Misery

S04E13

Michael's not even out of the hospital when he takes on a new job of the week: a bombing just up the street. It turns out it was the work of a mad bomber who was also a client of Adam Scott -- the criminal lawyer whose daughter was kidnapped in the "summer finale" -- and one of the many victims was the kidnapper. The team is soon on the case, including Jesse, who's still got his pissy pants on over the team's betrayal of him but is willing to help for reasons of his own. When Michael's injuries prevent him from escaping the bomber's detection, he quickly comes up with a plan B in which he pretends to be a groupie of the narcissistic nut. Supposedly that will help them locate the five other bombs that have already been planted, but what happens instead is that the bomber turns the tables and comes after the team. thing we know, Michael's in Fi's new house with the killer and his latest package. But maintaining his cover, Michael offers to go trigger the other bombs on the bad guy's behalf. The bomber agrees, and while he's sitting in there holding the bomb he'll probably kill any number of cops with, Jesse remotely detonates it for him. Hopefully that'll improve Jesse's mood a bit.

As for that whole business with John Barrett and Simon's Bible and the briefcase that held it, it looks like the latter two were snagged by one of Barrett's security guys. In between everything else, the team traces that guy to a cryptography expert, but there the trail goes cold -- much like the body of the guy who grabbed the briefcase and ended up getting killed by the codebreaker, who is nowhere to be found.

But Madeline got Michael new sunglasses, so that's good news.

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Previouslies aren't unusual for this show at the beginning and end of a half-season, but it is unusual for them to reintroduce the client and the bad guy from the episode's Job Of The Week. Perhaps they will be somehow relevant tonight.

Someone's watching C-SPAN, where there are Senate hearings going on (chaired by my nonexistent elected representative, Senator Gordon [R-Minn]). So apparently the whole thing with telecom CEO John Barrett and his evil international conspiracy has been blown wide open. But we should probably be more interested in who's watching it, namely Sam and Fi, sitting a quiet vigil over a seriously fucked-up Michael while he lies comatose in his hospital room. He VOs poetically about how "spies work in the shadows but dream of the light," and how "one day the world will learn what you've done even if your name is never known." But after three days of watching Michael sleep the sleep of the just, Fi gets bored and kicks his bed. "Where am I?" he gasps, clearly not seeing the sweet view out the giant windows behind Fi. She tells him he's at Mt. Sinai Hospital, and reminds him that he was both shot and in a car accident. Plus, John Barrett is dead. And the briefcase with Simon's code-key Bible and the encrypted data in it is missing. Michael says they need to get that, because it has the cover IDs of all the people who burned him, but presumably its retrieval will have to wait, because right now Michael can't even reach the water on his bedside table. Instead of helping him with that, Fi tells Michael he could use that to destroy the people who burned him. "Exactly," Michael grins weakly.

Some other day, or maybe just later, Michael's having a wheelchair constitutional up on the roof of the hospital when Jesse wanders up, carrying a satchel. Fi makes herself scarce, and Jesse starts with a little small talk. "So, how you feelin'?" "Not great, you shot me," Michael says, causing the talk to get big in a hurry. Jesse says he was trying to save Michael. "Shooting through you to do it was just a... perk." Heh. Jesse brought Michael his big fat burn notice file, and Michael says he could use some help taking down the people who burned him. Jesse's not exactly thrilled with the idea, even when Michael starts to roll out the tired line about how maybe they can help Jesse, too, which even Michael doesn't believe any more after spending the whole first half of the season lying to him about it. Jesse agrees to help Michael find the list, "Because it's the right thing to do, and I want to have a say in what we do with it." Michael thinks that means he can count on Jesse. "That's a hell of a question coming from you, "Jesse says as he leaves. So much for the big talk, too.

