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Michael and Jesse are trying to get Jesse's old handler Marv to accept their hot list of Michael-burners in exchange for their old jobs back, but it's proving delicate to arrange. While that's going on, Sam gets the team on a case involving a missing cop friend of his, suspected of having killed some dealers and fled the state with their stolen drugs. After minimal investigation, they find out the missing guy's partner is the real perp -- and worse, he had Sam's friend killed. They figure the only way to bust him is to lure him into selling the drugs to Michael (undercover as a drug dealer, of course). When that doesn't work, as everyone but them knew it wouldn't, they ratchet up the bad guy's paranoia and drive him to try planting the drugs in the home of his innocent dead partner. Then he gets busted.
This has apparently been enough time for Marv to agree to the handoff of the NOC list. But when it happens, the supposed Homeland Security agents backing Marv up turn out to in fact be bad guys who shoot Marv dead as soon as they have the list in hand. Don't know why they left Michael and Jesse alive, but it might have something to do with who they're working for: Michael's old recurring A-list nemesis Brennen. That rates a "To Be Continued," right there.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!A rare set of previouslies -- it's all about that list of people who burned Michael, and Jesse's old handler Marv, and their recovery of the list in Santo Domingo. And then Michael's infinitely slow decision of what to do with it.
While Michael VOs about that decision, we see him alone in the loft late at night, fooling with the list on his computer. It seems to be copy-protected, which is good, because I was wondering about that. Jesse shows up, and they discuss how Michael has decided to hand it over to the government. Jesse's already made a call to Marv offering the list in exchange for their jobs back. The only problem is that Marv neither trusts nor likes Michael: "In his mind you're always gonna be the guy that burned me." Michael wants to talk to Marv alone, and Jesse reluctantly agrees to set up a meeting. Clearly he's concerned about the effect of Michael's charm on Marv.
day, "Marv -- Jesse's Old Handler" is meeting Michael by a pool (where all meetings in Miami are held), running down the list of offenses Michael has committed. And those are just the ones that aren't in the burn notice. He doesn't trust Michael, and he'll only help out if Michael agrees to come clean about all his contacts with the people on the list. Michael says that would be too dangerous, but when Marv stands firm and demands a polygraph test, he agrees.
Cut to Marv in his hotel room, wiring Michael up to a lie detector (which I guess he travels with, just like all counterintel guys) and starting with the baseline questions, like name and occupation. By now, we know the response as well as he does: "My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy."
Jesse retrieves the flash drive containing the list from behind a wallboard in Madeline's garage. "Why don't you boys just buy some file cabinets?" she asks from the doorway. Nice security, Jesse. He promises her that this is the last time, and alludes to the likelihood that he and Michael will soon be "back in." Which is the first Madeline's heard of it, and Jesse realizes he just stepped in it big time. Madeline's nice enough to play it off so he can get away relatively clean, but there'll be a reckoning between the Westens soon, I'm sure.
At the Carlito, Sam presents Michael with a thick file -- Jesse's copy of Sam's reports from when he used to watch Michael for the Feds. "You had a daily yogurt tally?" Michael asks in amazement. Well, that would explain why the file is so thick. Sam's also got a case -- a missing cop friend, but Michael's already heard of him from the papers. "The guy's dirty, he fled the state, Sam," he says, brandishing a non-Herald. Sam tells him not to believe everything he reads. "You of all people- should know that." Touché.