When You’re A Spy: Odd Man Out

Another disgruntled associate of Schmidt causes more trouble for the Burn Notice team this week in the final episode before the big season finale next week.

With the money from “selling” the circuit breaker last week, Sam and Jesse head to the house of one of Schmidt’s rival smugglers, Vanek, who is the only one who can get the gang the computer chips necessary to make their phony passports legit.  Vanek initially wants nothing to do with the guys but an offer of $400,000 causes him to change his mind, although he’s still pissed off enough to punch Sam in the jaw as a message to give to Schmidt. The gang gets the chips to their favorite hacker, Dixon, who manages to make masterpieces of passports that will fool facial recognition and be able to be scanned by border police and show fake travel history and their new identities.  The gang seems ready to finally leave Miami but Schmidt screws the team over yet again by trying to get Vanek arrested by the FBI.  Vanek avoids that and comes after Schmidt with all his muscle, forcing Schmidt, Michael, Fi and Sam to hide in a nearby factory after they realize they won’t be able to outrun Vanek and his goons in their crappy van.

The group moves their way deeper into the factory and Michael calls Jesse to acquire a heavy duty getaway vehicle, so Jesse and Maddie manage to trick a local construction worker that his dump truck is about to explode and head out to meet the gang at the back of the factory.  The group hits a snag when they get trapped in a room with no exit but there is an industrial fan and Michael manages to short it out and he and Schmidt make it to the next room but a backup generator causes the fan to kick back on.  Vanek breaks in and corners Fi and Sam but the room is conveniently filled with flammable liquids, which they dump on the floor and hold off Vanek with a blow torch while Michael and Schmidt throw a pallet jack into the fan to disable it and Fi and Sam rejoin them.  In the next room, the gang gets shot at by a pair of Vanek’s men and Schmidt gets grazed, delaying the group enough for Vanek to get his men around back and cornering them again.  Vanek calls Schmidt, who passes the phone to Michael and Vanek tells Michael that Schmidt didn’t tell him that he has a way to track down all the passport chips and that if he gets arrested by the FBI, he’ll take them down as well.  Faced with this info, Michael sends Fi and Sam off to look for non-existent explosive material while he marches Schmidt out to hand over to Vanek.  Michael forces Vanek to back off and manages to shoot a nearby transformer, causing an explosion that gives the gang enough cover to escape.

Back at Schmidt’s, Schmidt decides he’s had enough and is heading out of Miami but he tells the gang that they are free to use his house until they leave.  Michael realizes that Maddie is gone and Jesse tells him that she is probably at Nate’s grave.  Michael finds Maddie at the cemetery and they have a heart to heart but Michael becomes paranoid about some mysterious flowers that were left at the grave.  Michael finds a card with a mysterious phone number from “a friend” and that’s where we are going into the finale.

Some of the best episodes of Burn Notice are when the gang is trapped in a location and have to use whatever resources available to get out.  This episode was not quite up to the level of previous episodes like the bank heist or hostage situation Michael got caught in since it was pretty straight forward with the group just making their way through the factory and not really utilizing anything in the factory in a MacGyveresque manner.  Also no Agent Riley this week but she will definitely be back in full force for the season finale next week, as it looks like the entire CIA and Coast Guard are going to be coming down on the Burn Notice team.

• Who Am I?: No crazy fake ID for Michael this week but we learned that he’s not the only Westen with a penchant for crazy accents as Maddie adopted a southern drawl to trick the construction worker.
• Spy Tip of the Week: If you are in a high speed pursuit, a cargo van is the absolute worst vehicle to be driving as it has no speed and high center of gravity.
• Sam Axeism of the Week: “Well now I know what a lab rat feels like, this place is a maze”