Burn Notice Summaries

[Season opener] From inside the semi-trailer in which he had been riding, Michael Westen heard gunfire and explosions going on outside which put him on alert as the ramp door automatically began rising. A woman calling herself “Carla” called on his cell phone and explained that the destroyed plane and car that he was seeing in front of him was because “Jimmy didn't do what he was told" and now Ms job was to take him back to Miami and help him finish stealing info from a secure computer, like he had been told to do. Carla said “they” had been watching him for a while, but wouldn’t tell him any more than that. Emergency 911 had already been called by Jimmy and M had to toss him in the trunk and escape quickly, backwards through thickets so the air bags wouldn’t deploy in Sam’s Cadillac which he had borrowed. Jimmy explained that he was the one who had installed computer security for a company named “Security Associates” … Read full summary

Michael Westen needed to de-code the crossword puzzle which Carla had left him in the bar – he called it “Steganography” but didn’t reveal the key. The message read “meet at Marwa Mall, noon.” Insecure Fiona (in her usual tiresome way) ragged on MW about Carla “flirting” with him. He told her it was past so-called flirting when she had tried to kill him and threatened his family. Fiona was supposed to wait in the car and Sam was to take a photo of Carla; but,  both were rousted by Carla’s people. Carla avoided photos, and was captioned as Ms new “handler” for whatever “organization” she was part of. Carla offered him a drink and he said that he’d "have what you're drinking" – which turned out to be qishr (Yemenis coffee) that she had brought herself because she was afraid of being poisoned. She handed him a security badge – integrated circuit processor, embedded hologram over laminate patch – which was … Read full summary

Instituting a reconnaissance con at the Pakistani consulate, Michael Westen told Sam that one perk of being burned was that his crimes were just plain crimes and not acts of war. While Sam diverted everyone’s attention by complaining loudly, M posed as Rich Franklin of the Miami Harold who was of course ushered back into the offices. Then when Waseem, the director of “security,” went to handle Sam, M stole some documents from Waseem’s desk and left a note. M tried to clandestinely obtain some car parts from his mother’s garage but he was caught and forced into the card game she was having with her friends including Phyllis and Fiona. His telling her that Fiona and he were no longer “seeing” each other just set her off on another "got-to-know-everything" tirade. Phyllis was talking about her friend Diane whose son Andy was … Read full summary

Michael Westen discovered that Carla’s cover in Kurdistan had been in agriculture. Fiona noticed a Lincoln Town Car following them and when M maneuvered to catch whoever was in it. He discovered that the driver was Nate who said that he had been following him in order to make sure that M wasn’t being followed. He said that he wanted M to help him with a problem that a Russian friend at work had. Katya said that her sister, Elena, had been trying to come to America and fell into the hands of some smugglers who were now ransoming her. Nate told Katya not to worry because "M does these things every day." Fiona was doing surveillance, hoping to track the slave-trader back to where the girls were being held, and Sam was working on trying to locate Carla's headquarters.  He contacted the secretary treasurer of the Agricultural Association of South Florida, … Read full summary

Fiona and Michael Westen were staking out Carla’s known post office box and, as usual, Fiona is completely absorbed with her own life thinking its smug to refuse her shift at watching the box. A secretary came to pick up the mail and they tailed her back to Carla’s office. Security guards were masquerading as handy-men so they called a pizza delivery to see if there was any security response – there was. Now to plan a break-in. Sam came for a visit with intel on the building and the idea of using a webcam for surveillance – that, and to show M his $8,000 watch which Veronica had given him for their "one-month-since-we-said-I-Love-You anniversary." Waiting at the loft when he got home was Trevor an ex-con with a problem. A cell mate had told him about a guy who had busted up his organization, so Trevor looked the guy up and now hoped M could help keep him out of trouble. … Read full summary

