- Title: Burn Notice – Nature of the Beast
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Sam (Bruce Campbell) begins to grow concerned about his friend when Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) gets his first assignment from James (John Pyper-Ferguson), to take down a bloody drug smuggler and the head of the Dominican Narcotics Police (Peter Mensah) who Burke (Adrian Pasdar) was targeting before his death. The man has just signed a sweetheart of an extradition deal with MI6 to retire in relative luxury, something James wants Michael and Sam to ruin and deliver the drug dealer to him personally. Unable to coerce the man to choose a new lucrative career over MI6’s offer, Michael and Sam set about undermining the British team’s protection detail and forcing their mark to consider other options. And when that doesn’t work there’s always kidnapping.
Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and Jesse (Coby Bell) head out with Agent Strong (Jack Coleman) to question a former special forces mental patient (Michael Reilly Burke) in Biloxi with ties to James in hopes of learning more about the man and his investigation. When the man escapes custody Strong locks down the hospital under the guise of an Anthrax outbreak and discovers the escaped mental patient and the CIA share a common enemy – James.
Although the mission is a success it doesn’t get Michael closer to James or reveal the true motives of his organization. Thankfully, Fi and Jesse fair better back in the States. “Nature of the Beast” includes some a trio of well-acted emotional conversations worth noting. The first involves Fi and Maddie (Sharon Gless) who, despite her own interests, tries to warn Fiona not to sacrifice her new relationship with Carlos for Michael and the mission. In the second, Sam forces Michael to admit how blurry the lines have becoming between his cover and reality as he gets further and further sucked into James’ influence and missions tailor made to appeal to James’ newest soldier. And in the episode’s final scene Michael gets a much-needed dose of reality when he sits down with James’ old friend and learns just what kind of man he’s currently working for.