Now it's Madeline's turn to visit Michael in the hospital, and she says that he'll be convalescing at her place, since Fi has termites (or rather, her place does, I feel the need to clarify), and Jesse moved out of Madeline's garage, so it's now vacant. Michael reminds her he has a loft, but she reminds him of the stairs that could be deadly in his condition. He gives in when she threatens to deploy the tears, but I'm still wondering if Burn Notice ran into shooting problems near the Miami riverfront after all. I know it was a near thing a couple of seasons ago, but I thought it was resolved. And yet we won't be seeing Michael's place, Fi's old place, or even the Carlito in this episode. Fishy. Of course we'll know the show really has location problems if we ever get to see where Sam lives. Madeline asks Michael when this will stop, when suddenly there's a code orange called over the intercom, giving Michael an excuse to take off limping at top speed. Michael runs into Sam, who's already gotten the scoop from a security officer: apparently there was an explosion nearby that killed four people. "We need to talk to someone who was there," Michael says, like this is their job. They go down to the ER to try to intercept some of the wounded as they're being wheeled in, but the only person in any condition to talk, is one victim's sister. She doesn't know much, except that she doesn't think it was an accident. "I told Walt not to work for a slimebag like Dale. It was a matter of time before something like this." That would be Dale Lawson, the kidnapper from the episode, now dead. She says someone needs to bring the bomber to justice. "Someone will," Michael promises, already having a good idea of who did it. She goes in to join her wounded brother, and her new subtitle that treads "Alicia -- The Client." Back in the receiving area, Sam and Michael are already thinking that Adam Scott (the client from the episode, whose daughter Dale Lawson kidnapped) must have been behind it, and he might be just getting started. Michael pulls out his IV and says, "Time to get back to work." He needs to talk to his boss about disability or something, jeez.

Mocking Michael for thinking he can politely ask Scott to call off his vendetta, Fi drives Michael over to Scott's place. "I didn't say I'd be polite," Michael adds. Inside Scott's home office -- which is totally different from the one he was working out of just one episode ago, raising my suspicions even further that the show's now shooting in Vancouver -- "Scott -- Former Vengeful Client" comes out, surprised to see them, and especially Michael in his condition. "It's not like I almost got blown up on South Beach," Michael downplays it. Scott says he was at a bar at the time: "It's called an alibi." Fi's not amused, but neither is Scott. "I wish I had killed him. I wish I'd been there to watch him burn. But I didn't do it." Fi figures he probably put one of his scummy clients up to it. Scott gets bored and orders them thrown out, although it doesn't happen without a goon putting a hand on Michael's bandaged arm and Fi drawing a gun on the goon. As they leave, Michael tells Scott to enjoy the time with his daughter. "Prison visits are hard on kids." Ooh, cold.

Fi's helping Michael into Madeline's house when they spot Vaughn, waiting for them outside. Rather bold of him, considering the reason Michael's in such bad shape is that Vaughn's people crashed his little party with Barrett. Still, he wants one minute with Michael, "then you never have to see me again. Ever, if you don't want to." The subtitles remind us that he's "Vaughn -- Persona Non Grata." "time you show up unannounced, Vaughn, nobody will ever see you again," Fi threatens. Vaughn's here to apologize and to warn Michael to lay low, with all the investigations going on. Vaughn says he's leaving Miami. "I don't get that option, do I?" Michael says, like he doesn't own a car, and Vaughn slimes that it's time to say goodbye, but someone will be in touch, "when the dust settles." How will that ever happen, with all the explosions on this show?

As Michael and Fi enter the house, the subject moves to Fi and Sam's theory on who took what they're now calling the NOC list, Mission: Impossible style. They think some random goon from Barrett's security team snagged it, and there's one guy named Sweeney unaccounted for. "Doesn't exactly sound like a supervillain... you know, cool name," Michael says. And in any case, he's more interested in tracking the South Beach Bomber first.

Sam chauffeurs Michael in the Charger to the apartment of their prime suspect, Dennis Barfield, the only bomber Scott represents, who's kind of crazy as a bonus. According to his file, he's a violent narcissist with an even worse messiah complex than Michael's. Michael starts to get out of the car, which Sam thinks is a bad idea, but Michael says he's just going to find some evidence he can give to the police. He groans his way out of the car and heads through the alley to Dennis's ground-floor window, through which he can see the bomber's workbench. There's not enough to mark him as anything worse than a model plane enthusiast, unless Michael can get a sample of some of the spilled powder he sees. So he uses a dime to peel away the putty around a replacement window pane and try to pry it loose. Of course this is tricky with his one good arm, and of course it's also when Dennis's car shows up. Sam warns Michael over the phone, arbitrarily dubbing their target Dennis Wayne Barfield to make him sound more serial killerish.

Sure enough, as the thin guy gets out of his car and starts walking toward his door, the subtitles play along and identify him as "Dennis Wayne Barfield -- Serial Killer." Michael VOs about the confidence and can-do attitude needed in the field, but without physical strength -- which Michael currently lacks enough of to hoist himself over the back fence -- it can get you killed. Dennis shows up and pulls a gun on Michael, saying, "Excuse me, scumbag, you just picked the wrong guy to rob." Dennis forces Michael into his apartment, and into what looks like his home photo studio, and treats him to some of his psychosis about the rot and decay of society, blah blah blah Rorschach-cakes. Michael's trying to play for sympathy, moaning "not again" when Dennis looks ready to shoot him and showing him the bandage in his chest, which he claims he got trying to take out a drug dealer. And he goes on to say that he's Gordon Lutz, Dennis's biggest fan. Michael begs him to put the gun down, and says he could learn so much from him. "That's not gonna happen," Dennis says, raising the gun to Michael's head. But then he only threatens to actually give him some more bullet holes if he comes back, and turns him out on the street. "But keep reading the papers, Gordon. There's more to love coming soon."

