Burn Notice Summaries

The "previously on Burn Notice" segment was so extensive it pretty much had to summarize the whole of season 3 - ending with Simon on the ground chortling "you're just like me," agent Callahan telling Madeline that there was "no telling what Hell hole Michael Westen was in" and M sitting dazed in an opulent sitting room with fruit baskets and a fireplace. A man named Vaughn entered in "$1,200 shoes" and thanked M for what he did for the "old man, Management," who was now safe in an undisclosed location and Simon, who was locked away in a prison. He proclaimed himself Ms new friend and M replied "you're not my friend." Vaughn tossed M a thick folder and said "let me know when you're ready to talk." After reviewing the extensive documentation inside a cell he called for Vaughn who wanted to know what they all meant. M said there were "crop burnings, assassinations, little wars around the world all connected to some fat bank accounts."  Vaughn said that they needed Ms help in stopping the people behind the bank accounts. He said Simon's escape wasn't an accident, "it was an attack… against us." M asked "who is us, exactly" and Vaughn merely spun rhetoric about government's needing help with some things "best done by people who no longer have official ties to the government… like burned spies." M couldn't believe that with all their connections they needed him. Vaughn said if "this were a foreign government you might would be right, but this is a new kind of problem, this is about a guy who is willing to let a guy like Simon blow up Miami to protect his cash flow." He claimed that M and he were on the same side whether he liked it or not. He claimed that he knew M had "some bad experiences," some of their people were psychopaths, "but that's over now." He said that M would be "not an errand boy, a partner."  Vaughn asked "where would YOU begin" and M replied that many of the wars linked back to a weapon's supplier, Gregory Hart, who uses a sat phone to do his banking. Vaughn said "lets go talk to him together and then you can decide whether you're in or out."  As M turned away, Vaughn grinned as though he had won a victory.

 

In the jungles of South America, Vaughn handed M an automatic and said "if you want to… shoot me." M said, "I'll take a rain check." As Hart was telling them that he worked for a "16 digit Swiss bank account and an anonymous email address" M spotted an incoming explosive drone. Vaughn shot Hart's leg to "make him talk" but he didn't know anything more, he said that "I was a dead man the minute you started coming for me." They left just before the drone came in shooting and used anti-tank missiles to obliterate the compound, hitting Vaughn and knocking him to the ground. Vaughn asked "are you in or are you out?" Ms burn was apparently still in effect because he had to ride back to Miami in a cargo hold. From the balcony of a plush hotel, Vaughn told M that "this wasn't the first time. Whoever, is killing 'our people' and not just 'ours.' CIA, German intelligence… anyone who gets close, gets dead!" M asked flippantly, "so now it's MY turn?" Vaughn replied that he knew it was dangerous but they were betting that Michael Westen could succeed where others had failed. M made it clear that "this is MY investigation. Simon came after me, you asked for MY help, we do it MY way." Vaughn told him, "there's a car waiting outside, say hello to your mother for me." Madeline gave him a subdued and tearful "welcome home Michael." Exhausted, M said he was "sorry about everything," and Madeline just said they would talk later and that he should go see Fiona who she hadn't heard from since he had been gone.

 

Fiona gave him a welcome kiss while she loaded her guns to go protect a client which she and Sam had taken. She explained that a good Samaritan lawyer, Winston, had tried to help a girl by impounding her "ex's" bike which turned out to be the enforcer of a biker gang who had now put out a contract on him. Sam honked and they had to run out on their way to rescue Winston from Hunter and his squad who had come to kill the lawyer. Winston tossed a sack of all his money onto the lawn to pay the gang off but they just set it afire. M told Sam and Fiona to stay in the car while he went in to bluff it holding Mac 10 automatic weapons in both hands. The gang left saying they would be back and M had to ask "so who's that guy again?"  After the adrenaline rush was over, it was M who pouted that Fiona had just "went on with her life and acted like nothing had happened." So, this is Fiona, she slugged him. Then kissed him. She said that "knowing you I don't know whether to be more worried where you were, or why you're back." He told her that saving Management had earned him some trust and he was working on something. That, of course, began this season's war for Fiona. M decided that plan "A" was to have Barry set up some blackmail which made it financially more secure to keep Winston alive than to kill him. Barry made it look like Winston was doing guns for the Breaker so that if they killed him it would start an investigation. Fiona needed to get into the breakers records and obtain account data; and, this is Fiona, she did with seduction, subterfuge and knocking people out before climbing out a window.

 

Vaughn called requesting M "drop by" and gave him information that Hart was being investigated by counter-intelligence group who had offices near a Miami military base. He handed M a key card and said to go get the information but said he would disavow any relationship if he got caught. He also already knew about Ms dealing with the biker gang and told him to "go back to work Robin Hood." He did by blasting his way into Big Ed's girlfriend's house. The girlfriend turned out to be as brain-dead and bitchy as Hunter. She caused a diversion with Sam long enough for M to get slugged by Big Ed and have to ride him around while knocking him out with pressure on his carotid. Finally Sam had to slug Darla to get her off him. Tied up, Ed proclaimed that Winston was green-lit for the honor of the Breakers; then, listened as they outlined all the blackmail evidence they had on him. Ed asked "who are you" and M said "I'm a man of honor, just like you." Ed called Hunter and told him to come over alone; but, like an idiot he telegraphed that he was calling off the "green light on the lawyer." Hunter didn't come alone. Instead he came with his own crew and pulled a gun on Ed calling him an old man who shouldn't be giving orders and shooting him. M came in a'blazing and Winston rescued Ed into their car. They were chased by Hunter shooting at them and called Fiona to "bring the rest of the gang." She slugged one of them and stole one of their bikes then led the gang to Biscayne Highway where they assisted in taking down Hunter and his boys. Ed gave Winston Hunters jacket and told everyone to leave the guy alone.

 

We then saw Winston getting a Breaker's tattoo and saying "you should keep Michael around." M finally went back to have a talk with Madeline. She said it wasn't so much having him gone that was bad but that the FBI explaining that he was a monster. He had to explain about Simon once being like him, then turning rogue and then being blamed for things Simon had done. He said he had "spent my entire career officially being nowhere. So it's not hard to pin things on someone who's job is to never have an alibi." He told her, he had worked with bad people because he had to get Simon. She asked "that's it? It's as simple as that?"  "I don't know," he said very melancholy, "when I caught Simon he laughed." With voice cracking M continued, "he said it was just a matter of time until I was just like him." That finally subdued Madeline who hugged him and said "he's wrong… that's not the man I raised." A big mistake, Michael used Fiona to give him a ride to get the information he and Vaughn needed. She ragged on him as though she hadn't been with him through all the issues. He got out, but just enough in time to watch as fed types screeched up and hauled off a counter-intelligence man named Jesse Porter who was being blamed for breaking into (his own case?) files. Later Sam came to the loft and explained that they weren't going to prosecute because they would have to declassify the files. They were going to burn him instead - "Mike, you just burned a spy," Sam said.

 

A refreshing change of pace, this episode didn't begin with Fiona ragging on Michael Westen for anything!  It was Sam… he had found out about Vaughn and didn't think M had thought this through -- working for a SOB who had burned him and whose name sounded like a vampire! Unlike Fiona however, Sam actually listened. When M did his typical "take on the world" thing by saying: "If I don't do this I will have burned an innocent man, Jesse Porter, for nothing," Sam actually understood and shut his mouth with "Ok, but I still think Vaughn is a vampire name," something Fiona NEVER does! Mike told Vaughn, when it was commented on, that his color coming back was because he wasn't locked in a secret prison by his "Pals" anymore -- Vaughn just smirked. Vaughn said that Jesse was pissed and calling around trying to find out who had burned him, and not to worry "He'll be taken care of… nothing legal… just be taken to a secret 'holding facility.'" When M took umbrage and said "it's more efficient to use him as a resource," Vaughn merely chastized: "are you sure you're not just sentimental because YOU burned him?" [HUH?! See below] In the first meeting with Vaughn after he had been told that HE was the "boss" of the investigation, M now had to begin fighting Vaughn for control. Vaughn condescendingly tossed a folder full of Jesse's phone calls from a hacked PBX switch and told him "bug it… boss!" Then, incredibly (but not unexpectedly) Fiona took up Vaughn's mantra and ragged "do you know what you'll say to Jesse when you find him… 'Hi, I'm the one who ruined your life?'" They broke into the PBX switch and Fiona vandalized the wall plus blew up a garbage can to buy them more than the 90 seconds allowed by the alarm.

 

M and Sam crashed into Madeline's house and saw her slumped in the chair. When they woke her, she yanked off her headset and pissed at them for scaring her, even though she had texted both of them: "need help now" and then didn't answer her phone! She merely wanted their help in converting the garage for a rental -- "a nice man with a cat." She countered their arguments that they used the garage with: "you mean like building bombs and interrogating people -- when you were on vacation in prison I realized that I could use more people in my life… who didn't sleep with guns under their pillow." Listening to the tap on Jesse's phone line, while paneling and tiling the garage, Sam pointed out that, being in counter-intelligence, Jesse's "job is to interrogate spys… you know, seeing through people like you… and, ah, like us." They overheard Jesse talking to a contact who said he had looked into the incident and had found "something that you should see." M called Fiona and Sam, almost jokingly, said to the wall: "for the record, I already hate everything about this." They went to stake out Jesse's meeting at the beach and ended up having to prevent him from being taken out by people in a blacked out SUVs. Jesse's Contact has set him up; so, without knowing it, Jesse had a "team" which had his back. Sam shorted out a power line to cause a diversion allowing Jesse to escape and M observed that Ming Kahn's men only had tazers insead of guns. When Vaughn called M for a report, he refused to assist finding Jesse's old enemies saying: "You're my resource on this… you wanted to handle this? Handle it!" Returning to the loft, M noticed his lock facing the wrong direction and was able to get the drop on an intruder… Jesse Porter, asking for Ms help "with a problem only you could understand!"

 

Jese told M that people still talk and were in two groups the "he who was done wrong folks… and the they shoulda shot him folks." When M asked him which side he was on, he remained silent. He said he merely figured that M had contacts in the government, or he wouldn't have survived for so long, and he wanted to use them. M said "I've got friends, but not in the government… I can't help you there"; then had to stop Jesse from walking away by asking about his old enemy. Ming Kahn though Jesse had stolen $2 million from him and M offered to help with that. Even though he had asked for help, when he got it he was suspicious and M told him that if he helped and Jesse got back in "you could put in a good word for me." M took him to stay in a vacant condo next to Fiona who ragged on him "if another one of your stray's ruins my linen's" until he through her quote that Jesse needed someone to watch his back back at her. When Jesse wouldn't tell her about Kahn because it was "classified," Fiona said "Michael worries about words like 'classified,' I only worry about who and why I'm fighting." He then said that Kahn was a drug shipper who was snitching on his terrorist pals in exchange for a life in America. Jesse was his handler and when $2 million that he was transferring to American banks was intercepted by the Chineese, got blamed for stealing it. Fiona thought that if they set up Kahn for selling weapons and got him arrested, all of his friends would keep away from Jesse. Jesse doubted their plan and M had to say "I'm a spy Jesse, that's what we do!" Jesse said, "I doubt you two have any mutual friends" to introduce them. "A mutual enemy will do fine," M replied.

