When You’re A Spy: All or Nothing
Things are almost back to normal on Burn Notice, with the whole gang reunited in Miami and Michael back in his loft, even though it got blown up last season. The gang is helping Sonya get revenge against the hacker group who discovered her identity and sold it to the highest bidder in this week’s episode, directed by Commander Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes.
Things kick off with Michael on a “date” with Sonya at a fancy restaurant, who reveals that one of her associates has done something to a DOD employee carrying a new virus program that they will use against the hackers. Michael poses as a doctor and gives the guy a shot that counteracts whatever Sonya’s people did to him. With the virus in their possession, the plan is for Michael and Fi to go undercover as hot shot hackers and plant the virus on the company’s server, which will download all the data, send it to the gang’s computer and then erase the server. In a very Swordfishesque sequence, Michael and Fi fake a hack into the power company and take down the lights of a nightclub, which actually involves Sonya, Sam and Jesse breaking into the power company and actually throwing the switches. Their “hack” impresses recruiter Cody, who bring them in to meet the head of the hacker group’s security, Jack Frakes. The hackers call themselves “The Collective” FYI.
In order to fake their hacker credentials, the gang has to go to their old pal Barry, who creates a list of fake hacks into various banks. In return though, and still sore about what happened to him last season at the hands of the gang, Jesse and Sam agree to help him find out where his girlfriend is and it turns out she just got a new boyfriend, despite finding the car Barry bought her at a shady car lot.
In order to be able to get past The Collective’s security, Michael and Fi have to rappel down the side of the building and drill into the wall to get to the wiring for the camera system and plant a device that gives Sonya control of the system. The anchor on the roof that Fi is using starts breaking and there’s a super dramatic sequence of Michael grabbing Fi and pulling her up while there are flashbacks to all their romantic moments over the years. It’s a little over the top.
As what usually happens, a last minute complication causes the gang to scramble for a solution and this time, Frakes becomes suspicious of Michael and forces him to perform the hack he’s been working on into a Cayman Islands bank. Hacking is actually one of the few things Michael doesn’t know anything about so he’s stuck until Sam and Jesse corner Cody, being distracted at a nearby bar by Fiona, and pose as cops who send Cody in to do the hack for them after presenting their stolen feed of their cameras as evidence they are collecting. A showdown in the server room ends with the data being collected and Frakes taking out Cody while Michael and Fi leave before “the police” show up. Back at the loft, Michael has a dramatic speech about how Sonya and her people are the only thing he has left and then sleeps with Sonya, who the next morning agrees to get Michael a meeting with the higher ups in her organization.
Overall, it was a return to the usual Burn Notice that we haven’t really seen this season, with it’s super serialized and darker tone. I did appreciate that we got a break from Maddie’s BS this week and Sam and Jesse continue to be the MVP pairing of the season. Next week looks like it could be an interesting look into Michael’s past and we’ll finally get the chance to see what his father was actually like, after hearing about how horrible he was for the last seven years.
- Who Am I?: Michael first poses as a doctor and then Marc Fincher, super cocky code breaker extraordinare
- Spy Tip of the Week: How to fake a computer hack if you have no hacking skills
- Sam Axeism of the Week: “Low price huh? (smashes a car with a stanchion) Might have to lower it a little bit more”