Back at Madeline's garage, a clearly very sore Michael is telling her and Fi, "I can't be on pain medication if I'm gong to be -- in situations I'm going to be in." Madeline tells him to take time off to heal already, but Michael insists that they know who was behind the explosion in South Beach. "You don't want more innocent people hurt, do you?" Madeline stomps off knowing when she's out-guilted, and Fi asks Michael why he didn't run. "It was a judgment call," Michael lies, pretending he meant to do that. His move is to make another approach to distract Dennis while Sam searches the place. And not go with Fi's plan of shooting him -- yet. As for the NOC list subplot, Sweeney's car was found abandoned and is now in police impound. Michael suggests she take Jesse with her to search it. Fi's not so sure. "Do a job together," Michael says. "He'll forgive you. It's always worked for you and me." "I don't want relationship advice from you today," she says, I guess because it's a day that ends with a Y.

Later, she seems to be unpacking in a new place when Jesse shows up for the job. She tries to offer him a drink, or to let him take a few swipes at her with her boxing gloves. Yes, he's pretty cool toward her, but says they can still work together. Pushing it, she says he'll pose as her husband while they're bribing their way in. "Okay, then." he agrees. "Our marriage is on the rocks." Clearly he's not so pissed at her he can refrain from being a smart-ass.

While Michael VOs about the delicate art of bribery, Jesse and Fi go up to the guard at the impound lot claiming to need Fi's sunglasses out of Jesse's "friend's" car, and then I pretending to argue about why Fi was in the car in the first place. Jesse pretends to think there's a standard fee of $300 for being allowed in, and he's such a jerk about it that the cop is happy to take his money and let them in. So Jesse and Fi get to toss the Sweeney-mobile, but don't find much beyond a University of Miami parking stub, which allows Fi to make the deductive leap that he was looking for an expert to decode the book. Then they resume the act when the cop shows up again, and fortunately Fi brought a pair of shades to pretend to find.

Still pretending to be Dennis's groupie, Michael shows up at his house, offering him half of a giant stash of mercury fulminate in exchange for some tips. He lets Dennis give him some, calls him a genius, and then offers him the whole amount in exchange for some lessons. "I want to learn from the best," Michael says. "I suppose that's understandable," Dennis agrees. He lets Michael lead him out to the Charger to show him the multiple gallons of liquid in the trunk and stroke his ego some more. Meanwhile, in a splitscreen window, Sam enters the apartment undetected. "When I see scum, I have to end them," Dennis says. Michael says he knows the feeling, almost breaking character. Dennis boasts about the South Beach bombing -- which he says he did on an anonymous tip -- and as for the "casualties of war," well, shit happens when you use radio detonators. Sam calls on Michael's cell phone, and Michael steps away to answer it, braying, "Dr. Finley, I'm fine!" Sam tells Michael that it looks like Dennis built five bombs, all marked "delivered," with dates and times, including one today. They wonder how they're going to get anything out of him when the cops already couldn't. "Take the plans and get out, Sam," Michael says quietly. He returns to the car, where Dennis has just finished testing the stuff and is pretty pissed off. He dumps some on Michael's shoes, saying, "If it was real, you wouldn't have a foot any more." Michael acts apologetic and weak, but Dennis jus t tells him to quit wasting his time.

By M. Giant

Fi and Jesse are at the university's computer lab asking questions about Mark Sweeney when a skinny nerd gets up and leaves. Jesse gives chase while Fi hangs back to smile at the professor. Michael VOs that most foot chases are pretty short: "Few people have anything left in the tank after a quarter mile at top speed." It's just a matter of keeping the target in sight and waiting to catch up. Which Jesse does. Once Jesse catches him, the kid admits that he couldn't help Sweeney, other than to refer him to a guy at SXG, a defense contractor where he interned. Netted him a hundred bucks, too.

Jesse returns to Fi, telling her what he learned from "Ichabod Bolt." But before they can follow that up, she gets a call from Sam and Michael, who are busy with Walt wrapping up that TV-bomb in duct tape and plastic trash bags to the pool. They need her help triangulating Dennis's position using the signal from the bomb's remote detonator. As Sam and Walt lower the TV into the pool, Michael suggests they can maybe use his mom, too. "Jesse will do it, I'll call you," Fi says and hangs up. Jesse refuses to get involved, until Fi says that while they lied to Jesse about what they did to him, they didn't lie about who they are. Hence this operation to catch the South Beach Bomber. "Ah, son of a bitch," Jesse sighs wearily.