 

M introduced himself to Kahn as Turner who was also looking to capture Jesse for a "certain cartel" and had been foiled by Kahn's "half-assed snatch and grab" at the beach. He said that he knew where Jesse was but wanted to partner because they had the resources to obtain the necessary guns to extract Jesse from where he was holed up. He said they could get what they wanted and then he would get to take Jesse -- they refused, so M just left and told Jesse that they just needed to convince Kahn that they needed his help. Sam organized a fake assault on Kahn's compound and Jesse tried to change it but was told no. Jesse did the attack although, he didn’t follow their plan and nearly got M killed - which really pissed off Sam. Sam and M had to repair the charger where Jesse shot it as Jesse showed up and began a pissing match with Sam. M intervened and Sam acquiesced saying: "the sooner we're done with Kahn the sooner we're done with Billy the Kid here!" M gave Kahn the list of weapons he needed to buy and needed to tell Kahn that he had "spent 15 years in special ops, interrogating, tracking, climbing in caves in Afganistan" in order to convince him of his expertise. Kahn wanted an account to wire the money and Fiona modified a truck to carry heavy weapons. M had to go to Madeline's where the cat of her new renter had "found one of his old detonators." He confessed to Fiona that he had been demoted from field work because he couldn't follow the plan and did things his own way - largely without thinking of the consequences. Fiona told him "I knew I liked you" because she was just like him. M manipulated Lee into demanding to carry the guns in their own car over Ms warnings that the weight would cause someone to call the cops. Sam called the cops. In the ensuing chase, Kahn flipped and was captured by the police, guns spilling from his trunk.

 

After M left his fourth message on Jesse's phone, Fiona ragged that he was "sounding a little desparate… Jesse isn't they type to leave without saying goodbye… he's not YOU!" Kahn, whose DEA contacts had gotten him free, called to ask Ms help in interrogating Jesse who he had captured trying to go back to his old apartment (ostensibly for a St. Christopher's medal belonging to his deceased mother.) Jesse wasn't responding to the tazing so Kahn wanted Ms help. With Sam finding the recent death of a plausible aunt for jesse, and Barry's help tracing Kahn's bank account numbers back to Lee's accounts in Antigua, M was able to pass Lee's account number to Jesse using subtle trickery during his interrogation. Saying that he had killed the fictitious aunt, and threatening to kill his mother, he got Jesse to admit stealing the $2 million for a person using Lee's bank account number. Lee and Kahn sort of took care of each other after that! Instead of thanking M, Jesse complained that he had left the "old guy in charge of the get away." Sam told him to "buckle up rookie, and don't bleed on the upholstery." Jesse complained that he needed a new place to stay and despite Ms saying no, his mother "had enough burned spies in her life," Fiona said she had already arranged it!

 

Later at another meeting, Vaughn complimented M on winning Jesse's trust but wasn't happy with finding out that M was going to go slow in extracting any classified information. He offered help with torture of Jesse to make him talk and then meanicingly threatened M that "for Jesse's sake, get at it!" Back at Madeline's he found her giving Jesse her very best gun cleaner. She told M that she "forgot how much she hated cats…" and even though "you, Sam and Fiona may be nuts, you are doing something with your life and I just like being part of it. What kind of sissy wouldn't sleep with a gun under his pillow anyway!"  Incredibly, even after all M had done for him, Jesse bristled when M asked him what got him burned. M told him that "you're out in the cold, it's dangerous to do it alone."  He finally revealed that he was looking into "wars, terrorist attacks and had a lead on a guy that was tied into it… probably got too close."  M asked if he wanted help finding the guy and Jesse said that even when he got back in he was going to find the guy who burned him and was going to kill him. "Are you good with that," he asked, and M calmly said "yea, I'm good with that."

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!

Fiona and Jesse got to go to the Bahamas to identify the "John Doe" body who might be Jesse's "Cobra" contact he had been searching for. Even midst wild partying, the moment Michael Westen made contact with her, she launched into her tiresome negative tirade about his relationship with her. Jesse used a believable Jamaican persona to manipulate a man named Ty, the coroner's assistant, into a fight so Fiona could pick his pocket for his morgue keys. Jesse barely found the needed records as Ty walked in with a cop so he needed to hide in one of the cadaver coolers. Unfortunately for Jesse he was ID'd going out the door, got chased by red light and siren's and needed to leap into Fiona's waiting speed boat. The report showed the body had been strangled and dropped into the water, had tissue under his nails from scratching someone, was of middle eastern descent (Cobra had a Lebanese accent), and had thoracic scaring from heavy smoking (Cobra had a raspy voice.)  All of which convinced Jesse at least, so he had already faxed prints to Sam and received them back before even telling M; but, decided to play games with M and string him along. The prints were of Jeremiah Kassar (sp?) whose address was a PO box which they needed to decode, a job that fell to Jesse and Fiona because Sam was waiting outside honking expecting M to help with a job that Jesse had committed him to.  Josh and Lila Wagner, who run a charity for families of killed soldiers, were caught up in a scam in which they lost the charities money and "just needed a consultation… it's not a job." "Just listen to the problem and point us in the right direction," Sam promised when M really didn't want to take the job; and they needed to use Ms car because Sam's was out of gas. Lila frantically exclaimed that Josh had already left to go confront Nick Madison, and M got reluctantly drug along protesting: "this is feeling more like a job Sam"; and Sam retorting basically "what else have you got to do?"

 

Jesse and Fiona went to track down Kassar and when their subterfuge of being a soon-to-be-married couple didn't work with the clerk, Rebecca, had to switch to working for "Dead Beat Dad Trackers," noticing she had kids photos but no ring -- they got the information. Back with M, Josh had already "lost it" and was waving his gun around demanding money. When Madison condescendingly tried to continue his con, Josh gun-whipped him in the head just as SWAT siren's came roaring up. That put M and Sam in the middle. Sam closed the blinds and locked the doors claiming that he was "following his gut on this one" even though M was exclaiming they needed to get Josh out before he got hurt. He and M had a heated discussion about returning the charities money while pushing on opposite sides of a desk that he was attempting to move in front of the door. Even Josh screamed they both should leave but became overwhelmed at seeing the arsenal of SWAT vehicles parked outside and Lt. Seth Casey calling on the phone. M recognized that Josh's voice would bring the SWAT's banging through the door so he told Sam "I'll leave when you leave" and he picked up the phone pretending to be a hostage and saying "no one would get hurt as long as they didn't get any closer." This WAS a job! Sam told Josh that as long as they stayed "just two friends trying to end this peacefully" they could get his money back and still stay out of jail. Sam took Josh's gun and found that it didn't have any bullets. M took Nick and told him that he wasn't getting out of there alive unless he came clean; Sam took Patty and became convinced she wasn't in on it when she said that Madison had been helping Tom Norris with his mortgage out of his own pocket. Madison offered his computer password to M so they knew that he had already 'sanitized' all his scam records. All of the perfection in Madison's records confirmed to M that they were "dealing with a liar but had no way to prove it." They realized they needed to talk to Norris who was Madison's accomplice so M wired into a phone line trunk to call Fiona.

 

Fiona and Jesse were trying to pick the high-tech, double-cylindered, deadbolt lock at Kassar's when a "nosey neighbor from Hell," Kendra, nearly caught them. Their quick alibi about being census taker's didn't get them away, only a call from M who they pretended was their supervisor. M asked them to go find and talk to Norris. Meanwhile Nick had conned Josh again to let him get his personal bank records from a drawer which really held his own gun. Too late to prevent it, but knowing what Madison was going to do, M disarmed Madison and took the gun -- which caused both Madison and Patty to turn on him. Sam and he were no longer "just helping friends," they were accomplices to "armed kidnapping and unlawful confinement." Sam's apologies were specious, but M said he was the one who decided to stay. M called Casey and said "he'll let one of us go when he see's a panel van with full gas and no side or back windows." He also found that Casey had run all the plates and knew all their names. Fiona and Jesse found Norris and conned him into thinking they were the crew from Boca who wanted their payout. They took him outside Madison's office where he spilled that Madison always converted the score's to cash and put it in his office room floor safe - they put him in Fiona's trunk for keeping. She called M who said they were now accomplices to which she responded: "you're going to have to quit doing favor's for Sam." He asked her to "pull out all stops" and create a diversion - she went for her C-4. Madison refused to give them the combination, but Patty was surprised by the revelation. They made a shape charge from bullets and a toaster to extract the safe from the floor and found over a million dollars. Patty slapped Madison and he slugged her back and threw a rock through the window which they knew would bring the SWAT.

 

Fiona told M that they had about 5 minutes before SWAT breeched. M decided they should do like a bank heist in Lima Peru, where the robbers made themselves look like the victims and walked out scott free. But they would need to get Patty to join in their story - she refused but eventually they got her to stop arguing and they didn't know whether she would cooperate or not. M had to con Madison into getting angry enough to take Ms gun and be pointing it at him when the SWAT team breeched - "easy peasy." They all stuck to the story and even Patty said that when Josh had come in the office all out of control, Madison had pulled a gun and took them all hostage. Casey came out telling M that "I probably should thank you" because Patty had said without him things would have been worse. Then he said that Ms record showed he had a fondness for explosives and wanted to know about the safe blown out of the floor. "It was like that when we got there," M told him. M referred the Wagner's to Barry for financial management. When Sam tried to apologize, M told him "you said it would be less than a day." Sam sighed and said "one long ass day!"

 

Back at "Cobra's," M had difficulty picking the lock too. They found steam cleaned carpets and fresh painted walls -- it had been "sanitized," not even change in the couch. It would have taken time so M wanted to go talk to the "neighborhood watchdog."  M used his Agent Gordon FBI ID but was told Kendra didn't know anything. Back with Jesse, M said he noticed that none of the room photos had Kendra in them and Jesse wondered why a physically fit jogger would cover her arms in the heat. They realized Kendra was the assassin who was now sitting on his place to see if anyone came knocking. Both of them burst through her door only to see her attempting to retrieve something from behind the drywall then flee. They didn't get Kendra but they did get a high density computer cartridge.

Michael Weston and Jesse labored at the computer trying to crack into the data disk they retrieved from Kendra while voice-over explained that it was harder for a spy to crack arcane or out-of-date software than it was the latest technology and this was the former. When Fiona helped, she brought her usual whining about "14 phone calls, 7 data recovery experts and 3 hours of arm twisting -- and it's still unreadable" which prevented her from even noticing the subtle clues of a trap. M noticed that temporary signs were routing everyone through a single point which could be observed and saw Kendra watching - realizing that they would be here eventually. M called Sam to help try and entrap her then slowly led her to where Sam had left a Taser - no luck, she felt the trap and did a cat-burglar exit up a ladder to the roof leaving a cell phone. He punched the call button and she coyly bantered with him - answering that "Kendra was as good a name as any." M said they should talk because he had something that she wanted and she retorted that she hoped he was ready to have some fun. Jesse called and tricked M to come over for Madeline and used the occasion to belittle Ms plan to grab Kendra, "it's a wonder you're still alive." Madeline had a friend who had trouble with drug dealers. Exasperated, he growled at Jesse "I expect this from her!" Lauren, a former "doctor" of Madeline's, who had moved across town to work with her boyfriend, physician David in a community clinic, explained that heroin dealers had begun selling right outside the clinic. David had called the police, who were ineffective, and now the hood had beaten David up and told him to "leave or die." Without even looking at M, Madeline chimed in committing "he'll see what he can do." David was rude and refused to work outside the police. He said someone had to stand up to the thugs and he had dealt with people like this before in Brazil and Uganda. Finally Lauren shamed him into listening and M said that they would deal with the thugs from the outside so they didn't retaliate against the clinic or him. He resignedly agreed. Both Jesse and Fiona wanted to go to battle without even knowing who the dealers were so M had to talk reason. Fiona said: "fine, just promise there'll be hitting at some point," and walked away.

