Burn Notice A Dark Road

Michael Westen was sewing up Fiona’s arm for the second week in a row when she tried to slug him… again. Sam told him that "enough people saw you on the street so that you aren't a suspect; but, un-burn Michael Westen is officially off." Strickler’s phone, which they were trying to analyze, suggested a high-class hotel on South Beach as a possibility to look at – which, sam said, "could contain a grade-A psychopath."  When M started to rattle off his scam to the hotel clerk, she stopped him and asked: "are you Mr. Westen."  Then she said that she had a note for him. "A man had the bellman drop this off and said that you would be: 6’ 1”, exquisitely dressed and have impeccable posture." When M went to the room number in the note, registered to Dr. Randolph Quilling, it was fire-bombed in right front of him; and M didn’t see anyone there to trigger the device. Same knew that Quilling had been a British nuclear scientist who was killed in ’99 – burned to death in his hotel room.  Then Fiona, milking the tiny  scratch on her arm for sympathy, demanded that M take a job for her which she couldn’t do due to her injury. When he took it he found that a woman named Calia, had her husband killed in a car accident; but, later she found insurance papers already filled out and a guy in a Corvette had come to her house demanding that now she had to sue the city and give him the money. Sam wasn't able to get any insurance records for M out of the lady at the county records office; so suggested that they send Madeline in to try and get them. Madeline whined “why me” and M answered “because she’s your age, smokes your brand and shops at the same stores you do.” Madeline was able to get them by turning on the tears; but, then started up a friendship with the lady, Tina, even over Ms warnings about not fraternizing with "assets."

 

Sam staked out the clinic which had handled all the medical cases and found too many neck braces walking out,  and the Corvette Calia had talked about parked out in front. It was registered to Ryan Johnson who was on parole for fraud and assault. M went in undercover posing as Alex, a friend of Erik Lee’s from North Carolina. Erik had been a friend of Ryan’s who was killed in the same crash as Calia’a husband. M then chased Ryan down in his charger and swung it around in front of him as a “job application.” M said that he wanted in their organization now that they had a vacancy and was told he could meet to talk about it tomorrow. M met Ryan’s father, Connor Johnson, and was given the “we’ll call you” line, but said that he wanted management. So, Connor said said that if he and Ryan collected $10k from a delinquent auto shop he could have the job. M had to torch the auto shop, hide behind acetylene tanks and dodge flying bullets as they left, but he got the money. Back with the bomber, Sam triangulated a phone that Strickler had called often and told M that it was now just sitting at the 20-year closed marine stadium --  an obvious setup. Of course M went to the stadium and talked to a swishy-sounding man who attempted to scare him with 5 rifle shots into the seats all around him. It reminded M of a stadium shooting back in ’98 in South America.

 

M and Fiona built a listening device together and she almost said thanks for his saving her from the Irish kidnappers. M proposed a scam called “Deathwish” to the Johnson's. It used a stooge to be knocked from behind by a city vehicle into a train and then go after the deep pockets in lawsuits. Fiona planted a bug in Ryan’s keychain and Connor took the bait. Ryan, however, tried to cut M out of the deal and pull the scam early. Sam heard him talk about it over their bug, so they all had to chase Ryan down and drive him off the road giving Ryan a chance to see M. Now for plan "C" they had to have Madeline go back and have Tina give them all the records for all the patients the doctors had treated in scams. Madeline was pissed  at M, even though she had ignored his warnings about making friends with assets, and he had to remind her about her living in the same house he did and her having to make hard choices too. Madeline got the records but walked home alone in a huff. M, Sam and Fiona then shepherded Ryan’s car into crashing into a parked city vehicle. Then, when Ryan and M were fighting, Sam planted all the stolen medical scam records in Ryan’s car and Fiona called the police to report she had seen an intentional crash and a man waiving a gun. The police cam, sirens screaming, just after M had left Ryan dazed on the ground.

 

During the investigation Ryan turned on his father which pretty much gave the case to the city prosecutor. Madeline was so angry that M then had to take on Tina as a client and stage a break in at the record offices in order to cover up any missing records so that Tina could keep her job -- without Tina knowing. Madeline and M had an angry argument [actually, unusually well written for the kind the writers usually write for Madeline] and after finding out about Ms break-in she was relieved. Sam told M that his hunch about the six police officials killed at the Soccer Stadium correlating with the six shots at the marine stadium was correct. He said that "both times" there was a lot of talk afterwards about the same guy: Mason Gilroy. And, the cologne on the note at the hotel was “Monaco Silver” – last sighting of Gilroy... Monaco. Then, when Sam arrived at the loft he found a phone at Ms gate – "Gilroy knows where you live." M called a number already programmed and used Gilroy's name for which he was congratulated. Gilroy said he wanted to meet.