The only clue Carla left on the crossword puzzle for Michael Westen was “Tidy Pelican” in Lumus Park, which turned out to be a garbage can near the chess tables. Victor, Michael Westen’s new “wrangler,” said he thought that "the clue would just go right over your head." In sunglasses and the same kind of shirt that Sam wears, Victor exuded self-importance and arrogance from every pore. He told M that he was "supposed to make sure the bronco’s don’t buck or wander too far from the pen." So M summarized: "like a rodeo clown." Sitting at the chess boards, Ms voice over said that "when meeting a new person it’s sometimes best to open with an aggressive move – you learn about people when you make them play defense." So, when Victor handed him a phone and ordered him to "keep it with you at all times" he shoved it back and basically said "no." He grabbed Victor’s wrist and held his radial … Read full summary

Michael Westen and Fiona waited along the beach for an arms dealer she knew to show up, so M could get information about the Russian sniper rifle Carla had Victor and him steal. Fiona made it obvious that she had just gotten a text message so that she could let M know that "it was a guy who had just asked her out." Fiona described her arms dealer, Seymour, as a “little eccentric." He eventually showed up and immediately started walking toward the beach, dragging M along, in order to trick him into being "muscle" for an arms deal.  The buyer, a Bulgarian named Pavel, only gave half the $100 thousand that Seymour claimed they had agreed on. M had to disarm Pavel and his companion in self-defense and all of them had to flee and dodge bullets. Of course the Bulgarians decided to follow M and Fiona’s car in stead of Seymour's so M had to drive so erratic that Pavel couldn’t … Read full summary

Michael Westen and Sam were canvasing every Bill Johnson in the Miami area, looking in their garbage for signs of spying. On the tenth one they found a “dog lady” and garbage sacks full of shredded documents with bottles and bottles of laundry bluing and prunes – to which MW said "we’ve found our spy." Back at the loft M was confronted by Larry Sizemore, a former sociopath/partner of Ms, who was supposed to be dead. He claimed to M that he “missed working with you.”  H said that he was now doing freelancing and had more business than he could handle. He had a job in Miami that he thought M might be interested in. It turned out that Larry wanted to pay M a lot of money to kill a lady. Apparently Larry didn’t have as much problem as M had to go through to obtain the MW burn dossier, because he said that he had read it and thought: “finally the kid gets it.” Believing that M had actually … Read full summary

[Midseason teaser finale] Sam’s contact found that Bill Johnson, Carla’s sniper, was in Daytona blowing off steam. So, Michael Westen decided to throw caution to the wind and use his duplicate key card to get in and search the building that he had seen Johnson go into. The entire 4th floor was empty, except that he noticed the conference table, in a window lined room, had been moved. Tiny screw holes in the table indicated a gun perch. He noticed that the table and perch now pointed directly at a the point in the bay where a ferry passed, so he surmised that there would be a killing of someone on the boat. Of course, Carla showed up on her motorcycle just while M was in the building so he had to flee; but Sam put a tracking device on her bike. Sam began staking out Carla who was residing in a high class hotel. She swims well and is exceedingly careful to never talk in the open where anyone could use a rifle-microphone. … Read full summary

“Work long enough (as a spy) and the line to kill you gets pretty long,” Michael Westen said in voice-over “Still, getting blown up isn’t something that you get used to.” Sam shook Ms unconscious body awake, it was on the ground where he had bounced after hitting his car’s roof. He had been unconscious for about 20 minutes and Sam had to out-run Carla’s goons in his new car by crashing through some scaffolding. Still being hunted, they tried to keep moving on foot but his post-assassination, adrenaline, hyper-awareness made him spot a guy who was about to kill himself by running into a bus. Of course, they had to take the guy, Kenny, back home where he revealed that he had a son who had a heart condition, had blown all his money in a drug scam and now couldn’t afford a real treatment. M offered to help him which blew Sam’s mind. Sam told M, “I know you, if it hadn’t been this guy it would … Read full summary

The episode began, as it too often does, with Fiona ragging on Michael Westen for something that keeps him from doing what she selfishly wants in their relationship. This time she didn’t like that he was trying to find his bomber for information (and a possible friend) who could help him take down Carla instead of just doing it for simple revenge, like she would do! Fiona had found a security camera which would have covered the bombers entrance and exit to the loft, the company which installed it and even the model number of the device. M posed as an IT tech and blustered his way in to “switch out” their recording unit. They did see the bomber coming and going and were able to get a photograph of a guy who like he probably worked for the City of Miami Public Works.  Sam wanted to score some Dolphin tickets by doing a favor for a buddy, Shawn Martin, and committed M to help him with a problem … Read full summary