 

Kendra called and used a flirty, bantering to which M responded in kind until Fiona gave him the "witches eye." He told Kendra to meet him tomorrow at 4 with $50,000 for the tape. M went to scout the meeting place while the others "climbed the drug chain" using a  RFID tracking device on the money Jesse bought some drugs with. They tailed the runner to a strip club and Fiona decided to call in a favor with Sugar for some inside information on the boss in the sport coat. Sugar recognized, and was afraid of, the guy calling him a "psycho who gave drug dealers a bad name." Vince Cutler, Sugar said, "came down from the Bronx and was spreading through Dade County like the plague." A couple of years before, Cutler had shot Sugar's friend Carl, and had told Sugar that if he ever saw him again he'd kill him, and he saw him; so, Sam had to divert Cutler's attention by picking a fight with the guy then beating him down. Sugar said that Cutler had been funded heavy by a Mexican cartel and now had to pay them back so was scared. As he was having stitches in his head, Sam said "worse surveillance ever!" David protested mightily about having them fortify his clinic. They had to tell him about Cutler's cartel problem and that they "just needed to find his supply, take it, and he'll be running from some very angry Mexican's." M said they needed to give Cutler something else to hide so they could track it back to his stash, and asked for some Fentanyl (a narcotic analgesic).

 

Sugar met them at Carlito's with expectations of "being on the team." Sugar said he "owed them one… anytime… except this time." M asked him to have his buddies up north "remember working with me" and he reluctantly agreed. M pretended to be Kyle Barkley a "supplier of Fentanyl without a demander" after his buyer in DC got shot at a dog fight. He left his number and expected that Cutler would check him out. Back trying to snatch Kendra, Sam posed as a security guard to tase her for shoplifting; but, she just called and toyed some more and set her own date, time and place. M had to deal with another useless tirade from his mother about how incompetent his plans were, even though she was the one who had forced him into the mess. Cutler called for a meeting, took Ms drugs but resisted the attempts to get him to show his stash house. Jesse followed the car with the runner going to the house, but arrogantly blew it and barely escaped Cutler's road trap. Cutler threw a brick through the window at the clinic with a note saying: "you're closed." David belligerently refused any cooperation with M which required M to "capture" him, saying "you'll thank me later." They utilized a remote controlled airplane with a camera to scout the area Jesse was rousted in and found a house, with a cluster of guys, which they were sure was the stash house. Kendra called with another place to meet and M had to run to Madeline's where David thought he could handle Cutler better than M. Cutler had told their neighbors that he was going to hit the clinic to "teach them a lesson." They found Cutler himself ranting and railing outside the clinic with no one there. When he picked up a fire bomb Fiona shot it and peppered all around them from hiding. David complained that M couldn't protect the clinic, offered no other plan except to complain and (surprise, surprise) both Jesse and Fiona wanted to go to war with Cutler. M kept saying to keep to the plan and Madeline stuck her nose in demanding M go talk to her "right now." She had no other plan to offer except a story about how M had backed down the bully Todd for Nate when they were young. After M went to high school Nate was "fair game" and they made his life miserable until Nate solved the problem with a 2x4. M told her that David wasn't up against school bullies, "these people will kill him" Her only comment was "I don't think you're going to let that happen."

 

When Madeline was through Fiona arrogantly gave him an ultimatum "either your with us or not, we are going to hit Cutler." M directed clearly "No, WE are not. David will be the one who stands up to cutler." However, M had to do a phenomenal amount of set up to make it look like David was the hero. M went to Cutler, beat up and saying that David had beaten him up. He told Cutler that David ran with some "merc's or something. He is ex-delta force and used to run black ops with them all around the globe. Now he's coming after your stash." M showed him a whole folder of newspaper clippings about David. Cutler checked with his "corner boys" and found that they had been hit. Incensed, he ran to his stash house to fight against David. With Fiona, Jesse, Sam and M already prepared around the house, David crashed the clinic's van through Cutlers road trap and confronted Cutler on the street. He said Cutler had forced his hand even though all he wanted was to live in peace for once. Jesse fired tear gas into the house pulling out all Cutlers men. Then, Fiona blew up Cutler's car. Cutler attacked David who acted like some kind of Gandhi saying "either leave town or face the consequences." When Cutler drew his gun, Fiona shot it out of his hand. David said he'd count to three. Cutler still did nothing, so on three Fiona blew up the whole house. David said his people were everywhere and they wouldn't kill him if he left. All the men started running and Fiona's gang peppered the ground behind them with bullets. As David acted the hero, Jesse said "that's how we do it people." In recap the next day, the clinic was open and David said thanks. On their way out, Madeline nagged M that "sometimes people need to fight their own battles." Annoyed, M told her "I got it the first time."  She said, "better to have Michael Westen than a 2 x 4."

 

At a vulnerable boat yard, M expected Sam to cover him from an untenable position. He said that he was going in to get her and he had reinforced a briefcase with metal siding. Actually, he needed it because she drew him out of Sam's line of sight, then pulled a Japanese Tanto knife on him when he was diverted from the back-pack of payment she tossed at his eyes. When her knife went clear through the briefcase and was stuck, he hit her with it and knocked her out. As Sam helped put her in the trunk, he said "this isn't going to be easy. She's going to make our life hard."

 

What to do with the woman in the trunk (Kendra)? Sam and Michael Westen had captured the assassin, now Jesse was haranguing M with all the ways HE was going to "break her." M tried to wait patiently until Jesse had finished pontificating, but eventually even his patience wore thin and he had to exasperatedly say: "if I could just finish a thought!" Even during Ms explanation, Jesse interrupted "you're talking about a rendition play?" M finished "I was trying to!" Jesse pontificated again, "it's been successful in Afghanistan" to which M could only say "yea, I KNOW!  I hope you listen better in there," he told him. Kendra was arrogant enough to think she was in control and mocked that they should have "metal instruments." M told her that he had talked with Serbian's who were very interested that he was holding the person who had killed their weapons supplier. She immediately clammed up but still wouldn't say who she worked for. She demonstrated how much they could do to her, without her giving in, by slamming her own head repeatedly into a metal table until Jesse finally stopped her. That gave Kendra the opportunity to tell Jesse how "sweet" he was and M to physically throw him out the door. M had to explain even the basic's of the ploy to him. It "only works when the bad cop isn't in the room… she is a predator… over confident around people she thinks of as prey… YOU'RE the prey!" Jesse was supposed to be the only one in the room from now on. Sam wasn't happy being just the "backup" until M explained that Jesse was the "weak link" and needed an "unseen boss from hell."

 

Fiona came to pick up M for a: "big money gig… some friend of a friend who makes knock-off handbags… who someone tried to kill… needs our help." M told Sam he'd be back soon "It won't take long." Sam shot back, "oh yea, it never does." Buddy, who forged high-end luxury goods explained that the person he had done his last job for had tried to kill him; but, Fiona was more interested in knowing if the shoes he said she could have "came in blue." He said he needed to hire a "special strike force commando team," which he had heard that they were. He showed them a photo of the two little onyx lion heads, with a piece of tooled leather, which was his last job for $20 grand. No names, no addresses and the person used a voice scrambler so he didn't know who it was, but serendipitously found that his hot tub had been rigged to electrocute him. M was explaining why they couldn't help when Fiona's shoe envy caused her to panic and say "we're gonna help." Buddy had bribed a phone company lady to triangulate his clients phone and gave them the address. It turned out to be an abandoned machine shop, rigged with video camera's and wirelessly triggered explosives. M quickly called the fire department, after it blew; then posed as Randy, a county arson investigator. He found a burned lap-top and a resin mold of what the lion heads were made into. Then he had to bluster his way out saying he needed to get toxic material out of there which was going to cause radiation sickness.

 

Jesse seemed stunned that Sam could unload on him so effectively, then meekly went in to interrogate Kendra. She immediately began working him and trying to be his 'buddy.' She proposed a trade to know who each other were. She said the guy had merely been a "paid job, but I hit harder than you do," and he said "I work for a private company." Back with Buddy, Fiona told him that the sword was a replica of one that used to belong to Alexander the Great which Ken Bocklage, the CEO of a software company, had just purchased. They intended to catch the assassin/thief when it was put on display at a product launch. Sam narrowed the possible thief down to: Messer Glisson' - "Mister Slippery," who had never been seen. If he can't get away clean he blows up stuff - "seven heists on three continents." They tried to get Bocklage to hire them as security consultants, Scott Miller and Karen Campbell; but, even though they showed him the mold which they had found, he refused to believe that he'd hired anyone who could/would steal from him, pointing to his head of security and his assistant Salina. He told them: "you could be thieves" and left; so, they decided to hit the HR department without Bocklage's help. They got employee information but nearly were caught by the HR lady who was rude to Fiona, so she got a coffee cup thrown at her for a diversion. Employee records pointed to Andrew Deans and they also found incriminating evidence in his apartment. Unfortunately, they then needed to rush and save Buddy, who was being set up for another explosion; except that Fiona had to shoot him in the arm to stop him.

 

They still had to fight Bocklage for him to admit any vulnerabilities. Salina seemed to manipulate Bocklage into alternate excuses for all their evidence. They finally showed him infrared paint marks on the floor, marking the thief's exit strategy, and a shut-off timer intended to cut the room's power set for 8pm. M revealed that they had a tail on Deans and said they would "take care of it." Sending Sam to follow Deans meant that Jesse was alone with Kendra; however Kendra, feeling Jesse's growing frustration, offered to pay him $300,000 to let her go. She gave him her account number and name of her money manager, which Sam had Barry trace. Meanwhile Buddy played like an "authenticator" to make sure the sword coming out of the armored car hadn't already been switched for the fake. It was real. Then, waiting in the break room for the 8pm breaker switch time, Sam called and said that Dean's had just been blown up in a car bomb. M rushed to the sword and found it had already been switched and the guard on the floor dead. Salina manipulated Bocklage's suspicions into believing that M was the thief; so, after the explosion, M had to escape, while Fiona watched the exits for the thief. Finally out of the building, M realized that the thief could be one of the firemen coming out, so yelled: "help." All but one of the firemen reflexively turned to see who was calling, so he chased the one that didn't down and found her to be Salina - who was carrying the sword. Even being thrown into their trunk she recognized Buddy and threatened to kill him. Stunned, Fiona confessed "I didn't see that one coming." Debriefing around Buddy's hot tub, they said that Salina was being denied bail and Deans had been just a local thug Salina had hired then killed when she knew they were onto him. Buddy gave Fiona a knockoff handbag to replace the one M had blown up stopping Salina, then blustered "If you guys ever need me for anything - you know where to find me."

 

Barry found that "Kendra's money went through six banks and four different holding companies in five different countries!" Sam added "and that's just what we could confirm." I seemed an inordinate amount of caution and way too much trouble for just just hiring an assassin; so, Barry made it look like the people who paid Kendra had now drained her account to zero. They knew she would not be happy and Sam called it "appointment television." Kendra did indeed blow up and began telling them everything they wanted to know in order to extract revenge. The Jeremiah Kassar (Jesse's Cobra) which they knew about was just one of four people she was hired to kill. All of the four were "operatives hired to rob a bank… a safety deposit box… but they blew it, got caught, proved themselves expendable." She didn't know the name of who hired her, or the bank. Just that the attempt was "the fourth of last month." All she asked of Jesse in return was to let whoever it was know that she was the one who had ruined him. Sam found that Kendra had FBI warrants so decided to "make a donation to their collection." Before they got the duct tape to tire her up, M broke out the bottles and they toasted "to the new guy."

Jesse stood on the beach looking “at the one woman on the beach who should not be wearing a bikini” and finally admitted to Michael Westen and Fiona that he had them there doing surveillance on his old handler, Marv, who was at the Eden Roc Hotel for the International Intelligence Conference. M agreed that they needed someone with high level connections to help them find which bank they needed to look for and said he would help Jesse approach Marv.  They found Marv in the bar where M told him that Jesse had not done what he was accused of, “trust me."  He also said that Jesse hadn’t stopped working on what he was doing and that now they needed to know which bank had the robbery attempt. Marv claimed he didn’t believe Jesse was guilty but that he wouldn’t help any burned spies. As Marv was walking away, M noticed a Russian wet-work team, Spetsnaz, checking into the hotel; so, Fiona said “let’s just ask one of them who they are here to kill.”  Jesse said: “Let’s get the pretty-boy runt of the litter” – Alexi.  Alexi wouldn’t talk to Sam except to say that “everyone in Russian Special Forces has heard the name of Michael Westen. He’s like the boogey man, not real." M introduced himself, showed a driver’s license then spoke in fluent Russian saying that "I shot a man who looked a lot like you in Kiev, ’93, who tried to sell a warhead." Alexi eventually revealed that they were in the US to capture a former American spy, Paul Anderson (now working at Bananafish Bar), who had once had a high-level source in the Kremlin which they thought still might be in place and wanted to know about. Their leader, Vitali, was an interrogation specialist.

