Burn Notice Fast Friends

A refreshing change of pace, this episode didn't begin with Fiona ragging on Michael Westen for anything!  It was Sam… he had found out about Vaughn and didn't think M had thought this through -- working for a SOB who had burned him and whose name sounded like a vampire! Unlike Fiona however, Sam actually listened. When M did his typical "take on the world" thing by saying: "If I don't do this I will have burned an innocent man, Jesse Porter, for nothing," Sam actually understood and shut his mouth with "Ok, but I still think Vaughn is a vampire name," something Fiona NEVER does! Mike told Vaughn, when it was commented on, that his color coming back was because he wasn't locked in a secret prison by his "Pals" anymore -- Vaughn just smirked. Vaughn said that Jesse was pissed and calling around trying to find out who had burned him, and not to worry "He'll be taken care of… nothing legal… just be taken to a secret 'holding facility.'" When M took umbrage and said "it's more efficient to use him as a resource," Vaughn merely chastized: "are you sure you're not just sentimental because YOU burned him?" [HUH?! See below] In the first meeting with Vaughn after he had been told that HE was the "boss" of the investigation, M now had to begin fighting Vaughn for control. Vaughn condescendingly tossed a folder full of Jesse's phone calls from a hacked PBX switch and told him "bug it… boss!" Then, incredibly (but not unexpectedly) Fiona took up Vaughn's mantra and ragged "do you know what you'll say to Jesse when you find him… 'Hi, I'm the one who ruined your life?'" They broke into the PBX switch and Fiona vandalized the wall plus blew up a garbage can to buy them more than the 90 seconds allowed by the alarm.

 

M and Sam crashed into Madeline's house and saw her slumped in the chair. When they woke her, she yanked off her headset and pissed at them for scaring her, even though she had texted both of them: "need help now" and then didn't answer her phone! She merely wanted their help in converting the garage for a rental -- "a nice man with a cat." She countered their arguments that they used the garage with: "you mean like building bombs and interrogating people -- when you were on vacation in prison I realized that I could use more people in my life… who didn't sleep with guns under their pillow." Listening to the tap on Jesse's phone line, while paneling and tiling the garage, Sam pointed out that, being in counter-intelligence, Jesse's "job is to interrogate spys… you know, seeing through people like you… and, ah, like us." They overheard Jesse talking to a contact who said he had looked into the incident and had found "something that you should see." M called Fiona and Sam, almost jokingly, said to the wall: "for the record, I already hate everything about this." They went to stake out Jesse's meeting at the beach and ended up having to prevent him from being taken out by people in a blacked out SUVs. Jesse's Contact has set him up; so, without knowing it, Jesse had a "team" which had his back. Sam shorted out a power line to cause a diversion allowing Jesse to escape and M observed that Ming Kahn's men only had tazers insead of guns. When Vaughn called M for a report, he refused to assist finding Jesse's old enemies saying: "You're my resource on this… you wanted to handle this? Handle it!" Returning to the loft, M noticed his lock facing the wrong direction and was able to get the drop on an intruder… Jesse Porter, asking for Ms help "with a problem only you could understand!"

 

Jese told M that people still talk and were in two groups the "he who was done wrong folks… and the they shoulda shot him folks." When M asked him which side he was on, he remained silent. He said he merely figured that M had contacts in the government, or he wouldn't have survived for so long, and he wanted to use them. M said "I've got friends, but not in the government… I can't help you there"; then had to stop Jesse from walking away by asking about his old enemy. Ming Kahn though Jesse had stolen $2 million from him and M offered to help with that. Even though he had asked for help, when he got it he was suspicious and M told him that if he helped and Jesse got back in "you could put in a good word for me." M took him to stay in a vacant condo next to Fiona who ragged on him "if another one of your stray's ruins my linen's" until he through her quote that Jesse needed someone to watch his back back at her. When Jesse wouldn't tell her about Kahn because it was "classified," Fiona said "Michael worries about words like 'classified,' I only worry about who and why I'm fighting." He then said that Kahn was a drug shipper who was snitching on his terrorist pals in exchange for a life in America. Jesse was his handler and when $2 million that he was transferring to American banks was intercepted by the Chineese, got blamed for stealing it. Fiona thought that if they set up Kahn for selling weapons and got him arrested, all of his friends would keep away from Jesse. Jesse doubted their plan and M had to say "I'm a spy Jesse, that's what we do!" Jesse said, "I doubt you two have any mutual friends" to introduce them. "A mutual enemy will do fine," M replied.

