Burn Notice’s summer finale serves up more betrayal

Oh, Burn Notice , you can’t let an opportunity for someone or other to double-cross the gang go by, can you? This time, it’s Michael’s mentor, Card, who does the deed: he sends Michael on what is to be a suicide mission in Panama after the supposed killer of Nate, Tyler Grace. Michael figures that out and is left beleaguered in Panama wondering what to do now that his closest friend at the CIA seems to want him dead. I guess Fi was right about them.

So, what’s Card’s game here? Is he protecting someone higher up in the agency from Michael’s inquiries, or is he in fact the mastermind behind it all? I am not surprised he betrayed Michael, though I didn’t see it coming, exactly — especially after his masterful handling of Maddie’s questions. What we know for sure is that he is a master manipulator who knows how to push all of Michael’s Daddy Issues buttons.

What I am not surprised about is that Tyler Gray was not the end of the road in investigating Nate’s death. Given that’s it’s mid-season, and that this show hates to get to the bottom of ANY plot against Michael and his loved ones, I am guessing they can spin this Card thing out for a another half season and more.

The question is: do we care anymore? Now that the show has burned through (see what I did there?) its original premise and is on to its new one, do we as audience members really need another seasons-long plot driving the show? Couldn’t it just turn into a fun spycraft procedural once Michael realizes that he’d prefer to remain a kind of rogue spy Robin Hood, helping the little people? What do you think, dear readers?

I, for one, believe the show is stronger at giving us fun cases that rely on the minutiae of spycraft to keep us entertained. The mythology arcs have always been much more hit-and-miss; I can never keep track of how many layers of bad guys Michael has gone through to get to the current enemy. I suppose, though, that the show will not turn into that lighthearted version now that Nate is dead and I am many seasons too late in this complaint anyway. I still have hope that the rest of the season will convince me that killing him off was the right call.

Notes and Quotes:

• I just wrote that the most interesting parts of Necessary Roughness are the ones with increased serialization, so it’s funny that I feel the exact opposite about this show. Perhaps USA should loosen up its formula a bit, since different shows have different strengths.
• If nothing else, this episode provided us with a stellar scene between Sharon Gless and John C. McGinley. I don’t know what he’s up to, and I know he was manipulating Maddie, but damn if what Card said about glass breaking didn’t have a ring of truth.
• Bye, Brady. We hardly knew ya. I guess his willingness to die meant that he wasn’t in on whatever Card’s nefarious plan was.
• Jesse: And in case anyone forgot: not wearing any shoes. Completely shoeless. In Panama.
• Fi: Michael, I don’t need Ireland. I want this.
  Michael: A junkyard in Panama?
• Card: You’re blackmailing a CIA officer without batting an eyelash. And here I thought Michael got all his moxie from is Papa Bear.

Clacked by Christina Furtado
on Aug 23, 2012 @ 22:00 EST5EDT