 

M found Anderson and had to rescue him from the four Spetsnaz who were left. Back at the loft Anderson called Fiona a “beautiful creature” and M had to keep him focused. M decided to help Anderson telling him that what he needed now was a new name, a pension transfer and to be put back on the “do not touch” list. Their plan was to use some “dirt” that Anderson had on a congressman Cowley to coerce him into making it happen. Sam would separate Cowley from his entourage then meet M, Anderson and Fiona at Cowley’s house on Key Biscayne. True to form Fiona kept intruding to have a heart-to-heart about "poor Jesse" right in the middle of the mess. She stormed off and Sam told M that “I still love ya… and have fun with the ghost of Christmas future” (meaning Anderson). Fiona bumped into Marv pretending to be an old acquaintance and invited him to her room as a business meeting. Jesse told Fiona that no matter what she said about “healthy” behavior he “wasn’t stopping until the people who burned him were six-feet under.” Cowley rebuffed Sam scoffing that he was only one of his constituents, so Sam needed to bring in Madeline. She said she would be glad to help because she had always wanted to slap Cowley for his “obnoxious good old boy shtick.” Anderson kept telling M that "You remind me of me." He asked, “You wake up 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night? It never gets better, after a while you just start collecting ghosts!” Rum helps, he said.

 

M used explosives on a kill switch to detract Vitali while Anderson went into his apartment to get the documents he had on Cowley; although, he couldn’t remember the combination (the day his mother died) so M had to crack it. Anderson had Crowley’s signature on a document to a Marine General urging illegal deployment into Bogota in 1988 where 14 were KIA and Cowley had covered it up. Vitali was having satellite support to track M so kept up with them. M and Anderson only escaped by untying a boat from its trailer in a traffic jam, which then dropped on the Russians. Jesse was able to convince Marv to find out which bank was hit on the 4th of last month; but only if he never saw him again… ever. He’d give the info to Fiona. Smug Cowley already knew who M was and that it must have been his idea to shake down a sitting congressman. He revealed that he'd already taken care of Anderson's issue. He had blackmailed a general who had been caught diverting money into admitting to the Bogota scandal, which made Andersons blackmail useless. He said he was going to see that Sam and Madeline were audited by the IRS every year for the rest of their lives and heap dirt on Ms grave, “just for the hell of it.” Anderson decked him out cold.

 

It took M rescuing them all from Vitali’s team to get Cowley to help Anderson. Vitali’s men whined to to him to let them surrender because “he was Michael Westen and there is only four of us.”  Cowley heard Vitali threaten that there would be more Russians come until Anderson told them what he knew. Anderson shot Vitali and M had to back him down at gunpoint. "You're telling me it's illegal to shoot russian assassin's on american soil now?"  Sam pointed out that Cowley could both help Anderson and look like a hero; or, be a traitor who had helped MW draw in Russians. He agreed saying "maybe next year I'll run unopposed." Anderson was going to be Paul Vandermark in Newport and said he might write his memoirs so M could publish them after he was gone. M found that Anderson’s memory was going – not just because he drank. Anderson told M that “all you really have in the end… are your stories.” Marv brought the details for the bank robbery, Miami Trust, to Fiona and wanted her to tell Jesse that he knew he was innocent. He gave her a paper which showed that there had been a duplicate key card used on that day; but, video surveillance tapes had all been confiscated. Fiona destroyed the paper then turned on M for her slugfest claiming that M only cared about the “idea of people” and not about those who had his back every day.

Michael Westen and Jesse asked Madeline to help them case the Miami Trust bank and use what she did best – smoking. Jesse delivered sandwiches to the security room while Madeline lit up down in the vault to see what the reaction would be. Jesse’s plan nearly got her “burned” – except the security guard felt sorry for her having to put her dead husband’s photo’s in the box. “First thing Frank’s been good for in 30 years,” she told them. Ms plans were to get into the legal office above the vault somehow and then blast their way through the floor – “they’re lawyers, they have it coming!” Sam and Fiona got all dressed up in formal-wear to pretend to be Charles and Charlotte who were going to guard a rich man’s party and prevent anyone from stealing a new battery. Before Fiona left the loft her passive-aggressiveness was blatant enough to have everyone asking M: “what did you do to her?” Christian Aikins' house had "more security than the bat cave”; but, the masked guys with machine guns weren’t there for the battery, rather for Aikins' wife, Sarah. They shot up the place and Fiona had no option except to go with Sarah pretending that her husband was just as rich.

 

The kidnappers disappeared like ghosts and turned out to be Mexican brothers, Jacob and Eddy, who were expanding their business northward. They called Aikins on his web cam and M began acting as hostage-negotiator. They saw Fiona blink “no” in Morse code, meaning they had seen the kidnapper’s faces so would be killed. Aikins acted like a complete buffoon the whole episode and disobeyed Ms instructions at every turn putting Fiona's life at jeopardy. Fiona even had to argue with little Princess Sarah the whole time she was making a bomb and stealing a phone to call M. While Fiona was on the phone she overheard them taking Sarah out of the building because her husband was the only one who paid! Their 20 hours of lead time had now turned into only one. Jesse had been told to watch Aikins but hadn’t. M told Jesse "You can beat youself up about it later, and I'll help you."  Sam saw Fiona’s smoke signal and said “where’s there’s smoke, there’s Fi.”  Fiona wiled a bottle of Vodka out of Jacob and broke free from the chair she was tied to. She rigged a light bulb full of alcohol to blow up and called M to say that he needed to go find Sarah. Sam waited outside the house.

 

Jesse finally forced Aikins to tell where the payoff would be: his CFO was going to the Lighthouse at Cape Florida. Fiona stalled Jacob with “last requests” until the light bulb blew up and she could take down Jacob.  Sam came in and took out his buddy saying: "Honey I'm home."  M appeared at the drop and showed Eddy a photo of Jacob duct taped to a chair with Fiona’s fire-extinguisher bomb between his legs and a watch taped to the top. Eddy gave Sarah to M who then took their guns and shot their tires. M then convinced Eddy that the only way he could save his brother on the other side of town before the bomb went off was to call the police on himself in order to get them to reach Jacob in time. The police snapped up Jacob and grabbed Eddy at the airport after his 911 call. Back at the loft Fiona said “you should see the other guy” and seemed to have forgiven M, while Jesse acted uncomfortable and left.

 

Madeline had washed the masks that Fiona took from the kidnappers and told Jesse that "maybe you and M can use them in your  bank heist." She also observed to Jesse that “M and Fiona love each other, and hate each other, but it’s always each other.” When he said that he knew that, she told him "And I believe you, but you might want to work on your poker face." Mike and Jesse were through the ceiling, into the vault and back out in under a minute - and found an old Bible in box 64. It was a book code and belonged to Simon Escher – who M told Jesse that he didn’t know.

"Old Bibles make good code books because of the variation between books and numbering of chapter and verse" Michael Westen said in voice-over; but, only Simon Escher knew what the book paired with and Vaughn had Simon Escher. Not surprisingly neither Sam nor Fiona liked Ms idea to talk with Simon; but, Fiona took the book to hide until after Vaughn had left town. The hurricane hitting Miami didn’t stop Vaughn from appearing at the loft; or, from going back into the storm when M threw him out for saying “No” to the request to speak to Simon.  Probably only the second time we’ve ever heard M yell he told Vaughn that: "I have risked my life, got a man burned and caught an endless amount of grief over it – and before you say no, you  need to remember that I’m pretty dangerous too.” With his screwed up face, Vaughn had said “this is me saying no!” So out he went into the storm but not before saying: “there are bigger storms coming and I’m going to remember this.” While M was chewing out Madeline over not evacuating for the hurricane, FBI agents Harris and Lane came asking for a favor. A man named James Bailey had witnessed a murder that the Turkish syndicate had pulled and was now under witness protection. A hitter had found where Bailey was and opened up with a modified Saiga-12K so Bailey took off. They needed help finding Bailey while they were being pulled back to Washington for reprimands. They had the license plate number of a truck Bailey had stolen and M just couldn’t miss the opportunity for the FBI to “owe him one."

 

Fiona told M about Pano, who had a knack for specialized shotguns, so M went with Sam to shake them down for information which he could then give back to the fed’s and be done with it. Unfortunately, they got involved deeper than they planned. They found that a young guy named Cole had wanted a clean Saiga with a 20-round drum last week dropped behind the Gold Coast Apartments in N Miami then they locked the arms dealers in the trunks of their car. Vaughn came to Fiona’s apartment with a gift of Cuban food and tried to weasel the book out of her. He claimed that he would get Jesse his job back if she got the book from M and claimed to be doing it for Ms benefit. He claimed that: "Ms burn happened before I was even was in the picture and I had nothing to do with it." "I've been nothing but a friend to M,” he said. So she asked him, "Does M know you are here?" which shut him up. Sam found where Cole, the shooter, was living and M went to see if he was still there after the hurricaine, only to fall into a room booby-trapped with a claymore mine. Cole came out of the closet while he was disarming it. Cole thought M was Matt Reese, a second hit man he knew that the Turks had paid for the job. M signaled Sam, who was watching, to monitor the radio before being hustled into a car and cable-tied to the steering wheel.

 

M convinced Cole that they needed a city vehicle in order to get past evacuation lines and was able to contact Sam on the radio while Cole was outside getting caught up in a shorted power line. The FBI said that the truck had been found abandoned so wouldn't be of any use and that they had never known about the girlfriend Cole had mentioned to M. Sam sent Jesse, Fiona and Madeline to Bailey’s house to scout for some description or something he could use the next time M was able to call. M saved Cole from being electrocuted by a broken power line in water. He offered to pass him a ladder to walk on if Cole would toss him his gun; but, instead, Cole dropped it into the water. So M decided to teach him to obey and slugged him when he got across. Unfortunately, Cole had another gun and slugged back. M worked mentally on Cole about his previous role in the Bomb Disposal unit and revealed he had been in the Special Forces as well. Cole admitted that he had been dishonorably discharged due to his “buddies” trafficking drugs and that his superiors wouldn’t listen.

 

Madeline found Bailey’s girlfriend’s pregnancy ultrasound and a photo of a white house, grey roof, a blue door and a weather vane; which they CBd to M in coded speech. However, the real Matt Reese got the drop on Cole and M so M had to jump over the rail to escape then run to Joanne, Bailey’s girlfriends’, house. He told them: “I’m Michael Westen and I’m here to save you people.” Then when Cole came he had to tell him as well: "I'm Michael Westen and I'm here to save these people." Then, he played on Cole’s better half again, which wasn’t too successful until Matt Reese showed up and tried to kill them all – then they became teammates. M rigged an air conditioner to explode when Reese’s men came down the alley, which worked but Reese then got the drop on him. Cole had to take Matt down. M let Cole go to Antigua, where he had said that he wanted to go, and he dropped his gun on the way out. M cable-tied Matt and his men up, returned Bailey and let Harris and Lane take all the credit. That was the way that M got them to roust Vaughn about being: "put on the public enemies list unless you do what that man over there (M) wants." Fiona had told M about Vaughn’s visit and her appointment with him. She said to tell Vaughn she couldn’t make it and next time not to bring Cuban food.

