Episode 210: Do No Harm

Do No Harm
Season 2, Episode 10

Air date	January 22, 2009
Written by	Matt Nix
Directed by	Matt Nix
Episode Guide
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Do No Harm is the tenth episode of the second season and the twenty-second episode overall.

Notes[]

Clients: Kenny (The Client), Jack
Bad Guys: Carla Baxter, Todd (Enforcer), Philip (Fake Doctor), Rachel (Thief)
Others: Campbell (Fiona's Boyfriend / Fiona's Ex-Boyfriend)

Synopsis[]

Michael prevents a man from committing suicide, whose son suffers from a heart condition. He had lost his savings in a scam after investing in a "miracle drug" for his son, so Michael decides to get him his money back.

Meanwhile, he has to deal with an explosion at his place and his brother in jail.

Spy Facts[]

When you're a spy, you learn to live with the idea of people wanting you dead - an old enemy, a dissatisfied employer, a disgruntled asset. Work long enough, and the line to kill you gets pretty long. Still, getting blown up isn't really something you get used to.
When you're being hunted, paranoia is inevitable. If you don't know what to do with it, it turns into cold, directionless fear. With the right training, it turns into hyper-awareness of your surroundings. Not always pleasant, but a lot more useful.
Distinguishing between different kinds of suspicious behavior is crucial for an operative. Someone doing surveillance, for example, looks different than someone who's trying to commit suicide.
From the first day of training, you're told not to get emotionally involved in operations. But sometimes it happens, and there's nothing you can do.
Medical scammers, like pimps, drug dealers or feral dogs, need to protect their territory. They can't let anyone new operate there, or they're asking for problems. Like a corporation has a lawyer to handle copyright infringement, a scammer will often have an enforcer to deal with unwanted competition.
As a spy, the best approach is usually to become a target's friend. Some situations, though, call for a different approach.
Empty commercial buildings are useful when you're looking for a place to interrogate someone. No one pays much attention to people coming and going, and the floors are typically soundproof.
Securing a room isn't about walls. A determined captive can kick through plasterboard, but he can't bite through steel bars, or pry out screws with his fingers. Though it might be fun to watch him try.
There's a saying in interrogation: "Violence perceived is violence achieved." You don't want someone screaming, you want him asking questions. Asking, "What is he doing with that knife?" Asking, "If he'll do that to himself, what will he do to me?" Mostly, you want him asking, "How do I make this stop?"
Nearly getting killed shakes you up, no matter how much experience you have. Brushes with death are like snowflakes. Each one is unique, and icy cold.
The "Who talks first?" interrogation technique originally involved taking two blindfolded prisoners up in a helicopter and tossing one out to get the other to talk. When a helicopter's not available, any tall building will do. You really don't want to kill anyone, of course. The screaming is all you need.
For the truly security conscious, there's no better meeting place than a pool of water. Even if you manage to hide a bug in your swim trunks, chlorinated water conducts electricity well enough to short out any listening device.
In covert work, you try to make friends with the bad guys. But sometimes you just can't pull it off. Once it's clear you're not going to be friends, you have to resolve the situation as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Sometimes you can't pull that off either.
Using sound to determine an enemy's position is one of the oldest techniques in war: whether it's putting an ear to the ground or bouncing sonar off a submarine. If you can get your enemy on the phone, that opens up new possibilities. Hook up your cell phone to an amplifier and a computer that can analyze sound and you have a powerful weapon if you know how to use it.
Running an operation is like poker. Ideally, you've got good cards and you play them well. When your cards are bad, though, you have to know how to bluff.
In modern warfare, a well-positioned microphone can tell you anything from where troops are moving to where a sniper is firing from. The same basic technology will also tell you when an ambulance passes and someone talking on a cell phone.
When you've spent enough time as an operative, recovering from a brush with death isn't about an appointment with the psychiatrist or a week in Hawaii. It's about having a purpose, whether it's something to fight or someone to hunt.

Full Recap[]

When you’re a spy...: Michael’s voice-over said that when you’re a spy, you get used to the idea that people want you dead. ”Still, getting blown up isn’t something you get used to,” he said.

Sam woke Michael up after the explosion and as they were driving away, Sam noticed someone watching them. ”Get your seat belt on, Mikey,” Sam said as he screeched away from the loft and managed to evade the people chasing them.Sam was bummed his car took some damage during the chase. ”I put a lot of love into it,” he said. ”Well, it’s pretty identifiable now,” Mike noted, looking at the banged up left, front quarter panel. Sam took a moment to grieve. Sam wanted to take Mike to the hospital, but Mike wanted to keep moving.

Voice-over Mike talked about a spy’s paranoia and hyper-awareness being good or bad, depending on how you use it.

