Burn Notice Cast Jeffrey Donovan Sharon Gless Gabrielle Anwar Bruce Campbell I apologize for the delay in getting the latest Burn Notice recap posted. I watched the show on time and everything, but then completely forgot to do the write up since I had a bunch of other articles that I had post on my other sites. Anyway, episode 1×04 was called “Old Friends,” and here’s my recap/reaction.

Odd Job of the Week: Michael’s brother Nate (played by Seth Peterson) is responsible for bringing the latest odd job Michael’s way. Nate ran into an old high school friend of theirs named Bill Reese (Eric Lange). Bill’s daughter Jenna (Susie Abromeit) has fallen in with the wrong crowd and Bill believes she’s in danger. She ran away with some kid who said he had contacts in the modeling business, but Bill suspects that’s not really what’s going on. If Michael can bring Jenna back home safely, he’ll get $3,000 (to split with Nate).

Burn Notice Progress: There’s a Czech assassin named Jan Hasech (Ilia Volok) after Michael. They apparently go way back, and Jan wants to kill Michael in order to settle an old score. (He does end up shooting Michael in the back, but it was a ricochet and the bullet didn’t go very deep.) With Fiona’s help, Michael is able to track down Jan to his hotel, sneak into his room, and get a line on what Jan is doing in town. Later, Michael confronts Jan (after sending him into anaphylactic shock first) to try to find out who burned him. He doesn’t get an answer; Jan just says that a lot of people want Michael dead. Ironically, Jan ends up dead after being in FBI custody for a few hours. Someone’s definitely covering their tracks there.

Character Development: We learned a bit more about Michael’s family life with the introduction of his brother Nate. Those two haven’t always gotten along in the past, but seemed to be okay when they worked together to save Jenna. Nate is a compulsive gambler and owes some people a lot of money.

My Reaction: I thought this was a pretty good episode. The OJOTW was fairly well done (although I highly doubt that a couple of pimps like the Wilhelm brothers would simply back off Jenna altogether just because of Michael) and was made even more interesting because of Nate’s presence. I like that character and think he’s worlds better than Fiona. Thankfully we didn’t get very much of her this ep, and I believe that contributed to my enjoyment. (I definitely could have done without her… flirting?? I don’t know what that was… in the hotel when Michael was changing clothes by the ice machine. Gross.)

Anyway, I still like the series as a whole and am looking forward to future eps!