Now Madeline's boyfriend, Benny, was dead; blown up by the man who is blackmailing Michael – and this time she had actually helped. Her constant, arrogant sniping and meddling in Michael's affairs had led her to interjecting herself into searching Benny's apartment and planting a bug herself, instead of letting him do it when and how he wanted to. Now all Michael could do was to try and console her as she sat depressively chain-smoking at her kitchen table. She rationalized that Benny had been her soul-mate because he knew her so well and Michael had to tell her that Anson had given him a list of all her likes, dislikes and wishes to use in befriending her. How did he know that? Well, "six years ago your therapist went on sabbatical and Anson deliberately filled in to gather information to burn me. Then he hired Benny and fed him information to keep tabs on me." Then she asked how long he had known and the writers had Michael say: "Ever since I met him," an obvious lie, but they needed to contrive anger so Madeline could throw him out – which she did with an uncharacteristic slap! Jesse and Fiona watched from a sniper perch as Michael met Anson on the street because they had no idea what Anson would do now. What he did was typical of a sociopath; namely, tell Michael "you're the one who MADE me kill Benny… so don't blame me." To the point, his next demand was to let him know that he knew his friends must be watching with guns, tell him that all his money had been flagged in a Cayman island account and basically say: "go fetch," even if he had to send his friends. "If they're willing to shoot me for you, they should be willing to blackmail a banker. I tend to work with people who are easy to manipulate." Michael prevented his exit and warned "I won't be told what to do forever. I need to know this ends." He countered "you'll be done by the end of the month; but remember, actions have consequences. Just ask your mother."
At the Carlito,
Sam informed them that he had an angle that they could use:
"going to the FBI, high enough that they could sort out Mike's blackmail problem." He would pull some favors and get a meeting with the director himself, avoiding intermediaries that Anson might control. Mike agreed and asked Fiona and Jesse to do the Cayman Island thing to get the money. They discovered that
George Anders hid money for everyone including war-lords, drug dealers and arms traffickers. Their con began with inviting him to lunch under the auspices of needing to hide $200 million, to which he agreed. The next day when Anders met them, they sprung it on him that they really wanted a withdrawal. He refused, saying it was a flagged account; but they then showed him a folder of his secret account information (thanks Sam), which got him to listen. They faked calling one of his terrorists and letting them know of his incompetence in securing their records, and he reluctantly agreed. Later at their meeting they noticed that Ander's was nervous and checking his gun placement, so they decided to use a diversion to disarm him. Anders said that the account was so flagged by agencies that he didn't even know existed, he couldn't get the money. Fiona's plan "B" was that he
"retire from the dirty banking business" and they would help him fake his own death. He was sent back to not only get Anson's money but to
"get some money for yourself too, to help you lay low." He met them back at an isolated spot with all the money he could carry having transferred Anson's money from the flagged account into a
"clean one." They had made a withdrawal from a blood bank to seed Anders' car with enough blood to make it look like he had bled out on the seat. They also took a pint of blood from him to spread on his clothes and drag him across the grass. They shot his car full of holes and set it on fire then gave him a new set of clothes, told him they had left a boat for him in the marina and left saying:
"have a nice death."
Sam called
FBI agent Harris and bought him an $18 scotch. He eventually agreed to set up a meeting but warned
"if this thing blows back on me, there won't be enough scotch in the world to keep me off your ass." An "old friend" from his SEAL days five years ago,
Beatriz Bendaz, found him at the Carlito after
"looking all over the city and nobody knew where you lived." She said that someone was trying to kill her. She had written a bunch of articles in Russian – proving it to him by telling him she went to school in Russia in Russian. Shortly afterwards she sent an assistant to answer her phone from someone they didn't know and a bullet came through a window putting her on life support. Sam surmised that whoever the shooter was they were probably still trying to kill her so decided to take her somewhere safe. Except that on their way out the shooter was on the roof taking pot-shots and they narrowly escaped while the guy was reloading. Back at the loft Mike didn't know how to help, having no contacts in South America. Sam suggested that Anson was the one good at profiling people and convinced Michael to ask for his help. He had to say that he might be killed without Anson's help in order to 'manipulate' him into agreeing. However, when he agreed it was only with the proviso that he would get to come along and watch Michael work, every step. Oh crap! But what else could Mike do but agree. Anson did come back with a photo of a Russian agent,
Oscar Markov AKA Oscar McQuire, who wasn't supposed to be at the meeting Beatriz wrote about. She had "outed a spy" and now he was after her. Anson also had found where the spy was; but,
"that wasn't the deal" and demanded that if Mike wanted to know that, he would have to agree to answer all his questions too while he was tagging along! Mike agreed again and was told that Markov was at a Russian energy firm on Miami Beach, Diaben Industries. The first thing Anson wanted to know was what he thought happened to the secretary after he got past her and how he justified it.
