Burn Notice 4x10 to 4x14
Jul. 2nd, 2011 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieFirst, a question. Since The Fall of Sam Axe is a prequel, is it absolutely necessary to watch it between S4 and S5? Or can I safely wait until it comes out on DVD? (I don't particularly care if the movie gets spoiled for me by S5, but I don't want to be missing vital info.)
So the big news in this group of episodes is that JESSE KNOWS. In general, I'm pleased with how this has gone. Him figuring everything out came several episodes earlier than I anticipated--I figured it for a season-ending cliffhanger--and since we know he can't actually kill any of the main characters, a few episodes of pouting(/shooting people/blowing things up) capped with an apparent wary return to the group that may or may not be entirely what it seems works pretty well. They struck a nice balance between Jesse believably feeling betrayed and everyone else feeling bad about it, and not dragging it out to annoying lengths.
On the other hand, I don't know WHAT they're trying to do with this whole Fiona/Jesse thing. I can buy that he has a crush on her, although I think they did a terrible job of setting it up, and I can buy that Fiona would go for it if it weren't for Michael. But there is Michael, and she is obviously not going for it, and even Madeline has told Jesse not to even try, so show, why do you persist in bringing it up?
Anyway. Smaller things:
4x10
- Awwww, Lane and Harris are back! Yay!
- This is reminding me a bit of the episode where Fraser went to prison... (Much in these episodes reminded me of Fraser. More later.)
- "I believe your life is worth saving." Always the optimist, eh, Michael?
- "Unstable minds think alike." Heh. Hey, at least Fi noticed the explosive layer in time to keep you both from getting blown up, Sam.
- ...Surely Michael's broken out of prison before.
- Of course, it always helps if you can have your girlfriend slip you a lockpick via the most obvious lockpick-slipping kiss ever.
- HMMMM. I have my suspicions about this tape. Why the hell would Vaughn actually give Simon the name of the man they're thinking about replacing him with, especially over a line that could be--and was being--recorded? This seems like a trap. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Vaughn did in fact have a hand in burning Michael, but he'd never admit it.
- Aaaaand Michael obviously realizes this, since he "just told a psychopath what he wanted to hear." Nice double meaning there.
4x11
- OMG, John Barrett is John Doggett! HEE! And instead of an FBI agent, he's a telecom CEO moonlighting as a "Merchant of Death."
- "The guy's a sleazy womanizer--clearly a job for Sam Axe." Aw.
- "Chuck Findley is forever." Regardless of the fact that surely someone is going to recognize the name some day...
- "Insane is one of our specialties." Heh.
- I'll just be over here rolling my eyes at this awkward attempt to manufacture tension by having Fiona and Jesse use the old making-out-in-a-car trick to avoid surveillance. It doesn't look like they're committed to going for a love triangle, so I still don't know what this was all about.
- "Do you guys have, like, a manual where you get this stuff?" / "No, we usually just make it up as we go along."
- Oooh, the maternal guilt trip.
- DUN DUN DUN! Probably it was a good thing Fiona, rather than Michael, walked into the loft and right into Jesse's handgun. I imagine things would've ended rather differently had it been Michael. (It does occur to me that, like she says in the next episode, it's kind of handy that Jesse likes her in that way, because it means he won't shoot her on sight. Maybe that's why she starts flirting more aggressively than usual with him once he comes back to help them find the coded names--she's creating a sort of insurance policy.)
4x12
- Michael, did no one ever teach you not to get into the cars of strange men who offer you money? I know it did in fact turn out to be a job, but you couldn't just tell them to keep the money and you'd follow them to the compound in your own car?
- I like how Michael's version of "running errands" includes trips to the guns & ammo store and a lumber yard.
- A SUBMARINE! YES! That's so cool.
- Wow, Maddie must really have been chain-smoking if one of them finally mentioned it.
- "I'm not like you guys." I'm still not Jesse's biggest fan, so I'm not even going to touch that one. I have to admit, though, between this and the scene at the diner, I found it difficult somehow to buy Jesse's anger in this episode. Maybe it's that Coby Bell is just too much like a big, happy puppy. It was more, "RAR! I am angry! Look at how angry I am! RAR!" than actual anger, you know?
- Yeah, they have come to rely on Jesse for the four-man operations they pull now, haven't they?
- And now they own the sub! That is too awesome for words!
- Awww, sharing a cup of yogurt is obviously a sign of true love.
