If You Have A Good Villain, Use Him

If you watch Burn Notice, but haven't seen last Thursday's (December 9) episode, and don't want the end spoiled, probably better to wait and read this after you've seen it. We'll wait. *whistles nonchalantly*

OK, that's enough waiting. So, Tyler Brennan (Jay Karnes) has the flash drive with all the names of the people responsible for burning Michale Westin. When the commercials for the episode said Michael would run into an old enemy, he was my first guess. Of course, if you exclude the possibility of it being someone Michael clashed with in the past we hadn't seen previously (some old foe from his pre-burned days), there weren't a lot of options. Natalie the thief already reappeared this season, and now she's in jail, he and Jason Bly settled their differences, Carla's dead, Victor's dead. That pretty much left Brennan, Simon, Management, or Dead Larry*. So like I said, Brennan was my first thought, but then I started to doubt he'd be described by Michael as their 'worst nightmare'. So I switched to Simon somehow being on the loose again. Moral of the story is to stick with your first guess.

I'm glad it is Brennan, because I think he's the best foe they've presented Michael with so far. The weakness of the other three possibilities I mentioned is they all have some personal stake in Michael. Management wants Michael working for him/them. Simon wanted his reputation - which had been dumped on Michael to burn him - back, and wants Mikey's help doing it. Dead Larry wanted Michael working with him. Sure, they could each decide it's too much trouble and just kill him (Simon would opt for that more readily than the other two), but they'd prefer to get something out of him.

Brennan takes a different approach. Yes, he wants to stick it to Michael, by killing everyone Michael cares about before killing Westin himself, but he's not going to focus resources solely on that avenue. Brennan's pragmatic, and knows revenge is something you take advantage of as a businessman, rather than something you succumb to. As Michael put it in Brennan's second appearance, 'You financed a private war just so you could come back to Miami'. But Brennan did that to try and get his hands on a piece of military hardware that would make him a large profit. That he was forcing Michael to get it for him was a pleasant bonus. Even with his current reemergence, he's not only in a position to get Michael, but he also has a flash drive full of information on very important people, that other people will pay oodles of cash to own.

In a lot of ways, Brennan is like Michael. They both know the value of a threat, though Brennan goes further with his, and is more likely to carry it out. Neither one is above manipulating others to work for them, and they're both willing to be harsh about it. Family is a weakness for both. They know a lot of the same tricks. A lot of times, Michael outflanks his "foe of the week" so completely they never even realize what happened. If they do figure out what went wrong, they don't recognize Michael was behind it. Brennan though, he's lost to Michael twice now, but each time, he realized what Westin was doing. Michael sill won, but only by going with the threat of mutually assured destruction. If Brennan didn't cave, he was going to jail ("Sins of Omission"), or risking his daughter's life ("End Run"). So Brennan relented, but he also escaped without injury or imprisonment. It's worth noting Brennan's the only villain to harm someone Michael cares about and get away with it**. he shot Mike's brother in the arm, and drove away unharmed.

I don't think Michael or Brennan are really interested in being leaders. Michael likes being a field operative, Brennan seems to enjoy being a weapons dealer. he doesn't really answer to anyone, but he's not the head of some gang or country, either. Michael and Brennan work similarly now, taking whatever clients they choose. Michael wants to get back to working for the government, where he'll work with whoever they dictate, while Brennan is fine with being freelance. Brennan is Michael, with a little more viciousness, and a lot less idealism. Michael could become Brennan down the line, while I don't think he could become Dead Larry or Simon (who both like killing too much, while Brennan regards it as more of an occasional necessity).

* If you don't watch the show, they call him that because he was supposed to be dead. Apparently he faked it and went into freelance killing. But everyone, even Michael's brother, calls him "Dead Larry". Not to his face, but when they discuss him amongst themselves.

** At the end of Season 1 "Loose Ends", there were the ex-military drug guys who captured and pummeled Sam. Beaten and either blown up or arrested. In Season 3 "Long Way Back", Thomas O'Neill does manage to shoot Fiona in the arm, but he winds up arrested.