Episode 713: Reckoning

Reckoning
Season 7, Episode 13
Air date	September 12, 2013
Episode Guide
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Reckoning is the thirteenth episode of the seventh season and the one hundred and tenth episode of Burn Notice. It is also the series finale of Burn Notice.

Notes

Bad Guys:

James and Sonya

Synopsis

Michael must regain the trust of those closest to him in order to finish what he started.

Full Recap

Michael's eye water as he sees Sonya and Fi each trying to convince him to get rid of the other. Michael shoots Sonya in the back. James, watching from the helicopter, instructs his team to take out Michael and Fi and show no mercy. He then has the helicopter turn to take him away. With James' men firing away at them, Fi and Michael head down from the rooftop and, moments later, Sam and Jesse pull up in a Humvee to take them away.

Michael stands alone, replaying the twists and turns of his venture with James' group and his questioning of his own loyalties. Sam, Jesse and Fi approach him to talk about their next steps. Michael tells them they should just go and get Maddy and Charlie out of Miami. Michael is beating himself up for having betrayed the mission and turned on all of them. Sam insists they're not going to leave him behind and Michael softly nods that he's "in."

Michael, distracted by his betrayal, tells Fi that he hesitated to shoot Sonya despite their history. He says she should have risked her life to come back for him. She tell him it doesn't matter that he hesitated because he made the choice she thought he would and shot Sonya. She tells him she knew that if she was wrong about him, it wouldn't matter if she made it out alive. This conversation happens while they're trying to hotwire a car and Sam and Jesse are inside a mini mart getting supplies. While Sam and Jesse argue over whether to get beer for their bolt out of town, the clerk pulls a shot gun on them after seeing their pictures on TV, identifying them as fugitives. There's a $50,000 reward and the clerk and his associate, Marcos, think they've hit the lottery. The guy calls the cops while holding them at gun point.

Michael notices what's going on inside the store and Fi suggests they go in and bluff like they have the fire power to take Sam and Jesse back. Fi gets out of the car, but Michael locks her out of it and drives the car straight into the mini-mart, creating enough chaos and distraction to free Sam and Jesse. Michael is hit in the arm with a gun shot in the process. Fi comes running in saying Michael could have been killed -- but we know Michael didn't much care whether he lived or not.

Michael calls Agent Strong and tells Strong to call the search off. Strong is upset and says he will not do it, adding that Michael ruined the operation and Strong's career by killing Sonya and not delivering James Kendrick. Strong warns Michael the CIA is out of deals for him, adding, "As for you, you think it was tough being burned? You haven't seen anything yet."

With Michael and his friends' faces all over TV and the news, even saying they "may have been involved in terrorist activities." Michael decides to go after James directly, thinking it's the only card they have left to play. He wants to track down the satellite communications guy Sonya mentioned. Sam, Jesse and Fi decide to join in, but Fi tells Michael he first needs to go see his mom.

Charlie is sleeping when Michael comes in and tells Maddy everything is alright and that Fi got to him "before it was too late." He tells her the CIA found what he was doing and "they're hunting for us." He tells her he's going after James and his network. She pleads with him not to incite James because she doesn't want to lose another son. He says he can't make any promises. She tells him that Charlie's birthday is coming up and he said he wanted his "Uncle Michael" to be there. She tells him they're having strawberry ice cream, which his brother Nate loved. She wonders what she's supposed to tell Charlie when he asks if Michael isn't able to make it to the party. Michael says nothing, but hugs Maddy and kisses her on the head before leaving.

Jesse has a buddy who tracked down Max Lister, who is the person working on James' communication center. The only problem is the guy is a security nut. He lives in a gated community. Michael asks Jesse to watch Maddy and Charlie when he, Sam and Fi try to find Max.

The next day, Michael and Fi are in one car while Sam is preparing a makeshift roadblock. Max's car goes over Sam's spike strip and takes two gunshots from Sam without any problem. The car is armored. Michael urges Fi to follow up next to Max's car, takes a bit of C-4 Fi had in her bag. Michael sticks it under the car's fender and, even though it doesn't blow the car up, the force is enough to flip it over. Max gets out and Michael gets right in his face, threatening to kill him if he doesn't give up the location of James' communications center. Max reveals it's in a building downtown. Michael demands that Max take them there.

The group sits outside a huge, old newspaper building. Max says it's unmanned and that it's just a relay system. Max reveals there's a hard drive backing up everything that goes in and out of the center. Michael says that's what they need to bring to the CIA.

Before they break into the building, Fi and Sam confront Michael about his apparently death wish. Michael doesn't ant to talk about it and blows up the wall of the building. Inside, they walk toward the center of the building and notice a line of explosives along the walls -- apparently booby traps set to keep intruders out. They get to the communications center inside and Fi punches in the code to unlock it.

Meanwhile, Jesse is sitting with Maddy and assuring her everything is going to be OK. Maddy asks Jesse why he's going through all this for a bunch of people who haven't made his life very easy. He says he's thought about it a bit and that Michael, Sam, Fi and Maddy are now pretty much the only family he's got.

