Burn Notice: Finally, a Villain Has Michael Dead to Rights

Sam and Jesse cut off the CIA convoy carrying the arrested Michael. They convince Agent Pearce (Lauren Stamile) to let Michael wear a wire and keep his meeting with Tavian Korszha (Andrew Howard). At the meeting, Tavian admits to framing Michael for Max’s murder, but when Michael shows him the wire, Tavian jumps to his death rather than facing further consequences.

Tavian’s recorded confession was enough to clear Michael’s name, but when Michael returned to his loft, Larry (Tim Matheson) surprised him with a job. In previous appearances, I’ve felt Larry has given the writers an easy way out. Last season, for example, he turned on and killed Michael’s smartest enemy to date, Tyler Brennen (Jay Karnes).

As cold as he’s made out to be, Larry always had a soft spot for Michael, so you knew Michael would eventually get the better of him. In “Dead to Rights,” however, Larry no longer seemed to have that weakness. Escaped from a prison Michael sent him to, he wanted Michael to help him break into the British consulate in Miami and plant a file. To this end, he had kidnapped Anson Fullerton (Jere Burns), a DIA psychiatrist who had the access codes to the consulate’s file vault.

Fullerton told Michael he was cooperating because Larry was holding his wife hostage. After Fullerton gave Michael the access codes, Michael slipped him a knife, telling him to cut himself free and contact Sam about rescuing his wife. The rescue arrived too late, though, and Fullerton’s wife appeared to have died in a fire.

Based on Larry’s willingness to kill Michael, Fiona made a direct run at Larry, shooting at the consulate’s bulletproof windows to distract him from a small plastic explosive she planted to blow him up. When she hit the detonator, though, two explosions went off, the second one killing two innocent guards in the lobby.

In the final moments, as Michael consoled Fiona over the explosion, Fullerton revealed himself as the last member of the organization that burned Michael. He lured Larry into the job at the British consulate. He planted the second explosive and convinced Fiona that Larry would kill Michael regardless of how the job went. With evidence gathered by a bug in Michael’s loft, he could incriminate Fiona for the explosion. Fullerton further revealed he had profiled Michael over several years, once posing as Maddie’s therapist. He had even gotten information from Michael’s deceased father. He demanded that Michael work for him or he would turn over the evidence against Fiona.

For the rest of Season 5 (coming in November), Fullerton is potentially the most formidable villain Michael and friends have faced, someone who knows them insidiously well and has proven capable of manipulating them. My one complaint has nothing to do with the episode itself. The usual casting news, released a few months in advance, indicated that Jere Burns would be playing a villainous psychiatrist, so some of the surprise was spoiled. If I hadn’t read that bit of news, Burns’/Fullerton’s performance would have fooled me completely.