History Headscratchers / BurnNotice

** According to Website/TheOtherWiki when Fiona and Mike met each other Fi was robbing banks for the IRA. Presumably Mike's job was to infiltrate her team to find out if they were a serious threat or likely to become one, or if they could be used to take down someone higher up the ladder in the IRA. This would necessarily have included, yes, helping them commit crimes (though stopping short of murder...probably). Also according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, Michael left when his cover was blown (obviously only blown to Fiona since her brother was still unaware of Michael's real identity years later) so it seems that, if Michael ever was given orders to take down Fiona's team, he probably didn't have enough time to execute it before he skipped town.

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki when Fiona and Mike met each other Fi was robbing banks for the IRA. Presumably Mike's job was to infiltrate her team to find out if they were a serious threat or likely to become one, or if they could be used to take down someone higher up the ladder in the IRA. This would necessarily have included, yes, helping them commit crimes (though stopping short of murder...probably). Also according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, Michael left when his cover was blown (obviously only blown to Fiona since her brother was still unaware of Michael's real identity years later) so it seems that, if Michael ever was given orders to take down Fiona's team, he probably didn't have enough time to execute it before he skipped town.

** According to Wiki/TheOtherWiki, a burn notice "is essentially a directive for the recipient to disregard or "burn" all information derived from that individual or group."

* Michael's vague and, at times, very selective personal ethics and the contradiction between them and his desired occupation. Alright, so when we are first introduced to Michael, he's a valued hotshot spy, doing all that entails for the U.S. government covertly, such as wiring money to prop up a brutal African warlord just to protect some U.S. oil fields. Not exactly high heroics there. When compromised, he takes two goons into the bathroom and calmly and efficiently shoots them dead. Which makes sense, of course, considering they will not hesitate to execute them and he needs to escape. But then later as the series progresses, he shows this sometimes bizarre [[TechnicalPacifist unwillingness to kill]] under any circumstances. Usually, that choice makes a lot of tactical sense for the current job and direct violence is really not an efficient choice, but every now and then it verges into IdiotBall territory, especially when sometimes it seems like Michael doesn't even shoot to kill in self-defense against trained cold-blooded {{Mooks}}, as if that were somehow wrong. He kills Strickler certainly, since its the only way to save Fiona in time, but with his activities, you would really expect that to happen a bit more often. He seems to take some kind of self-righteous offense when side characters like older spies or even Jesse kill, as if they are somehow in the wrong, though, mercifully, he's thanked Fiona the multiple times she has killed for him (she seems to have the highest body count of the four in-show). Later, though, with the CIA, his aim seems to have improved, albeit barely, when he executes a few guards to infiltrate a compound. Also bothersome is the show's, at times, annoying reliance on BigDamnVillains to get Michael out of sticky situations without somehow compromising these principles, such as Larry [[spoiler: killing Brennen]], but such instances really should beg the question, "So what would Michael have done if the villain HADN'T been there do that for him?" Sometimes the only answer is pretty much the same since it was the only real way out. I understand he has come to decide to fight hard against the degradation of his own morality via [[EvilMentor Larry's influence]] or the EvilCounterpart of Simon, but his overarching goal the whole time during the first several seasons has been to get back to his old job working as a spy for the U.S. government--even though, realistically, if he returned to that job he would no longer get to take only the "ethical" jobs anymore--there would be more wetwork ops, more dealings with people who kill, destroy and torture, defrauding and exploitative economic shenanigans and, of course, supporting a government that kills in the hundreds of thousands. Yeah... You know the stuff that governments do in order to stay in power. But yet he seems to have complete MoralMyopia on the subject, despite Fiona's, an acknowledged anti-government radical's, repeated attempts to say WhatTheHellHero to him for it. And this combined with the fact that Michael appears unable to explain exactly *why* he has to do it so much--at first it seems like that he is just in it for the money and having an outlet to use his skills while not becoming a criminal for it (and he accepts jobs with a lot more selfish cynicism back then), but then later vague hints of some super-patriotic desire to be a "good guy" to fight for...something crop up. Later those two seem to be dropped completely and Madeline offers maybe "it's just how he fits into the world" and it seems like he doesn't even really know for sure, other than appreciating the operational support and assets available to a professional spy rather than scraping by being a hero for hire. I think Nate probably hits closest to the mark when he compares it to an addiction--Michael is addicted to the work. A very personal, even self-centered motivation that explains Michael's choices at least. Really a case of Just Bugs Me.

** Michael's target apparently sold information to both sides, as Strong notes. Technically, it's probably still the murder of a civilian, which would be a major no-no if it ever got out ("out" meaning to the public or possibly even to someone in the CIA who still has a conscience (which is [[RealityEnsues practically no one who has any power within it]]) as people undercover are still bound by law. Part of Strong encouraging Michael to actually go through with the hit shows how desperate he is to take James down. It is still illegal, but they're past caring, which is part of what [[spoiler: drives Michael to almost switch sides]].