Inside the building, Michael, Sam and Fi's phones all start going off at the same time. It's James calling, still upset that Michael betrayed him and saying he tracked Michael down with the cell phones Sam and Jesse stole from the mini-mart. James and his men are right outside the communications center and James threatens Michael by telling him, "You'll never guess where the other two phones led me." (To Maddy's house).

We see Maddy and Charlie preparing to leave with Jesse, who cracks open the door just enough to see two Humvees pulling up. Michael tells James to leave his family out of it. James says he won't hesitate to shoot them like Michael shot Sonya. James tells Michael to surrender, telling him everything he's done, then die. Michael asks if his friends will live and James says it's their "lucky day," because he can use some bargaining chips with the CIA. Michael asks for some time, but James knows Michael is just trying to think of a way out of it.

"It's only the reckoning now," James says. "You are out of time, Michael Westen."

Michael asks for time to call his mother. James gives him two minutes. No more.

Michael calls Maddy, who tells Michael not to give Jesse anything. She says she's found a way to let Jesse and Charlie out. She tells Michael there's an explosive charge and no remote detonator. She tells Michael he's protected her enough and now he needs her help, and that if saving him means she doesn't get out of it, "it's fine with me."

"You made mistakes, we all did," she tells him. "But I am so proud of the man you are. I always have been. I love you, Michael."

Michael cries upon hearing these words.

"Goodbye, baby," she says.

"Goodbye, mom," Michael says.

Maddy hangs up the phone and tells Jesse it's time. He insists there has to be another way. She tells him he has to fight his way out and she can't do it. Maddy calls Charlie over and tells him she loves him and would do anything in the world to protect him. She tells him to go hide with Jesse and cover his ears. She takes a hug from him. Jesse hugs her, too, and Maddy tells him to go.

Sam tells Michael to call Maddy back, saying, "This is crazy!" Sam calls Maddy's phone and it's disconnected.

Michael tells Fi he wants to fight, take James down and get the hard drives to the CIA.

"My mom gave me a second chance," he says. "I owe it to her to use it."

Michael steps out to talk to James and says Fiona is coming out to talk terms. James says there's nothing to negotiate, but James is happy to let her talk -- and to watch him die.

Michael and Fi walk toward James and stop when he tells them to. Fi turns to Michael and delivers her classic line, "Should we shoot them?"

They each pull guns from the back of the other's waistband and start firing while James and his men duck for cover. Finding a place to hide, they are each frustrated that they each only got one of the men. The gun fight continues while Sam runs out of the area.

James calls to his other men on a cell phone, telling them to move in and "kill Madeline Westen now!"

We see Charlie and Jesse hiding in the bathroom of Maddy's house while Maddy calmly sits in a chair in her living room, smoking a cigarette. Three men walk in with machine guns and Maddy says, "This one's for my boys." She holds up the explosive and pushes the button. The house blows up.

Jesse, holding back tears, tells Charlie to sit tight and cover his ears again. He sees two of James' men out the bathroom window and shoots them. He picks up Charlie and they leave.

Inside the newspaper building's newsroom, Sam is running from one of James' men and dives for cover. Sam has one bullet in his revolver. He loads it, finds a roll of duct tape -- which he's argued with Jesse about getting earlier at the mini mart -- and throws the duct tape at a framed poster across the room. James' man turns in that direction and Sam stands up to get his one shot at the guy -- nailing him in the chest.

In the other part of the building, Michael and Fi are still hiding. Michael is out of bullets and Fi has just half a clip left. James yells at Michael that it was a noble effort but it's over. Michael tells Fi that James' men are loyal to him, so if he makes a run at James the men will take aim at Michael, giving Fi a chance to shoot them. Michael would then be without a gun, so Fi would have to get him hers. Fi tells Michael it's a crazy plan and it better not be about his "death wish," but he interrupts her and says he wants to live -- now more than ever.

"Well, when you put it like that," she says.

Michael runs toward James and his men turn toward Michael, and Fi shoots them both. With Michael hiding, Fi calls out to him and slides her gun across the floor to him. James, confused, follows the path of the gun just in time to see Michael lean back and shoot him twice. James falls back and Michael walks toward him, kicks James' fun away.

"It's over, James," Michael says, holding his gun at him.

"So, what now?" James asks. "You gonna turn me in, you gonna hand me over -- to the CIA? What are you looking for? Redemption? You want your old life back? It's gone. It was gone when you decided that she was more important than anything else."

Fi turns and looks at Michael, who says, "I know."

"Time to go," Michael says, raising his gun at James.

"Not going to happen," James says, to which Michael replies, "You don't have a choice."

"There's always a choice, Michael," James says, adding that those explosives Michael saw on the way in are not just for keeping people out. He holds up a detonator. It's a dead-man switch.

"Didn't have to be this way," James says. "We could've done amazing things together, we could've changed the world."

James pushes the button and drops the detonator to the floor.

We see the entire building explode, bit by bit, with Sam escaping just in time.

Jesse and Sam sit at CIA headquarters in gray T-shirts after having been brought over from the detention center. Strong walks in, saying he knows it's been a hard time for a lot of reasons. He tells them they have been able to track down more than 100 operatives in James' network worldwide who were "in a position to do a lot of damage."

