Episode 3×08 of Burn Notice was called “Friends Like These”, and was another solid entry in what has been a terrific third season overall. There was significant movement with the burn notice arc, and even a bit of a cliffhanger, as Fiona left. Will she be back? When? I don’t read spoilers, so I don’t know if the actress is signed for another season or not. Somehow, I don’t think this absences will be permanent, as she left rather quietly. Fiona would definitely go out with more of a bang if it were a permanent thing.
Odd Job of the Week: This time, Barry the Money Launderer is the client. His all-important ledger has been stolen. This is a notebook that has all the details about his clients and their money, and of course can cause a LOT of trouble if it falls into the wrong hands. Barry uses a physical book instead of electronic files because this “old school” system is easier to protect, but the would-be extortionists got to his girlfriend and offered her $100k for the location of the ledger. She gave it up, now Barry has to come up with $5 million to get it back, otherwise the details will be posted on the internet.
It doesn’t take long for Michael, Fiona, and Sam to get a lead on the extortionists. They grab a “foreign” man named Milovan Dragas and the real estate agent he was with traveling with. Sam tries to break Natalie, but she immediately starts crying, which gets to him. She insists that she knows nothing and was only helping show Milovan some properties. He threatened to harm her son if she didn’t cooperate.
While Sam stands guard over the prisoners, Fiona and Mike try to track down the ledger. Eventually they get to the bottom of the scam, which included a nice twist involving Natalie.
Burn notice progress: Strickler’s first job for Mike seems pretty straightforward. Some guys have raided a cache of military weapons and are planning to sell it. Michael needs to follow the “cleaner” of the crew in order to discover when and where the sale will take place. All this entails is taking pictures, so it shouldn’t be anything that Michael objects to. Michael handles the job very well, and as a reward, Diego calls to say that he’ll be in touch soon about the burn notice. Evidently, Strickler was able to deliver.
Character Development: Fiona doesn’t trust Strickler and cannot understand why Michael does. She thinks Michael has changed since getting involved with Strickler (that slap he laid on her might have had something to do with it). She refuses to stand by while Michael goes down this road, so she leaves Miami.
My Reaction: I liked this episode. It was good to see the gang helping out Barry for a change, especially since they’ve gotten a lot of favors from him over the years. Also, I thought it was great that Natalie was the boss, not Milovan. I didn’t see that coming at all, because the show hardly ever uses twists like that. I was surprised that Fiona was the one who got duped, though. She seems like the kind of person who’s skeptical about everything from fat burner claims to great real estate deals, so that didn’t fit in with her character, IMO.
I really hope that Fiona isn’t off the show. She used to grate on my nerves back in Season 1, but she is so much, much better now. I actually have enjoyed the character this year and would be sad to see her go. She’ll come back, won’t she?