Burn Notice Season 2 (2 Viewers)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Very good episode. Probably the best of the season. After taking the balls out of the mysterious organization by sending him back to Miami in the season premiere, the little tidbits we get about what they're planning are bringing the mystery back in spades. What the hell is so important about a sniper rifle? I also really enjoyed Michael's Boston persona.

 

[DavidJ]

Loved tonight's episode. Lots of great lines and moments. I got a chuckle out of the "home theater" setup and it was fun having Sam hang with Michael's mom. Michael has got to do something about Victor though.

 

[Joe_H]

Maybe its because I've been rewatching 24 S1 this week and that's colored my views, but I got the impression that they're going to make Michael perform some high-level assassination.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Ah, but if that's the case, why don't they want him to know what it is? And why do they need that specific sniper rifle. They're relatively easy to get, especially for a shadowy organization like this one. There has to be something special about this specific sniper rifle.

 

[Joe_H]

Very true. Maybe after another episode and a few more hints hopefully, we'll be able to make better guesses.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I don't think they want Michael to do anything with it, what would be the point in hiding it from him if they're just going to give it to him later with orders to assinate someone?

I didn't even recognize Michael Shanks in this, i'm just starting Stargate SG-1 season 2 and he looks, and acts, completely different, didn't much care for him in this, probably because I don't like the idea that someone could get the drop on and outsmart Michael lol.

I hated that rapper guy, Valentine, who the hell does he think he is, Scarface? I'm with Sam, I don't see how anyone can listen to that shit lol.

Michael was on fire in this ep, his Boston persona was by far one of the most off the wall and entertaining of all of his personalities and man can he sell it!

 

[DavidJ]

What if the rifle was one that had already been used in some political or high-profile assassination?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Exactly what I was thinking. It's evidence of something, and something big.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

If that's the question, then why hide it from him period? The answer, in both cases, is the same: They don't want Michael asking the same questions we are. Whether they are going to have Michael facilitate a shooting carried out by someone else, or they intend to force him to carry out an assassination hmself, they will want to spring that information on him at the last possible moment. The longer he has to think about it, try to figure out who the target is, plan counter-moves, line up allies, the more likely it is that he'll figure out some way to screw up their plan.

I think they plan to use Michael as the assassin, probably of a presidential candidate or the new president in 2009. He would be a conspiracy theorist's wet-dream of a patsy - a disgruntled ex-spy, fired by whatever shadowy agency he worked for, for who-knows-what transgression and a moody, anti-social loner to boot! He's basically an unemployed drifter who supports himself by hiring out as a "fixer" who uses highly illegal methods to help people who are at least on the periphery of criminal activity. All Karla and co. have to do is whip up a fake diary for Michael and he'll appear to have fit the profile to a "t". The burn notice then becomes just the first step in the plan to use him for this job.

BTW, if that's the case there probably isn't anything special about that sniper rifle. Sure it is easy for a shadowy criminal organization or intelligence ageny to lay its hands on such a weapon - but it isn't easy for an unemployed ex-spy crazy lone gunman. If you want to sell that story in the wake of an assassination, you want the cops and Feds to be able to figure out exactly how the killer got that gun.

So maybe the particular gun isn't important. Maybe they just wanted a very public and well-publicized robbery - which they certainly would have if Victor had killed the two guards as he obviously intended, and probably still did thanks to Michael's pyrotechnics and the two living witnesses. Maybe that whole shipping bay was filled with identical sniper rifles on their way to fill an order for the Army and the robbery was just done to explain how the assassin got a gun from that batch.

(Of course, now they'll have to explain Michael's accomplice in the rifle robbery. Easy enough - they just bump Sam off and plant some incriminating evidence on him.

I doubt the security guards gave enough of a description of the guy breaking into the storage bay to rule Sam out.)

All of this assumes that Victor and Karla are the bad guys, and I'm not sure that's been established yet.

