- Title: Burn Notice – Desperate Times
- tv.com: link
In the mid-season finale Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) enlists the help of Card (John C. McGinley) and the CIA to find Tyler Gray (Kenny Johnson), the assassin responsible for the deaths of Anson (Jere Burns) and Nate (Seth Peterson). With no other resources from the CIA other than a disgruntled desk jockey (Chad Coleman) who was heading the team to catch Anson, Michael, Fi (Gabrielle Anwar), Jesse (Coby Bell), and Sam (Bruce Campbell) head to Panama to track find their man.
Although the team makes it down to Panama without a hitch and Agent Pressman (Coleman) provides them resources and a solid plan for kidnapping Gray, things go wrong almost from the start when an armed group led by Gray shows up and forces Michael and his friends on the run. As Michael and Fi put together a makeshift plan, Michael makes an important decision about his future.
Meanwhile in Miami, Madeline (Sharon Gless) tracks down Card and blackmails him for information about the mission that got Nate killed and insight into Michael’s work with the CIA. Madeline gets the answers and support she needs from Card, but in an unexpected twist Michael and his team are left for dead in Central America with no way home.
The mid-season cliffhanger works well, even if it doesn’t come close to closing the book on the Nate storyline. The lighter moments (Jesse’s shoe problem, Michael and Fi looking out into the city in the early morning) help balance the bleaker and more dramatic moments in an action-packed episode. Betrayed by a mentor Michael and his team will have to find their own way home and begin to uncover the reasons behind Card’s actions when the show returns with new episodes in November.
It works, but I expected a little more and I think you did too. The more CIA stuff they keep giving us the less I like the show. I was hopeful when Michael promised Fi to leave that they would get the killer and the rest of the season would have a completely different storyline. No such luck.