Warning: The following recap, by the very definition of the word “recap,” contains top-secret spoilers from the Burn Notice series finale.
Once a burned spy who as such famously had nothing, Michael Westen now has (mostly) everything.
As USA Network‘s Burn Notice wrapped its seven-season run, sacrifices were made, rights were wronged, things blowed up good and we even got a couple of wonderful winks to the show’s ingrained-in-all-our-brains opening credits.
Here is how the venerable spy drama unspooled its final mission.
THE BURNED IDENTITY | As it is revealed that Sonya was shot during the face-off with Fiona — by an unclouded Michael (is Fi his clarity?) — James in the nearing helicopter declares war. Michael and Fi hurry down and out of the building, firing off many shots/kills along the way, and are picked up by Sam. The group, with Jesse, gathers their bearings, but Michael tries to send them off without him. “Why did you come back?” he later asks Fi, feeling undeserving of any loyalty. She answers, “I knew that if I was wrong about you, it didn’t matter if I got out of there alive.”
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Alas, getting out of Miami alive, for any of them, will be even harder than imagined, when Strong declares the CIA “fresh out of deals” in the wake of Michael screwing up their plan to take James. (“If you thought it was tough being burned,” HRG/Senator Bracken taunts, “you ain’t seen anything yet.”)
THE FINAL MISSION? | Before embarking on their only next course of action — attacking James’ operation themselves — Michael meets up with Ma, to ask her to stay in hiding with Charlie a bit longer. Well aware of the formidable foe he’s taking on, Maddie frets, “I don’t want to lose another son,” to which Michael says, “Mom, sometimes sacrifices have to be made.” And as they hugged at the close of this somewhat conspicuous in-person encounter, and with those words exchanged, we got our first hint of whose life would soon be lost.
After a pal of Jesse’s puts them team on the trail of the techy guy James enlisted to hack satellites, Michael asks his fellow burned spy to watch over his mom and nephew during this final phase of their op. Michael, Fi and Sam then intercept (with some difficulty) the sat guy and force him to reveal the location of the relay station he set up — in an abandoned newspaper HQ. The plan: to pinch the hard drive that collects James’ data and deliver it to the CIA.
Alas, though the three friends have little trouble getting to their target, James has used the burner phones Sam and Jesse bought earlier in the day to track everyone’s location — including Maddie’s. Back at that safe house, meanwhile, Maddie asks Jesse about his admirable loyalty all these years, and he explains how they all have formed the family has hadn’t had since his mom died — and now we’re thinking Jesse will buy it!
FOR THE BOYS | At the newspaper building, James assures Michael, “I will not hesitate to shoot you down like dogs — like you did with my Sonya.” Nor will he show Ma and young Charlie any mercy either. When Michael calls Maddie to warn her of an imminent assault, she informs him: “I found a way to buy Jesse and Charlie a chance to get out of here.” As Michael realizes what she is (and isn’t) saying, she explains, bravely, “Like you said, sacrifices have to be made” — so she is going to manually explode some C-4 as the baddies broach the house, since no remote trigger is available. “God knows I’ve failed you enough times in the past,” she says to Michael. “Give me this, please.”
Before laying in wait with her finger on the button, Maddie says to her son, “We all made mistakes, but I’m so proud of the man you are. I love you, Michael.” Moments later, as James’ team storms in, Maddie declares after one last drag of a cigarette, “This one’s for my boys” and blows the room sky-high, while Jesse pops a few stragglers in the back yard and gets away with Charlie.
Cornered by James, Michael says to Fi, “I wanna fight. My mom bought me a second chance, I owe her to use it.” A shootout commences, while Sam runs for the exit with the hard drive in hand, craftily using a roll of duct tape to eventually gun down his pursuer. When Michael runs out of ammo, he suggests he charge James, drawing out the last goons so that Fi can take them out. Fi questions if this is Michael’s latest bid to get himself killed, to fulfill some “death wish.” But that is not so. “I want to live, maybe more than I ever have,” he attests. Fi responds, “When you put it that way…,” and the plan unfolds successfully, until a wounded James reveals he’s holding a Dead Man’s Switch. (Aren’t they always?!) He releases the button and explosions begin shaking the building, up and down every hallway, and Michael and Fi try to flee….
FINAL NOTICE | Flash-forward to the CIA HQ in Langley, where Strong receives in his office Sam and Jesse, who’ve obviously been detained. He explains that “some” at the Agency want Sam and Jesse to stay locked up (to which Sam snarks, “You know spies — buncha bitchy little girls”). But Strong fancies them heroes, and announces they are free to go — and that Michael will get a star on the memorial wall.
As Sam presides over a military funeral for his friends, Michael narrates, “A spy is truly never done being a spy until you’re dead. As long as you are useful to someone, it is your fate to be a spy. But if there’s one thing spies are bad at, it’s accepting fate.” (Cue a flashback revealing that as James triggered the building to explode, Michael shot out a window through which he and Fi jumped, into water below.) “Where do you think they are?” Jesse asks Sam at the grave site. “Hard to say — a lot of places in the world with C-4 and yogurt.” Sam then invites Jesse to help him with a friend of a friend who has “some kind of problem” and “sounded pretty desperate on the phone,” indicating that the two of them will carry the baton for the team moving forward. (For the record, series creator Matt Nix says of the spin-off prospect, “There’s nothing specifically in the works, other than that we all think it would be fun to do if the opportunity ever arose.”)
In closing, we observe Michael, Fi and an asleep Charlie, cuddled on a couch in a cozy home in a far off place. Looking down at his nephew, Michael wonders, “What will I tell him when he’s older…? Where would I start?” Fi answers, “From the beginning. Start with, ‘My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy….'”
