Burn Notice – “Square One” – review

Michael’s former Army Special Forces commander sends a client his way. Ethan (Matt Lauria) is in many ways a young version of Michael. Just back from Afghanistan, he learns his sister is in the hospital, having been beaten by her boyfriend, Brad Ramsey (Andy Davoli). Michael plans to send Ramsey to jail by exposing a medical insurance scam he’s running.

The initial plan followed Burn Notice‘s usual formula. Posing as a group of higher-class criminals looking to recruit Ramsey, Michael and friends would gradually gain Ramsey’s trust until he revealed the details of his scam. Ethan insisted on being part of the plan, and though he supposedly had no prior espionage experience, but Michael agreed to give him a crash course.

Somewhat implausibly, Ramsey came to trust Ethan more than he trusted the others, and Ethan was able to keep his desire to kill Ramsey in check long enough for Ramsey to be arrested. The highlight for me was Michael slowly recognizing, with his mother’s help, how similar Ethan was to his younger self. This realization helped him convince Ethan to continue baiting Ramsey instead of simply killing him in cold blood.

Meanwhile, Michael met his new CIA contact (Lauren Stamile), and she agreed to let him help with the investigation of Max’s murder. This was also implausible given that Michael is a suspect in Max’s murder, but it’s not the first time Burn Notice has stretched reality. This is not reality, after all; it’s TV.

Looking into Max’s phone records, Jesse was able to pinpoint one call Max received from a burn phone shortly before his death. Michael had Maddie review security camera footage to see who bought the burn phone, and she discovered that the buyer had impersonated Michael remarkably well. “Good luck convincing anyone that isn’t you,” she said.

The show probably crosses more lines of plausibility with each passing season. That said, introducing a Michael impersonator is the most brazen attempt to frame Michael yet, and I want to see how it plays out.