Last night brought viewers another all-new episode of Burn Notice, the fourth of Season Two. It was called “Comrades”, and followed the regular BN formula of giving Mike and Co. the task of helping a civilian out of a jam, as well as showing a bit about Mike’s efforts to find out who burned him. There was so little in the way of the latter, however, that the episode felt a bit slower than usual.
Odd Job of the Week: This time, the job comes courtesy of Nate (played by Seth Peterson), Michael’s brother who had to go into hiding in Ft. Lauderdale after Carla’s folks descended on Madeline’s house. Nate has been working with a woman named Katya whose sister is in big trouble after being held hostage by a human trafficker named Ivan. Katya paid Ivan $25,000 to smuggle the sister into the U.S., but when Ivan suddenly demanded $50,000 more, Katya was stuck. She confided in Nate, who in turn brought the problem to Michael.
Michael reluctantly agrees to help out (he’s never willingly taken on one of these extra jobs, has he?!), and as usual gets Fi and Sam to join him. They pull off an elaborate plot whereby Mike pretends to be a fellow Russian named Sergei, a member of Ivan’s extended gang network. After spending days gaining Ivan’s trust, Michael finally finds out where Katya’s sister — and a bunch of other girls — are being held. He releases the captives, and manages to get Ivan killed by his boss, ensuring the girls’ safety.
Burn Notice Progress: As I said above, Michael found out very little additional information about Carla and/or his burn notice. Carla’s file was heavily redacted, of course, but Michael was able to piece together the fact that her cover while working overseas was an agricultural specialist. So he sets Sam up with a local agricultural specialist named Harvey Gunderson in order to try to learn more about Carla. All they can come up with is a fake name (Carla Baxter) and a P.O. box, which Michael and Fi stake out at the end of the ep.
Character Development: There wasn’t too much in the way of character development, either. Mike and Nate had a couple of nice moments and a bit of revelatory dialogue that showed some insight into what they really feel about each other, but that was all. Oh, and Madeline mentioned that Nate never got into trouble until after Mike left home, so there was definitely some mom guilt in this ep as well!
My Reaction: This episode wasn’t as exciting as the first three of the season, but there were still some good points to it. First, I have to say that Fi and Sam are really growing on me now. I admit that during Season One, I mainly tuned in to see the eye candy that is Jeffrey Donovan, and didn’t care much for the rest of the cast. Indeed, Fiona actually annoyed me to no end last year when she was pushing for a relationship with Michael, and I would have been happy to see her off the show.
But the character dynamics have changed tremendously in S2. I think Fiona is a great character now that the relationship angst is over and done with, and I can’t imagine Burn Notice without her contributions. Same thing with Sam. He’s so much more than the S1 incarnation of a hanger-on looking for free beers. The regular cast has developed terrific chemistry together, making the show about more than just Michael now.
I was also happy to see Nate’s return. I like this character as well, and think he helps flesh out Michael’s character so much more. I don’t know what it is about the nature of spies in general, but these types of characters are always so much more interesting when their families are involved — just like in Alias with all the entanglements that the Bristow family (Sydney, Jack, Irina and Nadia Santos).
Overall, the episode itself wasn’t one of my favorites, but it did give me time to consider how much Burn Notice has improved in its short time on the air!