Michael helps Sam on a job for rich and famous fashion designer Isabella (Christina Moore). She believes one of her VPs, Tim, is skimming profits. Sam slips into Tim’s office and finds evidence against him, but Michael follows Tim to Isabella’s house and finds him framed for her murder. Meanwhile, Michael reaches out to someone in Polish intelligence to learn more about the black flight from Chile to Poland Gilroy is targeting.
At Isabella’s house in the aftermath of her murder, Tim told Michael that Damon (Jeff Parise), her trusted partner, was the real thief. Agreeing to help Tim hide out, Michael uncovered Damon’s friend Ric, who shot and killed Isabella. Michael posed as Max, a shady drug-dealing partner of Isabella’s, hoping to draw Damon and Ric into trying to kill Tim while the police watched. That plan went awry when Damon and Ric tried to kill Tim with a bomb instead of shooting him as Michael suggested. The explosion panicked Tim, and he was the one the police arrested.
As Burn Notice‘s season builds to a climax, the cases-of-the-week can seem secondary to the longterm story arc. This case held my interest because Michael and Sam’s original client was murdered. Though they didn’t know the truth going on and couldn’t have prevented Isabella’s murder, they still failed her in a sense.
Meanwhile, Michael’s plan to pose as a Russian spy approaching low-level Polish intelligence officer Conrad failed. I credit the writers for working small flaws into Michael’s expertise that keep him from obtaining everything he needs on his own. Last week we learned Michael didn’t know Spanish. That was odd, as Larry pointed out, for someone who grew up in Miami, but it was also a way of showing how much Michael hated his childhood and longed to get away.
This week Michael might have had better luck approaching Conrad as one of his countrymen, but Michael’s Polish was too rusty to try. Fiona had to step in as an American operative to get Conrad to reveal the black flight would be carrying a particularly nasty prisoner. Michael guessed that Gilroy planned to help the prisoner escape.
Finally, I have to mention Bruce Campbell/Sam posing as a loose-lipped crime-scene tech, mimicking David Caruso–a bonus as Michael and friends turned Damon and Ric against each other.
