Smallscreen Features

'Burn Notice' recap: Breach of Faith

By Alicia Sutton Jun 25, 2010, 6:30 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

The plot thickens in the 4th episode of this season of “Burn Notice”. 

Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar) and Jesse (Coby Bell) are in the Bahamas following up on a lead from last week’s episode in which Jesse’s contact Cobra goes missing and they have reason to believe his body has been dumped in the Bahamas. 

Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) calls Fiona to see how they are progressing and is slightly put off at hearing they are at a bar and appear to be having fun.  While Fiona acts as a distraction, Jesse, with a pretty darn good Jamaican accent, pickpockets the keys to the morgue off an employee. 

They successfully steal the file and head back to Miami and brief Michael, making him seem like the odd guy out as he is usually the one with the answers.  Michael doesn’t seem too comfortable with how close Fiona and Jesse are getting, and even goes so far as asking if there was anything else they need to tell him. 

Adding the chemistry between Fiona and Jesse was a good call as it brings a new emotion out of Michael that we haven’t really seen before – jealousy.

Sam (Bruce Campbell) runs the fingerprints from the file and get Cobra’s real name, sending Jesse and Fiona to find the guy’s real address while Michael helps Sam with a consultation that turns into a hostage situation that lasts all day. 

The client, a charity owner who has been scammed out of all his money, is holding two people hostage.  Michael and Sam show up before the cops and after a few neat gizmo tricks and some decent acting at playing different roles, they find out that one of the people held hostage is innocent and the other is the thief. 

Once the secretary learns that her boss is a thief, things escalate and Michael calls Fiona and Jesse for help.  They discover that the money from the scams is being held in a floor safe and they immediately blow it out of the ground using a toaster, what looks to be a coffee maker and some bullets.  Not sure if this is even possible but it sure looked cool!

The police start to move in, so Michael and Sam devise an all-too-familiar-in-television-but-would-never-work-in-real-life-plan to make the boss look like the bad guy and Michael and company to look like the hostages. 

It works and they are all saved when the secretary corroborates the story. 

While walking to the car Sam tries to apologize to Michael for the short consultation turning into an all day event to which Michael replies, “Why Sam, you were right, you said it would take less than a day”, so Sam replies, “long ass day.”  Funny banter between two good friends is just one of the ingredients that make this show a good watch. 

While Sam and Michael are busy at the hostage game, Fiona and Jesse try to break into Cobra’s house and are interrupted by a nosy neighbor (Navi Rawat).  Jesse and Michael go back and after finding the house clean, Michael goes over to the nosy neighbor using a fake FBI badge and asks her some questions. 

When they start to leave they figure out that the neighbor is the mark.  She escapes but they find a tape in her house leaving us wondering what is on the tape.  Navi Rawat is a fantastic actress and quite easy on the eyes so it will be fun to (hopefully) have her around for a few episodes. 

Even though the overall story arc is coming along slowly, this episode was fun and lighthearted.  Jesse is working well with the team, Michael was back in his prime, and the suspense is building up slowly for Jesse to discover Michael was the one that inadvertently got him burned. 

The writers are doing a great job in making Jesse a interesting character, so it will be quite tragic and intense when he realizes that Michael is the guy he is looking for. 

Will he try to kill Michael or will he forgive him?  Hopefully we will find out soon.