 

M introduced himself to Kahn as Turner who was also looking to capture Jesse for a "certain cartel" and had been foiled by Kahn's "half-assed snatch and grab" at the beach. He said that he knew where Jesse was but wanted to partner because they had the resources to obtain the necessary guns to extract Jesse from where he was holed up. He said they could get what they wanted and then he would get to take Jesse -- they refused, so M just left and told Jesse that they just needed to convince Kahn that they needed his help. Sam organized a fake assault on Kahn's compound and Jesse tried to change it but was told no. Jesse did the attack although, he didn’t follow their plan and nearly got M killed - which really pissed off Sam. Sam and M had to repair the charger where Jesse shot it as Jesse showed up and began a pissing match with Sam. M intervened and Sam acquiesced saying: "the sooner we're done with Kahn the sooner we're done with Billy the Kid here!" M gave Kahn the list of weapons he needed to buy and needed to tell Kahn that he had "spent 15 years in special ops, interrogating, tracking, climbing in caves in Afganistan" in order to convince him of his expertise. Kahn wanted an account to wire the money and Fiona modified a truck to carry heavy weapons. M had to go to Madeline's where the cat of her new renter had "found one of his old detonators." He confessed to Fiona that he had been demoted from field work because he couldn't follow the plan and did things his own way - largely without thinking of the consequences. Fiona told him "I knew I liked you" because she was just like him. M manipulated Lee into demanding to carry the guns in their own car over Ms warnings that the weight would cause someone to call the cops. Sam called the cops. In the ensuing chase, Kahn flipped and was captured by the police, guns spilling from his trunk.

 

After M left his fourth message on Jesse's phone, Fiona ragged that he was "sounding a little desparate… Jesse isn't they type to leave without saying goodbye… he's not YOU!" Kahn, whose DEA contacts had gotten him free, called to ask Ms help in interrogating Jesse who he had captured trying to go back to his old apartment (ostensibly for a St. Christopher's medal belonging to his deceased mother.) Jesse wasn't responding to the tazing so Kahn wanted Ms help. With Sam finding the recent death of a plausible aunt for jesse, and Barry's help tracing Kahn's bank account numbers back to Lee's accounts in Antigua, M was able to pass Lee's account number to Jesse using subtle trickery during his interrogation. Saying that he had killed the fictitious aunt, and threatening to kill his mother, he got Jesse to admit stealing the $2 million for a person using Lee's bank account number. Lee and Kahn sort of took care of each other after that! Instead of thanking M, Jesse complained that he had left the "old guy in charge of the get away." Sam told him to "buckle up rookie, and don't bleed on the upholstery." Jesse complained that he needed a new place to stay and despite Ms saying no, his mother "had enough burned spies in her life," Fiona said she had already arranged it!

 

Later at another meeting, Vaughn complimented M on winning Jesse's trust but wasn't happy with finding out that M was going to go slow in extracting any classified information. He offered help with torture of Jesse to make him talk and then meanicingly threatened M that "for Jesse's sake, get at it!" Back at Madeline's he found her giving Jesse her very best gun cleaner. She told M that she "forgot how much she hated cats…" and even though "you, Sam and Fiona may be nuts, you are doing something with your life and I just like being part of it. What kind of sissy wouldn't sleep with a gun under his pillow anyway!"  Incredibly, even after all M had done for him, Jesse bristled when M asked him what got him burned. M told him that "you're out in the cold, it's dangerous to do it alone."  He finally revealed that he was looking into "wars, terrorist attacks and had a lead on a guy that was tied into it… probably got too close."  M asked if he wanted help finding the guy and Jesse said that even when he got back in he was going to find the guy who burned him and was going to kill him. "Are you good with that," he asked, and M calmly said "yea, I'm good with that."