Burn Notice "Family Business" (2007)

Well it looks like after last episode's slight departure from the established track we're right back on target with this episode but I didn't mind it so much as I liked the assignment of this episode. Michael has had to go undercover before on his assignments but for some reason this episode stuck out in my mind. Michael is a consummate professional when it comes to reading people and how to change tactics to gain that person's trust and put their doubts at ease. He's an expert and his plans, almost always, go according to how he has laid them out. I'm tempted to wonder if we'll see an assignment of his go wrong and he is forced to deal with the fallout. Obviously there have been hiccups in his plans before, but I started to wonder while watching this episode what would happen if he failed to protect his client or he was forced to defend himself as the people he is playing decide to come after him. There have been hints about this in the past but he was easily able to regain the upper hand. I'm wondering how he will cope with a situation that he just doesn't have an answer for which must be a pretty dire situation indeed from how we see he is able to remain cool under intense pressure. I also liked that this undercover allowed him to interact socially with other people other than Sam and Fiona. Maybe he doesn't need/want contact outside of his core group and the people he is forced to deal with while on assignments, but it looked like he was really enjoying himself during some of those club scenes. Of course this could have been him acting, but I'd like to think he's not as anti-social as he makes himself out to be.

No Sam/Fiona pairing this week but we do get to continue to see how their relationships are developing with Michael. He clearly still has feelings for Fiona as he takes the time to assuage her concern of his interest in his asset's girlfriend. He appears quite sincere when he tells her, in his own way, that he would never consider such a thing as long as he has her. On the other side, we continue to see the strain in him and Sam's friendship as Sam is being pressured by the FBI agents to provide more information on Michael's activities. Even though he tries to play off the fact that Sam has bugged his car, he seems to be rationalizing his ignorance that his friend can't be fully trusted but as always Sam is able to come through in a clinch and save Michael's ass through a bit of play-acting of his own. We also see the FBI agents get pulled out at the end of this episode as another secret agency is stepping in on the case. What this means for Sam as an informant remains to be seen and I'm torn between wanting him to be fully in Michael's confidence or continuing to see the conflict play out with him keeping tabs on Michael for the feds.

Favorite moment: Cooking both real and fake C4 in Michael's kitchen continued to show the true professionalism of all three spies while still maintaining the humor that has made the characters so likable as well as keeping them more attuned to a human nature rather than that of a cold-hearted government agent. Sam's childlike "Can I lick that?" in regards to the spoon Michael had been using to mix the fake C4 allows a gentler side of the characters to come across to the audience and we have that much more sympathy for them and admiration of their talents because of it.