Burn Notice Summaries

Even after putting viewers through all the "gotta find out who burned me" back-story for four years, the creator decided to "handle" the entire dismantling of the "Organization" via video montage and voice-over in a five minute segment (see review). Michael Weston, being all philosophical, told us how one name led to the other until only two were left. He met Max, his CIA "handler" now that he was a "civilian asset," in the hallway at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in Ottowa. "You" Raines, their boss, was listening in on their wireless microphones as they hacked into the computer area to capture Hector Oaks, number 31 on Simon Escher's NOC list and agent number # RB609.10.96852, who was at that moment stealing data. Even after being told he could choose, he chose the "way that involved an ambulance" so was sedated and carted off. Over his objections, M was sent home … Read full summary

Fiona and Michael enjoyed some government funded R&R in Costa Rica by chasing each other at high speed through the forest on motorcycles. After being beaten once again, Fiona was doing her tiresome Klingon thing on Michael until being broken up by soldiers notifying them that M was wanted back in Miami by Max for an "official government gig" – babysitting a British nuclear scientist, Carson Huxley, at a technical conference where he habitually cheated on his wife, thereby opening himself up for blackmail. M was to "chaperone the drunk and make sure he doesn't get lucky." Max took the first shift, M the second and, when he found himself sucked into one of Jesse's jobs, M had Fiona substitute for the third. Fiona scared the ber-jesus out of Huxley with a 130 MPH, eyes-closed, "tell me when to turn" race through freeway traffic and an attempt to commandeer his cell phone … Read full summary

Madeline, his mother, holding a screaming infant, Michael Weston asked his brother: "Are you sure it doesn't need medical attention?" Calmly, Nate responded "his name is Charley… your nephew just needs a nap," then thanked Madeline for the "thoroughly cooked" meatloaf. His wife, Ruth, had chosen to miss the homecoming meal in favor of a pedicure which Michael pointed out in the garage when he was demanding the "real" reason Nate had moved back to Miami. Exasperated, Nate revealed that he had been attending Gambler's Anonymous and needed to get out of Vegas. M told him that he was welcome to help fix the charger and surmised that it needed a carburetor. He and Fiona had moved in together and, as expected, she had begun to rag on him to shred all his burn documents. In voice-over M talked about "Post Operation Paranoia" because he was shown to erroneously attack … Read full summary

Decked out in a rented tuxedo Michael Weston met Max, his CIA "handler," at a high class fund raiser for marine animals in order to help with a last minute job dealing with an attempt by a foreign government to "steal tech secrets from the Swede's." Gunther Ehren, the owner of JetSwede a high end aeronautics company, was at the conference carrying a bright orange note-pad computer that contained a complete data dump of all his companies records – actually packing it around with him in his hands… a tech thief's dream. Max said they were at the event to plant a tracker on whoever tried, or actually did, steal Ehren's computer. While they were waiting, M asked Max if he had read the four page document he had sent about all the inconsistencies he had found in their take-down of "the Organization." Not unexpectedly, Max gave him grief about playing "the boy who cried 'shouldn't-we-triple-check-this' … Read full summary

Pay attention because describing this episode gets a bit convoluted. Jesse appeared at the loft with news that he had completed setting them all up with a credit card trail which showed they had been in Key West yesterday and found Sam and Fiona helping Michael melt down the gun from Max's murder in a makeshift kiln holding 4,000 degree thermite. The CIA had taken over the investigation with a case officer who wanted Michael to come in for a "chat." Jesse acted argumentative so Sam asked if he was "on board" with the project and got a "hell yeah" reply – although Fiona was shown with a concerned look. Michael told agent Pearce that there was "no place he would rather be" as she coyly had him walk through Max's murder, pretending he was the killer. When he had had enough of the innuendoes, M asked directly if he was a suspect and said "Max … Read full summary

In voice-over Michael Weston explained the historical uses of "look-alikes" while Sam, Fiona and Madeline watched the commandeered security tape of someone going to a lot of trouble framing him for buying a cell phone used at a murder scene. "This is getting personal," Sam offered. "It's been personal," M responded "since Max bled out in my arms and told me to go say goodbye to his wife." As he was saying he would buy some more time from Agent Pearce, his new handler, she called with a new "high-priority" CIA mission. Her source inside a Serbian syndicate revealed that the group was going to buy a stolen predator drone from a Miami arms dealer – tomorrow. M jumped right on it and scaled the balconies of a hotel to the sixth floor, blew out the glass and got the drop on the courier when he rushed out with his gun. They were too late, the deal had already gone down. … Read full summary