Michael Weston gave up going to the gun range with Fiona in order to study Simon Escher’s complete life’s story so that he could better interrogate him – the key to “all of it.” Vaughn met M at the entrance to a secret villa/prison and said “you never have anything less than six eyes and three guns on him” and that the only thing he’d learned was that they guy has a “remarkable tolerance for pain.” M told Simon, under the view of cameras, that it was just between him and M and he could possibly make their time with them a bit more humane. Simon didn’t even blink when M said that he had found his bible; but, when he said that somebody else had tried to steal it before he did it, that seemed to take him by surprise. Simon quoted the Bible verse John 8:32 about the “truth shall set you free” then popped loose his metal-fatigued handcuffs and rammed M backwards through the lanai window. They went over the balcony and onto a chase lounge. Before Vaughn's men came, Simon rapidly told M that he had 30 seconds before the guards came and he had a present for him: "Cemetery 3rd and Grand," he said, "plot 837, there are keepsakes of mine in there including an audio tape labeled Berlin 2007, be careful digging it up but you will find it real interesting. We’ll talk more about the bible after you hear what’s on the tape." Then the guards came. M told Vaughn that he hadn’t learned anything from Simon except that "you should change Simon’s handcuffs more often." Fiona sewed up Ms handcuff laceration and said she had no sympathy for him.

 

Sam went to see a buddy in prison who had saved his life, so Fiona was left to go to the cemetery alone because Vaughn was watching M. Juan Ruiz had told his attorney that he would be killed in prison before he got out in one week and the attorney had contacted Sam as executor of the will.  Another convict, Cruz, had wanted Juan's help in stealing money from LaNacion, the prison gang, and Juan had helped in order to survive in prison. Now Cruz was worried that Juan would talk when he got out, so planned to kill him. Juan had merely wanted Sam to take care of his wife, Lisa, and the girls; but, Sam was followed from the prison by gang hit men until he stopped at a legal office and pretended to be merely Juan’s lawyer. Sam told M that he was going back into prison to help protect Juan because Juan had tipped his S.E.A.L team off about a Medellin bomb in their hotel – and he owed him. M warned that Cruz already knew him so he couldn’t go back in and decided to take Sam's place. FBI agents Harris and Lane helped M be put in prison as Juan’s cellmate and left him a hidden phone. Juan told M that Cruz had alread killed three people since he’d been locked up so M told him: “don’t leave my side.” Cruz stared M down in the prison yard and told M that "when I come by your cell you had better clear out."

 

Sam and Fiona dug up the grave and found that it was protected by a silicone-sealed, self-destruct device and an ancient care-taker. One day M noticed that everyone was giving them a wide berth so figured the time was close and helped Juan protect himself with law-book covers tucked under their shirts. Cruz used a crooked guard, George Hill, to let him into Juan's cell block in an attempt to kill Juan in his cell, but M fended them off. When the block guards eventually came, Cruz threatened them both with a “big party tomorrow and you are going to be the guests of honor.” Then when M saw Cruz making a deal with the head of the South Dade Aryan Nation he decided that "plan B" was to call Sam and get him to break Juan out during the impending riot. So Sam and Jesse went to blackmail Hill into helping them take down Cruz and found out that he was also being blackmailed by LaNacion over protection of his brother who was in another prison. Fiona visited M in prison and passed him a lock pick in a kiss as well as telling him that they should get to the infirmary when the riot started where Sam and Jesse would get them out in a drug cabinet when they came for them. Madeline had to help Fiona at the cemetery and of course whined all the time. Fiona poured a barrel of oil onto the vault, as she cut it with a saw, then lifted elemental Sodium pellets into a jar under the oil. Madeline distracted the caretaker while Fiona retrieved Simon’s hidden box.

 

Cruz sent two other crooked guards to take M and Juan "to the barber" in his own wing of the prison. First Cruz took down the guards then went after M and Juan. M took down Cruz’s two helpers then helped Juan with Cruz, who by then had broken Juan’s leg. Juan's inability to walk on the broken leg caused M to change to "plan C" and hide Juan in a laundry basket then get Cruz out of the prison instead. Sam called Hill to get him to inform Cruz that Juan had gone to the infirmary; then, M used his McGiver skills to take he had his buddies down when he got there. M called Harris and Lane and told them about the riot and what they should do. When Cruz finally awoke he was in a cabinet inside an empty warehouse with a gun nearby. He grabbed the gun and walked out the door into a bevy of feds who captured the “escaped convict.” Later, LaNacion found out what Cruz had done so killed him and Juan was reunited with his family.

 

Finona, Sam and M opened Simon’s box which they found to be full of yearbooks and coroner's photos along with the tape.  The tape was a recording of a phone call Simon had made to Vaughn after the latter had tried to kill him. M heard Vaughn say that: "I know you've been working against us.” Vaughn clearly said that "We've already found a replacement… very promising… name’s Westen… if he doesn’t work out, there will be another. The work continues.” Obviously Vaughn had lied about having nothing to do with Ms being burned! In their second talk, this time while walking along the beach, Simon told M that: “now we are brother’s.” He said that the man to previously tried to get the Bible “is not like you and me (because) we are just pawns in a very large chess game… but he’s more like a king.” "His name is John Barrett," Simon said, "the C.E.O. Of Drake Technologies. A Corporation with holdings in telecom, infrastructure and tech; so, whatever they destroy they can rebuild." Simon said he wouldn’t tell M what the Bible decoded; but,  if M took the Bible to Barrett, he would have everything he needed to wipe out Vaughn and his ilk… and M would be free! Simon told M that: "I would have worked with the Devil himself to take down those that burned us. Sadly, the Devil’s not available so I have to pin my hopes on you!” Vaughn was surprised to hear it was John Barrett. Then M answered only that Simon had tried to convince him to kill Vaughn. When Vaughn asked "should I be worried," M said straight-faced “I just told a psychopath what he wanted to hear.” Vaughn said that M was not done yet but he’d made a lot of headway – "here’s to you M, I’m glad we found each other.” M said “me too.”

Sam happened to have one “old school” government folder (which they still use in Japan) so he made up an entire set of papers which “tied all the loose ends” and allowed Jesse to come to the conclusion that John Barrett was the head of the “Cabal” which he had been looking for all these years. And, for the umpteenth time Fiona inflicted us all about “let’s talk about what we’re doing to Jesse” M decided to play it straight with Barrett and use the private phone number Vaughn gave him to interrupt Barrett in his conference room and tell him that they had the Bible, wanted jobs and it was here in Miami "whenever you’re ready to talk." Then he and Jesse set up a video monitored trap for the poor schmuk who Barrett sent to steal it back. Of course, Fiona manipulated M into a lunch meeting with Madeline so they both could take a shot at him over POOR, POOR JESSE and how M is HARMING HIM! [see below] So, unbelievably, Madeline threatened M that it had better be over soon! Remember, the fact that Jesse was staying with Madeline was forced on M by Fiona’s self-centered arrogance.

 

Even though she had been beating on everyone about her leaving M, she had really taken on a client and was going to have Sam help her with the case. A friend of a friend from yoga, Emily, was seduced by a scam artist, Charles Archer, who took her life’s savings. Charles was the first man she had dated after the death of her husband Josh and was swept off her feet. He offered to help her invest her insurance money and used all her account info to clean her out. Now, [surprise, surprise] Jesse began ragging on M about wanting to go physically after Barrett and not liking any of Ms plans. M set up a defibrillator paddle to incapacitate anyone who tried to reach into a barrel for something that looked like the Bible and watched closed circuit video for the commando to come for it.  Sam and Fiona found Charles at the bar spending Emily’s savings with a new “fish on the line.” Fiona described him as “the one man from England with decent teeth.” He only had a couple of DUIs and no discernable bank accounts in the US; but, he had an Interpol file for being a suspected killer. Two women who had complained about him went missing. Because his name was Charles, Fiona thought Sam needed a new cover ID; but, he told her “No… Chuck Finley is forever!” So, Plan A: Chuck and Alexis “accidentally” met Lindsey and Charles. Fiona said she just flew in from San Francisco and was chartering a yacht when she met Chuck. Fiona took Lindsey to the restroom so Sam could spring a con on Charles pretenting to be a fellow sleazy-womanizer and wanting to run Alexis’ money through Charles' account for a fee.  No deal… so Sam actually had to physically restrain Fiona from “bulletizing” the guy. She told him that if it didn’t work out she would shoot Charles then YOU!

 

On to Plan B: They brought Michael Westen into it. Sam was going to make Charles think he got drunk and went on a spending spree so he would check his balances and they would be watching when he did. It worked, right up to the point where he was supposed to check his accounts and Fiona and Jesse tailed him to a money-laundering lawyer and were nearly caught until they pretended to be lovers.  Back at the warehouse Jesse ragged on M about the credibility of Sam’s contact and wanted to slip him some false information to test him. M countered [as does every viewer watching this thing], "we know Barrett wants the Bible, how much more testing do we need?!"  The commando, Colonel Russell, got zapped and hog-tied until his buddy called for him. Then he was released to take a copy of a page from the Bible directly to Barrett.

 

Now onward to Plan C: they needed to make Charles paranoid enough about his money to need to bring in help from M who would convince him he needed the account numbers to keep his money safe. Emily asked “do you guys have a manual where you get this stuff?” Sam told Charles that a little blue Hyundai was following him everywhere, Fiona and Jesse planted a “not so sneaky bug” in his car – which he found and Sam returned claiming that he had $100k missing from his accounts and said he had a plan to get somebody to go after the thieves. So, with a little embarrassing, Charles agreed to get the account info but his lawyer said that he had already found the leak, Emily, and was sending people to take care of her at that very moment, and a ticket to Rio for him.

 

Good thing we’ve got Plan D: Fiona went in a blazing with her bean-bag gun and blew up Emily’s back door to rescue her from the hit men. Then they faked another drunken bender for Charles, set Emily’s boat on fire and made it look like Charles had killed her. Sam came to rescue him and M said that for a million dollars he could launder the incident "so it never happened." So, finally, he got all his money back from his money-launderer, including the launderer's cut, and gave it to M to "make it go away."  Then Sam gave Charles a ride to the airport and on the way told him everything.  Fiona let Charles out of the car in middle of a bridge hollering about “you can’t leave me here!” The money was going back to Charles' victims and he had to go on the run from his angry lawyer-money launderer. Madeline stormed out of her house claiming to be going to visit her friend and whining about “all the pressure” of seeing Jesse and M lying to him! Barrett called from his car – saying he had just landed in Miami. Sam was looking into where Barrett was staying and Fiona went, yet again, to rag on M but was intercepted in the loft by Jesse holding a gun on her. Ostensibly, even after they had basically caught Barrett red-handed, the poor whiney boob just “didn’t feel right” and had called Marv who had amazingly gotten a video tape from the building “across the street” which showed M stealing the documents that burned Jesse. Fiona called M to tell him that Jesse was coming after him.

[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.

News anchors finally reported: “… the C.E.O. of a major telecommunications company stood at the center of some sort of cabal – a conspiracy to profit from war, civil unrest, terror abroad and the United States Intelligence community knew nothing about it.” Michael Westen was still unconscious after three days in the hospital, but in the penthouse of all hospital rooms! True to character, self-centered Fiona kicked the bed telling him to wake up… Now! He did. He’d had surgery, received blood, had a fractured clavicle and was lucky to be alive. Someone had taken the case with the Bible in it. M told Fiona that Barrett had a noc list which he couldn’t decode of cover IDs of all the people who burned him and the Bible was the code - they had to get it back. Jesse came to the hospital and told M that he had been trying to save his life; "shooting through you to do it was just a perk!"  Madeline insisted M would be coming to her house when he got out. A "code orange" was called in the hospital and, of course, with his IV and all he and Sam went to the ER where bombing victims were coming in. It seemed too much of a coincidence after Attorney Adam Scott had threatened retribution on Dale Lawson for kidnapping his daughter. M tore out his IVs and declared that he was better. Alicia Rensin told them that her brother Walt, now deaf from the blast, was in the restaurant with his boss – slime bag Dale Lawson – when the bomb went off,  obliterating Lawson and another young couple. M and Fiona went to threaten Adam Scott that they were on to him and demand that he call off any other hits he had planned. Fiona had to pull her gun. As they left M told him “go enjoy the time with your daughter… prison visits are hard on kids.” And to cap it all off Vaughn was sitting on the porch waiting for them! He told M that he never had to see him again if he didn’t want to, Fiona replied that the “next time he came unannounced nobody would ever see him again.” He told M that “someone new would be in touch when the dust settles.”

