Burn Notice Made Man

Michael Westen, Sam and Fiona were still waiting for Jesse at the Carlito's while the voice-over explained that anyone in the spy business with any common sense considered coming on time to be 15 minutes late. Sam expressed that he would rather Jesse just be gone and done with, as Jesse came out of the back room with free drinks compliments of Carlito. Then he condescendingly pontificated that he was about to disclose code-clearance material and anyone who "didn't feel comfortable should leave." They all three just looked at each other amazed at his arrogance. He said that a year ago he began working for the Defense Department investigating global bombings, kidnappings, assassinations which looked like they had a pattern. Following weapons supply lines into the hottest spots, he found a connection right in the port of Miami so he moved here. He saw a lot of guns coming off ships which passed through Algeria. He made contact with a guy who was shipping artillery for one of the operations who might have cooperated. The guy had a low voice with a sort of hiss and he called him "Cobra." Sam laughed and said that was a "crappy code name" to which Jesse responded "you can make up the code names when it's your investigation." The guy didn't show up at a meeting they had set up. They all went to the dock to "chat up" the right deck hands without any luck. Jesse saw two "scumbags" beating up one of the dock security guards and over everyone else's objections blew his cover and went to help. When M came over, Jesse said that he was just "telling Hank here how they work under cover for one of the shipping companies." Hank said that those people were "mobbed up" and his buddy had been killed when he went to the police. The boss, Tony Carrow, he said was ruthless and Jesse committed to help him. The only plan he could come up with however was completely inadequate and required M to step in.

 

Sam got a complete folder of Miami's underworld from his cop buddies; and, with M, staked out their mob-bar to see Carrow, who ran things in South Florida for a crime family in New York. Back at Madeline's she was interrogating Jesse for who he was and what he did and got miffed at M who came to see Jesse instead of her. M said plan "A" was to convince them that the feds were onto their operation to hopefully make them walk away. Jesse scoffed at the plan and whined that his cover blowing prevented him from participating. M pretended to be Ned Gordon, a recently suspended FBI agent who really was on a drinking binge in the Alaskan wilderness so wasn't using his ID right then.  The meeting went well enough to be able to plant a bug in a wad of chewing gum under Carrow's table. Carrow told M to meet him later that day but instead sent two goons to kill him because he found out that M wasn't agent Gordon. Instead, while Fiona and Jesse merely watched, M took them both down then stood up to straighten his rumpled suit. Sam listened to the bug and heard that Carrow had a "fed in his pocket" which is why he had been "untouchable" till then. He also saw that Geo Russo, was visiting from his New York bosses to holler that "if you want to see pissed, come in $15,000 light again next week!" Sam's plan "B" was to get Carrow desperate enough to do something himself and get caught where his fed buddies can't get him out. "I think it's time for him to meet Chuck Finley," Sam offered. "Now that's a code name!" he continued to Jesse's annoyance.

 

Hank obtained a manifest of every ship from Algeria in the past three months for Jesse and said he needed to get back to work. Back at Madeline's, she brought some things in for Jesse and notice a photo of his mother. Her acute observations disarmed Jesse enough that he revealed his mother had been killed during a robbery of a convenience store when he was nine. She was working the graveyard shift, the killer ran off with less than 50 bucks, and she bled out on the floor with people watching from the parking lot and too uncaring to respond. By the time the cops got there she was dead. To ease the tension, Madeline interjected with a smile "and now you've hooked up with Michael… trying to save the world." Sam injected Carrow with a sedative when he went into the restroom at his club and Jesse said "you don't look that scary." When Sam had Carrow spread eagle on a bed and was sharpening "Mr. Slicey," Carrow threatened him with "the family." Sam told him: "who do you think wants you dead?" After a manipulative conversation, Carrow's bargain was to hit a big shipment on the docks to obtain $5 million, easy. Sam eventually agreed, for a one million share. Carrow didn't believe Sam that his men were all with Russo, so M and Fiona arrange for a "convincing" car explosion. Meanwhile, Jesse was cross referencing all the manifests he obtained from Hank and realized that the shipments all went to one Miami hanger, he was trying to figure out which one. After Carrow's explosion, Sam called M to say that it looked like he was Carrow's new partner. At the pre-heist scouting, Carrow explained that the whole carload of 50,000 micro-processors was worth $5 million but refused to help with the heist. Again, completely without any respect for Sam, Jesse jumped in with a Sam Axe, Navy SEAL story - "no man left behind." Carrow bought it but Sam was furious. Jesse just smirked at him claiming "it worked didn't it?" It's a wonder Sam didn't kill him on the spot - he would have been justified.

 

Later, Jesse called M to report that he had found "Cobra's" warehouse and was told by M to "stay out of Sam's personal life." Madeline came in yet again pressing for more info so Jesse just broke down and told her that he was counterintelligence until someone broke in using his security clearance and got him burned. "Luckily," he said, "your son was there to help me." With recognition on her face she merely said: "was he." At the hanger M suggested he wished the man was there "to ask what he thought of the code name 'Cobra.'" They found the plane and M noticed that the floor had been cleaned and there was blood left in the wheel well. If it was a body, M said, it would have dropped out of the sky when the wheels deployed. Jesse said he would look for where the plane last flew. Carrow kept calling Sam like "he was part of a freaking platoon now." He wanted Sam to kill his whole crew and their families after the heist was over. M took out a security car from a snipers perch, Fiona cut through the fence and set up a shape charge, Jesse spread the wall with a spreader, and Carrow was supposed to drive the stolen truck through the gate. Sam went to be fake 'captured' by Hank but, surprise, surprise Carrow turned and brought the truck back for Sam ripping the tires on the razor guard. Already called, the police came and Carrow and Sam ran. Carrow planned that he and Sam would then take out Geo and be bosses of Miami. Sam exasperated to M that thanks to Jesse he was now the "closest friend to a total psychopath." Carrow wanted to start a war with Geo, Sam said; and Jesse replied "let's let him!" Fiona salivated that she liked the idea of "taking out half of Miami's wise guys in one afternoon, we haven't done that before" so that became plan "C." Fiona recruited some "muscle" actors and they led Carrow to a confrontation with Geo, thinking he had an army. He didn't and when Sam and the others left, Carrow was left to deal with Geo alone. Arrests were made on the dock, and Carrow was in prison for killing Geo.

 

Sam found that the last flight of the airplane they found was to the Bahamas' and the same day, "john doe" washed ashore. Fiona said she could get Jesse smuggled out of the U.S. in the cargo bay of a cigarette boat. And just to complete the episode Madeline showed up at the loft in a rage to piss on M about lying to Jesse. "I was there when you decided to join the army," she screamed. "And I remember the look on your face when you had to tell your brother about how you thought you were betraying him, leaving him behind with your father. And you had the same look on your face when you brought Jesse around." She harangued on M until he had to yell back at her that he was helping Jesse "I'm the best friend he has!" Completely dismissing Ms judgment or explanation she screamed "you're lying to him, and lies get out. Thirty years with your father taught me that" as she stormed away!