Burn Notice Shock Wave

Through the prison visiting room glass Michael told Fiona of their new lead on Anson's hiding location. He told her that "if I can put Anson in cuffs and you plead guilty to a few weapons charges your sentence will be: time served." She wasn't at all happy that he had been working with Rebecca to obtain it; but, it's Fiona and historically not much Michael ever does pleases her. When Michael left she was ushered to the warden's office by a guard where the warden, two men from the state department and a smarmy MI-6 fool, Arthur Meyers, were waiting for her. If Sam were there, he'd be the one to say "it's official, he's a dick!" Unbelievably, the state department had supposedly "loaned" Fiona to the Brit for (get this) a televised "interrogation" over at the rebuilt British Consulate. With the warden and the state department in the room, he tried to blackmail Fiona into signing a new, contrived, confession to "squash the CIA business" and none of the others expressed a peep about it! She immediately went to work recruiting her new buddy AYN into helping with a scheme so she could "get lost" without escaping. Fiona pointed out that it could be AYN who eventually "found" her and possibly work that into her upcoming parole being granted. AYN took her to the library, where she was assigned to work, and showed her a hidden recess she had made inside an air-conditioning duct to store her contraband. That's where Fiona hid for a couple days and even tricked a K9 who nearly sniffed her out. When Michael's activities were over, AYN made up a plausible story and offered to reveal Fiona's whereabouts in exchange for the Warden's signature on a recommendation that her parole be granted. When the warden uncovered Fiona she chortled that the MI-6 weeny would only pull strings with "state" again, to which Fiona replied: "AYN isn't the only one expecting an early release." They both grinned at the warden knowingly.

 

The writer just couldn't go an episode without having some woman rag on Michael about something, so this episode Agent Pearce wailed about him "tracking down a traitor to this agency and didn't even tell me about it." She countermanded him running the op and demanded that Sam not come. She said she was worried about coming up empty handed but we know that it was because "the bitchy little girls" had it in for him. When Sam was told he didn't get to go – and that Nate did – you can guess his reaction. But, he had his own troubles soon enough when he was assigned to "keep an eye on my mom" and Barry showed up. At Mike's stakeout, all the nifty spy gadgets made him tell Pearce  "you guys don't know how spoiled you are." A bunch of rowdy biker guests were about to blow their stakeout and on his own Nate took it upon himself to roust them pretending to be the assistant manager wanting their sheets because of bed-bugs. The gang did leave but Mike climbed on him because his ruse could have emptied out the whole motel and tipped off Anson. Nate was only to do the driving, nothing more. Then a pizza delivery guy showed up with four pizza's ordered by Nate which set Mike off again that he could have jeopardized the mission yet again. He told Nate that he couldn't "keep cleaning up after you" and ordered him to leave. It wasn't long before a hooker showed up requesting a specific room and they realized that Anson was using a cutout. They were able to trace a call she made to Anson whose phone was located across town at another motel. They blazed across town only to find the hotel room empty with a couple of phones connected together by a data cable lying on the bed. Anson was using the phones to relay calls to his real phone – located in a café near the airport. They didn't have time to make it to the airport, but Nate was already there waiting for his flight and gambling. Annoyed that Mike was calling but gloating "now you need me, huh?" Mike told him that Anson was armed and to go "get eyes on him but do NOT approach him" and repeated it twice. The next thing we saw was Anson telling someone on the phone that they could "keep the money but to burn the IDs" and Nate coming out of nowhere slugging him to the ground. Then next Nate had a gun on Anson who was standing in front of him in a parking lot, and Anson chortled that "he knew where the bodies were buried and would be out in a week." As Mike, Jesse and Pearce were walking toward them, congratulating themselves for getting Anson, an explosive gunshot was heard and a close-up on Nate revealed him staggering back in a daze. Mike frantically rushed to him and his dying words were "I'm scared." [Apparently, the script – as typed by the closed caption – was supposed to say "I'm sorry."] Only incidentally we saw that Anson also laid sprawled out dead as the camera pulled back to reveal a huge (50 caliber?) hole in a metal sign behind them.

 

Barry stumbled into Madeline's house bleeding from a gunshot wound in his arm. He handles all of the money for Fiona's deals and the weapons dealers that Mike pissed off getting Fiona her CIA deal were really pissed. The FBI had offered Barry a deal for protection but that would have meant giving up all his clients too. He needed Sam to give some "back-up," and a ride up to a lake-side clients house where he stored his "secret" ledgers. Madeline promised to shut the blinds and stay inside watching a "real housewives marathon" on TV. Barry got the ledgers up at the isolated house; but, unfortunately, their exit was blocked by Garrett Hartley, an assassin for the gun dealers. Sam first made a marshals badge out of a beer can and told them there was backup on the way. That didn’t work. Then he made a rocket launcher for a beer can rocket that did succeed in setting the gang's SUV on fire and exploding bullets all over the place. Then, he made smoke bombs out of beer cans filled with bacon grease. They worked, but the gang had backup by that time and Barry was shot again in the leg. Sam rigged a shotgun shell in the back patio light which would be triggered by a motion detector. It did take out one of the gang trying to sneak up on them. Completely out of ammunition, and options, Sam got a beer out of the fridge and had to tell Barry "No, this is just a regular beer. It takes the sting off the fact that I'm gonna die." In a last-ditch, Hail-Mary play he went around the house and turned on all the gas jets while Michael's voice-over explained how an explosion could kill in four different ways and about the brisancy (shattering force) of a natural gas explosion. Then Sam found a porcelain bathtub that they turned over and hid with Barry under – threatening Barry about speaking about their face-to-face hiding place to anyone IF they lived. When Hartley set off his breeching explosion the additional gas came out and completely enveloped the gang. It also gutted the entire inside of the house as well, but didn't touch under the tub. Sam took Hartley's gun commiserating that "I guess it did get personal" as he and Barry walked off into the sunset.

 

Michael's final voice-over was about how none of a spies training could prepare for informing next of kin about the death of a son. In dreamy slow-motion and with throbbing music the camera pulled back as Madeline nearly fell to the floor, striking out at Michael as he caught her and restrained her in his arms. The music continued later to show Fiona's three friends waiting at the prison gate for her to come out wearing the white dress she was arrested in. Now… the burn story becomes: who shot Anson and killed Nate?