When You’re A Spy: Down and Out

We’re back with the Burn Notice crew after a week off for Thanksgiving and the gang is fully in fugitive mode: this episode trying to get new identities, passports and a one way ticket out of Miami.

The gang headed down at the marina, having gotten some fake passports from a contact of Fi’s but his nevous behavior makes the group realize that the CIA is on to them and they have to make a break neck escape through a heavy construction equipment roadblock the agency sets up.  Sam also has to say good-bye to his sugar momma, Elsa, and tells her to say that she doesn’t know him when the CIA questions her.

The gang still needs passports and new identities so Sam visits his hacker “friend”, Dixon, and forces him to bring the group to a smuggler friend of his, Calvin Schmidt, played by Patton Oswalt.  Schmidt is currently in hiding though and in no position to help the group, even throwing a flash grenade at them and trying to escape.  Michael manages to catch him and the group makes a deal with Schmidt, they’ll help him get rid of the man hunting him, former Syrian intelligence agent turned gun runner, Jabbar Hammady, and in return, Schmidt will give them a free pass to anywhere they want to go.  To accomplish this, they setup a scenario where Jabbar’s men will raid one of Schmidt’s warehouses and they’ll find Michael, aka Brent Soter, who will offer to help Jabbar find Schmidt at his house, at which point the gang will call the cops and get him arrested.  Of course, things don’t go as planned and Schmidt gets himself captured by Jabbar.  Michael thinks fast and tells Jabbar that he used to be an interrogation expert and that he has a friend who can bring a chemical that will force Schmidt to tell the truth but will actually fake his death so they can get him out and then sic the CIA on Jabbar.  The gang cuts it close but they manage to revive Schmidt and get Jabbar arrested but Schmidt tells the gang it may cost them a little bit more than he initially thought, with his inventory and funds limited from Jabbar’s stealing.

While this is going on, Maddie was engaging in a battle of wills with CIA Agent Riley, with Riley blatantly bugging Maddie’s house in front of her which Maddie uses later to send the CIA to Jabbar’s restaurant hideout.  It’s nice that Maddie is back to basically her normal self and not the constantly yelling, crying, guilt tripping character she was for most of this season.

Overall, definitely a fun episode of the show, mostly thanks to Patton Oswalt and his various quips, especially aimed at Jesse like “Black George Clooney” and “Sinead O’Handsome” and it’s also weird but fun to see him tossing grenades and shooting guns.  The overall plot didn’t move forward to much, the gang is still stuck in Miami with no passports and no IDs and still dodging Agent Riley but they’ll probably be in Miami till the season finale where we’ll probably see whether they’ll clear their names or flee.

• Who Am I?: Michael is Brent Soter, Schmidt’s former security agent
• Spy Tip of the Week: If you have to simulate electroshock torture, a curling iron is the best way to create the burns without the internal damage.
• Sam Axeism of the Week: “My new identity is Chuck Finley, no argument”