* Isn't Fiona sort of an [[UnfortunateImplications offensive national stereotype]]? Not just a ex-terrorist but a very chaotic, violence loving one too. Plus she's a redhead. It wouldn't be so bad if she was played by an actual Irish actress but Gabrielle Anwar is English.

* What, exactly, was the Burned Spies Organization doing? What were their goals? The closest we see to a real job by any of them is the abortive and mysterious assassination [[ShaggyDogStory Carla spends half a season setting up with no named target that falls apart thanks to Victor wasting the gunman.]] The rest of the time they're either trying to hunt down Barrett or later take out Michael. Were they a mercenary intelligence force selling their services to the highest bidder (in which case, why go to such lengths to hide their existence)? Did they have some sort of WarForFunAndProfit scheme going? Was this just a way for agents in the legitimate US (or other) intelligence services to get black ops jobs done when it became inconvenient to do it on the level (as Michael suggests at the start of Season 5 when he's interrogating the mook for the location of the last piece of the puzzle), and if so, ''why the need for so much conspiracy and blackmail?'' Especially when the "real" CIA job we see Michael doing is paying off a sketchy warlord and the other jobs the CIA sends him on typically involve kidnapping and would ostensibly involve some considerable amount of bloodshed if Michael wasn't typically so good at avoiding that sort of thing.

* Why is it that all the operations take place in the morning. It seems every time Michael or anyone else does something illegal they do it in the morning. The only time they are out at night(bar some very rare incidents) is when visiting a nightclub. Its like the only do things at night when it is absolutely necessary. Yeah shooting in the morning makes things easier to see but one would think a professional wouldn't perform a hit on someone in broad daylight.

** According to TheOtherWiki, a burn notice "is essentially a directive for the recipient to disregard or "burn" all information derived from that individual or group."

** According to TheOtherWiki when Fiona and Mike met each other Fi was robbing banks for the IRA. Presumably Mike's job was to infiltrate her team to find out if they were a serious threat or likely to become one, or if they could be used to take down someone higher up the ladder in the IRA. This would necessarily have included, yes, helping them commit crimes (though stopping short of murder...probably). Also according to TheOtherWiki, Michael left when his cover was blown (obviously only blown to Fiona since her brother was still unaware of Michael's real identity years later) so it seems that, if Michael ever was given orders to take down Fiona's team, he probably didn't have enough time to execute it before he skipped town.

** Michael is a professional spy it does seem jarring that he would take things at face value that Larry died just because Fiona '''thought''' she killed him, Fiona has been wrong in the past, especially since he seems very GenreSavvy in about everything else. I hope that this comes back to bite him in the ass just so Michael will learn from his mistake.

* Why is it that all the operations take place in the morning. It seems every time Michael or anyone else does something illegal they do it in the morning. The only time they are out at night is night (bar some very rare incidents) is when visiting a nightclub. Its like the only do things at night when it is absolutely necessary. Yeah shooting in the morning makes things easier to see but one would think a professional wouldn't perform a hit on someone in broad daylight.

* At the end of Season 3, Mike realises that Simon intends to kill "Management" because "there was only one Helipad he could land at" (or something like that). Even if you accept that was true (which seems unlikely, but I can swallow that) doesn't it seem remarkably unlikely that Management would take such a risky trip? When I first saw the episode I was convinced it was all a ploy by Management to recruit Mike, ''particularly'' when he steps in to prevent Mike from killing Simon as it seemed the two had cooked up the plan together and killing his own man would be counterproductive. But it seems that no, the hit was absolutely genuine and they weren't working together. Are we meant to ascribe this as a weird coincidence or is it a dangling plot thread?

** Willing to kill =/= willing to be a hired assassin.

** Let's see if I remember the details right. Brennan only needs Mike to run his errands. He says to his face that he doesn't care what Mike actually does in-between getting it done, as long as he ''gets it done''. Also, Nate is still effectively in a hostage situation. I'm sure that's more than enough leverage to tell Mike to knock everything off if he cared to do so. Basically, Brennan's in complete control of the situation and he knows it which is why he lets Mike relatively off the leash.

*** It does stretch credibility somewhat that the team's chisselled, handsome mugs never get recognized (or that their cool car never does, but artistic licence is at play there), but I suppose it would tie into the show's running theme that low level gangs and crooks are composed of small minded idiots who are no match physically or intellectually with trained professionals, and simply lack the connections and ability to spread the word about the mysterious badasses who took them down in days, or failed to do so among the criminal underworld. Where someone is supposed to be reasonably intelligent and careful, they at least seem able to figure out when the team is faking certain parts of their cover IDs (such as in Made Man).