Burn Notice - New Deal

The seventh, and final, season of Burn Notice picks up nine months after last season's cliffhanger which saw Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) make a deal with the CIA to keep Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), Sam (Bruce Campbell), Jesse (Coby Bell), and his mother (Sharon Gless) out of jail by going back to work for the agency that burned him. Nearly a year later Michael is still working deep undercover in the Dominican Republic to take down a terrorist leader (Adrian Pasdar) who he once worked with years ago.

Meanwhile back in Miami, Sam is approached by a man (Nick Tarabay) claiming to be with French Intelligence Officer nosing around for information at Michael and whether or not he is still working for the CIA. When Sam discovers Jesse had a similar visit he decides to round-up the gang including Fi who has a new beau (Stephen Martines) and job as a bounty hunter in Miami. Although the mystery man doesn't get what he needs from either man, he is able to use Madeline's grandson to leverage information about her son to discover what Michael is really doing in the Dominican Republic.


"New Deal" gives us not one but former stars of Heroes as guest-stars. Not only does Pasdar play Burke, the old friend Michael is sent to take down, but Jack Coleman is cast as the man in control of Michael's covert mission. After months Michael finally makes contact and is hired for a job setting a bomb in a security firm. With his cover in danger of being blown just as the mission nears the mot critical stage, Michael flies back to Miami with his handler to find the leak and kill him before Burke learns the truth about Michael's reasons for living in the Dominican Republic the past nine months.

The Seventh Season premiere offers plenty of danger and a few of the show's trademark tricks for setting, and disabling, bombs. Although it works for this episode, I'm hoping the structure of keeping Michael separate from his friends doesn't continue too far into the season as the characters and their complicated relationships are one of Burn Notice's greatest strengths that, because of this episode's set-up, can't be fully utilized here.