Burn Notice - Season Seven
Feb. 25th, 2023 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
AKA the season of Michael torture, both figurative and literal. The writers said, ‘Let’s isolate him, separate him from his support network, and see how much we can put the poor bastard through. What horrible things can we make him do when he’s trapped and desperate and trying to decide which of his choices is the least awful?’ And they really went to town.
Michael. Er, yeah, see above.
When I was reviewing season five, I talked about a key difference between Jesse and Michael – that when Jesse was given his CIA job back, he decided it wasn’t worth the way they treated him and walked away, while Michael still thought it WAS worth it. Well, now he definitely doesn’t.
He was still enthusiastically on board while he was working with Pearce, and then he told Fiona he’d get out in Panama, before he discovered his boss was corrupt. So I’m guessing it was his brother getting killed that triggered the change. The direct confrontation with mortality? The guilt over Nate, and not wanting to do that to his mother again, maybe?
Michael hasn’t been doing great mentally for the last two seasons – constantly stressed, desperately plunging from one crisis to another. Season seven is not making that better. He’s not unaware of his precarious state either. When he’s told he can take one person with him for a mission, he chooses Sam. He could have picked Jesse, who’s younger, fitter, faster, but Michael doesn’t just need a field operative, he needs psychological support, and that’s the guy he’s trusted for nearly twenty years. The fact that he actually talks when Sam brings it up instead of insisting that he’s fine indicates just how bad it is.
And then it’s back into isolation, and when he eventually concludes that the CIA are at least as appalling as any of the people they send him after, he’s wavering between borderline suicidal and becoming that Ends Justifies The Means lunatic that Fiona and Vaughn were both warning him about back in season four.
Maddy – Michael’s relationship with his mother developed all through the series. When he first arrived in Miami, she barely knew him. He left home at seventeen and rarely came back. On Michael’s side, he still loved his mother, and felt some guilt over leaving, but he resented her and didn’t particularly like her. Over the years, they got to know one another as the people they became, and Maddy made a real effort to try and make up for failing him in his childhood.
Maddy’s looking after her grandson now that Nate’s dead, and she’s determined to do a better job than she did the first time. She even gives up smoking, which Michael’s been telling her to do for years XD But she never lost the guilt she felt over the damage she put her kids through – that she wasn’t strong enough to walk away from an abusive bastard – and that means she won’t fail him again, won’t lose any more family.
Fiona is So Done. She’s Done with Michael, and she’s Absolutely Fucking Done with the CIA. She wants to get back to the vibe of the early seasons when everyone was just having fun. She finds herself a nice guy who puts her first and has the same odd definition of ‘fun’ as she does. Unfortunately, that’s a decision she left too late, because the CIA are not done with her.
And of course, she was only done with Michael because he didn’t keep his promise to get out, because she thought he chose the job over her. By the time she finds out the choice he was given was different, she’s already moved on. But when Michael needs to be saved, she’s right there volunteering to do the saving.
Sam is still Sam, with his own particular version of morals. He has no intrinsic objection to killing people sometimes, but he very much likes to know who he’s killing and why. He’s a lot less thrilled about shooting someone he knows nothing about just because he’s told to, but he’ll do it if he absolutely has to, and he’ll live with it and not let it drag at him too much. Because if he hadn’t done it, somebody else would have, and that somebody else might not have tried so hard to avoid it, and somebody else wouldn’t have been as motivated to protect Michael. Sam rationalises and compartmentalises, which is something of a job necessity.
He also has total faith in Michael, and he’s the last one of the gang to recognise that Michael’s crossing too many lines. He won’t believe it until he actually sees it.
Jesse’s loyal, dedicated and practical, and still here for any of the gang under any circumstances. Back in season five, I wondered what exactly was making Jesse stick with these people after they turned his life into a bonfire – he wasn’t even around for most of the part where people were having fun, he joined just as they were starting the slide into disaster. Maddy asks him that same question here, but at this point I don’t think it needs to be asked. The original trio have already proven back in season six that they’ll pull the maddest of the mad stunts for Jesse just the same as they will for each other, and he’s fully entrenched.
I never felt I got a handle on Jesse the same way I did with the others, though – I wanted to, and it didn’t happen and I’ve been trying to pin down why. He was only in four seasons, not seven, but that’s not the reason. I had a better feel for the others after three seasons than I do for Jesse after four.
