms to: “stay out of it.” They found that Rincon imported drugs from Mexico and Mack intercepted a call about a meeting he had in “Little Dominica” today. Unfortunately, the grapevine of cop-detecting kids spooked the Rincon when Sam and Fiona went to get him. Realizing that they had been spotted, they needed to keep their cover so decided to steal a car – it turned out to be Omar Hernandez’s car, the local (but altruistic) gang leader. Of course that brought MW into the job – at Fiona’s insistence – who decided that they should coerce the local gang leader into finding Rincon for them. Sam found that Omar started in the usual gang-banger's manner; but, now he was boosting cold medicine and the like from warehouses. He also had been arrested for “beating the begeesus out of a guy who was smacking his girlfriend around.” Enter “Louis” – Ms black-suited, red-shirted, menacingly-talking, “I’m the Devil” cover ID who brought back Omar's car, disarmed his gang member and then demanded a meeting inside a store. “Rincon’s business is hurting children and yours is protecting them” he told Omar. To emphasize his point with Omar, he snapped his fingers and disappeared in the excitement of a car explosion. With Madeline, realizing that she could not interrogate Sam, she took a shot at shaking down Mack. He also told her to mind her own business; however, having no experienced with what Madeline could do, he eventually revealed that Sam had once been married. The bug and tracker that they had planted on Omar’s car showed them he hadn’t made a move yet, so “Louis” had to make another appearance. They were watching while Felipe Vega, the leader of a bigger rival gang, came to threaten Omar about wanting to receive another “protection” payment. He told Omar that he had better pack his "payment" into a van and that he’d come to get it at the warehouse. So Sam put some C-4 on the warehouse door bracket in order that when “Louis” came for the van and snapped his fingers, the door would fall off. Fiona shot a phone out of a gang members hand in response to a gesture from “Lewis” when he came to take the van and she also needed to drop two others with rubber bullets. Fiona who was on the roof reported to them that Gilroy was watching the operation from his car up the block; so when he followed the van M stole, M rousted him out of his car and threatened to shoot him for compromising his operation. Gilroy invited him to participate in a job he was doing. M threw his phone away because Gilroy was apparently getting his position from his new phone.

 

Then M appeared to Omar again, letting him know the he knew the location of all his houses, stores and possessions; and, that he could have the van back whenever he delivered Rincon. Omar finally relented, saying that he needed a couple of hours. When next Madeline caught Sam on his own she told him that Mack hadn’t even talked to his ex-wife until after Sam had let her go. When she went on to say that Mack had taken very good care of her, Sam told her to “stay out of it!” Lewis returned for his information and Omar told him that Rincon had been supplying Vega with drugs for many years and it was him who was protecting Rincon now. Omar said that Vega would go after people in his whole area if he told M where Rincon was. M said if he didn’t tell him, “Vega will be the least of your worries.” M got the address where Rincon was staying. Then when Sam, M and Mack crashed in, like a SWAT team, to extract Rincon they found that they had been warned. It was a setup so to escape they had to rapid rappel down the side of the building one-handed with machine guns blazing. Vega then tried to kill Omar too, so “Lewis” came to him with a plan "B," to join forces. He had Omar pretend to be capitulating to Vega and say that he would give up “Lewis" as well as his neighborhood. Of course they then set up the whole meeting place with booby-trapped ice cream carts. M was also wearing handcuffs with a Styrofoam link and wearing a bug. As Rincon was threatening him with a machete, “Lewis” snapped his fingers again and Fiona blew up the front wall of the place. M put Rincon in the trunk, Omar held Vega at gun point and the whole neighborhood took down Vega’s men. This time when Mack said goodbye, Sam shook hand with him and told him "thanks for taking care of Amanda" while Madeline watched and smirked. Sam said that the "mission always came first" for him which is why she left him. Mack rejoined that Amanda had left him too, “don’t think she ever got over you.” Sam shot back “who could?” When asked who the guy who looked like a devil was so he could tell his people who to thank, M told Omar that he was "just the guy who helped him get back on top." As M walked away, Omar tried snapping his fingers. To close, Fiona and M were at a hotel room where the Gilroy meeting would be and she was haranguing him about working too hard. When she had finished flying off with her mouth he said that Gilroy was going to call the hotel in the morning so they had the night together. Gilroy did call and said he wanted to meet about a job; but, M said he had a more pressing engagement.