"Better that she find a new job than Sam buries a friend," he responded. Mike pretended to be
Dimitry Malkin who had a meeting with Markov but Anson had to step in and keep her busy while Mike was allowed upstairs. He saw Markov but
Ivan Vaskov, his FSB handler, stopped him saying he had been briefed about the burned spy in Miami. Markov escaped and when Mike offered to help find him, Vaskov snarled
"get this CIA trash out of my sight."
At the loft, while waiting for a traffic cam photo of Markov getting away, Sam threatened Anson that:
"my beer's are not a part of your deal with mike"; so he better stay away from them. Mike decided to find out how Markov tracked Beatriz down the first time then try to use it again to bring him out. Her assistant had now died and Beatriz said that only a friend at the Miami Consulate knew she was here; so, Mike had her email again and set up a fake meeting at the consulate, while Sam was really going to spirit her away. Vaskov called Mike to say that he had been ordered to make finding Markov a top priority and that he had better
"stay out of my way… or I'll shoot you." While they were watching for Markov to come, Anson demanded to know
"why you do what you do?" Then when he was told, remarked
"you're motivated by something as generic as injustice… honestly?" Markov's car came and when they stopped it they found that it was some other man zip-tied to the steering wheel that Markov had kidnapped. Mike called Sam to warn him and found that he was already under fire. Anson did an infuriating bit of psycho-therapy to "teach" Michael where he should go instead of running towards Sam.
"Where did it all start? Why did 17-year-old Michael join the Army?" Michael laughed
"to get away from my dad. Is that what you want to hear?" No, Anson continued,
"There's a reason that you have to be everybody's white night Michael. You left because you thought if you saved the world you'd be safe at home. That's what Markov wants… to feel safe… give him what he wants." They drove back over to see
Vaskov. Michael asked him to call Markov and say that Beatriz was actually an off-the-books operative working for them (the Russians). Mike got all personal and said Markov would come back in
"if you convince him he's worth saving. He just wants to go home. He wants to know that his sacrifices meant something. He wants someone to tell him that the nightmares he sees when he closes his eyes help other people sleep better at night. He just wants the world to make sense again." Vaskov pointed over at Anson, who had been lurking and smirking in the corner watching Mikes struggles, and said
"I don't like your friend here." "Neither do I," Mike told him. Vaskov called and did what he was asked, a good thing too because Sam was just making Beatriz go out a hole he had hacked into their trailer's floor while he went out and faced the shooter alone. In the hospital, Mike told Beatriz that the Russians had claimed her as an agent so her troubles should be over unless she kept writing about them. Sam dismissed Mike and said he was going to stay to try and get the
"doctors to take the crazy parts out of her" while they were removing some shrapnel.
While Michael was "borrowing" some parts out of Madeline's gargage she caught him and demanded to know what he was doing. He responded with another excuse that he was
"only trying to protect her." She in essence said bull shit
"I think I have proven I can take anything your life throws at me. What I can't take is your keeping things from me." He tried to interrupt her but she demanded
"I'm not finished! Your life effects all of us. Sam and Fiona, only I'm the only one who's left in the dark." He said he was sorry and continued that Anson had been using anything he could against him
"Fi, you and he mentioned dad." When he told her that he didn't care to know how his dad was involved, she advised
"It's the things you DON'T know that can hurt you" and left. Later, after the issues with Beatriz were over there still was Anson to deal with. He waited in the hospital for Mike to come out and began blabbering at him again, saying that
"it's refreshing to see you be honest with yourself for a change and I think we've had a real break-through." Michael turned and walked away so Anson called after him:
"you know you shouldn't be so hard on your old man. He made you what you are. And he wasn't quite the poisionous leech you make him out to be." He went on to reveal that he had known Frank quite well and he had been a great tap for information, especially when he was drunk.
"I could get him to go on for hours about how you protected your mom and little Nate. It's hard to watch a grown man cry… you should feel sorry that he never got the chance to apologize, he wanted to." As Michael now seemed more interested and drew closer, anson revealed that
"after a while Frank got suspicious of my interest in you… and started snooping in places that he shouldn't so a heart attack had to be arranged." Michael stood stunned with no emotion showing.
"Ironic," Anson continued before he turned and left,
"You wished him dead and we did it for you. You're welcome."
They were counting on Sam's conference with the FBI director to solve the problem but Sam called them angrily and said he was now being investigated as a Russian agent. Anson had convinced Vaskov to name both Beatriz and Sam as their agents and admitted so in a note that he sent to their table at the Carlito. "It was nice working with you… drinks are on me." Fiona suggested that she just leave and hide out so he could resolve the problem unencumbered but he said "I'm not loosing you." Although, he didn't know what they would do next.