Part of it’s that we see less of Jesse outside the team – we see little snippets here and there of his day job, but we never see where he lives, or anything about his personal life. There’s that suggestion back in season four that he’s hot for Fiona, and then nothing. And honestly, Jesse’s just too damn nice.
We know all of Sam’s bad habits as well as his good ones. We know that he’s particular about how he folds his socks. We know about Fiona’s temper, her domestic violence trigger and her odd thing for collecting snow-globes. We know how she likes her omelettes. We definitely know Michael’s issues and flaws, in technicolour, and we know his favourite flavour of yoghurt. But we never really get to see a down-side or any weird little foibles with Jesse, those tiny little details that make a person, and it leaves him a bit one-note compared with the others.
One of the big things with Burn Notice was that it was apparent a few seasons ago that there was no way for this to end with everyone alive and happy.
If Michael had made the choice he made at the end of the series earlier (and late season five when he was being blackmailed by Anson would have been a great time to do it, honestly), he wouldn’t have been at peace with it. He would have forever been wondering if he could have won, if he could have fixed it, and it would have eaten away at him. Some people who died would have lived, but Maddy would have been miserable, with Michael vanishing from her life for a second time, and no explanation she’d understand.
And apparently Sam and Jesse are utterly unreformed and unchastened after their stints in cells, and are still planning to go out and do crime for good causes. Guys, I love you, but seriously... can’t you at least leave it for six months or so, act innocent for a bit and wait for some of the bad press to die down? No?
And honestly, I’m not surprised.
Jesse never really stopped; he was playing spy games one way or another the whole time. Sam did stop for two years, but that was before he knew that not stopping was an option, and the boredom made him a borderline alcoholic. All of these people are fucking addicts. Nate said as much to Michael once, and he wasn't wrong.
Which leads to the question of Michael and Fiona. Especially Fiona. Michael's burned out enough that he'll probably be fine just chilling, at least for a while. But how bored is she going to get?
And now I'm done. It feels a little weird to have finally reached the end - I almost wanted to put off watching the last two episodes so that I wouldn't have finished it. It's been two and a half months since I started watching, and two months since my brain vanished down the rabbit hole. But I'm also mid way through season three of the fanfic researching re-watch, so it's interesting to see what has and hasn't changed with hindsight...
Michael. Er, yeah, see above.
When I was reviewing season five, I talked about a key difference between Jesse and Michael – that when Jesse was given his CIA job back, he decided it wasn’t worth the way they treated him and walked away, while Michael still thought it WAS worth it. Well, now he definitely doesn’t.
He was still enthusiastically on board while he was working with Pearce, and then he told Fiona he’d get out in Panama, before he discovered his boss was corrupt. So I’m guessing it was his brother getting killed that triggered the change. The direct confrontation with mortality? The guilt over Nate, and not wanting to do that to his mother again, maybe?
Michael hasn’t been doing great mentally for the last two seasons – constantly stressed, desperately plunging from one crisis to another. Season seven is not making that better. He’s not unaware of his precarious state either. When he’s told he can take one person with him for a mission, he chooses Sam. He could have picked Jesse, who’s younger, fitter, faster, but Michael doesn’t just need a field operative, he needs psychological support, and that’s the guy he’s trusted for nearly twenty years. The fact that he actually talks when Sam brings it up instead of insisting that he’s fine indicates just how bad it is.
And then it’s back into isolation, and when he eventually concludes that the CIA are at least as appalling as any of the people they send him after, he’s wavering between borderline suicidal and becoming that Ends Justifies The Means lunatic that Fiona and Vaughn were both warning him about back in season four.
Maddy – Michael’s relationship with his mother developed all through the series. When he first arrived in Miami, she barely knew him. He left home at seventeen and rarely came back. On Michael’s side, he still loved his mother, and felt some guilt over leaving, but he resented her and didn’t particularly like her. Over the years, they got to know one another as the people they became, and Maddy made a real effort to try and make up for failing him in his childhood.
Maddy’s looking after her grandson now that Nate’s dead, and she’s determined to do a better job than she did the first time. She even gives up smoking, which Michael’s been telling her to do for years XD But she never lost the guilt she felt over the damage she put her kids through – that she wasn’t strong enough to walk away from an abusive bastard – and that means she won’t fail him again, won’t lose any more family.