"Well, I guess that's something to think about -- during the long nights in our cells," Sam says.

Strong says there are some in the agency who want to leave Sam and Jesse in detention because they're just not in a very forgiving mood."

"Well, figured as much," Sam says. "You know spies -- bunch of bitchy little girls."

"Yeah, sometimes," Strong says, adding that Sam and Jesse are the heroes in this op so he got them cleared. They can go. He says there's a car waiting for them downstairs.

Sam and Jesse get up to leave and Strong tells them one more thing: The walls downstairs memorializing agents who have fallen in the line of duty -- "Michael's going to get a star."

"Thank you," Sam says.

We next see Sam in his full dress military uniform, firing the salute shots at Michael and Fi's funeral while a flag from Michael's casket is folded up.

"A spy is never truly done being a spy until he's dead," Voiceover Michael says. "It's part of you. The skills, the secrets -- they never go away, and as long as you can be useful to someone, it's your fate to always be a spy."

We cut back to when James set off the explosions and see, inside the building, that Michael and Fi made a run for it.

Voiceover Michael continues, "But if there's one thing spies are bad at, it's accepting fate."

With Michael and Fi still running, more explosions go off. The explosions are getting closer as Michael shoots at a window at the end of a long hall. He and Fi look at each other while running, hold hands and jump out the window and into the water below as the rest of the building blows up.

After the funeral, Jesse and Sam are alone and Jesse says, "Well, they missed a hell of a funeral. Where do you think they are?"

"Hard to say," Sam says. "A lot of places in the world with C-4 and yogurt."

They ask each other what they're up to and Sam says he's supposed to meet a guy at the Carlito. The guy's just some kind of problem.

"Sounded pretty desperate on the phone," Sam says, taking a look at Jesse and adding, "Want to come with?"

"You buying the mojitos?" Jesse asks.

"Deal," Sam says.

Sam looks at the empty caskets in front of him and says, "Good luck, Mike. Wherever you are."

We see a log cabin in the snow and a snow globe with Miami in it sits on a side table. Michael sits on a couch with a sleeping Charlie laying in his lap. Fi brings over a couple of cups of cocoa and sits next to them. Michael wonders what he'll tell Charlie when he's older -- about himself.

"Tell him the truth," she says.

"Where would I start?" Michael asks.

"Start at the beginning," Fi suggests. "Start with, 'My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy'"

Michael turns with a slight smile and they kiss.

Spy facts

Every spy lives in fear of losing himself. When you work undercover, the lines between loyalty and betrayal can become so blurred, so grey, that after a while, you don't know what you're fighting for anymore. You end up caught in the middle as your friends become your enemies and your enemies become your friends. Until the time comes when you're forced to make a choice.

In the field, there's nothing harder then when you let your team down. Apologies and regrets do no good, you all have to move on and make the best of the situation. It's crucial to stay focused. To try to keep your mind off the past. But there are times when that's just not possible.

As an operative, it's your job to determine how likely a particular plan is to succeed, and if something looks like a suicide mission, to call it off. Of course, that only matters if you care whether you live or die.

A spy's ability to operate depends on secrecy. Your anonymity is your greatest weapon. It allows you to operate anywhere, to deceive your enemies, and when it's all over, to slip back into the shadows. When the world knows your face, your options get a lot more limited. At that point, all you can really do is attack.

Grabbing someone on the move is all about surprise. The goal is to get your target out of his car and into yours before he knows what's happening. If you have the manpower, it's best to separate into two teams. One to track the target's car and one to prepare the ambush.

Small explosive charges won't penetrate an armored car, but that doesn't mean they're useless. If you're desperate enough, a well-placed charge can come in handy. Since an armored car won't drive if it's wheels aren't on the ground

When breaking into a building, it's generally best not to use the door. Any entrance your enemy knows you'd use is too risky. Which means the safest way is often the hardest.

A spy is never truly done being a spy until he's dead. It's part of you. The skills, the secrets, they never go away. And as long as you can be useful to someone, it's your fate to always be a spy. But if there's one things spies are bad at, it's accepting fate.

Trivia

• There are three points in this episode where a character says a line that's said in the opening of the show:
  • When Jesse and Michael are in the car, after Michael asks Jesse to watch over his mom and Charlie, Jesse says "I guess that's how we do it."
  • When Fiona and Michael are about to face-off with James' men, Fi whispers to Michael, "Should we shoot them?"
  • After the explosion and Michael and Fiona's "death" Jesse and Sam are talking to Strong, who tells them that people in the CIA want to blame them for what happened, an unsurprised Sam says, "You know spies; bunch of bitchy little girls."
  • At the very end of the episode, Michael wonders how he will tell his nephew about everything. Fiona says to start with "My name is Michael Westen. I used to be a spy."
• The house Michael and Fiona are living in is the same house as Kate Winslet's in The Holiday.
• The location used for the cell-phone/convenience-store scene is the same area used for Nigeria in the pilot episode as well as other various scenes throughout the series.
• Matt Nix has a cameo playing a news reporter on a TV that is playing in the background.

Characters

• 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