Smallscreen Features

Recap: Burn Notice: 'Made Man'

By Alicia Sutton Jun 18, 2010, 6:08 GMT

Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell - 2nd Annual USA Network Character Approved Awards Cocktail Reception - Arrivals - IAC Building, 555 West 18th Street - New York City, NY, USA © Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos

This week’s “Burn Notice” started off with fizzle but ended with a bang. 

It seems as of late there tends to be too many meetings and planning and less action.  Jesse (Coby Bell) meets the gang at their usual restaurant hangout with some information regarding a case he was working on before being burned. 

His contact, given the code name "Cobra" because of his raspy voice, was giving Jesse intel on a gun trade going on at the docks from Algeria. Cobra has disappeared and so the team decides to do some surveillance, only after Sam (Bruce Campbell) asks, “What kind of snacks do you like?” 

Perhaps the only funny line in the episode, made even funnier when Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), while doing said surveillance, tells Jesse he packed terrible snacks and he was no longer going to pack the cooler.

While patrolling the docks looking for Cobra, Jesse sees some mobsters beating up a security guard and intervenes to save the guard.  The security guard informs Jesse that the docks are having trouble with mobsters racketeering so Jesse decides to take the security guard on as the new client with the pretense that he, Michael (Jeffrey Donovan), Fiona and Sam are undercover dock security.

The mobster boss, Tony (Nestor Serrano) is too clean, and the team discovers that he has connections to the FBI.  After planting a bug made of bubble gum which is both cool and disgusting at the same time, Michael and company learn that the New York branch of the family has sent down a guy to squeeze more money out of Tony. 

Sam kidnaps Tony and scares him into believing that the family has a hit out on him, but that he is willing to let him go if he pays him a million dollars.  Tony tells Sam that there is a truck at the docks filled with five million dollars worth of microprocessers. 

After a lot of persuading and a story about leaving no man behind, Tony agrees to go into the docks to steal the truck alongside Sam as opposed to sending in a team.  After stealing the truck, Sam fakes being captured by the security guard so that Tony will be caught alone with the stolen truck, however the “no man left behind” story sticks with Tony and he goes back for Sam and in the process the truck is ruined.

In order to get Tony arrested, Sam comes up with a Plan B and plays along with Tony’s visions of grandeur of starting a war and killing Gio.   After hiring a lot of muscle men, Sam, muscle men, and Tony confront Gio and Tony declares war.  After the declaration is made, Sam and muscle men clear out and a shoot-out ensues.  Tony kills Gio and is arrested.  Case closed.

Meanwhile, Michael and Jesse find Cobra’s hangar and learn that a body was dumped by the plane being kept there. Sam, behind the scenes, finds out the plane last flew to the Bahamas and that in the same day a John Doe washed up on shore. 

This sets things up for next week and progresses Jesse’s storyline a bit further, however I am less interested in his work as an agent and more interested in his friendship with Michael and how things are going to go down when he finds out Michael was the one that burned him. 

Accident or not, Jesse will not be a happy camper.

Throughout the episode Madeline (Sharon Gless) talks Jesse up and tries to get his full story.  In the beginning it starts with cooking, then later accessories for his apartment and a talk about his dead mother. 

After cookies, Jesse tells her that he was burned and that Michael was there to pick him up and save him.  Madeline smiles at Jesse but at the same time one can tell she is suspicious.  She confronts Michael and tells him that she knows he is the one that burned Jesse because he has his guilty face on. 

Michael doesn’t deny it, but pleads that he is Jesse’s friend and he is helping him.  Madeline insists that he is lying to Jesse and storms off.  This little exchange was the best acting on the show in quite a while, where a son tries not to show that he is hurt by his mother’s disappointment and a mother trying to protect her son by telling him to do the right thing even if it is hard.

Though his plotline will probably get old fast, Coby Bell as Jesse has added a nice shake up to the show.  Instead of a calm and collected Michael, we are beginning to see him unravel a bit while he tries to keep the balance of lying to Jesse and helping him all at the same time.

Alicia Sutton is a self-professed TV addict and contributor to Monsters and Critics' smallscreen.