- Soooo...how did Simon find out the name of everyone in We Burn Spies, Inc., anyway? His crazy gives him mad sleuthing powers? (Drink more, think less. There should be a drinking game along those lines. Though a point in the show's favor is that I only see most of these logic holes after the episode's over.)
- Jesse shooting through Michael to kill one of the henchmen helped...how, exactly? Doggett still got him. Maybe it was helpful because it forced Doggett to run off with him and leave all the henchmen behind, thus giving Michael the opportunity to grab the steering wheel of the SUV, spin it, flip the car, and kill Doggett while miraculously surviving the rollover.
- P.S., Sam and Fi, you were standing there with sniper rifles doing nothing but providing color commentary. Think you could've shot some bad guys?
- I TOTALLY thought it was Jesse who stole the briefcase with the encoded names and the Bible at the end, but 4x14 suggests otherwise. Alas. That would've been cool.
4x13
- "This crazy telecom giant was starting and funding all these wars, and no one in the US intelligence community knew anything about it?" Yeah, that's about the size of it, TV news lady.
- Awww, Michael just wants his covert work to come to light some day.
- Awww! Totally a repeat of the pilot. *kick* "Where am I?" / "Miami."
- Isn't this, like, Fiona's third apartment? Perhaps it pays not to stay in one place too long when you're running guns...
- Aha! For once, the client really is nuts, and helping him comes back to bite them in the ass.
- Hey, stargazer lilies! They must have filmed this in July. (Oof. Can you imagine filming outside in Florida in July?)
- I got such a huge Jack the Ripper vibe off the bomber, with his whole "purify the world, rid it of criminal scum" shtick. I thought the conversations Michael had with him as "Gordon" were a nice little insight into his character, functioning much like the phone call in "Good Soldier" where "Brad" found religion. He really does want to save the world; he's just sane about it, and more objective than Bomber Dude. Bomber sees his mission foremost as a moral imperative to get rid of "scum," and I'm reasonably certain that that definition can be expanded to include just about anyone, but Michael sees what he does as protecting innocents, and if that requires knocking off a few bad guys, then that's fine, even if he does try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. He and his savior complex are totally the Benton Fraser of the US intelligence community. (Dammit, now I want crossover fic.)
- Oh, Jesse, you did NOT just blow up Fi's new apartment! Her snowglobe collection! She's going to be so pissed at you. Even if it did get rid of the mad bomber.
- On the other hand, doing that and noting that "sometimes, you just have to put a rabid dog down," did make him believably dangerous for the first time in, oh, ever. Wow. I feel like Jesse could legitimately pose a problem for our Terrific Three if they don't work things out.
- I...completely missed that Mikey lost his sunglasses at all, but yay Madeline for finding him another pair just like them?
4x14
- HOW is there no password on a computer in the POLICE DEPARTMENT used to share CLASSIFIED INFORMATION with the FBI and CIA? How? HOW? (Drink more, think less!)
- Speaking of which: "You're the reason I drink." I could believe Sam's alcohol consumption has gone up by a considerable percentage since Michael came back to Miami...
- You know, Michael is really quick to suggest blackmail. Maybe he has less in common with Fraser than I thought. (Although I think if Fraser ever were to turn to a life of crime, he'd probably be excellent at that particular aspect.)
- And now Jesse is voluntarily working with Fi on a job. That was...quick. Better than dragging it out though.
- Heh, now Michael's doing that annoying thing where he jumps in every five seconds while Jesse's trying to explain something to him, like Jesse did when they were interrogating Kendra.
- Natalie! I wondered if we'd ever see her again, and now we have. Of the few villains who got away, I think she works best as an arch-nemesis. Too bad she got caught in the end...although we didn't actually see her in prison. Hmmm. Anyway, I thought they way she forced them into working with her made for a pleasant diversion from the usual taking-the-case-after-a-sob-story way they get into jobs of the week.
- "Don't get any ideas [about the stroller]." / "Oh, please. You won't get any baby fever from me. Michael's too busy running around with a gun to take care of a hamster, much less a child." Hee! Yeah, Mike and Fi would make terrible parents, although I maintain that they would still enjoy the hell out of it. Fi's somewhat sad expression at Maddie's pronouncement was intriguing as well.
- I am unsure about that last scene. Yeah, the Wrath of Maddie will get anyone to at least pretend to forgive and forget, but I have a feeling there's a lot of pretend going on there. Not all families kiss and make up when things go wrong.