 

Sam discovered that all of Barrett’s guys were accounted for except Mark Sweeny, a former merc who worked security for Drake’s Miami office – a crime of opportunity. The cops only had one possibility for the South Beach Bomber: Dennis Barfield, a trust fund psycho who never worked a day in his life. He’d already blown up a drug den in Overtown and was crazy with: clinical narcissism, paranoia, delusions of grandeur and was able to resist questioning multiple times with his “manifesto” type rhetoric. Most unusually, M said he was going to turn information on Barfield over to the police and when questioned by Sam he said that it was "because I've never had to walk around with a hole in my clavicle before." He did find bomb making paraphernalia in Barfield's window but was caught by Barfield before he could get away. M came up with a cover ID on the fly – Gordon Lutz: “your biggest fan.” Barfield bought it and let him go saying “watch the papers… there’s more coming.” Fiona found Sweeney’s car in a police impound lot so she and Jesse did their “couple” thing again to retrieve info that Sweeny had gone to a university, probably to find someone who could decode the list. M went back to distract Barfield by offering him some Mercury Fulminate while Sam searched his apartment and found a bomb making list all marked “delivered.” Barfield told M that he had received a “tip” about where Lawson would be and that his radio detonator had gone off too soon. M went back to Scott very angry and got him to admit that that Walt Rensin was next. Then he claimed that he’d get immunity. M retorted “not from me you won’t!” M and Sam went to Rensin’s home and, while figuring out how to get past the guards, got a call from Adam Scott’s phone. It actually turned out to be Barfield calling from Scott's home where he had just killed him and the bodyguard after getting angry over Scott calling to call off the hits.  Barfield didn't recognize Ms voice and told him that Scott had said he was the reason for needing to call off the hits. "Neither he, you or Glenanne don’t get to call it off," Barfield said,  "and guess who’s next.”

 

Fiona and Jesse went, disguised as "Artest" and "Shannon Brown," to check with people at the university and noticed one student leave very quickly. Detective “Artest” chased him down and caught him. He said he couldn’t go to jail “because I’m very thin” and readily named the guy who he had sent Sweeney to see, Justin Walsh, an algorithmic engineer at SXG a defense contractor.  M urgently called Fiona and asked her to get Madeline so they could use laptops to triangulate the radio signal when Barfield blew up the bomb they had found at Rensin's home in a newly delivered TV. They had duct taped it and put it into the swimming pool. Without asking, she told M that "Jesse will do it" but he then refused. She had to guilt him into helping against his will. When it blew, Fiona saw on her computer display that Barfield was right outside her new house coming for her and reluctantly went out the window when M told her to "get out." They all went back to Barfield’s house and Jesse caustically told Sam he didn’t “want to have a reunion.” M went inside pretending again to be Gordon, “your last friend,” as the police surrounded the house. Sam told the police not to use their radios because of a bomb. Barfield armed the bomb he was holding and said he was waiting for cops to come in so he could take them all out. M convinced him that, because he could leave as an innocent bystander, if Barfield told him the names of the remaining bombs he would go around and set them all off. Barfield had M memorize the names and addresses.

 

Despite his obvious wounds the police slammed M down on the ground when he came out the door. Then, ostensibly not wanting the police to be hurt by the bomb, and while Sam was asking Fiona how she wanted to play it, on his own Jesse deliberately triggered Barfield’s bomb to kill him, then rationalized that “sometimes you’ve got to put the rabid dog down” as he walked away.  Alone at Madeline’s she got to have one of her sought-for heart-to-heart talks with M and asked him why he did what he did. He said: "I may not be any different from anyone else who pulls the trigger – I wished I knew, but I don’t."  She merely said “whatever.” Which seem to offend M with its terseness. She then explained: “Maybe you’ve got some repressed crap… you know… rage about how it was for you when you were a kid or the things you’ve seen or… maybe this is just how you fit into the world. Whatever.” He smiled and said “thanks.” “What I’m saying,” she continued, “in the end it doesn’t matter… you’re one of the good guys Michael.” She had bought him a present – sunglasses just like the ones he had lost in the wreck. “It’s called ‘shopping’ – we all have our strengths,” she said. M went with Jesse, who acted condescendingly annoyed that he had to even be with M, to the crypto guy – Justin Walsh who was said to have had security clearance for over a decade. Peering through the window they saw Sweeny on the floor dead, no Bible, no noc list – Walsh had killed Sweeney when he saw what had been brought to him. They only got Walsh’s email address from his computer.

Michael Weston was outside the local police station waiting to break into its “Fusion Center,” where the master computer was. Sam gave him his cover ID – Elias Schmidt, of the Shady Glade Neighborhood Watch. Justin Walsh, who stole the NOC list from the thief who had stolen it from MW who stole it from a bank safe-deposit vault, had D.O.D. clearance so would be in the Fusion Center’s database. M had an appointment to meet with an officer on the floor below the database so "merely" had to dodge to the next floor, pick the lock, hack the computer, download it to his thumb drive and get out… which was the tough part. He had to steal a police jacket, throw a chair out the window and claim that Schmidt had leapt the building. Back in the car, Sam told him that: “you are the reason I drink.” Voiceover said that: "there is nothing more difficult to repair in the field than trust." Jesse ragged on M for not pre-clearing the break-in with him because “I’m your ‘partner’”; but, at the same time, was withholding finding that Walsh had emailed Taiwan, Peru, Bulgaria about “stamp collecting.” Walsh was auctioning off the list and M had to talk Jesse into using Marv, his old handler, to track the location of the sale. M wanted to move back to the loft but Madeline said “you’re still leaking!” She argued “you got shot” but he countered that “thanks to Jesse just in the 'right spot!'” Jesse stalked out saying that Fiona was paying him by the hour to help with a job; then, whined at Fiona for having a client in the “boonies.” He told Fiona that HE forgave her [the pathetic twit] because M had "made her" and she was "just being loyal."

 

The client, Stuart, had tried to buy a gun from Fiona’s dealer and was so angry that he was given Fiona’s number instead. He claimed his sister had been seduced, then mistreated, then rescued and now being held captive again by a Venezuelan diplomat, Marco. He needed their help to rescue her and wanted to be there when she was. Sam called Marv claiming he was a PI who had information about a tryst he had back in July 2003 with Sally Baker, at a $60/night roadside motel. He wanted him to come to Miami, to which Marv agreed. Fiona and Jesse then went to scout Marco’s place. Fiona wanted to use her gun; but, instead, Jesse faked being injured in an accident then wandered into Marco's house, jabbering and taking mental notes of the security and layout. M, who had his feelings hurt over Fiona not calling him for the job first, saw their map and noticed right off that Stuart’s story didn’t add up; so, he offered to help, which annoyed Jesse more than a little. As they made it clear that they knew Stuart wasn’t telling the truth, Natalie Rice, a thief who they had met previously, shot and killed him. She admitted that Stuart was indeed lying, that he didn’t have a sister and that she had found him up in Boca scamming cancer patients. She told Fiona that it was a bad call to use her car as an armory; because she had stolen and used Fiona’s gun to shoot Stuart. She blackmailed their help to steal back and destroy a chemical weapon, which she had stolen for the Venezuelans. Natalie met M and Sam at a shoes-off restaurant and said that it was Novichok Agent they were trying to get back.

 

Ms plan was to fake a gas leak to get Marco to move the agent, then ambush their non-armored SUVs. Sam demanded that Natalie stay with them the entire time and said she could not leave until Fiona’s gun was returned. Fiona set up for her part in the diversion at Madeline’s, who (surprise, surprise) wanted to “talk” about M and Jesse. She demanded that Fiona help her get them together. Marv did come to Miami and wasn’t happy about being tricked the second time to see Jesse. Jesse had to tell him his last help "led directly to the takedown of Drake Technologies" which left Marv dumbstruck. He agreed to look into the: who, when and where of the auction mentioned in the emails. Jesse whined to Sam about blackmailing Marv and Sam said “I know what you mean” but “stealing a chemical weapon from a bunch of crazy South American’s always cheers me up.” Natalie noticed that M and Jesse didn’t talk while they were waiting for Fiona and ragged on them about being “teammates”; so, Jesse retorted that: “teammates don’t frame each other for murder.” Fiona’s diversion actually didn’t work. They started to move the device from a shed, but Marco intervened and shut it down. Natalie had to save Fiona’s cover – thank you very much. Back at the restaurant with Natalie and Fiona, M explained that they intended to shoot out the alarm lights and neutralize the sirens with spray insulation. Natalie wanted to use a thermal lance instead of the water saw that Fiona wanted to use and gave Fiona’s gun back to prove she was a team player.

 

Marv tried to record Jesse’s blackmail for his own protection. Jesse realized what was going on and chided him saying that they were friends and he’s not blackmailing. Marv said he found that the email addresses belong to brokers, arms dealers and some ex-spook who’s into crypto-intelligence. "The auction is in Santo Domingo in two weeks and you need 5 million in an escrow account just to get a seat at the table," he said. Jesse then asked for the 5 million from the federal reserve which was marked for destruction. Marv agreed, but shouted “last trip to Miami!” Fiona and M talked about the job, and Sam's escape route, at the loft before going to the compound. All went well, they got the chemical weapon in a case and tossed it over the wall to Sam. Natalie slipped and fell getting out and told Jesse that she’d meet them later; but, had really planted a mine in Sam’s way so was there when the car blew over to steal the weapon. M realized that she had bugged his shoe when he went to the restroom at the restaurant and decided to use the bug to fake that Sam had put the "real" case in the trunk because they had anticipated Natalie’s deception. They played like they intended to put it in a locker at the bus station while speaking into the microphone. Natalie did come for it and they followed her back to her buyers. M went in to grab the weapon but got caught by the buyers; so, he pretended that he was going to shoot the chemical weapon, pointing at the fake one full of tear gas, if they didn't give him the weapon. After they called his bluff, he shot it; then, when they all ran, he grabbed the real one. Natalie ran right into into Fiona’s gun. They chained her to a boat trailer with the real chemical weapon and made her call homeland security in order to avoid having to deal with the disappointed Venezuelan’s.

 

Jesse got the money from Marv who tried to spread doubt about Jesse about trusting M.  Fiona called to invite Jesse to Carlito’s – her treat. Of course, when he got there he saw that it was really: Madeline’s “intervention.” “If you two don’t start trusting each other again, somebody’s going to end up dead,” she warned them.  “Jesse, M ruined your life, got you fired, he was trying to do a good thing – so GET OVER IT!” “Michael, Jesse shot you in the chest, he was trying to save your life – DEAL WITH IT!” “Not closure, just good old fashioned gutting it out… just like families do when someone betrays someone… MOVE ON!” “If you two are good, shake on it, if not SHAKE ANYWAY!” They did – she left – Jesse said “wow, your mom’s good.” And they started planning to crash an auction.

