Burn Notice 4x07

Jesse is on the beach with Michael and Fiona. It doesn’t take long before he sighs, “Even a day at the beach, isn’t a day at the beach with you people.” Jesse is actually tailing the wife of his former handler, Marv (Richard Kind, known from Mad About You and Spin City). The only lead killer Kendra gave them has something to do with a foiled heist of a bank safety deposit. Jesse hopes they can convince Marv to investigate which bank. Meanwhile an intelligence conference is taking place nearby, and Michael spots Russian black-ops trying to sneak past security. He believes they are after him, but after the team kidnaps one of them, they soon learn the Russians are after a retired spy, Paul Anderson (played by Burt Reynolds), who once developed a technique to disable Russian satellites. Now the team has to divide their attention: Mike and Sam need to keep Anderson safe, while Fiona and Jesse need to approach Marv.

Sam employs Madeline (Michael’s mother) to leverage a congressman. They take Anderson to the congressman’s house, and thus lure the Russians into a trap. When the Russians surrender (petrified by the name of Michael Westen alone), Anderson shoots one of them, and Michael asks the congressman what they will tell the police: that a heroic congressman killed a Russian black-op, or that a black-listed spy saved his life? In return the congressman has to arrange protection for Anderson. For their part, Fiona and Jesse are able to persuade Marv to follow their lead. Marv always believed in Jesse’s innocence. He even brings a thread of evidence (that could implicate Michael), which Fiona destroys. She then chides Michael for continuing to lie to Jesse only out of self-interest (well, and because Jesse has sworn to put everyone six feet under who black-listed him). In all this was a fun episode, Burt Reynolds as Michael’s ghost of Christmas future is a hoot, Sharon Gless as Madeline is great as always, and Richard Kind was a nice guest, too.