Episode 602: Mixed Messages

Mixed Messages
Season 6, Episode 2

Air date	June 21, 2012
Written by	Alfredo Barrios Jr.
Directed by	Jeffrey Donovan
Episode Guide
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Mixed Messages is the second episode of season 6 of Burn Notice.

Notes[]

Client:
Bad Guys: D.B (queen of the cell block), Rafael Montero (security expert/psychopath), Ramiro Salazar (cartel kingpin)

Synopsis[]

Michael decides to just go ahead and help out the CIA in order to get visitation rights; Fiona is pursued by a dangerous gang lord.

Spy Facts[]

There are certain people in life that you get stuck with, whether you love them, they drive you nuts, or both. They've made you who you are. For most people, it's a coach or a favorite teacher. For a spy, it's his training officer.
Going to prison is always a possibility for an operative. When your job involves working outside the law, sometimes it can't be avoided. If you find yourself inside, the first thing to remember is patience. You have to take your time, figure out who the players are, and stay out of trouble as long as you can. Because inevitably, trouble will come to you.
The mark of a good operative is being able to adjust to changing situations, like losing a team-mate on the fly. It's never ideal. But if you know what you're doing, you adjust, and do the best you can.
Prison, or any confined institutional environment, is just about the worst place possible to make an enemy. The regular schedule means your enemies know where you are every hour of the day. While crowded living conditions mean they can choose the time and place that is best for an attack. Usually, the best thing you can do is stay moving, stay aware, and stay paranoid. Most survival strategies in prison don't involve making many friends. When it's just about staying alive, you do what you have to.
Creating tools in prison is about working with what you have. Some things are simple, like making a knife by sharpening a toothbrush. But with a little effort, it's possible to get more sophisticated. Tightly rolled magazine pages soaked in salt water can create a serviceable club. You can make a prison lighter by short-circuiting a double A battery with some wire and stripping the insulation at the ignition point. Once you're done, the issue is hiding what you've made. All the weapons in the world won't help you if they're sitting in the warden's office. Carrying off a successful attack in prison or any institutional environment is a challenge. There are simply more factors to consider than in a regular fight. You have to deal with bystanders, any of whom could decide to jump in on either side. And of course, if you don't remove the guards, the fight will be over before it starts. Even if you do everything right, you'll only have a small window of time. But hopefully, that's all you need.
The most dangerous time in an infiltration is often when you've completely sold your target and made your way in. The reason is that your target is usually bringing you to his boss, and upper management tends to be harder to convince.
Convincing someone that they're looking at an army that's not there is about the little details. The barrel of a high-powered rifle, combined with the bulkiness of a seat-back under a plastic tarp can sell the presence of a team of concealed snipers ready to supply cover fire. A heavily loaded vehicle positioned at a natural choke point gives the impression of an assault team ready to storm a target. And a few well-placed agents with earpieces look just like spotters set to guide an assault team.

Full Recap[]

Fiona takes her place at a maximum-security federal prison. Her lawyer has told her that her confession makes things "a challenge." She's in solitary confinement, where they keep the "most violent offenders." Michael reads all this in a letter she wrote him, and he's upset because it's clear Fi is close to giving up. Michael wants to see her, but Sam says it's impossible.

Michael pays a visit to Tom Card, the man who trained him, to see if there's anything he can do to have the chance to visit Fiona. Tom suggests that Michael "walk away." Michael asks Tom for a job so he can "earn some points" to make the visit happen. Tom relents and gives Michael a job in Miami, but stresses that it cannot be screwed up.

Tom and Michael share a meal and Tom tells him about a Mexican cartel he's been tracking. It's now trying to establish a foothold in Miami. Tom tells Michael about the two key guys in the cartel, and tells him two tons of cocaine are headed to Miami and they need to interdict the shipment.

Nate and Maddy show up at Michael's place, with Maddy suggesting Michael talk to Nate about "things." Michael doesn't want to talk now, so they leave.

Fi is getting a feel for things in prison and a woman knocks her lunch out of Fi's hands. Another inmate, a huge black woman, comes over and offers Fi an apple. Fi takes it without saying anything. Fi meets another inmate who tells her the apple giver's name is D.B., and she thinks of herself as "queen" of the cell block. She tells Fiona that everyone is watching to see whether she'll eat the "gift" of the apple, and Fi knocks it off the table.

Tom, Michael and Jesse are preparing for their mission when Sam drags a body bag (with a corpse inside) into the house. Tom explains that their cover when approaching the cartel leaders is that they're DEA agents who were skimming agency funds and their boss found out, so they shot him. The body is proof of their story, which Tom says Montero won't believe without the corpse. They want to scare Montero into moving his shipment by telling him it's being tracked.

Michael and Jesse head to confront Montero, but Michael stops when he sees a drug lawyer he met on another job who can identify him. Jesse tells Michael he wants to do it himself, but the whole sell is that it's a two-man job. Michael resists, but Jesse insists.

Michael goes back to the van where Tom and Sam are waiting, and Tom is upset with Michael for leaving Jesse alone. Michael tells Tom he needs to see it through, and Tom allows it.

Jesse makes the approach and tells Montero's lawyer that he knows about a safe house related to an investigation into Montero's dealings. Montero initially threatens to kill Jesse, but when Jesse mentions the two-ton cocaine shipment and claims it's going to be seized, Montero pays attention again and decides to visit this safe house.