Jesse came into the loft waving their confirmation to attend the auction for the "book" in Santo Domingo while Michael Weston anguished on the side-line over not being able to go with them - due to his “burn” limitations. Gloating, Jesse pontificated that he could spend "family time" with Nate who was flying in.  In Santo Domingo, Jesse clumsily met with Justin Walsh, the thief, and found that Walsh was using a "moving loop" to protect the list from thieves. Jesse seemed ready to throw in the towel; but, Sam knew all about it and said that all they needed was some new “buddies,” his specialty. M, whose idea of R and R was “recon and rendition,” winced from his injuries as Nate hugged him at the airport; then immediately jumped on Nate about the “real” reason for the last minute trip home - booked on one day’s notice without any luggage. Reluctantly, Nate admitted that his buddy’s custom car shop had been hit by thieves and they lost three cars. Only after meeting the brothers did M find that they were messed up with Hector Rivera, a drug kingpin! When Jeff was ill and had expenses, Billy got some cash by allowing Rivera to use their cars to ship drugs once a month. Now, with the theft, they had lost 20 kilos of Heroin! Nate didn't seem to like being on the receiving end of one of his types of un-revealed requests for help. He recklessly promised “we’ll find your car” then, when M tried to talk reason to him, said: “You know what it’s like to have a screw-up for a brother”  Exasperated, he said he’d call Fiona who immediately recognized the theives “signature.”  She said that there were only a few crews who could pull off the job in Miami (using drugs, laser strobes and a plasma torch).

 

M went to Tony Soto, a previous mark, under his old cover ID, Johnny, and offered to take out a competing crew if Soto would find out who had taken his 1969 GTO. M and Nate were caught dressing up like “funeral directors” by Madeline who, as usual, ragged on M that he “better watch out for your brother” right before she took their picture. Soto told M that the crew who hit the shop was run by Buckwild and made M promise to do some “Johnny-style damage” when he was through getting his car back. They all had to rush over to Billy’s because Rivera was on his way to their shop; actually, he was already there beating them up when they arrived. M introduced himself as “Johnny” whom the Taylor’s had hired to retrieve the car. Rivera agreed to let M do it but made him take his own bully, Caleb, along with them and said he would take Billy as hostage. In Santo Domingo, Sam found 100 “buddies” to sit on street corners and record every motorcycle they saw. Jesse then was able to see a pattern and ID the bikes Walsh was using and their route; then, it was just a matter of planning the hit and getting M and Fiona down there in a private sea-plane to help. Madeline walked in on M, Nate and Fiona planning their hit and did her obligatory rag on M. She said “your brother gets hurt and I’m putting out my cigarette in your eye!” When M finally retorted that she had two kids and wondered why she was only worried about Nate, she said that Nate’s wife, Ruth, was pregnant and he was going to be a father.

 

Fiona stole a 90 thousand dollar car and took it to Buckwald's shop so they would open the door for her. After shooting them with bean-bag rounds, they found the other two stolen cars but not the GTO.  The thieves said that Buckwild had it, he already had a buyer. M did torch the place as they left; but, when they got to Buckwild’s house, Caleb broke into a run ahead of them and killed Buckwild in the back room before they could question him. M and Fiona then knew that Caleb was in on the theft. They searched Caleb’s house and found a fax machine copy of the Taylor’s storage shed and realized that Caleb was setting the Taylor’s up for the heist he had pulled himself. Nate raced, with Fiona, to the shed ahead of everyone and told her that he was "better at hotwiring cars than Mike," so got the GTO out in time. Of course then Caleb couldn’t tell Rivera that his stolen car had been stolen. M decided to make the GTO be found on Caleb’s property, so he and Nate dismantled it, carried it over to Caleb's back yard and put it together again using silenced tools and Fiona standing guard. M was able to get Rivera over to see where he had found the car, over Caleb’s objections. Rivera paid the Taylors for the last shipment, even though Caleb had gotten away with the drugs, saying it was a small price to pay to catch the thief.

 

Billy turned around and gave the money to Nate saying that he had "thrown a Hail Mary" and didn't expect he would really be able to help them. They also told M that he could come and see them when his Charger needed work and Nate gloated about “saving your ass twice.” M told him that “if your kid turns out anything like you, I’m going to be a proud uncle.” Onward to the sea-plane: Sam and Jesse had planned the operation which involved a motorcycle-diverting truck spill, alley way blockage, baseball bat-like swing with a 2x4, a rotary grinder, smoke grenade and wire-work flight to a roof top – all in a day’s work. The voice-over said that "the success of a mission didn’t depend on the skill of a member. You need a team,” while the four all walked with their gear toward a two-seated sea-plane! Back at the loft looking at the list, Sam had to, yet again, ask Jesse for "an invitation to the party – in your head," as he mumbled about the value of the list they had gotten.  Sam wanted to give it to someone they trusted in the Fed’s. Fiona wanted to track them all down and take them out… I’ll guess we have to wait until next week to see what M wants to do.

Michael Westen sat at his computer trying to see if there was any way to copy the data from the memory chip of the people who burned him, which he had stolen back from Justin Walsh.  Walsh was the crypto-analyst who a thief had brought it to for decoding; but, when he recognized its value, killed the thief and took it himself to auction off.  M found that it wasn’t copyable. He and the others had decided to give the thumb drive to Marv, Jesse’s old handler; but Jesse said he was “doing a dance” trying to get Marv to work with M.  He especially didn’t like Ms idea to talk to Marv personally. [Still no mention of what Walsh had done with the original bible and NOC list, OR why Ms old handler couldn’t help!] Jesse condescendingly gave in saying “don’t step on any toes.” Incredibly, Marv seemed to believe that it was only M who had brought him to Miami and tried to blackmail him! Jesse being completely innocent. And, as if he hadn’t worked a day for the government counter-intelligence, he demanded that M had to "go on record" against every person he had ever contacted who burned him. Even when M warned him of the danger for both Marv and he, Marv still demanded that he tell all on polygraph. In voiceover, M claimed that "the unvarnished truth is the greatest bargaining cihp a spy has and you only get to play it once," as Marv strapped him into the machine and he answered: "My name is Michael Westen, I used to be a spy."

 

Seemingly cut out of the same mold as incompetent Marv, Jesse went blabbing all over to Madeline like it was a done deal they were getting their old jobs back. Madeline said that M had neglected to tell her. Sam gave M his old surveillance log which he had kept for the FBI when they first began, including a daily yogurt tally. Sam had a gig of his own trying to locate a buddy, Detective Kevin Baruchel, who had gone missing. The newspapers claimed that he had shot some drug dealers then fled, leaving Claire and their son Ryan. Pete Jackman, Kevin’s partner for 4 years, hovered around Claire solicitously claiming the police had already considered Kevin guilty and were shutting down the investigation; because, there were traces of Cocaine in his car and unreported contacts with criminals on his cell phone. Claire’s problem was that they had suspended her husband and taken his pension so they had nothing to live on. Additionally their friends all had turned against them. Sam found that there was a repeat caller on Kevin’s call log: Ted Seyers, who had a long rap-sheet. M recognized that a short call was Baruchel calling back whoever it was so they could talk privately. M and the others went to talk to Ted and had Jesse waiting with a Taser gun if he decided to run away - he did. In a darkend room, a bright-light interrogation Ted began with: “You can't hold me. I’ve got a deal. Call detective Jackman; he’s my get out of jail free card.” They told Ted that he could either tell them where Baruchel was or “find out what it was like to be a casserole” baking inside a 140 degree shipping container. Ted said that he had been threatened by Pete Jackman with death if he didn’t kill Baruchel. Pete had killed the “bangers and stole all their junk.” Then Baruchel got suspicious and started asking questions, so Pete told Ted to act like he had information, get a meeting, take him into the water and kill him. Ted was supposed to get a cut after he had gotten rid of the body. M had to physically remove Sam from clubbing Ted; then, decided to have Sam go tell Claire about it and they would see what they could do to break it open without making it a cop’s word against a criminal without any evidence.

 

Predictably Fiona wanted to "solve" Pete with C-4. Less predictably Sam turned down a drink and said he wasn’t sleeping. M suggested they bait Pete into bringing out the drugs he still hadn’t moved and getting him busted when he did. Ted asked “what’s in it for me” when they asked him to set up a buy that night for “Ray,” a dealer out of Jacksonville. Sam, pulling out his knife, told him that he would get to go to prison instead of staying in the container, "although the container would be a shorter sentence." Going into one of Ms several hotel meetings with Marv, Fiona offered to be a "character witness" which greatly surprised M. “I thought you hated the idea,” he asked her. “I do, but I want you to have a choice," she replied. "You want me to have a choice as long as I choose what you want!” Then she told him “I hope you’re never in a situation where your survival depends upon your ability to understand relationships. You’ll be dead in seconds.” So back with Marv, incredibly he whined that he might be in danger from Sam, Fiona or Jesse having spread info around! This, after he had blabbed it all over to “check out his story!” Back with Sam, his plan was to “sell Ms cover as a buyer” by using a "splash of Napalm" – gasoline and hydroxyl aluminum. At the meeting with Jackman, M said he had “dispensed” with Ted as a looser-junky who might open his mouth; then, when Pete wanted to back, out M lit up the “ring of trust” napalm so that a “dirty-cop” can’t back out of a conversation. Pete eventually agreed but then kept changing the venue because Sam’s fire stunt worked too well. Over Sam’s objections, they decided to make Pete think that Kevin was still alive in order to hurry him along. Claire had to pretend that she had a secret call from Kevin but she couldn’t talk about it. Sam set up a meeting with Pete on Kevin’s boat and pretended they had “just missed him, he was laying low and talking to internal affairs.” Then Clair sold it when Pete came to verify with her. And, Fiona and Jesse sold it when they questioned Pete pretending to be internal affairs cops and telling him not to leave town.

 

But first, Fiona had to borrow some “cop shoes” from Madeline and got an ear-full about how “Mike says good-bye.” Fiona said that getting back in wasn’t a sure thing and that "If M said good-bye like that again no one would have to worry about whether he was dead or alive because I'll kill him." Jesse told Fiona that “justice and revenge – that’s like chocolate and peanut butter as far as I’m concerned.” Once he believed that Kevin was alive, Pete immediately called M to arrange the deal today! Fiona didn’t like it being on Kevin’s boat but Jesse surmised he probably didn’t want a repeat of the “ring of trust.” Sam said “plus if anything goes wrong he can always blame it on Kevin.” When M was on the boat, Fiona and Sam spotted Pete in the bushes with a remote detonator and warned M to get out before the boat blew up. Then Jesse was sent to set up a traffic jam on the causeway so M could catch up with Pete and terrorize him a bit. M was going to convince him that the only way out was for him to plant the coke on Kevin again and Sam was to make sure the cops were there when he did. Pete begged for his life then came up with the idea on his own – “let me live and I’m yours,” he said. M replied, “a pet cop that could work." Unfortunately, Sam met with the arrogant Lieutenant Briggs who refused to come until Sam disarmed him and offered to let him crucify him if he wasn’t satisfied. At Kevin's house, Pete was still trying to chicken out so M gave him two options: “drug planter or organ donor.” As Pete was planting his coke in the heating duct, Briggs arrested him. When Pete got confused over Sam telling him that Kevin was really dead and that Ted was really alive and had confessed, Sam decked him and said “sort it out in prison you SOB.” Later, Briggs made it a point to tell Sam that "you were right and I'm sorry you lost your friend."

 

Back at Madeline’s, M heard “people like to say good-bye Michael.” He replied, “who knows, maybe this time we won’t have to; but whatever I decide, this time I’ll let YOU know.” Marv was supposed to have Homeland Security at the handoff; but, wouldn’t tell them who he was taking it to – for their own protection – right before his "Homeland" guys shot him in the chest! Marv called to Jesse that he was sorry, "they threatened to kill my wife.” M recognized one of the people in the get-away SUV – Brennan!

