Burn Notice 6.11 - Desperate Measures

Plot: We open in a warehouse somewhere in Panama, as Michael and Friends interrogate Tyler Gray. Gray doesn't seem terribly bothered about Nate's death, so Mike's ready to see if Gray's own demise bothers him a little more. Fi is on board (big surprise), but Jesse and Sam are set against it, and it's Sam who points out they can use Gray against Tom Card, but not if he's dead. And not from Panama, which means finding a flight home, and getting Maddy to help smooth things over on that end. Fi finds a pilot all too willing to give her a ride to the States. It won't be until takeoff he learns she's bringing her friends. Of course, it won't be until then that those friends realize they're hitching a ride with a coke shipment. Not that the plane gets far, because Gray tries to escape, Mike refuses to let that happen, and they both win up as prisoners of a very unpleasant fellow named Ramon Vasquez, who doesn't like people he thinks are trying to steal his coke.

While all this is going on, Maddy's been working with Sam's "buddy" Dixon (last seen in 5.10, "Army of One") to erase any record of that flight they're all supposed to be on. After that, she still has to meet with Tom Card, knowing now that he's the one responsible for Nate's death. She's pulls it off, as she always does.

Meanwhile, Mike is trying mostly unsuccessfully to convince Gray to work with him to get out of their predicament. The fact Mike was going to shoot him in the head earlier in the episode doesn't help, but neither does the fact Card showed Gray some file that said Mike and Anson were working together to blah, blah, blah. So they're arguing with each other when Gray isn't trying to cut his own deals with Vasquez, and Mike isn't busy stalling Vasquez, while Sam, Fi, and Jesse, try to arrange a swap of the coke for their friends. That falls through, but presents an opportunity to sneak Fi back in behind the lines and rescue Michael and Gray, who felt his heart grow three sizes as he watched Mike get electrocuted to protect his friends. The growth in cardiac muscle, a sure sign of congestive heart failure, produced a disorientation in Gray which made him decide to help Michael escape and bring down Tom Card once they reach Miami.

He's not really dying of congestive heart failure, and what the hell am I doing making Christmas story-themed references before Halloween? This is awful. Anyway, they made it back to Miami, but Mike isn't telling Maddy who Gray really is. Because he's been so good at lying to her face up to this point.

The Players: Tyler Gray (Nate's Killer), Dixon (Computer Expert), Ramon Vasquez (President Vasquez Cargo Company/Drug Smuggler)

Quote of the Episode: Vasquez - 'So these people you just met, they hang out here with $12 million worth of coke for you? Huh?' Michael - 'What can I say? I'm that charming?'

Does Fiona blow anything up? Well, someone had to make the land mine.

Sam Axe Drink Count: 1 (20 overall).

Sam Getting Hit Count: 0 (6 overall).

Michael's Fake Laugh Count: 0 (1 overall).

Other: No time for aliases this week.

When Maddy has her meeting with Card in his office, I specifically noted the horrible sculpture on one of his dressers/cabinets/end table/whatever. It was like a particularly poor attempt to capture the look of a tornado, or else someone peeled a piece of fruit in one piece and froze the peel. Just awful.

I love that Esteban, the small boy whose phone Sam and Jesse purchased, called them back later to warn them of men with guns looking for gringos. Nice kid.

I like Michael getting frustrated during the escape and shouting at the guards, 'I don't speak Spanish!' Something about the fact he doesn't speak Spanish, yet he keeps working in Spanish speaking countries or places with a lot of people who speak Spanish, is always funny to me. Plus, it's at least one thing he's completely useless at.

I don't necessarily follow Gray's logic that because Michael showed loyalty for Fi and the others, he couldn't be the man described in the files he saw. The files described Mike and the others as traitors, which wouldn't be true for Fi since she isn't from the U.S., and therefore can't betray it, anymore than she could betray, say Mongolia. Anyway, just because someone is willing to betray a country, it does not necessarily stand to reason they would betray the people they work with, if they've been working together long enough.

Michael working with Gray, I'm reminded of what Mike told Fi last episode: that he doesn't care who he has to work with, he will not let Nate's killer escape. Very true. He'll even work with the man who shot Nate, to stop the guy who told him to do it.