Plot: Michael has finally had it with Anson, and all it took was Vaughn telling him Anson's starting his spy-burning up again. He goes to confront Anson at his day job, with Fi holding a sniper rifle across the street. Finally. I've only been encouraging them to shoot Anson for six weeks.
Except Mike doesn't go for. Anson dangles the carrot of Fiona being free in front of him, throws in some stuff about how burning Michael gave him a life, and Mike falls for it. Like a dipshit. He even shields Anson with his own body so Fi can't opt to shoot him herself. You know, given that it's Fi's life in the balance her, I think she ought to get a little more say in it.
Predictably, Fi is pissed, and Mike is busy trying to explain it away. There's a lot yelling, but Sam has found a warehouse in Tampa Anson purchased that was previously a storage site for weapons. He and Fi go to check it out, while Mike goes to meet with Pearce. Interestingly, Pearce doesn't even broach the topic of the organization that burned Michael still being active. One toothless pit bull right there. Good news for Mike, though. He's being placed in charge of an op, to capture a spy recruiter named Reed (played by Eric Roberts). The CIA even provided a team for him, aw how sweet. I'm not sure how that jibes with their desire to have distance in case it goes wrong (thus letting a supposedly still burned spy run it). The attempt to wreck Reed's SUV and haul him out on the way to the hotel goes awry thanks to a minivan abruptly pulling out. Which proves my theory that minivans and those who drive them are evil.
OK, the first plan failed (as usual). New plan: Have Jesse pose as out or work and disgruntled former spy for Reed to approach. Bug plane they'll be on, capture Reed since he won't have any security with him. Easy-peasy. Problem: Anson wants a new team, and he tells Michael to plant evidence on Pearce's computer that makes it look like the op was botched because she and the others were on the take. While all that's unfolding, Sam and Fi's hopes are dashed. Oh, the warehouse had a ton of stuff in, including the Sam T4 Anson used to frame Fi, and even a guy there Anson had terrified into playing security guard. But Anson had everything tagged, so once they started hauling stuff out, it triggered a self-destruct. So they've got nothing, which leads to Anson being predictably smug, which would also be the perfect time to break his neck, but Michael refuses again.
Yep, he's willing to burn the whole team to save Fi, under the amorphous belief he will somehow "fix" it all later. Sure. It only took him 4+ seasons to get back in officially with the Agency, even though he's still listed as a burned spy, and I guess he fixed things for Jesse, but it sure took awhile, and nearly killed him multiple times. Fi is incensed, and when it becomes apparent that Mike's last hope - that Sam's cop buddies might be able to find something in the warehouse remains - is fruitless, Fiona opts to turn herself in. Mike ditches the op to shackle her in their loft, but Fi hoodwinks Sam and escapes while Mike's occupied trying to save his op. Turns out one of his team also works for Anson, and while Mike keeps her from blowing Reed and Jesse up, her abrupt flight kind of throws things into disarray. Mike pulls it out narrowly, but can't keep Fi from turning herself in. And Anson escaped somewhere with Rebecca so he's still out there somewhere.
The Players: Anson (The Man Who Ruined Michael's Life), Reed (Spy Recruiter), Jake (Anson's "Caretaker")
Quote of the Episode: Fiona - 'That is just wishful thinking! You are delaying the inevitable! There is no happy ending!'
Does Fiona blow anything up? No.
Sam Axe Drink Count: 3 (26 overall). Serious decline in Sam's rate of consumption this season.
Sam Getting Hit Count: 1 (8 overall). We don't see it, but he told us Fiona clocked him over the head with a bottle.
Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (11 overall). Not a lot to laugh about here.
Other: How did Anson know Fiona would also use T4, so that he did the same in his embassy bomb?
Michael claims Anson wins if Fiona shoots him. Explain to me how Anson - who went to all the trouble of framing her so he could get his records wiped from the CIA database, who got all his money back so he can restart his organization - wins if he's dead. Then all that work was for nothing, seeing as he's apparently the only one left to carry on the work. Mike might not win if Fiona goes to prison, but that doesn't mean Anson wins by default. Sometimes, nobody wins.