Fiona was doing her least favorite activity with Sam, surveillance on Jacob Starkey who had set up Michael Weston for murdering Max, when they saw a gang coming to kill the guy.  Sam broke in to Jacob's house before the gang got there and found him to be the absolute weeny that they had seen over the past two days – a guy who still had his Christmas lights up in July and who was reading about raising llamas. Sam sent him out the back door to the "tiny little woman in the Hyundai who is going to protect you" and he drove Jacob's truck out through the garage door. Michael wasn't too happy when he returned from a two hour meeting with CIA Agent Pierce, who was going to Egypt, to find that Fiona had brought Jacob to the loft… with his dog. Jacob claimed he had done some "odd jobs for some mystery man who contacted him over the internet and then delivered … Read full summary

Michael Westen began by telling us that "the more lethal the bomb, the more you know about the man who wants you dead," and Fiona offered to call someone she used to know so they didn't need to break into homeland security to follow up. On a double date with his mother Madeline and Fiona, they were surrounded by "gangers" on motorcycles; except, Fiona recognized they were just the style of her "old friend" so she went with the cyclists.  Her friend Armand said he wouldn't help her unless she would agree to steal a specific truck with ammunition, and Sam was "elected" to help her because M had a job with Agent Pierce. The new CIA assignment was to extract C. Cahill who worked for "low-life's around the globe" and they had word that he was up to something.  She told M that he could bring along Jesse (who had security … Read full summary

While Sam merely watched, Michael Weston loaded the trunk of his car in order to chase a lead on the bomb-maker that tried to blow up Jacob – who had been duped into framing Mike for Max's murder. Staking out the bomb maker's shop in Tallahassee, Sam wolfed down three doughnuts in a row claiming that he had to eat quick while his new girlfriend wasn't around. Lucien Ballans, the clock-making, former war criminal in hiding, arrived at his store and Sam was upset because he came before he had a chance to get some cheese-fries. Michael said: "We're not waiting around all day to give him a chance to figure out somebody's watching him." Playing like they had some clocks for him to look at, they still didn't fool Lucien and were nearly electrocuted in a trap except Mike noticed the iron grate just in time. Sam had used the name Lucien when, for years, he's been known as Luca. They took … Read full summary

"Oh great, so we're going to snatch a murderer with some magnets and a roll of duct tape," Sam whined as Michael Westen hurried to dismantle his car's radio speakers. A man who was now dead had just minutes before told them where to find that man who had hired him to make a bomb which was designed to kill the man who had been hired to help frame Mike for Max's murder. A complicated scenario to be sure and getting more complicated by the episode; but, time is wasting and CIA Agent Pierce seems to be only a breath away from discovering the damning, but false, evidence linking Mike to the murder. They used the magnets to keep the door sensor engaged when they opened it; but, Sam trundled onto a floor sensor anyway alerting "the guy" who then set the whole place on fire. He did escape but not before exchanging gunfire and giving Mike a good look at him. The, as usual, pissed Fiona whined … Read full summary

For once Michael Westen had more 'intel' than he knew what to do with. He, Sam and Jesse were like school kids around the kitchen table keeping themselves busy long enough for Michael to do a voice over: "Once you pick up a bad guys money trail, finding them is just a matter of doing your homework. If you can find where they SPEND their cash, you know where they are. If you can find where they GOT their cash, you can figure out where they came from." Sam discovered that "Ravel Stigler was the unofficial banker to cold war left-overs… including Tavian Korzha who killed Max" and has been an albatross around Mikes neck for months. Sam and Jesse refused to let Mike deal with Stigler so he could cozy up to CIA Agent Pierce – all they needed, they said, was an approach. Mike observed that Stigler had only … Read full summary