After a minute, he noticed a man acting just suspiciously enough to catch his attention. He told Sam to hold on. ”Surveillance?” Sam asked. ”Not surveillance,”Mike said, just as voice-over Mike explain that someone doing surveillance looks different than some one trying to commit suicide. Mike chased the oddly behaving man into the middle of the street just before a bus was about to take him out.The guy’s name was Kenny and he was trying to kill himself to help get his son some money.”You’re not going to be OK,” Mike said, before offering to help.

The man said his 6-year-old son had a heart problem since he was born and it’s getting worse. ”He might not make it,” he said.He explained there was a treatment center in Arizona that was too expensive. He’d blown all his money in a pharmaceutical scam. After paying $250,000 and seeing some signs of improvement,the ”doctor” vanished, he said, and it turned out the medicine was just pep pills mixed with some painkillers and ultimately made his son worse.

Voice-over Mike said from the first day off training, you’re taught not to get emotionally involved with any cases, but this time he couldn’t help it. He told Kenny to give him anything he had in connection with the scammers and said, ”I will get you your money back – by any means necessary.”

Sam thought it was insane and irresponsible for getting Kenny’s hopes up, especially while he’s being followed. Just then, the car that chased them earlier rolled up the street. Sam wanted to take Mike, but Mike said he wasn’t running. He picked up a piece of a cinder block and smashed the driver’s side window. ”Hi,” he told the man behind the wheel. ”You here to bring me in? Here, I’ll help.” Mike went to the back door, but it was locked. ”You’ve got to unlock the door,jackass,” he said, before climbing in and letting the guy drive him away.

Mike found himself in Carla’s new office – which he said he liked – and Carla asked, ”What the hell was that today?” He was wondering the same thing, as Carla had his brother arrested, chased him all over Miami and nearly got his head blown off. ”We had nothing to do with that,” she said. He asked her, ”How’d the assassination go?” Carla said ”an operation was compromised.” She was upset that Mike didn’t stay out of their business. She said they needed to know what happened and he got upset, saying he didn’t blow himself up for her benefit. ”I want brother out of jail,” he shouted. ”I want answers! I want ... my life back.”

Carla simply said, ”We’ll be in touch” and told her thugs to get him out of there. Fi investigated the explosion and told Mike if he’d opened the door any wider, they’d be picking up little, bitty pieces of him all over the place. He asked to try to find the source of the explosion.Sam tracked the scammers to a clinic in Coral Gables, who might have tipped them off. ”How’s your liver feel?” Sam asked. Sam went to the clinic and tried to get looked at. The girl at the appointment desk tried to help and Sam went to sit down, but one nurse seemed to be taking particular interest in his situation. In the waiting room, Fi pretended she didn’t know Sam and said she’d overheard his problem, and offered him some experimental drug.

Voice-over Mike said medical scammers need to protect their territory and make sure someone new isn’t trying to operate there. The nurse kept an eye on Fi and Sam as they walked outside, then she got on the phone. Voice-over Mike explained the scammer would have an enforcer keeping an eye on things.As Sam and Fi chatted in the parking, ”Todd the Enforcer” watched them.After Sam left, Todd approached Fiona and told her to get out of there, flashing a gun. Mike then walked up and apologized, saying they didn’t mean to move in on his score. He offered Todd a chance to work together.

Voice-over Mike said it’s often good to become a target’s friend. As they shook hands, though, Mike kneed Todd in the head and stuffed him in the trunk of the car. ”Some situations, though, call for a different approach,” Voice-over Mike said.

Mike found an empty commercial space that was perfect for an interrogation. Sam and Mike prepped the room to make it impossible for Todd to escape. Later, Mike told Kenny to make the arrangements for his son Jack’s treatment in Arizona. He told him he hadn’t gotten the money back yet, ”but I will.” Kenny was skeptical, telling Mike he didn’t know what he was up against.He needed a place to put Jack. ”I know someone who can babysit,” Mike said. Then we heard Mike’s mom’s voice for the first time. He talked her into babysitting, and she took Jack with her to find some of Michael’s old toys – at least the ones Mike hadn’t blown up or taken apart. Mike asked Fi to hang around the house, for fear that another explosion was coming. She said she was supposed to meet Campbell, but she agreed to stay.

Sam told Todd that he and Mike wanted in on the scam. Sam approached Todd with a knife and asked him to tell him all about his ”little business.” Voice-over Mike explained that in interrogation, ”violence perceived is violence achieved.” He said you don’t want someone screaming, you want him asking questions, like, ”What is he doing with that knife.” Sam told Todd his silence hurt him, ”like this,” and Sam took the knife and sliced his own thumb with it to try to freak the guy out. ”Asking, if he’ll do that to himself, what will he do to me?”

