Last night’s all-new episode of Burn Notice was called “Trust Me”, and was the best of the young season thus far. It was classic Burn Notice, with an interesting Odd Job of the Week, as well as some solid progress in the main story arc of finding out why Michael was blacklisted in the first place. Plus, there was a healthy dose of Madeline thrown in for good measure — making for a solid hour of summer TV!
Odd Job of the Week: Fiona has been attending Madeline’s weekly poker game, and it’s there that she learns about Diane’s son Andy, a 30-something cell phone salesman who borrowed $200,000 from a loan shark in order to get in on an investment opportunity with a club owner named Zeke. When the investment deal went south, Andy was left with no money to pay off his debt, resulting in several visits from the loan shark’s enforcers. Fiona says that Michael can help solve the problem.
After getting more info from Andy, Michael and Fi realize that the guy was straight-up conned, so they immediately start working on a plan to make Zeke target Michael as the next mark. Michael then poses as a rich oil tycoon from Texas with money to burn, and they set the sting in motion. Of course, Mike, Sam, and Fi are able to outsmart Zeke and his partners, getting Andy’s money back just in the nick of time.
Burn Notice Progress: Michael’s still trying to find out anything he can about his new handler Carla. He picked up on the fact that she spoke Urdu, so his next stop is the Pakistani Consulate, where he poses as a journalist to go into a fellow spy’s office while Sam creates a disturbance out front. Michael swipes some insignificant papers, then arranges to meet with the spy Wasim to work out an exchange.
Wasim at first refuses, saying that Michael’s asking price — Carla’s file — was far too steep for the documents he actually took. But Michael sets up a few more traps, and soon Wasim has no choice but to cooperate. He hands over the file, which presumably will give Michael a starting point as he tries to learn how Carla fits into his burn notice.
Character development: Madeline tries to find out why Michael and Fiona are no longer together, telling Mike that she doesn’t want him to end up alone. They have a bit of a heart-to-heart about the situation, with Madeline actually coming around to Michael’s point of view and agreeing that maybe he and Fi need to take a break for a while.
My Reaction: I really liked the Odd Job of the Week in this episode. I know some people think it’s a bit tiresome to see Mike and Fi adopting all these different personas to help random strangers out of jams, but I find it to be a lot of fun. It kind of reminds me of Alias in the way that these spies are always playing different characters to achieve their ends. Last night’s bit about scamming the scammer was fun, and again, I believed that these guys could actually pull something like that off.
I’m not all that interested in the Carla angle yet, but it’s good that Mike isn’t simply running into dead end after dead end. I like his resourcefulness and how he knows exactly where to go to get what he needs. I have a feeling Carla isn’t the one that burned him, that she’s just a low-level handler, so I won’t hold my breath waiting for Mike to get answers from her. This must be leading to someone higher up.
Overall, this was a great episode, and one that I won’t mind watching again once the DVDs come out. Can’t wait for the next one!!