After a week off, Burn Notice came back without losing any of its momentum. I must admit that I breathed a sigh of relief. I was afraid the break would cause the show to stumble, but I’ve never been more pleased to be wrong. “Exit Plan” didn’t have as much breakneck pace as the last few episodes, but that’s not to say that it was lacking in action or drama. There was a lot packed into this hour, so let’s get to it.
After locating Sonya, Michael, Jesse, and Sam convince her to come with them. The police located the escape boat though, so they were forced to improvise. Things weren’t exactly a cakewalk for Michael and Co. because Colonel Oksana, the Russian agent, literally had the entire Cuban police force hunting them down. Naturally, the Russian and Cuban teams were no match for the ingenuity of Team Westen. Michael and Sonya hijacked a plane; Jesse and Sam faked an assault on police headquarters; and in the end Colonel Oksana came up empty-handed. Our heroes live to fight another day.
We found out a little bit about Sonya but not much. Here’s what we know: she was betrayed by someone possibly in whatever organization it is she’s working for; she was captured and tortured for two weeks by the Russians; she’s studied Michael’s past missions and believes that she knows him; she’s a lot more into killing people than Michael is; and she was friends with Burke. Apparently, whatever information she has is also quite valuable because Colonel Oksana insisted upon taking her alive. I’m still interested to know how Sonya and Burke managed to become friends. She seemed genuinely sad (for a brief moment) to hear that he’s dead. It also seems that whatever relationship she and Burke had was strong enough for her to trust Michael solely on his word that Burke was his friend. Based upon that, or perhaps because she really had no other option, she teamed up with Michael. Jesse put forth the theory that she’s a deep cover Russian agent that wreaked all kinds of havoc at the NSA and got a whole bunch of agents killed several years ago. They don’t have any proof of that, but Jesse and Sam don’t trust her. I don’t blame them. Michael doesn’t exactly trust her, but he knows that she’s the only way that he can complete his mission.
The whole point of the escape from Cuba seemed to be the introduction of Colonel Oksana. Oksana is cold, smart, and determined. She apparently trained with Sonya and seems to know what moves she’s going to make. That’s a significant disadvantage when you’re trying to stay a step ahead of someone. She seems to be the Russian counterpart to Agent Strong, and that’s not a good thing. Like Strong, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to catch Sonya which means anyone who gets in her way is in danger. It doesn’t help that Team Westen made her look like a fool in front of her men either. Now it’s personal. I wonder whether she’s going to follow them to Miami. It would seem that undertaking a mission on American soil would create more problems for her than it would solve, but she seems like she’s the type that will catch her prey no matter what the cost.
I’m beginning to wonder whether Michael is losing himself in this mission. When he found Sonya, he told her that Burke found him drinking his life away and saved him. The conviction with which he said it and the hint of sadness in his voice when he said that Burke is dead didn’t seem faked. A part of Michael seems to genuinely believe that Burke saved him. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing. We now know that Burke wasn’t as completely evil as we initially thought, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a bad guy. If Michael loses sight of that fact for even a moment, it could cause him to misstep. I’m not saying that Michael is compromised, but he needs to tread very carefully.
Fiona and Carlos have a bit of a hurdle to jump. Carlos noticed that Fiona has been distant ever since Michael showed up in Miami again, so he arranged for them to take a job in New Orleans so she could “clear her head.” Unfortunately, Agent Strong showed up and basically strong-armed (no pun intended) Fiona into helping Michael complete his mission. Strong didn’t know that Michael hadn’t actually told Fiona all the details of his deal, so he laid everything out on the table for her. Carlos was obviously upset that Fiona has agreed to help Michael again, but he told Fiona to do what she had to do so she could move on with her life.
Carlos hasn’t had much screen time, but thus far he seems like a pretty decent guy. He’s dropped everything to help Michael once before, and he’s giving Fiona her space to conclude that chapter of her life. There aren’t a lot of guys who would risk so much to help their girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. He definitely gets points for that. I feel kind of bad for Carlos actually. He seems to really care about Fiona, but as I’ve mentioned before, Fiona really wasn’t ready to jump into a new relationship so soon. I don’t doubt that she cares for Carlos, but I don’t think she loves him. She’s not over Michael yet, and I don’t think she will be any time soon. Be that as it may, you cannot walk into your future until you let go of the past. Fiona is still holding on to all of the hurt, pain, anger, and love that was in her past, so she’s not free to move forward. Not yet. Perhaps working with Michael again will allow her to deal with her past so she can move forward. Maybe she moves forward with Michael and maybe she moves forward with Carlos. Either way, she needs to face everything that happened so she can let it all go.
All in all, this was a very solid hour. Sam and Jesse are funny together. Their infiltration of Oksana’s headquarters and subsequent escape was wonderfully played. The smirk on Sam’s face as he walked out the front door was priceless. It looks like we’re going to get into Michael’s head a bit more next week, and I’m really interested to continue peeling back that onion. So what did y’all think of this week’s Burn Notice?
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Burn Notice Season 7 Review “Exit Plan”
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