At the safe house, Montero sees a bunch of documents and files related to his cartel and his shipment. Jesse then tells the story of having shot and killed his supervisor and Montero seems to be buying it. Jesse suggests Montero move the shipment and tells him about a safe place that isn't monitored by the DEA. First they need to take a ride.

Fi is trying to stay active and mobile, trying to avoid an attack from D.B. and her crew.

Montero takes Jesse to a middle-class-looking house and asks the guy inside why he wasn't told about the DEA's plans to take over the shipment. Montero tells the guy that he's being paid for that kind of information. We all soon realize this guy is a corrupt DEA agent. Jesse is stuck inside and the DEA agent is saying he doesn't recognize Jesse. Sam, Michael and Tom are hearing all this through the transmitted in Jesse's pen. Jesse spots the guy's name on a piece of mail and refers to him by name as "Agent Kemp." Jesse tells Montero that Kemp didn't tell him about the shipment because he's the one who spilled it to the DEA. Montero decides that one of them is telling the truth and the other is "eating a bullet."

Kemp tries to reassure Montero that he's telling the truth by listing off the many tips and undercover agents he gave up to him, which enrages Tom because he lost a lot of good informants and he now realizes it's because of this guy. Montero tells Jesse he's starting to like Kemp's story and points his gun at Jesse. Jesse makes one last attempt, and Sam recognizes it. Jesse makes a whole speech justifying why Kemp would turn on Montero now, and then Jesse mentions a DEA extraction team that is about to come in and save Kemp. When Kemp denies there's any extraction team, Jesse tells Montero to try Kemp's radio to see if he hears any DEA chatter. They get the radio and, using a DEA frequency, Tom pretends he's giving orders to other agents to extract Agent Kemp. Montero looks out the window and sees Sam, Tom and Michael running toward the house. Montero tells Kemp to come up toward the window, assuring him he wouldn't shoot a cop. Kemp does, and then Montero shoots him in the back and tosses the body out the window. He and his crew drive away while Sam, Tom and Michael tend to Kemp, who's dead.

Fi's prison friend tells her she's a target and she makes a couple of clubs with rolled-up magazine soaked in salt water, and a "prison lighter" with a short-circuited AA battery. Fi passes the lighter to her friend, who starts a fire in a bed as a diversion while the inmates walk by cells on the way to the yard. Fi goes at D.B. and her friends and beats the hell out of them with her clubs, which she'd tucked into her waistline.

Montero goes to his boss' place and tells the man, Salazar, about the situation with the DEA. Montero introduces Jesse as their new DEA insider, but Salazar isn't buying the story so easily. He wants to witness a DEA raid at Black Rock Cove -- the original destination for the shipment -- before he'll believe Jesse is legit. Sam, Tom and Michael hear this and scramble to stage a DEA raid for Salazar and Montero to see.

The plans works, of course, as Jesse points out to Montero all the elements of the DEA raid waiting to happen: Michael waiting in a van made to look heavily loaded, Sam on a rooftop next to a couple of sniper rifles, and Tom posing as a lookout. Montero gives the green light to move the shipment, but then says his boss wants him to "keep the DEA busy" for a while by shooting at them. With Michael now in the line of fire, Jesse takes the lead and shoots at the back of Michael's van, giving him a chance to escape before Montero and his men join in the shooting. Montero keeps shooting up the van until it explodes.

Jesse and Montero ride away together and Montero gets a call from Salazar who says their two-ton shipment is being seized by the DEA. Montero gets angry and pulls his gun on Jesse, saying he was set up. Jesse tells Montero he should come work for the DEA because Salazar won't let him live anyway. Montero is angry but accepts, telling Jesse he's a hell of a salesman.

Tom is happy with the bust, a dirty DEA agent and a cooperating witness, and he doesn't think Michael's request to see Fi will be a problem.

Nate shows up again and admits to Michael that he's around because Ruth left him and took their baby with her. He's staying with Maddy for a while. Nate says he tried to be a good dad and husband, but Ruth just left. Michael asks Nate to stay.

Fi and her new friend are washing dishes together and everything seems to be great until her friend bashes Fi in the back of the head with a frying pan and tries to drown her in the sink. Fi turns the tables on the woman and demands to know who puts her up to killing her. The woman says there was a cell phone under her pillow and someone said they'd kill her sister if she didn't kill Fiona.

Cast[]

Main[]

Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen
Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona Glenanne
Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe
Coby Bell as Jesse Porter
Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen

Recurring[]

John C. McGinley as Tom Card (the man who trained Michael)
Seth Peterson as Nate Westen

Guest[]

Vaughn Rian St. James as D.B (queen of the cell block)
Anthony Ruivivar as Rafael Montero (security expert/psychopath)
Memo Sauceda as Ramiro Salazar (cartel kingpin)

Quotes[]

Michael: I need to see Fiona Glenanne.
Tom Card: This is all about your girlfriend? I heard about that situation.
Michael: Trust me, she's innocent.
Tom Card: Look, just do yourself a favor and walk away.
Michael: Not with this. I can't.
Michael: (voice-over) There are certain people in life you get stuck with, whether you love them, they drive you nuts, or both. They've made you who you are. For most people, it's a coach or a favorite teacher. For a spy, it's his training officer.