Recap / Burn Notice S 3 E 3 End Run

The episode begins with Nate complaining to Michael after a 5 hour interrogation by Detective Paxson. Nate asks for a ride to his meeting with an investor in his limo company. Mike, Sam and Fi agree that if she keeps digging she will find someone willing to talk about Mike's extracurricular activities. They decide to try creating a fake relationship between Mike and someone Paxson shouldn't go after (i.e the Mayor's aide).

As Mike returns home after this meeting he is intercepted by Tyler Brennan who is angry after their last encounter. Brennan explains that his partner ( a Sicilian enforcer nicknamed the Butcher) is holding Nate hostage (he was the investor) and that he will have him killed unless Mike helps him with some errands.

Mike steals a chip from a company, tricks an angry gun nut named Jonathan Carver into saying all the numbers and his name for a voice key and then breaks into a weapons manufacturer's building. However he then tells Brennan he won't steal the last item until he knows what it is. Brennan tells him. Unfortunately once Michael has gotten them past the parking guards the Butcher and Nate arrive and Brennan shoots Nate in the arm as a warning.

Mike rings Sam from inside the building desperate as he thinks Brennan will kill him and Nate once the job is finished. Sam has been looking at the data from Brennan's phone and tells him there is an elaborate shell company that exists to send $40k to Switzerland every 6 months. Michael figures out this is tuition for a child's school and uses it to bluff Brennan into letting him and Nate go.

Later on Mike and Nate try to trick Madeline into believing Nate was hurt by a mugger but she doesn't buy it. Also Detective Paxson swings by. Her partner Detective Lopez investigated the Mayor's aide and got suspended. She warns Michael that she can give as good as she gets.

