Burn Notice
Using the Crossword Puzzle left last week, Michael finds himself in Lummus Park at the chess tables. There he meets Victor, his new handler. He's taking over for Carla and will be giving Michael his jobs now.Client of the Week
Michael asks Sam to babysit Madeleine, introducing this week's client, the brother of one of Michael's childhood friends. Ricky needs Michael's help proving to his gangster-turned-record-producer boss that it was another employee who embezzled two million dollars. Victor wants Michael to help him steal a mysterious object from somewhere on its way to somewhere else.- Ad Hominem: Played for Laughs.Victor: I don't like your field tactics!
Michael: I don't like your whining! - Chess Motifs: The episode opens with Michael and Victor sitting across from each other at a chess table in the park.
- Engineered Public Confession: Eddie is tricked into revealing his crimes by going on a Motive Rant at Ricky's prompting while Eddie's got him at gunpoint for a Just Between You and Me. In reality, the gun Eddie has is filled with blanks courtesy of Michael, Ricky knows this and is playing the part Michael briefed him on, and Valentine is in the house in another room courtesy of Sam and Fi having kidnapped and brought him there.
- Request for Privacy: After the ex-Gang Banger company president Sweet Valentine holds a meeting to fire a talent agent the suspected embezzler Eddie accused of trying to jump ship to the competition, he orders everyone out of the room, "except you, Ricky," to question him privately about the missing money. Given a Meaningful Echo at the climax of the episode—"Everyone out, except you, Eddie"—after he hears the Engineered Public Confession that Team Westen arranged.
- The Resenter: Despite being Valentine's most trusted employee and having been with him since near the beginning of his career, Eddie reveals in his Motive Rant that he despises being "an advisor with a weekly paycheck" when he feels he's entitled to so much more of Valentine's success and money for all the work he put in getting Valentine to where he is now.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Michael uses incendiary rounds in a shotgun to first light a security cruiser's wheel on fire, then to blow up barrels of rain sealant. He justifies this to the more bloodthirsty Victor on the grounds that "a little harmless gunfire attracts less attention than a double homicide".
- Technical Pacifist: Victor fully plans to murder the two warehouse security guards if they interrupt the robbery. Michael instead blows out their car tire with an incendiary round, then fires another shot to blow up some barrels of highly flammable rain sealant, buying Victor the time he needs while the guards recover from the shell-shock.
- You Have Failed Me: Subverted. Michael and Victor return back to their meet-up point arguing about how the mission went—
Victor: I don't like your field tactics!
Michael: I don't like your whining!
—and Victor finally reminds him of what he said earlier would happen if he ignored orders and did his own thing again... and then can't keep a straight face anymore and bursts out laughing.Victor: But that one had some style! Hahahaha!
