Friday, December 3, 2010

Sigh... Team Jesse is Here to Stay

As is traditional for nerds, I've decided to vent my frustrations to the cold, unfeeling realm of the interwebs - like the heart-rending howl of the lone wolf. So here it goes: my recap of last night's episode of Burn Notice: "Brotherly Love".

SPOILERS!!!

The episode begins with Michael pouting in the loft, internally narrating his frustration at staying home while Sam and Jesse head to the Dominican Republic for the NOC list auction. Vaughn made it very clear in "Eyes Open" that Michael is still "on ice" in Miami, and Sam makes the very reasonable argument that Michael would be drawing unwanted attention to what they're doing if he were to make a trip out of the country.

Jesse meets up with Walsh (NOC list seller), having bought his way into the auction with the five million dollars that Marv was able to snag for him (helluva guy, Marv). He tries to get some information about the NOC list's security from Walsh by acting as a concerned buyer. Walsh smugly informs Jesse that it would be impossible for anyone to steal the NOC list, because it's always moving. Sam quickly figures out that the list is in the possession of several motorcycle riders that go all over the city, handing the list off to each other at scheduled times and places - all Sam and Jesse need to do is identify the pattern. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, Michael heads to the airport to pick up his brother, Nate. We haven't seen Nate since he popped in last season to inform Michael and Madeline that he was getting married to some blonde woman that we don't know or like. Nate immediately informs Michael that sure, it's great to see his big brother and all, but he's actually here to help out some friends of his. They head over to the custom-car garage of the brothers Taylor (The Clients), who are in a sticky situation. Three cars were recently stolen from their garage, and one of them contained an entire shipment of heroin. One of the brothers had begun making shipments for a local dealer in order to keep the garage afloat, and now that this batch of drugs is gone, the dealer is out for blood. Michael reluctantly agrees to help, since Nate makes it clear that he's going to handle it one way or the other.

In order to discover who may have stolen the cars, Michael resurrects an old cover from the second season - Johnny, the smooth-talking car thief that ran a rough gang of car thieves out of town. He gets in touch with Tony Soto, who gives him the name of the car thief and implies that in exchange for the information, he wouldn't mind if Michael wreaked a little havoc on the guy. Yay for havoc! Michael returns to the Taylors' garage to give them an update, and finds that the heroin dealer got there first and decided to try to beat the location of his missing drugs out of one of the brothers. Michael introduces himself as Johnny, and tells him as smoothly and deadly as possible that he will find the car. The dealer insists that he take along one of his subordinates to keep an eye on things, and takes one of the Taylor brothers hostage - you know, just to raise the stakes a little.

As Michael, Fi and Nate prepare for their little outing, Madeline - correctly surmising that they're about to do something dangerous - tells Michael that if he doesn't keep Nate from getting hurt, she'll put out her cigarette in his eye. Ouch. Michael is thrown a little by her uncharacteristically brutal threat, and "Yes, ma'am!"s the hell out of there. When they reach the car thief's chop shop, Michael and Fi slide in and discover that the car isn't there and the actual thief is out of the office, but are able to get his home address by playing the "whoever talks first gets a head start" game. Then they set the chop shop on fire (havoc!). When they get to the thief's house, Drug-Dealer's Subordinate bursts in and shoots the guy before they can find out where the car is. Mighty suspicious, Michael and Fi think - Subordinate Dude is the real thief.

Unfortunately, the guy tries to pin the theft on the Taylor brothers by planting the car in one of their storage units. Fi and Nate foil his plan by breaking in and removing the car seconds before Subordinate Dude rolls up with his boss, hostage Taylor brother, and Michael in tow. He's embarassed by the lack of incriminating automobile in the storage unit, but the Taylors aren't in the clear yet. In order to expose Subordinate Dude's theft, Michael, Fi and Nate sneak the car into his backyard, piece by piece, and Subordinate Dude is caught red-handed. The heroin dealer releases his hostage, clears the Taylor brothers' debt, and takes his employee into the house for a chat. No doubt he gave him a nice severance package.

Madeline reveals the reason for her increased concern for Nate's well-being: he's going to be a daddy! Michael is blindsided by the news, and has Nate keep all of the money the Taylors were able to pay. After expressing some father-to-be anxieties, Nate hints that it would be nice for Nate Jr. to have a cousin at some point (seriously?).

Sam and Jesse contact Michael and Fi once they crack the NOC list motorcycle-security code. Michael and Fi hop a sea-plane and join them in the Dominican Republic, where they execute a pretty-much flawless plan to snatch the list. Victorious, the four of them pack up and walk away from the scene in slow-motion as Narrator Michael blathers on about what a good team they make (you were a perfectly good team without Jesse, Mikey). So yeah. Even though Jesse's not part of the opening credit sequence (yet), it looks like he's here for good. I hate that. I'm less "Team Jesse" and more "Team Jesse-Needs-To-Die-ASAP". The episode ends with the four of them discussing what to do with their newly acquired NOC list, and the decision is left up to Michael.

Questions that still need answers:

So, have we forgotten completely about the mysterious Simon family Bible? Didn't we need that to break the NOC list, or what?

Nate's still married? And expecting? Really?

What is Michael going to do with the NOC list? Turn it into to the government, like Sam suggests, or use it to dismantle the organization that burned him, like Fi wants?

Next Week:

An old enemy of Michael's is back. Who, you may ask? I'm hoping for the return of Dead Larry. He's the sort of bad guy you can always count on to be interesting. Maybe he'll kill Jesse!

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