Burn Notice 5.3 - Mind Games

Plot: Nate's moved back to Miami with his wife and new baby, because he's worried about getting back into gambling, and thinks his family can help. One wonders how familiar Nate is with his own family. At any rate, he has an old friend, Jessica, who needs help. Her husband, now deceased, was a gambling acquaintance of Nate's, and died in debt to a loan shark named Wallace. The debt didn't die with the husband, and Wallace's enforcer, Carter, is on her to pay up with her dad's fishing boat. Mike gets roped into posing as someone who can produce totally clean, fresh paperwork for the boat to make it's sale smoother. The idea being the paperwork will make it appear the boat was actually involved in a police investigation, making Wallace back off. When it turns out Jessica's going to wind up dead anyway, the plan shifts to making Carter look like an undercover cop. One problem, he's actually an undercover fed. Whoops.

Through all this, Mike's dealing with severe paranoia. He can't let the investigation into the group that burned him go, and he's jumpy and unsettled. Sam tries to get him to relax. Fiona tries to get him to destroy his files on Management, Carla, and the rest as a way of letting go of the past. Nate completely torpedoes all of this by telling Mike that if he really thinks there's some remnant of the organization left, then go after it, or he'll never feel satisfied. The net effect of that is Mike's drifting into the distant, obsessed place he goes sometimes, where he ignores everyone else. Good work, Nate.

The Players: Jessica (The Client), Carter (Pit Bull/Undercover FBI Agent), Wallace (Carter's Boss)

Quote of the Episode: Fiona - 'You attacked a man who was about to pull a teddy bear on you.'

Does Fiona blow anything up? No.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 3 (5 overall). Pretty slow pace here to start the season.

Sam getting Hit Count: 0 (0 overall). I was sure when he had to stall Carter it was gonna happen, but no. Maybe the writers are afraid they use that too much. Or it was supposed to be Carter not wanting to draw attention to himself with assault.

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 1 (3 overall). He seems to be playing more upbeat characters this season.

Other: Mike's alias this week is "Trey", or "Vegas", as Wallace insists on calling him. Trey's some weird hybrid of Nate and Sam. Mostly Nate, with the shirt's, the gaudy (read: ugly) sunglasses, and the assurances about easy money. But Trey also has multiple "buddies" back in Vegas who can help with stuff so, you know, Sam. No idea who the persistent messing up of phrases ("juice from a stone", "look a gift horse in the teeth", "more than one way to skin a cat's hair from its body") is from.

I'm still not clear on whether Carter or the government are responsible for the damage he cause undercover. He trashed Jessica's yogurt place, and set a motorcycle on fire. There has to be compensation for that, right? Probably a labyrinth of paperwork, though.

I would swear that when Michael describes the "Trey System", I heard harp music when he said 'dollar bills rain from the sky'.

I know the episode is trying to show that Michael's so wrapped up in his paranoia that he's making mistakes. Thus, he tries to frame Carter only to accidentally blow Carter's cover and nearly get him killed. But hell, Mike and Co. pull this move all the time. They're constantly playing subordinates against their bosses. it's how they saved Jesse's life last season. And something always goes wrong somewhere along the way. The client does something stupid, the subordinate is better more clever than they thought, the boss is better connected that they thought. Nothing ever goes smoothly. Is that a sign something's wrong with Mike's thought process, or is he just now realizing that as someone whose career was ruined by having horrible acts he wasn't responsible for attributed to him, he shouldn't be so cavalier about doing the same to other people? Yeah, they're criminals, but depending on what side of the line you're on, so is a spy. I imagine the Russians, for example, would describe Westen as a criminal, among other things.

There's been a lot of focus on the past and trying to move forward so far. Understandable, considering Mike's supposed to be free now, but can't quite convince himself of it. It's why I'm not sure about Nate's advice. He knows about addiction, about not being able to recognize when it's time to walk away. Yet he encourages Michael to keep going until he's sure. But as Fiona noted, there's always going to be another thread, another mystery. He talks about flights to nowhere, money transfers that vanish. Is it that hard to believe someone in this massive, clandestine organization was siphoning funds or using resources for their own personal benefit, and was trying to keep it out of the records? Of course not! Victor freaking told Mike that Carla did as much, using agents for her own personal business. Still, Michael could use this as an excuse to keep chasing something amorphous forever. Maybe Nate figures Mike will hit a wall eventually, or he recognizes Michael hasn't hit rock bottom yet, and until that happens he won't change.

Except rock bottom for Mike could leave him completely alone again, and there might not be any way to dig himself back out.