During Michael’s meeting with Simon (Garret Dillahunt), Simon breaks loose and tackles Michael so they both fall out of a high window. Simon uses this moment of privacy to tell Michael to dig up an audio tape he buried at an historical cemetery. After Michael listens to the tape, Simon will tell him more about the Bible cipher.
Meanwhile, Sam visited Juan Ruiz, an imprisoned former asset of his from a SEAL mission in Colombia. With a week left on his sentence, Juan was unfortunately involved with Cruz, a prominent member of a prison gang. Cruz wanted Juan to help skim money from the gang, and when Juan refused, Cruz marked him for death. With one day to go before the killing was to happen, Michael used his relationship with FBI Agents Lane and Harris to become Juan’s cellmate. I liked that Michael and Juan faced the possibility of being killed by any anonymous inmate. This tension was lessened only because Lane and Harris gave Michael a phone to call for help. If Michael has ever not had access to a phone, I can’t remember.
Following this season’s trend of more independent plots for the main characters, while Michael tried to protect Juan, Fiona and Sam had their hands full trying to retrieve Simon’s buried container. I don’t know if anyone would really get away with digging up a cemetery plot in daylight, but they did.
On Simon’s tape was a three-year-old phone call between him and Vaughn during which Vaughn told Simon his services were no longer needed, that new people could be burned and recruited, namely one Michael Westen. So now we know why Simon targeted Michael in the first place. Simon didn’t tell Michael what the Bible decoded, but he did say who he’d been working with to take down Vaughn and Management: John Barrett, a well connected CEO with the resources to do anything he wanted.
Next week, Michael meets Barrett, and the episode after that is the summer finale. As always, Burn Notice‘s longer story arc has played out at the right pace to keep fans wanting more.