Voice-over Mike explained.”Mostly, you want him asking, ’How do I make this stop?’” As Sam dripped his own blood on Todd’s forehead, Todd screamed, ”What do you want? Stop!” Sam asked about the business.Todd said he’d worked with a guy a couple of times, the was told about the medical scam and that they needed muscle. Sam found out a guy named Philip was behind it. He hangs out at a bar in South Beach named ”Teasers.”

Mike was back home doing sit-ups when he freaked out a bit, still shaken up by someone trying to kill him. He called Kenny and asked him to meet him the next day. ”I need a little help finding someone,” he said.Mike staked out the bar with Kenny from across the street. He told Kenny just to tell him when he saw the guy. Kenny looked nervous and said, ”The guy sold fake medicine to my kid,you know?” Kenny said, ”that’s him” and before Mike could ask which one, Kenny was already out of the car, running toward Philip, the ”fake doctor.”

Kenny chased Philip, Mike chased Kenny. Kenny caught Philip and started beating him up, asking him, ”How’s that feel? You need some medicine?” Mike told Kenny to wait in the car.We next saw Philip and Todd in the same room with Sam listening in on them. Todd admitted he gave Philip up to Sam and Mike, but that he didn’t know who they were. They didn’t think they were cops. Todd went to Philip and asked, ”Did you tell them about...” giving just a nod to compete the question. Todd said, ”No,” and Philip told him to ”keep it that way, because that bitch will kill us in a second.” Sam was intrigued. Philip said they’ve got more to worry about ”from her” than ”from these guys.”

Sam told Mike about the mystery boss and Mike said it’s time to play ”Who talks first?” Voice-over Mike said that form of interrogation originally involved taking two blindfolded prisoners on a helicopter and throwing one off to show the other how serious the interrogation was. Sam sat Philip and Todd side by side with a few feet of separation and pulled out a gun as they both screamed, Todd offering cash, Philip offering a spot in the scam and asking what Sam wanted.”When a helicopter is not available,” voice-over Mike said, ”any tall building will do.” Sam shot holes in the windows to weaken them, blindfolded the two men and told them one of them would talk. The other would go out the window. Todd was nervous and Philip told him to keep his mouth shut. Sam gave them each a chance to talk and they didn’t. Then he pushed Todd’s chair through the window. Voice-over Mike said you don’t actually want to kill the person.The scream is enough. Todd screamed as he fell out the window, but we saw that his chair was tethered by a rope and once he went down a story or two, Mike was sitting at a window below,taped Todd’s mouth and pulled him inside.

A panicked Philip screamed, ”Her name is Rachel,OK?” Philip explained that Rachel works clinics all over town. Sam told him to set up a meeting, to tell her he met ”some new talent, some folks you think she should know.” Kenny said the Arizona treatment center was asking for the money and Mike told him he’d have it. Sam explained Mike would get in on a scam with Rachel and get the cops involved to blackmail her into handing over the money. Mike got a call from Carla and had to go. The car that was there to pick up again had the back door locked.Carla offered Mike a new job – finding whoever tried to kill him. He knew that if he didn’t succeed at finding them himself, his would-be killer might take another shot at him and expose themselves, giving Carla and her people another chance to find them.

Mike asked Carla to Nate out of jail. She agreed. He said he had somewhere to be. ”Oh yes, your side job,” Carla said. ”Say hi to all the desperate little people for me.”

Back at Madeline’s house, Fi was hesitant about spending time with Jack. Madeline told her to just be herself and go with what she knew. Fi went and played toy soldiers with Jack,explaining which weapons each soldier had and where they’d have to hide to get their best shots.Mike called Fi and told her about his new job.Mike said there was no better place to meet than a pool – even if you could sneak a bug into your trunks, chlorinated water conducts electricity well enough that it could short a listening device. Mike and Fi met Rachel, the thief, and offered to work with her. Since she works mostly terminal cases, they said they work with people long-term illnesses and they should refer ”clients” to each other. She agreed and they toasted, ”to friendship.”Fi got a moment alone with Rachel, who told Fi that ”kids are where the real money is. The parents ”will shell out whatever it takes.” She said when it’s over, the parents thank you and hug you, ”and you’re thinking, ’You just paid for my house in Keystone Island.’”

Voice-over Mike said in covert work ”you try to make friends with the bad guys...” – that’s when Fi punched Rachel in the face – ”... but sometimes you just can’t pull that off.” A quick girl fight ensued and Rachel got away.Fi apologized to Mike, who told her it wasn’t her fault. Sam said he couldn’t find Rachel, either. Mike set out to get money from Carla, but Sam said that was a tremendously bad idea because if he took Carla’s money, she’d have ”her hooks into you.” Sam wouldn’t move out of Mike’s way and they fought a bit, with Mike getting the better of Sam. But he still refused to move until Mike got his head back in the game. Mike turned away.