So the big news in this group of episodes is that JESSE KNOWS. In general, I'm pleased with how this has gone. Him figuring everything out came several episodes earlier than I anticipated--I figured it for a season-ending cliffhanger--and since we know he can't actually kill any of the main characters, a few episodes of pouting(/shooting people/blowing things up) capped with an apparent wary return to the group that may or may not be entirely what it seems works pretty well. They struck a nice balance between Jesse believably feeling betrayed and everyone else feeling bad about it, and not dragging it out to annoying lengths.
On the other hand, I don't know WHAT they're trying to do with this whole Fiona/Jesse thing. I can buy that he has a crush on her, although I think they did a terrible job of setting it up, and I can buy that Fiona would go for it if it weren't for Michael. But there is Michael, and she is obviously not going for it, and even Madeline has told Jesse not to even try, so show, why do you persist in bringing it up?
Anyway. Smaller things:
4x10
- Awwww, Lane and Harris are back! Yay!
- This is reminding me a bit of the episode where Fraser went to prison... (Much in these episodes reminded me of Fraser. More later.)
- "I believe your life is worth saving." Always the optimist, eh, Michael?
- "Unstable minds think alike." Heh. Hey, at least Fi noticed the explosive layer in time to keep you both from getting blown up, Sam.
- ...Surely Michael's broken out of prison before.
- Of course, it always helps if you can have your girlfriend slip you a lockpick via the most obvious lockpick-slipping kiss ever.
- HMMMM. I have my suspicions about this tape. Why the hell would Vaughn actually give Simon the name of the man they're thinking about replacing him with, especially over a line that could be--and was being--recorded? This seems like a trap. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Vaughn did in fact have a hand in burning Michael, but he'd never admit it.
- Aaaaand Michael obviously realizes this, since he "just told a psychopath what he wanted to hear." Nice double meaning there.
4x11
- OMG, John Barrett is John Doggett! HEE! And instead of an FBI agent, he's a telecom CEO moonlighting as a "Merchant of Death."
- "The guy's a sleazy womanizer--clearly a job for Sam Axe." Aw.
- "Chuck Findley is forever." Regardless of the fact that surely someone is going to recognize the name some day...
- "Insane is one of our specialties." Heh.
- I'll just be over here rolling my eyes at this awkward attempt to manufacture tension by having Fiona and Jesse use the old making-out-in-a-car trick to avoid surveillance. It doesn't look like they're committed to going for a love triangle, so I still don't know what this was all about.
- "Do you guys have, like, a manual where you get this stuff?" / "No, we usually just make it up as we go along."
- Oooh, the maternal guilt trip.
- DUN DUN DUN! Probably it was a good thing Fiona, rather than Michael, walked into the loft and right into Jesse's handgun. I imagine things would've ended rather differently had it been Michael. (It does occur to me that, like she says in the next episode, it's kind of handy that Jesse likes her in that way, because it means he won't shoot her on sight. Maybe that's why she starts flirting more aggressively than usual with him once he comes back to help them find the coded names--she's creating a sort of insurance policy.)
4x12
- Michael, did no one ever teach you not to get into the cars of strange men who offer you money? I know it did in fact turn out to be a job, but you couldn't just tell them to keep the money and you'd follow them to the compound in your own car?
- I like how Michael's version of "running errands" includes trips to the guns & ammo store and a lumber yard.
- A SUBMARINE! YES! That's so cool.
- Wow, Maddie must really have been chain-smoking if one of them finally mentioned it.
- "I'm not like you guys." I'm still not Jesse's biggest fan, so I'm not even going to touch that one. I have to admit, though, between this and the scene at the diner, I found it difficult somehow to buy Jesse's anger in this episode. Maybe it's that Coby Bell is just too much like a big, happy puppy. It was more, "RAR! I am angry! Look at how angry I am! RAR!" than actual anger, you know?
- Yeah, they have come to rely on Jesse for the four-man operations they pull now, haven't they?
- And now they own the sub! That is too awesome for words!
- Awww, sharing a cup of yogurt is obviously a sign of true love.
- Soooo...how did Simon find out the name of everyone in We Burn Spies, Inc., anyway? His crazy gives him mad sleuthing powers? (Drink more, think less. There should be a drinking game along those lines. Though a point in the show's favor is that I only see most of these logic holes after the episode's over.)