[Season Finale – Part 1] Michael Westen told the very angry Jesse, who wanted to go immediately after Brennen, that if Marv had been his close friend he would expect Jesse to keep him from doing something stupid like trying to take on Brennen. Brennen requested a meeting and told M that he had spent $122,654.32 in the last year keeping track of him – which had fortuitously led him to Marv and the ability to steal the list. He demanded that M start killing the people on the list and he would pocket the money he could make off of it – shades of Tom Strickler. If M refused, the audio file that Marv recklessly made of Ms naming names gets sent to Vaughn – and Brennen had set his computer to send it automatically at 5 every morning; unless, he personally prevented it from happening. He gave M his first target, a federal employee ID number of 132G. BX728 640 9485, who was an operator in Indonesia but currently in Miami – oh, "and by the way, meet your new partner: Larry Seizmore!"

 

Back at the loft Sam picked a fight with M in order to be able to get close enough to whisper in his ear: “get Larry’s phone number” and be able to extract himself from Larry's watchfulness. Jesse’s job was to stall the investigators of Marv’s murder just long enough for M to get Brennen off their backs. So he gave them a folder, which he said he had found on Marv’s body, about the Sinaloa Cartel. Jesse whined to Madeline about Marv’s family never knowing the truth. She told him that in this case knowing the truth may hurt and he should worry about what Marv’s family needs before he goes trying to “help” someone. Larry wanted to kill a guard at the courthouse and get the name associated with the ID number. However, M wanted to "do it like St. Petersburg ’94, only lawyers instead of diplomats and this time Larry could be the 'boss.'" So, he needed Larry’s cell number to call him which he then sent back to Sam and Fiona to try and trace when he called Brennen. Larry impersonated an attorney who needed some files to a legal clerk. Of course there was no authorization so he spun a yarn about a Judge impatiently waiting on them. M called on Larry's phone acting as the judge demanding their speed; then he burst through the door impersonating Larry's partner waiving fake forms but turning on the clerk for being obstructionistic before he could ask to see them. The fear of being in the middle of an argument with an angry judge sent the clerk running away from his desk; which then let M have access to the computer to find the name, the thing they wanted all along. With seconds until the intrusion alram sounded they found the man’s name to be Albert Machado who was working for the I.M.F. M had no time to cover his tracks on the computer, so they also had to bluff their way out of the building as well.

 

Unfortunately when Larry called Brennen to report, Sam's bug showed that Brennen was changing both his phone ID and history all over the place - and he “had never seen that before!” At Ms insistance, Brennen revealed that he was going to frame a separatist group for the murder. M too the chance to talk them into framing the separatists for kidnapping instead of murder, proposing that they could then interrogate him, ransom him etc.. Brennen agreed. Back with Sam, Fiona did find the guy who had sold Brennen the phone scrambling equipment.  His name was Alfredo and he was being extraordinarily cautious, so they needed to drop through his skylight. Alfredo revealed that he had sold Brennen both the phone equipment and a biometric locked wall safe, with installation, and told Fiona the address. Both Larry and M discussed how that they both hated Brennen and were both just keeping Brennen comfortable until an opportunity occurred where they could get the list away from him. They told Brennen that they had 2 minutes to get in, locate Machado and get him out and they wanted to plan a little longer. Brennen bullied them throughout the whole process demanding they “do it now”; then gave them supplies and instructions on how to make a bomb containing the separatists signature construction. Jesse, Fiona and Sam found that Brennen’s safe was in an abandoned apartment building which had more cameras than a TV studio.

 

M captured Machado and he obviously recognized the name Michael Weston; but then Larry went ahead and blew him up instead of kidnapping him. M and Larry argued but finally agreed that if they did go after the names on the list that there would be “no families and no kids” on their plans. He then told Larry that Sam and Fiona had found the location of the list but that they needed to get the audio tape before they went after it. However, once Larry knew he could get the list, he grabbed Ms gun to hold him at bay and stabbed Brennen in the chest, saying that they could open the biometric lock even after he was dead. He revealed to M that he didn’t really care if Vaughn got the tape; because, now M would need Larry to survive. M was supposed to call Sam and Fiona to tell them to back off and to say goodbye. He did tell them that he and Larry were "going into business" now and that Brennan was "irrelevant." He told them to go get Madeline and "take what you need to go out of town for a long time" – then he added: "call you in a few weeks, honey." Sam and Fiona both knew that “honey” was a distress signal they used to use in Belfast. Irrelevant meant that Brennan was dead and now Vaughn would be booking a flight to Miami to kill them all. “Take what you need” could have meant a couple of things – Jesse offered that it meant they should get the list out of the safe. So they went. Still with the gun on M, Larry’s thinking involved that they could avoid Vaughn - completely ignoring the standard Modus Operandi of killing families as blackmail - and begin to kill his organization “brick by brick.”

 

Fiona blew the safe out of the wall and they dropped it over the balcony, before they rappelled down over the edge. Meanwhile M and Larry were carting Brennen’s body up to use to open the safe. When they saw the blown up wall Larry angrily pulled his gun on M, but Sam was "lighting him up" with a sniper scope from a window in the next door building. He called on Larry's private phone line and ordered to be put on speaker phone which didn’t happen until he fired a warning shot next to Larry’s head. “The next one makes you dead and me smile,” Sam told him. Sam said M was going to walk out the door while Larry waited for the cops or Sam would drop him where he stood. Larry threatened M that he’d shoot him, but M responded: “no you won’t. While I would give my life for something I believed in there is nothing in this world that you would die for. You want to know the difference between you and me? I really do know you, but you only think you know me.” So M left and Larry waited for the cops to arrive with dead Brennen in the room.

 

M and Fiona packed up the loft and wondered if they would ever see it again. She said that they used to talk about their future together and now they only talked about their future when someone was coming to end it. Later they were all together in a sort of machine shop somewhere struggling to open the safe. Jesse told Madeline that he wasn’t doing much better and she revealed that she had called Marv’s family for him. She said she told the daughter, Emily, that “her dad had died a hero.” Then she told Jesse that after watching him and M she had learned that “if one little lie will help a family sleep easy at night – that’s not such a bad thing.” They had four hours left until Vaughn got the tape – his organization had never faced this kind of publicity before – so the gates of hell and the apocalypse would reign down upon them – and everyone they knew and loved would be in danger of being very dead. Madeline said: “so what else is new.”

[Season Finale – Part 2] In voiceover Michael Westen said that "in a crisis the mistake was to act too soon, before you had assessed the threat." Sam told them that “It’s really bad.” Any time he called even the Carlito there was a major response at FBI headquarters from something that Vaughn was telling them. They needed to come up with something and Sam had the idea of who to “make friends with” and take the thumb-drive to: Bill Cowley. Back to her old obstreperous self, stashed in an out-of-the-way motel, Madeline whined about being asked to approach Bill Cowley again saying “it amazes me what becomes ‘normal’ to you guys.” She threw a sign at Sam’s head and howled “you put me in a non-smoking room” before she lit up. Vaughn called Ms cell phone number and they found that Vaughn had routed it through 3 different numbers when they tried to trace it. He said he was "tired with this coy crap. I gave you a chance to be friends so now you are going to see what it’s like having me for an enemy… and so are your friends and your family." M decided to smuggle the thumb drive into a nuclear facility for safe keeping – somewhere that even if Vaughn found out where it was, he couldn’t go get it.

 

Incredibly, as Fiona was planting her last C4 she did her usual whining about “what this means for us” one to many times; M told her that “maybe this isn’t your path” which shut her up for about the two seconds it took for Jesse to rush in saying that Vaughn’s men were there talking to the guards at the gate! They sped away with the obligatory black cars racing after them, only this time hanging out the windows shooting machine guns!  M hung back to block bullets then decided to phone Fiona to pull up alongside. He jumped out the window of his car and into Fiona’s car leaving her explosives to demolish the charger and block the road.  Yet another car chased them into a crash at an abandoned hotel with a rebar sticking out of Jesse’s leg. The siege began. Their cell phones being blocked, Fiona escalated her self-centered accusations and whining while doing first aid on Jesse. Vaughn called on the hotel phone and M told him if he wanted the thumb-drive he had to come and get it. Fiona and Jesse set up some explodables they found in the hotel while M went to the roof to trigger the weather device into telegraphing a hurricane and nuclear attack. Waiting for Vaughn to breech, Fiona whined to Jesse that she was expecting M to do the burn notice thing and get it out of his system. Even Jesse asked her how she could figure she would change M to her own specifications.

 

Madeline got into Cowley's fund raising dinner and got him to come out to talk to Sam by saying he’d won his last election by 76% of the vote so they must be good people to talk to. Of course he didn’t believe anything Sam said, but was intrigued when Sam told him confidential information about Barrett’s metal case containing the list. Fiona waited until Vaughn’s men got inside then shot the propane canisters to explode on them. When he got to the roof, M had to take down a SWAT commando in order to set off the weather transmitter; but then did get his vest and weapon. However, a sniper on the roof of an adjacent building began shooting at him and he had to devise an emergency rappel in order to escape. He tied a rope to an anchor – the other commando – and jumped off the building dragging the guy across the roof until he stopped with a jerk. They watched as several cop cars came in response to Ms emergency signal but they were turned back by one of Vaughn’s men. Vaughn called to gloat saying that one of the men on his NOC list was in Homeland Security and had told them that they were in a training exercise. Just like Marv’s case of arrogance, Cowley said "I know what I’m doing" when Sam warned him about going only to the top because "they" would find out if he used the chain of command. Sam sent Madeline back to the motel and waited for Cowley to come around. Cowley was just telling him that he would not help when he was advised that his request for an FBI background check had just triggered an APB on him for ‘protective custody’ reasons. He then finally decided to escape with Sam.

 

M and Fiona were using fertilizer from a gardener’s closet to booby-trap a stairwell and Jesse prepared the elevator shaft for them to escape down. Fiona called Vaughn to make a deal and ragged on M yet again to “say something to Jesse” before this ends. M told her to focus on saving his life for now. Sam had Cowley call back his higher level contacts to help them get around the cops who were trying to capture them. Vaughn called Fiona to say he was ready to come up but just for security reasons he had captured Madeline on her way south and was bringing her with him. Madeline told Vaughn to “go to hell you bastard.” One of his guys hit her in the head and bloodied her. Given the phone to assure M she was alright, she instead blurted out that they had shot her and it was a trap and to run. M told then capitulated and told Vaughn that he was coming down. His plan was to get to a shack with an explosive and when Vaughn's men came he would set it off in order to give Fiona and Jesse enough time to get out with the list. M gave Jesse the thumb drive and said he was "truly sorry" for what he did to him. Jesse, after all this, decided that he really didn’t need an apology. Fiona still looked distressed so M told her that maybe she was right this isn’t your fight.

 

M took a run for the shed through sniper bullets coming from all directions and eventually crashed through the shed's window. Vaughn told Madeline to get in his car in the window seat so she “could watch me kill your boy.” She responded by spitting on him. Halfway out of the building Fiona kissed Jesse and said her place was back with M. So she ran the gauntlet too and joined M in the shack. They decided that they would push the switch to the bomb together. As Vaughn stumbled his fat butt out to advance on the shed, flash grenades fell and a band of military stormed in. When Vaughn screamed they had no authority here he was cold-cocked by a haymaker from Sam who said, “say another word I dare you.” As Vaughn was hauled off in handcuffs Madeline told M that she was alright and to go see his friends. Sam said the troops came from Cowley and Jesse passed the thumb-drive back to M in a handshake. Two guys in suits, without sunglasses and saying they were not with the police, approached M and asked him to come with them so they could ask him some questions. He kissed Fiona goodbye; but didn’t say anything to Madeline.

 

Next we saw of M he was groggy in the back seat of a limo with two government types, after having been interrogated for a week. They stopped the car and handed him a trench coat saying to get out. It turned out that he was in Washington DC, in the snow, in front of a government building – we know because when the camera pulled back we saw the capitol in the background. A friendly looking guy came out of the building, smiling and Michael simply greeted him with “you!”  “You” held out his hand and said: “welcome back." M tentatively took it then “you” nodded his head in the direction of the building implying that M had the choice to come in or not – he did.