Burn Notice 3.14 - Partners in Crime

Plot: Knowing that the flight Gilroy is interested in is headed to Poland, Michael tries to approach Conrad, a low-level, down on his lucky employee at the Polish consulate as a Russian businessman willing to pay for information on the flight. But Conrad, for all his failings, is loyal to his country, and Fi has to come in with the save.

So, new plan: Fi approaches Conrad as a member of American Intelligence, portrays Michael as a Russian spy, and tells Conrad they need to know what's on the flight so they can stop Mike. She also agrees to pay him for the risk, which is why Michael takes up Sam on his request to help investigate a fashion house robbery. Isabella, the owner, suspects Tim, and Sam even finds two sets of ledgers in his office. Sure seems guilty, but that's out the window when Michael follows Tim to Isabella's and they both find her dead, shot with Tim's gun.

Now it's a matter of keeping Tim hidden until they can find and expose the real culprit. It quickly becomes apparent Isabella's partner, Damon, was behind it, but he used a third person to commit the crime, and attempts to bug their conversations are thwarted by the surroundings. Which means it's time to play on Damon's greed. Enter Max, Isabella's silent, other partner, who has working drugs into the fabrics. He's willing to keep the same deal going with Damon, but not if Damon doesn't take care of his loose ends. Despite the usual missteps, they are able to eventually get Damon to hang himself. Not literally. And Conrad comes through for Fi, so we learn the cargo on the plane is a person.

The Players: Conrad (Easy Target), Isabella (Sam's New Client), Tim (Suspected Thief), Damon (Stylish Bastard), Ric (Damon's Partner)

Quote of the Episode: Sam - 'Looks like murder *puts on sunglasses* is in style this season.' One more. Sam - 'It looks like our killer's plan *puts on sunglasses* is coming apart at the seams.' I will never not find Sam's Caruso riff hilarious.

Does Fiona blow anything up? No.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 2 (37 overall). It's too bad Isabella died. She and Sam really hit it off.

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (2 overall).

Michael Fake Laugh Count: 1 (5 overall). It was another one of those in-character, "I'm furious with you right now" laughs.

Other: Like I said above, Mike's alias for the week is "Max".

It's hard to tell, but I think Max threatens Damon's life at least 6 times. I'm not sure whether telling Damon he'll live if he doesn't screw up (implying he won't if he does) counts as a threat. It also doesn't count the sequence in Damon's office when "Max" keeps picking up various sharp objects and testing whether they'd be suitable for killing Damon. I don't think it counts as a threat, per se, because "Max" is meant to be seriously preparing to kill Damon, even if Michael is really just doing it to scare him.

Ric was surprisingly good at killing people and framing someone. I know he had some minor drug busts and an assault charge, but those wouldn't seem to prepare someone for contract killing. Still, the idea of using an explosive to remove Tim wasn't a bad one. Would have worked if not for that meddling Westen.

I'm not sure why Fi bothered to lie to Madeline about why she needed old pictures of Michael. Would Maddy have really been that sore about it? She didn't seem too bothered when Michael told her (which I'm glad he did). That bit about him telling her where he was on the back of a photo, only he had already left that place and wrote that specifically so she wouldn't know where he was, that was cold.

I'm not sure why, when Michael and Tim are trying to escape the cops at Isabella's, they don't climb the trees next to the wall. They aren't that big around, they look sturdy, and they're right next to it. It shouldn't be hard to wedge yourself between the trees and the wall to climb at the very least. Instead they go through this whole mess with boosting and hauling.

Also, Mike explains the risk of listening devices nears speakers by talking about how phones react near alarm clocks. My phone has never reacted near my clock. It does however, react near my computer speakers and my TV all the time, so maybe that would have been a better comparison.

Given how uncomfortable Fi is with all the sneaking around and the lying, I'm surprised she isn't more vocal about not wanting to pull this scam on Conrad. You can kind of tell by her body language all the times she meets with him, that she's tense, tired, not happy about doing this. Conrad's no traitor, and sure, Mike is doing all this to try and stop Gilroy, but I doubt that would save Conrad's bacon if his bosses figure out what he did.