- Jesse shooting through Michael to kill one of the henchmen helped...how, exactly? Doggett still got him. Maybe it was helpful because it forced Doggett to run off with him and leave all the henchmen behind, thus giving Michael the opportunity to grab the steering wheel of the SUV, spin it, flip the car, and kill Doggett while miraculously surviving the rollover.
- P.S., Sam and Fi, you were standing there with sniper rifles doing nothing but providing color commentary. Think you could've shot some bad guys?
- I TOTALLY thought it was Jesse who stole the briefcase with the encoded names and the Bible at the end, but 4x14 suggests otherwise. Alas. That would've been cool.
4x13
- "This crazy telecom giant was starting and funding all these wars, and no one in the US intelligence community knew anything about it?" Yeah, that's about the size of it, TV news lady.
- Awww, Michael just wants his covert work to come to light some day.
- Awww! Totally a repeat of the pilot. *kick* "Where am I?" / "Miami."
- Isn't this, like, Fiona's third apartment? Perhaps it pays not to stay in one place too long when you're running guns...
- Aha! For once, the client really is nuts, and helping him comes back to bite them in the ass.
- Hey, stargazer lilies! They must have filmed this in July. (Oof. Can you imagine filming outside in Florida in July?)
- I got such a huge Jack the Ripper vibe off the bomber, with his whole "purify the world, rid it of criminal scum" shtick. I thought the conversations Michael had with him as "Gordon" were a nice little insight into his character, functioning much like the phone call in "Good Soldier" where "Brad" found religion. He really does want to save the world; he's just sane about it, and more objective than Bomber Dude. Bomber sees his mission foremost as a moral imperative to get rid of "scum," and I'm reasonably certain that that definition can be expanded to include just about anyone, but Michael sees what he does as protecting innocents, and if that requires knocking off a few bad guys, then that's fine, even if he does try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. He and his savior complex are totally the Benton Fraser of the US intelligence community. (Dammit, now I want crossover fic.)
- Oh, Jesse, you did NOT just blow up Fi's new apartment! Her snowglobe collection! She's going to be so pissed at you. Even if it did get rid of the mad bomber.
- On the other hand, doing that and noting that "sometimes, you just have to put a rabid dog down," did make him believably dangerous for the first time in, oh, ever. Wow. I feel like Jesse could legitimately pose a problem for our Terrific Three if they don't work things out.
- I...completely missed that Mikey lost his sunglasses at all, but yay Madeline for finding him another pair just like them?
4x14
- HOW is there no password on a computer in the POLICE DEPARTMENT used to share CLASSIFIED INFORMATION with the FBI and CIA? How? HOW? (Drink more, think less!)
- Speaking of which: "You're the reason I drink." I could believe Sam's alcohol consumption has gone up by a considerable percentage since Michael came back to Miami...
- You know, Michael is really quick to suggest blackmail. Maybe he has less in common with Fraser than I thought. (Although I think if Fraser ever were to turn to a life of crime, he'd probably be excellent at that particular aspect.)
- And now Jesse is voluntarily working with Fi on a job. That was...quick. Better than dragging it out though.
- Heh, now Michael's doing that annoying thing where he jumps in every five seconds while Jesse's trying to explain something to him, like Jesse did when they were interrogating Kendra.
- Natalie! I wondered if we'd ever see her again, and now we have. Of the few villains who got away, I think she works best as an arch-nemesis. Too bad she got caught in the end...although we didn't actually see her in prison. Hmmm. Anyway, I thought they way she forced them into working with her made for a pleasant diversion from the usual taking-the-case-after-a-sob-story way they get into jobs of the week.
- "Don't get any ideas [about the stroller]." / "Oh, please. You won't get any baby fever from me. Michael's too busy running around with a gun to take care of a hamster, much less a child." Hee! Yeah, Mike and Fi would make terrible parents, although I maintain that they would still enjoy the hell out of it. Fi's somewhat sad expression at Maddie's pronouncement was intriguing as well.
- I am unsure about that last scene. Yeah, the Wrath of Maddie will get anyone to at least pretend to forgive and forget, but I have a feeling there's a lot of pretend going on there. Not all families kiss and make up when things go wrong.
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Date: 2011-07-02 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-03 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-03 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-03 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 02:11 pm (UTC)Personally I think you can skip the whole thing. I watched it because I was waiting for BN to start again, but both my wife and I thought it was pretty lame. Like a B grade made for TV movie. Mike makes a couple of appearances, but it's mostly just Sam.
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Date: 2011-07-05 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 06:16 pm (UTC)