The episode began, as pretty much most of them seem to do, with Fiona ragging on Michael Westen about something. This time she was whining about “if we looked for everyone who tried to kill you, we’d do nothing else.” Apparently she is so self-centered that she thinks spending time with her is more important than trying to find out who is trying to kill him!  She and M were crashing a pool party at Seymour’s to find out more information about the bomber who had now tried to kill both M and Fiona. M told Fiona that if she wanted to talk about what happened the other night (sleeping together after she was almost killed) he would; but, she said “we were just blowing off steam, right?” When Seymour saw M he called: “Security” but by that time Fiona had his security guy on the ground. Then, when Seymour pulled a gun, M had to subdue him as well. Seymour agreed to help if M would teach him some of his … Read full summary

Sam was a little more than pissed that Michael Westen was taking Barry to the Chadwick for lunch; but, it was because the money launderer had tracked down the bank account in the Cayman Islands which had paid the bomber of Ms apartment. “The enemy of my enemy may be my friend,” seems to be Ms motto these days. However, it was obvious from the way Barry was acting that he was wearing a wire – which, indeed was attached to Jason Bly on the other end. Bly had caught Barry illegally looking into a bank account which had a trail back to MW, so he figured that was enough of a club to enable him to relieve himself of the blackmail threat that MW had over him. Bly said: “Barry is the brick that I will tie around your neck before I throw you into the ocean.” So, before M even had the chance to argue with Fiona about shooting Bly, the guy had Ms loft quarantined as a toxic mold biohazard. In … Read full summary

The episode opens, as usual, with Fiona ragging on Michael Westen about what he is doing: going to meet and bribe a bank manager for information about the bomber. “I was warned by people not to see you,” he said. “Yea, and I almost blew off your hand with a block of C-4,” she countered. “And, I made a friend,” he said, “watch my back.” It became obvious to M that the man he was meeting, Gustavo, was an imposter; but, when M broke his arm in the knife fight and the guy fell over the railing – he could get no information from him. In the loft, while M was practicing moves to disarm a knife, Sam came in holding a huge fish saying that "you could use the protein" – and also that the real Gustavo had been found dead elsewhere. Fiona was supposed to find whoever had smuggled in the imposter assassin, and M told Sam he should "bring the fish to the Carlito and maybe they … Read full summary

Michael Westen asked Fiona to show Victor’s photo around to "her people" just as Sam brought Madeline in to rag on him. Madeline was going to have to stay with M because of the danger with both Carla and Victor. Noise coming up the stairs unannounced sent them all scurrying for guns and even Madeline picked up a butcher knife. It was “Sam” (Samantha) Ms previously unrevealed ex-fiancé!  Samantha admitted that she had found M by breaking into his mother’s house and finding his address in her kitchen drawer. She was a thief who a black-market trader, Tyler Brennen, had made her steal an important piece of prototype guidance hardware from a A.F.C. Industries as a ransom for her kidnapped son. Now before the payoff, she decided to involve M to get her son back. Of course she made it sound like her nine-year-old son could be Ms although she denied … Read full summary

[Season Finale] Inside her stretch limo, Carla offered Michael Westen a chocolate covered pomegranate seed as a "taste of your former life" in the "good old days" as a “carefree spy in the deserts of Afghanistan” before the burn notice went out on him. In an approach that she’d not used on Michael Before, she became kind of “chummy” and disclosed that she also had once been a spy who had been burned; but found that she liked the new life and he would too, eventually. When he asked "what if I want my old life back" she said “they’re worse things than being burned.” She showed increasing anxiety over his resistance stating that: “Management is not happy and will be in town shortly to make sure everything is resolved." Avoiding any tails, M drove back to the isolated factory where they were holding Victor for interrogation. Fiona was guarding him with … Read full summary