Mike, Sam and Fi tried to figure out how to find Rachel. Mike asked Fi if she could get Campbell to get them an ambulance the next day. Sam was giddy at the thought that Mike had an idea. Mike put together some kind of contraption that included hooking up a cell phone to an amplifier, which would help them locate Rachel. In the back of the ambulance, Campbell told Fi that Mike was really her boyfriend and the most important thing in her life. The on-screen identifier then flashed, ”Campbell, Fiona’s Ex-Boyfriend.

”Mike called Rachel, using the voice of ”Donny,” the guy he was pretending to be when they met at the pool. He said his boss wanted him to call with a new offer. She laughed. ”You settle with us for 250 grand, you clear out of Miami,” he told her. She scoffed and asked if his little girlfriend was going to come after her again. She refused, but he said there were ambulances on the way and they were going to get Philip and Todd. He told them to say goodbye to her and they both screamed into the phone for a moment. Then he shot his gun twice and the guys shut up. Rachel still refused to give up anything. ”Two hundred and fifty grand and you clear out, or you’re next,” Mike said. She refused again. He told her they’d come to find her, and hung up.

Then Mike called Fi and asked she got what they were looking for. She was scanning cell phones as the ambulance passed to see which one bounced the sound of the sirens back to the tracking device. She got it, pinpointing which house Rachel was in when she was on the phone. ”Looks like we’re in business,” Mike said.

Rachel was scrambling to leave her house and had gotten into her car when Mike walked up said hello. They tied Rachel up inside and Fi pointed a shotgun at her. She offered the $250,000,but Mike said that offer had expired because Fi was all excited about shooting her now. Rachel tried to make a deal, but Mike said, ”Unless somebody’s dead or in jail, she gets itchy,” referring to Fi. Rachel offered to turn herself in, get out of their way and give up the half-million dollars stashed around the house. Mike talked Fi into agreeing. Rachel told Fi where to find the money and got on the phone with cops. ”This confession,” Mike told Rachel, ”make it seem convincing, because the day you get out of jail...” He finished the sentence by shooting his gun at the wall all around where Rachel was sitting and she screamed.

Mike handed Kenny the money, saying it was more than was needed for the treatment and told him to take the rest and start a college fund. Mike told Kenny that Rachel confessed to all sorts of scams and that the cops found Philip and Todd hogtied behind the police station. Kenny told Mike to thank his friend, too, saying Jack couldn’t stop talking about her. He drew a picture of Fiona and Mike together. ”Tell him thanks,” Mike said, and walked away. Mike tried to console Fi about her breakup. He said he was sorry and wanted her to be happy. She gave Mike the analysis of the explosion. She said it was a professional job and the would-be killers couldn’t go out the front door once they’d set the trap. Because they had to leave from the balcony, Mike might be able to look at the security cameras from the businesses along the river to identify them.

Fi asked if he was really going to hunt them down and Mike said it was worth a try. ”The enemy of my enemy could be my friend,” he said. He then handed Fi the drawing Jack made. He said, ”Thanks again, Fi,” and kissed her on the cheek, walking away before she opened the drawing. She smiled. Mike went back to the loft to find Carla there waiting for him, and eating one of his yogurts. He said, ”Funny thing, I poisoned all my yogurts just in case you came by.” She said even he wasn’t that good and he said a little part of her was wondering if he was. She put the yogurt down.Carla asked if he’d had any luck finding the killers. He said he hadn’t, and claimed the bomb was a ”crude I.E.D. Amateur Hour.” She said they hired him because he was a good liar, and so she couldn’t complain when he lied to her. ”But know this,” she said. ”One way or another, I expect results. Understand?” ”Loud and clear,” Mike said.

Voice over Mike said when an operative has a brush with death, a psychiatrist or a vacation won’t help get them through. ”It’s about having a purpose,” he explained. ”Whether it’s something to fight, or someone to hunt.”

Cast[]

Main[]

Recurring[]

Tricia Helfer as Carla Baxter
Gary Weeks as Campbell

Guest[]

Stacey Haiduk as Rachel
David Barry Gray as Kenny
Charlie Nix as Jack
Graham Shiels as Todd
Matthew Humphreys as Philip

Trivia[]

The picture supposedly drawn by the kid can be identified as a print-out, as you can see a white border on the entire sheet.
Ever since the explosion at Michael's house, he has changed his cellphone from the Motorola RAZR to the iPhone.
Charlie Nix who plays Jack is the real-life son of Burn Notice creator, Matt Nix.
Michael Westen breaks the 4th wall in this episode by looking directly at the camera after recruiting Fiona onto the job for Kenny and Jack.

Continuity Errors[]

When Fiona is playing with the little boy at Michael's mom's house, she puts the little armed toy up on a shelf behind her. When she turns back to the kid and the camera angle changes, she's back holding the same toy.