Inside Walt's house, Michael's got the laptop and cell phone set up, and it's five o'clock. Right on time, Dennis calls to tell Walt he's the guy who killed his boss, and he wants Walt to turn on the news. Walt lies that he did, and the pool explodes, thanks to the flat-screen depth charge they sank into it. Sam, Jesse and Fi, positioned all over town, are able to triangulate Dennis's position: right outside Fi's house. She goes out the back window jus before Dennis stomps in.

Michael and Sam meet up with Jesse and Fi on the street outside Fi's house. Sam tells Jesse it's good to see him. "You really want to have a reunion right here? Seriously?" Sam lets it drop. They assess the situation: there are still four more Dennis-bombs all over town wired to hair-trigger radio detonators. Michael volunteers to go in alone and let his friends shoot at them so Michael can bond with Dennis under fire, but the cops are showing up, so that's not going to happen. Even so, Michael's messiah complex gets an assist from Sam, pointing out that if the cops get Dennis he'll never give up the location of the remaining bombs. Michael gently tells Fi it's okay and heads off.

In character as Gordon, Michael enters Fi's place and tells Dennis -- who's holding a fresh bomb -- that the cops are coming and they have to leave. He claims that he followed Dennis, and "ended" the jogger who saw Dennis break in and called the police. "I'm like you now," he says proudly. Dennis is pissed off at how much heat Michael's brought down. Meanwhile, outside, Jesse's worried about all the cops showing up with their radios. "One burst of static on the wrong channel," he frets. The team spreads out and starts telling the cops to shut off their radios. Inside, Dennis is watching the unfolding scene while Michael VOs about how zealots think they have something to teach the world. "Dealing with a fanatic, then, is often just a matter of being a very good student." Dennis sits down and arms the bomb he's been holding and starts ranting about how this is only the beginning, and others will follow in his crazy footsteps. Michael pretends to know what Dennis is saying: "I can walk out of here like your hostage, the cops won't even bother me. I can detonate the devices!" Dennis acts like that was his idea all along. Michael keeps selling it, getting Dennis to agree to tell him the addresses.

When Michael comes out alone, the police are a little rough with him, given how his bad arm doesn't easily go behind him like the cops want it to. But he manages to smile at Fi, signaling that he has the addresses. Jesse says it's not over -- Dennis could blow the device when the cops get close, and take a bunch of them with him. "Fi, how do you want to play it?" Sam asks. But before she can answer, Jesse hits the detonator in his hand, blowing Fi's new house to shit. Everyone's shocked at what he just did, and Jesse tells Sam and Fi, "Sometimes you gotta put the rabid dog down." From the ground, Michael watches Jesse walk away. He's always been a bit of a loose cannon, but now he's a loose cannon in a bad mood.

Madeline comes home to find Michael standing in her kitchen looking pensive. She still wants to know why Michael does it. "I dunno," he shrugs, admitting that the doesn't know if he's that different from anyone else who likes the feeling of a trigger on their finger. "Whatever," Madeline analyzes. "Maybe you got some repressed crap, you know?" Her point is that it doesn't matter. "You're one of the good guys, Michael. I'm proud of you." Plus she got him a present: a new pair of sunglasses, just like the Algerian ones he lost. "It's called shopping," she says. "We all have our strengths. Now go do what you do."

By M. Giant

So Michael goes and does what he does, which is getting out of his Charger in his suit and sunglasses in slow motion. He's meeting Jesse, who he thanks for the other day. "Let's just do this," Jesse grumps. They're paying a visit to Justin Walsh, the guy Jesse found out about from Ichabod Bolt. Walking through his front gate, Jesse explains, "A buddy of Sam's said the guy's had national security clearance for over a decade. He's, uh, apparently fond of wrought iron, and now you're all caught up." Michael wonders if Walsh would even know what he was looking at. Peering inside through the window of a front door, Jesse says, "I think he knew." Could he be using the past tense because there's a body on the floor in there?

By M. Giant

Michael and Jesse break right in and search the place, but the briefcase is gone, as is the list, as is Walsh, who apparently killed Sweeney for it. All Jesse was able to find was Walsh's e-mail address. Michael says Walsh knows everything Michael's looking for, "and he has a three-day head start." Well, whose fault is that, freelance bomber-chaser?

Watch this episode below, discuss it in our forums, then find out how to make a USA Network show!

M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.