Sam and Jesse were in their car screaming across the city to see what had happened to Michael Westen and found feds at the loft removing boxes. They correctly assumed that Pearce had arrested him and decided to: Go Get Him. Using Fiona's car, Jesse did a spinning tail bump on their convoy to get them to stop and talk. Pierce came out of the car screaming and flailing, still in no mind to listen to anything despite Sam telling her that they had Homeland Security involved and waiting for Mike to show up. Finally, using the image of Max's waiting wife, Mike got her to relent and check it out. Then he had to offer to talk to Tavian wearing a wire but completely unarmed. He said goodbye to Fiona who had been captured as well. On the top of a parking garage Tavian did admit to killing Max and framing Mike and when Sam was shown looking at Pierce knowingly, she merely scowled and nodded. … Read full summary

Michael Westen was now the worse thing that a spy could be: somebody's asset; all because he had broken a top rule of spy-ness: don't get attached. To him, there was no other choice now than to let himself be Anson Fullerton's minion. It was either that or Fiona would go to prison "forever" on trumped up charges Anson had created. Michael was deposed by Agent Pierce in order to recover his security clearance and was told only that the CIA liked working with him just as they always had: a non-acknowledged, burned spy. She asked: "we are aware of your past affiliation with a network of burned spies. To the best of your knowledge does any trace of that network still exist." And, with an engaging smile he answered like Max had told him he should, and Anson wanted him to: "No. All of that’s over now." Later, when Anson butted in and was told "it's none of your business" … Read full summary

Michael Westen had spent long minutes fondling and turning the piece of plastic over and over in his hands before Fiona startled him from his reverie by complaining: "I'm getting jealous of that badge. I remember when you couldn't keep your hands off me." He had been contemplitively worrying that the badge was "reserved for the most trusted people in the intelligence community" and that having one meant "fewer constraints, limited oversight and a frightening ability to do real harm." Fiona argued, yet again, that she didn't want him to plant the "Voidbot" virus in the CIA computers like Anson was blackmailing him to do because that meant "the dick" (as Sam pronounced him) would go back to being the most dangerous enemy the US had, and completely invisible. [Of course the writers don't ever give her a "plan B," they just need her to endlessly argue for exposition purposes.] They both knew that Anson was never … Read full summary

Michael Weston and Fiona looked at mounds of photographs they had taken during their surveillance of Anson's apartment and commiserated about how difficult it was going to be trying to somehow eavesdrop on his conversations which uses the military-grade, encrypted relay antenna they had spotted. Mike said they would need to break in to the security firm across the street that he was relaying his signal through – "I didn't say it would be easy," he responded to Fiona's expression that told him he was crazy. They paid a window washer a "couple grand" to leave town and give them their uniforms then used their hanging scaffold to break through a 20th floor window. Fiona prepared charges to "accidentally" cut some cables and they harnessed in and hung on while the platform swung through the window. Fiona cloned their servers communication logs then they laid by the window ready to act for the security guards who came rushing … Read full summary

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 … Read full summary

Both Michael and Madeline Westen stood on a beach-side cemetery looking at the grave of Frank Westen (1939-1998) their husband and father. In voice-over Michael explains that "the best preparation for a career filed with danger and paranoia is a home life filled with danger and paranoia." Apparently Michael might have learned a lesson on how to deal with his mother because this time he disclosed what Anson had told him instead of keeping her in the dark: "I knew Frank… He wanted to apologize to you… you wished he were dead and we took care of it for you, you're welcome." Madeline told him that she remembered that out of the blue Frank started asking about Michael right before he died. "It's hard to believe that he died trying to save you," she said. "Within a week I was trying to figure out why he had gotten drunk and OD'd on heart pills," it fits. She said that she was going … Read full summary

For once surrounding the pile of papers, photos and data on the bench in the loft actually made sense. Sam observed that Anson Fullerton, the last undiscovered member and founder of the organization that burned Michael Weston, was merely gathering all the pieces that the government didn't find and putting them all back together.  Fiona told him that she knew what would happen to her but "you can't let him do this." Mike said that he was going to confront Anson with this today. Fiona jumped in, agreeing to go with; but, Mike told her she could back him up with a sniper rifle across the street. She warned him that she wasn't just going to just prevent him from getting shot, "if Anson doesn't back up his plans I'm going to end this, blackmail or no blackmail. Understood?" Anson was a bit taken back and stunned to see Michael show up in the parking garage of the DIA, right next to his car. … Read full summary