Tropes

• Actually Pretty Funny: Brennen is quite amused by two of the things Michael does to get the recording of Carver's voice: breaking into someone's car so that he can deliberately crash into Carver's and the whole "eight inches from the curb" rant.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "What about Bell Anna?"
• Armor-Piercing Response: Brennen is dubious that Michael is targeting his daughter, but he just can't take the chance.
  Brennen: You're lying.
  Michael: You wanna find out? Shoot me.
• Artistic License – Physics: The cantenna is pretty awesome, but phones aren't engineered to work that way. It would be a huge security flaw, if nothing else.
• Badass Boast: During the final stand-off, with lots of bluffing to go along with it.
  Brennen: No. You're not this good. Nobody is this good.
  Michael: Yes, I am.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The explosion is bigger than Sam would've preferred.
  Sam: Jesus, Fi! Told you not to kill the neighbors!
  Fiona: You told me to make a point.
• Blackmail: In his narration, Michael notes how blackmail is like deciding how to use one's only bullet and not something to risk losing just before completing the given goal. Brennen forces compliance by endangering Nate's life, while Michael gets information and stalls for time by exploiting how he's needed for this job. This bit of brinksmanship ultimately results in Michael learning what the desired object is and Brennen shooting Nate as a reminder of who's in charge.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word:
  Michael: You're forcing me to break into a weapons manufacturer?
  Brennan: "Forcing." Such an ugly word. Encouraging... incentivizing... No, you're right, let's go with forcing.
• Brandishment Bluff: In the climax Brennen has Michael at gun point and Nate wounded, and the Butcher waiting to act. Michael has no backup or weapon as he confronts Brennen. He just has photos from Sam and Fi of Brennen's base destroyed, Barry intercepting a call to his bank to claim the money in his account is gone, and the lie that Michael has an assassin in Switzerland ready to kill Brennen's daughter if Michael or Nate dies. Brennen will not risk his victory costing him his daughter's life, and so retreats.
• Brick Joke: At one point, Brennen claims that once he gets what he wants, all Michael will ever hear from him afterwards is mean-spirited Christmas cards. After it's all over:
  Brennen: You'll hear from me again, Michael.
  Michael: Yeah, you owe me a Christmas card.
• Call-Back: Michael sells his last bluff by referencing how Brennen would hurt a child and saying he's just playing by those rules now.
• Chekhov's Gun: Brennan's records include a mystery company called Bell-Anna Holding which receives $40k every half-year. It takes Michael until the climax to finally have a clue as to what it's about.
• Crowbar Combatant: Michael expounds on the wonders of the tire iron as a tool for: 1) replacing a tire; 2) "borrowing" someone else's car by breaking the glass and accessing the ignition; and 3) subduing pissed-off security guards.
  Michael: [v.o.] A tire iron is great if you need a new tire. It's also great if you need a new car, because a tire iron can be used to break a window and pry open the steering column to expose the ignition leads. It's the ultimate all-purpose tool.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Brennen's partner, the Butcher (a Sicilian enforcer), is said to take his time with his victims.
• Drives Like Crazy: When told that Michael's in trouble and she needs to get somewhere fast, Fi looks at the minor inconveniences of the parking lot she's in and exits via the shrubbery.
• "Eureka!" Moment: It's seeing a family photo on a desk in the final building Michael infiltrates that leads him to start thinking that money that Brennan sends to an unknown company is in fact for her daughter's tuition at an overseas school.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Brennen genuinely loves his daughter. When Michael convinces Brennen Michael is playing by Brennen's rules and not Michael's, Brennen will not chance his daughter's life on testing Michael's bluff. Which is the only reason Michael is able to get himself and Nate out of this one alive.
• Fake Brit: In-Universe: Barry has to put on a British accent when he intercepts Brennen's call to the bank and pretend to be a teller there to answer Brennen's financial inquiries. Barry warns Sam his fake British accent isn't the best, but Michael has Brennen tweaked enough so he isn't listening to hear any problems in Barry's voice.
• Faux Affably Evil: The Butcher pretends to be friendly with Nate while taking about the limo business for several hours, but when he gets a call from Brennan, he is quick to ask if Nate is to be killed yet or to continue to hold off.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Michael tries to get under Brennen's skin by having his Miami house blown up and making it appear like his bank account has been drained. Despite being a greedy bastard, Brennen says it's just stuff and he can simply start over after settling up with someone he hates.
  • However, when Michael plays invokes Brennen's daughter's name and claims to have an assassin after her, Brennen loses his cool for the first time and begins to panic. His love for his daughter is genuine and will do what he must to keep her from harm.
• Implausible Deniability: Invoked by Michael. He drinks some whiskey and spills a bit on himself so he can claim not to be drunk in the face of a very skeptical guard.
• Indy Ploy: Mike takes a chance that the Switzerland money is for Brennen's daughter and claims to have an assassin in place to kill her. It works.
• Ineffectual Loner: Michael's narration disputes the myth of a spy working completely solo, saying such types don't last long and that a spy always needs friends around for when enemies eventually come knocking. Part of how Michael gets out of this is having Sam and Fi looking into Brennen's holdings.
• Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Michael infiltrates a company building using this disguise as part of the first task that Brennan gives him. He uses the disguise to pilfer items from actual workers' desks to wrangle together a makeshift device to access Brennan's phone via bluetooth for Barry and Sam to investigate. He's not able to silently break into the office that holds the security key that Brennan is after but covers his tracks by pretending to be a drunk father trying to provide child support.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Brennen invokes this in a more serious way than others. To evade the cartel which thinks Brennen betrayed in "Sins of Omission," Brennen anonymously sends a rival cartel AK-47s and rocket launchers to tip the power in the rival's favor and knew they would do what criminal organizations are wont to do.
• Moral Myopia: Brennan is outraged that Michael would threaten to hurt his daughter, ignoring the fact that he strapped a bomb to someone else's son in his previous appearance. Michael calls him out on it:
  Brennan: If she so much as skins her knee on the playground, I will spend the rest of my life hunting you down!
  Michael: Of course you would, Brennan. She's your family.
• The Needs of the Many: Depending on what's in the box, Michael refuses to retrieve it for Brennen under any circumstances. As he says, he won't hand over a nuke or some other major weapon to a guy like Brennen, even if it means Nate gets killed.
• Oh, Crap!: Brennan finally loses his cool when Michael mentions his daughter.
• Papa Wolf: Brennen vows to destroy Michael and everything he loves if his daughter so much as skins her knee because of him.
• Portmanteau: Meet the cantenna, a cute little improvised hacking device.
• Sherlock Scan: Michael's narration notes that the little details that most folks would miss can make the difference on a mission. During a car ride, Michael scopes out Brennen's attire looking for some insight into his life, and Brennen is fully aware of what he's doing (calling it rather boring). The tiepin that Michael spots and Brennen's irritated reaction to being asked about a wife are the first indications that the guy has a daughter.
• Villain Respect: Brennen admits that Michael is very sly for probing for information right away.
• Villainous Breakdown: Brennen loses it when Michael starts talking about his daughter and her current whereabouts.
• We Need a Distraction: Michael stalls for time any way he can in order to figure a way out of this. When pulling his Indy Ploy, he claims he only ran errands for Brennen in order to buy time for an assassin to get in place to kill Annabelle. It hangs together well-enough for Brennen to not push it.
• We Will Meet Again: Michael gets this from both Brennen and Paxson.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Thinking his daughter is in danger, Brennen says Michael is capable of a lot of things but not hurting kids. This is true, but Michael claims he's forgoing his usual rule this time and playing by Brennen's instead. The bluff works.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: While breaking into the first office, Michael smashes a window and deliberately cuts himself with a piece of glass:
  Michael: (voice over): Nothing sells innocence like an injury... if you're in a situation where you really need the benefit of the doubt, it's worth a flesh wound.