Burn Notice Guilty as Charged

[Mid-season finale] Madeline claimed she came back to town because Michael Westen had called her; but, then, M tried to send her packing. She said she’d stay and see if she could get Jesse not to shoot him and M didn’t argue. M found Barrett’s compound and “counted coup” on him to test his security and let him know that he shoulg take him serious.  Over the radio he told Barrett to be at Donner Key, north end, noon Tuesday if he wanted the Bible. He said that in return, first he wanted to know what it decoded and second to work for Barrett… cause he could use some new staff. Vaughn pontificated that Ms work was impressive but he couldn’t have Jesse loose in the wind so would "take care of him." M stopped him, but was told that Barrett’s organization had been killing: a- civilians, b-spies and c-“my people” so this job was bigger than either M or Jesse. So, he better take care of him or Vaughn would.

 

A lackey for attorney Adam Scott, who represents “half the scum-bags in Miami,” approached M with a wad of money for merely “hearing him out” about a job.  He needed M to retrieve his 5-year-old daughter, Becky, who had been kidnapped out of their back yard by Dale Lawson, the brother of one of his clients who was going to be found guilty. Rod Lawson, who ran the Carol City Gang, drug and protection rackets, was on trial for murder with overwhelming evidence and would be found guilty. Actually Barry Burkowski, Ms money laundering friend, recommended M to Scott. M said he would NOT help Scott but that he would help Becky. He met with Dale, pretenting to be "Joseph" the miracle worker, to receive “proof of life.” Following the meeting, M “ran errands” while Sam and Fiona watched for a tail. They found one and followed it back to a bar closed in the day with a “concierge” on duty. Fiona tried to keep the guy, who didn’t like her type, occupied while Sam bumbled around trying to plant a tracking device on the 10 cars in the parking lot. While they were doing it, they saw Jesse lurking about, watching them just long enough to be seen.  Analyzing the trackers, Sam discovered that Becky was being kept out on a peninsula with no way in. M went to Scott and had him get one of his drug-cartel clients’ submersibles. A low-life had it delivered to a salivating Fiona and Sam at the loft before M got home. When M told Vaughn about the meeting with Barrett, he wanted to go blazing into the meeting which M said would certainly get them all killed. Vaughn agreed to let M handle it and revealed that he had found the address where Jesse was staying under a false name. “I hope you succeed… for Jesse’s sake,” Vaughn told him.

 

Fiona told M about kissing Jesse which, to her annoyance, didn’t surprise or affect him.  He asked her if she was “confused now.” She said no, but said she wanted to talk to Jesse first and would take Madeline with her. M seemed to exhibit a flat affect the entire episode, as if he was completely overwhelmed with all the crises burning all around him. He took the submersible to the island but was greeted by Dale’s men who had been tipped off by monitoring a phone call of blabber-mouthed Chandler with his wife. Lawson sent M packing with a video phone message from Scott's daughter that she wanted to go home. Plan B then became to make Dale think his brother was really free just long enough to get Becky back. Madeline smoked an entire cigarette pack in an hour waiting for Jesse and of course Fiona felt obligated to rag on her. Jesse finally showed up and said he wasn’t interested in talking. Fiona told them they had all forgiven each other in one way or another and offered a meeting that night with M because they were still going after Barrett. He refused. Madeline told him to wait to kill M until after he had saved a girls life. Jesse pontificated that “I’m not like you guys.” [Boy, you got that right!]

 

Scott sent over one of his guys to drive a mock prison transport and Fiona went to capture the rude concierge to duct-tape, bloody up and act as Lawson's brother.  Then, when Lawson was being transported to prison after his trial, Dale watched as they did a "switch" and Sam and Fiona took down the mock van and took out the convict. They exchanged the concierge for Becky then took off, midst  gunfire. Scott let M keep the submersible for his fee and said Becky was going to live overseas with her mother and that he could take care of himself because he was angry too. Jesse did eventually come to meet M posturing about "deciding whether to kill him" and whining he never had many friends. [Some of the dialog was so poorly written it didn’t make sense] Jesse told M he was bailing on the mess he had helped generate with Barrett, and basically not to count on him for anything. So M went in alone, with Sam and Fiona setting charges on the bridge and watching from afar. Barrett verified the Authenticity of the Bible and revealed that the Bible contained the key to interpret a coded list, which he already had, of all the names, jobs and whereabouts of the people who had burned M. "They all have lives and are hidden in all sorts of places," Barrett said. Now that he had the information, he thought that M would be interested in helping him deal with them. Simon, he said, needed him to play this card once things went bad and was captured. Unfortunately, Vaughn apparently decided to sacrifice M anyway by barging in with guns a-blazing.  One of Barrett's men grabbed M from behind and was holding him. Jesse, who had shown up lone-rangering, shot the guy – THROUGH M! Barrett grabbed M and escaped in his SUV thinking that M had set him up. M, pumping blood out of his chest wound, grabbed the wheel and flipped the car killing Barrett and throwing the case with the code and bible out on the pavement. Lying there in near coma, he saw the legs of a guy dressed in one of Barrett’s uniform boots take the case and leave.