Fiona is So Done. She’s Done with Michael, and she’s Absolutely Fucking Done with the CIA. She wants to get back to the vibe of the early seasons when everyone was just having fun. She finds herself a nice guy who puts her first and has the same odd definition of ‘fun’ as she does. Unfortunately, that’s a decision she left too late, because the CIA are not done with her.
And of course, she was only done with Michael because he didn’t keep his promise to get out, because she thought he chose the job over her. By the time she finds out the choice he was given was different, she’s already moved on. But when Michael needs to be saved, she’s right there volunteering to do the saving.
Sam is still Sam, with his own particular version of morals. He has no intrinsic objection to killing people sometimes, but he very much likes to know who he’s killing and why. He’s a lot less thrilled about shooting someone he knows nothing about just because he’s told to, but he’ll do it if he absolutely has to, and he’ll live with it and not let it drag at him too much. Because if he hadn’t done it, somebody else would have, and that somebody else might not have tried so hard to avoid it, and somebody else wouldn’t have been as motivated to protect Michael. Sam rationalises and compartmentalises, which is something of a job necessity.
He also has total faith in Michael, and he’s the last one of the gang to recognise that Michael’s crossing too many lines. He won’t believe it until he actually sees it.
Jesse’s loyal, dedicated and practical, and still here for any of the gang under any circumstances. Back in season five, I wondered what exactly was making Jesse stick with these people after they turned his life into a bonfire – he wasn’t even around for most of the part where people were having fun, he joined just as they were starting the slide into disaster. Maddy asks him that same question here, but at this point I don’t think it needs to be asked. The original trio have already proven back in season six that they’ll pull the maddest of the mad stunts for Jesse just the same as they will for each other, and he’s fully entrenched.
I never felt I got a handle on Jesse the same way I did with the others, though – I wanted to, and it didn’t happen and I’ve been trying to pin down why. He was only in four seasons, not seven, but that’s not the reason. I had a better feel for the others after three seasons than I do for Jesse after four.
Part of it’s that we see less of Jesse outside the team – we see little snippets here and there of his day job, but we never see where he lives, or anything about his personal life. There’s that suggestion back in season four that he’s hot for Fiona, and then nothing. And honestly, Jesse’s just too damn nice.
We know all of Sam’s bad habits as well as his good ones. We know that he’s particular about how he folds his socks. We know about Fiona’s temper, her domestic violence trigger and her odd thing for collecting snow-globes. We know how she likes her omelettes. We definitely know Michael’s issues and flaws, in technicolour, and we know his favourite flavour of yoghurt. But we never really get to see a down-side or any weird little foibles with Jesse, those tiny little details that make a person, and it leaves him a bit one-note compared with the others.
One of the big things with Burn Notice was that it was apparent a few seasons ago that there was no way for this to end with everyone alive and happy.
If Michael had made the choice he made at the end of the series earlier (and late season five when he was being blackmailed by Anson would have been a great time to do it, honestly), he wouldn’t have been at peace with it. He would have forever been wondering if he could have won, if he could have fixed it, and it would have eaten away at him. Some people who died would have lived, but Maddy would have been miserable, with Michael vanishing from her life for a second time, and no explanation she’d understand.
And apparently Sam and Jesse are utterly unreformed and unchastened after their stints in cells, and are still planning to go out and do crime for good causes. Guys, I love you, but seriously... can’t you at least leave it for six months or so, act innocent for a bit and wait for some of the bad press to die down? No?
And honestly, I’m not surprised.
Jesse never really stopped; he was playing spy games one way or another the whole time. Sam did stop for two years, but that was before he knew that not stopping was an option, and the boredom made him a borderline alcoholic. All of these people are fucking addicts. Nate said as much to Michael once, and he wasn't wrong.
Which leads to the question of Michael and Fiona. Especially Fiona. Michael's burned out enough that he'll probably be fine just chilling, at least for a while. But how bored is she going to get?
And now I'm done. It feels a little weird to have finally reached the end - I almost wanted to put off watching the last two episodes so that I wouldn't have finished it. It's been two and a half months since I started watching, and two months since my brain vanished down the rabbit hole. But I'm also mid way through season three of the fanfic researching re-watch, so it's interesting to see what has and hasn't changed with hindsight...
