Burn Notice: Scatter Point

Spoilers: Watch the video then read the recap. Sorry US only video.

This week’s episode starts off where last week’s left us, in front of a Mailbox business with Michael waiting for Carla. Michael and Fi are in a car watching the mailbox place because the mail is picked up each Wednesday. There is a fun little interaction between Fi and Michael over Fi’s detesting surveillance. I noticed that she was tossing pistachio shells out the window, wouldn’t that be a giveaway that someone was there a long time? Not very good surveillance and I doubt that Michael would have gone for those type of sloppy moves.

A woman comes and picks up the mail and brings it back to a non-descript office building. Michael flushes out the security crew and messes with a delivery guy at the same time. It was a pretty ingenious move. I love some of those things that Michael does to throw off the bad guys.

Michael meets up with Sam on the beach and Sam ever the mooch, snags Michael’s smoothie (I wonder if it was a yogurt fruit smoothy because there was no yogurt reference in the show this week. Has the yogurt council money dried up?). Michael has Sam figure out a surveillance option for Carla’s office building. Sam also not so subtly tells Michael about his new watch, er timepiece, that Veronica gave him for their 5 month anniversary.

Then Michael comes home to find Trevor, Trevor is an ex-con who is trying to make his life right. He’s learned about Michael in prison. How he learned where Michael lives is a mystery though, but I’m sure there are more than a few people who are keeping their eyes on Michael. You can’t piss that many people off and make that many explosions without someone taking notice. Michael plays the hard ass here until Trevor pulls out the card that is Michael’s Achilles Heel, family. Trevor has a son that was born while he was in prison. He wants to make good and stay clean for that son. With Michael having such a terrible father of his own he wants others to have a chance at happiness with their own fathers. So Michael agrees to help.

The job is a jewel heist and Trevor doesn’t know when it will occur. The big boss is Timo and he is a control freak so everything is a need to know. Sam comes through with all the intel on the crew. One of the members of the crew is Robin Givens who is the Muscle for the crew. I really wanted to see she and Fi mix it up, that would have been cool. So Michael and Sam pick out the member of the crew to get rid of. They end up deciding on the safecracker. It then falls to Fi and Sam to try and get the guy arrested. After Fi strikes out Sam picks a fight with the guy and gets knocked around for his troubles. I love it how Fi just watches for a while and lets Sam get beat up a bit before she steps in and screams to get the cops attention.

Getting rid of the safecracker does not get the job called off. So Michael is going to try and step in as a new local safecracker. He then goes over to set up the surveillance web cam at Carla’s place. Some VO stuff here where Michael explains about door alarms and being able to get in and out of places without being noticed. I guess hanging off buildings is one of those things they teach you in spy school. But that wall hanging pays off as Sam finds a gap in the security. He is pretty proud of himself but has to run because he’s going to get some “hammy” Seriously he said Sammy’s getting some hammy tonight. Only Bruce Campbell could pull off that line.

The One month since I said I Love you Celebration brings Sam up short when Veronica proposes to him. I didn’t quite see it coming but it made sense as they talked about how the past 5 months were going so well. Sam’s reaction “How bout that huh, There’s a question.” Sam is squirming.

Michael brushes up on his safecracking skills (they are taught when you become a spy because spys need to get info and most times that info is in a safe). Fi and Sam spend a little time together where Fi messes with him and they discuss their styles. Michael gets the call from Trevor that he is in and Timo wants to meet him. So they go to a little bodega with a safe and force Michael to crack it. It is a cheap safe and Michael does the cracking easily. Michael doesn’t take on a new accent this week but rather becomes Joseph, a safecracking artist who is very stuck on himself, very sure of himself and bored with being with the group. Fun little voiceover about the hierarchy of the underworld.

After the safe cracking the crew goes back tot he boathouse and Michel further solidifies his credibility with Timo by asking questions about the safe that he is to crack on the job. While Michael is trying to get some information about the place they are going to hit he also displays his vast knowledge of safes. This irks Timo and he cuts the meeting short and hold Trevor back and dismisses the rest of the crew. This was so that Timo could give Trevor the Scatter Point. Now, armed with some information about the safe, and a 1/2 mile radius for the scatter point Michael and Sam have enough to go on to find the target.

Sam tells Michael about his date and asks for advice. Michael isn’t one for relationship advice so he blows Sam off. Well not really blows him off but he offers two options. Say yes to the proposal or say no. Sam says that things are complicated. This is twice that Michael offers 2 choices while on the steps in this episode. First to Trevor and second to Sam, both questions require answers more complex than yes and no. But it is interesting to see how Michael as a very cut and dry way about him, things are black and white, decisions are made regardless of outcomes. It is as if Michael has taken all emotion out of every decision, this shows how detached he is from people, until it really counts. So it makes me wonder how Michael can be pushed over with all these sob stories.

Michael finds the target and then it is off to make his move on Carla’s building. While Michael goes for his try at Carla’s building and Sam and Fi watch the proceedings. Sam gets some reluctant advice from Fi. He doesn’t want to come right out and ask for Fi’s advice. Sam wants to marry Veronica however he is already married. So what I want to know is, who is going to play Sam’s wife? Because you know that she is going to be on the show at some point. Michael makes a run at Carla’s place however he gets the call from Timo as he reaches the door. Michael must leave. He has Sam and Fi follow him to the boat house because it is showtime. Michael drops a note to Sam and Fi and off he goes to the heist.

The heist is pretty straightforward, there is an inside man, the rest of the crew acts as heating and air and they subdue the guards and get Michael/Joseph 19 minutes to crack the safe. But that doesn’t happen. Sam sets off the alarm while Fi lets the air out of Timo’s tires. This sets things up so Michael can get the rest of the crew against Timo. He even has Fi rig the boathouse to blow when they return to it. All of this makes Timo look very guilty. Especially when Michael tells the crew that he gave the jewels to Timo. Kandi takes care of Timo, for good. It is amazing how Michael thinks of everything on his jobs.

The big clincher however is that when Michael is done with thwarting the heist he makes another run at Carla’s. He gets into the building easily but finds it completely empty except a digital frame of photos of Michael making the 1st run as well as some mylar balloons and champagne plus another crossword. Oh and Sam gets kicked out by Veronica because he came clean with the truth that he was already married. So that makes me think that sooner than later we will see Sam’s wife. I wonder who will be playing that role. So we get back to Carla in the next episode or two. Very cool.

Overall this was not one of the stronger episodes this season but it did move along the Carla storyline and gave some good subplot with Sam. So it was decent.