Burn Notice ends with a shocking death

Burn Notice dropped a big shock on its viewers this week: the death of Nate Westen. I was just thinking last week that he was getting to be quite the member of Michael’s crew, too. Again this week, though, Michael seemed to criticize everything Nate did, making me wonder why Michael brought him along. Okay, I guess with Fi out of commission they are understaffed.  But, seriously, I know the agency hates Sam, but how did Agent Pearce let NATE of all people go along to get Anson instead? Even Maddie would have been a better choice.

“Do not approach him?” Really, Michael? That is exactly the way to get Nate to want to prove something to you after you kicked him off the team. RIP, Nate. I didn’t mind him, though he was annoying at times, but I can see how his death will really shake things up for Michael. There’s his mother to deal with (my impulse would be to slap him, too), and also his own guilt in dragging Nate into his whole burn notice/save Fiona mess. Michael internalizes everything, so I am guessing this will mess him up in the head for a long while. At the very moment of his triumph, when Anson is killed, he loses his brother.

In less serious news, we had the return of Barry this week, so at least the left-behind Sam had something to do. Lately, Sam seems to be shunted off with peripheral characters like Barry and Rebecca, but since Bruce Campbell has fun chemistry with most actors, I don’t mind so much. This is also the third week in a row he’s gotten to use his Chuck Finley alias! And he used bacon to make a smoke bomb!  But seriously, the thread of this plot was just a way to show how Michael’s crew is beleaguered from all sides lately.

Were you surprised by Nate’s death? And how do you think Michael will cope with it going forward? What is there even to do now that Anson appears to be dead and Fiona is out of jail? Find out who murdered Anson and Nate, I guess. It’s a whole new dynamic for this show, folks.

Notes and Quotes

• British Spy’s chiron after being pleased to meet Fi said “not at all pleased.”
• They spent so much time on the Sam/Barry plot that it almost seemed the main thread, perhaps to make Nate’s death even more surprising than it was. I mean, I am not surprised Nate got himself killed, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting it in a mid-season episode, you know?
• Fi is awfully tan for being in prison. How much yard time DO they get, anyway? Aside from that, her plot was mostly in a holding pattern this week until the end.
• Agent Pearce: “Seven  phone calls, four texts and two cryptic e-mails, all to set up a cloak-and-dagger meeting in the woods. I think you enjoy being a spy a little too much, Michael.”
• Michael: “Sam is every bit as good as I am. And he accepts domestic beer as payment.”
  Agent Pearce: “I’ll put a note in his file.”
• Sam, on hearing he is off the team: “I’ve been helping you slog through this burn notice garbage for how many years now? And I don’t get to be there when you finally put the wraps on the last bastard standing.”
• Sam: “Oh, come on, you said those tax shelters were totally legal!”
  Barry: “Sam, what part of that sounds ‘totally legal’? Tax shelter?!”
• Barry: “IF we live?”
  Sam: “Barry, there’s four guys outside with guns. That’s a lot.”
• Fiona, on seeing her hidey hole: “Just me and a year’s supply of menthols, huh?”
• Barry: “I can’t die. I’ve never climbed Kilamajaro. I’ve never seen The Wire. I’ve never even had a four-way. I’ve never –”
  Sam: “I’ve never strangled a friend in cold blood before, but it’s early.”
• Anson, to Nate: “Enjoy the moment, Fredo.”

Clacked by Christina Furtado
on Jul 27, 2012 @ 00:18 EST5EDT