My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy. Until… Well Burn Notice fans, November has finally arrived and with it comes the return of our favorite crime fighting trio (or quartet depending on how you look at Jesse). Last we saw, Michael had been shot by Jesse. Yeah, I know he was shooting through Michael to kill the guy who was possibly about to kill Michael, but even still…Jesse shot Michael. We also know that Michael was taken hostage by John Barrett (played by Robert Patrick), Michael flipped the SUV Barrett was driving, and in the aftermath, Simon’s Bible was taken by an unknown party.
Last night, we picked up with Michael in the hospital, under the watchful eyes of Fi and Sam. Tired of waiting, Fi kick Michael and he wakes up. “Where am I,” he asks? “Miami,” says Fi. (Gotta love the throwback to season 1 when Michael comes to after his beating in Nigeria and finds Fi there). Fi tells him that Barrett is dead and the Bible is missing. They need to get it back because it lists the cover IDs of the people who burned Michael. While at the hospital, a bomb goes off in Miami killing multiple people. They find Alicia, who was there, and whose brother worked for Dale Lawson (the man Michael rescued a lawyer’s kidnapped daughter from in the summer season finale). Michael goes to see Adam Scott (the lawyer) who, of course, has an airtight alibi. He says he hopes the person responsible isn’t done with Dale’s crew.
Next we see Vaughn, who tells Michael that he’s leaving Miami for awhile and to keep his head down. After some digging, Sam and Fi think they have figured out who took the Bible. All of Barrett’s men are dead…except one man named Mark Sweeney. Michael wants to look for the bomber first. They find the house that belongs to the bomber, named Dennis Wayne Barfield. Michael gets caught looking in his windows and is about to be killed, but convinces Dennis that he’s a fan of his work. Dennis lets him go but tells him to watch the papers because there will be more things coming soon.
Working together, Jesse and Fi find the car belonging to Sweeney, and find some information. Michael goes back to Dennis claiming to be an aspiring bomb maker. He offers some explosive material to Dennis in exchange for a lesson. Meanwhile, Sam is breaking into Dennis’s house. He calls Michael and tells him there are a total of 5 bombs. Michael then goes to see Adam Scott again, and “persuades” him to tell him what he knows. Scott gives up the next target’s location. Michael goes there to wait. He receives a call from Dennis, who has just killed Adam Scott for trying to call off the hit. He now knows the name Michael Westen. Pretending to be deliverymen, Sam and Michael approach the target house (which is being guarded by Dale Lawson’s men), and are able to gain entry. Alicia, the woman who they met earlier at the hospital, is there. They tell her and the guards that there’s a bomb in the house. A new TV was just delivered the day before.
While this is going on, Fi and Jesse are looking for anyone who had seen Sweeney. The guy who had been given the files from Sweeney runs out of the room, and Jesse chases and catches him. He tells Jesse that the files were government looking files and that Sweeney had gone elsewhere with the files. Back at the house, Michael and Sam have worked out a plan. They are going to let Dennis detonate the bomb so that they can triangulate his location. They put the TV in a swimming pool, and Dennis detonates the bomb. They find his location…he’s in Fi’s neighborhood. Fi is at her place and is helping with the triangulation. She wants to shoot Dennis, but Michael tells her to leave, which she does. Michael goes into the house pretending to be the bomb maker’s follower again, and tells him the police are there. After some persuasion, he gets the locations of the other bombs and assures Dennis that he will carry out and finish his mission. Michael leaves like a hostage and is handcuffed. Fearing the police will get too close, Jesse uses his walkie-talkie to detonated the bomb Dennis has on him, which blows up Fi’s house.
Back home, Michael talks with Maddy about why he does what he does, and he tells her that he wishes he understood why he does it, but he doesn’t. She has a gift for him. A pair of the same Oliver Peoples Victory sunglasses he left in Management’s helicopter at the end of season 2. He meets Jesse at the house of a man named Walsh, where Sweeney went about the Bible. They find Sweeney dead inside…and no trace of where Walsh may have gone.
As I stated earlier, I loved the season 1 throwback dialogue between Michael and Fi at the hospital. As we all know, there are only 6 episodes left in season 4, before we have a several month break before season 5 starts. The question is, will Michael and the gang be able to retrieve Simon’s Bible by then? If not, obviously, that will be the focal point of season 5. My guess is that the Bible will be found by the end of the season, and season 5 (or at least part of it) will focus on the team trying to find the people whose names are coded in the Bible. This episode marked the first time in Burn Notice history that a former client became a villain. I thought it was a good transition storyline to help setup this part of the season. I’m not too crazy that there are only six episodes for the winter season, but if that’s how the USA Network big-wigs, so be it. That’s it for me this week. I’ll see you all again next week as the search for the Bible continues.
