Burn Notice "Wanted Man" (2007)

This episode kicks off a few days after the last where it seems that after Michael and Fiona's night of passion, they both have different ideas of where this puts their current status. Fiona seems ready for the domestic bliss routine, having Michael over to her place for lunch and insisting that no dossier reading take place. Michael thinks it's a bad idea for them to go back into relationship mode. Luckily Fiona wins out and the two depart for a day at the beach with some beach chairs and a football. It's a shame they never made it as it would have been amusing to see these two lounging on the beach, playing some football, living their carefree lives. I think this group is incapable of relaxing without planning some job, or doing reconnaissance. Instead Fiona confesses she has been working as a bounty hunter and her current assignment becomes their new client. Thomas McKee (Chris Payne Gilbert) needs a place to lay low and Michael inquires why he can't just stay with Fiona. Fi immediately uses his presence to engage in a manipulative strategy of making Michael jealous to get him to admit that they are an actual couple. With this episode I began to realize that Fiona and Madeline are quite similar with regard to how they interact with Michael. Both women play off their knowledge of how he will react to a given situation to get him to do what they want. Unfortunately we haven't been seeing much of Madeline in this second half of the season but it still intrigues me how Fiona acts more and more like his mom did when Michael first returned to Miami to influence his behavior.

We get to see a bit more of Sam this episode and Bruce Campbell is hilarious in his cover of an over-paranoid middle man setting up Michael and the the man who is framing their client. His cover forces him to be a non-drinker and his silent frustration at being offered high-class alcohol and being forced to turn it down as a part of the ruse is a wonderful running gag throughout the episode. We also get to see more of Barry the money launderer who has appeared twice before in the premiere and in the previous episode. I would like to see more of him as he seems to click with both Michael and Sam and could be a resourceful asset in Michael's continuing PI business. He and Sam have two very amusing scenes in this episode and I look forward to him becoming an integral part of the gang in the future.

Again this week we see that things do not always go to Michael's well-made plans. In his first meeting with Lawrence Henderson (Brett Cullen) he is able to haggle his price for the stolen broach but Henderson refuses to play ball with regards to bringing the broach out into the open so that our friends can get him caught with it. Later his cover is blown and Michael quickly scans the room for any possible weapons and is forced to make a tactical retreat. Of course these bumps are all moot at the end when the staged bank robbery goes like clockwork. How are these three people not still in the game? In a few weeks they have become a well-oiled machine of strategic planning and superb execution of operations. As the bank scene attests no one should ever cross this group because they are always two steps ahead no matter what you may think.

On the burn notice investigation side Michael trades some information with the Libyans who are in Miami to get the man who burned him to contact him. I'm glad I don't actually live in Miami as it seems to be a hot spot of terrorist, criminal and espionage activity. All sort of international figures of varying reputations make their way to the city on a weekly basis. On the upside Michael is able to contact the man who burned him, Phillip Cowan (voice of Richard Schiff). I can't wait for him to appear on the show as I thought he was excellent in The West Wing and that coupled with Michael inching ever closer to discovering why he was burned is going to make for a thrilling four final episodes.

Favorite moment: Michael's fight with Wayne Ray (Jess Chase) when he tracks McKee down to Fiona's apartment is a splendid example of how Michael can easily be overpowered but still maintain the glib personality of his while he is getting his ass kicked. It's scenes like these that make it so when Michael does lose his cool it will be all the more harrowing and significant. Until then we get to see Michael make jokes while in what could be dire situations that highlight the balance the show can maintain between action and comedy.