Burn Notice "Good Soldier" (2008)

The mid-season finale for Burn Notice's second season doesn't provide as much closure as originally thought with many questions left unanswered and the entire Westen family in some sort of peril. I thought this week's SPI case would be related to the burn notice story angle, but continuing to prove it can do both at the same time, Michael takes on a case just as the planned assassination Carla has been arranging draws near. He does this for Fiona, who is doing it to make Campbell happy, and also trying to wheedle a little jealousy out of Michael in the process. It's hard to determine if Fiona really likes this guy or this is just a game to get Michael to confess his true feelings. She's more than willing to flout the fact they are having sex in front of Michael, but then when Michael asks her why she is doing all this, she appears genuine in her reply that she wants to make Campbell happy. Whether or not she does have real feelings for this guy, it's never been more certain that both Michael and Fiona still care deeply for each other. When Michael is on the phone with this week's mark, he and Fiona give some revealing deep and longing stares to each other and it's as if Michael is speaking to her when he says she's shown him the way and he's not afraid to be with her. Not sure how Campbell will take it, but it's certainly going to be a thread picked up on in the second half of the season.

Nate pops in again in this episode and convinces Madeline to take out a loan on her house to invest in his limousine business. Michael is of course wary, which leads Nate to storm off in frustration and Madeline bemoaning why he can't be more supportive. I didn't care for Nate when we first met him back in "Old Friends" as he seemed to be the clichéd troubled brother who would have to prove himself to his caring, older brother serving as the surrogate father. Nate seemed to be making a turn around in previous episodes, helping Michael out of jams and the two even reached some kind of understanding during their last meeting. Here, they go back to Michael's automatic caution of Nate's scheming and Madeline has to intervene to force the boys to get along. Their relationship should move forward, not constantly backtrack and reset each time Nate pops up. It's glossed over quickly enough though with Michael becoming his first customer by hiring Nate to aide in the operation. Carla's scheming at the end leaves Nate being hauled away by police and Madeline's house in the balance. Hopefully Carla's actions won't lead to more friction with Nate for putting Mama Westen in that position in the first place.

SPI's newest case involves the protection of a royal family's young daughter, requiring Michael to go undercover as an alcoholic security guard whose services can be bought by the kidnappers. It took me a few scenes to recognize the actor playing Lesher (John Allen Nelson) who also played the duplicitous patsy Walt Cummings on seasons four and five of 24. His plans here were equally unsuccessful as he unknowingly allows Michael to manipulate him into believing security is too tight to pull off the abduction. As always, the villains still find a way to move forward when Michael's initial methods don't pay off, and in an unusually violent move Michael crashes his car into Lesher's before they can go after the girl. Usually Michael tries to find a non-violent solution to the cases, but here he goes in full force. This could be due to him having failed several times to convince Lesher to back off, or because he is under the gun with the assassination looming ever closer and he needs to wrap up this case as quickly as possible. The mission this week was nothing special but did manage to facilitate the sweet scene between Michael and Fiona so maybe it was worth it.

Surprisingly we are given practically nothing regarding what was supposed to go down with Carla's assassin. Not only did constant surveillance of Carla take Sam out of play for the episode (a crime!), it was a bit odd that after having kept Michael in check so well for so long, suddenly he has an over abundance of opportunity to gather information. He breaks into the building where the assassin has set up his perch, Sam plants a bug on Carla's motorcycle, they set up their stakeout post in her hotel and even break into her room. It was suspicious that she could be so unaware of all this taking place in such close proximity, especially with the mission so close to fruition. There's no big revelation about who the target was or if Michael was to have a larger role to play in the operation. Since they booby-trapped his house and are willing to kill him, his usefulness must be at an end. It's confusing as to why he would be roped in to cause so much trouble for this organization and not provide any services that couldn't have been obtained from a hired hand who wasn't trying to halt their plans every step of the way. The only tidbit we're given is that Carla says things are bigger than Michael can understand, and hopefully it'll be shown what that is in future episodes since they were so quick to kill their would-be assassin and Michael in order to preserve what else they have planned. Also, Tricia Helfer is given absolutely nothing substantive to do other than lounge around in a bikini (okay, no complaints there) which makes her big return somewhat of a waste.

Favorite moment: The climax of the episode involves a high speed chase with Michael racing to his apartment on a motorcycle in order to get his spare key card so he can stop the assassination. Having Fiona run some proficient interference she is able to get the pursuing cars off his tail. However, Carla hops on her own bike and gives chase which leads Michael to attempt something the voice over actually speaks out against as possible but risky. I think this is the first time this has happened. Usually the voice over will dispel a widely perceived myth and give a more practical solution. Here, he highlights the dangers and does it anyway which was a bit of a surprise. The stare down Carla gives him from under the truck was a nice touch as well.