Burn Notice – “Mind Games” – review

Michael’s brother Nate, relocated to Miami with his wife and son, asks Michael to help Jessica (Kiki Harris), a young widow whose gambling addict husband left her mired in debt. Fast-rising loan shark Carter (Wade Williams) was harrassing Jessica into signing over her father’s fishing boat, the family’s last source of income.

Posing as a fellow creditor, Michael planned to make Carter look like an undercover cop in front of his boss, Wallace. Michael forged a contract, making the fishing boat look as if it belonged the Miami PD. Meanwhile, Fiona and Sam planted several police-issue items in the floorboards of Carter’s apartment.

Insinuating himself into Wallace’s organization, Michael accused Carter of being a cop. Wallace’s men searched Carter’s apartment and found not the floor stash, but FBI credentials sealed into a wall. Michael had to scramble from there to save Carter and salvage the FBI’s case against Wallace.

“Mind Games” stood out because Michael’s professional instincts were shown to be off from the beginning. He thought he was being followed by a man carrying a suspicious package. He doubled back on the man, only to find out the package contained a teddy bear intended for the man’s daughter. This served to humanize Michael, setting him up to be fooled by Carter.

In addition, Michael remained obsessed with the files on the people that burned him, claiming things didn’t add up. This was after the CIA closed the case and Fiona wanted him to shred the files. I’m not sure what groundwork is being laid here, but we may find out next week, when Michael is officially reinstated into the CIA and his first mission goes awry.