Burn Notice Entry Point

What to do with the woman in the trunk (Kendra)? Sam and Michael Westen had captured the assassin, now Jesse was haranguing M with all the ways HE was going to "break her." M tried to wait patiently until Jesse had finished pontificating, but eventually even his patience wore thin and he had to exasperatedly say: "if I could just finish a thought!" Even during Ms explanation, Jesse interrupted "you're talking about a rendition play?" M finished "I was trying to!" Jesse pontificated again, "it's been successful in Afghanistan" to which M could only say "yea, I KNOW!  I hope you listen better in there," he told him. Kendra was arrogant enough to think she was in control and mocked that they should have "metal instruments." M told her that he had talked with Serbian's who were very interested that he was holding the person who had killed their weapons supplier. She immediately clammed up but still wouldn't say who she worked for. She demonstrated how much they could do to her, without her giving in, by slamming her own head repeatedly into a metal table until Jesse finally stopped her. That gave Kendra the opportunity to tell Jesse how "sweet" he was and M to physically throw him out the door. M had to explain even the basic's of the ploy to him. It "only works when the bad cop isn't in the room… she is a predator… over confident around people she thinks of as prey… YOU'RE the prey!" Jesse was supposed to be the only one in the room from now on. Sam wasn't happy being just the "backup" until M explained that Jesse was the "weak link" and needed an "unseen boss from hell."

 

Fiona came to pick up M for a: "big money gig… some friend of a friend who makes knock-off handbags… who someone tried to kill… needs our help." M told Sam he'd be back soon "It won't take long." Sam shot back, "oh yea, it never does." Buddy, who forged high-end luxury goods explained that the person he had done his last job for had tried to kill him; but, Fiona was more interested in knowing if the shoes he said she could have "came in blue." He said he needed to hire a "special strike force commando team," which he had heard that they were. He showed them a photo of the two little onyx lion heads, with a piece of tooled leather, which was his last job for $20 grand. No names, no addresses and the person used a voice scrambler so he didn't know who it was, but serendipitously found that his hot tub had been rigged to electrocute him. M was explaining why they couldn't help when Fiona's shoe envy caused her to panic and say "we're gonna help." Buddy had bribed a phone company lady to triangulate his clients phone and gave them the address. It turned out to be an abandoned machine shop, rigged with video camera's and wirelessly triggered explosives. M quickly called the fire department, after it blew; then posed as Randy, a county arson investigator. He found a burned lap-top and a resin mold of what the lion heads were made into. Then he had to bluster his way out saying he needed to get toxic material out of there which was going to cause radiation sickness.

 

Jesse seemed stunned that Sam could unload on him so effectively, then meekly went in to interrogate Kendra. She immediately began working him and trying to be his 'buddy.' She proposed a trade to know who each other were. She said the guy had merely been a "paid job, but I hit harder than you do," and he said "I work for a private company." Back with Buddy, Fiona told him that the sword was a replica of one that used to belong to Alexander the Great which Ken Bocklage, the CEO of a software company, had just purchased. They intended to catch the assassin/thief when it was put on display at a product launch. Sam narrowed the possible thief down to: Messer Glisson' - "Mister Slippery," who had never been seen. If he can't get away clean he blows up stuff - "seven heists on three continents." They tried to get Bocklage to hire them as security consultants, Scott Miller and Karen Campbell; but, even though they showed him the mold which they had found, he refused to believe that he'd hired anyone who could/would steal from him, pointing to his head of security and his assistant Salina. He told them: "you could be thieves" and left; so, they decided to hit the HR department without Bocklage's help. They got employee information but nearly were caught by the HR lady who was rude to Fiona, so she got a coffee cup thrown at her for a diversion. Employee records pointed to Andrew Deans and they also found incriminating evidence in his apartment. Unfortunately, they then needed to rush and save Buddy, who was being set up for another explosion; except that Fiona had to shoot him in the arm to stop him.

 

They still had to fight Bocklage for him to admit any vulnerabilities. Salina seemed to manipulate Bocklage into alternate excuses for all their evidence. They finally showed him infrared paint marks on the floor, marking the thief's exit strategy, and a shut-off timer intended to cut the room's power set for 8pm. M revealed that they had a tail on Deans and said they would "take care of it." Sending Sam to follow Deans meant that Jesse was alone with Kendra; however Kendra, feeling Jesse's growing frustration, offered to pay him $300,000 to let her go. She gave him her account number and name of her money manager, which Sam had Barry trace. Meanwhile Buddy played like an "authenticator" to make sure the sword coming out of the armored car hadn't already been switched for the fake. It was real. Then, waiting in the break room for the 8pm breaker switch time, Sam called and said that Dean's had just been blown up in a car bomb. M rushed to the sword and found it had already been switched and the guard on the floor dead. Salina manipulated Bocklage's suspicions into believing that M was the thief; so, after the explosion, M had to escape, while Fiona watched the exits for the thief. Finally out of the building, M realized that the thief could be one of the firemen coming out, so yelled: "help." All but one of the firemen reflexively turned to see who was calling, so he chased the one that didn't down and found her to be Salina - who was carrying the sword. Even being thrown into their trunk she recognized Buddy and threatened to kill him. Stunned, Fiona confessed "I didn't see that one coming." Debriefing around Buddy's hot tub, they said that Salina was being denied bail and Deans had been just a local thug Salina had hired then killed when she knew they were onto him. Buddy gave Fiona a knockoff handbag to replace the one M had blown up stopping Salina, then blustered "If you guys ever need me for anything - you know where to find me."

 

Barry found that "Kendra's money went through six banks and four different holding companies in five different countries!" Sam added "and that's just what we could confirm." I seemed an inordinate amount of caution and way too much trouble for just just hiring an assassin; so, Barry made it look like the people who paid Kendra had now drained her account to zero. They knew she would not be happy and Sam called it "appointment television." Kendra did indeed blow up and began telling them everything they wanted to know in order to extract revenge. The Jeremiah Kassar (Jesse's Cobra) which they knew about was just one of four people she was hired to kill. All of the four were "operatives hired to rob a bank… a safety deposit box… but they blew it, got caught, proved themselves expendable." She didn't know the name of who hired her, or the bank. Just that the attempt was "the fourth of last month." All she asked of Jesse in return was to let whoever it was know that she was the one who had ruined him. Sam found that Kendra had FBI warrants so decided to "make a donation to their collection." Before they got the duct tape to tire her up, M broke out the bottles and they toasted "to the new guy."