Maybe it's standard practice, but the fed who met Fiona seemed unnecessarily aggressive towards someone who was surrendering herself. I mean, whipping out the gun and screaming "Hands on your head! Get Down! Now!" while a dozen dudes with automatic weapons surround her? I know, she's confessing to an embassy bombing, but it still seems excessive. Especially when you consider he didn't demand she hand over the purse. After all, might be a bomb in there, right?
You notice that Michael's bosses are frequently women, and he frequently ignores them? He didn't really have one in Season 1, then there was Carla, Management was theoretically the one in Season 3, but he was hardly around. Vaughn was around, and Mike went behind his back as much as Carla, but Vaughn was also trying to play friendly, rather than authoritative, so he didn't come off as heavy-handed as Carla. This year there's Anson, but also Pearce, and only one of them is consistently outsmarting Michael, while the other can't seem to rein him in at all. I guess there's Madeline throughout, but let's face it, no matter how often she proves she can hang in this espionage world, Michael still never trusts her. Given his family life, I might have expected him to buck against male authority figures more than female, but maybe Maddy didn't give him a lot of reason to trust women in charge?
There may be nothing there, it's just I thought Pearce had a lot of potential, and it's been squandered. I thought she could be a Brennan that worked with Michael. So she would respect his ability, but not be hoodwinked by his charm or bullshit, not let him get away with stuff because of his special snowflake status. So when Mike admits he lied about the organization being finished, she doesn't accept, "I can't tell you more because you'll be in danger." She throws his ass in a cell until he tells everything, and then maybe, she helps. Because lets be honest, Mike has pulled a lot of questionable shit for Anson by the time he admitted any of it to Pearce last week. Most of the people around him are too fond of him to really put the screws to him about his secretive stuff. It wouldn't have to be all the time, and she could be wrong occasionally, but she'd also need to be right sometimes, just to show Michael does overreach or take stupid chances. Part of the problem is they've portrayed Michael as someone who doesn't really need Pearce, so her attempts to exert her authority over him fall flat. It's the same problem I see when I watch NCIS, where disciplining Gibbs doesn't work (even when he's wrong) because he's written as not giving a damn, and the boss always seems to need Gibbs more than vice versa. House had a similar problem. It's some argument that the exceptional among us are not (or should not) be subject to the same rules as the rest, which is a troubling argument considering where it can lead (see Hitchcock's Rope).
Bit of a mixed season. I thought it scuffled along until Max was killed, which is too bad. I liked Max, it didn't matter if Mike kept him the dark because they were coworkers, not boss and employee. But that plot gave the season a kick in the pants, and I thought the clients improved around then. Starting with 5.6 (the return of Carmelo), I enjoyed quite a few of those. I thought Pearce had potential, and hey, Larry came back! Fi and Mike's relationship progressed, only to be blown apart by outside forces, instead of Michael's emotional distance. Actually, the reversal of their positions was one of the things I liked about the whole bit with Anson (maybe the only thing). That Fi, who usually reacts emotionally, was being pragmatic, recognizing that the longer Michael helped Anson, the worse it was going to be. Michael, who normally doesn't want to get involved with clients because he thinks it's an impractical challenge or whatever, is the one insisting on stringing it out, because he's sure he can find that loophole. He's the one unwilling to make the tough choice for once. Which suggests they rub off on each other, but that Michael tries so hard to remain emotionally detached that once that fails, he gets too attached, to the extent it overrides all reason.
If only they could have run a similar story with Management. I liked him. He was a tough old bird, but he never pretended to be otherwise. Anson has this whole "it's not my fault what happened" line that just irritates the hell out of me, as you have no doubt noticed. He's a HUGE minus for the last third of the season.
So Fiona's going to prison, Mike kept Pearce and the rest from being burned, but Anson's still on the loose. Swell. This is the most depressing season finale yet.
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