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'Burn Notice' High Five: 'Company Man'

Six months later, Michael Westen is in the good graces of the CIA again as a CIA asset as they try and find the fugitives who burned him. But returning from civilian life isn't as awesome as Michael's yogurt. Michael enlists Fi and Sam (unofficially, according to the CIA) to look for one John Kessler, the key to the four-seasons worthy of conspiracies. So Michael goes undercover as a Russian comrade to get into the workings of said John Kessler. But for once, all of this hot operation stuff doesn't occur in Miami, but in Venezuela! Michael and Max, senior CIA operative, locate Kessler -- but he shot himself in the head before Michael get the answers he needs. Now, Michael's still working with the CIA, but it isn't the happy reconciliation he was looking forward to all of these seasons... I mean, years. 5. Interrogation Scene: Michael would so give a speech about rough handling, go to all the trouble of disabling the cameras, and make himself look intimidating. And then behind closed doors, he just wants to talk. It's a funny/important scene, but it sort of also shows how Michael's always operated and changed since the CIA at the same time. It's subtle, but really important to emphasize the difference between Michael the renegade spy vs. Michael the CIA spy. 4. The Team's Back: Of course, to make this show the Burn Notice we all love and catch up on USA marathons, the team's got to be back in action. An episode on this show wouldn't work without the trio (though apparently, TV network movies do) so this was necessary to keep the show balanced. But having them on the sidelines, unofficially, allowed us to see how essential they are to the show, but also to getting the job done. They definitely don't do things by the book, but they always get the job done; a theme to this episode if you will. 3. Michael and Fi: I have no idea what that 'shipper name would be, but I like the support for this volatile relationship. Even kind of happy, their relationship is based on everything you wouldn't expect for the show's main love interest. I really missed this aspect of their relationship during the hiatus -- not many shows literally base a relationship on adrenaline -- and we only got a few minutes of them together. Imagine the unstableness for this season! 2. Irony: Michael's been searching for the people who burned him since the beginning of this show.

"Company Man" | Burn Notice | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club

Last December, I posed the question: “Is there a dramatic format change ahead, or will everything be pretty much business as usual 10 minutes into the next season premiere?” As someone who has watched this show before, I was fairly confident the status quo would be restored before the first commercial break—and while that’s pretty much the case, showrunner Matt Nix has sprinkled a few new ingredients into the Burn Notice

As you may recall, “Last Stand” ended with Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) being welcomed back into the official spy business by Dylan Baker, playing a character we had not seen before. As we learn in tonight’s season premiere “Company Man,” this is Raines, the man who recruited Michael in the first place. Six months have passed since the events of “Last Stand,” and Michael has been busy, although he has not quite managed to get officially reinstated with the Company—nor get his burn notice officially rescinded.  Teamed with CIA officer Max (Grant Show, formerly of Melrose Place , version 1.0), Michael is now a civilian intelligence asset who has spent most of his time since last we saw him working his way through the MacGuffin list from last season, taking down the people who burned him.

Now one big name remains: John Kessler, head honcho of the “unauthorized quasi-governmental agency” that spent several seasons pulling Michael’s strings. Michael barely has time for a pit stop in Miami and a sex attack by Fiona (still described as “a trigger-happy ex-girlfriend” in the opening, although it looks like we can drop the “ex,” at least for the moment) before Max calls him into action again. It seems Kessler is holed up in one of those impregnable supervillain fortresses in Caracas, Venezuela, and it’s time to smoke him out. Fiona and Sam aren’t happy about being left out, so Michael somehow convinces his handler to let them tag along.