Everything we've seen so far makes them look bad, but it is possible that they aren't. We only have a dead guy's word for the idea that Karla burned Michael. We only have Michael's assumption that Karla & Co. were responsible for shooting the dead guy. Certainly they want Michael to think they are badass and they threaten him a lot - but that may be the only way to get him to cooperate. He doesn't know them and it is hard to earn Michael's trust under the best of circumstances.

What if Karla and Co. are working against the people who burned Michael? What if someone needed Michael out of the way and discredited, and Karla's group is working against those people? (Creepy bad guys want Michael stranded in whatever country his jet out of Africa was taking him to. Karla's group steps in and finances his trip to Miami, where they will need him.)

Don't forget - the sniper rifle was being moved from point "A" to point "B" for someone else. What if they're trying to prevent an assassination and keeping Michael in the dark as a basic matter of operational security? If they intercepted a custom sniper rifle it may have been to keep it out of the hands of the person it was made for. Or it could have been to plant a bug or GPS device in it so that they can track the assassin.

Now that Michael knows what is in that package, he will be working day and night to figure out what is going on and who the target is. If Karla and Co. are actually on the side of the angels, Michael could spend most of the season inadvertently helping the real assassin - which he wouldn't find out until the very end when Victor decides he "needs to know" what was in the box.

Either way I'm looking forward to this ride!

Regards,

Joe

 

[billjames]

Either way I'm looking forward to this ride!

me too!

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm guessing someone meant to hit the [ quote ] option and not the [ spoiler ] tag.

Regards,

Joe

 

[DavidJ]

Joe,

I just wish you'd put a little more thought into it. Many of us take our entertainment seriously and these short, off-the-cuff, underdeveloped theories don't cut it with us.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I'm sorry, David. I'll try to do better.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Jackson, the nerdy, weakling, asthmatic lab guy...funniest Michael persona yet!

He was screamingly funny in this episode lol.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

Did anyone pick up on this after last nights episode "Burn Notice will return in 3 weeks, with the final 2 episodes of the season" Say what ? that would be 9 total, I coulda sworn there were more episodes in season 2. Atleast 12 or 13..

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That's because Burn Notice was launched last summer with the intention of being a summer series, ala The 4400 and The Dead Zone. Sometime during the writer's strike, the execs at USA made the decision to transition it to a summer/winter series ala Monk and Psych. That means nine episodes in the summer, seven in the winter for a total of 16 episodes in a season. So the bad news is, we only get nine this summer. The good news is, the next season should be starting in January.


As for last night's episode, it was a lot of fun. I loved the crazy arms dealer who kept dragging Michael into his schemes, but Chris Ellis's character Virgil is still dead air time for me. He's basically an even older and rustier version of Sam -- without Sam's charm or charisma.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

I see thanks.. So does those 7 other episodes count as season 3 ? or just the 2nd-Half of season 2 ?

 

[Joe_H]

What I love best is the alias that Sam continues to use of "Chuck Finley." Though, it does make me wonder why the writers of the show started with that. Maybe someone's an Angels fan?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not sure; I suppose it depends on how USA Network chooses to market it. I know they were ordered as part of a 16-episode second season. That's certainly not what's being marketed, however.

 

[Will_C]

In the Psych sets, they're all part of the same season. On the last summer episode, they'll say the season finale, but both the summer and winter eps are included as one season. That being said, Psych is a USA/Universal production, while Burn Notice is a Fox show on USA. I'm just glad I don't have to wait nearly a year for Michael's continuing adventures. The season 1 cliffhanger with him driving into the trailer left me sitting on pins and needles waiting for the new season to start.

As far as Virgil goes, it's been pretty funny seeing Michael doing everything he can to keep Virgil away from his mother. Until at the end there. Oh, and Virgil "borrowing" something very personal from Mike's wardrobe, and how Mike has to keep a straight face about it on the phone was totally hilarious. Even better that Sam borrowing his shirts in the season premiere.