Burn Notice – Episode 4-17 & 4-18 Review

Reviews, Shows, Top Story

My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy. Until…Well folks, last night was the season 4 finale of Burn Notice and as Peter Griffin would say…it was freakin sweet. I sat down on Thursday night and I didn’t move for 2 hours. I couldn’t wait to come and write my weekly review about it.

As we all know, last week brought us the return of Tyler Brennen (“Part time spy. Full time sociopath.”) who basically stole the secret NOC list from Michael and Jesse. This week, Brennen returned…as did Larry, the “Undead Spy,” and they were in cahoots with one another! Brennen wants to kill all the people on the NOC list, and he enlisted Larry to help. He’s also blackmailing Michael by threatening to send the tape Marv made of Michael going on the record about Vaughn and his organization. Unfortunately for Brennen, Michael and Larry were planning on double-crossing him anyways, and by the end of the episode, Brennen was dead at the hands of Larry. Of course by the end of the episode, we’re left to believe that Larry is arrested (we hear police sirens approaching the building he and Michael are in, and Sam is holding him at bay with his rifle). The NOC list is back with the gang, the tape is in Vaughn’s hands, and a pissed off Vaughn is in Miami to find and kill Michael.

Episode 18 focuses on Vaughn coming after Michael, Fi, Sam, Maddy, and Jesse. He’s pissed and he wants revenge. Of course Michael and his crew overcome Vaughn and triumph. They accomplish this by getting Rep. Cowly of the House Intelligence Committee to buy-in to their story about the thumb-drive with the NOC list. At first Cowly doesn’t want to listen because of what happened between him and the crew when they help a former Cold War spy (played by Burt Reynolds) that had been shafted by Cowly. Eventually Cowly sees the light and helps the crew by bringing in some military folks to stop Vaughn and his trained killer entourage. Jesse, who was injured earlier in the episode, is taken to a hospital where we have to assume he is treated and released. Michael is then approached by two government looking men who tell him to come with them. He kisses Fi and goes with the men. We then see Michael waking up in the back of the same limo, after an unknown duration. The car stops and one of the men give him a coat. He steps out of the car into the cold and sees a familiar face through the glass doors of the building he’s in front of. The man walks out, extends his hand to Michael and says, “Welcome back.” The camera pans out and we see that MIchael is in Washington D.C.

As far as I’m concerned, these 2 episodes were the best of the season. We got Larry and Brennen in the same episode, which is something I’ve been wanting to see for awhile now. Was I sad to see Brennen die? Not really…but somewhat. Even though he was a villain, he was still kind of awesome, and I think that Jay Karnes played the role perfectly. I would have liked to have seen him come back once or twice more, but I can deal with him being dead. I highly doubt this is the last we’ve seen of Larry though. Evn though he was most likely arrested, I figure he’ll be back sometime around or a little bit before the series finale.

Currently, Burn Notice has been given the green light for 2 more seasons, and we’ll get to season 5 in summer of 2011. It will be interesting to see where the show goes from here. I know that we’re being given the idea that Michael is back in the spy game now, but the question is, how do you work Sam and Fi into the show if he’s going back to being a spy? I highly doubt these people will let him choose a spy team to work with, because that’s not really what spies do. I’m guessing that he’ll be back in Miami sooner than later, unless the writer’s come up with a great way to keep the crew together and make it take place outside of Miami.

There were several times during the episode, where I was almost certain that Fi and Michael were going to say those 3 magical words to each other, that many fans have been waiting for them to say. The scene in the little shed where he and Fi were when he was about to blow himself up, was a perfect moment to do it, but the writer’s didn’t go there…yet. We all know that it’s coming, we just don’t know when. But I guarantee that when it does, it will be well worth the wait for those fans.

That’s it for me this season. I’ll see each of you in summer 2011 when our favorite burned (or not) spy returns for more adventures and escapades.